It’s  been over 10 years since I worked in a truly creative environment. I had given up on being creative professionally.  When I got home, I didn’t do much either except for the costuming for Halloween/Renaissance Faire, food gift labels for the holidays, and the now-tradition Christmas e-card. Oh, and occasional alcohol-fueled rock star moments at the piano.

It only took three months working with and for these guys at Ignited to get me to WANT to be creative. All. The. Time.

I was tasked with reviving the company’s social media presence. So, for the next month, I read several articles on advertising and creativity daily. Some were passed along through tweets from the company’s executive creative directors Troy and Jordan and some I found sifting through our Facebook feed.

One of those articles I skimmed through pointed to a book, How To Steal Like An Artist, which I bought and read through in one afternoon.  Another book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, has been ordered and is on its way. I never thought I’d be buying and reading books on creativity. But I am doing it now.

To add more fuel to the fire, just about a month ago, Jeff Marx, the creator of “Avenue Q” came to speak to the company about finding creativity and passion in what you do. He discussed how he came to write the Tony Award winning hit.  A part of his talk was that he made a list of the 100 things he wanted to do before he dies. That extensive bucket list somehow helps him focus on what really makes him happy. It seems musical theater was it and not practicing law.

I started a list too as a part of my upcoming post. But as you can see, I haven’t posted it yet.  Well, I didn’t need a list to know what makes me happy. I have always known working in a creative environment makes me happy.

I just forgot about it for the past decade of working at jobs where the most creative thing I got to do was creating a monthly birthday flyer.

My time at Ignited both inspires and spoils me.  Now that I had worked in the creative industry, it’s hard for me to look at job descriptions that don’t involve creativity.  I want to find a job where I can let my crazy ideas fly and where people embrace my quirks instead of ridicule them. I want to work where I can grow and where I’m encouraged to learn.

Of course, you could argue that working at a non-creative place should NEVER stop me from being creative and working on my own stuff at home.  But that’s exactly what I said all those years ago too before I lost almost all of my inspiration and got my soul partly crushed.

But that was years ago. I know better now than to neglect my creative drive. Never again!

Yesterday, I went into Michael’s to get a few pieces of felt to make my new decorative little hat to top off the TARDIS corset for the Victorian/Steampunk look.  I found myself lost in the store for an hour and emerged with a whole new idea of a full scale top hat with steampunk doodads.  I spent another hour this afternoon getting the first part started.

And what an hour it was! I haven’t been this happy in quite sometime. Then again, I haven’t made anything in quite sometime.  It’s great to get to work on creative projects again.

Now I want to make more stuff. I want to play the piano. I want create more graphic arts. I want to make some videos. I want to write articles.

I want… I want… I want…

*sigh*

I’m going make the best out of this unemployment period, I tell you. Who knows, while I continue the search for the permanent professional habitat, I might end up with an Etsy storefront selling top hats made with felt and foam.

Speaking of which, I’d better check on that long dormant Cafe Press store I have…