Make Do Play - Week Two

Last week I wrote about my first seven days of the 'Make Do Play' challenge. Reflecting on the activities, I realised that I was looking forward to the emails arriving as they prompted me to try something different, and fun, each day. A little nudge of creativity sometimes pushed me out of my routine, and other times just helped me to find the creativity within my routine.

Day Eight

Singing

I didn't take a video as, maybe strangely for someone who trained in performance (a long time ago!), I get a bit camera shy, even when I'm just filming myself on my own!

However, I did find out which song was Number One in the UK charts on the day I was born, and sang it to myself for the rest of the afternoon. The website I found it on also provided more entertainment as a couple of friends and I found each others birthday songs, and we had fun trying to sing all of them!

 

Image Source: mybirthdayhits.co.uk

The website I screenshotted the above images from revealed the UK Chart Number One for each birthday, so I felt so old while I was completing this challenge! However between friends we managed to find the humour in singing along to songs we hadn't thought about for years, and reminiscing about our teenage years. 

Music can provoke all sorts of memories: I associated certain songs with particular people - some pieces remind me of a specific time or place, and music definitely affects my mood. My favourite song to cheer myself up is 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams - it does what it says on the tin!

Day Nine

Craft Making

This prompt made me smile! I was at home for lunch, so I had a simple meal of rice cakes with ham and cheese. It took me a while, playing around with the letters to make up new words, but I ended up finding a food that I think I would have much preferred to what I had!

It took me a while to create a word that I was happy with, as my invented word, but as soon as it fell into place, I knew exactly what it meant! 

I love words, and language, and finding out the etymology of words and phrases is endlessly fascinating for me. I found this challenge particularly appropriate as we approached the beginning of Shakespeare Week, as the Bard is credited with the creation of many of the words we use every day. I'm not even going to pretend that my made-up word is approaching that level of eloquence, but you never know, maybe people will be using my word in the centuries ahead!

Day Ten

Dancing

Can we consider stillness 'dancing'? Yes: thinking about this question provoked me to consider the poetic notion that all movement could be considered a sort of dance, and the moments of silence between the motion serve to highlight, amplify, and allow appreciation of the dance.

Last year I took up Yoga, and found that not only was it great exercise, the stillness and potential movement found in the poses energised my mind as well as my body. I try to practise several times a week, and one of the moments I enjoy is when I relax my body into a pose, and just hold there for several breaths. I always try and focus on an affirmation while I practise, whether it's something that I'm grateful for, something that I aspire to, or a reason to find happiness, and I always feel refreshed and rejuvenated afterwards.

Day Eleven

Drawing

I didn't particularly stick to the task on this one! But, that's all part of being creative, right??

When this prompt came through I immediately thought of a ball of wool that a friend had given to me months ago: it's a really unusual and striking colour combination of blues and purples, and I had wanted to do something with it for ages, but I couldn't think of what to use it for. So I set my mind to it and started crafting...

 

 

I used a 4.0mm crochet hook, and did one full round in single crochet before using a double stitch to complete the pattern, putting the hook through the front loop only to create a slightly ridged effect. When I got to the top I used a lilac yarn (because I ran out of the original, and I think the lilac complements the colours beautifully) to finish off with two rounds of single crochet, then did a double stitch back and forth to create the button fastening loop.

I'm really pleased with this Kindle case - I'd needed something to cover one of my most precious possessions, and the colours in this make it really pop! 

Day Twelve

Craft Making

This challenge felt more like Tai-Chi, or dance, rather than craft-making (although I think I fulfilled that brief with yesterday's challenge, so never mind!)

I enjoyed the movement - I had some quite soothing music playing at the time, and it was raining outside so the combination of sounds, breath and movement was extremely relaxing. Just feeling my body move through space was really therapeutic and I felt much calmer and more connected to my body afterwards. I also found that I had more energy afterwards and ended up cracking on with some work for university that I had been a bit stuck on! 

Calming my body and mind really helped me free up some brain space, and I will definitely use this technique in the future, even if I did feel a little bit daft at first!

Day Thirteen

Dancing

This made me laugh out loud when I saw the prompt! I use a lot of emoji's in my messaging, and there was actually a really interesting piece of news recently which indicated that millennials' are changing the way English language is used in communication, and that the use of emoji's is rising rapidly.

 

Basically, because so much more communication is online or virtual these days, and less face-to-face, or verbal, the use of non-verbal identifiers can indicate vocal tone in the absence of the voice. For example; texting 'yes', and texting 'yes.' carries different connotations: the use of the full-stop in the second example indicates annoyance, abruptness, and signals an end to the conversation. 

So, using emoji's can soften the blow, somewhat: by referencing facial expressions, tone can be inferred through the written words. By adding a funny picture to the end of a phrase, the overall expression can be determined, which can avoid awkward situations, or misunderstandings, further down the line.

I didn't particularly enjoy this challenge, as I felt a little bit silly, but I challenged myself to do it, and I made my boyfriend laugh (on a very stressful day for him) when I texted the boomerang to him, so that was a nice feeling!

Day Fourteen

Drawing

Since I was introduced to the concept of mindfulness drawing, I've really enjoyed this activity. I often don't think about it as something in my calm-down toolkit, so the prompt was very welcome!

While I was doodling I had the washing machine on, and could hear the radiator clicking as it cooled down. I had the television on in the background and an action movie was playing. I received three notifications on my phone during the doodle, and outside I could hear a car going past, a door slamming, two builders having a conversation, and the birds twittering in the trees by the window.

Can you see all of that in there??

Conclusion: End of Week Two

Out of the prompts this week, I most enjoyed the mindfulness drawing: I tapped into my creativity to help me depict sound, and I find the process really relaxing.
The prompt that I felt I had achieved the most with was the colour-challenge, as I made something that I will use, and I always feel a sense of satisfaction when I create something beautiful, or useful (or both) myself.
I felt as though this week pushed me a little more out of my comfort zone, especially with the emoji challenge. I don't particularly think it will be useful to me in the future, but I made someone I care about smile, so that's a success in my book! I also felt a little challenged by the craft/tai-chi-style prompt, but I think that this technique is something that helped me overcome a problem at the time, and maybe will do again - especially as I'm coming towards dissertation writing season!

During the week there was a lovely campaign launched; the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance, which promotes the arts and cultural activities as a contributor to good physical and mental health. I will be following this project with great interest as they attempt to increase awareness of the link between arts and health.