Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Lost Your Creative Mojo??

Lost your creative mojo? Painter's block, writer's block....designer's lethargy.....artist's woes.


So many words for the same block....a lack of creative mojo.


I was thinking aloud today, how "ABUNDANCE" can completely obstruct and hinder one's creative flow. Therefore......REDUCING is often the key to my creative blocks. Now don't misunderstand me....I love abundance as much as anyone else....but it can also become a HUGE stumbling block in getting my creativity to flow.


Have you ever waltzed into a modern arts and crafts store or fabric store and been completely overwhelmed by the glitz and multitude of choices? Walked into a paint store and become completely dumbfounded by the thousands of paint choices? Ditto for yarns, ditto for wallpaper.....ditto for canvases.


Does the "STARVING" artist mindset work better for you?


I fall into this latter category. I have discovered that I simply MUST pare down my artistic supplies to the utter BARE BONES in order to pump up my creative Mojo. Nothing else seems to work.


Tim Ferriss, .....yes THAT Tim Ferriss, talks often in his podcast about his fave author Neil Gaiman, who has to make himself completely and utterly BORED before his creative juices flow enough for him to start writing.I can relate to that conundrum.


You see, creativity is not always logical. Creativity has a whimsical flow. One must unravel one's own creative mysteries.


One might be tempted to assume that an abundance of paint choices, or fabric choices, or yarn choices of every texture and pattern would be helpful in creating masterpieces......but I have found the OPPOSITE to be true.


I must find the absolute lowest cost art supplies and START with those and then somehow in a very mysterious fashion, I receive the blessing to begin creating again. And let's face it....it can be MOST frustrating to WANT to CREATE and yet feel somehow UNABLE to start creating.


I must start at a very low place....it is similar to what the missionary Heidi Baker teaches in approaching her ministry from a "lower still" place of humility.


I must feel that my art or music is needed. It is hard for me to feel that need when I am surrounded by an over-abundance of other folk's wealth. I need to feel it in my bones that my art or music
is a vital piece of a world wide puzzle that the earth desperately needs me to form and fill....that the earth will never be complete unless I do my thing.


Heidi Baker, the missionary, speaks sometimes about how she feels and what happens when she comes back to North America after spending months in Mozambique or Malawi. She'll walk into a grocery store in North America and try to buy some bread and she'll stand in front of a towering bread aisle filled with a plethora of bread choices ....and finds that she can't even purchase one loaf. The abundance has stunned her into silence, incapable of moving forward....incapable of making even one choice.


So, in closing..... I just want to say again..........that if you find you feel that you have temporarily met up with a creative block, try the idea of reducing your choices to that of a more "starving" artist mentality. Take away your numerous fabric choices. Choose only one or two colors of fabric with one texture. Reduce and reduce and reduce until you feel like you have a bare bones palette to work with. And then start from there. Build a thing of beauty from something small and stark. It will feed your spirit. It will build up your confidence.


Feel the need for your art. Feel the frustration of the great painters who had to humble themselves to ask relatives to send them more money just to survive on .....so they could continue to afford to buy the paint and canvas to paint on.


Feel the grittiness of the art collective who gathered old curbside cast off furniture and used the sides of these old beat up dressers and desks as the only affordable canvas upon which to express their painted art works. They started in that low place before their collective group gained traction to afford  "better" art supplies. They humbled themselves to start in that low place. They didn't allow a lack of capital to stop them from creating what they felt they simply MUST create.


Start from that low,  and perhaps..... low priced place.  You just might surprise yourself.
Because if you can make a thing of beauty from something that is of little initial financial cost, your creativity may just shine more clearly through as that thing of GREAT worth.














Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Why Do I Make Stuff that is Cheaper to Buy Already Made?

As I was looking around my home, gazing at some of the kooky inventions I've made over the past few years....I began to realize that perhaps some folks might wonder....just why does this chick feel the need to make so many things herself? Doesn't she know that it's easier and usually cheaper to just buy the same things conveniently in the store? Why is she just such a diy crafter/maker???


Well, I began to ponder again....as I looked at our living room garbage can and wondered if I could make one of my own from scrap wood.... perhaps there is method to my madness.

Perhaps this is my attempt to de-construct modern life.....perhaps so that I can begin just to understand it a little bit better. Maybe....just maybe if I can reverse engineer and make from scratch many of the things we buy from stores so quickly...I just might be able to prepare for a time when "stuff" might be harder to find or afford.

Maybe if I am able to make up to 50% of the items I use on a daily basis, I could actually survive if my comfy modern society collapsed. Maybe that's why I insisted to learn how to fish and caught one for the first time this summer ....since I was a little. Perhaps that's another reason why I relish those reality shows that teach foraging and "freegan-ism". Perhaps that's why I applaud the City of Toronto so loudly for launching a "back yard chicken" pilot project  in 2017..

I hate being dependent.....and that includes being dependent on all the luxuries that all of us folks in my Province of Ontario, Canada....take utterly for granted.....like being able to buy fresh food in the grocery store and plug in an appliance into the wall and poof Voila.....it works perfectly and at a pretty low cost for the electricity too. At this point, I merely dabble in Urban homesteading......but I brag loudly about growing my own food....but the total food I glean from my home gardens could probably be packed into about three shoe boxes per  year.

But yes, I must impress myself....there is no need to impress anyone else. My dabbling has purpose....it has an energy all to itself. It's the reason I will drive to the next town to shop at my fave homespun dutch farm to buy fresh apples, kale, local honey and frozen pie. Having an apple orchard within a short drive is a great idea......no matter if you are a prepper or a preppie.

It's the reason I read with eager anticipation any media blurbs about the "good food box" program that runs in my city, even though I have yet to buy even one.....

We have to be forwardly energized to take care of ourselves and each other....no matter what the future holds.

 Well, ....what does that look like?
Does it mean that we all need a bigger patch of land in our community gardens? Does it mean that we re-learn so many of the pioneer skills that early Canadians shed once the commercial stores were fully entrenched into Canadian modern life?

Do we need to re-learn how to sew our own clothes? I've gotten pretty good at knitting bags and hats.....freestyle from memory of an old pattern I learned 20 years ago and have since re-engineered to be more me-ish.

I know how to make my own homemade soap....but with store bought lye...( just not ready yet to force myself to cook up some diy lye from hardwood ashes....for some ideas click Diy lye )

And at the end of the day....I am still not satisfied.....not satisfied that I/we am ready.....that I am prepared for "whatever" comes.

For the record....I am not afraid.... I would prefer the word "concerned".....as I see the lethargy...the passivism, the brand name worship and the droves of young folks who can't name even one handy skill that they have mastered other than how to post their fave pics on facebook. I see us so utterly dependent on a very complicated city wide infrastructure...water systems, roads and hydro to name a few.

What we can't make....we can't understand....and what we can't understand....we can't repair or modify in case of emergency.

I must lament....... the shame of it all....the wasted talent, time and creativity that young and old people need  to reclaim. It is still there....lying inert and docile.

Young people CAN be empowered to build their own homes, however lopsided or code violating, but none the less....their own shelters complete with home made floors and roofs..

My son just turned 19....and he and his friends still love to build forts in the woods. And yes, he is tech savvy and wastes too much time on video games...but he has cornered the market on his own creativity.....enjoying the thrill of building, planning, and yes, hanging out in his own self built fort up in the trees.

I don't worry about my son, because he knows how to make stuff. He knows how to create and he's not afraid to scuff up his shoes.

I worry more about my middle aged generation who were taught to get rid of the flip flops and don
pumps and leather lap top cases to impress a faceless corporation while someone else raised their kids, chasing Preppie Nervana.....propped up on pillows bought from Pier One Imports.

I lament myself....and gave myself a good lecture today...because I was a part of the brand name revolution. I loathed home made clothes and was eager to use debt to buy shiny clothes in order to impress the invisible folks that only existed in my imagination.

I might have thought twice to learn more....how to create my own fashion, my own style and patent that...this crafting-making-stubborn-seed saving-urban-homesteading-mama style that I am toting.

Well...I gotta run...... there's still time...... society has not collapsed and our beloved high tech infrastructure still stands.....for now.

In Peaceful productivity,

C.



Wednesday, October 18, 2017

The Quickest Cheapest Way to Save on Liquid Laundry Soap


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So these are the simple items I use to "make" homemade laundry soap now a days. And yes, for the record, I still use the store bought liquid stuff too....but when I'm feeling like being "pioneer woman-ish" and saving a buck or two, I get to work with this simple process.

Technically, grating Linda Laundry Soap bars and cooking down the shavings with water does not really equate with "making" the soap from scratch....but for me, it's do-able, easy and low cost....which is the priority.

Linda Laundry soap bars are, as of October 2017, being sold in Ontario "No Frills" stores for $1.19 Canadian per bar.

You can use just one "Linda Laundry Soap Bar" to fill 2-3 extra large recycled liquid laundry soap jugs, once you dilute the mixture well with water.


Using a simple kitchen grater does the trick.....
If you don't want to make a really large batch of laundry soap, you can save the extra grated Linda Laundry Soap in zip lock bags for the next time you're feeling crafty.


You can add about 1 cup of shavings if you are trying to make at least one large jug of liquid laundry soap. This type of laundry soap has a tendency to get "gell-ish" so don't be afraid to dilute it well, it will prevent it from clumping up and clogging in the jug.
After  cooking down the shavings with water....I use a strainer in order that I don't unknowingly allow any clumps into the jug. I hate finding soap clumps on my freshly laundered clothes......no matter what kind of soap I am using.....so using a cheap strainer can help prevent that. A cheap plastic funnel helps direct the flow so that I won't spill any of the contents as I re-fill the jug.

As you can see, the jugs I recycle are the extra large ones. If I bought a new one in a local store I would spend from at least $8 up to $45 for laundry soap. Any way you slice it.....grating, cooking down and diluting is a great money saver if you like to save some coin.

May God bless and empower your crafty side and money saving skills.
 Peace, Carla.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

How Much Of A Seed Saver Do I Want to Be....

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How much of a seed Saver do I want to be? Do I want to build my own seed vault like Bill Gates?
Check out Svalbard Global Seed Vault


But it is also interesting to note that corporate giant Monsanto is one of the partners in the massive seed vault on an island in Norway. Is the seed vault there to help humanity after we have done too much damage to our natural seed legacy? Or are some of the biggest corporations of our day poised to take over complete control of our food supply once all the
 "native seeds" have been patented or adulterated by genetic modification? Perhaps it is already too late. Large corporations are not the enemy. For now we still have the freedom in my province of Ontario to grow what we want wherever we want and give our seeds away to friends and neighbors. I pray that this freedom will remain. 

Who doesn't love collecting acorns?...the squirrels are having a frenzy...hiding acorns in my outdoor flower pots, where perhaps they will forget the precise location and Voila.... perhaps a beautiful tiny oak tree will begin to sprout up next spring from the acorns that the squirrels have greedily hidden in the soil.

Oh,,,,,but do I have the discipline to actually save some tomatoes to harvest and dry the seeds from to plant next year? Or will we gobble up these fresh goodies?

An ole standby .....and even if you have an orange thumb versus a green one...you will undoubtedly be able to manage growing some simple green beans in your back yard or porch.

I always love the way the mature green beans begin to show a fancy purple and yellow pattern on the skin the more it dries and prepares the deep dark purple seeds for plucking.

Growing food from all kinds of funky locations is fun..... have you seen the Woolly Pocket Company?
They have created a whole line of products that will help you grow veggies on any wall and in the most unusual and convenient containers.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

If you hate cooking.....my Kale Lentil soup is EASY PEASY!



EASY  Lentil Kale Soup ( I made this in an hour or less)


Throw all this in the pot and simmer for half an hour on medium heat and then down to low/off.....and Voila....a delicious hearty autumn soup:

5 cups water
Two handfuls of  fresh kale chopped to bite size
1-2 Chicken boullion cubes
1/2 small onion - chopped
1 1/2 cups of dried red split lentils
Two peeled and chopped cloves of garlic
One handful of very thin dry rice vermicelli noodles
add sea salt and soy sauce  to taste

By the way, don't get anxious about being precise with the amounts of the natural ingredients....making soup is supposed to be fun and easy......so enjoy it and trust your taste buds as you throw it all in the pot.
Bon appetito!