The 'Creative Every Day' Challenge is an annual event run by Leah Piken Kolidas through her website and is a sign up as and when you like, low-pressure challenge. The idea is to try to do something creative each and every day of the year. Of course, creativity means widely differing things to different people - it doesn't have to be some form of visual art. There are also music and singing, writing, food preparation, home decor etc and a plethora of other things in which I'd even include re-organising creative materials (or any materials), blog postings that take a lot of thought and arrangement, dress, grooming and make-up etc. The sky's the limit, really. A former colleague of mine, a teacher of English to speakers of other languages, said she satisfied her need for creativity by developing teaching materials and lesson plans.The challenge has a Monday check-in feature that participants can 'sign in' to so that others can come and see what they've been doing. This is my offering for the first week and, as you can see, it's far from all needlework!
Tuesday 1st:
* Created a blog post reviewing my textiles work over the previous year and previewing what I hope to achieve this year, complete with selected photos. Sometimes, these blog posts can take quite some time to tinker about with until they are really pleasing to the eye.
* My hubby and I also began to plan to do a Bible version of the old Trivial Pursuits sort of game.
Wednesday 2nd
* Created a blog post on my language blog in the same vein as the textiles one the day before. Fewer photos this time, but plenty of code tinkering.* Finally went to a well-known fabric shop here in Sheffield and had a look around. Also bought the needed buttons and ribbon to finish the green and lemon baby cardigans.
* Managed, after 2 or 3 false starts and a lot of pulling back (AARRGHH!!), to knit a whole pattern (12 rows) on my latest baby knit.
Thursday 3rd
* Designed the layout for this post, which will be the 'template' for all future Monday update postings.
* Learned how to take screenshots for use here!!!
* Attached the buttons and ribbons to the lemon and green baby knits
* Knitted two and a half more patterns on my peachy pink baby knit
* Finished the long 'boxes' on my sampler
Friday 4th
* Knitted another pattern and a half
* Starting the lettering on the sampler
* Took some photos (when there was enough light to do so!) of the completed knits
Saturday 5th
* Completed the knitting of the back of my current piece.* Sorted out and re-did the arrangement of one of our bedroom shelves - the one with perfumes and body lotions etc on it. Needs to be both user-friendly and attractive.
* Cut out and trimmed stacks of pictures from Bible magazines to make some scrapbooks of Bible characters, stories and research later on. I don't feel I have enough pictures for most of it yet...
Sunday 6th
* Sunday Yarn blog posting
* Finished the lettering on my sampler
That's it for this first week. All being well, there'll be an update each Monday, probably in the morning (so that means the Monday itself will be covered the following week). In case anyone's wondering how I manage to remember everything, well I update most days and save, rather than publish the post.
MARNIE: Thanks for your message about the cupcake card. I checked last night and the pattern I used came from 'Cross Stitch Card Shop' magazine issue 61, August 2008. It's published by the UK company Origin Publishing and, as far as I know, is still published. That should help you make a more directed search.=)
Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2013
