Creative couple follows dreams

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/04/2017 (3003 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many people don’t have the chance to quit their job and do what they love but for Curtis Nordstrom, pursuing what he loved led to the best year of his life.

Curtis, a Steinbach resident, had been working at Valeant for 14 years when his wife, Kara Nordstrom, asked him what he would love to do with his life. After saving up a year’s wages, Curtis quit his job in January 2016 to find what he loves.

In February 2016, North Stream Creations was born. The business not only combines both Curtis and Kara’s passions and allows them to do what they love, but the focus is to encourage other people to also do what they love.

“It [last year] was the best year of my life,” said Curtis, who has since returned—in addition to North Stream Creations—to working to supplement his income.

At first, Curtis thought his passion was writing, but he then realized he didn’t like it as much as he thought he would. But during that year off, Curtis found that he loved animation.

“It went from writing to doing comic strips to now, animating,” he said. “It was quite the change after 14 years at the same job.” Curtis said he’s always enjoyed and been a good drawer.

Kara’s passion is making puppets. She still works full-time at Valeant—where the couple met—and works in St Adolphe part-time too.

While Kara only began selling her puppets in September 2016, she’s not new to the puppet world. When she was younger, a woman came to her church wanted to start a puppet team. She joined the team and participated as a puppeteer for 12 years.

“That was a lot of fun,” said Kara. “I always wanted to make puppets and the lady from the church was going to teach me, but she ended up passing away.”

Kara taught herself to make puppets by watching videos. One puppet can take four to five hours to make, depending on what materials she is working with.

After the couple got married, Kara said she told her husband she was interested in making puppets. Curtis asked Kara to make a puppet for his Masked Avenger character, which he created when he was 14.

“She made one and I loved it, so it encouraged her to keep creating. It grew and grew and each one keeps getting better,” said Curtis.

“It was hideous,” laughed Kara, who adds she had no template to go by at the time. “He just encouraged me to keep going.”

Kara has now made dozens of puppets and Curtis has made several animated videos with Masked Avenger character. Now that the Nordstroms are pursuing their passions, they want to encourage others to so as well with North Stream Creations.

“Our goal [with North Stream Creations] is to provide space and teaching for people to do what they love. For me, what that came down to was, I took all the things I love music, public speaking, draw and I’ve combined that all into my animation. For her, she’s loved puppets since she was really young, so we wanted to do that,” said Curtis, who also teaches guitar as another facet of the business.

“It’s encouraging people to create what their passionate about and not fearing limitations. Just do it and you can probably do what you love with what you have.”

To view Curtis and Kara Nordstrom’s creations, visit northstreamcreations.weebly.com.