Creative outlets

The next semester starts on Aug 24, and when I'm in school there's no time for any personal enrichment beyond scripture study and homework. I'm trying to get my 'creative fix' in the little time I have left. I sometimes suspect I have A.D.D. the way I approach projects. I have a bunch of ideas and get really excited to start a project. I get the momentum going and soon lose interest and wander off to a new project. I have to really force myself to actually finish anything and usually I have half a dozen projects at any given time at any stage of completion.

Then big news is...today I started AND finished one of my projects! Ta-DA! I made Sarah a couple dozen hair bows for school. I realized that Sarah's femininity hasn't been as encouraged as I'd wished. In college we were very poor, so we never bought ribbons or cute hair things or anything really girly. The following years I was either pregnant and sick or dealing with post-partum depression (which lasts a calendar year for me) so I didn't care about helping her feel beautiful. This month I pondered the situation and realized a few things. 1- What if Sarah is the only daughter I'll have? It would be a shame to never have played with ribbons and lace and all the fun little-girl things like that. 2- She won't like ribbons and bows forever, so the window of time is shrinking fast. I need to seize the moment now and not put it off. 3- If I keep putting it off for another day, I still won't have made anything for her 2 years from now (I know, because I thought 2 years ago that I would make something for her and never did....don't procrastinate the day of your creativity!)

We found a REALLY neat website for step-by-step directions for doing girls' hair. You should check it out if you have a girl, are planning on having a girl, babysit girls, or are a girl. It's full of a plethora of awesome ideas, including hairstyles that take less than 5 minutes, but they look like a million bucks just by adding a flower or bow.Check it out here:
http://cutegirlshairstyles.blogspot.com

Sarah and I researched basic skills for making bows of various kinds and scanned several online catalogs for bows, quickly deciding that most of them looked outrageously dumb and over-the-top. It honestly looked like some girls were being worn by the bow, not the other way around. People take this accessorizing to the extreme in some cases.

I spent this morning and part of the afternoon churning out a variety of bows for her and it was surprisingly more fun than I expected. She made a couple of them herself. As I caught on to the basic techniques, the bows at the end of the day became progressively more elaborate. They are my favorite.