I AM A CREATIVE PERSON!!

This week I was inspired by THIS VIDEO from Amy Tangerine - about adding creative touches to a planner.
Let me briefly share a bit about my planner journey.  I am new to planners and the planner community.  I absolutely love the beauty and functionality combination that the planner provides.  I struggled though with the idea of having the plan ahead and record everything....I'm not that type of person when it comes to everyday activities.  Besides a full monthly calendar view to mark appointments on, I really don't plan much else.  I do make a lot of lists.  And I do keep track of things for work.  So I really was trying to see

how I can make a planner work for me.  I almost splurged on planner stamps, of course - but I resisted.  I felt I could just draw some of the small icons and I wouldn't use all that came in most of the sets.  Anyway, I made up my own planner since I couldn't justify the cost of the filofax or the kate spade planners.  Plus, I'm a newbie and just getting into it.  I didn't even know what things I would write in my planner.  
So I had my planner (a binder from Staples) and I am tracking when I exercise, walk, and when I do my field service.  I had the monthly calendar in there which I still put appointments and events, but that was it.  I tried using the daily spreads to write what I ate or cooked, or how much money I spent on food - but I couldn't keep up with it on a daily basis.  Plus, when I missed writing it...I felt - does it really matter?  Why do I need to write this down?  So I stopped. 
I then started to keep track of the sleeping of Nathan, since we were trying the Ferber method to try to sleep train him.  I wanted to see if he improved and document it for his baby album.  So I started to doodle and play with the font of my writing as I was just writing the date and when he slept and how long he slept.  I found this simple act of doodles and making the text look pretty, made it more enjoyable for me to look at and fun to document.  
Then I came across Amy Tangerine's video, linked above.  Her video was simple but the few words she said struck me. "Record events and things I've done", "Fun creative play for me...I can try new techniques, use my supplies", "make my days prettier, recording memories in one place...I can add stamping, watercoloring, doodles, and color".
This struck me because that was my struggle with planners.  Decorating the days in advance didn't make sense to me - and things change.  I like the idea of documenting the days after it happened.  This is like scrapbooking, right?!  Document life.  And a planner lends itself to Project Life too - since you have a document of your days.  Plus it seems easier to decorate when you know what happened, you can customize it to the event or activity.  Additionally, I totally agreed with her when she said it's fun creative play - and being able to use techniques rather than typing or using an electronic device.  I was struggling with trying to make 'pretty' notes on my ipad.  I wanted to go paperless and have been for my work for over 2 years now.  But I did feel that prettiness itch.  I constantly doodle and change the color of my pens...just because.  I like color and patterns and texture in almost anything I write on.  So now I see this idea of a planner could be not so much to plan my days, but a creative space to have fun with techniques as Amy demonstrated and to document the days activities after they had happened.  

Feeling this need to have a creative space and really almost anything involving paper to play with color and techniques makes me finally come to the realization that I AM A CREATIVE PERSON.  I never would have said that before, but I see it now.  I almost always have to customize or create something.  I see a blank space and feel like I want to add something to it. I do have creative blocks when sometimes I don't feel 'in the mood' but I can feel the difference and during that period, I'm not me.  My 'normal' is to be in that creative mode.  I have now creative outlets around me and available to me that give me the chance to be creative everyday.  Make something pretty everyday.  And this makes me happy.  Not only the process of making it pretty, but even just looking at what I've done makes me proud and feel good.  I want to share what I've done.  I want to encourage others to tap into their creativity and find an outlet.  And if it can be something as simple as writing what you did that day or the day before, why not?!  I haven't had the time to scrapbook or make cards as I used to since baby Nathan.  So finding these new outlets that are in 'smaller doses' is something I am grateful for.  I feel a bit more like myself.  I don't feel like I'm missing anything.  I get to use my supplies, try new techniques, and still reflect on the days of my life that brings joy.  Oh what fun.
Are you a creative person?