I have been sleeping like a baby. Frequent wakings during the night – no tears though or dirty diapers, but yes, very unsettled with lots of tossing and turning. How about you? This pandemic has most of us on edge and out of sorts. Our routines are out of wack and there no set date for normalcy to return. The other night as I tossed and turned, I wrote some brilliant posts in my mind. But alas, with the rising sun most ideas fled from my brain.
A single thought stayed behind. One word. Just choose one word that means something important to you or is some goal you aspire to reach. The classroom teacher presented this to the kids and asked them to write about the word they selected, why it was significant and how to work towards it. I decided to join in and picked CREATE – it may seem easy but clearly I’ve struggled to keep up with this blog and I’ve spent less and less time crafting over the years. I have my excuses, rationalizations and actual good reasons but my inability to get into my craft area and get going has had a negative effect on me.
It’s been harder to get motivated to create and the aim of my one word was to get my craft on again. The plan was simple – spend twenty minutes minimum each day in my craft area either scrapbooking, card making or tidying up my supplies so that I had the space to make something. I’ve not been entirely successful but have days where I can spend an hour or so working my magic.
This weekend, I really rose to the challenge thanks to Creative Memories Virtual Crop on Facebook. The challenge was that every four hours, they would post a new scrap map for you to attempt. I didn’t think I would manage to get all twelve layouts done but I did – thirteen actually as I took a wee walk and coming back, forgot that I’d already finish a particular challenge! No photos are attached to the layouts but that’s okay, I know what ones I want to use. I just need to get them printed. Last summer at the PNE I managed to take 175 pictures of the girls and myself during our day there and loved the colours we saw throughout the day.
With layouts planned by someone else and knowing what event I would be scrapping, I dove in. The hours past very quickly and I had an amazingly good time.
Initially I thought I would make digital layouts but I decided to pull out the papers, ink and stamps. As one lady said, she prefers the hands on approach as it “is like having a book in your hands to read vs a book on a nook or kindle. Something about holding/hands on.” As a library technician I appreciate her comment – but I love both paper books and my Kobo just as I love paper and digital crafting. Each has a time and place. Now I will proudly show of my efforts.
“Your humor is your compass and your shield. You can hone it into a weapon or you can pull its strands out to make your very own cotton-candy blanket. You can’t exist on a diet of humor alone, but you can’t exist on a diet without it, either.”