Category: Creative Living Activity

September 27, 2014

Sunshine Inside: Bringing Geraniums In

On Monday’s Behind the Scenes I shared that I had recently learned that you can bring your garden geraniums in for the winter. So many people responded with delight that I thought I’d do a bit of research and share more about how you can bring your summer beauties in for the winter.

This gardening adventure started with reading Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton. In one little sentence, May mentions bringing her geraniums in for the winter. I stopped in my tracks. “You can do that?” Every year I buy friendly, beautiful red geraniums for our little front garden. I’d be delighted to enjoy their beauty again – maybe even all year long!

So, the first thing I did was go grab a big clay pot from the basement and dig one of these beauties up. I shook away most of the soil (and hopefully any potential little friends) and repotted with some fresh potting soil. I didn’t do any research. I just thought I’d give it a go. I left her outside for a couple of days so the change wasn’t too drastic. Then I brought her into the kitchen, which tends to stay cool, and on Monday I brought her into the studio. So far, so good.

Now, it turns out there are a few approaches that you can take to keeping your geraniums and I’ve found some videos that help with the basics.

Bringing Geraniums In to Enjoy for the Winter

This demonstrates and affirms my simple approach of moving your plant from the garden to the container. I’ve taken this approach with one of my geraniums so that I can enjoy it all year. I only have one room with enough light to sustain this beauty and so I may try a different approach to the others.

Overwintering & Cutting Back Your Geraniums

Ouch! I had read about how much you have to cut back your geraniums to prep them for overwintering but wow! This video helped me feel confident in how much to cut and how to do it well. I’m a bit hesitant to do this because I want to get as much enjoyment out of the plant as I can. If my continuing research is right, you can leave the cutting back until late winter, when the plants are getting a bit leggy anyway, and then they’ll be ready for the spring. I’m leaning towards that approach. And heck… if you’re going to cut, why not make cuttings?

Taking Geranium Cuttings

As I looked through videos for how to take geranium cuttings, there were rather a lot of different opinions! I shared the one that included the most complete information from someone who is clearly expert at dealing with this particular plant. However, I did find this next one did the best job at demonstrating how to actually cut and prep your geranium cuttings.

I’ve been feeling a little sad about gardening season coming to a close. Bringing these plants into the studio and considering making cuttings for the first time, leaves me excited to be on the next gardening adventure! I hope you’ll join me in exploring ways to keep our garden love alive all year long.

May 5, 2014

I Made This

Remember when you were a kid & shared your creations with delight?

Maybe you even got to stick your art on the fridge for the whole world to see!

Let’s bring that joyful “show and tell” feeling back with…

I Made This!

What is “I Made This!”?: Each Monday here in the studio, I’ll invite you to share what you’ve made over the week before. It can be anything – a flower arrangement, a crocheted cap, a painting, a poem, a party, an outfit, a cake! Show what you made and tell us a bit about what the experience was like for you. What inspired you? What did you learn? How were you challenged? What did you love? And hey, if you want to share the inspiration, the pattern, the recipe, the kinds of supplies you used, we’ll all be the richer for it!

To Participate: Create an “I Made This!” post on your blog and add the direct link* in the Mr. Linky below. Be a sunbeam of love as you visit other makers, celebrating their creativity and sharing inspiration along the way. It would be great if you could also link back here as an invitation to other creative hearts to jump in and share. I’ve got a badge for you if you’d like to add it to your blog.

And please know, whatever you made doesn’t have to be perfect or beautiful or even finished – though it might be. I just want us to share what we’re creating with our hearts and with our hands and to remember how much fun it can be to say, “I made this!”

Let’s make this something wonderful!

*PS A direct link is when you share the address for the actual post instead of just your blog (e.g. http://jamieridlerstudios.ca/introducting-i-made-this-monday instead of just http://jamieridlerstudios.ca)

May 5, 2014

Painting As A Movement Practice

This weekend I was blessed to attend The Movement Basis of Artistic Expression, a Painting Workshop on Liberating Creativity workshop with Shaun McNiff, one of the founders of expressive arts therapy.

You know I’m all about liberating creativity!

Here’s Shaun (on the right) being introduced to us by Stephen Levine, one of the founders of ISIS Canada, which is where I received my training in the expressive arts. The minute Shaun stepped into the circle, he had us. We connected through rhythm, through sound, through movement, through colour.

As Shaun spoke, I wanted to gather every moment like a precious drop of water and share it with you. I know so many of us are hungry for this kind of experience, the aliveness we connect to when we let our creativity run wild!

Words, wisdoms and ideas Shaun McNiff shared…

You can never know at the beginning what something will be in the end.
If you can move, you can paint.
Creativity has an active nature.
Movement leads. The mind responds.
We all go too fast.
The simpler, the deeper.
The work will take you where you need to go.

Creating is an experience.

Every moment was a part of the creative process. Listening to Shaun’s encouragement to slow down, I took my time getting my supplies. I didn’t worry about whether there would be enough, whether what I wanted would be on the table, whether I was losing time painting. I just enjoyed choosing my brushes. I enjoyed looking at the colours and glopping them onto my tray. I didn’t want to miss a moment of the experience.

While Shaun played the drums or the kalimba, we painted. For the entire morning, we painted. No attachment to the product. No ideas, worries or expectations about how it would turn out, just being in the experience of discovery. Discovering the painting. Discovering our creativity. Discovering this moment. Discovering ourselves.

Process painting is powerful medicine.

In the afternoon, we continued to work with our paintings, exploring them with movement and witnessing one another’s work. We also had the opportunity to work with clay, to find the joy of discovering what wanted to arrive through clay in that moment. In the end, we gathered our creations in a beautiful ritual of celebration and closure.

This is exactly why I say that loving the arts is like loving the world. Each piece is an expression of the hands that shaped it, the moment they lived, the instincts they followed. This is sacred to me.

I’m sharing this as a part of I Made This Monday. What did you make this week?

April 26, 2014

My $10 Art Supplies Infusion

With a $10 budget, I went on a dollar store adventure seeking art supplies. I took some risks and did some experimentation and so far everything’s been incredibly useful! In fact, you can see how I made use of the palette’s here.

If you enjoy exploring art hauls, here’s another $10 art infusion and here’s a very special unboxing of the art supplies that I inherited from my mom.

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April 21, 2014

I Made This

Remember when you were a kid & shared your creations with delight?

Maybe you even got to stick your art on the fridge for the whole world to see!

Let’s bring that joyful “show and tell” feeling back with…

I Made This!

Let’s make this something wonderful!

April 14, 2014

I Made This!

Remember when you were a kid & shared your creations with delight?

Maybe you even got to stick your art on the fridge for the whole world to see!

Let’s bring that joyful “show and tell” feeling back with…

I Made This!

Let’s make this something wonderful!

April 7, 2014

I Made This: The Fun of Drawing Shapes and Lines

I’ve always found myself impatient with drawing. I felt impatient with my lack of skill. Impatient with the time it took. Impatient with my progress. Impatient with my results. Perhaps my impatience was rooted in my discomfort– my fear of drawing, really.

But recently I’ve been rediscovering the simple joy of making marks on paper – with pen, with pencil, with markers. I’ve been enjoying the sensuality of it, the feeling of movement across the page, the flow of curves, the sharpness of angles, the bursts of little shapes quickly done.

Drawing is like a dance you create on the page, the pen marking the choreography.

Time slows down when I draw. Perhaps that’s another reason why I didn’t like it before. I was afraid of slowness. Life’s too busy. Life’s too short for something slow.

But now I find drawing meditative. It’s a blessing to give my busy mind time to engage with shapes and lines, to wonder what will happen if I connect this point to that one, to discover that a triangle can become a windmill and a flower and a tree.

I’m giving myself permission to slow down, to breathe and to play. I’m enjoying drawing for the simple pleasure of it and that is more than enough.

I’m sharing this post as a part of I Made This! If you want to share something you made this week, come on by and join in!