The Handmade Nursery

I know I've been going on a lot of rants about my personal life lately, so I appologize if you're sick of me by now. Don't worry, we have some awesome shoots coming up real soon… but in the meantime I'm going to share the other half of my office space, Sienna's nursery. I'm very proud of this nursery, hence why I feel the need to share it. I dreamt of a space that's dazzling with color and bursting with creativity for our little girl to grow in. Who better to fill the space with love but our very own friends and family!? They say it takes a village to raise a child, and "they" are absolutley right! In the midst of Sienna's daily development I want to teach her to have a very LARGE imagination. I feel that creativity and imagination are vital in raising a child who possesses great character, so here's to trying!

As a gift from our gal pal, Gaby, we received 5 commissioned artworks from Sienna's cousins who range in age 8 to 2. The young artists were given the task {before Sienna's world debut} to draw what they think Sienna will look like. These are truly gems and so much fun to look at. Sienna's Crayola Portraits were placed in bright and bold frames which really set the tone for the vibe we were going for.

Our friend Kate, who is not only a very talented snowboarder, but also a skilled water color artist, painted the most beautifully vibrant and colorful peacock. She can shake that paint brush like it's no bodies business! I would someday like to transfer that beauty onto a snowboard for Sienna! How awesome would that be.

Our girl Lauren who is a crafty little crafter sent us the letters that live above the crib. Spelling out SIENNA in an artsy yet fashionable way, we love these colorful pieces. My long time friend, Megan {who the heck knew she even had this skill? Not me!} made the pink elephant who watches over the room. And our friends Lisa & Thahn commissioned Lisa's sister, Kristen {who is an awesome illustrator} the painting of bunnies in a hot air balloon floating through the fresh mtn air.

We are so fortunate to be surrounded by such creativity and love all day long.

Peace, Love & The Handmade Nursery,

April K

Nursery Artists:

Peacock watercolor by Kate Wynkoop Knit Elephant by Megan Bochette Sienna letters by Lauren Badger Bunnys in Balloon Painting by Kristen Cavallo -  http://kristenleecavallo.blogspot.com/ Drawings Of Sienna by: Kyleigh, Cohen, Addison, Lily & Quinn {My nieces & nephews}




Visual Thoughts

This blogging challenge proves to be a little harder than anticipated… How do I create when I don't feel the flow? I've taken many years of art classes & workshops, from drawing and painting to 3D sculpture & pottery, I have experienced just about every medium. At this point in life I have an idea on what might get my flow started…

1. Turn on some Moby

2. Start drawing/coloring/taking pictures.

That's right… it's as easy as stop thinking about it and just do it.

This quote at the end of the post was taken out of an awesome book that preaches just that method, stop thinking and start doing. The War of Art… it's a goodie for any and all creatives who sometimes struggle to harness their muse.

Today proves to be one of those days where It's hard for me to communicate through written word… so here is my visual blog post!

Peace, Love & Doing It,

April K

 

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Do What You’re About

Today's post is mostly written for my creative peeps, but may pertain to you, if you don't consider yourself as such, too. I remember as a first grader each class was brought into the cafeteria to take a test. There we were, spread out with dividers between each person. As a first grader, you don’t really think about why you’re doing something, you just do what you’re told. We were then given a piece of paper with a bunch of shapes and we had to finish the drawing of the shape into what we thought it looked like. Not knowing any better I just drew what I thought that shape should be. Apparently my drawings were quite different from everyone else’s.

It turns out this was actually a “creative competition” and because of my “unique” test results I was put into a special program for kids with large imaginations. It was called “Odyssey of the Mind” or “OM”  . Looking back as an adult having went through this it was such an awesome program and I was lucky to be apart of it for a few years. At the time I hated it…just like I hated school, my teachers or anyone who told me how to do things… I never understood why I couldn’t do things my way to achieve the same result… why did I have to do it their way? I was a very creative child who loved and did very well at art and using my imagination and who hated the traditional boring classes that were considered to be more important like Math, Science etc. I'm sure parent teacher conferences were interesting for my parents, my mom was always told by teachers that "April marches to the beat of her own drummer". I am a left brainer through and through.

As I grew older I realized that I was not the same as most of my peers nor did I think like them either. That scared me. I started acting more like them and trying to be “normal”. I remember having to take the creative test again and copying off of my friend Rae Lynn because I didn't want to be the "unique" one. I had turned into a girl just trying to fit in with everyone else {ooooh if only I knew then what I know now}. For some reason I saw my uniqueness as a bad thing, I think because I didn't understand how it was a good thing?  Both my parents are very creative but they never stressed how important my creativity is…  I think they faced the same thing I did, they didn’t realize how valuable it really is in life because it just comes easy for them. Needless to say I wasn’t asked to be apart of OM anymore, which at the time I was quite happy about.

As an adult now living off my own creativity, I am forever trying to put myself back into that mentality that I had in first grade. Not caring what others were doing and just doing what I think is cool… later dubbed “developing my own style”.  This is a scary thing when I’m trying to build a business and a brand all while staying true to myself.

I recently watched a TED talk {I love the inspiration they provide} and a line of what this one entrepreneur said really stuck with me. “Do what you’re about”

DUH!!!! why hadn’t I been doing this all along? It's so simple. Here I am watching seminar after seminar about "developing my own style" when all I've really had to do is just ignore what everyone else is doing?! Perfectly simple, I don’t know why that was so hard for me to figure out, but at least now I've been reminded and moving forward this will be my mantra. After all, your own thoughts, views, personality, decisions etc are what sets you apart from everyone else!

Peace, Love & You Doing You,

April K