When I first discovered Lauren’s blog, she had just announced her move to South Korea. Immediately, I felt a connection to her through her posts because we both do Project Life and I am dreaming about teaching abroad someday too! I love that we have several things in common, including our love for creativity. It is such a pleasure having Lauren on the blog today, despite her busy schedule with making necessary preparations for the big move. Read on and be inspired by her creativity!
Tell me about yourself. Hi! I’m Lauren from This Handmade Circus. I’m 25, I’ve been married for 4 years and currently live in Georgia, but we are preparing to moving to South Korea this summer for teaching jobs. I really love any kind of crime TV show, I am unashamed about my addiction to Young Adult Fiction novels and I could eat soup at every meal. I truly believe laughing should be an Olympic sport. And I once tried to not buy anything for a year to see if I could recycle, do without or make it myself. Also, I want to make ALL the things.
What is one weird or interesting fact about you? In college I owned a hedgehog named Stella.
What do you do to express your creativity? I seriously have creativity ADHD. I have a crazy huge pile of unfinished projects because I see something and immediately try to make it. I have used my love for making things to decorate our entire home, our wedding, most gifts I give are some kind of DIY, I record our life with scrapbooks and photo albums. I try to find a way to use my hands as much as I can in whatever project, event or idea I’m working on.
How did you get started doing this? As a kid I owned EVERY art kit there was. Light Bright, Spirograph, sand art, anything Lisa Frank, Spin art, felt coloring pages, paper bead rolling. I loved it all, I wanted to learn how to do it all and still do! Which is my greatest weakness/strength. I am constantly learning new techniques and trying new things.
What do you love most about what you do to be creative? I love the finished project. I love being able to display something that I’ve handmade and use it as a way to remember a time or event or emotion and enjoy it.
Who or what inspires you? I am so in love with blogs and Pinterest, but sometimes I think they un-inspire me! I have to be really careful as sometimes I will confuse ‘inspiration’ with just wanting to make what someone else did. Which there is nothing wrong with, because there are some awesome things out there! But, I really love solving problems. So I draw a lot of my ideas from finding a need and filling it with a DIY project. Like with my washi tape box. I needed somewhere to store all my tapes and had found some things I liked but weren’t perfect for me or were too expensive. So I made something all my own and it was the best feeling and it sparked a ton more ideas for future projects.
How do you stay inspired? What do you do when you feel stuck or uninspired? When I do feel stuck, I go to the greats. I can always find an idea or a million from Elise, Caylee, Elsie and Emma, NaNa, Heather. I will force myself to create a Pinterest project if I really am stuck and just need to start a new project, which will in turn get my going and spark some interest in something and next thing I know I’m convinced I can make an entire quilt in one night. (this may have happened recently….) I also am in crazy love with the Better Homes and Garden DIY magazine!
Why do you do what you do? What motivates you to be creative? Again, I think a lot of the projects I do are to fill a need. Like decorating our home. One of my biggest passions right now is scrapbooking and doing Project Life. PL keeps me being crafty on a consistent basis and helps me record our life, which is so, so important to me. But, I also have a constant need to create. I love working with my hands, choosing color schemes and spray painting things.
Describe your creative style. Ack. This is too hard to answer. I constantly go back and forth from loving white space and minimalism and then back to being in love with all the fantastic products out there and loving color too much! I like layers in projects and I like a good focal point. I think my style has been changing a lot recently and I like that, I just haven’t quite landed on words to describe it yet.
Name your top five favorite tools or products.
- Micron Pen
- Hole puncher
- Paper cutter
- Tape runner
- Washi tape
I could conquer the world with these 5 things.
Are you an early bird or a night owl? When are you most productive? Mornings are a sin against mankind. Seriously. I work way into the night frequently, but my optimal time is 2pm to about 6pm. There’s something about that afternoon light that gives me superhuman productivity and ideas.
What project(s) are you currently working on? I am currently trying to wrap all my unfinished projects up since were moving! I’m trying to finish my scrapbook from our summer cross country trip, I’m trying to make a ton of mini books about our time here in GA, and I also learned how to crochet recently so I’m trying to get all my leftover yarn made into some scarves (which makes perfect sense since summer just hit), oh and I’m learning calligraphy and working on a few secret blog projects!
If you had to be a color in a crayon box, which color would you be? That tealish, blue color that you actually really like and goes surprisingly well with colors you didn’t expect it to, but you kind of feel like it’s being sarcastic about not being blue but not being green.
If you could possess a super power, which one would you choose? Invisibility. I’m super nosy and want to know all about people’s private conversations and what famous people eat for dinner and what they watch on TV.
What is your favorite quote? This is what I would consider my life verse that I try to live by.
Isaiah 61:1-2
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn.
Thank you so much for having me Amelia! Be sure to stop by the blog to check out project tutorials and other random musings and then join me on Instagram and we can take tons of #whereistand photos!
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Creative Conversations is a blog series getting to know fellow creatives and friends that I’ve made through the internet. Read more about Creative Conversations here.
Well, hello Lauren! I am happy to have been introduced to you! I resonated with so many of your thoughts. I am a DIYer too and love your phrase “creativity ADHD”. It is always so great to hear how others approach creativity and you have given me things to think about. Thank you!
Thank you! Yes, falling into one category as a crafter is such a joke!
I have it too !
Thanks so much for having me Amelia! This was so fun and I love reading the others and seeing what sparks other peoples creative interest!
Loved having you on the blog! And I so enjoy reading about how others get inspired and creative too!
loved to read this conversation. Thanks for sharing Lauren. That washi box is great!
Amelia, you really ask such great questions in this series.
Lauren, I loved reading your words and learning more about you. You are one of the loveliest people I’ve ever “met”.
Thank you, Caylee! I so enjoyed getting to know more about Lauren too!