Although I recognize retirement, like life, is a series of transitions, it still surprises me how things change. Over my years in retirement, I’ve gone from doing consulting projects that kept me “being productive” to not doing any paid work at all. I’ve added different types of exercise into my life; some stayed and some didn’t. I do feel like I’m the fittest I’ve been in a long time. I’ve studied various topics and worked on personal development. I’ve realized lately, I’m enjoying a period of whimsy! I’m finally letting my Inner Child play (see blog reference here).
In retirement I have struggled with creativity. I love researching and synthesizing ideas into meaningful frameworks. I love summarizing my research into clear “so-what” action steps. But I thought “real creativity” should be about art and working towards art mastery – painting, drawing, dancing, playing a musical instrument, even quilting or knitting. I did a lot of Compare & Despair as I have friends who do all of those creative pursuits! And many do them with excellence, if not mastery. But none of those artistic endeavors have appealed to me.
But whimsical crafting seems to be where I’m finding flow. I’m playing with beads, shells, corks, and up-cycling glass. And really enjoying it, even if nothing is high-art.
I now have 17 glass flowers in my yard! While you can’t kill glass flowers, high winds can take their toll on them. But I think they bring in lovely color. The blog header picture shows three of my favorite flowers.
I also have glass mushrooms and glass totems. Here’s some of the glass totems:
I’ve explored other cork crafting ideas beyond my first foray into cork key chains. Theses pots now have plants in them!
Every container garden pot in my yard has a least one fairy wand “plant bling”! I enjoy making them and found an outlet – I made plant wands for the recent Flower Show judge gift baskets and they were well received!
Finding outlets for my crafting has resulted in me volunteering to make wine bottle centerpieces for our local fall wine festival again. Here’s that craft work in progress this year:
At the Garden Club this next year, I’m signed up to “teach” plant wand making, cork Christmas trees, and making shell-covered plant pots. The last two, I need to figure out first!
While it might not be high-art creativity, I’m having fun with my whimsical crafting.
Where do you find your whimsy?
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retirementtransition 
Creative can be many things. As long as it brings joy, it qualifies. There is no right or wrong in creativity.
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Your glass flowers are pretty. I like your realistic attitude about not killing them. Your wands are cool, too. You’re doing whimsey right.
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Ally, I have a rock tree and a bottle bush also. I’ve been known to have a black thumb with real plants. I’m working on that with the Garden Club …. getting the right watering plan can be challenging here in Florida. Recently I killed something by over-watering!
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Lately, my creativity has been through card making. I love making them for friends and family and even give sets as gifts. It’s definitely affected my time for blogging!!
The plant wands are my favorite. I love little things like that in my plants.
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Card making is definitely creative. We did a couple at the Garden Club… getting all the paper and cutting tools would be a huge commitment for a new craft. I’m trying to stick to using the supplies I’ve bought/acquired before venturing into new area of crafting.
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Definitely, a good idea, although I was able to start making cards years ago with very little. I’ve invested quite a bit in supplies over the last three years or so. Hobbies can be expensive so it’s best to consider that before trying something new. I have to watch myself with that!!
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Pat, I love your confidence and your beautiful crafts. The plant wands are my favorite. Your neighbors must smile when they walk past your house. Let us know how the cork Christmas trees turn out.
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Suzanne, you remind me I need to work on prototyping those cork trees! Yes, many neighbors have commented on the art in the yard, in a positive way. I’m sure there are a few that think it’s tacky. Hubby added rubber ducks – he garbage picked them (seriously!) and thought they were whimsical. His non-craft contribution but they certainly make me smile every time I see them.
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Fantastic! Bringing in a bit of fantasy to your world and you created it! I love it! I think that is the hardest thing for those of us brain workers to do – let go and just be a child or an artist. I recently took up making coasters out of tiles by painting, clear coating and putting cork on the bottoms. It started as a thank you gift for our big sponsors and their guests for our NKYCAC gala but I enjoy it so much I make just for the sake of the enjoyment of making them. Then I found a place, The Black Goose, that will sell them for me and all the money got to the NKYCAC so double win!!!!!
I think it took both of us a while to get comfortable with doing things just for us and just for fun! And isn’t it great!
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It is fun to just play with crafts. I’m a bit jealous you found an outlet for your coasters to sell! I know they will sell well…. the ones you showed me were amazing. I’m planning to donate some glass flowers for our Garden Club plant sale to see how that goes. I think 17 in my yard is probably enough and I want to make more!
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Wonderful!’ That’s what it’s about. Happy creating!
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Thanks Helen. It was fun to capture the range of whimsical crafting I’ve been doing into a single post.
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Glad you are having fun. I love our wine bottle filled with marbles and a light strand that hubby got as a birthday gift last year. I enjoy plugging it in as an evening festive light. Love your fairy wands. Cork pads seem like an excellent idea to put under pots on our deck to help with heat and air movement!! Thanks for the great ideas!
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I didn’t think about using the cork pads in that way….a good idea I might explore. These were supposed to be coasters. It’s my third attempt at cork coasters and nothing has really clicked with me. But I love making fairy wands… finding the outlet for them was great, since my plants can only take on so many pieces of bling!
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Hi Pat – I think that those of us who are quite left brained and logical, get an immense amount of joy when we discover that there’s some creativity within us that we’re finally giving voice to. I love glass and your work is really pretty and the splash of colour it brings to your garden would make anyone smile. Those fairy wands are so pretty – and it speaks highly when people ask you to teach them your skills – so well done and I hope it continues to bring you joy and smiles. 🙂
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Leanne, thanks for your kind comments. I’m having fun, and trying not to compare & despair with other’s creativity. Nor to feel less than when things are not perfect. A true case of “engagement not mastery”! My skills are certainly not mastery skills, even if they do ask me to teach. LOL.
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