My crafty awakening…

I’m a firm believer in the benefits of writing. I’ve never been good at keeping a journal for any lengthy period of time, but blogging has been a good substitute for me. And it’s my philosophy that writing longhand is the way to go about it. As my pen glides over the paper, I feel some of the angst flow out with it.

If anyone had told me twenty years ago that I would call myself a writer, I would have laughed heartily. Me? No way! Now I can’t imagine a day without writing something. Words have meant so much to me since I can remember. I was a voracious reader in my youth. It opened new worlds to me and I’m so thankful.

As a left-handed individual (one of the 10%), I struggled with fine motor skills. Gross motor skills (think sports) came easily as I performed those right-handed. But eating, writing, and brushing my teeth could only be accomplished with my left hand. We already know of my nightmare with scissors which turned me into a hater of arts and crafts.

Yesterday I made a journal from “scratch.” I took a flattened cracker box, destined for recycling, and made it into this.

As soon as I saw the scrapbook papers, I knew I would make something out of them. Blue is, was, and always will be my favorite color. I know that some crafters make entire journals based on a color theme. I wasn’t ready to do that…yet. But I created the physical “foundation” for the journal, made the signatures (groups of papers that form the pages), and created a spine and binding into which I sewed the signatures. For me, this borders on miraculous. Seriously.

I’m a patient individual except when I am struggling to master a skill. I expect a lot from me. Too much. And I lose my temper. It’s ugly. My mother could tell you about a cooking mistake I made when I had her over for dinner at my first house. I ended up throwing the container of paprika against the wall. Can we say MESS?! I admit I’m a thrower. Maybe it was all of those years of teaching tennis. Thankfully my shoulders are shot and I can’t throw worth a damn. But, I can cuss.

I began putting things into the journal. There’s no deadline. It will proceed on its own. I don’t mind sharing the first two items. My skills are fair and the only way is up so I’m looking forward to that. I want to make and market journals that encourage people to write through their “stuff” while also discovering their inner craft personality.

Though I don’t create junk journals by their definition, I do embrace the tenet that junk journals have no rules. This allowed me not to seek perfection in my creations and, in turn, it released a spark within me that was undiscovered. I’m so grateful to have found this, though it may derail my fiction writing for a while. Be patient and I hope you might accompany me on this new journey.