30 days of lists - days 5-8

A lot has been happening, so the next few days will be catchup posts.

To start with, here are the next four lists for my 30 days of lists project. (Days 1-4 are here). I'm having fun with this challenge, even though I've dropped a few days behind.

Day 5: Things I tend to worry about:

I tend to worry big. There wasn't enough space to fit in all the small stuff . . . As for making mistakes, I think I have to re-read my own post on the subject several times. One day it might sink in.

Day 6: Rules to break:

This one was hard. I'm not very good at breaking rules. But I thought of another one to break: "Keep up to date with the challenges". 

Day 7: Today I saw:

Day 8: I changed this one to suit me (that's one of the great things about this challenge - if you don't like the prompts you can change them). It was originally "childhood chores", but I though it would be more interesting to make it more current, so it has become "Saturday chores":

30 days of lists - days 1-4

I recently heard about 30 Days of Lists and decided that it might be fun to join in.

It's a 30 day journalling challenge, where you get a prompt for a list every day, that you can record in any way you like. It could be as simple as writing each list down on the back of an envelope or as complicated and arty as you want to make it.

There are no rules, and you can even change the prompts if you don't like them. There's an online community to join if you want to chat to other listers, you can post your lists on your blog or do whatever you want with them.

And what you end up with is a nice little snapshot of your life in lists.

I didn't want to make it too complicated for myself, so I decided to use my Clairefontaine mini-reporter pad, which has lovely thick lined paper, perfect for my growing collection of Lamy Safari rollerball pens. (Many thanks to my lovely family for buying these for me for Xmas.)

I came in a couple of days after the challenge started, so I'm a couple of days behind. I've been posting my photos on Instagram (using #30lists) and am going to post them here every few days.

So to begin, here's Days 1 to 4.

 Day 1: What's new so far this year. This one's pretty self explanatory.

Day 2: Projects I'm working on. Basically some of the things from my 100 things to do list that are on my to-do list right now.

 Day 3: Things younger me would like about current me. 

• I still watch Doctor Who
• I have a garden with a couple of potential secret garden spots
• I still have my favourite childhood teddy (when I can get him away from Juniordwarf)
• I have my own radio show
• My iPhone

Day 4: Favourite time wasters.

Funny that one of the things on this list is "making lists" . . .

And as for being nit-picky and not finishing things - I'm forcing myself to not make these lists perfect, and to do one each day so that I do get them done, rather than think about it and decide I can't do it because I don't know what to write.

Stayed tuned for Part 2.

P365 - Day 322 - here be dragons (eggs)

A while very long time ago, Juniordwarf and I met up with the fabulous Kim from frogpondsrock to create some dragons eggs. 

One of the highlights of that day was walking through the bush and finding the huge eggs that Kim had made for the event and hidden in the bush for people to find. Here are some of the fantastic eggs that Kim created.

Unfortunately, some people decided to help themselves to the eggs, and several of them went missing, which was a very disappointing end to a fun day.

Kim very kindly offered to give me the sculpture that I had featured on my blog post about the event and I was thrilled that she’d offered it to me. 

I had an idea that it would go very nicely in the little sanctuary part of my garden that I’ve set aside just for me and my herbs.

It was just a matter of organising to catch up with Kim and picking it up, together with the dragon eggs that Juniordwarf and I had made in February, after Kim had fired them in her kiln (or, as Juniordwarf thought, killed them in the fire).

Well making a time to meet took longer than expected, but after a couple of false starts, today we finally organised to meet Kim at the Off Centre Gallery, in the Salamanca Arts Centre,  where Kim and a group of ceramics and glass artists display and sell their work.

I didn’t have much of a chance to take much in at the gallery, but I’ll be sure to go back in the next couple of weeks when I don’t have to keep a watchful eye on the small person, so that I can have a good look at everything. From this brief visit, it looks like there is a lot of beautiful work in there.

Juniordwarf had been looking forward to getting his egg from Kim for months, and he was so excited to find out we’d be going to get it today. 

He asked Kim whether it was going to hatch, and when we got home, the first thing he did was sit his little dragon on his egg to hatch it.

That approach being unsuccessful, a couple of hours later, he decided that he’d have to sit on it to make it hatch.

You have to admire his persistence!

I’m very excited about having a feature piece to put in my herb garden. I feel very inspired to get out there and make it all happen. Now if I can just manage a couple of days off work to spend in the garden, I might start to make some progress.

And thank you again Kim, for your very generous gift. 

P365 - Day 317 - fruits of our labour (Sunday Selections)

Since it’s Sunday and I took a lot of photos today, I thought I would join in Kim’s Sunday Selections at Frogpondsrock  this week. I never seem to be able to get my act into gear to hook out some old unseen photos for Kim, so new ones will have to do.

But first, some context . . .

We went back to the Garden Club’s Flower and Horticultural Show this morning.

We were all very excited that Juniordwarf's flower had won a certificate – he got first place for the model flower class and also best exhibit for the under 6s age group category.

There were some lovely floral exhibits, and a fantastic display of local produce, including our friends at Two Metre Tall, Kinvarra Estate, where we went earlier in the year, Stefano Lubiana Wines and Cracknell Tomatoes.

Lil Sis, Mr Tall and Nanna came to visit us and to see the flower show, and we all went out for lunch afterwards. 

This afternoon Juniordwarf and I went back to pick up his model and his certificates. We decided to go for a walk before we went home, and we ended up in the park at the end of the main street, where Juniordwarf had a great time exploring the fountain and smelling the roses.

P365 - Day 299 - wreck this journal

Earlier this year I bought a book called Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith.

The subtitle of the book is ‘To Create Is To Destroy’. Bascially it is, as the name suggests, a book that you are supposed to wreck. Each page has an instruction for something you’re supposed to do to the page or to the whole book in order to destroy it.

A couple of examples are ‘poke holes in this page using a pencil’, ‘sew this page’, and ‘create a non-stop line’. You are also supposed to cut through the book, take it for a walk tied on a piece of string, and take it in the shower with you.

The point of the book is to let yourself go a bit crazy, do things to a book that you simply don’t do to books, have fun, and get over the ‘blank page syndrome’ that people like me often face when we sit down to try and create something. It’s an attempt to get yourself unstuck from your creative rut.

I’m sure the concept of destroying a brand new book doesn’t appeal to everyone, but for me it’s been a bit of fun. I’ve been putting off some of the more destructive tasks, and also some that require a bit of thought, but I’ve noticed as I’ve been working through the book – not in order, of course – that I’ve started to get a bit more reckless with it and am happily making more of a mess than I did when I started.

Today I decided to drop the journal from a high place. The highest place I have easy access to (other than my work building, where I understand dropping things off the roof is strictly forbidden) is a second storey balcony, so that had to do.

Dropping it didn’t cause as much damage to the book as I’d hoped, but it was kind of cool to see it flying through the air for a couple of seconds.

The instruction. It doesn't say how high!

Ready . . .  set . . . 

Go!

Bye!

Safely landed.

I wonder what I should attempt tomorrow.