Creation

I like to make things. Be it clothes, purses, or household cleaners, I love to put my creative side to work around the house! This morning, I was pondering what to fix the kids for lunch. As I stood, staring into my refrigerator, I decided it would be "leftover soup". Out came the black beans and rice, spaghetti sauce, and homemade veggie stock. Yes, I make my own veggie stock. More on that later. All this, I dumped in a pot, with a little extra seasoning, and heated up. It was served over tortilla chips, and monterey jack cheese. Even Tatiana, who doesn't like black beans, gobbled it up and asked me to make it again tomorrow. Success!

Some of this love for creating things stems from a desire to be a more natural household.  (Says the woman who uses baking soda and vinegar to clean everything!)  It struck me at some point, that bouillon is typically loaded with sodium, and just not natural.  I mean really, what is in that little cube?  I made some chicken stock over the summer in my crock pot, and it occurred to me that it was really easy.  Why not make veggie stock, too?  Now, every time I peel carrots, onions, celery, mince garlic, or basically any veggie prep, I toss all of the leftover stuff you would normally throw in the rubbish into a container and freeze it.  When I have a nice, full bowl of it, I throw it all into my crock pot, fill it with water, and season to taste with sea salt.  Leave it on low heat overnight and, voila!  Strain out all the veggies and you have yummy, homemade veggie stock without the cube!  How easy is that?

Some of the desire to create simply comes from a love of creative solutions.  The above dresser lived in our bedroom before we bought our house.  When we did, more of my old furniture came home from my parents' house, and we no longer needed this piece.  Originally, it was a sort of wannabe woodgrain brown.  It had chunky wooden handles, and just wasn't really my style.  For years, we had talked about buying a piece of furniture for our bathroom to help alleviate the fact that we had no counter space.  One day it struck me that we had this piece of furniture in the garage which wasn't being used and was the perfect size!  I picked colours from a picture that hung in the bathroom already, and we painted it, and replaced the handles.  Jonathan put hooks on the inside of the doors, giving me a perfect place for all my necklaces, and little trays inside for the rest of my jewelery.Yay for repurposing furniture!  :)

Yet another reason for creation is simply for creativity's sake.  Tatiana wanted her bedroom decorated like a "meadow with horses".  I saw this fabric, and just had to make her a big picture board out of it.  Sometimes, it's fun to make things just to make them.  I also knew that I wanted her to have actual flowers on her wall.  Yep, just to be creative.

I'm curious how many other people have this love for creating things.  Do you have anything you like to make?  Do you have one particular thing that you're really good at, or like me, do you have this innate need to make everything?