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Creativity All The Time

August 11, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

My friends Maya and Amy are visiting this week, exploring the Smoky Mountains for their summer vacation. I love having fellow creatives in the house, especially ones who show up with art supplies and hula hoops!

One of the classes they teach as the creative company Food for the Soul Train is marbling. Boo had a chance to try it out yesterday:

The results are just gorgeous:

There have also been trips to the GSM National Park, Fontana Lake and rowdy board game playing:

And a little collaborative painting:

Lots of layers being added:

I’ll share the finished product in a few days!

A Week of Writing Prompts – Week 5

August 7, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

(Daily writing prompts are posted Monday through Friday at 7am on Facebook. This is the weekly roundup with a few excerpts from my personal journal. The goal is to write for at least 10 minutes without stopping, regardless of what ends up on the paper. Feel free to share writing in the comment section. Write on!)

So much truth in that quote…unplugging is why I journal. It’s a way for me to clear my head and figure out things about myself that only writing helps me figure out.

Prompt 21: Take your journal with you today to a public space. Write about the people you see, sounds you hear, smells that come your way. Try to use comparison as much as possible i.e “the man’s suit was like shiny eel skin” or “the stick in the water flailed like an alien.”

From my journal:
“The man perused the books outside on the black library rack. The man’s wife stood with her arms behind her back, patiently waiting, and pretending to be interested in the window display. I rang up his books and he looked shocked when I told him, “that will be 21 cents please.”

Prompt 22: This is a favorite prompt from Sheila Bender’s book Keeping a Journal You Love: Make a “things I learned today” list (today, last month, last year etc.).

From my journal:
“Things I learned yesterday:
1. A snow shovel is great for spreading gravel around
2. No one can predict the weather.
3. Sometimes being silent is better that the risk of saying too much.
4. The term: Adaptive Athlete.
5. My first boss is coming to town.
6. You can’t burn damp wood.”

Prompt 23: Pick one word from the list and write to wherever it takes you:

DINER
REPTILE
BURNED
DOVE

From my journal:
“A townhouse next to my friend Natalie’s house was on fire when I was just in elementary school. She and I snuck beyond the caution tape a few days later. Upstairs everything was charred beyond recognition. I recognized a few items that were left only because they were metal: clothing hangers, TV rabbit ears, a bed frame. In one of the bedroom closets a metal safe had been built into the wall. It’s door was wide open in the inside was a stark white contrast to the blackened wood it was nailed to. I still remember how pristine it was, that no flame had reached the inside.”

Prompt 24: The places that scare you.

From my journal:
“The mistreatment of animals. When I see it I can feel their pain and hopelessness and that they don’t understand why they are being hurt or deprived. Animals caged for their whole lives in constant pain and discomfort. Wire cage floors. The constant pressure creating sores beyond comprehension.”

Prompt 25: Pick a first: love, car, steps, trip, flight, beer, kiss, race, sleepover, competition, pet, wreck, bike.

From my journal:
“My first bike was a hot pink Sweet Thunder Huffy, with the thick hot pink “bread loaf seat.” My grandfather wheeled it down from the house after I’d opened all my other presents. I learned to ride it without training wheels on the road above where our gravel driveway started. That was a sweet bike. Sweet thunder of a bike.”

More posts on writing here:

The Pea Gravel Patio

August 7, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

Yesterday Brett and I installed this pea gravel patio:

I broke every single rule for putting down pea gravel but I’ve never like following the rules anyways. We didn’t put down weed barrier (more trouble than it’s worth) and I didn’t even outline the area completely until after the gravel was being dumped. I didn’t even calculate how much gravel I needed…basically just ordered a whole truck load because when you get it straight from a quarry it doesn’t really matter. Half a load is almost the same as a full load, because you are paying for the truck regardless.

The truck driver we’ve used the past few times can dump the gravel with so much precision it doesn’t even really count as “installing” a patio. He did all the work:

Since we put in a driveway and parking area to the back of the house it was easy to get the entire truck around to the front:

We used a metal border for now and one day might add stone, but the metal border was salvaged from a demolition and it was free so that met our budget. Now we just have to get the grass to grow thick and lush right up to it:

The table we got at a yardsale for just a few dollars and Brett rebuilt the benches last night and stained them so they are still in the garage drying:

It was raining last night but that didn’t stop Boo from trying to roast a marshmallow. I was able to get the fire going long enough to melt enough marshmallow for one s’more:

It would have been nice to have had the patio earlier in the summer but we had to take out a really big tree first that was at risk of falling and making a big mess. Now I just need some globe lights to string across the yard and maybe Brett will build me a really long farm table.

Stay tuned for the depot project that we are working on through August…there will be pea gravel used for that too!

More House on Hospital Hill posts here!