First Day of School

So I'm a little late.  Sorry, grandparents!  And note to self, the more kids you have, the harder it is to get the picture just so.  :)

Creation

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Today's Writing Prompt: Made

Write about something you made as a child.

My mother was rather crafty, so as a child, it seemed like I was always making something, be it cross-stitch, macrame, needlepoint, or little crafts for girl scouts. Two things, however, really strike the chords of my memory.

The first was something we did indeed make at girl scouts for Valentine's Day. They were angels made from old-fashioned clothespins, with heart-shaped construction paper wings of pink, white, and red (what else?). We drew faces on the knobby ends of the pins. Then, Mom, who was the troop leader, sent them off to the nursing home to put on the food trays of the residents there. I couldn't have been more than 7, if not even younger, but I remember how good I felt about doing that. Oh, if only I were as inspired now as my mother was!

And second, believe it or not, was the product of my shop experience in the 6th grade. We made necklaces out of plastic pieces. Mine was exceedingly ugly, as it was orange (which, if you don't already know, if my absolute least favorite color), brown (which, then, was my other least favorite color), and aqua blue. Yeah, they were pretty ugly together. In any case, we had to glue the pieces together, and then shape them and file them down into a pleasing shape that we would turn into the pendant on a necklace, or maybe a keychain. I don't remember shape everyone else picked, but mine was a teardrop ... a big, ugly, plastic, and slightly misshapen and lopsided teardrop. But oh, I was so proud of that! It represented a lot of hard work (not unfamiliar) and patient detailing (not not not one of my talents).

As an adult, I am so very pleased that I had those opportunities for creation. I didn't think of myself as very creative as a child. Even now, my creativity is limited to certain realms (like my writing). But still I found myself a part of the creative process, and learned the joy that came from that. Even if my end-results were not perfect, they were beautiful.