Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The blog campers... get creative!



Bee:
One of the many, many topics discussed at Blog Camp was the subject of creativity.   If you feed the creative mind with the right sort of oxygen, can anyone light up? 

Having thought of myself as a deeply uncreative person for most of my life, the company of bloggers has challenged my pre-conceptions of myself.  Are we all a little bit guilty of ring-fencing artistic expression and then filing it away into mental drawers that read CAN or CAN'T?  Some of us cook, some of us knit, some of us can draw, or sew, or take beautiful photographs, but can we all do a little bit of whatever we put our minds to?

When Julochka told the January Blog Campers to bring art journals, my mental "I can't do that" switch was immediately short-circuited.


She brought out her treasures
and shared them with us

But when confronted with stacks and stacks of "pretty papers" and every imaginable sort of doo-dad, I was so impatient to begin that I started yelling (not altogether politely) for some glue and scissors.  It was a wonderfully relaxing thing to do with our group, especially since it didn't inhibit me (in the slightest) from keeping up a steady stream of chat.



Camille captures that rare expression: 
 me, with my mouth closed
(the child kept grabbing the new Nikon off of me;
she's not nearly as intimidated by it as I am)

In the spirit of Blog Camp collaboration, B and I thought we would mingle together some of the BC moments.  While my (newly) 12 year old daughter was observing everything we said and did, and then cataloguing it in her Art Journal, B was taking pictures.  (The pictures of the people are mine; despite Julochka and Spud's injunctions against "flash," the lighting conditions of the blue room and the yellow room in deepest winter encouraged me to experiment with that aspect of my new Nikon.)

B:
Our very special honorary blog camper Camille created some art journaling pages for each of the blog campers. She's incredibly observant and talented, and so her pages are a perfect reflection of the different personalities at Blog Camp 3.0 and some of the crazy and silly things these people said...

Poor Kristina had a migraine... 
(but she still had the sensitivity to bring my child an art journal of her very own:  Bee)



Spud was talking about botox, boys and cars?
(So far, she is holding up well . . . but then she does have those Megaboys to contend with.  Bee)






B obsessed about yellow and her new favourite TV series: Glee. Bee is also pretty Glee-ful, but Spud was NOT impressed.

(I loved this beautiful close-up of B's sweet face.  Yellow is the perfect color for this Spanish girl -- and her ever-present sunny smile.  Bee) 







Julie let us play with all her pretty, pretty paper, and had something to say about Bee... :)
(Humph!  Bee)




Polly, who is not called Polly, wondered why we all still call her Polly...and bossily asked B to stop drinking (which was probably a good thing!)

(Polly:  absorbed by her ART.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, Polly tapped into the mental skills of concentration that she honed during her long graduate-student apprenticeship.  Bee)






Sabin showed Camille all her favourite animals and sweets...

(These girls will never grow up being intimidated by their lack of creativity!  Sabin muddles the nature/nurture question, because in her case it is so obviously BOTH.   Bee)






Elizabeth was surprised that green was supposed to be her colour according to her horoscope...

(Elizabeth, the only newbie Blog Camper in the group, proved the Blog Camp magic.  Despite already well-established friendships, Elizabeth fitted in beautifully.  She was a bit camera-shy, but I did manage to catch a glimpse of those graceful, capable hands.  Bee)






As for my own Art Journal . . .  well, did I create something equally stylish?

Frankly, I didn't really have the knack for it that my creative and observant daughter displayed.
Indeed, after completing five pages, my daughter noticed that I had put them in the journal both backwards and upside-down.

Oh well.  Baby steps.


from Elizabeth's Soul Food

Even when I photographed the spinning spider, Elizabeth's symbol for creativity, I realized that I had pictured it upside-down!



Tuesday, January 19, 2010

if your bird needs a friend



if you find your bird is lonely
and needs a friend.
go here, where you'll find the pattern
and you can make some more.
now that you know how.


Thursday, January 14, 2010

post #100 - blog camp 3.0 approaches



blog camp 3.0 begins tomorrow! i'm not ready at the moment of writing this...i'm still frantically finishing up prezzies and putting clean linens on the beds. but the menu is planned, the cooking will begin later this afternoon and i'm looking forward, in happy anticipation to heading in to meet everyone at the airport on friday.

this time, sabin and i have planned a number of crafty activities, in a sort of return to the original concept of blog camp - which was to share our creativity and talents. i really can't wait for everyone to arrive. tho' at the same time, i feel a bit sad that it's the last one in the famous blue room, since the house is sold. it will likely be autumn before we can host a new edition of blog camp, on the farm that we have yet to buy (husband is looking at two of them this weekend with our carpenter and our architect, so we move ever closer).

but first, we have this weekend to enjoy. check in for updates from blog camp central all weekend!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

to eat or not to eat?



i can't remember, was it fish in general "we" didn't like or just shrimp? let me know. i'm menu-planning and i like my fish guy, so it'll be on the list unless you tell me differently!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

the time draws near



hello dahlings...please do send me your flight details for the upcoming blog camp so i can be there at starbucks the airport when you arrive! and don't forget to bring a blank journal with you! i've laid in a supply of south african chardonnay and i think there is a lot of fun on the horizon!!