“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs;
ask yourself what makes you come alive.
And then go and do that.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
~Howard Thurman

Grandkids

When I was a little girl, I didn’t have a huge amount of toys, but I had a huge amount of opportunity to be creative. One friend always had the latest toys, barbies, and cute doll houses. It was fun to play at her house, but she usually preferred to play at my house because my mom let us make creative messes! At my house we made doll houses with furniture out of cardboard or whatever we could find. I learned to sew making doll clothes. My sister and I created costumes and sets and performed plays for our parents on our patio. Whether it was paper crafts, embroidery, crocheting, quilting, sewing, drawing, painting, I was eager to learn everything and that desire continued into my adult life. If I don’t know how to do something, and want to, I will figure out a way to learn to do it!

In college I took a few courses in the creative arts, but that was not my major. If I had it all to do over again, I would major in graphic design and take every art course available. For some reason, art did not seem academic enough for school- where did I ever get that idea? I guess I thought creative activities were only to be hobbies, not careers. However, like the quote above, creative endeavors are what makes me come alive!

After my job of several years came to a sudden close, I am venturing out to pursue what makes me come alive. And in the course of that, I hope to help other people find what makes them come alive, as well.

I have three awesome children who I spent many wonderful, busy years homeschooling, taking on field trips, transporting to dance classes and performances, and swim practices and competitions. I guess I managed to instill some of the creative things I loved into my kids…my son pursued the graphic arts and is a freelance motion graphics artist/photographer. My middle daughter pursued theater and my youngest daughter majored in English and loves to write. Both of my daughters love sewing, knitting, crocheting and any other craft they can fit into their busy lives raising my six active grandkids. My husband is an accomplished  entertainer/actor/singer/musician, who says he doesn’t work for a living- he plays! So I guess you could say creativity is a way of life in my family.