personality tests & creativity

I totally indulged in no recipe-recipes for breakfast (herb baked eggs) and lunch (Caprese salad) this past Sunday like I normally don't during the week or even the two months and one week of summer vacation. And I am feeling the need to try a new recipe and change my cooking repertoire. 

 

My week in Cayucos had me fantasizing owning a beach cottage to decorate how I like. I was coveting the following while browsing the hardware store yesterday. Teak patio furniture with off white upholstery--I would make my pillows flax and white linen instead of any color, even nautical blue, which I find garish these days. An outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven in addition to a grill. Lots of potted plants that are white ceramic filled with just greenery or an evergreen with white flowers. Bonsai. Gardenias. Azaleas. 

     

But back to reality. I'll be back at the ceramics classroom today and need to make this type of pot with the bottom dish attached.

However, I'll make my pot without rims. And I looked at my new vase along with its homies on my kitchen windowsill.

The vase I made above is the only one hand built rather than thrown, but I love them all including mine. I'm gonna buy a bag of Frost porcelain when I've used up all my Speckled Buff and Obsidian and Dixon Sculpture and Black Mountain. I was pondering whether I could make dinner ware with the Dixon sculpture and found this image of some bowls made with the clay.

What interesting texture, and the bowls are so rustic.

I happened upon on a Martha Stewart article entitled, The Best Hobbies for Your Personality Type, According to Mental Health Experts, which led me to a personality test, which led to these results:

Openness (73%):Openness describes a person’s tendency to think in abstract, complex ways. High scorers tend to be creative, adventurous, and intellectual. They enjoy playing with ideas and discovering novel experiences. Low scorers tend to be practical, conventional, and focused on the concrete. They tend to avoid the unknown and follow traditional ways.

Conscientiousness (50%): Conscientiousness describes a person’s ability to exercise self-discipline and control in order to pursue their goals. High scorers are organized and determined, and are able to forego immediate gratification for the sake of long-term achievement. Low scorers are impulsive and easily sidetracked.

Extraversion (25%):Extraversion describes a person’s inclination to seek stimulation from the outside world, especially in the form of attention from other people. Extraverts engage actively with others to earn friendship, admiration, power, status, excitement, and romance. Introverts, on the other hand, conserve their energy, and do not work as hard to earn these social rewards.

Agreeableness (46%): Agreeableness describes a person’s tendency to put others’ needs ahead of their own, and to cooperate rather than compete with others. People who are high in Agreeableness experience a great deal of empathy and tend to get pleasure out of serving and taking care of others. They are usually trusting and forgiving. People who are low in Agreeableness tend to experience less empathy and put their own concerns ahead of others.

Neuroticism (58%):Neuroticism describes a person’s tendency to experience negative emotions, including fear, sadness, anxiety, guilt, and shame. While everyone experiences these emotions from time to time, some people are more prone to them than others. High Neuroticism scorers are more likely to react to a situation with fear, anger, sadness, and the like. Low Neuroticism scorers are more likely to brush off their misfortune and move on.

I didn't pay to get my full narrative report. I know myself well enough, and according to the article, my hobbies do reflect where I scored highest:

• Openness: People who enjoy creative hobbies
  • Visit museums 
  • Go on nature hikes
  • Read a novel 
  • Attend a theme park
  • Participate in arts and crafts
  • Travel locally or abroad
  • Take up photography
  • Attend creative and adventurous baking and cooking classes                                               
• Neuroticism: People who enjoy soothing, solitary, and supportive hobbies
• Train for marathon 
• Start a blog 
• Tend to houseplants 
• Learn a new language 
• Join a support group
• Meditate
• Fish
• Complete puzzles and crosswords     

Funny but I do or have done EVERY hobby listed above if you consider my slow or hand sewing group a support group, and does a beach boardwalk constitute a theme park? And I'm hoping once I retire, I can finally become fluent in Spanish.