Creatively Stuck

Have you ever become unglued because you're creatively stuck (pardon the pun!)?  No, I don't mean having a day where you don't feel like creating...I'm talking about a full blown stop to creative ideas jumping into your head and not knowing how to recharge your creativity.  I've been fighting this demon for a few weeks now.  I've got limited time to create before I begin traveling again.  Every day as I enter my sewing studio I swear I'll get something done before I go to bed.  And day after day I find myself just wading through creative muck.  Either the ideas don't stop at my house to visit or the ones that do just don't work out.  I have become a deperate woman to come up with a wonderful idea...OK, I'd even settle for something mildly inspiring.  I realize it's gotten to the point where it's a mental block...but even so, I've got deadlines and I'm not getting any work done!  Yesterday I  was in Seward, NE. and stopped in my favorite fabric store, The Udder Store (sister store to the The Cosmic Cow).  Welcome to Nebraska humor at it's finest!  There was my friend, elinor peace bailey who was visiting this week from the west coast.  I discovered she was teaching a doll class on Saturday and I asked if I could come.  Not to make a doll, but just to get out of my sewing studio that has come to curse me with anti-creativity vibes.  So last  night I spent three hours loading up my SUV with all of the stuff I thought I might need to do whatever I hoped I'd dream up to get this hideous lack of creativity stifled and replaced with glorious, imaginative ideas again!  Leave it to elinor to guide me to the land of imagination.  She suggested that we make a list of every possible idea I could come up with for this challenge that's been sitting like a lump on my sewing table.  It doesn't mean I have to complete all of these ideas but now I have a list.  So my next task was to select ONE...just ONE...idea from that list and list ideas I could do to fulfill this ONE tiny little task.  It's a miracle I tell you but within 10 minutes one idea after the next were popping in my wee little head and all of a sudden I realized I'm unstuck.  So, I've given myself permission to just toss my past two weeks of work away.  Believe me, these were not anything special that I would ever want to claim as mine!  So the lesson I learned today about getting unstuck is this. 
1)  Brainstorm freely. 
2)  Make lists of every possible crazy and not so crazy idea you can dream up 
3)  Break  your big tasks down to teensy weensy little tasks that you can wrap your brain around. 
4)  Hang out with creative friends and ask them to help you get unstuck. 
5)  Don't be afraid to admit that all of the work you've done in this unproductive period is going nowhere.  Toss it or at least hide it where you don't have to look at it anymore and move on in a brand new direction. 

Here's hoping this helps you if you ever find your creative side seems to have moved to a different country and didn't take you along.