Inspiration: Discovering Your Muse

Creativity has always been a strength that I have been blessed with. Recently, as life changes, so have my inspirations. They seem to be evolving right along side of me.

I used to teach High School English and I loved to use it in the classroom. I would dress up as characters, preform murder mysteries, create plays and the list goes on. I was always coming up with the next crazy plan to bring a lesson to life or to keep me from boredom. I could never use the curriculum provided--always had to create my own. Creativity became my drug of choice.

Of course, when I quit teaching, I had to foster that creativity through another channel. That part was easy since art depends on the creative mind but my art seemed to demand a little more from me. . .I needed a little inspiration to spark the creative process. Nature and color took the job and were always battling it out for the place of muse in whatever I was designing or painting at the time.

I soon assumed another role in life, mommy. This role was foreign to me but it was not long before the creative gene began to take it over as well. I was not excited about having a boy. I had planned the nursery for a girl, so when I found out Sebastian would be a boy I was pretty upset. I decided I would just throw a few toys in the nursery and call it a day. Obviously that plan soon passed.

I found my muse for the nursery in a very unexpected source, my husband. Jim suggested I do a Dr. Seuss theme. I LOVED the idea and ran with it. A friend and I sketched out the room according to our take on The Cat in the Hat and got to work on creating our little Seuss Land. We had so much fun creating Sebastian's room and it made me even more excited for his arrival. I was a little more receptive to the idea of having a boy:)

Inspiration has become such an important part of my creative process. Whether I was teaching, creating art, or just being mom, I had to find what inspired me and foster that into something great. I have learned that life is full of the unexpected but if you use the world around you, the situations you find yourself in, and the people in your life to challenge you, your inspiration is really just a moment away. Life is meant to be colorful and I am learning to use every crayon in my box.

Mommy Lifesavers--Product Reviews

I must admit when Jim and I found out we were pregnant I had never even changed a diaper. I did not know anything about babies. . .at all. Needless to say I was a little nervous about being a mom and that nervous feeling really hit home when I had to go register for my baby shower. I could not believe how many items were in that store! I just figured you needed a crib some sheets, a few bottles, then I could smack a diaper on him and I was done. I was told, by just about everyone, how wrong I was and a friend lent me her little product review book. . . and thus it began. Baby mayhem.

I spent hours reading over those reviews and vacillating over every little decision. I swear that book was both a lifesaver and the death of me all rolled up in its 800 pages. I was so thankful for the help but it seems the best mommy products were not truly revealed to me until AFTER I had Sebastian.

Within the first month Sebastian developed reflux or, in other words, baby projectile pukes. We went to the doctor hoping she had a magical answer to help him. . .not so much. It was not until the end of the second month and endless amount of puked on clothing that we found the greatest invention in my mommy world. . .Dr Brown's Bottles. In all my spare mommy time I had read an article about how they were supposed to prevent reflux and minimize baby puke. I was skeptical but desperate so that day I went out and bought one. In one feeding Dr. Brown was my new hero and is now the only bottle we use. Dr. Brown has saved my washer, my clothes and my new mommy smell from scaring all my friends away.

So I know all you mom's out there have favorite products up your sleeves and I would LOVE to hear about them! Please share and save me from future catastrophes of mommy ignorance!