In Celebration of Creativity

It occurred to me yesterday that this is an appropriate time of year to be celebrating creativity in all its forms. Summer itself is such a time of creation and achievement as the garden blooms in full glory, birds and animals rear their young and there is so much abundant food for all. Lammas, or Lughnasadh, the festival celebrating the harvest of the grain is fast approaching, on 1st August. The name 'Lughnasadh' tells us it was associated with the Irish God Lugh, who was renowned as a craftsman. And what better metaphor for the completion of a creative endeavour than that of the harvest?



Perhaps subconsciously influenced by the season, I've been in the middle of quite a creative flurry myself. Here's a photo of the fairy jar I posted about a little while back. It's finally completed and I'll be giving it to my friend when I see her later today. Sorry the photo isn't great, but they turn out to be amazingly difficult to photograph well - something to do with the light reflecting off the glass. It looks better in real life and I'm pretty pleased with it, especially as it's my first attempt.

I've also been busy making a couple of masks and a few other Pagan-y bits and pieces, such as painted candle-jars, hand-painted boxes and Goddess statuettes and plaques. My friends at the 'Star of Venus' shop in Carmarthen had said they may be interested in stocking some of my crafts, so yesterday I took a boxful in for them to have a look at. To my delight, they liked them and want to sell them in the shop, so if you want to bag yourself a Moonroot original, get down there!

Here's a couple of photos of the masks I took down, first a 'Star of the Sea' one:

And a 'Woodland Spirit' one:

I'm just hoping the good people of Carmarthen like them! I have an owl one and a cat one almost finished, so I'm now feeling very motivated to get those done too.

In the meantime, on another creative tack, there's jam to be made from all the gorgeous berries in the garden, my elderflower champagne is just about ready to drink (those bottles which didn't explode, that is!), and my friend Donald has tempted me greatly with the idea of making fruit flavoured vodkas. Raspberry vodka anyone? Or blackcurrant? Yum!

I love that creativity can take so many forms. Handicrafts, music, cookery, gardening, clothing, artwork, writing, dancing... the human urge to celebrate life and express oneself is wonderful, and the only limit is imagination. Let's celebrate summer and the harvest by giving our creativity full reign. What are you going to have fun creating?