This weekend I have been away with my mum, staying in a cosy cottage in Warwickshire, just the two of us. We met here on Friday afternoon and have spent the past 36 hours reading by the fire, cooking, walking, visiting charity shops, playing bananagrams and of course chatting. Lots of chatting! It has been calm and rejuvenating; the perfect mid-January escape.
One of the many topics of discussion was the concept of rekindling dedication to forgotten creative interests we enjoyed as children/teenagers.
I realised recently that since giving myself time and headspace after leaving a stressful job, I’ve rediscovered some activities that I used to delight in very much when I was younger. Those activities include drawing, learning French and going to the library.
It has struck me that although our lives change as we get older, we often come full circle back to the things that really mean something to us. Mum and I reminisced that when I was 11 or 12 we would visit the local library on a Saturday morning and I would return home with a stack of books that I would voraciously work my way through over the course of the week. This continued for some years but then somewhere along the line I stopped going to the library and read less and less. Until recently.
My local library is just around the corner from my house, where I’ve lived for over six years, and yet I hadn’t stepped foot inside until last November. I never considered it and probably wasn’t willing to dedicate any time to visiting. Instead I would buy books I wanted to read and download audio books to listen to in the car on my daily commute. These days I have to be more creative with my cash and make it go further. This new mindset reminded me that there was another way to get hold of books, and for free. The library, of course!
Now, whenever I walk into my local library, the papery scent in the air (bibliosmia, apparently…) evokes happy memories of those Saturday mornings back in 1996 and the joy of getting sucked into a good book.
Last Wednesday evening, I hosted my first online creative hour: Create Ensemble. I was thrilled to have several others join me on the screen, and for us to share the accountability of being present in a portion of time we had each prioritised for some kind of personal creative work.
Some used that time for writing, others for reading. My mum joined and used the time to design a template for a sewing project she was about to embark upon (one of her favourite, and largely forgotten, creative pursuits of her teenage years). I devoted the session to working on a perspective drawing, something I rarely carve out the time for and yet used to spend hours doing as a teenager. I certainly need the practice these days!
There was no pressure for anyone to show their work, talk about their work or speak, though there was opportunity for this at the start and the end for anyone that wished to.
After the session, I felt a warm sense of calm as well as knowing I had spent just under an hour focusing intently on something I otherwise wouldn’t have made time for.
I plan to run another hour-long session this coming Friday (19th January), at the earlier time of 2pm (GMT) and I would love to welcome you to it.
**UPDATE: the next session will be on Wednesday 14th February at 7:30pm
You can use the time to write, draw, knit, paint, sew, compose, read… the choice is yours. In case you missed it, you can read more about Create Ensemble here.
Most sessions are for paid subscribers only, though occasionally I run an open session. There will be one of those coming in early March.
Planning and hosting these events takes time and requires me to have a paid Zoom account, so your subscriptions help to cover these costs.
A subscription costs just £4 per month, of £40 per year.
In return for that small amount, you will gain access to all upcoming Create Ensemble sessions as well as past and future paid written content, including these popular pieces below:
Compulsion and Creativity
Back in early September, I awoke one morning to see a post from The Hyphen by Emma Gannon in my inbox. It was titled ‘An exciting invitation for you’ and contained details of a creativity retreat that
Finding calm
It’s Christmas Eve, but I’m not rushing around. Until yesterday, I’d been in France for the past week. With my husband, I drove to northern France and spent the last seven days taking some time out relaxing in a quiet house in a tiny village and exploring the local area.
The link to join Friday’s Create Ensemble is at the end of this paywalled post and I will send out a reminder and the link again to all paid subscribers later in the week.
Thank you in advance to anyone who upgrades their subscription in order to join the creative session on Friday. I very much look forward to welcoming you there.
Hannah x
Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend in Warwickshire with your mum (love Bananagrams!). And although I am in the UK, I won't be able to attend this week's session on Friday but I have completed the poll :)
Hannah, I have so been looking forward to join you in the Creative Ensemble tomorrow but now I´m down with the flu - again. I´m on sickleave for the rest of the week. If a miracle happens I´ll join you. But if not, you know why.