creativity

Boston’s Latest Crafty Girl Craze: Terrariums

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Many terrariums and plants on a table for workshop.

Spring is finally here. It’s National Park Week and tomorrow is Earth Day. So it’s the perfect time to think about all the beauty of the earth.

Many of us don’t want to only enjoy the beauty of trees and plants when we’re outdoors, but we want to bring the lush greenery inside as well. I’ve been blessed with a green thumb and have plants and trees growing quite nicely in my apartment. Tending my plants is very relaxing and a kind of meditation for me.

It seems that I’m not the only one who feels this way about plants, because a new zen trend that I see growing 😀 is terrariums.

Trident Booksellers on Newbury Street has a weekly “Plant Nite” where you can build terrariums and enjoy food and drinks.  But it’s not the only place. Plant Nite, similar to Paint Nite, brings people together at different restaurant venues all around the Boston area where they can drink and go home with a terrarium.

Niche, focuses on urban garden supply and is located on Tremont Street in the South End. They encourage plant ownership and sometimes offer classes and workshops on terrarium building.

This Sunday morning, on April 24th, Shake the Tree, which is located on Salem Street in the North End, will be holding a terrarium building workshop along with mimosas and breakfast bites.

If you’d like to go west of Boston, on June 5th, Tovah Martin of Terrarium Wise will be speaking about terrariums and there will be a workshop as well. This event will be held at Brandt House B & B, located in Greenfield, Massachusetts and sponsored by the Greenfield Garden Club.

If you can’t make it to an event, or even if you can, maybe you’d like to wear a terrarium. Dara Cheek, of Hieropice, who I met at ASSEMBLED in Somerville, makes the cutest terrarium necklaces that you can buy from her Etsy shop.

You can also just make terrariums at home. West Elm gives a tutorial on making a tabletop terrarium. Sunset Magazine also gives some nice ideas for DIY terrariums.

Whatever way you choose to enjoy terrariums, you’re sure to have some fun!

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Flickr Photo Credit: Terrarium Workshop by Amy Gizienski

Self-Care for Foodies: A Breakfast Board

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Breakfast Board as self-care

The breakfast board is not my creation. But I do love the idea after reading about it on A Cup of Jo and if feels like self-care. Maybe it’s the next big trend for the picnic season? It would be kind of fun eating this outside.

Somehow if feels rather fanciful eating from a board. Maybe because it’s different. So it seems special. Like I ordered it from room service at a posh hotel, even though I made it myself.

While this is a normal breakfast, I did take more care with placement as I spread everything out — a boiled egg, a pear, a bit of avocado, vanilla Greek yogurt with granola, dates and walnuts.

As more of us focus on self-care, so that we can accomplish what we want in any given day, and remain happy, not just sane, we each find different ways of nurturing ourselves.

I think the breakfast board is a nice way. It’s probably not something we’ll do everyday, but it’s a nice change.

Sometimes we just need a change in order to be a bit more productive and creative. Last night, I attended a dinner meeting at the UMass Club. Dinner was wonderful and our group accomplished a lot.

UMass Club view of Mass State House

When we walked into our room and looked out the windows, we were all struck by the view.

While I’ve been in many tall buildings in Boston and seen plenty of gorgeous views of the city, this was not the same area as usual, so the view was different.

Umass Club view of Prudential and John Hancock buildings

I’ve walked around Center Plaza and Government Center countless times. But never seen them  from 32 floors above! The same for the Massachusetts State House. A change in perspective can gives us a new way to look at life. And sometimes, that’s all we really need.

Quote of the Week: Brene Brown

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Brene Brown quote on creativityLast week I found a new favorite podcast, Magic Lessons with Elizabeth Gilbert. I’m of big fan of hers in general and loved Eat, Pray, Love.

Her new book, Big Magic, is being added to my ever growing and impossibly long list of books to read.

Brene Brown is another favorite author. On this podcast from about a month ago, Gilbert interviewed Brown about her new book, Rising Strong. Also being added to the list!

The conversation was fascinating. When they were talking about creativity, they spoke about something that I believe very deeply. We are all creative. No exceptions. The issue is whether you are using your creativity or not.

In my life, I found that it felt stifling and self-harming to ignore my creative side. That is one of the reasons why I started blogging. Brown said, that unused creativity is not benign.

So much of the violence, turmoil and disease that exists in the world today could probably be at least somewhat alleviated if everyone took this to heart.

What creative thing have you done today? There’s still time to figure it out.  If we truly want to be well, we must. Unused creativity is not benign…

Creative Mornings: Boston

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Copley Square BostonThis week had a lot of emotional and work-related ups and downs.

But, I did manage to look up and notice the beautiful sky in the middle of it all. When I’m feeling like this, I know that I need to get my mind right. To stay positive and be mindful.

As I write this post, I’m listening to The Lively Show. The show is an interview with Lynn Robinson and focused on intuition. It’s quite a good pick-me-up and helping me stay in the right mindset.

A few months ago, I learned about a breakfast lecture series for the creative community called Creative Mornings. These free morning lectures are held in different cities all over the world and are quite a wonderful resource. I encourage everyone to go if you get a chance. From what I can tell, each month there is a different theme for the talks.

I was finally able to attend a Creative Mornings event in Boston a few weeks ago. The stars aligned and I had the time and found a lecture that interested me.

It was amazing how it worked out. I had just listened to an On Point podcast called, Zen And The Art Of The Free Throw, where George Mumford was interviewed by Tom Ashbrook about how he teaches mindfulness to athletes to help them perform at a higher level. They also discussed his new book, The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance.

It was just a day or two after hearing the interview, that I received an email that Mumford would be speaking at Creative Mornings in Boston. I registered right away!

When I attended the event, which had a theme of Collaboration, I thought they were giving the book away to attendees. But it was only to a few people and I didn’t get one. I put it on hold at the library and have been number one in line for weeks waiting for it. Maybe I’m not meant to read it yet, since I am finishing up another one. It feels right to write this post now, so I will probably write about the book after I read it.

Click here to see some more photos taken by other people. I had a great time and learned a lot at the event. Looking forward to attending more!