Let’s get your creative garden in bloom
Have you seen the signs of spring yet? You should have, the delicate snowdrops and boastful crocuses have been poking their heads out for weeks. Here’s a fun fact about me, did you know that spring is my second favourite season? I find this fascinating as my all time, ultimate favourite season is autumn, making both of my top two the ‘transition’ seasons. I wonder what that says about me?
Last spring I cut back a blossom tree, the cuttings of which I popped into a vase of water. I placed them at the centre of the table, kept them in the sun, and changed the water regularly. All the tender care you should give plants. At the beginning it did look rather unusual as I carefully tended to a vase full of sticks, however, three weeks later something magical happened. My vase was full of blossoms. Beautiful white flowers that seemed to make the room glow with hope and life. Spring is a hopeful transition season, and this is what I’d love to talk about today. With a creative element of course.
Moving away from Wintering
If you have been wintering then you will be very ready for this season. Spring is a time for life, for letting those seeds you sowed way back in Autumn come to the surface. I have recently found that making subtle changes within my home as the seasons change helps me to refocus on what’s important for that time of year. Centrepieces change, candle scents change, and the blankets are worn less often. I go out of my way to make transition happen.
Here’s another fun fact about me, I am not a massive fan of cut flowers, but I do love flowers in my house. A contradiction I know! Last year I turned to propagating my blossom, and this year I’ve decided to turn to crafting, a traditionally creative outlet which I know sends some people running the opposite direction, so please bear with me.
“The beauty of handmade is in the imperfections.”
Anon
So often we believe we cannot show ourselves to the world unless it’s a certain standard. We stop drawing, singing and doing loads of things we loved in our childhood because somewhere along the way we believed we weren’t good enough to do those things. Crafting, I believe, allows us to find the beauty in the imperfection, because we aren’t making it for anyone other than ourselves. As we exit winter and move into spring we can be challenged to embrace beauty in all its forms and enjoy learning about ourselves through creative activities and celebrating the transitions in the process.
Rough winter into a smooth spring
This winter has been particularly rough for me, and after listening to lots of people it would seem it has been a really rough and tough one for lots of us. Life has thrown some absolute rubbish our way. For this reason I am not bouncing up into action like I normally would, I very much need coaxing out of wintering this year. I could search Pinterest for inspiration, however I need a craft kit this year. I crave instructions to follow rather than needing to mentally push through in order to make sound decisions. Quite honestly, I’m being hand held into spring this year, which, for me, is needed right now.
If you’ve found yourself having a tough winter and looking to bring some hope into spring please read on.
The activities
I had originally set out to make one particular craft activity. It was a tissue paper spring blossom craft kit from Conscious Craft (you can find it here), however before I had the chance to begin, my lesser half surprised me with a lego flower kit. This kit would produce three flowers, two pink and one white, with the most cheerful yellow centre. He dropped it in front of me on the table where I was sat consoling myself over the crummy weather with a rather tepid hot chocolate. As my eldest loves lego the sound of this box landing was a familiar one. I saw, I gasped and I ripped the box open.
Without any planning I began following the lego flower’s simple and satisfying instructions. The crummy weather didn’t clear up, but my negative cloud certainly did. I could feel myself relaxing into the art of building these flowers, I melted into the ability to let go of thoughts and decision making, and for 20 beautiful minutes I merely followed.
Part way through my eldest clocked what I was doing and asked if they could join. Of course I said yes, and suddenly my solo activity became a group one. These flowers now sit in a vase in the centre of my table. I see them everyday, not only do they brighten up the space but they hold a lovely memory of a special moment between me and my eldest. They bring happiness, and they bring hope. That’s quite substantial for a few lego pieces!
Spring Forward
The spring blossoms I originally planned to make for the centrepiece may have been replaced, but they have not been neglected. I have still begun to make them. It turns out they are rather time consuming, with regular drying times needed. I see this as a positive because I don’t have long periods of time free to dedicate to crafting or being ‘creative’. I have pockets, little pockets of now that I must grab. Rather than fill it will scrolling through my phone I can now take my tray and continue the next stage of the project.
In my blog post “Let’s retreat and be creative” (https://www.lwcreative.co.uk/?p=2302) I provided three top tips on how to select the right craft for you. Make sure you take a look at this as you begin your spring crafting journey.
As always, please share any of your creations with me. I’d love to see what you get up to. And if you would like to ask any questions about creativity do not hesitate to get in touch.
