Freya West

Burlesque Warrior, Fire Eater, and Headmistress

Creative Challenge: Dreams


via Elfleda

I tend to have very vivid and weird dreams. In one recent one, Barack Obama came to a cookout I was at to eat peanut butter and chocolate cookies and tell me he met a gypsy fortune teller who had a cryptic mission for me. In another I had to fly over a desert with a clan of butterflies in order to deliver a package to a dwarf living in a giant tree. Whether or not you believe your dreams inform your daily life, I want to see, touch and feel them.

Don’t worry about your dreams being boring or fragmented, just give us some sort of dreamy picture. If you opened a bank account, was your banker covered from head to toe in tattoos? Or was the bank’s alligator mascot actually a living cartoon? Just go with whatever catches you.

If you don’t remember your dreams, try setting your alarm for 10 to 15 minutes before you need to, turn off the early alarm, and you should fall into a short REM sleep long enough to have a dream. Keep a journal and pen beside your ed and write down every detail you can think of as soon as you get up. Draw me a picture if that’s all you’ve got, or make a mosaic of the imagery.

You can tell us the story of one dream, or make a compilation of several, but keep a good record and see how that influences your creative pursuits. Your subconscious might be trying to help you with a break through and all you need to do is just listen.

As per usual, you will have two weeks to submit your dreams. The deadline is Sunday, March 1st, at midnight. Ready? email me!

Creative Challenge: Eye of the Beholder


via Will Merydith

Despite the photo, this challenge really has nothing to do with Dungeons and Dragons. But I think I’m hilar anyway.

For the next two weeks, I challenge you to show me something unusual and beautiful. Something that most people don’t seem to understand, but you find riveting. Maybe you have an affinity for the hum of your air conditioner, or the arrangement of the bricks outside your house. Take a photo, write a sonnet, or sculpt a monument to the apple of your eye that most simply pass by.

The deadline for challenge submissions is Sunday, February 1st, at midnight. Feel free to post questions or comments here, and I’ll do my best to help out if you need it.

Submit here.

These challenges have been really surprising to me to see what a wide range of interests and specialties we all have. Thank you so much for your participation, and if you have any ideas for future challenges, let me know.

Start Something Challenge Responses!

Mawning all!

I’m so excited about everyone’s responses here! You guys stepped it up these past two weeks.

Jasmine:
“I have started: packing my backpack for our South America trip! Also, a 6″ hair straightener that is so totally coming with me.”

Keith:
“I’ve been stuck on the next chapter of my fantasy novel for the past two weeks. I’ve been spending a lot of hours laying in bed brainstorming to no avail, but this week I just sat down and started writing. Things pieced themselves together in a delightful marathon session of writing where I cranked through a pretty good first draft. I was so enraptured I didn’t even notice the awkward, contorting way I was sitting in my chair for eight hours. Here’s a sample:”

“And I,” he paused, bowing for dramatic effect, “am Brother Madrigal.” The silence was so thick that glasses were heard clinking behind the far-away bar; a breathless swear from tender to bar-back: /clean faster/. “There are many names for what I am,” he named them off slowly, exaggeratively, as he paced about the stage, dragging his whip at his side. “Priest, cleric, shaman, minister, parson, vicar, shepherd, friar. Man of the cloth. Man of the cloth and staff I am, ordained in eighteen religions, including yours.” His voice was very deep and hinted at an ancient wisdom. Yet outright, he looked a bare-chested, overweight fool, covered by a thick coat of wiry chest hair. “You may call me Brother. For though I walk the path of your gods and mine, I am a father to none. You may call me Madrigal, though you will die on my blade sooner than you will hear me sing. So do not ask. You may call me Brother Madrigal or you may call me Madrigal. I am sorry to say, but there is no short way to say my name.”

“Mad!” someone shouted from the crowd. Laughter arose. “He’s mad! Get him off the stage.”

Kevin:
Kevin’s started writing a hilarious and adorable song called, Bathroom Attendant

Kris:
“This is a big deal to me. 🙂

I’ve started training for the Music City Marathon on April 25th.”

Ashe:
Ms. Ashe Mischief, who wrote a guest post for us last week, started selling lovely goodies on her Etsy store!

And as for me, I’ve made a re-dedication to getting fit this year. I would like to be in much better physical shape not so much to lose weight as to be able to dance more freely and focus on my moves rather than catching my breath. I’ve started doing yoga everyday, even if it’s just meditative, and I have jumped on the hooping bandwagon and ordered the Hoop it Off kit with the Spinderella hoop. I’ve heard it’s the perfect complement to yoga and burlesque, so I’ll let you know how it goes!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated!

Start Something: Challenge Reminder!

Happy Monday loves!

So I’ve heard back that a week is not long enough for the challenges so I’m extending them to two weeks. If you’ve already completed the Start Something Challenge, you’re ahead of the game. Just remember to please email me your project ideas, photos, or other challenge related materials so I can share them with everybody.

If you’re still working on it, the deadline is Sunday, January 18th, at midnight.

Dress Up Challenge Responses: Take Two

Turns out a couple of people did respond to the last challenge, and I would be remiss not to include them.

Jasmine:
For NYE, I wore a giant gold lamé tutu, a black velvet tuxedo jacket, black hose & heels, and gold accessories including gold fingernail polish, a bell anklet and a huge rock in my left ear!

I didn’t have a theme but I was the most festively attired person downtown!

Kris:
Made a video of his, er, outfit.

And lastly, I don’t have photos, but here’s my best Polyvore impression of my attire. I built it entirely around my Christmas present to me, my Corso Como Booties:

Creative Challenge: Start Something


via The Bottomless Paddling Pool

The first challenge of the new year! Woo woo!

Just as a few weeks ago I asked you to finish something, this week I want you to start something new. Maybe it’s a website to showcase your brilliance, or maybe you just need to clean your room, but whatever it is, start it this week, and let me know what you did! If you need help, read my very first FnF post on how to start.

As for me, I need to start organizing my workspace, cleaning up some tags and categories here on FnF, send out more freelance queries, and start writing more prose. If you’re uncertain as what to do, or just what to do first, sign up at 43 Things with a list of accomplishments you’d like, and see what inspires you most.

ETA: Challenges, starting with this one, will now take place over two weeks. So the deadline for this challenge is on January 18th midnight your time. I will be posting a few reminders as well.

Happy New Year!

2008_12_fireworks_grundlepuck
via Grundlepuck

2008 is over with and 2009 is about to start. Have you made your resolutions yet? Let’s make this year more fun, more rewarding, and more fulfilling than the last.

This was in my inbox this morning from Mike Dooley’s Notes from the Universe.

“Dearest one, I was about to wish that your every dream for 2009 come true. That you find yourself surrounded by friends, laughter, and good times. I almost wished that your every cup runneth over financially, romantically, spiritually, and creatively. That good health be your faithful companion, peace your guarded ally, and love your perpetual guide. When suddenly, it dawned on me that as an infinite, powerful, fun-loving gladiator of the Universe, with eternity before you and the power of your thoughts to help shape it… it’s you who will be granting wishes this year.

10…9…8…7…6…
The Universe”

Giant panda hugs and I’ll see you all next year!

Finish Something Challenge Responses!


a beautiful finished chainlink necklace via treeflower

It is Monday my loves. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend completely with Christmas cookies and snowmen building.

If you’re new here, each week we pose a creative challenge. The entries are due Sunday by midnight and then we share our projects with everyone the next Monday. This week’s challenge was simply to finish something.

For myself, I finally finished the scarf I started more than a few months back. Evidence:

I made a scarf

Jasmine:
Jasmine finished her lightboxes so she could take better photos for her Etsy creations.

IMG_8074
Ah! She’s so cute!

Kevin:
Kevin finished recording his song, “Hands and Knees.”
Song link

Keith:
Keith finished his new batch of beer. He didn’t have time to take a photo, so just imagine him steeping bags of wheat malt into an five gallon pot and the delicious smell of hops and malt wafting through the air.

Thanks for all your submissions so far! If you checked off your to do list this week, let us know in the comments!

Creative Challenge: Dress Up Day

2008_12_dressupchallenge_laurentakespictures
via Lauren Take Pictures

This challenge is going to be a two-week-er due to the holidays and all. I also don’t want to stress anybody during an already stressful time, so we’re keeping it simple and probably something you’re doing anyway.

I want to see how well you clean up. So your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have a dress up day (I told you it would be easy). Show me, tell me, or let me listen to you at your best, maybe that’s a Russian spy, or a fairy tale countess. What will you be wearing on the holidays and how will that affect how you feel, live, and create? For some inspiration, check out the submissions from Gala Darling‘s now defunct International Dress Up Days.

Challenge submissions are due on Sunday January 6th, 2009, by midnight.

Also, the challenge responses from this week will be posted momentarily.