Get Creative!

By Shirley Raye Redmond

Did you know that January is Creativity Month? It is—and it’s a good time to consider how you can exercise your imagination more vigorously this year. After all, we have been created in God’s imagine and likeness, so creativity is a part of who we are. Maybe it’s time to dust off that guitar you’ve stashed in the hall closet. Consider buying a coloring book and a new set of crayons. Why not retrieve that forgotten short story or novel-in-progress you meant to finish ages ago? It’s time to get creative!

Here are a few tips for flexing your creativity in the New Year ahead:

1. Daydream: many bright ideas and inventions have been spawned during those seemingly lazy, daydreaming moments.


2. Explore: do things you have never done before, like visiting a medical history museum or a Japanese art gallery. Sign up for a ceramics class or a Russian literature course. Eat dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. You have no idea what creative pursuits these excursions may spark. My tour of a 175-year-old abandoned insane asylum sparked the plot for my suspense novel, VIPER’S NEST. 


3. Practice creative benevolence. A piano teacher I know has her students perform their yearly recitals at the local senior center so that the residents there can enjoy the performance as well as the students’ family and friends. I have helped with a “Cookies for Combat” campaign and donated scores of my published books to various organizations that put together goodie baskets for veterans. One of my friends donates time and yarn to teach women at a local homeless shelter how to knit.

By sharing your creativity, you not only flex your imagination muscles, but you help to make the world a better place.

Shirley Raye Redmond has exercised her creativity over the years by writing more than two dozen books and over 400 magazine and newspaper articles. Visit her website at www.shirleyrayeredmond.com






Don't forget to leave a comment to get your name in the drawing for a copy of my historical novel Amanda's Beau. Winner announced in the Weekly Windup on Feb 1. Check out all of our great prizes on the Prizes Galore page.

Created Creative and Lovin' It!

Happy, Blessed, Favor-filled Wednesday, y'all! Caryl McAdoo here, and I'm so glad to be with you today on Stitches Thru Time! "Woven Wednesdays" are to share crafts (or recipes). And I do love trying new recipes. I saw one that looked so good and easy the other day on Facebook, that I went and got ingredients for it today, so I'll have to let you know how it goes! 

1-2 tsp melted butter in each cup of a cupcake pan, then a Tbsp brown sugar, then place a maraschino cherry in the center. Drain a can of crushed pineapple (retain juice) then put a heaping Tbsp crushed pineapple into each cup on top the butter/brown sugar/cherry :) 

Make a yellow (or pineapple cake) batter up  according to box instructions except replace water with the drained pineapple juice - adding a little water if needed to get to required amount of liquid for the cake. Then pour batter over the rest to fill each cup. Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven 30-35 minutes until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5-10 minutes. Place cookie sheet on top the muffin pan and invert! Serve warm...

Doesn't that sound SO EASY? 

One lady said some people like to use pineapple tidbits because they look like a flower, but her family preferred the crushed by far. Another lady said spray every cup first, too. But that isn't what I'm writing about :) Don't you just love it that every single person has a desire to create inside them? It's because we're made in His image, and He is a Creator! The Master Creator!

One creative outlet He's given me is singing new songs. He gives them to me, and I love to sing them. I'm reminded of a part in one called "Angels Unaware", a part of the chorus goes:  "He can count the stars! He hung Jupiter and Mars! He made every bird and butterfly as different as you and I." I'd love to sing it to you if only I knew how to attach a song URL!

At our River Bottom Ranch in Grand Prairie, TX

But we all love to create, make things, from scrapbookers to painters and recipes to quilts! My husband likes to build barns. He's on his fifth now! Here's one of his firsts built when we inherited TWELVE quarter horses from his dad. PawPaw bought on Mare, Lady Bingo, then "created a herd". 

My horseshoe, saw blade, creation

And here's something I did with some of Ron's old junk to decorate one of the outside walls of barn two :) That's my shadow :) And my son takes all sorts of old furniture and stuff--a lot he picks up free on people's curbs. He saws, sands, paints, hammers and repurposes it into something brand new he sells for buckage! There's TV shows of men who do this for a living! And I love watching them.

And guess what else I like to create! Stories! I've always loved the written word and God led me to an awesome writers' workshop where I was mentored and learned the craft of creative writing. I just released my 19th title this month! Story & Style, The Craft of Writing Creative Fiction. I pray it will help many many aspiring authors and also, multi-published authors!

What qualifies me to write a teaching book? Thirty years writing for publication and fifteen years editing manuscripts professionally...and I did mention nineteen titles. I'm currently writing three series: two romance - historical and contemporary and a Biblical fiction. So this is another way I enjoy creating.

We ALL do! Even people who say they don't have a creative bone in their body. They excel at wrapping the most beautiful gift packages you ever saw, or maybe their garden is their outlet. The expressions of creativity are as numerous as the stars in the sky! BTW, if you're a city dweller, you owe it to yourself to drive to the country and check out the night sky!

So what do you like to do to when your creative juices are flowing? Inquiring minds want to know :)   
If you write, or know someone who does or wants to, I'd love to draw a name from among the commentors to this post and bless her or him with a copy of my new book!  

AND check out the Stitches Thru Time Giveaway going on this week! A COMPLETE Declaration of Independence Anthology by Amber Schamel, Murray Pura, Joseph Lewis, and John Amadeo. So your ONE COMMENT gets you in both drawings! 

More blessings to your and yours! Come back and see us :)