I love this time of year because it fills me with a feeling that anything is possible.
For the past few days, I have been off work and I won’t be returning until after the New Year. I spent those first few days cooking and doing some last minute shopping in preparation for Christmas.
Today begins a week without work or holidays to prepare for. I’ve already begun to let loose and do whatever strikes my fancy, no matter how silly. This morning, that meant dusting off my vision journal and ripping up magazines for a little collage work.
I started by cutting out pictures that resonated with me to create a vision board. I’m still deciphering the message, but I see lots of soft rounded shapes and rich earth tones.
Then I morphed an idea from Keri Smith’s Living Out Loud. She talks about creating a finder by cutting a one-inch square out of a small piece of paper. By looking through the hole, you notice textures and details in the world around you, rather than only seeing the whole.
Since I was drawn to rounded shapes in my vision board, I chose to use a circular paper punch to cut through multiple pages in my magazines. I spread out the dots, chose my favorites, and glued them in my journal.
Today I am an artist. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
Ducks. I really don’t know if it’s possible not to smile around ducks.
I remember feeding the ducks at a nearby lake with my parents when I was little. The simple act of tossing a few bread crumbs and watching the ducks flock over was pure joy.
Back in April I began to realize how many people had ducks- when my husband was little he had a pet duck named Football, Havi has Selma, David Copperfield had Webster. Then, of course, there was trucker Joe with his sidekick (sideduck?) Frank.
Today’s photograph comes from a recent jaunt to New Hope, Pennsylvania where ducks were happily skimming the surface of a creek. This particular photo makes me think maybe they were racing.
A lot of people in this Wreck This Journal book blogging group tackled the burning page early on. Since I waited, it felt almost a little boring so I just kept ignoring that page.
With the help of my husband and stepson, last night I ceremoniously burned the page. We even made another video. I have to give my husband loads of credit for his ideas on how to burn the page as well as his film directorship. I hope you like it.
Happy wrecking!
If you’re confused as to what this Wreck This Journal stuff is all about or curious to see what other wrecking has transpired, here are some links to bring you up to speed.
Two glorious forms of wrecking occurred this week in my journal. Both involved tearing pages out and putting pages in.
First, I laundered a page. I ripped it out, folded it up and tucked it in the pocket of a pair of shorts. One wash cycle and 45 minutes of dryer time later, I let my hubby recover the balled up (but clean) page.
Pulling the washed page out of a pocket
Carefully opening the washed page
The beautiful end result
Second, and even more glorious, I swapped pages with the delightful LaWendula in Germany. That’s right, our pages crossed a good portion of the globe in just a few short days. Her page came to me on Monday, the same day that I put my page in the mail to her. She let me know yesterday that she had received it already.
I was so excited to see that envelope in the mailbox! She had used several pretty stamps on a bright pink envelope. So cheerful!
Stamps from LaWendula's letter to me
The page she sent could not have been more perfect. She glued in a page from Kate Chopin’s The Awakening.
LaWendula's The Awakening page
What LaWendula didn’t realize is that Kate Chopin is my favorite classic author. I read The Awakening and a number of Chopin’s short stories as an English major in college. Her “The Story of an Hour” is one of my favorites.
A few months ago I purchased a copy of The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction so I could read it all over again. That book is next on my “to read” list (after I finish The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger).
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So to LaWendula: Thank you very much for sending me this beautiful page! I have given it a new home in a “clean” portion of my Wreck This Journal. I will think of you when I read The Awakening. I’m pleased to have you as a new friend.
To all of my fellow wreckers, Happy Wrecking!
If you’re confused as to what this Wreck This Journal stuff is all about or curious to see what other wrecking has transpired, here are some links to bring you up to speed.
This week for Wreck This Journal, I overcame a fear. I made a video.
Lots of fellow wreckers paved the way for me by making videos that looked fun and not terribly scary. I generally don’t like video cameras and find it hard to be myself around them, so this was a huge step.
This was completely spontaneous. One minute I was weeding my garden, the next I was scurrying through my house to gather up my computer and journal in the last few minutes of daylight.
I had a lot of fun making this video and I didn’t even chicken out in posting it. Here it is. Enjoy!
Happy wrecking!
If you’re confused as to what this Wreck This Journal stuff is all about or curious to see what other wrecking has transpired, here are some links to bring you up to speed.
Another journal wrecking week is coming to a close. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see the links at the end of this post.)
As I’m sure my fellow wreckers can attest, some weeks are more inspired than others. Last week, not so much. This week, inspired!
My stepson has been playing with a box of balloons this week. Those long, skinny balloons that are meant for being shaped into animals or hats.
My husband, being a giant kid himself, had the idea to make a water balloon with one. It was meant to be some kind of fancy water cannon with which he could inflict torture on my stepson (or possibly me).
Fortunately for us his idea evolved. While standing at the sink alternately filling a balloon and twisting, he asked if he could smash his water balloon in my journal.
My reply? “Heck yeah! I’ll get the camera.”
We flipped the book open to “scrub this page” and let loose.
I ended up with 67 photographs from what was probably two minutes of wreckage. Here are some of the highlights:
Let the wrecking begin!
The journal proves to be a formidable opponent
Time to get serious
Why swing one balloon when you can wield nunchucks...
I adore Brandi. She embodies true joy, finding it in places others might overlook.
One of the simple joys Brandi reminded me about is sidewalk chalk. So a few nights ago, when I spotted the bucket of sidewalk chalk sitting dusty in the garage, I knew my family was about to partake in a mini-adventure of sorts.
To start things off, I wrote a birthday greeting for my stepson who turned 12 on Monday.
A birthday wish in sidewalk chalk
Then I called him out to the driveway and things went crazy.
Happiness is... sidewalk chalk
We drew pictures and played hopscotch. We wrote messages by the sidewalk for people who pass by. It was a blast.
Where can you find simple joys? Let that inner child out to play.
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