Live the Pooh way

Let's get creative, creative!

I had to sing that title! I wanna get creative! Olivia Newton John might have wanted to get physical and sweaty but I want to get creative and glittery! For a long time, I was trying to 'find myself', like I was lost. My Sat Nav must have been on the blink because I couldn't find the old me, no matter where I looked and who I asked.
Then it dawned on me. The old me was long gone. At this point, it was more of a relief, that I could stop the searching and yearning. There was an element of excitement too. Who was the new me and where was she going? I felt like I had a blank canvas I could start reinventing and recreating myself on.

I love the idea of a blank canvas, a new beginning, a fresh start. We can keep parts of the old us, the best parts and add new. Just make sure you are using bright, vibrant colours!

I'm a way down the line and I'm still working on me! I am, a work in progress. The transformation does not happen over night. Healing is not a straight line on a straight path. We go backwards, plunging back into the known, the comfy until we are ill again and realise why we said we'd never go back there. We are only human and do make mistakes. That's why pencils have erasers.

We are all given the paints to create whichever self we want. I like the idea of using the brighter colours and smiling, being posutive and feeling like sunshine. It is hard, at times not to paint a little grey; we all have our off days. Especially when the dull, wet weather lingers on. Sunshine does cheer us up and lift us. What's great is being surrounded by people who represent the yellows and oranges, as the quote goes, 'who feel like sunshine'. These people can colour in the bright colours missing on your grey days. Just as you can on theirs.

We are all crayons, different colours each day, mood depending. It's lovely that the people in pur lives make up a box of crayons. We all blend and mix together perfectly. We are all different shades too. We are not just one thing all the time. We might be quiet but only in certain situations. Just like the pink crayon has many hues, such as salmon, baby or dusky, so too have we. I like my many hues!

When I was really ill with my chronic illness and left teaching, I attended our local Recovery college. I was told I was 'in recovery' and embarked on a creative sessions to help me. The Art Therapy was amazing. It wasn't just about creating a finished product, but working through the stages and talking to like minded people whilst you were creating. I loved the felt making and the painting on canvas.

My favourite part was the not only being proud of ourselves for what we had made, but praising and complimenting others. You could see how all the people in the room were lifted from all the kind comments and support. Such a stimulating, therapeutic place. It was amazing seeing our finished products, but even more amazing realising we had all approached our work differently and uniquely. Mine, of course, was very free spirited and 'outside the box'!

It was so lovely comparing our work with the others in the group, swapping ideas and inspiring each other. Life is so much easier with people spurring us on, wanting us to do well.

I do love Art and found my love for this later on, as a teacher. I learned from a good friend who volunteered and we co taught the Art lessons. A spark was ignited in me, especially with the pastelling, oil and chalk. We'd talk and model the steps through for the children, they we'd sit and create the art with them. I will never forget their faces and their cries of, "Wow Miss, that's brilliant!" I felt so proud, looking at my work through their eyes. I love tgis next quote. The creativity part is my fave as it allows you to make mistakes!

I love this quote too. It's a really good way of looking at it. I love Literacy and Art and loved teaching these the most, probably because there is no right or wrong answer! When children aren't fearing being wrong, they will put their hands up to offer their opinions and they will just let their natural talents flow, in whatever form.

My favourite lessons were the interpretations of Matisse and Cezanne using oil pastels. We'd set the classroom up with the table and all tye resources, pastel the piece, then eat the fruit. The best part was complimenting each other as artists which the children did really well.

I have since loved drawing, painting and sketching as hobbies. Some Saturdays and hilidays, we even joined in family Art workshops at the Cooper Art gallery which were amazing. I find that these hobbies do relax you, even the colouring in of the destress colouring books with felt tip pens! We revert back to our childhood and enter this little bubble where no worries for those minutes can touch us. We take our time and fall out of that rushing schedule us adults are faced with. It is bliss!

We have been a crafting house, the kitchen filled with craft supplies galore for years! We also attended some wonderful family craft workshops my lovely friend lead.  She ALsi makes her own jewellery and decoupaged hearts and boxes. Speaking of boxes, that reminds me of all the cardboard boxes we saved as teachers, anything really that would come in handy!

We'd go to the Range and other shops, collecting materials, then pour them on the table and begin. As a teacher, I knew the effectvof glitter and was still hoovering it up days later! I love this quote!

But then, think of this- crafting does come before housework, so it's ok to knit, sew, decoupage, draw, paint, create using wood and anything else you desire, before you pick up the hoover!

We all have spirit. Admittedly, some more than others. But it is there! It can be hidden away and it is being creative that can calm your spirit, or rewaken it! Whether it is art, pottery, music, writing or another medium, do it to make you come alive!

I love this next quote. We all have different passions that make our soul happy. For me, it os writing, singing and pastelling. I get totally lost in my blogs; they suck me in and I jyst go with the flow and the journey they take my mind and heart on. I love singing and cannot wait to rejoin the choir I sang in. Music is so uplifting. While I am partaking of all three activities, my soul is fed and is happy! I feel driven and appreciated.

I just love this quote because I love birds and love the image of decorating your soul. I'd definitely hang roses on mine, spray it with some Gucci Bloom perfume and sprinkle it in lilac glitter! Obviously, I do do housework!

My writing is very close to my heart. As a young girl, I was an avid reader and was always writing and scribbling away at something! I loved English at school and A levels then did an English degree where I found a love of Modern poetry, especially Carol Ann Duffy. I loved TS Eliot too. I wrote my own poetry on the train to college and my fave poem is Under the influence of Baileys. I have just recently started writing poetry again. I have been tinkering with a few stories abd started writing a book!

Music means so much to me too. It is such a universal art that we can enjoy and be inspired by. I'm very much into music I can appreciate it, given the mood I'm in. This quote made me go, "Wow!"

I love music spanning all the decades from rock n' roll to grunge. I could listen to The Beatles and Madonna all day. In fact, some days I do! I love foot tapping to the 80s with Depeche Mode but then reverting back to the 90s dancefloor babe when Robin S and Snap come on the radio! Then see me sing along to Last Night of the Proms or The Greatest Showman! There is no set best music. I am not a music snob! Music does not just touch your soul. Music grabs it, dances with it, caresses it, jolts it up and down a bit, makes you feel you alive, reminds you of past experiences and people and fills your whole being. I cannot listen to Never tear us apart without getting the goosebump effect!

I love being creative. I see it as having flair and going with the flow, your own flow. We all have our own song that needs to be sung!

I love that I am imaginative. I think this comes from my younger days, reading Anne of Green Gables. I loved it when Anne talked about having a scope for the imagination!

With a good imagination, you can go anywhere! I loved day dreaming as a kid and srill do it now. I'll bump into folk and they'll say, "ooh, you were in a dream then!" It's the best place to be somedays! That's why I love reading so much. You can enter new worlds and meet new people whilst sitting on your settee!

I think it's great to remember we all have our different outlets and we all relax in different ways. Knowing what we are good at is amazing, but with creativity, we don't necessarily need to be very good, or expert at it. This is such an important point to remember. For example, I love sewing, well the needlework undertaken in schools where we use cross stitch to make a house. I can't sew a dress or embroider different patterns. I love knitting and remember knitting scarves with my gran. Fast forward thirty five years and I can still only manage a very long scarf. But it doesn't matter as I love doing it and I am relaxed whilst doing it.