Sometimes it’s the funnest to fill a bottle with all kinds of stuff and that’s all.We’ve been having a blast with diy creating and our projects zone at Reyes Adobe Days. Join us tomorrow for more fun tomorrow from 11am-4pm at Reyes Adobe Park in Agoura Hills.
I have been working on CReATE STUDIO’s mission for quite a while though the process is not so easy. To boil down our beliefs and intentions into a simple paragraph that becomes the beacon for the company for all time. In part it’s been hard to fine tune the mission because the studio, from it’s inception is and has been an organic unfolding of one idea that wove into another, and then another, and on and on.
Today, I had a spark of word inspiration so I made an adjustment to our mini “working” mission statement on our About page. I surprised myself when I wrote the last line “and engaged in an ongoing effort to lighten our carbon footprint along the way.” Not because I didn’t know this was important to me but because I wondered how this is the piece of my intention had been missing from our statement! It has long been my personal mission to recycle, to reuse and to be thoughtful about my use of things and where they go. Now with one simple sentence I have the words to articulate it in the studio’s intention. Isn’t that the whole point of a mission? It’s just as much of not more a beacon for me, for the studio as it is for anyone that might want to know it.
Our mission is in the value of recycling and our way is by reuse. The reuse of materials, the providing of them for others to see potential and possibility in, to be inspired by. That’s our belief in the win/win that recycling is. As author Pam Shoemaker put it, “When you put the whole picture together, recycling is the right thing to do.” Yes, the big picture is the whole thing and that’s our mission.
We’re looking forward to hosting another Free Pinspired Family Crafternoon this Sunday, August 12th at the Thousand Oaks Library from 1-4pm.
We’ll be creating all things Mason Jar! Come join the crafty fun!
Little furniture is the funnest!
Do you have a young decorator at home?
We’re so excited about our upcoming Eggcellent Eco Doll House Mini Craft Camp next week were we’ll decorate mini rooms with egg carton based furniture like this!
Sign your kids up with us 8/6-8/8 from 9am to 12pm They’ll create the interiors of their dreams with egg carton flair! Perfect for kids age 6 and up.
We’re honored to be included in Whitney Schwartz’s Healthy Lifestyle Includes Reusing, Recycling Trash article on page 32 of last week’s issue of The Acorn Newspaper mentioned as one of the local places that reuse and recycle to help our planet! We love bridging a connection between creativity and recycling for reuse. Whitney’s article gave us inspiration as we learned in her article about other ways local businesses are making an environmental connection.
Love these cactus friends made from a Christmas sock! The best part was the satisfaction the kids got from making them!
Love this no-sew bag for the on-the-go-gal. Hot glue works so well with fabric’s porous nature.
Besides being chic, this bag is mindful, it’s made from a cast-off scrap from my daughters sweater revamp which keeps it in-style instead of in-landfill! Hurray!
Going through oodles of dried out markers we collected from our CReATE ON YOUR CAMPUS connections. We’ll send them on to @crayola where they will become fuel through their Color Cycle program. That’s resourceful!
If I told you CReATE STUDIO had a distant connection to an Italian city would you believe it? Let’s go back in time the days of World War ll when a small group of people took matters into their own hands to provide the children of their town with enriching early childhood education with a curious, hands-on foundation.
Legend has it, they gathered everyday things (something we know a lot about) to use as mediums for learning and discovery. Whatever was around anyone’s house was what was incorporated I am told. The town of Reggio Emilia today still adopts original principals for learning through experience and connection in a curriculum also used around the world and known as Reggio Emilia. We even have a Reggio inspired preschool in our own backyard, Oak Park Neighborhood School. Reggio’s kind of child centered learning makes sense to me because I see it everyday as children of all ages create through their own curious processes in our open-ended studio. I am not of a mind to teach but I do find the Reggio spirit flitting about our studio without our even realizing it. It seems that natural materials are often used in Reggio inspiration today but in our case, cardboard pieces, tin cans and twist ties do a similar job of connecting kids to their own big ideas and explorations as well as in working collaboratively with friends.
Are you curious to know the Reggio mindset? I like An Everyday Story’s explanation and find our studio spirit echoed therein.
See what I see in kids, what your kids see. The next time you head out on a walk, notice what your kids are drawn to and see if you can keep a thread of that interest intact for a few minutes or the whole afternoon through conversation or creation. Was it about color, speed or texture? With your own curiosity you are on your way to noting the world through your kids eyes.