New Passions
February 12th, 2011
I've become slightly obsessed with a couple new creative outlets. Things tend to come in waves with me, but for right now I'm feeling passionate about sewing and Instagram. How fun to have these new means of expression and creativity!
Sewing has been a good lesson for me in accepting imperfection, laughing and going ahead anyway. I think if I was too much of a perfectionist about it, I would have given up 500 times already. As I was making this latest project, a sweet little hoodie for baby from Anna Maria Horner's book, there were a lot of little mistakes made. The sleeves were hard to attach, I'm not always the best at sewing in a straight line, and I had to re-do a few things. I remember at one point thinking, "Um, I'm not sure this is going to look anything like a jacket at the end."
But I kept going, and magically at the end of it all, there was a sweet little baby jacket that I'm immensely proud of. I asked my blue bear to model it for me and he happily agreed.
Instagram (an iphone app) is another creative tool I've been enjoying. All the pictures above were taken with Instagram (if you join, I'm there as leah_art.) There's something about snapping pictures throughout the day that wakes you up to the tiny moments of beauty all around you. I love that. And it's fun to see the tiny moments captured in others' days as well. Times like this make me madly in love with technology and all it has to offer for creativity and connections.
Are there any new creative passions in your life this month?
11 Responses
Leah, you are so talented, everything you touch creatively, even if it’s immensely frustrating turns out beautifully! That hoodie is adorable, and looks pretty complicated too! Nice work! Your instagram photos are gorgeous. I love the cat photo, with the shadow, and the light/dark split.I hope this app makes it way onto other platforms.
Posted by: Creatively Sensitive | Feb 12, 2011 at 5:44 pm |
So cool. These are my new 2 creative passions too!
I just started with instagram a few days ago but i am totally hopelessly hooked on it.
And this evening I am tidying up and re-arranging my sewing room. I love sewing, but it needs so much STUFF! So I am trying to get more organised because I had a lot of sewing projects I want to get started on.
Posted by: andrea | Feb 12, 2011 at 6:01 pm |
I am really impressed! The jacket is adorable! Whe I was pregnant with my first son I got the sewing bug too….but I was a disaster! Instagram sounds like fun! Your pictures are gorgeous!Love the contrasts!
Posted by: Kelly | Feb 13, 2011 at 7:03 am |
If that jacket is your idea of imperfection….well, I guess I have a long way to go to be imperfect! It’d lovely – all that detail work!
My passion: yet another outgrowth of CED2010…I’m not sure what to name them yet. They started off as Vision Goddesses (and may still have one facet like that): ceramic wall sculpture done up like a Vision Board. But it has morphed into a memory Goddess for my Mom. Show coming up wanting portraits and I woke up with doing a collage of her pictures on the body of the goddess (this is a flat goddess like the garden Goddess which was the impetus), and hanging things that were of her life from it. Then I learned to make jewelry size copper covered “books” and expanded the size a bit for the sculpture and the pages contain part of her Baptismal certificate, a cc of her honeymoon’s hotel receipt ($13 plus change for 2 days), a baby grand piano because she could play by ear…you get the idea. That’s my new passion – I keep thinking of more things to add and how it is still only pieces of her. She has been gone longer from my life than I had her. It is an amazing work of connection for me!
Posted by: Tammy Vitale | Feb 13, 2011 at 9:41 am |
I wish I had an iphone so that I could join. Lol.
The baby jacket you made is gorgeous. My sewing tends to be more decorative than practical mainly because I seem to have a disorder that means I am unable to understand knitting, sewing or cross stitch patterns & instructions.
I am sure your baby girl is going to look divine in this jacket & those cute booties you made. Its very kind of blue bear to model but I bet you’re really excited to try them on your little girl.
Kat X
Posted by: Katina Wright | Feb 13, 2011 at 10:50 am |
Have just found your blog. It’s lovely! I think you’re very clever to make that dear little jacket, it looks perfect to me. I am a knitter and am at present making little items for my first ganddaughter who is due to be born at the end of March. There is always at least one mistake in my knitted results, but I see it as a sort of trade mark, showing that it really was homemade. If it’s a truly bad mistake, I rip it back and re-do it. I think my new creativity this month is….planning for my retirement in July when I shall burst with creativity!!
Posted by: Lynne Kovan | Feb 13, 2011 at 12:29 pm |
Lucky blue bear, he looks so spiffy in his brand new yellow jacket. Happy Valentine’s Day !
Posted by: Sandy Ang | Feb 13, 2011 at 5:16 pm |
Bravo on the little jacket! What a wonderful creation…I love the button holes!
We just watche the documentary “Babies”…have you seen it? Just delightful…
Enjoy your continued creative endeavors! (love the “romantic” kitty!)
Posted by: Susan | Feb 13, 2011 at 9:14 pm |
What I am noticing today is the reinvigoration (not sure if that is a word) of passion for other forms of art when one has found completion. My show opened this weekend so I am no longer quite as nervous about it so today, the poetry won’t stop flowing. It is like I am the walls of the river and the poetry, the words is woooshing through me, asking not to be caught but instead to be witnessed and expressed. Really rather remarkable.
I love the little jacket and am looking forward to the day when I have a smart phone and can start snapping instagrams, too!
Posted by: Julie Jordan Scott | Feb 14, 2011 at 1:07 pm |
Leah, That baby jacket is just the sweetest! You make me almost want to have babies again. ( im too old hahahaha!!) I may even break out my sewing machine again. You are inspirational. Thanks too for the App tip. My handsome husband just got an iphone and he is FINALLY getting on the Apple Train. Whoot Whoot!
P.S. I dont have an iphone yet but Mr. wonderful surprised me with a Macbbook for Valentines Day. I’m in techie heaven.
Posted by: Mari | Feb 15, 2011 at 8:51 am |
In high school my friends and I always used “purple passion” to describe our feelings. Like I hate that teacher with a purple passion. My collage remembers my high school days, lol.
Posted by: Carol@Swallowcliffs | Feb 20, 2011 at 11:47 pm |