Flowerama!

Well, once again, it has been awhile since I have posted. These past couple of months have been crazy busy, but filled with some incredible opportunities to put into action my creative juices. This weekend I am about to embark upon my first gig as a wedding florist. I am excited, yet nervous all at the same time.

In college, I was able to help some friends save some money by creating floral arrangements for their recitals. I learned a lot in that time about different types of flowers and about the industry in general. I figured out how to make corsages, boutonnières, vase arrangements, and bouquets. It was pretty exciting. Flowers are such a temperamental medium to work with as a whole. You have to make sure they are properly watered, stems are cut, in the proper temperature, etc... Nonetheless, the challenge of all of these factors, makes it exciting.

Working with this wedding, I have gone into uncharted territory for myself. I have had to plan very carefully within a budget, being as precise as I can be on how many stems I buy, not to mention pleasing a bride on her wedding day. I have had an incredible time in the planning process. I have thought everything out as much as I can, and in the next couple days I get to see all of it come to fruition. I can't wait to see my sketches come to life! So here goes nothing... once again, letting my creativity ensue!!!!

Click a Pic

 Each day when I look around, I tend to see certain sights as snapshots. In fact, I remember a day when I was in high school, I was on my way home, and just as I was cresting the top of a bridge, I saw the sunset. The sight of it took my breath away, and I thought to myself, "I wish I had a good camera to capture this moment." It is kind of like when you are starring at someone and they say, "Take a picture! It'll last longer!!" That is the way I felt. Not long after that, I got a 35mm SLR. I loved it! I got to take some fantastic photos and captures some wonderful memories.

Robot Birthday
Candles

Colorful
Colored-Pencils

 

Curled
Palm-Frawns
in FL

With the passing of time and for convenience's sake, I moved on to a digital point-and-shoot and now have actually digressed to the use of mainly the camera on my phone. The funny thing is, I think that at times I like taking pictures with the camera on my phone, which is an LG EnV Touch. It is not the most fantastic of phones, but it has a decent camera. I have taken some pretty fantastic pictures with it though.

View from my
Grandparents
old house.

Head of a Penguin Cake
I assisted in making. 

I take pictures of various things, from things that I see that I like to things I have created, to places I go and people I meet. It is all about having fun and having good memories. I suppose you could say that taking pictures on my phone is my way of scrapbooking. I also love the convenience of being able to beam my pictures to Facebook and quickly and easily share my photos with my friends. So, here are some examples of my mobile photos.

Lovely, Old
Chandelier

My Grandma's
Watch Collection

Stage at the
Schermerhorn
Symphony
Center,
Pre-flood.

So, in my constant pursuit to help people find their creativity within, I encourage you to start taking cell-phone pics of the things that delight you. Whether it be a tree filled with blossoms or some sort of odd randomocity, click a pic. I think that you will find that this simple form of creativity will help you to carry little pieces of joy that you can look back on on a rainy day and bring a smile to your face. I know that with almost 800 pictures stored on my phone, I always have something to look back on with a glimmer of “sunshine on a cloudy day.” I would love to see what some of your favorite cell-phone pics are from this week. So, either leave me a link in a comment, or email me at creativityensues@gmail.com ! Go on... let your creativity ensue!




P.S.  Sorry for the hiatus, but I am glad to be back!

Writing of the hand

From the dawn of time, people have been developing various ways of communicating and corresponding effectively. God gave us the gift of speech, and also gave us different languages across the world. Man has created variations of these different languages. However, another form of communication that has consistently developed throughout time is handwriting. One might even consider it the original art form, as handwriting is unique to each person. Once more contributing to my theory in my first post that everyone is creative in their own way!

My version

of print.

Anywho, with the dawning of new technology every day and society's increasing reliance upon the likes thereof, a slow decline in the art of handwriting has begun. Each day in my profession as a teacher, I get to see some of the best and worst handwriting. But, who is to say that even the "chicken scratch" in this realm is not art though? I mean, do we not use fonts on the computer that look like poor handwriting to set ourselves apart in a design or logo? I have no doubt that there are several people who may argue this point.



My version of cursive.

 

All of the thousands of fonts that we have today are stemmed from various artists' renderings of people's handwriting. I personally LOVE to hand write things now and take pride in it, which has not always been the case. I have always been a perfectionist to a certain degree, hence as I was growing up, sometimes writing was a painstaking chore, especially cursive writing. In my high school days, because I did like cursive, but hated writing it fully (lack of fluidity), I would mix print and cursive. However, in college of all places, I was able to hone my cursive handwriting skills, and became rather fluent. Now, I absolutely love writing in cursive, and it is actually fun for me.

While I love writing in cursive, and the fluidity of it, I would have to say that my mixture of print and cursive is more creative. Thinking about it, I suppose since I loathed writing in cursive as a child, but liked the idea of it, I incorporated the letters that I liked writing in cursive into my print. So, in that case, nobody who mixes both uses the same ratio of letters of cursive and print. It is

A quote by yours truly,
using cursive/print mix.

fascinating really. No matter how sloppy or neat, large or microscopic, rigid or bubbly, we all unconsciously create our own form of handwriting... our own font... our own typeface.



I would like to encourage YOU to, if you don't already write fluently and fluidly (and legibly), start writing in cursive. Here is a page that you can go to to get some practice. It has examples of the alphabet in print and cursive in the "A Beka-style" of handwriting. The cursive writing methods of this style are my favorite of those that I have perused. So, whether you want to brush up on some of your letters, or improve upon your handwriting, relax, have fun, and don't forget to let your creativity ensue!

Mix-it-to-it: The Lyrimusica Project

One of my favorite ways to express myself is through music. I have grown up singing, playing piano, creating music, and now even have a degree in music education. Ever since I discovered that you could record music on your computer, I fell in love with being able to create music by layering my voice (shout out to Karen Carpenter for being one of my biggest inspirations to record in this manner). Starting out with that wonderful program "Sound Recorder," and floating through various other recording programs as time has passed, I have now graduated to "GarageBand." I do not have a professional recording studio by any means, but the tools that I do have work for what I need at the moment.

So, I know this may be premature in the whole blogging scene, but I have decided to go ahead and have my readers (although this most likely is only a few people) participate in a project. A competition so-to-speak. This afternoon, I was in the mood to record something after having this nonsense, tribal sound coming out of my mouth all afternoon. I put it to good use, and started to layer one musical phrase on top of another. However, I felt it needed lyrics, but once again, when I TRIED to think of lyrics, they would not come.

Here is where YOU all come in to play! My challenge to you is to participate in what I am calling The Lyrimusica Project. I want you to see if you can come up with some lyrics to go with the vocal accompaniment that I have already created. The lyrics do not need to be extensive as it is only a one minute long song. It has an African, tribal feel to it. You do not have to write the melody for your lyrics, just the words. I will do the rest. Below is a video with the music, and also includes the guidelines. Please send your entries to the email address on the video, and NOT on the comment feed (Do comment though on what you think of this post). Who knows? For the winner, I might even have a small prize...  Enjoy! Have Fun! and here's a chance to let your 'Creativity Ensue!'

P.S. I forgot to mention that Imogen Heap is also an inspiration in recording things like this. Not to mention, I had the great opportunity to sing back-up with her in an acapella group called the Beltones from Belmont University in the summer of 2010 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. 

Cookie Creativity

Growing up, my dad taught my sisters and me how to make cookies. However, living in the fast-paced society that is now called the modern world, he showed us a shortcut. That shortcut was to make cookies out of a cake mix. I mean, you cannot get much easier than mixing a quarter cup of oil, quarter cup of water, one egg, a cake mix of course, and any other enhancements you deem worthy of being in YOUR cookie.

My personal favorite is a yellow cake mix cookie with chocolate and peanut butter chips nestled within. However, this year I have been trying to break away from my simple minded ways and concoct something new and inventive. Sometimes, when in pursuit of something of this nature, it is best to walk through the aisles of your local grocery store and let your mind wander. Which, this is EXACTLY what I did. This past summer I created the hit sensation and ever-so-popular Carrot Cake Cookie (to be blogged about later), but seeing as how spring and summer are just around the corner, I wanted to create a cookie with those seasons in mind. After my meanderings, I formulated a new creation!!! Pineapple Upside Down Cake Cookies!!!!!

First attempts going
into the oven.
Brown sugar and
butter sauce on
 top and bottom

First attempts coming
out of the oven.
A little flat.

I figured, why not bring the joys of this tasty cake into a nice handheld treat? So I decided that I was going to use a pineapple cake mix and incorporate crushed pineapple, and figure out a way to make that gooey, sugary sauce that melds the pineapple and cake together. So, here are a couple of pictures of my first attempt.






So, the result was a little flat as you can see, due to using too much pineapple juice (I substituted it for the water), and they were a bit too artificial tasting due to the pineapple cake mix. So, in my second attempt, I definitely tweaked the recipe. I used a french vanilla cake mix, doubled my amount of crushed pineapple, reduced my amount of pineapple juice, and only put my butter and brown sugar mix on the top. And with those slight changes and a change in name, the result was much more desirable and beautiful for the second attempt at making Pineapple Upside UP Cookies!

Second attempt heading into
be baked.

So, take your cue from me, and go and create yourself a new cake mix cookie. Go ahead! Do not be afraid to let your cookie creativity ensue!
 

Second attempt fresh
out of the oven!
Mmm... Caramelized brown sugar
and butter!

The On-set of Ensuing

There are three schools of thought in the world when it comes to creativity. There are those who say they are not creative at all, those who might not say they are creative but are, and those who willingly admit they are creative. In my opinion, everybody is creative in some way, shape, or form. 

There are many ways to be creative from putting together an outfit to baking a cake, from writing a story to ad-libbing a song. Let's face it, if you are using your imagination, you are being creative. So really, there is not one person who is void of creativity. I mean, if you are trying to find an excuse why you are not creative, you are being creative. 

That brings me to my goal in writing this blog, and that is to inspire you to be creative in a plethora of mediums. So stay tuned for some fun ways to let your creativity ensue!