Amanda Blake Soule

I bought this book for myself with birthday money--in May--and I've been waiting ever since for its publication. It arrived in the mail yesterday, just when I was desperately needing a little rejuvenation. I spent 45 minutes sitting in a coffee shop last night, reading and sipping from my latest addiction: ginger-lemon iced tea. (Ahhh.) Today, I've already finished reading every word. (In fact, that's my only quibble with the book; I want more!)

I love Soulemama's blog. I've read every one of show more her posts and eagerly anticipate reading a new one each day. So of course I was thrilled that she's published another book. And I love it for the same reason I love her blog: it describes lovely projects, but behind them lies an ideal--not just a project idea. The life that is revealed through her writing is mindful, beautiful, joyful, and, yes, soulful, and so inspiring to me.

There is much to love in this book. I love that her projects are not just about making a thing, but are about making a life, a home, a refuge, a tradition. I love that it's about re-using materials--and she clearly really means it, as all the photos show repurposed materials (unlike in some books I've seen). Even the matte pages suggest her environmental sensitivity. I love that things don't look too perfect--they look do-able and real and heartfelt.

Many of these ideas I already do--thrift shopping almost exclusively, cloth diapering, making my own pads, using children's art in creative ways. But she has given me more ideas, and inspired me to try some new things. I will definitely be making a rag rug, and a potholder, and a kids-art-decoupaged tray, and an "art and hooks rack," a healing basket... And I hope, in the process, to help make a home and a family life as beautiful as the vision Amanda shares with us here and on her blog. show less

The Creative Family: How To Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections by Amanda Blake Soule. Library section 8 A: Life Skills, Family Activities. Age: adult. Gosh, but I wish I’d had this book as a young parent. It’s not just a book of craft projects; it is a holistic plan – a blueprint, an ethos -- of how to live a creative life as a family unit. Wow. This lady has done some thinking about creativity, let me tell you, and I am an artist and former art teacher, so you’d show more think I’d know all this. Hah! She floored me with her very basic ideas about nurturing imagination and creative living – how creativity is born out of gratitude for the world we live in, and how it can grow and be sustained.
I did many things with my children either because they were just plain fun or because my Mom had done them with us when I was a child. But this book shows how endless creativity lies at the center of every mindful and loving family, and that with basic household items and a bit of patience and support, family imagination and creativity can flower and create meaningful experiences shared between all family members. It can become a way of life. That’s remarkable. She divides this book into four areas of focus: the self – the discovery and continuance of your own creative passions and interests; the child – the development and nurturing of your child’s growing, creative spirit; the family – the deepening of parent-child bonds through the acts of creating together; and the community – the ways in which we can connect with others around us, both locally and globally, through creative living.
She stresses the fact that as parents we can model creativity for our children. For example, my mother is a quiltmaker. For many years she led a group of church ladies who made quilts to raise money for church projects. Naturally I learned quiltmaking through osmosis, becoming a quilt maker and selling my quilts by the time I left college. I had an uncle who helped me make my first big oil painting out of doors, just like the Impressionists, I later learned. That experience led me to become a painting major in college. I had a grandfather who shared the forest with us on Labor Day reunions in the Pennsylvania forest. He’d take us on hikes, showing us different plants, fungi, dropped deer antlers, and such. He taught us to be still, listen and observe nature in all its beauty and complexity. Is it any wonder my two brothers became foresters? An old lady at the same reunion would bring items from the woods to decorate our dining table – a bit of moss, a lovely rounded pebble, the first red leaves of fall. Gifts from the forest! There it is, that gratitude to God for our natural world.
I am sure you all have adults in your lives who have shared their creativity with you and taught and encouraged you to be creative, observant and imaginative. What’s unique about this book is that the author shows how creativity and imagination arises out of gratitude for all we’ve been given. Therefore this book is not just a list of projects you can do with your children; it is a holistic way of seeing creative expression as a way of life, as a way of living mindfully in the world. As you encourage your children to create things and get purposefully messy, you kick start your own creativity and rediscover the joy of creation you had as a child. And the circle goes round and round.
Chapter headings are Gathering, Playing, Living, Connecting. Whether you are a parent, grandparent, parent to be, or child caregiver, borrow this wonderful “creativity bible” from the library and spend some time with it. Our children grow up so fast. We owe it to them to help them learn to live creatively, rather than just plopping them down in front of electronic babysitters. We can learn to live, and teach them to live, creatively, mindfully and intentionally. When grown, they will be responsible for conserving and saving this planet, so we need to equip them to come up with creative ways to do so. This book is a primer for that. Enjoy your kids and family life together with this super, super book. show less

This book is pure, unadulterated creative dynamite! I wanted to review this book knowing that I would enjoy it, but I had no idea to what extent it would challenge my family and I. Amanda and the rest of the Soule family do an excellent job in this book of inspiring creativity, of living artfully and of helping other families reach their creative potential as well. Last night, after reading a little over half of the book throughout the day, I could not sleep for hours (and I usually have no show more problem) but my mind was stewing, in hard-core overdrive imagining all the fun things we can do together as a family, thinking of all the neat projects that my two little boys are old enough to do now that are in this book!

Some of the exciting projects include little hands learning to felt, sew, make stuffed art, knit, and embroider. Other projects that stood out to me were family drawing time, making traditions, handmade holidays, art placemats, and "craftivisim" . If you have thought about the level of creativity in your house, and desire it to ebb and flow out of all of you and yours, The Creative Family by Amanda Blake will be a sweet dream that can be your new reality, an amazing place that after you have entered you'll know you just gotta stay. The best thing is that kids are drawn to create and it need not be something you are apprehensive about, take it from Soule, she believes that, " as human beings, we are all born with the ability, the desire, the passion, and the drive to be creative. We may become anxious about "teaching" creativity to our children, but there is really no need for us to teach. They know how to be creative. The know it with every ounce of their being- it isn't conscious or rational. It is simply who they are. Until somethings stands in their way [...]they will be creative" (p. 13).

Consider me inspired: Yesterday I set up an inspiration wire (p. 21), and several times I noticed my little one checking out his art on the wall with intense pride. I went out and found some things that our art cabinet (dresser)(p. 25) was in need of, and I was dying to do the projects in the book. Today, after reading the section on letting your kids use good quality things I (must admit reluctantly) let my four-year-old paint with my paint brushes...the results were just beautiful, let me tell you that next time I will not hesitate, he can use my brush! This weekend we are going to do the freezer-paper stenciling (p. 74) after I find the shirts we need, and because our "inspiration wire" is already way too full I am going to put together some sturdy art clips (p. 83) up at some point in the near future. The project that I am incredibly excited about though, and have already been eyeing materials for is the incredible "Banging Wall" (p. 197) I cannot wait to get that up in our backyard! Those are the projects that have inspired me, since yesterday...and there are many more in this book waiting to be used as well.

One of my favourite aspects of this book is the desire to bless others with your art, for whom you want to express love or care for. Here is an especially great quote on just that, Soule says, " Living a creative live is made all the more fulfilling and rewarding when we are creating with, for or because of others. Much creative drive is certainly internally driven, but there is such benefit to creating beyond ourselves, beyond our family, and beyond our homes, for our community and the world around us. Connecting with and creating with others can be a powerful and inspiring act, as well as a wonderful gift for our children, teaching them how to connect and share their own passions with others" (p. 191). It is beautiful to allow art to not only influence your family, but to impact those around you as well. Kids and parents alike learn life lessons from such acts.

This is one of those books that come around very much too infrequently that you would like to buy 100 of and give one to all your friends because you know they would love it too...but then you do the calculations and realize that would not go over too well with family budgeting. No, seriously I will buy this book for several of my close friends who I know will love it just as much as me, and to all the rest of my friends who would also love it just as much I will give it the highest recommendations possible. All I can say, if you believe in creativity, or would like to start...buy this book and you will want all your friends to buy it too!

The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule
Available on April 1st show less

I've been on a sewing/crafting/repurposing kick lately...especially after successfully managing to make Willow an awesome hand sewn stuffed cat doll for Christmas. I kindof see it as the natural evolution of my pregnancy nesting :). This book is amazingly inspirational--lots of neat ideas, but those are, to be honest, a dime a dozen. The real value of this book lies in the author's introductions and sidebars to each section. She sees thrifting, crafting, and repurposing as a way to connect show more with her children, her family, and the world around her--the entire book just feels very heartfelt and honest. I appreciate the tone of this book...definitely makes me want to bite the bullet, buy a sewing machine, and start crafting! (In the meantime, I'm thinking I might have just enough time to hand stitch a birthday banner for Willow. Yay inspiration!)

If I had the disposable income, and hasn't resolved to not buy any books this year, I would totally go get this book tomorrow. show less