This morning I am pondering if being creative is a natural born talent or is it something that I've seen or read and regurgitated into my own style? Pre stroke I was highly creative.

Nothing was safe from my eye looking at it and seeing it as a vessel for an arrangement or a use to make my home more welcoming. I even did it with people's clothes. I'd see someone wearing a floral skirt, blouse or dress and I'd finger the material rubbing it between my thumb and forefinger and declare, "This would make really nice throw pillows!" I'm not to sure how most felt hearing their clothes would look good on my sofa, but that was me then.

Many of my friends would come back from a trip or a craft fair and tell me about things they had seen and they would all say, You could make that easy. Which was true. I should have gone into theatre design, I loved setting up displays for seasons. I wasn't adverse to hauling in hay into the house come fall for a fall display of pumpkins, scarecrows and goards and mums. My brain never stopped spitting out the creative ideas.

Until I had the stroke. Then it seemed as if the ideas all dried up and went away. I'd pull out things I had decorated with in previous years, set them all out in front of me and stare at them, trying to decide what I wanted to do with them. Nothing came, no inspiration. When I'd say to whomever was around at the time, "The stroke took away my ideas" I'd burst into tears because I really felt the loss. Post stroke, I hated decorating our house for christmas. We had three double doorways and I had made garlands one year and decorated each doorway differently. One doorway, I used to decorate in a victorian look and that garland pre stroke took me 8 hours to assemble. Forget it post stroke.

So the reason for this rambling entry is this- yesterday I went to Michael's ( a large craft supply store) and I bought all kinds of things to decorate for fall. My sister in law was with me. The ideas and inspiration was flowing rapidly. My sister in law kept saying I was making her spend too much money, but she was enthusiastic with my ideas. My brother just shook his head. My nephews kept pointing out the prices that Michael's was charging for pre made arrangements. "You can do better Aunt Pam!"

But I'm happy to report that I came home from my shopping trip at Michael's inspired and motivated and my house is decorated for fall at the beginning of August.

Pam