My earliest creative memory was helping my dad build a shelf in our first home in Orem, Ut.  Well, “helping” is generous as I am sure I as more playing with daddy’s tools than anything.  It was a great time to grow up, and growing up to be meant a lot of creating. My dad was a carpenter and my mom an interior/exterior designer, so to say creating oozed out my pores is putting it lightly.  My mom designed and decorated our house since I can remember.

 

Our first house in MN had an unfinished basement and no garage, and finishing the garage and the basement were not the only projects throughout my childhood. Our house was a blank canvas that was constantly being improved. Walls were blown out. Decks,  porches, and patios built.  The word “entertainment system” didn’t exist in my vocabulary. Going out to buy one was  not in my realm of life experience. We needed shelves, cabinets for toys, a place for the TV. No problem, so my mom and dad would design and build it. We needed curtains. We didn’t go shopping for them. We shopped for fabric and my mom sewed not only the roman shades for our windows, but upholstered the window valences my dad made the from MDF. The number of projects we did in that house, I honestly couldn’t count them. I can tell you that by 16, I announced that my parents were not allowed to do another project until I moved out to college.

 

Holidays were filled with not only great food from scratch, but homemade decorations. I have so many memories of my grandmas dinner rolls, caramel pecan rolls, mashed potatoes…food and lots of it was the center of any family holiday, celebration, vacation which was always a family reunion. My mom made my Pink Princess Leia costume, and it made zero different that most people would never be able to say they recognized I was a Pink Princess Leia.  What meant the most to  me is that my mom asked what I wanted to be, that is what I told her, and she sewed it.

 

Carving pumpkins isn’t my first thought when I think of Halloween; painting pumpkins is!  That is because my earliest tradition for halloween besides making our costumes, is painting pumpkins. Paint brushes were as common in my house as pencils or crayons…well, ok, maybe that is a stretch, but my point is that creating whether it is sewing, cooking, drawing, using power tools…whatever it was, it was custom. Custom to our needs, design ideas, and the space, event, holiday, or whatever we could think up. It wasn’t about finding a stock,  pre-made item that everyone else had; it was about dreaming it up and then making it a reality. It wasn’t DIY, it was custom. So, here I am. My whole life has been about custom design. I have a intatiable desire to create, and it is in my blood. My brain just won’t stop. It is wired that way. I find great joy in creating, I find great joy in sharing what I create, and seeing others add richness in their creations!