Creative Juices

I have never made a normal Jack-O-Lantern. I have never made a snowman. I did make a John McCain-O-Lantern. I have made a snow phoenix.

Let’s just say I had a great childhood.

My parents raised all three of us to prioritize creativity in our lives. My mother used every school assignment and every holiday craft as a canvas for creativity. She challenged us to dig deeper for the zanier ideas, the greater creative challenges, and the ways to make these ideas manifest. My father devoted himself to supplementing our education with anything that would get our minds working in creative ways, whether it was a game of Brainquest, an excursion to a museum, the purchase of art supplies, or travel to new destinations. We were very blessed.

As an adult, I feel strongly about paying these gifts forward. My mission is to encourage others to realize their creative potential, to never settle for mainstream, and to have a ton of fun exercising their creative identities. This applies whether they are painting Easter Eggs or designing clean water solutions in the developing world. We are created creative; this means that we should always be making stuff and making culture.

This is a collection of some of my creative projects from the last 10 years, give or take. Not all of them are executed as well as I would like, but that’s not the point. With each of these I tried to stretch my mind and go out on a limb to try something new. Go and do likewise!

PUMPKINS

Pumpkins Politico

Ben the Pumpkin

A friend dared me to carve a pumpkin of Chewbacca riding a giant squirrel. So I did.

The year of Where the Wild Things Are

SNOW/SAND CREATURES

University of Chicago Phoenix

My Sister and the Sandy Mermaid

 

Snowy Wall-E and Me

CAKES

Elizabethan Honey Cake with Lavender Buttercream

Ratatouille Cake for the 4th of July

Pull my Lobster Cake

Crown Point 4th of July

British Spitfire Airplane, chocolate

Alicia’s birthday

Up Cake

Up Cake Up Close

Patriots of the Caribbean

Must Fireworks There Be

Danny’s birthday cake

Maggie of Macedonia (She really likes pineapples and Disney)

Chiditerod Cake

COSTUMES

Lion King Headdress

Lion Headdress 2

Homemade Renaissance Costume. Drapes, pins, and a pillow sham.

I also made Josh’s costume out of Ladies clothes from the thrift store.

 

Jungle Chiditerod

1920s murder mystery party

Downton Abbey For Halloween

VIDEO

MISCELLANEOUS

Up Mural featuring the house where I grew up

Gift for a Librarian Friend

 

…on Star Wars themed bagels

Easter Eggs

Homemade Christmas Stockings