Creativity is a cantankerous beast that still surprises me after all this time. I've been blocked for the last few months with no idea of how to get unblocked.

In the first lockdown back in April / May, I did lots of hand crafts and felt really nourished and grounded. June and July were consumed with producing the second issue of the Pocketry Almanack and facilitating my Promoting Your Poetry workshop as part of the Melbourne Spoken Word and Poetry Festival online.

After the Almanack was finished and the workshop completed, I needed a break from screens and wanted to make something with my hands. I wanted to ground myself in paper or fabric or leather or wool. To get back into feeling fibres with my fingers and making tangible things offline but something was stopping me.

I had a couple of half finished projects hanging around but they weren't very inspiring or appealing. I do best if I have a range of creative options to choose from. The choice gives me variety and allows me to pick a project to work on, depending on the mood I am in. Sometimes I feel like doing fiddly things like hand sewing, other times I want to cut pieces of fabric or create a new design.

As a result I've been feeling flat and meh. Not really keen on anything - having to drag myself out of bed in the mornings and go through the motions of the day. I really don't think being in groundhog day is helping either. 

But yesterday something changed. I bought a new packet of writing paper. I've used up my little stash sending letters to friends and keeping the postie busy. Being able to post packets of joy made me feel so happy. I've already planned some little surprises I can make to include in the letters. And the writing paper itself inspired me to make some of my own using the paper and stamps I already have at home in the craft cupboard.

I feel so happy and relieved to have something useful to make once more. I really hadn't realised just how much joy I get from making the things I need. Well that's not strictly true, I think I always knew, it's just sometimes I forget it.