Monday Musing: Creativity

Yesterday, Mr. Geek gave me the best present--an afternoon to myself! It was glorious, dear friends, and I spent the time sewing, redecorating, and watching a PBS documentary about Eastern European immigrants in the coal region of PA while I had some coffee. Mind you, we don't have many channels since cable has been decreased, but it was compelling nonetheless, since I'm only a generation removed from Polish peasant stock.

But I digress...I spent some time in the guest room/interim studio redecorating it and working on a small project for Soren's birthday party--a bib! I knew it was something I could handle easily, and it only took me an hour, well, maybe two because I had to keep stopping the machine so I could listen to This American Life (my old Kenmore is loud!).
So that's the front of the bib, which is appliqued onto chenille using a zigzag stitch. Humor me with my stitching, because I'm really not the most patient, meticulous sewer. Despite the nagging I used to give my art students about process being more important than product, this doesn't apply to my sewing. I just want the damn thing done ASAP.
The back is simple, just a cute dot fabric I found at a local fabric store. I'd like to trim the bib with red binding, but the stuff I bought is too narrow for the thick chenille. I'm also thinking of making a party hat to match, using the dot fabric as the background. We'll see if I get to it. And I thought I'd add flowers to the photo in lieu of the basket (did you notice my old switcheroo?).

On creativity: I need to be creative in order to be happy. I remember in Health class in 8th grade, Mr. Elder (sounds like a made-up name, but it was his real one) asked us to rank our life needs, and I always remember that creativity was pretty high on my list. And it still is! My blog is a creative outlet when I can't be knitting or painting, and it's a lot less messy to clean up (another life need for me is order). How are you being creative in your life? Do you need it to survive? I view creativity as a more broad thing, not just arts/crafts, but an approach to living. Cooking can be creative. Gardening is creative. Child rearing is certainly creative (who hasn't improvised with their kids?) I find problem solving in general to be creative, and since we're always trying to fix a problem, we're creative all the time.