The urge to create

A little over a month ago I got an email from a friend which was a YouTube video entitled Create by President Uchtdorf. It was inspiring! So inspiring in fact that I have tried to download it to my blog several times to share with you, and I can't get it to work. So just trust me on this when I say if you haven't seen it, you need to and you will be inspired!

Growing up I never thought that I was the creative one in the family. I mean my mom was a clothing and textiles major at BYU, and can sew, cross stitch and make amazing cards with simplicity and ease. My sister the do it all wonder woman can well...do it all...she is wonder woman. My brother, even when we were growing up could draw, paint, and cross stitch...now days he is creating in his yard, building streams, decks, bridges and all sorts of fancy stuff. My family is a bunch of creators...but me...growing up I felt like I was just the basketball girl. When people would say, "oh are you as crafty as your mom?" I would look at them and say, "Nope, I take after my dad, I'm the sporty one."

Bless my mom's heart she tried to get me crafty and creating. There were summer sewing lessons with Margaret Farmer. I was taught how to cross stitch. I was enrolled in 4H where I learned to bake (I think I still have my Davis County and State Fair 1st Place Blue Ribbons for my banana bread). It wasn't until I blew my ACL my senior year playing basketball that I had time to sit and create...mainly because I was in a full leg brace and on crutches for 3 months. Anyway, during that time I cranked out several cross stitch pieces, and my confidence in the crafty field started to blossom, and I began to believe that I too had the family crafty gene.

I began scrap booking in college and fell in love with quilts when I was living back in Virginia so close to Pennsylvania Amish country. So my crafty side continued to grow. I worked in a field where we had to be creative and doing craft projects twice a month with my residents really began to peak my creativity and crafty interests.

Now married, we have a business where I am hand painting items to go in children's bedrooms, play rooms, day care centers etc. and I am loving it. It's therapeutic. Well, I have been itching to get out and create more using my boxes and boxes of fabric and my sewing machine that I just had to bring from America when I moved. I haven't done a lot since I've been here as I had to get a super duper converter (which also helps with the baking and using my favorite kitchen aid appliance). For Christmas this year I had grand ideas of making every one's gifts something homemade...it didn't happen, but it's still a goal I am working on (so watch out family)! :) I have come to realize that I love being crafty and that I do indeed have the crafty family gene...it just took me a while to find it!

A few weeks ago, one of the last things I had to do before our stake went on trek was to make dolls for the families to carry, to simulate the babies that the pioneers had when they crossed the plains. So it was my time to create! I had so much fun! I haven't really sewed in years, but I was able to make 6 dolls, their dresses (without a pattern) and blankets for all of them. It was a process, and since I don't have a craft room (yet) in our house, my dining room table doubled as my sewing space for weeks. My poor husband wondered if we were ever going to get back to eating dinner at the dinner table. Well, the dolls were a success, and they turned out so cute, I just had to share.

I called these the twins, as they were the only two dolls dressed alike.
I filled the dolls with batting and sand so they each weighed about 4 kilos or 8 1/2 pounds, just like real babies.

Some had lace on their dresses, others on their bonnets, and others on their blankets.

And all of them had a cute face like this. Thank heavens I still had quarter in my wallet - it was the perfect size for all the facial features.

Now that the babies are done, and trek is over, I have been looking for new projects to start on. I have found so many fun crafty blogs and have been inspired by so many people's creativity and talents! I've added a new group of blogs to my sidebar that are all crafty sites - check them out, they will lead you on to many other crafty blogs and websites. I can't wait to start trying some of the great things that I have found on those blogs! But honestly, it intimidates me a bit! But I'm going to give it my best shot! My dining room table is again a place to eat, but do you think if I pull out my Bernina again and start sewing that I might finally be able to get my craft room???

Getting back to the YouTube video that I spoke of at the beginning of this post. Over the past month I have had time to think and reflect about that video, and I am so grateful that I don't have to be the world's best seamstress, or scrapbooker, or pianist. I can just be me and create to the best of my abilities...and as I do, I not only feel a sense of accomplishment, but I get better with each new creation! Wow, aren't we so lucky to be blessed with talents that we may not even know we have?!?! If you have wanted to try something new, but were afraid to do it, why not start now? I'll keep you posted on the things I am working on, only if you promise to share those things that you have done too! Go on get out there and create!