Projecting

I think I need a new hobby. Lately my hands have been itching for some creative makery, the kind of thing I can do while we watch a show or while we hang out together on the sofas. Before I take on the commitment of a full-blown, get-the-gear-and-buy-the-books hobby, I think I'll date a few projects first. These three ideas, ranging from super easy to pretty elaborate, are topping my list right now. I think they might even work as family activities with everyone pitching in (at least the first two, anyway):

1. I love a good garland and this is a fantastically easy sticker one. Got string? Some circle stickers? Go to town:

Photo via O-k-e-r

2.  Paint and frame some colorful rectangles. Classy, modern, and simple. 

photo via Lonny

3. Embroider some red cloth in Swedish designs. Okay, this is admittedly on the complicated side of the spectrum and probably more commitment than just dating a project, but isn't it gorgeous? I'm obsessed!:

photo via Glad You Could Make It

What projects are you up to? 

Collaborating

Alternate title: Stop. Collaborate and listen. 

I'm enchanted by this post by artist Mica Angela Hendricks, an illustrator and graphic artist. Her 4-year-old daughter wanted to join in drawing in a special ordered, newly arrived sketchbook. In spite of her inward groans (and rather hoping it would be a short-lived sharing) Hendricks reluctantly gave in and let her go to work on a page where she had been sketching a face from an old Hollywood black-and-white still.

Mica Angela Hendricks & daughter | via

And so a collaboration was born, producing uniquely creative mash-up art together that draws on both the experienced mastery of the artist mom and the unabashed creativity and go-for-it-ness of the artistic daughter. (They're even selling some of it here.) And I love what Hendricks said about what she learned (go read the whole thing; it's all good!):  

"Try not to be so rigid...The things you hold so dear cannot change and grow and expand unless you loosen your grip on them a little." 

"If you have a preconceived notion of how something should be YOU WILL ALWAYS BE DISAPPOINTED.  Instead, just go with it, just accept it because usually something even more wonderful will come out of it."

via

As I do with most things I come across now days, I wonder about how this might translate into our mid-stage parent lives with teens and big kids?

Is there space in our territories of expertise
(be it in running
writing
cooking
biking
painting
photography
history
sculpting
managing
medical research
decorating
teaching
building
or anything else, vocational or professional)
where our mastery might fit perfectly with our older kids' novice enthusiasm & creativity to create something almost inconceivably wonderful? Or where loosening our grips might give permission for some incredible and unexpected results? 

On the other hand, maybe this kind of mashup is more rare because necessity doesn't require that we share our (metaphorical and real) sketchbooks with big kids. Or perhaps they don't ask or aren't around to see them in the first place.  Or maybe now we're the ones begging them for collaborating space on their canvases! Either way, what's your experience with teaming up with your teens and big kids?