My creativity buzz has been a powerful one lately. I count that as a great thing because the last few months I feel like my life was wearing me out a little too much for me to have inspiring creative thoughts or energy to follow through with them. So last week when my mind started buzzing with ideas, I felt pretty excited. Here are just a few projects that have been percolating in the mind.
1) DIY dining table and benches. Here are a few ideas. I may have stayed up very late in the night scheming and researching on this one. I'm planning my first trip to a Habitat resale store to look at reclaimed wood options. I also have a large slab of engineered wood I kind of like at Home Depot that would work. I'm thinking natural wood color for this project.
2) Upholstered headboard. I have a linen/cotton drop cloth I picked up last week that would be gorgeous as a headboard with a little on-sale batting from JoAnn's. Not sure why it took me to long to think about two new options for this old IKEA headboard I have. One is to cover the front with reclaimed wood slabs and the other is to just upholster it. So easy.
3) Tote Bags. I actually bought that drop cloth to make a tote bag for myself. Here's a link to my Tote Bags Pinterest page where you can see some favorite canvas bags that I am liking for Spring. Have a few ideas, just need some fabric paint and a couple of notions to make that happen.
4) Spring/Summer Skirts. I told you about our crazy fabric store adventure last week. I am excited to mix and match some fantastic fabrics to make our summer wardrobes cheery and sassy this year. I'm already ready for tee shirts, skirts and flip flops even though that weather is a ways off for us yet. Here's a link to some great tutorials on Pinterest.
5) Thrift Shopping. I have been a several thrift shopping adventures the past couple of weeks. From good browses through our neighborhood shops, pop ins when I'm in other cities attending to business, and even a full day escape with a lovely friend to some of the big warehouse thrift stores here in L.A. It's good to get out there and see what is available and put your mind to work on how you could incorporate items that catch your eye into your home and life.
I am still thinking about a few great pieces of furniture I saw at a Salvation Army in the South Bay and wishing I had a real work room where I could put one of the large work tables we say in downtown L.A. What a perfect surface those would be for DIY sewing, craft and art projects. They were big. Thrift shopping feeds my creative soul in a fantastic way by overloading my vision with items that challenge me to find uses for them.
6) Gardening. Last week I finally had the time and energy to attack my ten-year-old gardenia plant. It was dying from the center out and just didn't look like it was coming back. So I snipped off anything that looked like it could survive, got instructions on how to root cuttings and I'm hoping for the best. Our lemon tree is finally producing fruit. The dozen or so lemons are starting to turn yellow. A long wait (several years), but that is exciting. We have tomatoes turning red on the vine right now too. We also just got a Jade cutting from friends on Saturday which we are looking forward to replanting. Growing things is challenging and fun when things work out.
I love it when I am on fire creatively. It feels like the most authentic, happy me. Of course I have to be careful because it could spin out of control if I let it. I could start to ignore all other facets of life, go crazy starting ten projects at once and spend a small fortune on DIY supplies. Thankfully I don't let those things happen, but I could if I really let myself. It would be a little bit fun, right? Instead I lose sleep dreaming about it all and awake time during the day doing one or two now and again. But if I had a workshop, more tools, more time and all that good stuff, I think I might be in some trouble.
In the coming weeks we'll see what creative "trouble" I will get into. If The Man happens go go away again on a work project for a few weeks, anticipate he'll come home to a new handmade dining table and benches on the sides. I'm not telling him that. It will just be a little happy surprise.
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