Prairie Wind Notions: Creations Anew

I'd like to introduce you to a member of the Etsy HomeFront Team, Robin from Creations Anew. Please take a moment to read this wonderful interview - I hope it will move you and inspire you as it has me.

1. Please tell us a little about yourself.
I've really lived a charmed life. I was born and raised and Army Brat my father was a career soldier and my mother, sister, brother and I revolved around the military. My parents loved to site-see and living in foreign countries afforded us alot of traveling. I remember many hours in a blue Volkswagen van and then an orange one driving around Europe.

I graduated from Karlsruhe American High School in Germany and then I married a soldier and we raised a couple of Army Brats. We spent a couple of tours in Germany and had several stateside duties, from Ft Leonarwood Missouri to the Presido in San Francisco.

During those years I homeschooled my boys and taught Bible Studies. Hubby is now retired from the Army and both boys are graduated from High School. Our oldest son will be a senior at a University in Denver and our youngest son completed his freshman year and is weighing some different options.

Today, I find myself in another transition going from a military wife and motherhood to the civilian world and an empty nest. I'm looking forward to this next of my charmed life. :)

2. What is the 100 photo project?
My 100 Photo Project is really just a personal photo journey. Up until about 5 years ago I was a point and click kind of girl and with these new digital cameras "point and click" could produce a beautiful photo. They are wonderful because I didn't have to think to much about the mechanics of photography.

Earlier this year, I decided that I wanted to dig a little deeper with my art and I ran across the 100 Photo Project on line. http://onehundredphotos.blogspot.com/ There are no hard rules to follow we are encouraged to work at our own pace. The project is really about sharing and encouraging each other in our photographic journey's.

3. What is your favorite place/thing to photograph?

Well that is easy, if you've visited any of my sites you know that I love natural landscapes and florals. Things like mountains, lakes and wildflowers are on my list of favorites; they are always changing and yet ever the same.

Living in Colorado I enjoy all 4 seasons and so this year I've been shooting certain landscapes and trees in all four of the seasons; each seasonal photo has its own individual beauty and its own story.

4. What inspires you?
Other Photographers! I marvel at the things they see and their talent to capture them. By nature, 'm not artistic. I tend to see what is in front of me and obvious and forgetting to look deeper to what is really there. For instance, if I walk by a car, I see a car, other photographers see door handles, steering wheels, headlights, etc.
I've been working on training my eyes to view more than just THAT car!

5. What does the 4th of July mean to you?
I love America! I bleed Red,White and Blue. I'm so thankful to God for allowing me to be born here;to be an American. I've been blessed to have been able to travel world wide and I enjoy visiting other countries and learning about their cultures and their heritage but in the words of Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz,there is NO Place Like Home.

A few years ago, my oldest son befriended a German Foreign Exchange Student and I so enjoyed watching him view our culture. From small town football, (which is HUGE here), to American Flags waving in everyone's yard. He was mystified with our patriotic small town life; we are in the middle on no-where Colorado and yet when we say who we are, we say "We are Americans".

Last year,my youngest son went to small midwest college to play football and he enjoyed rooming with some inner city kids. When he came home, he shared with us that many of these boys did NOT identify with being Americans; their pride stemmed from which coast they come from...Truthfully, that bothered me, that somehow they had missed knowing that even with all of our issues,America really is the land of the Free and the Home of the Brave and that it's for them too.