art every day

giant buttons (de espana)

According to Aimee of artsyville (wow, alliteration much?), November is Art Every Day Month. It’s also November, and November means busier (could it get busier?) school time. But I’ve been trying really hard to squeeze a bit of creativity into each day, and this will just be another reason.

How do I do it? I realized that every day when I get home from class, I’m ready for a break. But every day I would force myself to sit and do work as soon as I got home, because I figured it was the best time to get things done. More often than not, though, I’d get really sleepy, or end up exploring every corner of the internet. The entire time I was trying to study, and I was convincing myself that I’d keep studying after one more thing, but I kept wasting time since my brain simply wasn’t ready to do more work.

vintage-look buttonsOnce I found the pattern and the black hole of wasted time, I decided to embrace it. A night full of studying doesn’t have to immediately follow a day full of learning. Now, I give myself the gift of one hour each day when I get home. That one hour is mine: I can blog, I can read, I can sew, I can bake. Rather than wasting time pretending to work, I shut my brain off from work altogether and give myself a productive and rejuvenating piece of the day.

How can you fit more creative into your day? Don’t forget that being creative isn’t always some huge thing. Here are a few things that you might want to try on busy November days:

  • carry a camera wherever you go for the day, and snap a few pictures
  • write down a sampling of thoughts in a journal
  • illustrate a song lyric (i’ve started to fill a mini moleskine with these)
  • string together a beaded bracelet
  • pull out some knitting (it is fall!) during football, on the bus, or in the car
  • bake some cookies (yes, that is creating)
  • stuff one narwhal tusk each day (oh wait, that’s just me)
  • make a paint chip daisy or a starburst wrapper bracelet

I’m preparing for Crafty Goodness on Saturday (if you’re in the area, stop by!), so this week is all about making as many narwhals as I can. But I’m dreaming of buttons… once I’ve escaped from this mountain of unstuffed narwhal tusks, I’ll have to make something pretty and button-y!

3 Responses

  1. leah says:

    good for you for finding the small moments within your day to create! love those duck buttons! :-)

  2. Your narwhals are adorable! Good luck preparing for Crafty Goodness :)

  3. aimee says:

    good luck with the art show!

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