Creative Blog Hop around the world

I was so excited when i was asked to join this really unique Blog Hop (spanning the globe!!!) by Elisabeth of ElizyArt a fabulous crochet blogger from Spain. This is my first Blog Hop too! What I like is how this hop is tapping into the bloggers creative genius and process on why and what they do. Another interesting aspect is that it is not limited to just one particular craft. So it really covers quite a gamut. So here I go with my four questions!

Question #1: What are you working on at the moment?

Right now the main projects I am working on...cause there is never just one! Is sock knitting. I am on my third pair now for the Rock the socks KAL on Ravelry hosted by Andi of My Sister's Knitter. She gave me the sock bug and I can't seem to shake it! Here is what I have accomplished so far...

"How I make my socks" by Susan B.Anderson

Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder

Socks On A Plane by Erica Lueder

Along with sock knitting I have been doing some stitch a longs with The Frosted Pumpkins Stitchery. These girls just make the cutest cross stitch patterns...I have been collecting them all! They are just too cute to pass up! Right now I am working on the Once Upon A Time Sampler. You purchase the pattern and every month you receive a new fairytale story to stitch. Along with that I am working on the The Mysterious Halloween Town. Same thing here, for three months you receive a section of the pattern. its really fun to anticipate what you are getting next and it really keeps you engaged in the project. It is also fun keeping up with everyone's progress during all these A-longs on Facebook, Ravelry and Instagram!

Once Upon A Time Sampler

Mysterious Halloween Town

 Question # 2: How does your work differ from others of your genre? 

 I don't really know if my work does. What comes first to mind is that I like to put my own spin on whatever I am making. If it is a pattern or project created by someone else I always have to tweak it somehow. Or  I like to take a very traditional look and make it current. How so you say? Right now I am on a a Civil War fabric kick. However they aren't really my style but I am finding the colors that are my style and mixing them together. So it may be a more vibrant and less traditional looking Civil War quilt project. I really think I just like to mix it up and experiment. Then again who doesn't! I am almost positive that others must work this way to. Second thing to mind is that I really focus on color first and foremost. When I worked at local yarn shop I was know for my use of putting colors together for projects rather than my actual knitting and crochet skills.Yet, again I know I am not alone here on this point either. I often question is anything ever really unique or different or just an adaptation of what has been done before. Like with fashion..whats old is new kind of theory. One other fact is that I not the biggest on trends...it really has to speak to me. I won't create something just because it's the latest trend or fashion.

Question #3 Why do you create what you do?

Well, I come from a family of artist.from painters in watercolors,oils and charcoal to knitters, crocheters, cooks, and gardeners. I really do not know another way of life. I grew up with people constantly creating around me. I can remember my grandfathers garden (prize winning tomatoes) and his topiary bushes under his bedroom window. He would shape the bushes into the sign of the cross top keep bad spirits away! My Father was a an amazing watercolorists,stone mason and custom home builder. He would just look at something and create it. One Christmas season I came to find him shaping a Reindeer out of chicken wire and weaving it with winter greens for a lawn ornament. This was decades before Pintrest or Martha Stewart!  My mother was constantly making and crocheting us clothes when we were young. My grandmother cooking and baking. So to me it is a way of  life. I have always been mesmerized by anything created by hand. I am always saying "I can make that" rather than buy it. That way it is way more unique, especially when it is a gift for someone.

I can not remember not being creative in some capacity. Even when I stopped crafting for a while it was during the period of my life when I had a career as a Hairstylist. It may not have been a needle craft or such but I was still using my hands and using my creative process.

My grandmother's traditional Easter pies and

Question # 4: How does your creative process work?

Hmm...This is  a good one ! I thinks it all has to do with a habit of mine. That I do not like to be limited to just one craft or process. I don't like to specialize in just one area. to me there is just so  much to learn about everything. From needle arts to cooking to gardening to decorating to reading. To me by dabbling in all, I have learned that they can be integrated. While doing one I may find that it inspires me in another. The colors in my garden may grab my attention and say to me "Wouldn't these colors look great in a yarn for a scarf... or a passage in a book may give me an idea for a stitching pattern. One recently is a pattern I am working on called Little Lady Baby slipper...I was reading an antique book I found at a yard sale The History of Royal Children. I started playing with yarn got an idea about a shape ..now I  am perfecting the pattern. So whatever I make has many facets to it.

 I hoped you enjoyed yourself and found a bit of inspiration here on my blog today. It was so much fun to 

share my thoughts with you I was very honored to be asked to join this hop! I sincerely appreciate your time visiting my blog. I hope you will come back soon!

I now pass you along to two spectacular bloggers on next Monday August 18th Amy from, Amy Made That! and Francesca, from FuoriBorgo. Two very talented women will take on these same questions!

Enjoy the Blog Help and Be Well,

Ming