Bunkasai

So on Saturday it was my school’s “Bunkasai” or culture festival.

Most high schools in Japan have this. Each homeroom chooses a theme and transforms the classroom. The school is then open to the public all day Saturday and the classes and clubs present their themes. Usually the guests are parents, friends and prospective students.

In the past I’ve seen some amazing transformations at other schools. A hospital, a climb through Alice in Wonderland theme, a trip through an over-sized rubbish dump.

My school for some reason tends to mainly be food, it’s like there’s twenty-odd mini cafes! Each class serves only one types of food usually for between 50-100yen. This year of the ones I saw we had pancakes, frankfurters, parfait, a tapioca bar, yakisoba, okonomiyaki, yakitori, popcorn, tortilla chips and choco-bananas.

The non-food themes I saw were a giant Othello board in one class, a haunted house and my class, our theme was eco-crafts.

I made a bunch of samples and the students had to make their own version and an original eco-craft of their own choice.

My desk tidy:

All the samples I made:

Each student had their own crafts on their desks and we had a gallery. We didn’t win but I think the students had a good day interacting with the public!

This Year's Christmas Design

I completely forgot to take a picture so this is from my friend's twitter feed. I was majorly pushed for time this year so the text is from last years card, I added a cute 2010 tree!

Art Every Day #10 Happy #11 Wink

They were done on time just not posted!

Reflection Fuji

Mt Fuji

Art Every Day Month #1 Light Up

I'll just be doing drafts I think then I'll scan and colour them later.

Metaphors for Creativity

I walked to work in the rain this morning, and the water seemed to let my mind wander more than usual. Like thinking in the shower, which is where I get some of my best ideas.

I used to be involved with someone who didn't speak much English and as I'm far from fluent in Japanese I often used metaphors and stories to explain to him how I felt. "When you do that, I feel like a little lost kitten, out in the street looking for scraps," and things like that.

So I was trying to work out where my creativity has gone and I think that it's been hard to work out because I don't really have a clear idea of what my creativity is. This morning I came up with a few possibilities but I still need some rain-thinking to get an answer!

Creativity is:
a muscle- it needs to be excercised and mine is weak like my arms!
a bottled potion and I've poured all mine out
a wave and right now the tide's out
borrowed and lent but right now there's no-one lending
a virus but I need to catch it first
a part of me still but I seem to have misplaced it, or put it in a drawer.
what the ninja under my sink feeds off so he can dirty up my place when I'm not looking...

Unfortunately the weather cleared up so I'll have to wait until we get some more rain...fingers crossed!

No Sew!

I'd love a sewing machine and to learn how to use one properly but until I get settled somewhere I'm avoiding heavy purchases! If I see one second-hand I might get one but for now I'm discovering the joys of iron-in webbing tape stuff (not sure what it's really called!).

It's a rainy day so it was the perfect time to give it a go and so I made a book jacket! It's a little wonky in places but I'm still rather proud of myself for giving it a go.

Now I can try and do things with the pretty bits of fabric I always seem to come back from craft shops with!

2010 Creating Your Goddess Year: Check In Post

2009 was a difficult year. It contained the second hardest goodbye of my life. That relationship left me drained, feeling unworthy and took a huge hit to my self-esteem that I haven't recovered from yet. The goodbye started in March and didn't really end until a final phone call on New Year's Eve.

After that, I decided I needed to do something, but I didn't know what. My life had effectively been on hold for that relationship, my creativity was non-existent and my health and energy levels were low. I had been found Goddess Leonie's blog at some point late in the year, and decided to take the plunge and buy her Creating Your Goddess Year workbook as well as joining her Creative Goddess Course. I have to say both were fantastic! The creative course really got me to play with different methods and different ideas. I now have a creativity corner in my apartment with a bookshelf that is now full of supplies! I even bought a guitar which had been a long-held dream of mine firmly put in the "You can't do anything well so don't try" drawer.

The workbook was so so so pretty and colourful! I love filling in worksheets so it was perfect for me. There were a couple of pages that didn't sing to me so I left them alone but printed the rest and put them in a special binder.

Here's a check in as to how I'm doing half-way through 2010.

Unfortuately in April 2010 I lost my younger brother. He was only 26 years old. This is the hardest goodbye of my life, because I can't say it. I still feel as though I'm in shock and may never quite deal with this properly. I don't want to go more into it yet. But I feel that again my life is on hold. For two years I've watched people grow, change, study, graduate, marry and become parents. I feel exactly the same as I did in the summer of 2008.

Anyway, I wrote that I wanted to let go of worry, feelings of worthlesness, and that "I can't do anything well so I won't try" feeling. Well, I was heading towards a better place but now have a huge set-back. I just can't get angry at myself for this, I must let myself feel the feelings I have.

My word of the year was to be "Learn". I had planned to take a kanji test in June, attend English teachers training over the summer, a Japanese test in December and to learn the guitar and about designing in more detail. I am leaving for the UK next week to study for the summer. I hope to be able to take the kanji and Japanese tests at the end of the year. I picked up the guitar again last month. My brother used to play so it feels nice that I can carry on. I think I'm afraid to learn more about designing. I love my postcards but again this comes back to "You can't do anything well so give up already"

All in all I'm not where I wanted to be this time 2010, I'm not really where I wanted to be this time 2009 either. Two major events have shook me to my core. But I have to hope it's going to be alright, and even if I lose my job, home, and have to move cities (countries??) next year I'll get through it. I just kinda wish the universe was done with these Terrible Things That Will Make You A Better Person. I'm tired now, can't I just have a shallow and easy life for a while? Please?

Creative Journal: All Good Things

I started dabbling not too long before my brother passed away. Then, along with all other creative hobbies I left it alone until now.  I made this page last night. I don't know how much I believe it right now but it's there in the book when I need it.

I like the idea of creative journaling, there's no pressure to fill a page with words when just an important question or sentence is all you need. I can play with colours, textures and arrangments. When I had a normal diary it always just turned into a list of what I did rather than what I felt.

This journal has my thoughts, hopes and fears. It's a bit scary putting some things down on paper but it's a Good Thing.