366 Days of Creativity Week 24 in Review: June 10th - June 16thI never could have predicted the creation I would make on Day 168. Never. It's just not me or my style. The path was paved by my word of the year - "Magic." Since it's my word of the year I pay attention when I see or hear it. Gretchen Rubin posted a picture to Instagram recently about the books she had read that week. One was entitled The Magic City by Edith Nesbit. With Magic in the title, I had to look it up. It was a children's book. Because this year I am also focusing on having more fun and being more playful, I decided to get it. It's twelve chapters and I honestly almost considered stopping in the middle. It was just okay for me, but I decided to keep reading and finished it. I always think even if I just get a few things from a book it's worth it. I just finished it a day or so ago and decided to put it with my children's book collection for visiting friend's and families' kids instead of donating it. Also, just a couple of days ago, I had moved my LEGO® creating space into that kid friendly room where I kept those books. And then today, I pulled this quote by Shauna Niequist: "Use what you have to make art, your skills, your energy, your passion, your dreams, and what's happening all around you. If you take time to look, there may be more raw materials than you thought." And I couldn't believe it but being in that room with that book I had just read, I knew what I had to do. It was so unlike me or anything I would have ever thought to do. It was that piece of the quote -"there may be more raw materials than you thought," that triggered a passage from The Magic City that I remembered earmarking (since I am also alert for anything that mentions LEGO® or bricks). The passage was: "He was accustomed to the joy that comes of making things. He and Helen had built many a city for the dream island out of his own two boxes of bricks and certain other things in the house - her Japanese cabinet, the dominoes and chessman, cardboard boxes, books, the lids of kettles and teapots. But they had never had enough bricks. Lucy had enough bricks for anything. He began to build a city on the nursery table. But to build with bricks alone is poor work when you have been used to building with all sorts of other things." And so the character Philip goes on to find other things around the house to work with his bricks to build his city, which is Magic because he ends up traveling into it. So I made my own Magic City using gasp, materials in addition to bricks. I had a bin of games nearby so I used dominoes, connect four pieces, scrabble tiles and holders, along with some chairs from a doll house. And of course, I had to use the book. In the Magic City book Philip also used books and when he was in the city and they got opened the characters and content came to life. So I'm hoping to visit my Magic City in my dreams tonight and meet Philip and Lucy and have an adventure. Here's to following your creativity, wherever it may lead you, and to saying yes to the unexpected connections and building outside of your comfort zone. How have you expanded your creativity lately in ways that surprised you and you never expected to end up?  Follow my daily building complete with musings on Instagram. The creations and quotes from this past week are below for you to catch-up on if you missed them. Thanks! Days 162-168 Day 162 One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make someone else happy; One of the best ways to make someone else happy is to be happy yourself." -Gretchen Rubin  Day 163 "It's ugly, but it can also be a thin place - a place where heaven touches earth in a mysterious kind of way because this is your real life. This is where Christ wants to meet me, as I stand in the midst of my own limiting factors. When I am my own limiting factor. This is when living is art is living." -Emily Freeman  Day 164: "I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change.. I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says turn back ..." -Erica Jong Once you see the burning bush you can't unsee it, but you can choose which path to take.  Day 165: "Every artist dips his brush in his own soul." - Henry Ward Beecher  Day 166: "Crank everyday a little bit of something and move the process forward." -Mike Rohde  Day 167: "f you decide to make things--books, blogs, paintings, photographs, albums, sculptures, you will have to learn to create silence. This is hard for me. This is good for me. Other people's opinions and expectations matter. But they don't drive everything. And making things means building up a little wall, for a short time, when you say, essentially: I will be with you later. I hear you, I love you, I will be with you later. Because I'm creating silence right now. I'm making stuff." -Shauna Niequist  Day 168:
"Use what you have to make art, your skills, your energy, your passion, your dreams, and what's happening all around you. If you take time to look, there may be more raw materials than you thought. -Shauna Niequist
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