dreXeL's Blog - Tag: art

5 Creative Things Guaranteed to Lift Your Spirits

by erica falke | Apr 20, 2014 | Random (A dreXeL's Life)

Ok fine…I can’t actually guarantee that. But these things always work for me, no matter WHAT. So it’s only fair that I share them. I’m giving you #1 now. Stick around for the rest. They’re coming.

#1. 24 Hours of Happy

I honestly don’t know how Pharrell Williams managed to create a song that actually cheers EVERYONE up. You just can’t be in a bad mood when you hear this song. This video I actually had on for an entire work day in December. And I still like it. That’s amazing. So if you don’t know about it, the video is just people being videoed singing and dancing to Pharrell’s “Happy” for a 24 hour period. When it first loads, it goes to whatever time it is in your time zone on your computer and plays the video from that time. Then continues throughout the day. Watch it and let me know what you think. Just TRY to be mad. I DARE ya.

#2. Make something creative out of stuff you have around the house.

Being creative is ALWAYS fun, and ALWAYS therapeutic. There are a million ways to do this. I will probably have to make a whole separate series of posts for household creative projects, but for now…one way you can be creative at home is to repurpose something you don’t use and make it something you DO use. This page is a gold mine of ideas!

Come up with your own and send me pics so I can show them off to the world!!!

#3 Make cute, adorable food

I did this more when I had kids around the house, because they freaking LOVED when I did it. It’s a bit time consuming but SO worth it. Basically, I made flowers and faces out of food before I served it, in japanese Bento tradition. Black sesame seeds are good for eyes or freckles or a tiny mouth. Pink cheeks or spots on an animal can be made using the end of a straw to cut a circle out of a slice of ham. Same method with cheese. Here are some examples for inspiration. You can really go nuts with this. There are machines that cut nori (seaweed) into the shapes you need to make different smileys, rice molds for animal shapes, even hard-boiled egg molds for animal shapes, vegetable cutters. I didn’t buy all that stuff. But I got as close as putting them in my Amazon wish list. You can get the most finicky kids to eat their veggies this way, while you get some creative therapy. Win-win.

#4 Standup Comedy

Laughter has been used to lift spirits for centuries. One’s sense of humor is very personal, so you’ll need to find what makes YOU laugh. But if you’ve got Netflix, it won’t take you long. Youtube videos provide a free and endless source of entertaining videos as well. Spotify has audio comedy. Also free.

My go-to comic for relief is Bill Burr. He’s got three specials on Netflix. I suggest watching them in chronological order.

#5 Turn your trash into a creative project.

This is a variation of the repurposing idea from #2 in this series. This time we’re taking literal TRASH, and making it into something aesthetic, or possibly functional even! There are endless creative things you can do with potential trash…wine corks, beer caps, etc. You can do a google search for “wine cork art” to see for yourself.

This particular project uses toilet paper tubes and an egg carton. When you’re done you can display them, hang them from the ceiling, Use them in a spring centerpiece on a table, whatever you want.

Thank you Michele Pacey for your inspiration and bits of creative genius. 🙂