Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

porter’s sale

Monday, October 18th, 2010

Speaking of creativity + entrepreneurship (yesterday’s post) …

Porter recently got an idea of how he could earn some extra money. He woke up early, got out his paper and markers, and nearly finished his sign before anyone else was even awake that day. You know that feeling when you get an idea and you’re so excited about it you just run like the wind with the idea? That was Porter. He starting pulling little toys out of the play room and labeled them. Fifty cents for this. Ten cents for this. Everything under a dollar.

I was fully supportive. Heck yes. Porter is always so charitable and giving and this is his first real entrepreneurial endeavor.

The marketing? He made a list of all the families he wanted me to notify about “the sale”. I happily sent the email.

I suggested he sell some original handmade coloring books in addition to the toys. He created all the art. I took care of scanning & printing. He collated. I stapled. It was beautiful team work. (Let’s just say the apple didn’t fall far from the tree here.)

I also suggested that he sell homemade treats. Just trying to make his shop even more marketable. Claire got involved and helped me make Chex Muddy Buddies and Pretzel Hugs. Porter wrote the treat names. I scanned, printed, cut and stapled the bag labels. We all participated in snacking on the scraps.  : )

We set up shop on this past Monday since there was no school (thank you, Mr. Columbus, for giving us an excuse to have a day off). The shop was B-U-S-Y. So many supportive friends & neighbors came.

It was so busy, in fact, that we blew right through all the snacks and decided to take pre-orders … 9 more packages of Chex Muddy Buddies which we delivered later in the day. (I had to explain the concept of pre-orders to Porter.)

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[ My TOP TEN notes-to-self from this experience ]

10. Porter learned how to take a little idea and carry it out in a big way. Yay for that.

9. The boost in self-confidence is priceless. Porter was beaming about how many friends came to his “Sale”.

8. Wear tennis shoes for an outdoor sale because chasing after Crew down the street 7 times in flip flops isn’t the best idea ever.

7. Sell water bottles.

6. Make more treats. Have samples available for those who want to taste-test.

5. Encourage Porter to start working on his next coloring book.

4. I love where we live.

3. I love shade.

2. Being a mom is the best ever.

1. Taking the time (it was a chunk of time) to guide Porter through this process was totally worth it. We are so doing this again.

creative ambition

Friday, September 24th, 2010

There are lots of people that ooze creativity. There are plenty of folks with a good idea. There are some who have both the creativity + a brilliant idea. And then – there are those who run with it. These people believe enough in themselves that they do something with their idea. They do something with their passion in a way that helps others. And sometimes they can even make a few bucks along the way.

This is creative ambition. It’s across the board in all industries. If you’ve been around here on my blog for long enough, you know that I enjoy sharing creatives with you. And I will continue to do so. There are far more people than I could ever mention but today I wanted to send a little shout-out to merely a few of these creatives that have impacted me this week. These are women that are close to “home” for me, which is that they are wives and mothers … and ambitious creatives.

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1. You know SheyB (a.k.a. the camera strap girl), right? She not only makes the coolest camera straps but she recently had a “crazy idea”, as she calls it, and almost instantly Creative Estates was born this past week. It’s a conference specifically for these creatives I’m talking about. Doesn’t matter if your work is sewing, cooking, blogging, photography … if you make something and you are making your “somethings” into a business, this conference sounds to be right up your alley. I applaud Shey for her ambition to bring so many together and celebrate the creative handmade industries. It’s going to be in Arizona this coming April. Learn more here.

2. Have you heard of Cheeky Kitchen? I’ve known Brooke for 15 years. We were both newly married college students and serving together in church at the time. She’s another creative, ambitious soul with a passion for things of the kitchen. It’s so fun to see where she has taken her passion. You’ll enjoy her witty writing and gorgeous food photography. Brooke was recently interviewed by Make it Work Mom and shared beautiful insight on how she balances everything in life (something we’re all working on). That interview is HERE. It’s worth reading.

3. Kezia Whitteker has taken her passion for homemaking to another level of sharing. A cancer survivor, mother, and entrepreneur, I was first introduced to Kezia at a trade show several years ago when she was there exhibiting her company. Now she has a new focus. Be sure to check out Kezia’s Distracted Homemaker site. She has inspiring ideas for mothering, entertaining, food, and celebrating. She’s speakin’ my language.

4. With the loving encouragement and support of her military husband, Katie Orse is carrying out her passion for sewing & journaling and has recently created her own business: the most lovely journal sleeves. Isn’t this pretty?

If you look in her shop you’ll see that she named this design after me. What the heck? She’s a girl after my own heart with that green.  ; )  This design can be found HERE. And … she’d like to give away one of these gorgeous journal sleeves to one of you. Leave a comment and we will announce a randomly selected winner on Monday.

By the way: BIG hugs to all of you who are supporting your spouse/friend/family member/student who has a dream. This is another thing really close to home for me and I am forever thankful to my loved ones who have been supportive & enthusiastic along this journey. Especially the hubs. David has so much to do with where I am today. He has always been supportive of and patient with me following my passion for creating & sharing. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s a smarty pants either.

Here’s to following your passion. Here’s to doing something with your idea.

recording a child’s imagination

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Claire has an imaginary friend. But we don’t dare call her “imaginary” because Claire will fight you on that one. Sally is real.

Because these “friends” are completely age-appropriate and because this is right in line with cultivating creativity in our children, we let Claire go on and on … and on about Sally. And she most certainly does. She’s a total Chatty Cathy right now.

Every day this thought runs through my mind: I wish I could record her saying these things. I know many of you relate. Younger children truly do say the funniest things. But the thing is, we can’t tape a personal recording device to our kids. That’s just too weird. And we can’t have them repeat what they say because that’s just not genuine.

So this morning as Claire was telling us more about Sally during breakfast, I decided that starting today — I am going to record everything she tells us about Sally. And so I picked up my notebook (where I keep all of my creative brainstorming for so many different things) and a pen and … I began to write. I recall doing something similar when Porter and his “friends” — Mad Ducky and Bambi — were little.

This is a start to what’s going on with Sally at the moment (so much can change in a day):

Since this notebook is handy at all times, I will jot a note down whenever Sally comes up. Then what? Well Sally most certainly will have a place in Claire’s scrapbook, wouldn’t you say?

Do what you can to record your child’s creative thinking and imagination. Don’t feel guilty about what you wish you could have recorded in the past. Start now. Take pictures of them when they get in their own little world. Write down things they say right when they say it so you can record it as accurately as possible.

Not a scrapbooker? Keep a journal. Not a writer? How about this: One journal per kid or one journal for the whole family. Heck, everyone can contribute if you want. Whenever anyone hears something funny come out of someone’s mouth, just jot it down in the journal. Doesn’t have to be beautifully constructed paragraphs. Just get something down on paper. Quotes are a great start.

They grow up so fast.