I think I lost my muse

This post should actually be dated about a week and a half ago so about April 4, 2013.  I started it on the blogger app on my phone and then my phone went bonkers and I lost my work not to mention a whole bunch of pictures (gotta love modern technology)

As those of you that regularly follow my Facebook page may have noticed Quilted Elephant has been absent from your feeds for close to a month now.  This is because my Muse (the little person that lives in the back of my head and helps inspire me to create new designs) seems to have taken a vacation without me.  This has happened before, but it rarely lasts this long.  All I can chalk it up to is the fact that I spent November and December working on Christmas gifts and then January and February working on wedding stuff and I got a little burnt out.  In years past I have always made myself either an Easter dress or a birthday dress (they are usually one in the same since my birthday and Easter are rarely more than a couple weeks apart) this year I bought the material and I sketched a little and I thought about what I wanted and that's as far as I got.  In an attempt to inspire myself I played with a new pattern I posted those last time I was here as part of my ''Bag Lady'' collection I tried a couple of new techniques and nothing seemed to work so I closed the door to my studio and walked away. I figured a few days not having to think about it would help well then those few days turned into a few weeks and before I new it almost a month had passed and I had nothing to show for it.  No doodles, no new ideas and still no interest in making anything. This is a little scary!

I enlisted the help of a very close friend who is also of a creative nature hoping she could share some wisdom  to bring that lazy so and so I call a Muse back from her vacation.  She told me to look around for something new and out of the ordinary to try.  She advised that even if it seemed a little forced at first stick with it and there was a good bet it would help to jump start my creativity.  Mila you my friend are a LIFE SAVER!  Several months ago a friend of mine remodeled the kitchen of her home that was originally built in the 1930's, she gutted the kitchen all the way to the studs and replaced everything (yeah I know how does this have anything at all to do with finding my lazy so and so Muse..I'm getting there be patient) including the cabinets.  After the kitchen was finished we were over for a BBQ and my hubby noticed the old cupboard doors.  They aren't particularly intricate but the struck him as something he could make something out of so he asked if he could have a couple before they threw them out.  Of course our friend was more than thrilled to have them out of her side yard and told us to help ourselves.  He picked through and found a couple that he could envision as something else, I stood by muttering to myself  ''wonderful something else to sit in the garage until he gets around to working with it" and then I saw a door that he had moved to the cast off pile it was smaller than the others maybe 3 feet long and a little over a foot wide and it had some sort of a basket attached to the inside (my friends told us she used it to store gravy packets and the like) bottom.  I added that one to his pile and declared that I was going to make something out of it.  It sat in the garage untouched for close to 2 months then Mila suggested I go out on limb and try something new.  I was pondering what exactly that meant and decided if nothing else I would clean up the kitchen and take out the trash.  On my way to thee trash barrel I noticed my door....BOOM!!! inspiration struck! I would strip the old paint that was already cracked and pealing off of it (this was much easier said than done you have NO idea how many coats of paint you can strip off a door that is close to 50 years old if not older) decoupage the frame with buttons and bobbins and fabric scarps and make the inside a chalk board. The little basket could be repainted and the whole thing could hang in my studio as a message center of sorts in an effort to keep myself at least some what organized.  Since I started I have made quite a bit of progress but it is really slow going, I figure by Christmas I should be able to share it with everyone! While I didn't get far with that project it gave my Muse the kick in the pants she needed to come back and bring a little inspiration with her. 

I have spent some time since then filtering through half finished projects and deciding which ones I actually plan to finish and which are bound for the rag bag. I have been thinking of new ways to better organize my studio and I have even started bugging my photographer friends about doing a spring/summer photo shoot for me.  I also have made some changes in my studio.  a few weeks ago my hubby rescued a faux butcher block kitchen table from his moms house.  The redid their kitchen as well and had replaced it.  It isn't quite as long as my old cutting table but it stands about  6" taller and is almost twice as wide....I'm hoping that the new addition will inspire lots of new things.

Thanks for reading and please remember the date on this post should actually be 4/4/2013