Crochet flowers can look delicate and lacy or striking and bold. Use your crocheted flowers to decorate other projects like sweaters, teapot cozies or purses. Crochet flowers are added to so many crafty creations. Sometimes I see them even in the Dollar Store, added to hair accessories. Of course, those are machine made crochet flowers.

You can make your own flowers in crochet. Most of the patterns are simple, especially if you have already mastered the art of the basic granny square.

I like various forms of flowers, other than living flowers, because I have allergies and asthma. I'm not allergic to many plants (luckily). Strong smells like perfume do bother me. Also, once cut flowers are in your home they begin to rot, water goes stagnant and mould grows. That is one of my big allergy and asthma problems. So, I like a variety of other options when it comes to having flowers.

Another plus with making your own flowers is choosing your favourite colours for them. I love red. Blue is not a favourite colour for me but I do love shades of blue with white. There are other colour combinations I really like but would not be able to find exactly as I like them in nature. You can create flowers in every shade of pink, orange or even green if that's what you like. Or, combine pink, purple and green in the exact shades you want. Or, create the flowers to match the room you plan to display them in.

Crochet Flowers as Brooch Bouquets?

I really like the brooch bouquets, created with sparkling jewels and formed into a floral bouquet. So I was really liking the idea of doing the same thing with crocheted flowers. Maybe this will catch on and become more popular than the jewelled bouquets. Or, maybe not. But, they are still very beautiful, if not so glittery.

Two of my biggest problem with working at my home office are focus and clutter. Yes, they are connected and you could say they are the same problem really. But, I see them as individual issues which I try to deal with.

Clutter being actual stuff on the surface of my desk, taking over too much of the space. Focus being how easily distracted I am by things which don't really matter. So you can see the connection.

This little Zen sandbox caught my attention this morning. Not only does it give you an excuse to deal with the clutter on your desk (how else will you find space for it?), but it can bring some peace to your mind to dip a finger into the sand, move a stone, rake a bit of sand and then get back to what you really should be doing. Could this help you?

I'm looking at my desk right now. I can see how nice a mini Zen garden would fit on that right back corner - if I didn't have a stack of paper and a bottle of hand sanitizer there. I don't need to those things there. I have a handy file cabinet with room to spare. I just have not put those things back where they belong. If I made myself responsible for the care and maintenance of a tiny garden... I'd have at least some reason to keep clutter from crowding out the garden. Adding something pretty would help me keep the clutter monster from taking over. (In theory at least, I do know how tough the clutter monster can be).

Focus is really my bigger project. I am too easily distracted. I procrastinate when something starts to get complicated. Often I am working on a project but it unravels on me when more parts come into it and I have to look up facts, figure out how something else works, and so on. So much of what we do when we work from home requires us to be self sufficient and able to focus and stick with it, without a boss expecting or checking on our performance of the job at hand.

I don't think it is possible to stay entirely focused for an eight hour day. There are reasons for coffee breaks, lunch breaks and the addition of smaller and bigger tasks which help to break up your day. Adding a little garden to your work day is a nice way to break things up. Keeping you from straying too far into actual procrastination but letting your mind take a break, find a moment of peace and then gather your focus again before you go back into battle again.

Actually, I'd like to order the mini Zen kit just to have the fun of unpacking it and setting it up. I can think of assorted little miniature accessories, like tiny people. I could build a miniature village in my Zen garden... but that would be something for my spare time... in theory.

For the full Zen garden experience you should be outside in a real garden, with relaxing music. When the mini desktop garden isn't enough... go for at least the video Zen garden to help you unwind and settle back into where you need to be.

I have a little collection of brooches too. When I first noticed this idea I loved it because it would be a great way to bring all my brooches out of hiding and have them displayed so I can see them all again.

Brooch bouquets began as a wedding thing. I've seen them used in for other occasions since then, including a memorial. They are gorgeous, they can be vintage or a great way to repurpose brooches and jewelry you have stashed at the bottom of your jewelry box (or picked out at the local thrift store).

Add your own uniqueness to your own bouquet. Make it yourself, it's a bit time consuming but not difficult. Pick the colours you want, or work with rhinestone, pearl or metallic brooches only. Use other jewelry, broken or out dated necklaces can be wrapped around or clip off the chain and wire them up like another flower in the bouquet.

Some bouquets are made with plastic flowers, or buttons or beads instead of brooches. You can also add silk or other artificial flowers to your bouquet, mix it up.

Finish it off by wrapped florist tape around all the wires to hide them and keep them from poking holes or rips into anything.

Then get ribbon, fabric or whatever you like to wrap around the stems of your bouquet. Add a lace doily or crocheted lace to the top of your bouquet, just as they would have it wrapped up in something extra pretty at the florist shop. I've seen people add tiny brooches to the wrapped up stems too. A little extra pretty touch.

Picking Brooches

Not everyone has a stash of brooches on hand. I have some from my Grandmother and her sisters. They're in my jewellery box, a small collection.

I've seen great brooches in the thrift store. But you should be a little picky, to keep it special. Pick brooches which have some meaning to you. Brooches with a design you especially like. Brooches that aren't just cheap made either. You're going to be handing the brooches you add to your bouquet so they should be able to stand up to being used, poked and prodded around.

If you are using vintage brooches check the settings, see if there are loose stones, beads, etc. Don't use a brooch that is already in need of some repair or too fragile.

You won't need to beg, not likely, though I wouldn't entirely rule it out. Don't be too proud to beg if you think that would work.

The first time I saw this book I passed on it. I thought it was just another book talking about stuff I knew when I was a kid in school. The ABC's of creativity with a finger painting lesson on the side. Later, when I read a blog post from someone, I actually picked it up and flipped through the pages at the bookstore. Still, wasn't so impressed with a book which was kind of hand drawn looking versus actual type and content. So I didn't buy it that time either. I did finally get my copy of the book the third time I saw it.

Don't Exclude Yourself from your own Creativity and Art

I bought the book because it said #3 Write the book you want to read. I was feeling so burnt out and frustrated with trying to write and not getting anywhere and not being happy about anything I was doing. I was trying too hard to listen to what everyone said I should do. I forgot myself in my own creativity.

Austin Kleon's book, Steal Like an Artist, is about being creative any way you can and in some ways you hadn't thought you would try. It's about taking your creativity, dusting it off, giving it a shake and actually taking it out of the plastic packaging - even though it won't ever be as pristine and collectible again. Creativity should not be pristine or perfect, or too tidy either. Get messy. Try something adventurous. Don't be afraid to steal something and make it your own, not literally.

Of course there is still a line you do not cross. Anything you take from another artist (of whatever form or genre) has to be your inspiration, not something you duplicate and then stick your own name onto. Taking credit for something you didn't add anything to (other than cut and pasting) is not being creative.

Being creative is about your own vision, your own version and how you see things and put them together in your own way. Each of us has a different way of looking at the same thing. Like the blind men describing an elephant, we all see the whole from our own smaller, focused perception.

You could stand a hundred artists in a row and have them all look at the same city skyline or sunset or forest (etc.) and each of them would create an image of their own. No two people see the same thing, in the same way. Think of playing telephone as a kid. The more people who repeated the message the more garbled and confused it became. Art is like that. Not that it become garbled but it is all filtered through different minds, different experiences and different knowledge and skill.

Art is Everything

Don't think an artist is just someone who works with images either. That is selling short. Art is such a huge area: words, buildings... what noun can you not find an art form for, somehow and in some way?

Green Living History is something I invented when I wanted to pin myself down. I have a lot of interests and it does seem at some point they all relate to each other. Green Living History is that point. This started out as an ordered list but became a mess. Several of these are interests which fit into my other sites.

• Solitary Atheist Green Earth Witch - Pagan
• Vintage Fantasy and Science Fiction
• Futurism and Retro Futurism
• Apocalyptic Fiction and Non-Fiction
• Words and Writing Style
• Obsolete Technology
• Tea Sets
• Coffee (Latte art)
• Home Office Ideas
• Dragons
• Sharks
• Garden Gnomes
• Science Fiction and Fantasy Culture
• Gargoyles and Grotesques
• Green Living
• Books (Print Books)
• Healthy Living and Being BBW
• Road Trips, Travel and Transportation
• Tiny Houses and Minimal Living
• Tiny People as an Art Form
• Vintage and Old Buildings
• Print Publishing
• Ghost Signs
• Old Cemeteries
• Ancient and Prehistory
• Canadian History
• Women in History
• Women's Issues and Feminism
• Paranormal, the Unexplained, the Supernatural and Mysterious Things
• Streaming Internet TV
• WordPress
• Linux and other Alternative Operating Systems
• Pixel Art
• Digital Photography
• Arts and Crafts and Odd Art Forms
• Dolls and Doll Making
• Paper and Ephemera Art
• Rocks in General and as Art
• Home and Garden Style
• Fashion and Costumes
• Sculpture and Carving
• Drawing and Illustration
• Holidays Celebrations and Events
• ASCII Art
• Urban and Rural Exploration
• Creative Writing and Publishing
• Web Writing and Publishing