I’m excited. Yesterday I received a cat-a-day calendar in the mail and discovered that it has a picture of our kitten, Lily as the March 15, 2011 cover girl. I had almost forgotten that I entered the Workman Cat Calendar contest this year. This is the second time that I’ve won. In fact this photo got an honorable mention and it is one of three photos shown on the box to advertise the calendar. Exciting.
In case you are looking for a calendar for yourself or as a gift for someone who likes cats, this is Workman’s 365 Cats page-a-day 2011 calendar. Lily is shown surrounded by alphabet blocks. Very cute. http://www.pageaday.com
I don’t think it is unusual for a writer to also enjoy photography and/or other forms of art. Most of the writers I know also engage in other creative endeavors. I’ve always done needlework and sewing. Gardening is another of my creative outlets when I need to or choose to take a break from the writing. I got involved in photography when I found out that many of the articles I wrote needed to be accompanied by photos. You can’t write about drying fresh flowers, making batik dolls and creating items out of horseshow ribbons without illustrating the article with photos. I even took the photos for my first book, “Hints for the Backyard Rider.”
When the grandkids came along, I upgraded my camera equipment and my photo habit accelerated. I was even asked a time or two to take promotional photos of friends and I also used photography in gift-giving. Now each of my grown grandchildren have my sunset and ocean photos (given as Christmas gifts) hanging on the walls of their homes/rooms.
When they were small, I used to put together photos depicting all of our fun family outings and activities in chunky little albums for each child for Christmas. For years, these albums were my grandchildren’s most treasured gifts.
Do you have creative outlets aside from your writing? Perhaps you engage in photography (for your job), you garden (out of necessity), you do a little dancing (when the mood strikes) and/or you occasionally dabble in poetry. I suggest that, if you are working long hours at your writing desk, you are constantly trying to meet deadlines, you are pushing to finish your novel or you are involved in writing a series of serious business books, you take creativity breaks.
Dig out your camera and go photograph the fall colors, plant a border or a basket of fall flowers, work on your latest (or long forgotten) watercolor project or start knitting a winter scarf. If you’re like me, you will have to justify your time spent on this project by entering it in a contest or giving it to someone you care about. That’s a characteristic of those of us who are rather middle-brained. We yearn to be creative, but we can’t do so just for the pure pleasure. There has to be more incentive than that.
I’d like to hear about your relationship with creativity involving writing as well as activities outside of the writing realm.
Visit my websites:
http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com
Also visit my Catscapades blog and see more photos of Lily and other cats.
http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades