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44. To Be A Creatrix
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This week we discuss our multi-faceted relationships with the concept of creativity, the blockages we've faced, and even all of the less-obvious ways it can be expressed.
(Be sure to stick around til the end for a tiny teaser of an exciting announcement we’ll be making in the coming weeks!)
We're so grateful you're here! If you like what you’re hearing, you can find more exclusive content on Patreon: www.patreon.com/soulpodthepodcast. We can’t wait to see you over there!
You can also follow us on Instagram: @soulpodthepodcast, or email us directly at soulpodthepodcast@gmail.com.
Molly does tarot readings online and locally in Massachusetts: https://www.thehighpriestesscoaching.com/
Christina sells delicious microgreens in the greater Detroit area: https://www.christinasgreens.com/
Hosts: Christina Bell & Molly Wilde
Music: The Confrontation, by Jonathan Boyle, licensed from Premium Beats by Shutterstock
Editing: Molly Wilde
Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is for entertainment and enjoyment. We are not professionals in any regard. We do not have professional knowledge, training, or education in physical health, mental health, or spiritual matters. Any suggestions or recommendations made during our episodes should be independently researched by the listener before considering implementation, or better yet, listeners should ignore everything we say. We cannot be held responsible or liable for anything we say, or any actions taken by any persons as a result of listening to our podcast episodes. Stay safe, stay informed, stay smart.
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Transcript
Episode Introduction: Creativity Unplanned
00:00:25
Speaker
I didn't even say hello I just said boopity boop boop boop we are here uh it is yet another very tired evening oh for both of us work is just taking it out of me man like not yeah only like being stressful but just working long hours yup And I know you know.
00:00:54
Speaker
and know you feeling it. but Yeah, long hours and sleep deprivation and it blows. Indeed. it does. Anywho.
00:01:05
Speaker
We're here. and We're talking about a thing that is good. What am I trying to say? um we this is our subject, our topic today.
Creative Blocks and ADHD: Molly's Experience
00:01:21
Speaker
It was not one that was on our list, and it's not one that we really discussed much beforehand, and it's apparently not one that either of us have notes about. So i don't know how this is going to go, but today we're talking about creativity. Creativity.
00:01:39
Speaker
Creativity. genuinely am like, I mean, there's plenty to say about it, but like, what?
00:01:53
Speaker
molly what gets your creative juices flowing oh my god um i've i've always had a really good imagination but like i have also been massively blocked creatively for most of my life and so i have a lot of like stuff that goes on internally but it doesn't it it has a really hard time finding a way out, even a way of like trying to figure out like how to express it at that like most basic level.
00:02:28
Speaker
And so it's like, that's where it's hard to, um for me to like really determine what does get my creative juices flowing because it's like anything could because my brain is going, it's an ADHD brain. It doesn't stop going.
00:02:45
Speaker
It goes. Constantly. But like to to express any of it is ah much harder thing.
00:02:57
Speaker
Right. um And so the juices, they juicing. yeah hey But they're juicing like straight into the drain something.
00:03:09
Speaker
I don't know.
00:03:12
Speaker
um
The Artist's Way: A Path to Creative Recovery
00:03:13
Speaker
I'm trying. I like the artist's way is really really changing shit yeah you didn't really talk about that before on our podcast have you i've talked i've like referenced it before but i don't think i've really gone too deep into it um i might have gone deeper into it on our bonus episodes but at this point i'm like not totally able to differentiate what is in bonus episodes versus ah regular episodes. Yeah.
00:03:46
Speaker
So apologies if any of this is repeat information that you have already heard, but the artist's way is a process by a person called Julia Cameron.
00:04:00
Speaker
And she started out by teaching workshops. And I think she still does teach teach workshops or at least she did at the time of writing the book, but the book is just a written word version of her workshop. And it's a 12 week process.
00:04:18
Speaker
The chapters of the book are broken up by week and across each week, there are different like exercises during the chapters and tasks at the end of the chapters and like check-ins at the end of each chapter as well.
00:04:38
Speaker
um So it's like a very involved process. It's not just reading it. It's like you're doing things, you're meditating on things, you're thinking about things, you're brainstorming, you're writing stuff out. And also consistently throughout the whole process, um you are supposed to do morning pages, three pages a day, um which apparently work just fine if you have to do at other times of the day than morning.
00:05:06
Speaker
And also if you have to do less than three pages, because I have had to do both of those, you know, make those exceptions for myself sometimes. um And once a week, you have to take yourself on an artist date, which is effectively that you carve out a couple of hours for yourself each week to just fill your own well.
00:05:31
Speaker
And that can be anything. It's going to be different for everybody. Right. Some, some ways it's, so you know, the same for a lot of people. Cause like I find myself doing a lot of things that some of our friends are doing.
00:05:45
Speaker
Cause we're doing this, not me and Christina, Christina is not currently working on this, but she's got it in the mail along the way to her. believe. Yeah. And ah eventually you're going to do it, but probably not immediately.
00:06:01
Speaker
Um, but a few of our other friends from Anahata's are doing it alongside me And really it wasn't even me that started it. It was another friend of ours yeah who started it, but doing it all together is really beneficial.
00:06:19
Speaker
It's helping me to stay committed to it, which is great. Um, I'm still, I'm doing it slower. I'm not keeping the weeks very exact. I'm just sort of fitting it in where I can, but trying to, you know, keep it up as consistently as I can.
00:06:38
Speaker
But each of us have been kind of doing similar things for our art estates, such as um going to antique stores um and going out to restaurants to like both indulge in like the pleasure of like good food as well as like people watching oh and also just like spending that time alone thinking about, you know, and and like processing some of like whatever you're working on at that particular time in the process.
00:07:20
Speaker
Morning pages is every single day, right? Every single day. Yeah. So least I mean, if you miss a day, it's like whatever. But I mean, I've missed plenty of days. I try not to, but it's not easy. Yeah.
00:07:33
Speaker
um What were you about to say? Sorry. That's okay. um So I just wondered, do they say anything at all about doing your pages while you're on your artist date? They don't say you have to or or they don't say you can't. Like, you can if you want to.
00:07:50
Speaker
just curious. I've done that once. I think it depends on whatever activity it is that you're doing. oh Because, you know, if you're out at an antique store, antique store that's not really feasible. But like if you're out at a restaurant or at a park. apart yeah yeah Cool. all Yeah. yeah so like ah One of the times that I went to a restaurant by myself for an artist's date, I had brought my notebook along with me and I hadn't done
00:08:22
Speaker
morning pages yet that day so you know i pulled them out and i only i think i only managed like a a single page but at that point like better than nothing yeah better than nothing and also like i wasn't feeling too good like anxiety was getting me and like bunch of other stuff so it was like it was not too great of um day in general so was sort of working at a deficit but um Would you say the artist's way that or this process of doing the artist's way book um was that at all like what contributed to you making your painting like a couple weeks back?
Overcoming Shame: Creativity Beyond Art
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it was, it came directly from like a section that I was reading in like, I think chapter three, like the section that was about shame.
00:09:17
Speaker
ah huh and it was even though like, it was talking about like shame surrounding creativity, shame being a thing that we have talked about extensively. yeah We dedicated a whole episode to it.
00:09:31
Speaker
um That, you know, I'm extraordinarily familiar with the feeling and the concept of shame touching like every part of my life.
00:09:43
Speaker
And so like in reading about it, even though it was being told or talked about in the book, in the context of creativity, my train of thought took it to other places.
00:09:57
Speaker
But like, that's, that's sort of what inspired that painting. And if you want to hear about it, go listen to our bonus episodes, because that's where I talked about that for sure.
00:10:08
Speaker
and And I wrote about it actually to one of my blog posts who was a talking about it. I'm behind and reading your blogs. I'm really sorry. That's okay. That's okay. I'm not sure I sent that one to you.
00:10:20
Speaker
so But I do got to get you signed in to our Patreon so that you can to check out the stuff because like you haven't heard any of it since we recorded any of it.
00:10:31
Speaker
Yeah. yeah um But yeah, so that's a that's a good thing to go check out. But yeah, that that painting definitely came from like direct inspiration from ah the book.
00:10:45
Speaker
Gotcha. Yeah. Very cool. yeah And then you did another painting with a a group of your friends. Right. The crab party. It's so cute. Yeah. Are you going to put it on our Instagram?
00:10:59
Speaker
Maybe. i don't i don't know. I might keep that one for myself. It's so cute. I thought it was fun. I'm not i am not that artistically gifted in terms of visual art.
00:11:15
Speaker
Like painting particularly. My paintings tend to come out like an elementary school artist, but but but i i think I also want to explore more like pencil sketching because I've done okay at that before.
Exploring Writing vs. Painting
00:11:37
Speaker
But yeah, like my primary creativity in terms of like creating things that are purely original, like my best medium for that is writing yeah
00:11:55
Speaker
yeah you're excellent at writing thank you i like all of the descriptions for our episodes are written by molly and they're they're so good they're always so good i sometimes really struggle with some of them i'm just like i don't know what to say i don't know But sometimes inspiration hits and then I'm like, ah, I'm genius.
00:12:19
Speaker
Oh, Jesus. Luckily, the nice thing about those is that they don't, they shouldn't be lengthy. They don't, I don't think there's really a character limit. Right. um There might be, but it's, I've never come close to hitting it. um But I also don't, I don't prefer ah episode descriptions that are like too lengthy when I'm listening or looking into a podcast.
00:12:41
Speaker
For sure. Like sometimes it's called for. sometimes it's a bit much so I try to keep them brief and that makes it a little easier but it also can make it a little harder yeah Christina I'm going to flip the tables on you what gets more creative juices flowing
00:13:08
Speaker
that's a tough one um i guess just all the time that i have every day to think because like you you know just like you're saying like adhd brain right you know yeah how do you how would you like describe your imagination like both like now and like when you were young oh my god i have no idea did you did you find yourself being very imaginative imaginative as a kid
00:13:39
Speaker
i would never I would never categorize myself as being very imaginative ahb but ever. ever. But I don't know. Like, I i don't know. i just know that I could be, like, listening to a news story or I could be listening to, like, I don't know, whatever stuff on the radio, you know, like, radio television.
00:14:02
Speaker
talk show people or whatever or like watching a tv show or whatever and something that's said will spark like a thought or an idea and ah and then i will like run with that for a while in my brain so yeah um creative i've always never i've never felt like i was a creative person but then again sometimes i come up with stuff that is like hmm, maybe I am kind of creative. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know.
00:14:36
Speaker
I think that, like, there's, like, an interesting contrast between the different kinds of creative that you are and I am Because, like, you are creative in ways that I think are, like, less to do with, like, typical, like, artistic expression and more to do with, like,
00:15:01
Speaker
problem solving or like innovation entrepreneur entrepreneurship entrepreneurialness of you're always thinking of ways to make money which almost drives me crazy sometimes but yeah uh you know it's it's useful in general like like the not funny the funny thing is though sometimes I just think of doing things and then like then I realized like oh I might be able to like make some money off of this it's not always like me just thinking of ways to make money but like i right but it's like but you make that connection you know that's pretty entrepreneurial so yeah and like that's the thing is that like people think of creativity as being like purely about artistic expression yeah and not about like
00:15:54
Speaker
the creativity that can be brought into just like your everyday life. Yeah.
Astrology's Influence on Creativity
00:15:59
Speaker
I do have a unique way of thinking. So I guess. Yeah. In a way. You got that Libra. and excuse And it's like, you know, maybe my creativity is just so like part of who I am that I don't even realize it's there. you know, it's true. It's, I think there's that it's because of that, that Libra sun Pisces moon.
00:16:22
Speaker
hmm. is is like dense creativity. Yeah. Do you remember what your Mercury is? no not uphand.
00:16:35
Speaker
I can look at my phone and I can figure it out real quick. Hold on. My Mercury is in Leo, so writ Leo's creativity, Mercury is expression.
00:16:45
Speaker
ah So, um but I've got, I've got heavy Leo. Leo energy. But like, I also have my Chiron in Leo. So, you know, it a sort of, I think it's the, the Chiron in Leo is the reason why I have got such bad blockages. my Mercury.
00:17:10
Speaker
That's my, um what do you call it when you have three things in one thing? stellium? Yeah, I have the Mercury in Libra. Hmm. Hmm. As well as Pluto.
00:17:23
Speaker
Okay, yeah, was going to say, what's the third? But that makes sense. Because Gen X primarily is Pluto and Libra. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Yeah, Mercury is in Libra.
00:17:36
Speaker
So I don't know what that means, but you could tell. I don't remember. i don't remember when. Well, that it makes sense for like, well, Mercury being, i think the sign that it's like primarily associated with.
00:17:50
Speaker
is Gemini Virgo Virgo I think has is like ruled by Mercury the like very thinky signs are associated with Mercury and so like Libra being an air sign feel like it's like I don't remember what phrase it would be used for like it's not like
Communication and Planetary Connections
00:18:16
Speaker
exalted or whatever maybe it it could be I don't know But like I'm thinking that like Mercury feels good in Libra.
00:18:24
Speaker
and Like it's not it's not battling it. Interesting. Now I'm going to Google it. Mercury in Libra.
00:18:37
Speaker
ah What does it say? Well, some web some website called saturnandhoney.com says, Libra Mercury is about connection, bridging the gap between ourselves and others, creating bonds through the honest expression of self, and being open to taking in another person's experience.
00:18:59
Speaker
Mercury in Libra is communicative, empathetic, and genuinely interested in understanding others and being understood in return. Well, I say that's me. Makes Yeah.
00:19:10
Speaker
Did you catch the keyword in that description you just read? ah Maybe. It creates bonds. Okay. Creates. Yeah. but And like, that's the thing about creation again with the like, yes, the automatic or the immediate first assumption is always going toward artistic expression, but creativity literally means like, it literally means like bringing things into being.
00:19:41
Speaker
you've created human life i never have so we know cafe astrology that's like where i first started looking at my birth chart right um it says libra communicators come across as very pleasing diplomacy comes naturally to these natives that is for fucking sure um i always try to be very diplomatic like between people or like if there's ever misunderstandings between two other people, I'm really good at explaining the sides to the other person so they can like understand each other better.
00:20:19
Speaker
um At the very least yeah that's okay at the very least, they take many pains to be diplomatic, whether they succeed or not depends on their audience, but more on that later.
00:20:30
Speaker
Mercury and Libra people long for equality in the intellectual world. They view mental affinity as one of the most important themes in any relationship they have. If they're not getting it, and many do not, they should look within themselves for answers.
00:20:46
Speaker
mercury and libra attempts always to be fair in any discussion but to more personal communicators libra's constant comparisons can in effect seem unfair so there you go like me i'm always like what some people would say i'm always playing devil's a advocate which i'm not always trying to do but it says libra's constant comparisons Which is like, yeah, I definitely draw in other perspectives to make comparisons in things. And I think I get misunderstood for that a lot.
00:21:19
Speaker
Right. Yeah. i now in listening to these descriptions, I'm wondering if I've chosen the wrong planet to think about creativity through. oh because it these descriptions are taking route of communication Which it is, that is what Mercury is about.
00:21:41
Speaker
i was thinking of Mercury as being like expression, you know? um But maybe, i mean, Venus could be another one to look at. And I know your Venus is in Virgo, so is mine.
00:21:53
Speaker
But I don't fully understand Venus.
00:21:57
Speaker
And I also no wonder there if... It says Venus and Mercury are prominent figures with creativity. Okay. Okay. Venus is considered the planet of beauty, harmony, and aesthetics, while Mercury is associated with communication, intellect, and mental acuity.
00:22:15
Speaker
m It also says Neptune, the planet of dreams and illusion, and Uranus, the planet of originality and change, are also connected to creative expression.
00:22:27
Speaker
Interesting. Where are your Neptune and Uranus?
00:22:33
Speaker
but Both of mine are in Capricorn. Mine are like practically on top of each other. My Neptune is Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius.
00:22:47
Speaker
Okay. So my Neptune is Sagittarius. Because it's a slow moving planet. It's like 16 years in each sign, I think. And Sagittarius is before Capricorn.
00:23:02
Speaker
Yeah. Mine's in Capricorn, so. Okay, so then... and your Uranus? I'm so bad. Hold on a second. You're Cap.
00:23:14
Speaker
What's after that? Aquarius. Okay. Yeah, Sagittarius. Sorry. And then you said besides my... mer my What's your... Besides my Neptune? Uranus.
00:23:27
Speaker
My Uranus. that's ah That's a big thing right now in my astrology according to the pattern. Okay. It's talking about my Uranus right now, which is in Scorpio.
00:23:42
Speaker
Interesting.
00:23:45
Speaker
hu Yeah. That's funny. It's funny to think about the literal positions of the planets because like Scorpio and Sagittarius are one and right after the other.
00:23:59
Speaker
so they weren't far apart. Uranus moves a little faster than Neptune does. i think it's like 10 or 11 years in each sign. And like, by the time i was born, Neptune and Uranus were nearly on top of each other.
00:24:16
Speaker
ah i think they were perfectly conjunct in 1993. So like mine only have like a couple degrees difference between them in both being in Capricorn.
00:24:29
Speaker
But yeah, like Scorpio, i don't know what Scorpio Uranus means. Neptune and Sagittarius, to me, just because of, again, i also, i don't know a whole ton about Sagittarius, but Neptune being the dreamy sign and Sagittarius being a fire sign tells me, like, there's a lot of, like, drive and passion in your, like, dreamy side. And that probably complements your Pisces moon somewhat nicely as well, because it, like,
00:25:07
Speaker
indulges the dreaminess um of the Pisces moon, um but also gives it some like action, some motion. So astrology aside, astrology aside. Yeah. Cause I was, I mean, I guess what the way we got into this was because I was trying to think in terms of like how your creativity and my creativity show up differently.
00:25:30
Speaker
Right. But I will say i um I do also, well, let me rephrase that.
Christina's Writing and Academic Struggles
00:25:41
Speaker
I also am very good at writing and right i don't get the chance to write very much, but I enjoy it when I do have to do it.
00:25:52
Speaker
um Like when I did it for school, like when I had to write stuff for school, like I don't mind, you know, the process of it i hate I hated writing like assignments. Yeah.
00:26:04
Speaker
And particularly, like, I only liked creative writing assignments when they were assigned in school. But, like, for essays that had anything that was, like, not creativity-based, but, like, um you know, research-based or whatever, yeah fucking hated it.
00:26:21
Speaker
I was good at it. I always got good grades. I did great on my essays, but I fucking hated doing them. um But I feel you otherwise. yeah um And then...
00:26:34
Speaker
i enjoy learning how to do new things. So, um yeah, I teach myself a lot of crap from like YouTube and shit like that. But like I taught myself literally how to crochet watching YouTube videos and i enjoy crocheting because it feels very meditative.
00:26:55
Speaker
Um, when I'm doing it, the repetitious hand movements and stuff, um You can just get in this zone and like not even realize you know how how time has gone by or like whatever. just it's It's interesting. It's very interesting. well yeah like you it's it's a They call it a flow state.
00:27:16
Speaker
Yes, that. yeah Definitely feel that. You can get into that with any sort of, whether it's a creative project or just any sort of creative expression because I have gotten into a flow state many a time just sitting playing piano when I don't have to focus on trying to learn the piece and I already know it.
00:27:38
Speaker
Like that's, that was probably my first ever experience with a flow state. That makes perfect sense. Yeah. yeah Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:49
Speaker
Cause that's like creative expression. Like I, again, I've said before and I, it continues to be true that I can't write music at this time in my life right now. um I'm open to that changing. I am not making any sort of proclamation, but for the time being, even though people know me, people in my life who know me, know me as the music girl, like, yeah yeah you know, because that's what I, I mean, that's what I was known for and like church communities and like even in school, like growing up, um I was the girl who played piano and was in choir and
00:28:28
Speaker
like then I went to music school and just continued to confirm that even though I wasn't going for like performance or writing I was going for production but because of that like I don't have any real like experience with any kind of creative expression of like things I have written myself or ah flow state of things I've written myself but Like I can absolutely attest to like the way that when you know a piece by heart, when you have it like deeply, like not just in your bones, but like, or or even in your muscles, but like in your soul.
00:29:11
Speaker
and then you give that piece like new life by playing it in the way that you are expressing, even though it's not your original work.
00:29:25
Speaker
ah huh Like you make it your own. in that In those minutes. Even singing your favorite songs on the radio. True. It's still a creative expression because singing is, you know, creating the sounds. Two different people singing the same song and you can get completely different messages or stories out of it. Right. Both of them.
00:29:49
Speaker
For sure. Absolutely. Even if they're both like, you know, extremely talented singers who sing the song well, like... there can be such a massive difference in how the, the song comes across.
00:30:06
Speaker
Yeah. The other question that I had for you might've been something we you just started to already like answer though, was just like, what sorts of creative mediums do you feel like you gravitate toward ah the most?
00:30:27
Speaker
Like, and you just talked about writing and stuff. um But, like, also kind of fucking anything. Jack of the trades. Like, I really hate that I don't have time to do creative things very much.
00:30:45
Speaker
But
00:30:48
Speaker
I have written poetry. um i have, i mean, I did have... and an art class in college years ago when I was first in college.
00:31:00
Speaker
And I did pretty well. at it, I think. I had a basic art you know class in high school as well, um which I improved quite a bit in that class from like the very first, when they tell you to draw your own face like a self-portrait.
00:31:18
Speaker
At the beginning, it was like that's how my art class was, but like at the beginning of the the semester or whatever, draw your own face. And then at the draw your own face. So like they teach you the techniques of how to draw Oh, you can see like side by side, like where you started and where you ended up.
00:31:37
Speaker
Yeah. Like a lot of people don't realize, you know, unless you've had an art class or you've studied it enough to realize this. But like back when I first started doing that crap, I did not know or realize that ah person's eyeballs, like if you draw an oval, which is going to be the shape of your face or your head.
00:31:59
Speaker
um the eyeballs are almost in the middle. Right. From top yeah to bottom. they're almost right I do remember learning that. Yeah. And I didn't know that. art class too when was like younger. Yeah.
00:32:11
Speaker
So that was one of the funny things. But anyhow, I i definitely improved a lot over that ah semester. And then I did the one art class in college, which did a lot of different types of let me think about this for a second there was a lot of charcoal pencils and don't remember if we used pastels or not but like pencil and charcoal were the two that really stand out that i remember using um one of them one of the projects that we did that i really liked was
00:32:54
Speaker
a a big piece of cloth was like draped over something. So like at a P it had a peak at the top and it was like down, you know, draped down and like all the different folds and things, the way that the cloth laid and you take your, don't remember what that sketch pad paper or whatever it is that they used.
00:33:16
Speaker
You take the whole thing and you take the side of your charcoal, um It's like a crayon. don't know. Stick. Right. Stick. Yeah. I'm forgetting the terminology for all this shit right now. Like it's been a long ass time. It has been artists of our ah within our listenership. Anybody who's an artist who knows these terms and is screaming at us right now. I apologize. Laughing at me. moron Yeah. The charcoal stick.
00:33:45
Speaker
Yeah. So you turn it on its side and you like darken the entire paper. Right. And then you use an eraser to like take away. yeah And make like lighter parts of it.
00:33:59
Speaker
i I liked how that turned out for me. And there was a couple other things. i don't remember. I remember doing those sorts of like projects and like exercises and art class.
00:34:13
Speaker
Like, well, we didn't even like fully do a lot of that because like. Most of my art class experiences were in elementary school when it was like compulsory. like That was the most consistent.
00:34:26
Speaker
Paper mache! Paper mache. i do remember doing that too. yeah um But I did take an art class in 7th grade. Which was like right after elementary school. um And it was okay.
00:34:43
Speaker
But I didn't love Like said, it's not like i've said like it's not my best medium you know that's not where i do a ton of great work so like if i and not the kind of person who can just sort of push through i can force myself to push through it and try to get better at stuff but like if i don't care enough i can't force myself to push through to like get better and and i like art but like i don't i'm not passionate about like visual art i mean i
00:35:16
Speaker
um And so, you know, once i got to seventh grade and my art class was like fine, but I wasn't like great at it. didn't really want to keep it up.
00:35:29
Speaker
So I just remembered back, you know, when the pandemic was fresh and people were spending a lot more time at home and like, yeah, you know, including me.
00:35:41
Speaker
no Including all of us. I was like, yeah what a fucking stupid thing oh my god i like I like didn't leave the house except for once a week to like go to the grocery store during that time you know what's funny though like at least a month um at least a month before I started to be told like you have to go into the office once a week but I was the only one going so like it wasn't like I was exposed to danger but Right. Like before that, like I was literally never leaving the house except for to go to the grocery store. And I think that's part of why I sort of went a little crazy.
00:36:16
Speaker
I still had to work, but it was just two or three days a week. It wasn't yeah it was it wasn't a full 10 hours or eight hours. It was just two or three right hours.
00:36:28
Speaker
um Anyhow, I won't go into the reasons why, but anyhow.
Pandemic Creativity: Breadmaking and Tie-Dye
00:36:33
Speaker
so I remember that time period kind of, you know, i wasn't really stir crazy. I was really happy being home with my kid.
00:36:43
Speaker
yeah um and just enjoying the time there you know at home with him but um I remember you know when when okay so food was getting kind of scarce bread prices were high or you know like ah but or the grocery stores were running out of bread faster or whatever it was yeah and people were like panic buying yeah yeah I remember going like I need to learn how to I need to learn how to make bread And so I did try this one recipe that was like a three or four ingredient recipe.
00:37:21
Speaker
And it turned out pretty, i won't say awful, but it wasn't great. For like a, just like a loaf of bread. Yeah. Cause it wasn't really like ah bread. It was really weird. It was really like kind of dry and hard.
00:37:39
Speaker
Um, it would, it would have been more of the type of thing that you would want to dip in your soup or something. Okay. So like less of like a sandwich bread and more of, yeah. And it wasn't, it was like, it was round and it wasn't high. Yeah. So it was only like three or four inches like in height, but it was.
00:38:01
Speaker
Was it like shaped like a, like a peasant loaf or a sourdough loaf or something? Yeah. Something like that. Okay. Yeah. So I don't remember even what the hell it was called. It might have been called Irish bread or some kind of thing like that. Oh, Irish soda bread.
00:38:16
Speaker
Yeah, that was probably it. Yeah, I think that was it. Yeah, remember that actually. I remember when you said you were trying that. And I took a picture of it probably because I know have a picture it.
00:38:27
Speaker
So that didn't turn out great, but I didn't have yeast at home. um So I couldn't do like normal loaves. Yeah. So that's why I tried that one. But then I, John ended up buying me some yeast. Like he found some at a store.
00:38:42
Speaker
yeah Oh yeah. Because people were people were buying out like the yeast and like other baking ingredients because they were all like trying to learn how to make bread or trying to but I remember sourdough starter. It was happening to a lot. Yeah. A lot of us were trying to make bread at home. Yeah. Yeah. yeah I remember that.
00:39:01
Speaker
Oh my God. um And the other thing that really started growing in my, in my bosom, in the bowels of my, I don't know what, in the pit of my despair. No, I don't know.
00:39:19
Speaker
In the colon of your soul.
00:39:23
Speaker
i um always was interested in tie dye and so like i started youtubing to do it but i ran across these videos that were more on the professional side of tie-dying rather than like the crafty like you know like the little kits you can buy those shirts would turn out way more like watered down looking like not you know they would just be kind of more muted or like lighter in color so yeah
00:39:59
Speaker
When I found the ones that were like people were using really professional dyes to do their stuff, I was like, oh, I want to learn that. That's what I want to learn. So i i watched so much of it and I figured out all the stuff I needed and I started to buy, you know, order my supplies and stuff.
00:40:16
Speaker
um I did make quite a few shirts I have made quite a few shirts but uh I don't get to spend as much time on that as I would like either but I do enjoy it but it's definitely a lot more work than you would think oh I yeah I i I've when I was younger we did a couple of projects ah like as a family of making tie-dye shirts and I remember remember the process being arduous yeah Um, yeah, I was just gonna say, because if you ever, I mean, I don't remember if you've ever given me the offer before, but if you ever had a hankering to make me a shirt, I would be very down with like a black and red spiral tie dye style.
00:41:01
Speaker
Yeah, I actually into that. I remember asking you about that. And I also remember learning about how people take black t-shirts and use bleach.
00:41:13
Speaker
Yes. That was actually the next thing I was going to say is I would also be very down with like a bleach ah bleached, uh, bleach job. And that one, like, I the kind of sporadic splotchy patterns with the bleach dye.
00:41:31
Speaker
So I did buy a pattern. Right. I did buy a couple of black t-shirts ah back then and have never, you know, done anything with them. So like, I still intend to do that eventually. Okay. Yeah.
00:41:47
Speaker
As long as you're okay with me eventually, like probably cutting the sleeves off of them and stuff. Oh, I don't care. I don't care. Like, yeah, I don't care. Just cause like i I have been in the back of my mind. I've been thinking, and this is actually, this ties into creativity as well I've been thinking about like ways to cut up some of my t-shirts to make them a little more like comfortable, especially for the summer. Cause like, I, I've never been the kind of person like this t-shirt I'm wearing like a big old, big old t-shirt from Blackcraft.
00:42:18
Speaker
Like the sleeves go all the way down to my elbow. And like, I've never liked the way that looks, but I've like been too afraid to permanently alter something yeah make it potentially worse um so I'm probably going to start on t-shirts I care less about but like I want to not have sleeves that go all the way down my elbow or even like the standard t-shirt length because like they're not usually this long like I like the shorter like closer to muscle ah yeah muscle tank but not quite
00:42:56
Speaker
um And I even have a t-shirt that is like supposed to be a muscle tank, but the shoulder, like the sleeves are, there are no sleeves, but the shoulder top, like the tops of the shoulders come down to like over the caps of my shoulders.
00:43:13
Speaker
And I don't like that look either. And so I'm like, I want to cut them up closer to like the middle of my shoulder. um And so like, I have been in the process of thinking like,
00:43:26
Speaker
Because especially with the warm months being nearly upon us, I want to like make some of these alterations so I can just sort of live my best summer life. Yeah. Without needing to feel the impulse to buy a bunch of old new like t-shirts or like tank tops or whatever. And that is a form of creativity. Yeah, it is.
00:43:49
Speaker
um yeah And I care a lot about my clothes, so i really want them to look good. So that's part of what's kept me from like doing it. Like I said, I don't want to fuck it up. right um But like I do want to do something different now. so Didn't Kat Von D back in the day cut up t-shirts and wear them? like Yeah, I really liked what she used to do.
00:44:13
Speaker
um she like with a lot of hers, she would like cut up the sides of the like she'd make them into tank tops first of all no and then she would cut up the sides and like cut um like within like from the sides cut into it so like you could tie pieces together yes the way that people tie like throw blankets that have those like cut into them like she would do that and like tie and she would cut the bottoms off too she would turn them into like tank tops and crop tops
00:44:47
Speaker
Um, and keep like the main pattern or design or whatever on the front or whatever. Yeah. And then she would do that. But like, it's harder for me. Look, I would do that if I had a whole bunch of shirts that were like way too big on me.
00:45:00
Speaker
Cause it's easier to do that and make it a little tighter. But like most of my t-shirts are exactly the tightness I want or too tight. Um, maybe some of those t-shirts I probably should give away, but, um,
00:45:16
Speaker
Yeah, like on her, like she, those t-shirts, they were originally t-shirts and they did not fit like t-shirts by the end. Right. Yeah, i I drew a lot of inspiration off of those looks.
00:45:27
Speaker
Yeah. For sure. i know that there's so many different ways of doing that.
Creative Clothing Alterations for Comfort
00:45:32
Speaker
Yeah. you know, like you could totally YouTube that as well. and like I could. i could.
00:45:38
Speaker
Yes. um If you end up cutting off the sleeves of whatever I make. You could totally use your the leftover sleeve pieces as a hair tie.
00:45:50
Speaker
could. and don't need to But I could. They could be repurposed in some way is all I mean. Yeah. Yeah. I am. Repurposing is another point of creativity.
00:46:04
Speaker
Yeah. That I do. i think I don't um dive enough into it. going to say enough because. that's a form of shooting on myself but I've not like I tend to not think of things like that unless there's like I have a need that needs to be filled ah hu currently I have like 700 scrunchies so I don't have any need for for anything to tie my hair up you could roll them somehow and make bracelets out of them or something I don't wear bracelets
00:46:41
Speaker
I really don't, i I don't even wear jewelry. Like. That's true. Like i I wear the jewelry that stays in permanently from like the piercings that I've gotten. Right.
00:46:52
Speaker
But I don't even wear like earling earrings in my lobes. Yeah. Once upon a time in like 2016, I attempted or began the process of um stretching them and starting to like wear plugs.
00:47:10
Speaker
Mm-hmm. But I didn't make it very far. I remember. And I can't remember why I stopped. But I wouldn't hate it. Yeah, I mean... i think the thing that I don't like especially is like... Once you take out the plugs and the lobes are just hanging.
00:47:26
Speaker
And like... you know, if you don't want your ears to look like that all the time, you would have to have reconstructive surgery. Yeah. And that really like, just seems like it's just not worth it. No, but that's, that's incentive to keep wearing the plugs, even if you don't stretch them further. Like, yeah, but whatever, like, it doesn't matter. um i never, i don't think I ever had the intention of going very big with them anyway, but I did start, I was, it was very small still, but like,
00:47:57
Speaker
um I forgot to tell you this and I i was reminded earlier by my mother. ah oh boy. So I needed to go over there to get something out of her garage that I left there. And when I pulled up, I saw these chairs by the curb of her next door neighbor.
00:48:15
Speaker
And i was like, um my gosh, those chairs look good. Like what's, you know, why are they there? like chairs Like dining room chairs. Okay. Um,
00:48:26
Speaker
And i was like, are they are they at the curb to be getting rid of or like are they there waiting for someone to come pick them up or I don't know. It just was like weird. So I i said, hey, you know, mom, ah are they getting rid of those chairs? Like, are they at the curb for garbage? And I'm pretty sure she said yes.
00:48:46
Speaker
was like, I want to go look at those chairs. it So I went over and I sat down in one of them, like two had arms and two did not like purposely, you know, not that they came off or broke or something, but like yeah two were designed with arms and two were designed without.
00:49:04
Speaker
Yes. And I sat in one that had arms and it was wide enough for my ass. So it wasn't like squeezing on me anywhere. And they felt very sturdy and very good quality.
00:49:17
Speaker
The only problem was that some of them had really bad shoe marks from like probably a dog. chewing on them that's probably why they were being thrown out exactly but they're they were so like such good quality and the size and everything else and they were black and the seat the wood part of the seat was just like a dark brown but like i was like i'm gonna fix these fuckers up i'm taking them and i took them and i put them into my mom's garage and so she earlier like couple hours ago she's like
00:49:52
Speaker
when are you going to come get these chairs? was just like, oh my God, I completely forgot about those chairs. So i was going to talk to you about when you painted your dining room set that you got.
00:50:04
Speaker
Because definitely... The shoddy ass job I did. um I'm definitely going to get some wood putty or wood filler.
00:50:15
Speaker
and fill in and try to recreate sand it a little bit for sure but yeah yeah um I'm gonna re try to reform the the side the per the excuse me me start that over I am, I'm going to try to reform the shape that was original, you know, is it just on the legs or is it like, else it's like the on the arms, on the back underside of the arms.
00:50:44
Speaker
Yeah. It's really weird. The legs don't seem to have much damage. It must've been a tall dog. Yeah. Yeah. So anyhow, it it didn't like bother the functionality Yeah.
00:50:59
Speaker
Like they weren't like falling apart or creaky because of whatever was chewed. So I'm like, I'm just going to repair these and repaint them. Like I want these yeah freaking chairs. yeah They're way better than the chairs I have now.
00:51:12
Speaker
Yeah. At my house. So yeah. any i I literally, when I painted my table and chairs, I literally just got like two or maybe three small cans like quart sized cans of matte black paint I actually think it might have been chalkboard paint um but that comes out matte black um and I got them from like Target when did I do that 2017 I did that like just after my ex and I moved into the apartment we lived in right
00:51:54
Speaker
So yeah, that was 2017. And there's lots of spots that we missed. My friend Amanda and I ah did it. She she helped me. And it was a lot of fun.
00:52:05
Speaker
But boy, howdy, did we miss spots. Is that the set you have now? Yeah. You still have it. Okay. Yeah. i am The other dining table that I got did not have matching chairs with it.
00:52:22
Speaker
So that dining table still at my ex's house. and I wouldn't have a place to put it anyway if I brought it here. So I took the one with chairs.
00:52:35
Speaker
That's fine. no Which is too... It is too bad because I really liked the yellow dining table. Do you remember that one? Was it the little one in the kitchen? Yeah, it was... a It was in the kitchen.
00:52:49
Speaker
like ah the Actually... The one I have with me now was only ever in the dining room when we lived in that house or when I was still living there. Right, right. um And he didn't want a table in the kitchen, but I brought that table home and I put it in the kitchen anyway.
00:53:05
Speaker
um And it was fine. It wasn't really in the way. like Right. it was, yeah, it was a weird shaped kitchen anyway, but like it really wasn't in the way.
00:53:16
Speaker
right no i do remember it and it was really cute yeah it was nice it looked like a little like little mexican style table bright yellow with like a blue stamped pattern along the edges and it had two sides like two drop two sides that would drop down Drop leaf, I think they call that. Yeah, drop leaf, I guess, is the word. And they were very, like, it was just like a piece of wood that you slid out to hold them up.
00:53:48
Speaker
So it wasn't, like, the sturdiest, but, like, you know, it worked. It functioned. And when it was fully open, it was, like, a nice, it was a decent size. If I had a bigger, if I had a dining room, I would i would have taken it.
00:54:03
Speaker
But don't have a dining room. barely have room for a table in the kitchen fucking kitchen.
00:54:11
Speaker
Yeah. So I'm kind of excited to see how my creative process goes with repairing pieces of furniture that I just yeah acquired for free. Do you think you're going stick with like the existing colors or?
Furniture Restoration: Creative Satisfaction
00:54:25
Speaker
yeah Like the seats, like I said, are brown, but like yeah the rest are black and I was just going to paint the whole thing black. um okay like are the seats like brown or are they like wood i cannot remember like are they like stained wood rather than like because i feel like where you can see like the wood grain right i don't remember right now brown would be like just like solid brown paint yeah i know i can't remember for sure right now but
00:54:59
Speaker
I did a quick Google google search before we recording before we started recording about the kind of paint to use and stuff like that. um But it recommends going over the furniture lightly with a fine-grained sandpaper to like rough up the texture of the wood so it takes the paint better. Yeah.
00:55:22
Speaker
Yeah. um So, yeah. um I might have to go through all of that. That's going to be labor-intensive. For sure. Yeah. But after I retire, I'm going to have lots of time. True.
00:55:36
Speaker
Indeed. can't wait.
00:55:41
Speaker
More than and a year away still, but. Yeah. But still. The time has been flying so fast. Like, I can't believe we're already almost halfway through this whole this year right now. Oh my God. It's insanity. you know it's like i And yet at the same time, like it feels like a hundred years because of fucking Trump. Yeah, there's that too. We're not going to get into that.
00:56:05
Speaker
no Last year, I remember going, what the hell? I can't believe this.
00:56:11
Speaker
I can't stop yawning now. I'm sorry. It's okay. Last year, I remember thinking, i can't believe this whole year is already gone and like how fast it went by. And then this year, it's like at least as fast it's just god i can't believe it you know well that's the thing about like the years of your life they only feel like they go faster the thing this is not i mean none of this is related to creativity really but the thing that like i have heard but i think is true and i subscribe to it is that life feels like it goes by faster when you have fewer
00:56:54
Speaker
new experiences and it's harder to have new experiences when you're like the older you get because things can only be new like once or twice huh um yeah you run out of things that you can do that are new yeah but it that like learning that or like hearing that definitely threw things into perspective for me of like damn i hope that i never fall into such a severe rut that like time just feels like it flies by because nothing ever changes in my life.
New Experiences and Life Design
00:57:28
Speaker
Like, sure. I don't like, you know, abrupt change. I don't like anything drastic or dramatic, but like intentional change I do like, and I want, and okay. it It actually does relate to creativity, I think, because that's like, there's like creativity that goes into designing what your life looks like.
00:57:51
Speaker
Yeah. Or finding ways of having new experiences. Yeah. Without having to like spend a lot of money on a vacation or something. Yeah.
00:58:02
Speaker
Like dump all your money on a new craft. Yeah, exactly. That you're only going to once and go like, fuck. Yeah. I wasted all this money. Yeah. Oh my God. You remember when I was making my bracelets and earrings?
00:58:15
Speaker
I do remember that. So like i had two cases ah to hold my... like the materials right the one was smaller and the back side the bottom side of it had the tools yeah you know pliers that like needle nose pliers and stuff like that and the other side was like all of my rainbow colored beads were in there mm-hmm And then the other case was like the bigger one and it had all the really pretty or more intricate looking beads and stuff like that.
00:58:48
Speaker
So the smaller one has been missing for, I don't even know how long now, like year, a year and a half, even like, I don't even know. Cause I remember taking it to work with me and like doing it on the bus.
00:59:03
Speaker
Like I, I made, you know, a couple of bracelets on the bus. So, I thought maybe it was buried in my Honda somewhere. Yeah.
00:59:15
Speaker
And it never turned up in there. I don't know where it is. And I'm just like, I don't know what, what the hell. So it's just, it pisses me off because I've been wanting to make more earrings specifically. Yeah. Um, yeah,
00:59:31
Speaker
Because I had the cool mushroom earring design and I made my own ones of those. Did I make you some of those? i think so. are you I think so, yeah. I made you Halloween bracelet. I remember the Halloween bracelet. I still have it but And I do think you made the earrings. I'm just trying to think where they were.
00:59:49
Speaker
But... So like I said, I don't wear jewelry. Right, right. I definitely want to make more earrings and, you know, as per usual, like sell them somewhere.
01:00:04
Speaker
Yeah. But like, I want to do it and I can't because I don't know where the frick that stupid case went. And I'm almost like tempted to go buy another one and start with that.
01:00:15
Speaker
I know. Don't do it. i'm just annoyed. Because I have all these other beads that I want to use and I've bought more beads even recently and i want to use them, but I don't have the damn tools.
01:00:28
Speaker
Oh my God. I'm so annoyed. Molly ADHD bullshit to the max. Yeah, it's true. But yeah. So, you know, I, I feel like the ADHD issues honestly get in the way of the creativity that I want to have.
01:00:46
Speaker
Yeah. You know, yeah ah Anyway.
Teasing a Special Surprise for the 50th Episode
01:00:54
Speaker
um Did we talk about the fun thing that's cooking?
01:01:00
Speaker
Not yet. yeah yeah So um do you want to introduce the fun thing? Yeah, I'll do that. The fun surprise-y thing?
01:01:11
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so like I was feeling a little creative yesterday. speaking of which. And started to design something and we are going to keep it a little secret for now.
01:01:27
Speaker
But it's going to coincide with our 50th episode drop to celebrate and commemorate our 50th. um yeah And we will give more details ah in the coming couple weeks or so.
01:01:44
Speaker
Yeah, probably like right before, not right before, but like the week before 49th episode. Oh yeah, we'll definitely be talking about it. That's when we'll probably announce it.
01:01:55
Speaker
But I'm excited for it. I can't wait.
01:02:00
Speaker
I'm excited to just possess it for myself, not not only for announcing it and sharing it. But I'm very, yeah, ah like ah it's fucking badass. I'm so stoked.
01:02:11
Speaker
please he It's honestly quite simple. um Nothing major and fancy, but it's going to be offered. Yeah. For more than one person. Let's just put it that way.
01:02:25
Speaker
More than 10 people. So, you know, opportunities abound.
01:02:36
Speaker
But yeah, so stay tuned. Stick around. That'll be, you know, five or six weeks from now. But, uh, we are already stoked about it. And so we couldn't help but start to tease.
01:02:50
Speaker
Hells yeah, dude. Whet the appetite. So yes, as we have mentioned, please go follow us on Patreon. You'll especially want to follow us on Patreon pertaining to our, ah announcement for our 50th episode.
01:03:03
Speaker
That is pertinent. So go check it out. Go give it a, give it a subscribe. And, Also follow us on Instagram. We don't post there often enough, but you know, we try, um but it's there.
01:03:19
Speaker
And that is at soul pod, the podcast. Oh, if it's not, I mean, all of them are fucking in the description anyway, but a Patreon URL is patreon.com slash soul pod podcast.
01:03:32
Speaker
And our email can be found at soulpotthepodcast at gmail.com at gmail.com
01:03:43
Speaker
again all down in the description it's there we love to hear from you so please reach out please leave comments please tell us your thoughts we love hearing from you and interacting tell us about your favorite way to be creative oh my god yes Oh my god, yes. We need better ideas. P-L-Z, please.
01:04:08
Speaker
Please. need better ideas, but also like I like to watch or or learn of people's like creative interests and pursuits. Hell yeah, dude. Share your shit, dudes.
01:04:20
Speaker
I'm excited. i want to know. Fuck yeah.
01:04:24
Speaker
I'm tired, Molly. Me too. Let's go. Let's put this bitch to bed.
01:04:33
Speaker
Good night, you guys. We love you. We're grateful for you. Good night.