Rebirth, or if you came expecting pictures you're at the wrong blog

The Renaissance Period is so named because it refers to a rebirth from the more primitive Middle Ages and a revitalization of culture. There was an explosion of forms of artistic expression.

My creative expression is pretty disjointed and explosive these days, one minute I am working on ideas for carving rubber stamps, and the next I am picking out ribbons for bracelets. At night I spend an hour embroidering felt leaves, then I work a few rows of knitting a sock. I'd like to design some clothes for kids (maybe that one pattern making class I took last decade will pay off), and am currently reading the 1971 book Childrenswear Design, from the library because this is crafting on a budget, mind you.

I feel like I have many ideas after a few years of the lovely but largely singular focus of raising my babies. They aren't babies anymore, and being a little more independent and able to entertain each other I have a more room to breathe. Plus I have no motivation to do housework ever again. Where is the satisfaction in scrubbing congealed mac and cheese off the floor for the 600th time, yes they do eat a lot of it, so what? Instead of cultivating dust bunnies I have wool bunnies blowing around from all of my projects. I really want to be creating things. I don't fancy myself an artist, but I am enjoying myself.

Also, I want to be surround by things that make me smile, so I have just ordered 2 silkscreen prints from Camilla Engman. There are many artists and crafters creating things above and beyond anything I could imagine. If you go to Camilla's site, look at the crochet, those toys are amazing, if I wasn't so scared, actually petrified, of crochet I'd try my hand at one.

My four year old can string beads while I knit, and there is a sweetness in sitting together, each working on our own projects. Sometimes she works on her knitting and I help hold the needles and prevent dropped stitches. She knows just how to make the stitches but her hands haven't yet mastered the motor skills required. She throws her yarn, is that English? I do the other style. She loves to chant, "In the front door, around the back, peek through the window, and off jumps Jack!"

Am I a knitter, a crafter? I tell my husband I'm not scattered, it's my Renaissance Period.