Pages

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Creativity Off the Page

Not surprisingly, my favorite creative outlet is writing. That being said, sometimes - particularly during the story drafting process when all my ideas are at best tangential to anything making sense - I need to take a step back from the notebook. I can not, however, just do nothing. Something about an object at rest staying in rest. Every moment I spend sitting on the couch staring at the wall breeds yet another similar moment.

So, I've found some other things I enjoy doing that keep me busy, but still leave part of my brain free for idea finessing. Here are my top five non-writing-related creative outlets:

1. Scrapbooking



I love photos and despite the ease of storing all of them digitally, sometimes I want to have some hard copies. I figure rather than just sticking them in a box, I might as well have some fun in displaying them.

2. Canvases


As my painting skills are not exemplary, I basically use these as hang-able scrapbook pages. Plus, living in an apartment with all white walls, splashes of color are always welcome.

3. Diaper cakes


There have been an influx of tiny humans in my life over this past year. And in preparation for their arrivals, I've attended a number of baby showers. I had never heard of a diaper cake before this year, but have found that they are a lot of fun to make. Plus, the rolling of diapers is the perfect mundane activity to keep my hands busy, but my mind moving. I've had a number of story epiphany moments while working on these bad boys.

4. Baking

Sorry folks, no pictures included here. Even when what I'm experimenting with turns out well, never in my life have I been able to get a flattering photo of it. Suffice it to say that right now I'm very into pies - specifically peach berry.

5. Event planning

Whether it's birthday parties or baby showers or really bad movie nights, I love planning parties. Mostly because it's like envisioning a scene for a story and then making it happen. Have the possibility of a bigger event percolating in the old brain pan right now. I'll let you know if it comes to fruition.

In the meantime, what are your creative outlets?

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

For The Benefit of Future Generations

So, I've been going through some things from my childhood. Cleaning out the old homestead. Because, there comes a time in every lady's life where she has to decide if she really needs to hold on to those root beer bottle caps from '96. Not that I'm not sure the beverages in question were delicious.  I mean, seriously, it's root beer. What could go wrong? But is it necessary for me to commemorate my drinking it? That's the question.

And the answer is, probably not....but maybe....hold strong, Johnson, hold strong....No. The answer is no. I don't need that. 

Of course, there have been a few gems that will be truly hard to part with. For instance, this notebook from the late '90s:

image.jpeg

I know what you're thinking, Of course, you can't throw out such a bitchin' ice cream cone notebook! And you're not wrong, but this little pad is so much more than that. It is a detailed, if poorly spelled, record of information vital to the survival of human culture.

Simple and to the point. Perfect for passing
information along to future generations. 

image.jpeg
 Hopefully those future generations won't be so 
dependent on spell-check that this mistake
makes the record indecipherable.

image.jpeg
"Scruffy looking nerf herder" would have also
been acceptable. 

 image.jpeg
 I believe the descriptor here was meant to be 
"Crafty." Unless "Crafy" is Bespin slang.

image.jpeg
Listing a Wookie's age seems more likely to
make him angry than the whole beating
him at chess thing.

image.jpeg
Cibor, huh? It's just....so....close.

image.jpeg
 He's a simpler fellow than that C-3PO guy.

image.jpeg
 Wow, Past Kelly, a "Spoiler Alert" would have
been nice. 

image.jpeg
Both objectivity and spelling took a bit of 
a hit here. 

image.jpeg
 It just seems like there may be more dashes
here than absolutely necessary.

image.jpeg
Just for clarification purposes, Yoda's species 
has always been listed as "unknown." 
Don't know what this "Green Dwarf"
business is about.

image.jpeg
Apparently the rage over these "jerks" manifests
in the devolution of spelling.

image.jpeg
Nope, sorry. Scratch that last observation. Friend
or foe, spelling is clearly not a priority.

image.jpeg
With the wisdom that comes with age, I can now
admit that perhaps Mr. Fett's story was a bit
less black and white than I originally thought.
As such, "jerk" might be a little bit strong. 

image.jpeg
That this descriptor was thought to be necessary
seems a bit speciesist. Just saying. 

image.jpeg
 If you're wondering when Wedge got this mispelled
promotion (which you're not), Past Kelly was
just giving you a little taste of what the
extended universe has to offer.

image.jpeg
Hence the inclusion of this one character who 
appears only in the books.

image.jpeg
 The final proof that these insane ramblings were
not ultimately meant for me, but rather for some 
studier of maniacal tendencies. Unless I thought
there was a chance I might forget I was indeed
female. Because the whole Star Wars thing
was clearly going to stick. 

It just seemed wrong not to share these with you all. Where exactly would the justice be if you were not all informed of the kind of person you're cyber-hanging out with?

Also, if the anthropologist for whom I wrote this is out there and has been wondering why it's taken so long for these observations to see the light of day, I apologize deeply for the delay. Please let me know if you need further clarification on the aforementioned observations. 

I will await your response.