Getting creative in Lockdown - part 2

Having a job in a creative sector means I obviously consider myself to be a creative person. There's a big but to that sentence and that but is that I have a creative mind. I'm good at problem solving, coming up with ideas, creative writing and having a vision for what something should look like.

I am not so good at making things. I can have an entire picture in my head for how to decorate a room but it's not happening unless I get someone to build and paint and put wallpaper up. In another life I could have been a fashion designer. It's a shame the things holding me back were that I can't draw or sew (the world will never know). If you need any reassurance of my drawing skills, refer to my zoo post it note in my week 1 wishes of the week post - it's pretty special.

So week two was a revelation. It was a week where I threw off the shackles of a lifetime of bad creative crafting experiences and embraced them and even surprised myself a bit.

It's fair to say the results were mixed, but to give you a flavour:

• I noticed that Dantastic were hosting a dinosaur hunting party. Knowing how much my little boy loves dinosaurs, but how little he has been engaged so far with online classes, I got my creative thinking cap on and we made a day of it. We started by hand making (yes you read that correctly) a dinosaur costume from two egg cartons, followed by the party itself. Before the party had started I'd hidden toy dinosaurs around the house and we then went on a dinosaur hunt at the end. I'm going to score this one a 5/10 for the output but a solid 9/10 for engagement.

• We were really excited to see that the Grand National would be running virtually on Saturday and my husband challenged me to come up with a creative idea in the build up for the kids. So we made horse finger puppets. A princess horse complete with crown for my daughter, a tiger horse (also with crown because one can't have without the other having) for my son and a Spiderman and girlie one for my husband and me. I'm actually pretty proud of the output on this on and reckon it's worthy of an 8/10. Engagement was probably also an 8/10 although my daughter had more fun scribbling and trying to take the horses to pieces.
  
• We're a big fan of dress up and so we had some fun games of building a tent and playing Paw Patrol (in which my husband and I took turns of being Ryder and calling our 'pups' to the lookout, giving them an assignment and them reporting back after completing it. Output was pretty strong here as I didn't have to make anything so I reckon a clear 10/10 and engagement was pretty good too - in fact we are still playing the game three days later so probably 10/10.
  
• We tuned in to a great Princess singalong which my daughter absolutely loved. Creativity involved was 0/10 but she was quite engaged at 7/10.
  
• Last but definitely not least, in a period of 20 minutes that will stay with me forever, we tried to plant some sunflower and pansy seeds. I cannot even tell you how stressful coordinating toddlers and soil is. Especially when you have one (the girl) who wants to get her hands and toes and everything into the soil and one (the boy) who freaks out if a speck of dirt gets on his hand. It all got a bit chaotic and ended up with the girl one on the naughty chair for purposely knocking her brother's pot over. I can only hope that the output makes that time worthwhile. Output tbc (but I'm not holding out huge amounts of hope based on my previous success for growing things (kids aside). Engagement probably a steady 7/10.

So what did I learn this week? It's ok to sometimes take yourself out of your comfort zone and try something even if you think you know it won't go well. But don't push your luck and get cocky - if you've had a few successes then take them and don't think you're all of a sudden Alan Titchmarsh because you managed to make a spiky dinosaur's back.