Ida Clare, Let's Dance!

Hello Friends,

There is a video at the end of this post and I am posting it because today is the birthday of a friend of mine and I won’t be able to be with her today as she is in a land far far away.  

 If she were here sitting across the table from me at our favorite ice house, this is what I would say to her on the anniversary of her birth.

You are fabulous just the way you are.  Don’t let anyone infer, suggest, insinuate or blatantly tell you otherwise, especially someone younger than you.  (You can still listen to me because as you never let me forget I am older than you by fifty-six days.)

It’s ok if you’re bossy.  Men call it “Leadership” and get paid one-and-a-half to a thousand times more than women to be that way.  Lead on, Sista.

Don’t let advertisers or sales-sluts make you feel less beautiful than you are just to sell you something.  You clean up nicely.  

Stop hiding the fact that you are brilliant.  Get up and put on your smarty-pants every day.  In a world of low-wattage intelligence, we need your brain power. 

  

We are not our history.  Whatever has happened in our past is behind us.  And I have the big behind to prove it.

Create for yourself.  You are talented, innovative and often fearless when it comes to a creative project.  Tell all internal and external art critics to go eat worms.

As for gardening, you can throw in the towel or wipe the sweat with it and keep digging.  This applies to other things too.

Let go of crap you can’t control.  Take the very best care of yourself that you can.  Rest, relax, and resist the urge to ruminate.

Whatever you do, always be my friend.

Now, Let's Dance.

Ida Clare I love Nature!

Dear Creative Chicks,
It’s Happy Muse Day Again,

Inspiration can come from any where and if you ask many creative women what inspires them, they will answer “nature.” 

The natural world we live in is truly inspiring and hopefully will be here to inspire us for years to come if we as a species don’t screw it up.

You may or may have not have guessed that I am not one who loves to go out into nature and get my hands dirty.  I prefer to observe nature from the comfort of my artificially regulated environment which includes air conditioning, background music and an adult beverage of my choice as I admire God’s handiwork.

So imagine my discomfiture as it occurs to me that short of inheriting a small fortune or finding a “Yard Man” under my pillow, I am going to have to contemplate nature up close and personal by working in the yard.

Sigh.

What’s a creative chick who’d rather be eating cheese dip and reading trash fiction supposed to do? 

My neighbor Miz. Dot knows everything about working in the yard and since she has ten green thumbs and the beautiful yard to prove it, I’ve decided to take her advice and do one thing at a time so I don’t get overwhelmed. 

Now that the azaleas have stopped showing off, it is time to work on them.

So I decided to create a check list - one way of creatively procrastinating – Right?

So I have been attending the azaleas:
Prune.   Check
Dig out grass from around them.  Check
Bend handle of tiny shovel-trowel thingee that Miz Dot loaned me and has used for years.   Check
Replace tiny shovel-trowel thingee that Miz Dot loaned me.  Check
Buy industrial strength hatchet to chop San Augustine Grass.   Check
Worry about the bugs and worms and snakes that could live in the grass.  Check
Chop snake into tiny bits.  Check

Work too long sitting on ground so that I cannot get up without assistance.  Check
Find milk crate to keep at side at all times to use to get up without assistance.  Check
Have garden fantasy and decide to make flower bed bigger.   Check
Go into the woods to dig topsoil for flowerbed.  Check
Worry about lions and tigers that might live in the woods.  Check
Learn with relief from Miz Dot that lions and tigers don’t live in the woods in Big Thicket.  Check
Shovel dirt into flower bed.  Check
Have trouble getting out of bed next morning.  Check
Become obsessed with finishing project.  Check
Google stuff on internet about putting pine needles around azaleas.  Check
Go into the woods and collect pine needles.  Check
Worry that pot growers and meth labs could be in the woods in Big Thicket  Check
Sneeze, wheeze, wipe nose on shirt tail.   Check
Search medicine cabinet arsenal for allergy medicine with "sell by" date in this century.  Check
Fight with fire ants.    Check
Treat ant bites.     Check
Wow, getting a little suntan on arms.  I like this.   Check
Crap.  Developing tan line at wrist where gloves stop.   Not liking this.  Check
Fix supper exhausted.  Check
Eat supper while lying head on table.  Check
Stand under shower till water runs cold.  Check
Fall asleep at computer answering emails.  Check
Job incomplete.  Check
Start again tomorrow.  Check

I hope that you won’t be discouraged by my check list.  Some day I am going to be glad I pruned the azaleas, but it will probably around this time next year.

Have a creative day. If you don’t hear from me for a while, you’ll know that I am probably trapped in the woods under a bed of pine straw waiting until the bears, meth dealers, or snakes go away.

Here are a few photos from my yard.  Remember this place was here before I got here and I haven't had time to kill everything yet.

Old fashion roses growing on old iron bedstead.

I want a garden bench to sit out here and smell the roses.

This trellis is a metal front porch post.  Love this.

This is the trellis up close.  Maybe gardening is worth it.

May the Muse be with you!

Ida Clare, It's Time to Unlearn Something

Happy Muesday Friends,

I love learning.  I love going to the library because knowledge is just waiting there, dangling shapely legs over the edges of the shelves, seducing me into traveling down a new path I had no intention of going.  Are you as shocked as I am that they let you check out way more books than you can actually read?  And then there is the Internet.  Have a question?  Type it in and bam, the answer appears.  I am in awe that so much knowledge is available for a willing learner.

Having said all the above about learning, I would also like to make a case for unlearning.  Let me explain.  With all the knowledge out there it is so easy to become a know-it-all.  (There, I’ve admitted it!)  It is easy to become rigidly set in ways and harbor ideas that may have moved past their worthiness or validly.  Think how hard it was for people to unlearn that the world was flat or that reality TV isn’t real.

I believe that a creative person challenges the status quo.  A creative person will question what she knows as true and move past what she may have been taught.  If you can do that you open yourself up to the mystery and wonder of the muse.  You become a new beginner and you become teachable. 

Set aside some time to question something.  It doesn’t have to be the meaning of life.  Questioning why you do something the way you always do can give wings to a new method that could make your art soar.  How would your art benefit if you unlearned a bad habit or an old fear?  Unlearn something today. 

Have a creative week.

Hugs,

Ida Clare, It's Happy Muesday

Hello Creative Chicks!

As far as I am concerned most anything can be a muse and for me that goes for this beautiful weather we are having here in Big Thicket.

The azaleas are blooming; the bees are buzzing; inspiration is in the air.  Here is a poster I made that you can print out if you need something a"muse"ing to inspire you to take flight and do your art or do your heart.

Creative Chicks Poster

You can either right click and save it to your computer or click this link to download it in poster form.

Have a Creative Day!

This post is linked up to these blogs:

Today's Creative Blog

Ida Clare, I'm spring cleaning

Pep Rally Friday

Ida Clare, it’s time for some cheering.  I have been involved in two separate hands-on creative projects this week and I am still ready to go but my house looks like a creative hurricane hit.

Creative cheer:

Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar
If I don’t clean my house
It’s gonna turn into squalor.

"There is nothing cheerful about that Ida.  Nobody wants their house to be considered squalor.  What’s squalor got to do with creativity?"

The only reason I put that in there about squalor is that it rhymes with dollar and I don’t know many other cheers since obviously I wasn’t a real cheerleader in junior high or high school.

But now that we’re on the subject: Creativity is messy and isn’t messy heading down the road to squalor?  Doing projects requires books to learn about your craft, tools, materials, and the storage to hold all the goodies and a place to strew it all about.  If that doesn’t affect your Martha Stewart image, I don’t know what will.  Plus, there is all that secret stuff you have that you haven’t yet shared with the people who live in the house with you. 

"Huh?  What do you mean?"

Oh don’t play innocent with me.  We’ve all done it. 

I used to hide my tole-painting paint under the front seat of my car from my first ex-husband.  He thought I had about six tubes of paint because I would switch them out when I needed another color.  I was afraid that he’d put his foot down if he knew how much my “paint habit” cost just to paint apples and strawberries on little wooden plaques.

The point I am trying to make is that when you create, there is a lot of stuff that comes with creativity and it eventually takes over your garage, the basement, the kitchen table, the storage on your computer, or in my case, my car.

So what!!!!!  You are a creative genius and genius requires stuff.   And that stuff requires the occasional sorting and cleaning and organizing. 

So for today I am going to cheerfully get busy and put some things in order no matter how much cleaning stinks.  As bad as I don’t love doing it, it is part of the creative process.  I can work in chaos as well as the next guy, but I love it when my little creative corner is clean and neat too.  Why don't you join me?

So today’s cheer is

Two bits, four bit, six bits a dollar
I don’t like it but
Let’s clean up the parlor.

Oh God, Ida.  You are hopeless.

Pretty much.

Hugs,

Ida Clare, My pom poms ain't what they used to be!

Even though I was never a cheerleader in high school and my pom poms ain’t what they used to be, I can still “you go girl” with the best of them. I bet you can too.

When I wrote Monday’s blog post, I was really feeling the need for creative life support and it occurred to me that I may not be the only one whose creativity needs to be hooked up to an I.V. 

One of the things I have often admired about the artful blogging community is that we are kind to each other and to each other’s creativity.  Any time you comment positively on someone’s work your voice may carry the exact bit of cheer that helps them to create again on another day.

Do you have a vicious internal critic like mine that can shoot down a good idea, poo poo a project or insult your best intentions?  I call that internal voice, Blockhead.

If your Blockhead lies to you like an ex-husband who owes you money, you need a cheerleader with big giant pom poms that will tell you the truth.

So join me right now for a little truth-telling Pep Rally.  Let’s start with one of Blockhead’s favorites.

Blockhead:  You are not creative or You’re not creative enough to _______ (fill in the blank).

Ida Cheerleader: We are all born uniquely creative.  Our Blockhead would have us believe the big lie that only a talented few are blessed with creativity and we weren’t invited when they were handing out the gifts.

We yearn to do our art but Blockhead wants us to define art with a capital A; something that other people with more creativity, more energy, or more education do with spontaneous ease.  I define art with a small “a” that says doing art is a natural right, something we came to this earth to do; create as we were created. 

Doing what your creative spirit urges you to do in spite of training or no training, recognition or none, support or opposition: yielding to the nudge that says, “Go ahead; it will be alright. Make it into being.”  And you do.  That is art; that is creativity; that is who you are.

Even if you have been practicing your craft for years, Blockhead will find a way to sabotage a good creative buzz.  That’s why we all need the occasional pep rally where we raise our voices to drown out the mean spirited internal critic who tells us big fat lies that can cost us a lifetime of joy.

This concludes today’s Pep Rally, my big idea from Monday.  I’m thinking I need more of these in the future and I’ll need you to bring your pom poms too.

Hugs,
Your Creativity Cheerleader:

Hey, I learned how to make this sign in PicMonkey:

Ida Clare, I Could Use Your Support

When I moved to Big Thicket a lot of things had to go and I’m not just talking about a no-good lying ex-husband. Even though I had little more to my name than my tarnished reputation and the black garbage bag full of clothes I couldn’t sell at the She/She Resale Shop, I brought a lot of baggage with me when I came here and it’s not necessarily the kind that rolls behind you on little bitty wheels.

What I wish I could have packed instead of my cranky disposition and resentful attitude are the members of my writing group. This writing group had participants who have been showing up for meetings for twelve years. It originally began from an Artist Way Group that morphed into a group that needed an outlet to read our work in a safe place.

Until then, the only opportunity I had ever had to read something that I had thoughtfully and laboriously written to an audience were those pesky wedding vows that never were reciprocated no matter how many times I did the rewrite.

Having supportive members of your tribe are the best gifts the universe of creativity can bestow upon you, but they don’t just appear out of the ether. You have to look for them where they hang out, test-drive them to see if they’re a fit, and build trust.

Note to self: Ida, you won’t find them while playing Cityville or watching The Amazing Race.

Creativity needs support. Even if you enjoy creating alone, someone somewhere will eventually be in the position to give you truthful feedback and you want that person to be one who has walked the rocky path just like you. Like the annoying old-maid aunt who always told your mother how to raise her children, you don’t want that person to tell you how to corral a bunch of youthfully exuberant creative ideas when she has never done more than chase down a pencil to write out a grocery list.

I miss my writing peeps. There was a flurry of emails among some of us the other day and the writing was so tasty that it fed me the way no buffet of mindless television or fried cheese and marinara sauce can.

If you don’t already have a tribe, won’t you be a member of mine?

If you like to create in whatever capacity, let’s agree to support each other by:

Checking in
Showing up to do our work
Being honest about what our challenges are
Supporting each other to have fun
Being open to possibilities
Expecting creative miracles
Tolerating mistakes
Being a beginner
Cheering each other on

I'll be your Creativity Cheerleader.

Hugs,

P.S. Hey ya’ll this post gave me a BIG Idea. Tune in Wednesday and I’ll share.

Ida Clare It's Valentines Day!

Ida Clare it's Valentine’s Day!

  

I have four ex-husbands.  Since I am in favor of gun control, I have fantasized hiring someone with a bow and arrow to shoot my last Mr. Ex in his spectacular behind, but the shooter’s name would not be Cupid. 

I hope you have a fabulous Valentine’s Day; me—not so much.  At least there’s candy.

And then I remembered a video from Energize Your Creativity.  Watch it.  It’s good.

So me and my Sweet Valentine: Creativity are going to be spending a pleasant day together fooling around, discovering new things about each other, maybe even going a little wild.  Then I am going to take it out to dinner and a movie.  Yay Ida!

How can you let Creativity be a part of your Valentine's Day?

Hugs, 

  

Ida Clare, I'm Creative!

I declare, I’m creative.

“Oh, really? I’ve never heard anyone announce it like that before.”

I know! Doesn’t it sound wickedly boastful? Would my friends despise me if they heard me say that out loud?

“You have friends?”

Yes and the good ones, who know me, would support me in acknowledging something positive about myself.

“What about what this woman said?  She knows everything.”

“It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.” Judith Martin (Miss Manners)

Miss Manners may be right but, I’ve been trying to impress others for years by keeping my mouth shut waiting for somebody to tell me who I am and what I think and how to act. Besides, it’s not like I am taking out a billboard. What about this quote?

“You have to do a little bragging on yourself even to your relatives; -man doesn’t get anywhere without a little advertising.” James Nance Garner, (American Vice-President)

“He obviously never wished he’d kept quiet on Facebook. Your relatives are usually the first ones to crucify you.”

My relatives have to stand in line behind me for I am my own worst critic. It's that internal Roger Ebert guy that I have to drown out.

Are the bragging police going come and arrest me for admitting out loud that I’m creative? No. Will they show up at your house if you do? No. 
  Admitting that we are creative ( insert your version of creativity here _______ ) is so difficult for some people. We think erroneously that if we have a gift or a talent or an ability that we can’t let our light shine too much or we will look like we are showing off. You may be able to say, “I’m creative,” but can you say:

“I’m an artist,” or (I'm an excellent artist.)
“I’m a poet,”
"I'm a writer."
"I am a photographer, an engineer, a maker of pies."

Saying who you are builds muscles for taking creative action:

This is me. This is what I can do. May not do it better or worse than some, but here I am showing up in this world, bringing my unique gifts to the table, willing to share them. No bragging. Just fact.

“There is a difference between conceit and confidence. Conceit is bragging about yourself. Confidence means you believe you can get the job done.” Johnny Unitas, (American Football)

Is there something you need to admit out loud today? Let’s hear it. You can leave it in the comments.

I declare, I’m ____________.

Hugs,

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