Creative Time

A few more days at the Studio.  It is coming along and KC and I are quite pleased.  In between all that is on my schedule and the grueling task list I have set for myself, I find time for creativeness. 

I found this article at ZenHabits on how creative people get to be creative.  It is great and speaks that creative time is about the "quiet time" and the "particiation time".  Somewhat opposites yet the to activities balance one another out.

This holiday weekend will have some creative time carved out.  Will you make time?

The Studio & some lace

Last weekend was just great.  My neighbor's son, Aaron, came home from college and was available to assist me on moving some of the furniture in the studio.

Previously I had gone through much of the credenza, at right, and emptied it of projects and unrelated items.  Some of the projects are on the top as you can see.  The three baskets underneath - bonus.  It's a bonus as I found the perfectly sized scraps of wood in the garage that would lift up the credenza just enough so the baskets could be slid under it.  Of course Arron did quite a bit of the lifting.

This past weekend I worked on sorting through the patterns and books about crochet in the other book case.  Nice to get the books somewhat catagoriezed.  It does make it easier to get inspiration.  I even had some time to go through and clean up my stash of finished project sheets and notes.  Now it is on to the other corner of the room.  Next weekend may have more accomplishments and successes.

By the way, I've completed 6 of the crochet projects of the 21 since April 25th.  There will be pictures soon!

 I did begin a new lace project last week.  Since I am making progress with the crochet and studio room , I would like to make this project as a gift.  Jill has been having Tuesday night get-together to lace at her home for two hours.  So what a perfect time!  I took an old pillow with me, took off and abandoned an previous project that just wasn't cutting it, made the pricking, wound the bobbinsand began.  Wow - I'm smiling.

NELG Lace Retreat

The first weekend of May was NELG's Lace Retreat Weekend.  It begins late on Thursday, then all day Friday & Saturday and concludes Sunday after lunch with classes or just for retreating!  We have been at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center for quite a few years.  It's in Wareham MA on a cove of Buzzards Bay just before Cape Cod.

I took part in just retreating once again this year.  It was great - I took some projects (from the Plan) and went up by early Friday evening.  Accomodations were just lovely, weather was wonderful and most of all, it was those lacers that attended that make it just great.  You can't imagine the amount of creativity that was there on the weekend.  Thank you to everyone!

Next year is all ready booked so mark your calendars, it will be the third weekend of May.  I'm looking forward to the change in the dates as I will most likely be rested enough from tax season to take a class!  Unfortunatley I will not be able to study with Jeanette Van Ord.  This year was her last year that she will be coming (from  Netherlands) to teach.  She has been teaching for the last twenty years and so many students have learned so much about lace from her.  We will miss her!

Holly Van Sciver was our vendor and the other teacher.  She gave a great presentation on Saturday night about Lester Lace that came about at the time when the lace industry was failing and hand made lace was becoming history.  It was truly facinating and informative.

Before we knew it, it was Sunday breakfast.  The silent auction concluded and we made over $300 to help out our group.  I came away with some old IOLI magazines and assorted items to help out the lace corner of my studio.  I did purchase additional bobbins and a couple of books on tape lace from Solivinia. 

Looking forward to the plans for next year.  One item I've been thinking about is either getting there a day in advance or staying an extra day after.  If you are looking for a place to take an individual retreat - I recommend the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center as a great place to get away.