Category Archives: living
Sending peaceful wishes
Origami cranes
You’ve seen these little paper cranes that grade school children might learn how to make in art class, or sometimes adorn a display case in an Asian gift store. A long time ago, I bought a package of 100 two-inch paper squares at an Asian art display with the intention of making 100 cranes for my, then, unborn child to decorate his or her room. The folklore around it was sweet, paper cranes for good luck and long life, and if you folded 1000 paper cranes, a wish would be granted.
When my daughter was born, I spent many hours in my beloved gliding rocking chair nursing or rocking her to sleep, sometimes listening to music. I could have watched television. There was no e-reader then. Instead, I wanted to be crafty, and chose to skillfully fold origami cranes, mostly with one hand. The cranes in the picture are just a couple of them… they all live in a crystal container that we received when Abby was born. Now my daughter is nine years old, and she is every bit of what I could possibly wish for and more.
So the news of the horrific events in Japan came last weekend, and it keeps coming with mostly unfathomable scenes and situations but some uplifting stories. I was telling my husband about a local Japanese school, children and their parents worried about their relatives in Japan. Then he says to me, why don’t you make paper cranes? He comes up with some great stuff, doesn’t he? Crafting for a cause. Well, sometimes, we can’t always offer monetary support, but what about thoughts for heartfelt wishes of strength, rebuilding, renewal… I pledge to make at least one hundred cranes. And, if maybe some of you would like to join me and make some, I would love the opportunity to present a Senbazuru (one thousand cranes) to the local Japanese school to show our support. Leave a comment or e-mail me if you’re interested.
I’ll try to post my instructions for origami cranes as soon as I can.
Much love to all,
Julie
UPDATE
A Big Blog Scare
Depressed Julie
Well, friends, my lack of internet and website knowledge caught up with me over the weekend. For 36-hours, I lost every post from mid-October 2010 through March 5, 2011. That would be roughly twenty to twenty-five entries, plus pictures. Uh oh. My daughter sensed something was wrong, and saw me looking like that picture. Oh no…
First, I was shocked, thinking could this really be happening? Then just anger, at myself, because I have never run a backup of my database or any of my writing, and I should know better. I just figured there’s a guru out there doing it for me. Wouldn’t you? Blogger, WordPress, all those sites… I imagine their mega-computers doing backups. In the end, I was just despondent and completely resigned that I lost all that writing. I had a drink or two, and a few deep breaths. It was just writing after all, hours and hours of writing and editing.*ugh*
Two people came to the rescue after some video chats and messaging. First, my cousin, bless him, sent me screen pictures of my posts from his RSS feed. Then, Sunday night, my brother flexed his website muscles and brought everything back (Cue angelic singing and rays of sunshine.) Whether this intense and potentially ulcer-causing scare was caused by the WordPress attack or a glitch in updating the application I use to write these posts… I’ve learned ONE thing. Backup. Backup again. Find a backup service. OY! Alright, two things. My brother is da man!
30 Days: Day 1 Challenge
When you were a child, how did you express your creativity?
Kids are naturally creative, I think, whether it’s drawing, acting out playing make-believe, musically… I don’t remember being any different. I took piano lessons starting at age 5, and sometimes pretended I was a composer trying to write my own music. I played for hours with the real Fisher Price little people and Weebles family. But, I loved my crayons and markers (aside from coveting my cousin’s Star Wars figures collection). The big box of 64 Crayolas was the end-all-be-all for me and I asked Santa for them every year. Clearly, I made use of my art supplies. My parents kept this drawing.
1984: Creative Writing Assignment drawing
Mom was a nurse working the night shift, so when she took her naps (I was older and more self-sufficient…not like I was a toddler), I remember drawing for lengths at a time just to have fun and keep busy. I even made my own sticker book and pictures for my friends as gifts. This was one… love the shades on the sun.
Sept 1984: My intro into graphic deisgn as a kid
April 1985: Combining fashion and art
We moved Spring 1985, and that summer was rough. Didn’t know many kids around the neighborhood yet, so my brother and I spent time… riding our bikes, drawing and playing at home. Remember Fashion Plates?
Ed Emberley-inspired
Watching our home being built definitely influenced me… probably why I went into Construction Engineering in college. But back in 1985, I really thought I’d grow up to be an architect.
Then I went back to graphic design… I’m such a product of the 80s.
Later, I got into Altered Books, but I didn’t know they were altered art. To me, they were my assignment notebooks (Chandler’s, anyone?) and every year, I decked them out with handwritten quotes, sketches, magazine cutouts and a collage cover. I really wish I had taken pictures of those. I would do the same thing to gift boxes – instead of wrapping them, I would cut out pictures and letters from junk mail and magazines. Spelling out birthday greetings with individual letters like it was a ransom note looked pretty wild to us tweens and teenagers.
I’d love to hear how others expressed their creativity… feel free to leave a note.
What Nine Looks Like
This weekend recovering from birthday week, I’ve concluded that this might have been the easiest birthday party ever planned for my daughter. Just a few friends, dinner in a restaurant, scavenger hunt at a local department store and a sleepover. No theme, no games per se, I just made sure they had food and clean sheets. They entertained themselves for the most part playing video games and laughing at each others jokes and stories. Did I miss the elaborate planning? Sort of. Did I miss the trip to the party store with her, looking through all the licensed party wares and goodie bag trinkets? Sort of. This could mark the end of an era with my daughter.
This is just the beginning of another phase, of driving girls to the mall, taking goofy “runway model” pictures by storefront windows, girls running into my house, barely saying hello and running up the stairs into my daughter’s bedroom and shutting the door. The beginning of lots of hush-hush and shush-ing when I knock on the door to check on them, and lots of giggling too. Dare I say, the beginning of the tween years? In the end, my husband and I really loved seeing her have so much fun with her friends.
Happy birthday, my little roundhead.
Snow Log 2011 and Random Winter Thoughts
Snow log, star date 2.1.2011, time 06:00: 2″-3″ on the driveway and sidewalks. Light to moderate weight. 38 minutes to clear. Hehe…
Sunday, I watched the morning news and was surprised when they forecasted 13″ of snow by Wednesday morning. This morning, I shoveled the drive before my husband left for work… so here we are, done with January awaiting the epic snow storm of 2011. Incidentally, it was also described this morning in the media as “snow in amounts of biblical proportions”, “snow-pocalypse”, and “snow-maggedon”. Told my kids we might have a snow day (or two) soon, and reminisced about the snow drifts and plow piles being several feet above my head. That was 1979, I was six. My uncle was stuck in his car for hours, afraid he’d run out of gas before getting home. I can’t remember if he abandoned his car at one point. That was the deciding factor for him and my aunt to move to a warmer climate.
You know what’s easy to do when you’re outside before the crack of dawn and all is quiet? Meditate. Well, sort of. My mind wanders all the time. I’m surprised I even stay focused at all, sometimes. In the winter months, I get really introspective, thinking where am I going, where have I been. Life has been a tremendous ride so far, and I would have never guessed I’d be where I am. 2011 has so much opportunity, and I think my biggest lesson I’ve learned is that for every “yes”, there is a “no”. It’s like the big yin and yang, finding balance in the force, that sort of thing – something I’ve struggled with for a long time.
Well, with all the snow that’s coming our way, there should be more time to think about all that…
