#R2BC Week 10 - creativity, cake and confidence

I'm actually feeling a little more cheerful this week than i have for a while now, here's a few reasons why:

• I got confirmation today of a getting a few extra hours at work. It's not going to solve all my money worries, but will certainly help a bit. And I can 'backdate' it til the start of March so i'll get a full month's worth of increased pay at the end of the month, wooppee!

• Went round to a new mummy friend's house the other day, for a playdate for B - but really more a cuppa/cake-date for us mummies, the first time we've managed to get a date when we're both free after school. 

• Felt very chuffed with my jewellery creations from last weekend's course in silver jewellery-making. Now just need to find the time and money to do some more of it!

• The author who takes the creative writing course I'm currently doing said this week she really liked my writing, which has given me a real confidence boost to keep going.

• B told me I was a 'special Mummy' this morning (don't think he was after anything...) - can't beat that for a start to the day!

Hop on over to see other Reasons to be Cheerful!

Time to get creative

For a long time now, years really, I've been feeling like my creativity, such that it is, has not been given a chance to show itself. In my previous job there were limited opportunities, similar at home, but I've always felt a desire to get my teeth stuck into something properly artistic. I'm not saying I'd be any good, but I need to give it a go.

I've also been having to think outside the proverbial box when it comes to earning some more money recently. The type of 'regular' part-time work I've been looking for is either non-existent or if I do find something, the part-time hours are fixed more or less and rule me out due to childcare commitments with B. Not having another parent in the house to take up the childcare slack, as I've blogged before, is a major stumbling block in the search for work.

So while I have a little bit of redundancy money left over to top up the meagre income I am earning, I have been starting to wonder if I could perhaps try to combine the yearning for a bit of artistic creativity with earning a bit more money. I realise this idea is a medium/long-term one, it's not going to make me money overnight, but if I could make some money from doing something I enjoy and actually may be good at, we all dream of turning a hobby into a job, don't we?

So I've been thinking of crafty ideas or projects I could try, get a feel of, dip my toe in the water, as it were. And I found a two-day course in silver jewellery making on in town last weekend, and signed up for the last place.

I had no expectations really, how I was going to get on, if I was going to like it, or be any good at it. But I really enjoyed it. There was a lot to take in, all the different tools, types of silver, soldering, pickling, mandrels (sic) etc etc. And it surprisingly required as much logical thinking as it did artistic ability, to make sure the soldering didn't burn the silver, to strengthen the silver once soldered, etc.

But with a little bit of help from our fantastic teacher, we all managed to make a bracelet and a funky ring at the end of the course. Not perfect, but given it was the first time I'd tried anything like this, I am well-chuffed with the results.

It has definitely given me a hunger to try some more of the same or something similar. It has confirmed what I knew that it is a commitment, an investment of both time and money, and so I need to be sure I can commit and will be good enough to maybe make a little bit of money out of it in the future.

But I've definitely unleashed the creative bug and so will need to quench its thirst again soon!

The Gallery - Light

For The Gallery this week, the theme is Light.

 

I immediately thought of this series of photos I took a couple of years ago, during a long weekend holiday in Perthshire. I guess a bit of a cliche in terms of a Light theme, but I love the feeling of them and the memories they evoke.

Of course, photos (at least ones from your bog standard digital camera like this one) can't do the real thing justice, because the colours in this sunset were so intense. What really struck me, I remember, was that it didn't look like I was gazing out over the countryside in the middle of Scotland, but rather an African  landscape (somewhere a bit hotter, anyway!).

Check out other Light photos at Sticky Fingers.

Silent Sunday

Dear So and So... Thinking Big

Dear Weather

I love you today, please don't change. The sun is shining, the skies are clear blue,  it's still and calm. There's a bit of a chill in the air, but hey it's only the beginning of March so I forgive you. Good mood weather. *contented sigh*. And I will ignore the upcoming unhappy weather forecast for the weekend and enjoy today while it lasts.

Yours peacefully.

* * *

Dear Time

How can it be March already?! That means there's only a few months til summer (kind of) and the end of the first whole year in school for B. That can't be right, surely I need to have got used to the whole idea of him being in school before he moves up a whole year. Slow down a bit, would you?!

Yours in disbelief.

* * *

Dear Universe

The reason I am constantly pointing my phone towards you of an evening is cos I have an newly discovered need to find out what I'm looking at up there.You can blame B for this recent fascination with all things stellar. His interest in planets and moons and stars has sparked my own. My newly downloaded star-map app is my current favourite toy, and our most-read bed-time book just now is the Usborne Beginners The Solar System, which kinda suits both B and my level of understanding!

Yours in wide-eyed awe.

* * *

Dear Twittersphere

I have dipped my toe in your cyberwaters but you scare me quite a lot. Right now I'm standing at the side of the pool, shivering. I was going to dive-bomb straight in, but when I feel brave enough I may just sidle down the stairs at the side instead.

Yours warily.

* * *