Light Up Your Life

This is about following my own advice, which is to Just Go Play.  (See November 14)  I started playing in my art studio everyday, placing playtime at the top of my priority list.  No, I have not created anything that will land in a gallery, but I'm having a great time.  My focus is to re-do and spark-up plain items or to recycle packaging material into works of art.  I'd like to share one of my pieces with you, and maybe inspire you to take some quiet, creative time for yourself.

I began with one of those paper lamps that you can purchase at Pier 1 and other such stores.  This one has been hanging around our house for about 10 years.  I combined this with yards of ribbon that I've also collected over the years. Most of the ribbon was purchased for pennies at garage sales. 

I attached the strips of ribbon to the top of the paper shade with my favorite adhesive, gloss gel.  I'm now waiting for some additional strips to curl (they're wound tight and held together with tape) so I can add them as a final embellishment.  The lamp now looks a lot like a hot air balloon and glows beautifully in our living room. 

I'm also looking at other lamps in our house and imagining them embellished with ribbon or strings of beads.  Also, some of my chairs don't stand of chance of escaping unscathed.

Happy play time!

Puzzle Cards

This week's project was to decorate some blank puzzles that I purchased from Dawn Wooderson of WoodSong.   The puzzles we used were 8.5 x 11 and by placing a layer of removable contact paper onto the backs of the puzzles they remained wonderfully stable while we decorated.  Our plan was to make them into some kind of a greeting so the could be disassembled, placed in an envelope, and given to a friend or family member for the holiday season.

Our medium of choice was acrylic paint but crayons or markers would also be good on the paper surface of the puzzle.  Even the most timid artist was able to paint their puzzle.  After that we stenciled on designs and lettered on greetings freehand with additional paint or wrote with marking pens.

One of the participants decided to keep her puzzle together and keep it in her room.  Others had already chosen family members who would be gifted with their creation.

For those wishing to purchase puzzles Dawn has puzzle blanks available in:
   8x5.5   12 pieces    pkg of 12 for $7 or pkg of 24 for $13.50
   5x7       9 piece with frame  pkg of 12 for $7
   4x5.5    9 piece     pkg of 24 for $11
   8.5x11  12 piece   pkg of 12 for $16
Prices do not include shipping.

The best way to order is by email - wwodsong@aol.com.  Dawn will then contact buyers to get payment information.  Best yet, Dawn is offering a 10% discount until the end of the year for those who mention seeing this offer on the Second Childhood Creation blog!

These puzzles proved to be an inexpensive and fun project for our weekly gathering.  Also a unique way to create a holiday greeting!

Just Go Play!

I recently watched a TED video that got me thinking about play.  The speaker is Charlie Todd.  You can go to TED.com and find his name under speakers.  His topic is shared absurdity.  I loved the event he staged where dozens of people dressed in blue polo shirts and khaki pants went into a Best Buy and stood around.  Or his no-pants event on the New York subway.  And most of all, I was moved by his insights into play.

As children, we were often told to just go play.  Or, perhaps, we've used this phrase on our own children.  It's also probably true that no one actually sat down with us when we were children, or we never actually sat down with our own children, to explain the benefits of play or what exactly play is.  Children naturally know how to play.

I know that I never even considered whether telling my children to play included talks about future benefits in the job market.  "Don't color, build something with your Lego's so you can put that on your resume'!"  And when I Googled "play benefits children" this morning I got 289,000,000 hits.  Conversely, when I Googled "play benefits adults" I got 81,200,000 hits.  Does this mean that play is much less important for adults?  Or is play simply a time waster for children who are too young to hold a good paying job?

As professionals, who are focused on activities, can we ensure that residents are engaging in an activity and not simply observers?  Not that easy if I focus on creating an activity with all the correct criteria.  But what if we decided to just play, which is important and incredibly beneficial for all adults. Check out Charlie Todd.  He's not only motivating but the video is a good giggle.

Aftermath

Yesterday our Tuesday afternoon group met.  The idea was to work on our Christmas table decorations.  This is a long term project that we started a few weeks ago by creating some paper to cover boxes before we'd add some ribbon.  We also painted the insides of clear ornaments.  But that wasn't the high point of the afternoon.

As I reported last week I had a creativity meltdown and couldn't get an idea to take shape the way I had envisioned.  As a fallback plan we painted small flowerpots in fall colors and added some silk flowers along with a bit of bling. 

When I arrived for this week's session the residents were happy and excited.  It seems that there had been a luncheon and their creations were used on the tables.  The women at the luncheon marveled at the pieces and asked where the facility had purchased them.  When they heard that they were made by the residents they asked if more could be made and sold at next year's craft sale.  Some of the residents from the Tuesday group were in the area and heard and saw the commotion. 

It was immensely gratifying for the residents to have their work acknowledged.  It was a lesson for me in going with the flow.  Not all plans go according to plan.  And that's OK.  Creating community is, perhaps, the most important thing we create.  The rest is bonus.

Improvising

Success is Being Together!

My original idea was to paint pots, place some kind of branch-like object into each pot, and then attach leaves inscribed with "things to be thankful for" onto the branches and call them our Thanksgiving centerpieces.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.

The problem occurred when I tried to find branch-like objects that would work without actually skulking around in the middle of the night, hacking away at the neighbor's shrubs.  Time to shop!  I finally found some glittery branch-like fronds that I thought would work.  Problem was, as I worked on the idea at home, that the frond were so lightweight that any amount of weight on them brought them down and the whole thing began to look like a spider.  I am not thankful for spiders, though I'm told that I should be.

I obsessed about this, trying different ways to attach and different things to attach, until about 2 hours before the group was to begin.  Then I did the next best thing and sat down with a good book, forgetting about my creative "challenge".  I also reminded myself that the purpose of the group is to have a good time and create community, along with creating the project at hand.  So why not get out the bags of artificial flowers and make Thanksgiving/fall centerpieces.  This thought occurred to me about an hour before the group was to meet.   

We began by painting our flower pots a dark green.  Onto that we dabbed copper and iridescent yellow.  Next we pushed a piece of florist foam into the pot and stuck the glittery fronds along with silk flowers into the foam.  A good time was had by all.  Our tables are lovely.  Good things happen when we go with the flow!