A summer of doing more and thinking less

Rediscovering childlike creating

Thank you for the love on my last post about starting OCD treatment! Your support means so much and I’m also grateful that what I shared helped people understand a little more about OCD. If anyone ever has questions about OCD, especially if you suspect you might also have OCD, I’m always happy to be a resource.

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I have a notebook I got for myself specifically for creative noodling. It’s more blank than I’d like it to be, the cover included. But some months back, I added some life to the cover with a few stickers sent to me by a dear friend:

Do more. Think less.

Yes I can.

I trust this.

Affirmations I’ve been working on for, well, years. With varying levels of progress.

As a kid and teenager, I was constantly making stuff: drawings, crafts, random cardboard structures, paper dolls, fairy dwellings in my backyard, the like. Making stuff was pure joy.

Then I got older, and like many things in life, making stuff became less joyful. I developed this pressure to make only stuff that is social media worthy. My internal critic made it basically impossible to finish any project, let alone start one. When I did happen to finish something, it felt like a genuine miracle.

This summer has kind of been the opposite of most of my adult years. Thanks to a number of overlapping factors, I’ve been going ham making stuff this summer. I feel more like my kid self, overflowing with ideas and making for the joy of it without thinking too hard.

So why has this summer been different? Excellent question, let me attempt to decode myself.

things that have helped me do more and think less

1. therapy

This isn’t applicable for everyone, but WOW, what a difference OCD treatment has made in freeing up space for my creativity. For years, I’ve been in constant battles with my brain, with intrusive thoughts poking holes in and questioning everything I did. It made it very difficult to find joy in creating.

Now I’m learning how to deal with those thoughts and know when my brain is messing with me and being a jerk. It’s so much easier to differentiate my true self from my disordered thinking and choose to not fall into thought spirals and instead take action and just create (that said, it’s always a work in progress and some days are better than others).

OCD or not, taking the time to find healing for your brain does wonders in knocking out your longstanding creative blocks.

2. a media detox

I’ve realized anew over the past few months how consuming a lot of content on the internet zaps my creative energy. So I’m attempting to flip my consuming:creating ratio! Lately that’s meant unsubscribing from dozens of newsletters, unfollowing even more Instagram accounts, and avoiding Pinterest.

It should feel like a no-brainer that filling your brain with less content leaves more space for your own ideas, buuuut you and I both know that’s not always easy to remember. Taking steps towards consuming less makes such a difference though.

3. Making Things

For months I had my eye on this book: Making Things: Finding Use, Meaning, and Satisfaction in Crafting Everyday Objects by

Erin Boyle

and Rose Pearlman. I was pretty sure I wanted it, but held off till I felt sure I would actually use it and not just have a nice coffee table book. I finally bought it and when it came, I got to work. I gathered materials and started on a craft as soon as possible. And I really haven’t stopped since.

The book isn’t your typical craft book — it’s more about the joy of creating using what you have rather than making perfect, shiny, Pinterest-worthy crafts. I’ve made multiple projects from it now, some of which majorly failed. But I didn’t let the fails deter me (for long). Instead, I simply started again and learned from my mistakes. Past Maryn could never!

This

Culture Study

interview with one of the authors, Erin Boyle, does a much better job explaining the magic of the book than I can:

Redefining "Handy" and Learning How to Make Things

My view when I first locked eyes on Kenny

4. saying yes to myself

Oh, and I bought a sewing machine. I grew up sewing but haven’t had access to a machine for years and have pined for one. I popped into my local craft thrift shop for supplies and immediately saw a glorious spectacle waiting for me: a fully serviced 1970s sewing machine calling my name. It helped that it had a very old label I imagine someone secretly, affectionately put on it: LOVE YOU.

The machine is a Sears Kenmore so in my mind I call it Kenny. We’re buds. It took me a little while to remember how to use a sewing machine, but we’re back in business now. And I’m really proud of myself for taking the leap and saying yes to myself rather than coming up with a million reasons why I didn’t need a sewing machine.

Listen to those little inner nudges and say yes.

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show-and-tell: some stuff I’ve made!

pom-pom hat from Making Things

The tutorial for this hat includes crafting a loom out of an embroidery hoop and clothespins. I’ve never knit anything before this and this process made it so simple! I don’t know if I’m more proud of the hat itself or the fabulous pom-pom.

air-dry clay flower

simple knit bag (Making Things)

Also made with the makeshift embroidery hoop/clothespins loom from the hat.

dyeing old dresses!

This dress below used to be a dark khaki color and now it’s a mystery blueish greenish color! I also cut off some length and left it as a raw hem because I’m too cool for school and also too lazy to hem it. (And yes, I got a much-needed haircut. The blonde mullet era is no more. For now!)

small cushion out of sofa upholstery samples

No, I did not bother to check that all the squares were the same size before sewing them and yes, I’m still unbothered (Freddy begs to differ).

a shirt based on another shirt!

I spotted this striped fabric at the craft thrift shop and snatched it. Then I felt determined to make something out of it and decided that making a shirt without a pattern was a good idea (ha!). I traced another shirt of mine and went to town. I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot. I need to redo the neckline and armhole bindings because they don’t lay flat and they’re probably the wrong type, but hey, I made neckline and armhole bindings! Look at me go!

ongoing: needlepoint

This photo was an accident but I love it. There is no making things without Monet getting all up in them. (Needlepoint kit from Unwind Studio)

also: some mending not worth photographing, but trust that I FEEL POWERFUL.

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let’s chat

How has your summer been? Have you made some stuff? Is there stuff you wish you were making (crafts or otherwise)?

I want to do a little experiment: if you’d like to chat about your creativity, obstacles, dream creations 1-on-1 with me over Zoom then —

1. I would LOVE that

2. Comment below (or hit reply in your inbox) and let me know!

You can also comment below/reply if you don’t want to chat with me over Zoom at the moment, but have something else to say. Hopefully that’s obvious. All comments are welcome!

Until next time,

Maryn (is here)