The short story!

Who is Ms. Jenny ....

I am Jenny Anna Carlton Stevens… Mom to four, Granny to many more, and Miss Jenny to most… I am Appalachian Mountain born, SONflower loving, stoneware mug, herb tea drinking, pen and paper journaling barefoot creative.  All my creative works are signed JACS which are my initials. 

Ms. Jenny's Studio

Ms. Jenny's Studio was created as a way for me (Ms. Jenny) to embrace creativity, not limit it. Having a local shop and website to manage and showcase all my crafts allows more freedom and time to create. Creating has been a healthy coping strategy for living with and dealing with a very special brain that experiences the world differently.  

It’s a choice…it’s a perspective shift.  

In 2013 while taking sunflower pictures, I had a perspective shift and learned to refocus. The ability to turn my troubles into bubbles. My word for 2014 was RESOLVE.  It began as a Polly Anna sort of game, of perspective shifting. Learning to look around me and I began gratefully using what I had to make life better.

 It started with cutting out the word for the year from old barn wood, then grew into birdhouses, wood tools, clay tools, clay shop… and this Resolve story continues…

Creativity is a lifestyle and when I learned to embrace it,  there was a SHIFT.  My creations began to help pay for therapy, counseling, and training. It was my desire that my creations will carry a message of hope to other who struggle with an invisible battle of TBI, trauma, PTSD or ADD.

I began to slowly see creativity as a way to make life better as I silently struggled with anxiety, depression and coping with daily life, living with a rare brain tumor that’s all wrapped up in the emotional part of my brain. Brain trauma can make a mess of your memories and life.  However, with a little imagination and whole lot of refocusing you can begin again. – Shift Perspectives!!

A creative life is messy.

but it's all about perspective. It is always a choice. A way of looking at things. Instead of trying to fix and change what is messy and wrong, you learn to embrace and encourage what is strong in the mess.  Process the past, forgo perfection, embrace progress, and begin trusting the creative process to unfold as you walk in purpose. Taking the journey… where creativity is a lifestyle.

So, for me...Creativity is no longer a phase I would grow out of or a hobby I would tire of. Creativity is a lifestyle to embrace and a journey to embark on to find beauty within the mess.  -Ms. Jenny