To ask about ways you remember your parents being creative

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(And other adults in your family, such as aunts/uncles/grandparents.)
Both my parents were good at making up stories, in different ways. When we were little, my mum used to write stories about us, often based on places we had been to; she drew pictures in them as well. She was also keen on diary writing, and tried to encourage us to do the same, but none of us did it as much as she did.

My dad didn't draw so much, but he enjoyed making up bedtime stories.

Were there creative things your parents did?

Mum is a great self taught artist and crafter (drawing, painting, print work, textiles).

dad- lolz. Not the creative type.

My mother sewed, knitted, embroidered, baked. She made my clothes, and as I got older, I realised how good she was at all of those activities. I can make a cake, but I do none of the others. Sadly I haven’t inherited her creative talents.

My dad, not really creative.

Grandparents in my case as I didn't really have functioning parents.

My gran taught me to sew, embroider, knit and cross stitch. She used to make my cousin and I beautiful dresses in the summer when we visited. I loved those hours learning with her and taking home my piece of work. My grandad played piano. I never got the hang of it but I loved sitting next to him as he played.

I recently taught my own grandson how to knit. It felt great passing that down to him.

My dad made the rabbit hutch, and some furniture.

This was frugality rather than some eco thing... it was how he was brought up. Same with growing our own vegetables, my mum knitted and sewed etc. I appreciate it looking back (even if it was a bit odd ball at the time)

My mum used to be a window dresser for Debenhams and she was very good at making things look beautiful. One of my favourite memories with her is every year at Christmas we would take a big walk into the country with the dog and collect armfulls of ivy and holly and she'd bring it back home and spray it gold. She'd use it to decorate the whole house, including on top of the kitchen cabinets. She also made a lot of decorations with ribbon and bows etc they were so lovely.

She was also a good seamstress and made me curtains for my bedroom when I was a teenager out of black velveteen fabric with silver stars and moons all over them! Ahh my goth years!

I also loved watching her apply her make-up every morning, she wore a full face to work every day. It was mesmerising.

My mum used to make curtains and she loved to upcycle things. She made side tables out of bins once and they looked amazing. Loved an etched glass spray.
When I was 6 my dad built me a 4 poster bed and my mum made the curtains for it. She also made my window curtains with all the swags and tails and pleated tie backs. True 90s style. She was a dab hand with a sewing machine and made a lot of our Halloween costumes.

Dad told us a different bedtime story every night. Sometimes Greek myths, sometimes tales about what our toys or pets had been doing while we were out, sometimes long running sagas about the time our family had been abandoned on a desert island for several years ( I remember that we tamed albatrosses and persuaded them to fish for us!)

He also built up music loving as a normality - choirs for him and for us, playing piano duets with us, taking us to concerts. He attended every single play, concert, open ballet class etc and talked appreciatively about it afterwards.

My mum made clothes for us (budget-driven rather than creativity?) and created beautiful gardens.

They are now doing all these things for their grandchildren.

My dad was more of the storyteller, but not so much making stories up, but just doing hilarious voices and actions etc.

He's a good singer too.

Mum can't hold the most basic tune but she was decent at dressmaking, sewing and baking.

DM made her own stiffened petticoats to go under her 1950s circular skirts as well as the skirts themselves. When the fashion changed she made dresses for my 2 DSIS and I to wear with the fabric. My DGM (her MIL) taught her how to make her own patterns and most of the dressmaking skills as she had been a dressmaker.
DF was a keen woodworker. He made fitted wardrobes for all the bedrooms; a greenhouse from old wooden window frames.
Together they would make items to donate to sell at our school fête. Dad making furniture for barbie sized dolls and mum making tiny outfits. It was usual at our school in the 70s for the donated items to have been home made.

My mum was a primary teacher and was creative in an all around kind of way - still is. She cooked and sewed and made cards and integrated creativity to every day really. These days she is an incredible gardener of large blooms and a wedding florist.

My dad was practically creative and could make wonderful treehouse networks across several trees. Interestingly, he has discovered creativity in a big way in retirement and now paints and writes and finds a lot of purpose and happiness in it.

I should add that I'll be making mum a card today - early training. We do a tiny fraction of what she did but it has stuck and is enriching my kids' childhood!

My parents are both really hands on. Mum sewed, knitted, embroidered beautifully. She made or upcycled most of our clothes and all her curtains, soft furnishings etc. She also painted a bit. One of the worst things about Alzheimer's is her frustration at not being able to busy herself with her hobbies during the day.

My dad does DiY, photography, model aeroplanes and is restoring a boat.

DM was a fantastic baker and her pastry was legendary. All other handicrafts were basic, as and when. Her talents were music and word play.
DF did woodwork, metal work, gardening, drawing, helped with school projects and told a mean story.

Paternal GM was a creative powerhouse. Knitting from patterns and freehand while watching TV, crochet, a pedal operated sewing machine, cross stitch, tatting (never known anyone else do that), making preserves and baking everybody’s Christmas cakes.

Mum - dressing making, knitting, mending, baking, preserving, gardening

Dad - every kind of DIY Inc fixing cars, decorating. Played piano and classical guitar.

I do all the things mum did, plus I can decorate quite competently and play several instruments.

My grandmother sewed us costumes, taught me to make cushions and knit, and we generally did loads of creative stuff with her. She always got clay in for us.

My mum is actually very creative but as the main earner didn’t always have time. I remember her making these popcorn ice cream cones in cellophanes for my school Christmas party when I was 5 and being very proud of her.

DM paints, draws, does paper craft, sews. Not much of a baker.

DF is very handy and made a lot of their furniture.

Both are also good singers.

Some lovely things here. There are lots of teachers in my family, and creativity probably comes with the territory. I myself actually find creativity quite difficult - I have bursts of it, but not very often, and I couldn't do a "creative" job for a living. I didn't actually learn about some of the things my mum had made until many years later - she didn't blow her own trumpet about them.

My grandad was good at carpentry, and repairing things. He built and painted a lovely model steam train, big enough for us (as small children) to sit on, with our names on. My grandmother (other side of the family) did most of her own DIY, and designed her own kitchen. She was a DIY electrician, and by her own admission, lucky to be alive after a couple of incidents - when she finally sold her house, it was full of ancient 2-pin plugs, which she would not hear of replacing!

Absolutely nothing creative from either of my parents!! Probably why I struggle being creative with my children but I do try.

My grandmother used to teach me poems by heart when I was little. My mother was creative alright, but it involved a slender relationship with reality.

My mother once made us amazing birthday cakes. My sister got a sailing ship and I a snowy house with a snow man (our birthdays are very close together). She also used to sew - one of those old pedal machines. Not our normal clothes but costumes and I remember angel costumes of cream satin and purple trim, with foil wrapped around cardboard for wings at Christmas (both these in the 1960s).
My father was hugely creative. He wrote, designed furniture and houses ( he was doctor by profession).
I went in to the creative industries and all the siblings do some sort of craft - quilting, fibre art, knitting, wet felting etc. I design for a living.

My Mother could sew, crochet , embroider and knit very well and made her own patterns, she taught me though I’m not at her amazing level. My Father ran his own restaurant, Chinese sit down and take away so taught me how to cook. My Mum taught me how to carve vegetables in to flowers. My Father was an amazing calligrapher, when he was very old and disabled he used to spend the day transcribing The Times.

They also taught me how to handle money and make the most of it.

Mum would make up silly stories and would make dolls using old bedsheets when we were bored. She always had a needle on the curtain

Dad would always make food that I could help to prep - mainly quick snacks and I remember having a whole kitchen drawer dedicated to breadcrumbs which would be used in so many crunchy recipes

My mum used to knit, crochet, sew etc. One infamous Christmas she made jumpers for every child in the family and only got them finally finished at like 4am on Christmas morning. She passed away several years ago and I have a box of half-finished knitted toys she was partway through making, which I will finish off one day so my son (who she never met) can have something 'from' her.

My dad used to make us various toys including my very well-appointed dolls house (with individual light switches in every room) and a huge papier mache castle with a moat. (He eventually went on to work for a toy company.)

My most creative aunt was constantly making things, and even had a craft business sideline for a while.

When my DSis and I were little DM used to make up treasure hunts for our birthday parties, with clues like simple cryptic crosswords. She also made beautiful paper flowers from crepe paper which, looking back, was such a 1970s thing to do.

Not an drop of creative skills in my family. We are spectacularly unskilled in that way. But we all were taught to appreciate art and music and craft, and those that can create it. My father would tell the stories of his father's teenage epic trips to see his favourite bands, a new favourite song was something to be shared with the family, my parents would pull over the car to admire views. Trips to art galleries were routine. Some of my favourite childhood memories were about discussing music and art and film.