Since becoming a mother, I keep on running across the same weird claim. It goes something like this: TV is bad for kids because it limits their imagination. Tell your kids to get outside and play! Don’t let them veg out in front of a TV all day! They’ll never learn imaginative play. I’ve had other mothers and even teachers tell me this in conversations about why they didn’t allow their own children to watch television or play with iPhones or really have any screen time whatsoever. What makes the claim weird is that the moms who tell me this are rarely creatives. I also have a hard time believing this claim, because I 1) make a living off my imagination, and 2) was one of those kids who was practically raised by a television. I know a few people who were raised without televisions. I won’t speak to their imaginations, but none of them are in creative fields. And I don’t personally know one creative who grew up without a television in their home. In fact, some of the most creative people I know watch obscene amounts of television to this day. In many ways, television gives children more great stuff to imagine. How limited would a toddler’s world view be if there weren’t any children’s programming today. When I was a child, I built living room forts and pretended to drive the car to places like K-Mart. When I picked my daughter up at preschool the other day, she and some other kids were pretending to have tea on a rocket, which they planned to take to the flower shop before they headed to outer space. I didn’t even know China existed when I was three. My daughter has already asked to...

I work as an artist and graphic designer as my day job. In my spare time I also like to be creative by running my handmade business, cooking, gardening, and fixing up our home. Is there such a thing as creative overload? Too many projects? Not enough time? Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by this and get overwhelmed and sad. Is it just me? How does one...

As defined by Urban Dictionary: Steampunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction, usually set in an anachronistic Victorian or quasi-Victorian alternate history setting. It could be described by the slogan “What the past would look like if the future had happened sooner.” It includes fiction with science fiction, fantasy or horror themes. Starting with niche cosplay and con-goer groups decked out in bustles, corsets, monocles, and top hats, the Steampunk lifestyle has been slowly filtering into our daily lives. Today, you can’t walk into a coffee shop or target without seeing a hipster with an overly ornate mustache. Anthropologie’s current clothing line is pretty much the perfect mixture of hipster, earth goddess, 50’s housewife and steampunk mistress. When it comes to fashions for the home, it’s in vogue to buy items that are carefully, and artistically hand crafted, worn in, and just a little bit funky. While many proclaimed Steampunkers are very into the DIY movement, I’ve found many a website to help you spend your hard earned cash on beautiful bespoke pieces…and in my next blog, you can see how I DIYed one of these projects step-by-step. Now, I’m not suggesting your turn your house into this place: But, adding a dash of Victorian sophistication can add a lot more interest to your lovely abode. William Morris, the father of the Art and Crafts Movement, quoted, ““If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” To start, here are some clever instances where people have made modern day pieces look so much more beautiful. I believe that with enough creativity and thought, one can turn the most ugly of objects into...

Last weekend, Night Mother opened, bringing seven months of work to light. This weekend those seven months came to a quiet end with the closing of the show. It was a great experience, invaluable lessons learned and all that business. While it wasn’t exactly what I wanted, it was exactly what I needed. The family came in from Michigan, in fact I saw old familiar faces that had been missing for too long. And for the first time since I graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC, 2001, I have actually ACTED. Imagine that. For years now I have been telling people, “No really. I CAN act!” But I haven’t been given a chance to really display the talent I continue to profess I have. So I got the idea to produce my own play. Why the hell not? I grew up doing mostly small theatre, I figured it couldn’t be that difficult to pull off a little show here. So I picked a two woman piece I have wanted to perform in since I first worked on it over 10 years ago, Night Mother, and off I went. A terribly unorganized often self destructive chick with a dream, to produce and star in a play. That’s it. Over the past seven months I have been tested in ways I certainly didn’t expect and still more ways I did. From losing my original co-star, to the director losing her home and our constant search for free rehearsal space I was pushed. Rehearsals became a wonderful escape from the building tensions in and around the show. My new found patience was tested time and again when it became clear that my hand picked director freaked out over all things great and small....