12 Days of Creating
What happens when culture pushes us to “move on” from Christmas? Sometimes it feels like we haven’t even laid our heads down to rest on Christmas night before we’re being whisked into the next thing. Without fail, it leaves me melancholy.
My sweet friend, who recommended the book Living the Christian Year, sent me screenshots from the book yesterday in a series of text messages (no copyright infringement intended, she assured me hahaha). The author urges readers to inhabit the 12 liturgical days of Christmas (ending with Epiphany on January 6) writing, “Stay in the Christmas mode. Even though your friends and neighbors find it puzzling, you can choose some concrete ways to linger in the season.”
And then it hit me: Lingering in the season, to me, meant finding concrete ways to bring a bit of beauty to our world.
Join me for 12 Days of Creating, where we’ll spend each day creating something that brings beauty to our world. Maybe you want to actually get your hands busy and craft something. Maybe you want to create a little beauty in a corner of your home by giving it a good scrub. Maybe you’ve got umpteen half-started projects that you could finally finish. Take an artistic picture, redecorate the top of your dresser, create a pretty tablescape for a family dinner. Get creative and have fun with it!
However you choose to spend the next 12 days, here’s the only rule: You can’t purchase anything new. Use what you have to create beauty. Ok, I lied. There’s another rule: Present over perfect. You may not actually finish one of your projects, and that’s ok. We’re showing up. We’re celebrating progress. We’re celebrating imperfection. Christ didn’t come for the perfect among us, right? We’re truly inhabiting Christmas when we recognize that Jesus came for the works in progress, those of us who recognize we’re a mess. Perfection outside of the Creator himself is a lie.
Here’s my game plan:
- Cross stitching project for my kitchen
- Creating a bulletin board for my studio
- Sewing some bunting for my studio
- Spray painting the vintage patio set for my future front deck
- Painting my front door
- Creating some seasonal hand lettering art on my studio chalkboard
- Sewing some cafe curtains for my kitchen
- Painting the barn door in our hallway
- Staining the shelves in our bathroom
- Hanging up the cups/plates in my kitchen that I’ve had stored for way too long
- Making an address sign for the front of our house
- Style my kitchen cabinet
I’m so excited to spend the next 12 days really focusing on bringing just a bit of beauty to our world. If you post a picture of it, please use the hashtag #12daysofcreatingwithcolleen. Tell me in the comments what you want to create!
Cheers from the cottage,
Colleen
