Close your eyes
Clear your heart
Let it go.
In my last post I mentioned that I have trouble letting go of the summer months. It got me to thinking what else am I holding on to that does not suit me? Personal belongings? Yes. Beliefs about what I can and can not do? Yes. Fears and doubts about the future? Yes. All of these things could use some work, but after some contemplation, I have determined that the most important thing that I need to let go of, is comparisons.
When I am happily strolling around the internet and I find an interesting project / blog post, I inevitably find myself looking at this other bloggers pintrest and facebook pages to see how many followers they have. I also can't keep myself from checking to see how many comments they have on their posts. I read their bio's to find out how old they are and how long they have been blogging. All of these things are generally quite disheartening to me. And serve only to remind me about where I think I should be, where I want to be and how far away I am from that target.
I think that I should be somewhere else in my life, by this time in my life, after blogging this long. But I am here. It doesn't matter that I think I should be further along in making my dream a reality. I am here. I am working toward something that is still quite hazy and unclear, but it is gaining substance. It has value if only to me. It doesn't matter how old I am or how long I have been working at it, or how many people are doing it better. It only matters, that I continue.
So what is letting go really about? I believe at the heart of it, letting go is always about acknowledging and accepting the things you can not change (i.e. is anyone reading my blog?) without giving up on the things you can and want to change (i.e. continuing to learn, make and share things.) It is tricky, messy, sometimes confusing, I forget, I make mistakes, I continue. Create, Make, Do. These are the things within my control.
But how do you learn from others and how do you gauge your progress if you can not make comparisons? I suspect that there may be a healthy way or a more healthy amount of analysis that is more productive and less obsessive than what I have been doing. Hopefully in time I will find it. For now I need to:
Close my eyes
Clear my heart
and
let it go.
************************************************************************
Upcycled Halloween Treat Boxes and Bloody Hand Print Bowl
Last week I posted a simple Upcycled stamp and stamp pad tutorial. This weeks post shows how I used them to make decorative treat boxes.
To make your own you will need:
Empty toilet paper tubes
An old paperback book
Your left over coffee or tea
A container big enough to hold the book pages
Elmer's glue
Stamp and stamp pad
Acrylic paint
Step 1 - Tear out book page and soak for several minutes in this mornings left over coffee.
Step 2 - Remove from coffee and allow to dry
Step 3 - Glue book pages around toilet paper tubes. Allow to dry. (One of my favorite things about this project is there is no cutting involved the book paper and tubes are almost exactly the same width.)
Step 4 - Flatten tubes and paint edges.
Step 5 - Stamp with bat stamp
Step 6 - Fold in the ends and fill with trinkets and candy
To make the bowl you will need
An old paperback book
Flour and water paste
A mold for your bowl
Acrylic paint
Paint brush
Glue gun
Wax Paper
Plastic Wrap
Step 1 - Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Layer several pieces of book pages and flour paste paper mache over bowl. Allow to dry.
Step 2 - Remover from bowl and remove any plastic wrap. Allow inside of bowl to dry.
Step 3 - Paint with desire color(s) and allow to dry.
Step 4 - Brush red paint on to hand and press on to bowl. Allow to dry.
Step 5 - Place bowl on a sheet of wax paper and apply a thick layer of hot glue all the way around the bowl. Allow to cool.
Step 6 - Paint the cooled hot glue with red paint. Remove excess wax paper.
Happy Upcycling,