Creative Block?

No sir, not me. I started thinking about this after reading a post on Tameka's blog. Not that I've never had a creative block, but it's pretty rare. I usually have the opposite problem-too many ideas and not enough time/money/materials/required skills to pull them off. At the moment, I'm knitting the second of Justin's pair of socks, a hat for Bethany, and some random washcloths. In the past couple weeks, I made the Purplicious shirt for Sophia, as well as the Muno shirt for Dorian. On Thursday, I stenciled a shirt for Justin.

As you can see, creating generally has two speeds for me. Frenzied and even more frenzied. It's kind of the way I keep from going mad, I guess. I don't have much interaction with adults outside of Justin and various phone conversations with my family members and long distance friends. I'm usually stuck at home for days on end because we only have the one working car right now and Justin always has to take it to work. I don't smoke. I drink very infrequently. In other words, crafting is my only vice. And I'd almost always rather make stuff for other people rather than myself. For me, it's a lot more fun to give somebody something that they genuinely love and appreciate than it is to make something for myself. Especially if that something you're giving them is something that you made with your own two hands. I think that imparts a sense of love and caring and permanence that just isn't there with something you could buy. Not that I'm averse to receiving store bought gifts, haha!!! Heck no!!! I love getting the gift of a new pair of shoes. But, there's always the other side of that coin. I absolutely hate making something for someone only to discover upon giving it to them that they fail to understand or value the huge investment of time and love that went into that handmade gift. It's soul-crushing and deflating and disappointing and infuriating and bewildering and, well, I could go on, but I'm sure you all have things to do today, haha:) Luckily, I learned about that pretty early on in my crafty ventures and now I'm very selective about who receives my handmade goodness. For instance, when Bethany was in 3rd grade, she got invited to a birthday party. I stenciled a very difficult design on a shirt for the little girl whose party it was. What the hell was I thinking? I have no idea. That little twerp undoubtedly didn't appreciate the work that went into that shirt and anyway, about two months later, she and Bethany hated each other in the way that fickle little girls are inclined to do.

So I was pondering how weird it is that there are creative types and then non-creative types, both with individuals at all points along that spectrum. For myself, as I mentioned above, I'm at the extreme end of the creative types spectrum. Of course, I'm at the extreme end of the spectrum for most things I like or love. There is nothing on Earth that could make me understand how somebody could not be creative. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think I'm an AR-TEEST or anything like that. I can't paint or draw or sculpt. If I knit, I have to use a pattern written by someone else. If I stencil, it's usually based on some pre-existing character or idea, even if I make some revisions or modifications. I just mean that I am always driven to make something, anything...whatever it is. Conversely, I'm sure that non-creative types won't ever understand that thing that drives me and other creative types to make something. They probably think stuff like "but why would you knit socks? why wouldn't you just buy some?". But, those are also the people that can look at something I've made and be utterly fascinated that I was able to make it and that's cool too. I'm not really going anywhere with this. Just stuff that I was mulling over after reading Tameka's blog yesterday. I'm just rambling. It's what I do.

So, anyway, here are some pictures of the shirt I made Justin!



Haha!!! So, yeah, we're big House M.D. fans. Justin especially loves House's antisocial and mean-just-for-the-hell-of-it nature. Shocking, I know. Anyway, if you watch House, you'll get this shirt. If you don't, I'll try and explain as briefly as possible. Basically, House is an obsessive bastard. A diagnosis is pretty much just a solution to a puzzle for him. And he wants the puzzle to be as supremely challenging as possible. Therefore, every time someone shows up at the hospital with some strangely captivating yet horrific symptom(s), House wants the diagnosis to be something completely off the wall. Like, Dengue fever or the Bubonic plague or Sleeping sickness aka human African trypanosomiasis. He never wants it to be something as common as "tame" as lupus. So, every time he and his team meet to do their differential diagnosis thing, lupus usually comes up and House usually says "It's not lupus". So, there ya go. Justin liked the shirt and thought it was funny. Here's a view from a little farther away:



And here's what Justin thinks of having his picture taken:



Alright, so that's all for now. Happy Sunday and I'll talk to you all soon:)