Annie and Kale - Ep 12. Creativity in small spaces.

[Music] Hi, I'm Annie. And I'm Kale. And together? Where are you Kale? So Kale, as you know, why we are here. We are here to talk parenting, autism, neurodiversity spectrums, all of the glorious things, and of course. Lego. That's right. And today, I have a very specific thing I want to talk about because it is a personal challenge that has appeared in my house in the last week and a half. Okay. What do parents do when their children's Lego models take over their entire houses? It's not just, and parents will tell you this. It's not the Lego models. It's all the pieces that like to spread. I genuinely thought it was you going to say that it wasn't children, it was you. Oh, yeah. [Laughter] My partner would have some things to say about that. Okay, so tip number one, I already always give the parents because we're ignoring that. Actually, no, I'm going to totally segue with something else, actually. Really? Yeah, first ADHD, so I'm going to give you an episode. So, when you're born or like stretch your jaw, do you hear a popping roaring thunder in your ears? No, because they do not experience chinitus. Oh, well, I do, but apparently there are quite a large percentage of the population. The do indeed can make a roaring sound appear in the ears just by stretching their jaw. And I get that personally. Okay. My partner doesn't, my children, son doesn't. Son doesn't, no. And yeah, so, well, I don't know. I don't know, create thunder that only I can hear and it blocks out all other sounds of the room. Okay, that's a pretty pause. [Laughter] Okay, and what does this have to do with Lego taking over a whole house? It doesn't, it's just fun, little side quests and conversation starters. Because I'm on a side-tipic quest to find out. And I'm just gathering evidence here. Oh, my God. Oh, it's just curious. And yeah, for the listeners at home, they can ask their friends and family. Because I'm assuming that many of us, especially you guys listening, attuning in 'cause you recognize our neurodiversity and share it. That was a major neurodiversity in the town. Ah, but, I'm hoping that they will appreciate that kind of. And it totally deflects from the mess I create in my house. And that I am not exactly successful at containing most things. I get it. So when you create mess, you yawn, and then you block out the sound of your partner telling you to put it away by this thunder that's in your ears. Oh, I don't know if there is any link. [Laughter] But, coming back to the idea of kids. Yes. And how to clean up after the math like play, 'cause we all know kids are a bit lower to do that. My single best piece of advice lay down a sheet. Now, I love brick bags, but they are a specialty item that you need to purchase. And for those who don't know what a brick bag is, or a play bag, they're pretty easy to find on Amazon, whatever. There are amazing Melbourne companies that make them as well. There are. Are they still in business? That's a good question. Yeah, see. My favorite ones. I got over a decade ago, and I think the company that made them is an in business. Basically, they're a big round blanket with a drawstring around the edge. You play on top of the blanket, and once you've finished playing, you just pull the drawstring closed, and then you've got like a little Santa sack that you can carry off to put wherever you need. And the cheap alternative that every parent will already have in their house is a bed sheet. You lay that down on the floor, you do all your playing on top of the bed sheet, and when time comes to stop playing, you pick up the four corners of that bed sheet, bring them together into the middle, done. That's how quick tidy up can be, as opposed to picking up every single piece off that floor, and taking forever, and then, yeah, making a mess and trying to get the kids involved. And we know how it goes. Yeah. All right, so that is my big hot tip. I didn't really want to talk about cleaning just yet, though, okay? I don't want to talk about the creative elements, so what we do with our families, when our creative ideas splurge, and they go a little bit further than the confined space that you've placed them in, or how we kind of grow and develop our young people when they want to build stuff, and it's just not convenient timing. You know, like it's dinner time, and the whole table is covered in stuff. So, how do we go about being grown up and doing the things we're supposed to do, but also encouraging that creativity and development? Gosh, ask the ADHD guy what you should do when the dopamine presents itself, and you should just be playing. You're white. Yeah, you just eat in front of the TV, and have the plate on your lap. So, here's a great question. Do you have designated build areas? Do you have times or days or sessions that you schedule within your lovely family homes to make sure everything flows properly for you, or do you thrive in chaos? Well, it might come as a weed. Again, weed facts about humanity, like the e-thing. There are people that don't have days like, no, they don't hobby spaces in their houses. I don't know, you know, it seems weird to me, okay? I am one of those people. You've definitely got hobbies happening, and I'm sorry. Once the doom pile and the pile has been there for a while, it belongs there. That's where it's meant to be. The rest of the house can get organised. Actually, and I do jest, and you do well. But this is one of my best ADHD tips. So, I will quite often find myself putting down something in a place, and it'll be deemed the wrong place. No, no, no. If I continuously am putting down something in that spot, be it my keys, be it my glasses, be it whatever, and then that means that it's not in the wrong spot. It's that the designated spot is wrong and needs to shift to where I keep putting that down. Oh, so you mean like house mapping? So, for instance, a simple little thing, like all my clean glows go in my drawers. But there are certain elements of clothing, like a jacket or whatever, that you don't just instantly wash it in front of a dirty basket. No. There has to be an intersting between step. Yes. And that can be the floor drope, but you don't want it to be the floor. So, you can have maybe a designated spot. And for me, it's on top of my dresser. I have a big pile of in-between clothes, the chair drope kind of being. And that's its designated spot and that's where it should be, because I know that I wore that yesterday and it's got two wears or whatever in it, because again, it's a hoodie, it's a jacket, it's something you can. And it's there. It's ready to go, but it's not fully clean, so it shouldn't be in the drawers either. And that's a designated space where it belongs, until it goes to the laundry amp. That's one example there. Or the key bowl by the front door, or whatever. As a side tangent, I do encourage everybody not to have their keys at the front door, purely based on people stealing fog signals and stealing people's cars. So make sure your keys are at least five metres away from your front door. Yes. At all times. That is a good idea. But, you know, I feel like those of us that don't live in the inner city, I don't know. Even in the outer city, there's still can steal cars. My designated key spot is my side table, you know, my dresser. Does everybody knows when we burgl-cal? That's where his keys are. They're usually in my pocket. I feel a little naked, unless I can feel the weight against my little thigh. It's one of those quirks. But no, certainly, for the neurodiverse amongst us, embracing the Dune pile and embracing that kind of organisation around the house, I think is a good thing. So, you know, your hobby piles? Well, that's where they belong. Bring it back to the kid part, right? I have beautiful children, and they are very passionate about creative projects. This is always, generally speaking, exactly when I need to work. They coincide, spectacular timing, every time. And the most recent project has been a really beautiful Lego friend's Lego set that my daughter was gifted for her birthday. It's enormous. It's enormous things. I was going to take a good chunk of time to build, because she still has to go to school, and she has to do homework, and she's got her responsibilities. It takes up so much space, Carol. Yeah. These days, when we're living in much smaller spaces, and we've got, you know, other things that we need to do as well. Where do we put them? Where do we keep them? How do we, as parents, encourage it so that they don't get disheartened? Because these projects take hours to do. Yeah. They're not something that can be done in 15 minutes. And then what do you do with them when they're finished? Where do you put them? Like, gosh. I remember all my Lego sets when I was a teenager were on a custom shelf built above my wardrobe. And I could stare at them when I was in bed, and they were amazing. And then they all got crumpled up into little boxes, eventually. So what do we do with them afterwards? Well, certainly. I mean, that in-between playing, I played for a beard, I want to come back to it. Lego? One of those cool things about it, it comes in a box. Now you open the box, Matt. - I don't keep the boxes. - No, no, no, while you're building, that I'm like, lift off the back of the box, you know, just like split the seams. And then you've got a neatly contained box where that partially built model and all the spare parts and all the spare little bags can be sitting inside that box just to be put onto a shelf, temporary. - I didn't like I make this particular model so flippantol that it can't fit in the box. - But can it be laid down? - Nope. - Okay, now we're getting into trouble territory. - I know. - Teach the child to juggle and balance. (laughing) - I think the thing that I'm learning in this particular space is that we want the creativity, we want the fun, and we need to manage as parents, letting the creativity happen and not wanting to put it away. - Yeah. - So I have a great desire to put it away. (laughing) - It's the biggest challenge for me is finding the space and time so it can stay there so it can thrive and grow and be finished rather than me just sweeping it into the tub where everything goes and it's just bulk then. - And this is why, like, for instance, keeping the box, I think, is a very valuable tool because it's obviously contained and you don't have to ideally break it down and in general, most like those models, if they're tall, they tend to be able to be separated into their various layers if it's an official set. So, you know, you get a little bit of options there. Are you, my house is full of various plastic tubs to contain old models and old mocks and other stuff, which means that they have solid plastic lids. I find they are great because the lids generally have a lip to them. So if you pour stuff onto it and start building on them, - I understand the lid. - It all stays together. And it's strong enough to be able to move around. So, you know, if I need that dining room table to eat it, what crazy person uses the table? - Yeah, I know, I know. You know, the TV's right there. I don't know. It probably says volumes about my ADHD and the constant need for STEM. - But we don't have a TV on when we're eating. - Oh, well, it's, um, see, and different people have different layouts for the houses. My house, the dining room table is in the least attractive room with the least attractive things I want to look at. Whereas, you know, our lounge is great. - Yeah, your lounge is quite fun. - And yeah, we've got a nice big clear coffee table at all times for this, but reason, you know, you can put a bowl on it and just kind of scootch in. So, - So I'm curious then about our listeners. What do you do in these circumstances? Especially if you have your own little people. Are you the type of family that have a designated space for their creativity? Do you have set times? Like, what are the strategies? Because I personally don't even have any. I'd like some. - Well, this is, I mean, we're touching on a questioner. I get asked at events by parents all the time. How do I clean up after them? How do I contain this mess? Which is why I was instantly there with the sheet, the sheet, the sheet idea. But there are more options, because you're right. I mean, you want to be able to encourage the play and reward them for their creativity and give them the good ju-ju, that they're seeking in those moments. You know, let's put it on display somewhere. But again, I'm assuming that just going off most of the neurodiverse people, I know having clear spaces in the house to be able to put that to? Tricky. So. - Yep. - Which is one of the reasons I like plastic tubs. They are very cheap and easy to acquire. And they can be stacked. Yeah. So, and certainly you have little options, like put the lid down first, build on the inside of the lid, put the top onto it, then click it into place. And what's a tub's have something that you can actually click and seal. And then just store them upside down. You don't need to have to disturb or turn stuff over them. - That's only a problem when someone comes to help you and lifts them up and turns them up the other way. - Well, yeah, that's a big time. It doesn't take a lot of education to get people to real be aware that when dealing with a hobby such as Lego, if you need to move a box, you keep that thing level, you know? I mean, again, my partner, not a huge Lego person. - There's some merch. - Be nice. - I can see some merch. It's this way up, Lego stickers, these stick unboxers. - Do not tilt. - Yeah. Keep level at all times. All right. Thanks for indulging in that concept for a bit. - Cool. - So we continue on. - I know, I know. You're the boss. - Well, in front of you, you have some bits. And what are you building, Kale? - I have just opened, and I'm trying not to do this while we're actually talking, you see. 'Cause it's noise and distraction. But the botanicals, dark flower arrangement, set one, one, five, one, three. I love the botanicals I always have. And yeah, I've just got my hands on this, and I've just opened the first bag, so I can't really tell you much about the building experience or anything else. But there are just, I'm loving the range of little botanical parts. And I think first time I'm gonna see, this is why I was supportive of being done. I don't know. - You're gonna build it. What are you building it for? - I got sent it by Lego this week. And they occasionally like to send me cool things. And if somebody sends you free Lego, you say yes. - But they build it and you put it on display. Are you gifting this to your lovely partner? - Well, see, for years and years and years, my partner who is not a Lego person was like, - And he goes home. - So necessarily, want Lego in the house and taking over every room because it's taken over a few rooms so far. But he also doesn't like flowers because I mean, because I'm dead. - Yeah, yeah. - I don't like flowers because they're dead. If you're going to give me something as a gift everyone. - Rotting vegetation is not a. - You know, I want something I can eat. Like I'm quite happy if you give me a bunch of parsley or a herb or a plant in a pot or a tree that grows fruit fantastic. But if you're taking something beautiful and chopping it off so it's dead and then giving it to me, I don't love that symbology. - And absolutely, 100% with you, she's 100% with you, but what she does like is the bouquets of flowers and the botanical range. And so our lounge has a couple of arse has dotted around that we've arranged from different sets. So it's not vanilla, you know, none of it's exactly vanilla. But absolutely, I'm hoping I can do similar. I can add stalks and stems to the dark flower arrangement. - Beautiful. - And it just speaks to a little got in my heart. (laughing) So yeah, yeah, kind of see where the darkness goes. - This other one you've got here too, it's quite cool. - And yeah, I've got a second one, the golden, hanging golden pothos. I don't know, my lack of botanical knowledge is probably showing how I pronounce that. But set one, one, five, one, two. And like, yeah, it's got a whole bunch of those really cool new leaves that look like they're multicolored and I can't wait to kind of do something else with those and create cool vines. I don't know, we've got a live one of those in our lounge, so. - I used to have one too, but I actually got them killed in. - And how? - I don't know. - It's, I'm not exactly green thumbed and that thing seems to be part of you, then I-- - Again, the key things that I can keep alive are things I can eat. - That's not how you keep, like the gnawing and gnashing of big sharp teeth. It's just not good to keep-- - Just a little trims of herbs and things. - Oh, okay, okay. - Just trim off a little bit, eat it, keep it alive, you know? - Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. - Everybody should have the kitchen shelf. - I've heard, yes. - And you should talk to your herbs and you should sing to them and love them every day, so they grow nicely for you. - Yeah, I've got to get a new bezel plank 'cause it hasn't survived the winter. - Well, bezel. - So, yeah. - All right. So you're building these, you're gonna put them up on Instagram when you're done with them. - I will, I will. - So people can see what you've made. - Yeah, I don't know how far I will take it in terms of, I don't know, I feel like they need a little extra. And don't, like we've seen a lot of botanicals now. So what sets it apart from the other botanicals? And I think importantly for us as Lego fans, you know, I'm gonna be putting a new seed into my house. What makes it mine? How do I customize it just enough? There's not the same as everybody else's. - That would be you, Kale, and not 98% of population. Botanicals lend themselves really well to that. You like get a vase and two, just a little bit with how you arrange the various flowers you've started to gather over time. And there's a lot of options there, you know? - I did arrange a very large amount of botanicals just recently. And here we're going on another segue. Hello. Just recently, I was invited down to RMIT for O'Week when they got me to host a giant Lego activation in the center of RMIT and the CBD. And I had several thousand students pop through over the course of the week and build mindful Lego with me. And one of the things we did was the collaborative flower arranging using an enormous bouquet of Lego botanicals that I had, as well as other things that people had built and contributed to. But I don't have a Lego vase. And I know there are official Lego vases. And then there are non-official vases and then people are turning the boxes into vases. And there's so many ways that you can make a logo vase, but I have a giant glass lolligah that I filled with my Lego. And we just filled it with loads of blue bricks down the bottom to be water. And then jammed all of the stems into it on top. And it looked really cool. And that vase of flowers has been traveling around with me to different events in the city. Yeah. That sounds like a. See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Like vases, they take a lot of parts to make. You've got to make it out of like your Lego Lego. But yeah, you know, going into a store, getting a nice vase of some variety and then kind of. And I like that idea of merging Lego, which is imitating a thing, where something that is also real and you can start to blur the lines a little in kind of a home art decor kind of way. You mean like when people put Lego in their fish tanks? Well, yes, yes, which is tricky. Because it floats. Well, yeah, it does float. You can insert it upside down and get the air bubbles out that way, but there's more to it than that. And yeah, like fish and water, it's so delicate. Does it. does the fish tanks eat Lego? Does the Lego survive really well or does something happen to the plastic when it's submerged and held in water for extended periods of time? No, it's ABS plastic and you're using ideally clean water, you know, distilled water in a fish tank. Does it leach microplastics into the water and then fill the fish with Lego microplastic? It should. ABS plastic is insoluble, you know, shouldn't. Absolutely shouldn't. And then there are great big cabbages to that depending what happens next, you know, so, you know, over literal decades, you know, stuff can happen. Like all of the Lego that's been found at the bottom of the ocean? And survived amazingly intact. Yeah, after 20, 30 years plus, and it's still Lego octopuses being found on beaches and things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For those who haven't heard the story, I think it was off the coast of Scott, learned I want to say. It's not really an archer kingdom, yeah. Yeah, basically a container went over the side of a shipping vessel, spilled its contents, which just happened to be mostly aquanauts Lego for many of them. Which is hilarious. So a lot of those little floating octopuses and other little buoyant parts because not all they go is buoyant. But yeah, they have been washing up on the local beaches for a decade and a half now too, whatever. Yeah, it's a long time, a long time and continues to wash up. Because they find flippers and they find octopuses. And cool things about this. This is one of the ways you can map and track ocean currents and figure it out. Not just with that incident, but like the other incidents of a curd where shipping container was lost with rubber duckies or something somewhere. Oh, they found them. And by knowing where they turn up and when you can start to build a map of how the ocean currents work. Didn't they purposefully release a whole bunch of rubber ducks to work out currents? Some places do that I have seen that I heard of that being done. Certainly, I think there is a method you use for mapping rivers where you have to do it deliberately. But now we're getting into stuff that I'm now 100% sure of and would have to go on the Google hunt. I don't know. I feel like this is a side quest that's gone too far. It totally has. But just so you know, the rubber ducks that went overboard was in January 1992 and 28,800 plastic bath toys, including rubber ducks, were dropped into the Pacific Ocean. Deliberately? No, that was accidental. It was a container lost in a severe storm, 2,000 miles or 3,270 kilometers off the Alaskan coast. Yeah, so I was I was remembering correctly. And yeah, you know, a certain kind of oceanographer geek really gets into the details of that. Yeah, that was a pretty much. I find fascinating but I don't know. I feel like we've gotten far too far away. Well, let's go back to the beginning. We initially started this conversation when it was about caring for children's creativity because for those listening that have kids, we want to foster them. We also want our spaces, generally speaking, to be neat and tidy. So there are specific strategies that we can use. I personally don't have any yet, but I would love to know what yours are so I could potentially implement them in my house. Because my house is tiny. We live out of two rooms and there's this constant shift of things backwards and forwards all the time. Then we got involved in your lovely Lego building over there, because you're making some flowers. And I'm really curious to see how these turn out because I've not seen the dark botanicals up close yet. So that'll be quite beautiful. Yeah, I think it's just about to pitch shelves. I don't know. It has officially. I don't know. It's like the Olivia Roddrick, Olivia Roddrick is once. I don't she's a pop star that I don't know about because I'm not cool. But she's got some botanicals too coming out on their purple. Yeah, I don't actually hear. I have not been paying enough attention to Lego news. I know that she has a said coming out. I could tell you. I know that people who are fans of hers are called livis. Lives. Because she's Olivia. Yeah, just like there's swiftees. So there's swiftees and there's livis. Yeah, yeah, I am neither. But I know that all of her livi fans have got all of these beautiful new Lego sets coming out too. Which also do well with the young girls and the young women that are into her music. So I wonder if I'll end up with some of them here. I probably will. We're daughters, yeah. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Okay. On that note, we really just want to hear what your thoughts are about these topics, everybody. So send us a message. Get in touch. You can email us. You can send us a message on Instagram. We are. Annie and Kyle. Annie Instagram. Facebook. Gmail. Annie and Kyle at gmail.com. Yep. Awesome. Fantastic. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next time. [BLANK_AUDIO]