Caregivers, Worker Bees, and Little Bits of Crafting

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have to care for an aging parent? I did not. Well...I did, but then I quickly realized I am not cut out for the nurturing care-giver and put it entirely out of my head.  That was my sister's job.  I was a worker bee.  I owned my own business, I volunteered with charities that were important to me, and I stayed busy all the time. My sister, Patsy, was the nurturing type. She went to nursing school until her own medical issues put a stop to the, and she always swore she would be the one to take care of my parents when they got old. And she did.  She took care of my dad through recovery from a heart-attack, gall-bladder surgery, and over a year of hospice care. She took care of my mom through all that, too, and I was glad for it...especially since I live 300+ miles away.

Then the unthinkable happened...my sister died unexpectedly, leaving her handicapped, adult daughter and my mother, who was already beginning to show the signs of dementia. I moved my 29-year-old niece to live with me in the city so she could get a good education and learn to live on her own (public transportation should NEVER be underrated!), and eventually, we convinced my mother to move from her paid-off home in rural Texas into a senior living community where my brother and aunt could help take an eye on her. That didn't last long, though, as her needs were far greater than I had known, and she was already incapable of independent living.  Add to that the fact that she had squandered her retirement by pulling all of her investments during the stock market crashes of the early 2000's, and then she lost her job, losing her medical and life insurance benefits in the process.  All that to say that in January, Mom moved into my remaining guest bedroom, and now we have a household of four with some very distinct, and often time-consuming, needs.

Being a caregiver has put strains on my family and me that I could never have imagined, and it's made it even more important to me to get in my crafting time whenever I can. It hasn't been easy, but I've found that if I break things down into smaller tasks, and squeeze them in whenever I have an opportunity, it really gives me the outlet I need to calm my mind, let go of stress, and just zen out for a little while.  For example, today, I had to take my niece to the doctor.  I didn't want to go inside with all the sick people, and I could have sat in the car playing on my phone, but instead I took a portable project (embroidery) with me to work on while I waited outside.  I didn't get a lot done, but it was a lot more enjoyable and productive than sitting in that doctor's office with a bunch of sick people playing "Words with Friends" (nothing against WWF).

The start of some flowers on an apron.

So whether you're a caregiver, a worker bee, or just someone with a lot of hats to juggle, the truth is there will always be things that get in the way of crafting time. Whether it's a deadline a work, a sick kid, a second job, etc., you can't let it consume your life. Making the time to craft is not only possible, but necessary.  We all need those few precious moments of space where we can let go of the stress of the day and find something beautiful in our lives to experience and celebrate. It doesn't have to be a marathon weekend of crafting, or even an hour...just grab yourself five minutes when ever you can while you're watching the evening news, taking your 15-minute break at work, waiting for the roast to cook, or sitting at the doctors office or carpool line.  Just do it. Your body needs it, your brain needs it, and you'll be really glad you did!

Creativity Through Adversity

Hi there, Crafty Neighbors!  I’m sure some of you are probably wondering what happened to me, and why there have been so few updates to my blog over the last few months.  Well, let me tell you…earlier this year I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  To be specific, Tubular carcinoma, a form of invasive ductal carcinoma.  It’s meant a total upheaval of my daily routine, and I’ve just simply had to let a few things slide.  It’s even dampened my creativity, because I don’t have as much time to create, and because I’m often tired or just feeling blah and not in the mood.  But in the process of my treatments, I ran across something really crafty and inspiring that I wanted to share with you all.

What I’m about to share with you are some of the lovely therapeutic art projects done by cancer patients at the oncology center where I receive my daily radiation treatments.  I was awed by these pieces from the moment I saw them, and I wanted to share them with as many people as I could because I think they are a wonderful way to express some very mixed up, over the top emotions from both ends of the spectrum, and I think they could be a great idea for anyone going through something stressful or traumatic.

Here is the piece that started it all:

And here is the artist’s explanation for the piece:

“Through my breast cancer journey I prayed, journaled, exercised, and had an amazing support group that all helped get me through it.  From the very beginning, I had an idea to transfer my thoughts into a visual piece of artwork.  Initially, I had wanted to do a big canvas, but I just didn’t have the energy to paint on a large canvas, and when I felt good, I wanted to get out of the house.  My sister suggested that I fit each expression into it’s own individual painting, so that I would be able to draw it in small scale while I was horizontal on the sofa.

My ideas were sketched to scale into squares along with beautiful support cards that inspired the color scheme and the message.  The location of each image does not have any specific sequence,[sic] they are placed by color and design.  The words however do.  On top, they are what I was feeling when I started this whole process and through cancer I changed.  Yes, cancer changed me for the better!  The bottom words are what supported me and got me finally to a place of being grateful for cancer.  It taught me how to be still, appreciate what I have, love those around me, be patient, and be present for others.  Survivors have so much to share – struggles, triumphs and hopes – in all avenues of life.  This painting was a healing process for me – to cry, to laugh, to hope, to face challenges and see accomplishments.  “[It’s] all good.”  I also wanted to leave this painting to my daughters (Natalie 21, Darcy 15) as a legacy of my journey through breast cancer.

There are now other pieces in the collection, including one that surprised me.  As I was perusing the art one morning while I waited for my turn in radiation, I noticed a familiar face.  On closer inspection, I identified a travel agent friend of mine, whose wife had created one of the pieces while going through treatment for breast cancer in 2009. 

I hope these pieces bring as much joy and inspiration to you as they have to me.  I’m tempted to make a canvas of my own, but even more than that, I see many techniques that I want to bring to my art journal, my bible journal, and even my scrapbooks.  It just goes to show that there is inspiration and beauty to be found everywhere, even in adversity…and mostly when you least expect it!

Click on each picture to see a larger image.

Breaking a Creative Block

I haven’t posted anything from my 365 journal in quite some time.  Obviously, it is so far behind that it’s really not even a 365 journal any more, but I’m still determined to finish all 365 prompts.  I believe the last page I posted for that was Prompt #128, so I thought I’d pick up the trail with #129, “What have I done over and over this week?”

I did this page a while back when I had a lot of work that wasn’t getting done as quickly as I would have liked.  The result was a lot of late nights, so I took an easy approach to journaling this page and went with a doodle/zentangle.  I used Copic markers for this project, and I had originally intended to do some shading/blending with them, but in the interest of time, I just let the page be. 

I’m sorry to say it’s been a year since I got off-track with this project and I haven’t even come close to getting back into a regular groove with it.  I’m really not even sure why.  I love working in my art journal, but it seems like every page is so time consuming and I have to think so hard and work so hard at it that I don’t have time to finish it.  I feel like these pages should take about 30 minutes to an hour, tops.  But day after day, I sit here with the same pages and prompts, and I’m not sure what to do with them.  I don’t want to call it a creative block because I still feel very creative, and I often know exactly what I want the page to look like.  The problem is that I’m not always sure how to get the results I want and I wind up spending too much time trying to figure it out.  So it’s more of an engineering problem than a creative one.  I guess I just have to keep working at it, and eventually my block will become unstuck.

Question of the day:  What do you do to break out of a creative block?

Working through Creative Block

Enough with the Christmas stuff…time to get creative!  If you are like me, you’ve probably experienced a time or two when you didn’t feel so creative.  Maybe you sat and stared at that same scrapbook layout for hours, not knowing what to do.  Maybe you spent hours flipping through websites and magazines looking for inspiration.  I know I have.  I have a long running joke that I never get anything done at a crop until the last hour I’m there.  Why is that?  I would really like to know.

I blame some of it on distractions; chatting with my fellow croppers, all the great new products in the store, getting settled into my work space,  and getting up for meals all lead me away from what I came here to do – crop!  So how do I get wound up and get the creative juices flowing before that last hour?  Christine Kane had some great ideas on her blog recently:

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Start with imperfection.

When Anne Lamott wrote about “shitty first drafts,” millions of souls around the world uttered a giant sigh of relief.

Your creative spark never dies. It’s just that you have a death grip on what you think the outcome should be.  You want it to be fast, perfect, and complete.

If you gave yourself permission to simply show up and do it badly – while fending off the inner critic with the tenacity of a lion tamer – then you would rekindle the creative spark. All creativity begins with imperfection. You show up. You have some horrible ideas. They turn into okay ideas. They turn into some pretty good things. And suddenly, you’re back on fire. Start badly. Become an imperfectionist. All the cool kids are doing it.

Set some parameters.

When you have a big project looming, or a fabulous idea to flesh out, the blank slate is daunting. Ideas over here. Ideas over there. Before you know it, someone shouts “Squirrel!” and you’re gone.

This is why you need parameters. Parameters get you started and protect you from your ego.

So, first schedule the time for your creative work.

Then when you sit down at that time, set a timer. Using a timer tells all of your distractible selves that this is the time you work. These are the parameters. Be here now. When the alarm sounds, get up, check off your to-do list – and move on with your day.

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I love Christine’s suggestions, and I’m going to try them out today as we visit Scrappin’ Goodtime in Corsicana.  I brought some miscellaneous unfinished projects (my old crochet group used to call them UFOs), and I’m hoping that I’ll make more progress through the stack than I did the last time I went cropping – that day I only got through a simple card stack that was already half finished (oops!).  Next time you get stuck, give these two tips a try and see if they help you.  I’ve actually tried the first one many times over and it really did work – I wound up creating some of my best work.  Give it a try and see if it works for you, too!

Here’s a sweet treat of a layout for today – it’s one I designed a few years ago for Scrappin’ Goodtime using Bo Bunny’s Sweet Tooth series.

Hope you liked your sweet treat and Christine’s tips.  If you want to see more tips from Christine Kane, head over to her blog article “What to Do When Your Creative Spark Dies.”

Christine Kane is the Mentor to People Who are Changing the World. She helps women and men Uplevel their lives, their businesses and their success. Her weekly Uplevel You eZine goes out to over 32,000 subscribers. If you are ready to take your life and your world to the next level, you can sign up for a FREE subscription at http://christinekane.com.

How to Get Your Momentum Back

If you’ve noticed a theme over the past few days, but it’s got everything to do with staying on task, keeping focus, picking up where we left off, and getting our momentum back.  Here’s a great blog article by the fabulous Christine Kane about exactly that!

How to Get Your Momentum Back (…After a Summer of Reckless Gluttony)

Written by Christine Kane

 

Here’s what a client said last week. (See if it sounds familiar.)

“Man, I was really on a roll with this project before the summer. But then the kids were home all summer, and we had vacation, and then I had to get Brian off to school and I’m just, I don’t know, not motivated anymore…”

This “project” of hers is a BIG DEAL. Maybe even something that could change her whole life and business.  It was her “thing” for the year.

But then…

Summer happened.

She “lost momentum.”

And along with it, she thinks she has lost her passion, too.

She hasn’t.

She’s just disappointed in herself for getting off track.

And that sucks.  But it happens.

The problem with MOMENTUM is that people use it as a way to beat themselves up and then never get started again.

But momentum is not a constant.

Stuff happens. Kids get home from school. Knees get wonky. Hard drives crash. You get swine flu.

Any number of things can result in a loss of momentum.

But when you use “momentum” as an excuse for stopping, it simply means you’re afraid of dealing with the discomfort of getting started again.

And getting started again is one of the most valuable success skills you can develop.

So, in honor of September and getting back on track after the gluttony of your outrageous summer … here’s my own 7-step plan to help you get your groove back…

1 – Define the project or thing.

This one’s easy. Don’t overdo it and try to fix everything in your life. Just pick one priority right now.

2 – Schedule a time.

When you schedule an exact time, you will ensure that you don’t put the activity off because you don’t feel like it or because something comes up. It simply becomes just what I do.

3 – Go for Small.

The idea of MOMENTUM makes us set our sights huge in order to “pick up where we left off.”

Don’t play this game.

The best way to get your groove back is to experience completion on a regular basis. And the best way to experience completion on a regular basis is to set your goals small. Sixty-minutes is a perfect starting place. (Sometimes I do only twenty!)

4 – Create the space.

Get the space ready before the time comes. For instance, if your “thing” is getting back into a fitness routine, then every night before you go to bed, create the space for your 6am work out. Lay out your clothes, fill up your Sigg bottle, and charge your iPhone.

If it’s a big project, lay out your task list, clear off your desk, close your email programs every night before you stop working so that you’re not distracted when you begin in the morning.

5 – Set a timer.

When a timer is running, you won’t be as tempted to go downstairs to put the clothes in the dryer, or see if the mail has arrived. It’s a mind game that keeps your butt in the chair and your focus on the task.

6 – Just do it.

Don’t stop to pause and wonder if you really FEEL like doing this today.

Cuz you know what? You won’t!

Just walk out the door, or sit down at the desk, or start going through the clutter. Taking action builds the enthusiasm. Not the other way around!

7 – (Optional) Don’t skip days.

I know. I know. We’re supposed to get weekends off. But if you’re doing small enough chunks of time, then you’ll be able to continue your groove EVEN on the weekends.

Taking a day or two off means having to start all over again on Monday. This is why you start with small chunks of time and small goals. That way, it won’t be hard to keep up your practice – even when you would normally want a day off!

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Christine Kane is the Mentor to People Who are Changing the World. She helps women and men Uplevel their lives, their businesses and their success. Her weekly Uplevel You eZine goes out to over 26,000 subscribers. If you are ready to take your life and your world to the next level, you can sign up for a FREE subscription at http://christinekane.com.

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See Christine's blog at ChristineKane.com/blog.