Saturday Special: Making Things #MusicTherapyMaker

It is Saturday again, and I am at home, so I can write about the things that I am making at the moment. Last Saturday was taken up with traveling, so no creativity posts from me on that day! Today, though, I am surrounded by my stuff, so I can spend some time working through my #musictherapymaker thoughts and projects. (Can you tell that I am getting bored with my own company?? Four days after today of break!)

I had a crying day yesterday - do you ever get those? It was the type of day where EVERYTHING that I saw or experienced led me into full out sobbing, so I did the bare minimum that I could do in order to continue to remain safe and healthy. When my brain moved from crying to needing something to do, I spent an hour putting pictures in my Vancouver pages in this homemade scrapbook.

I made this during my March trip when I was home to celebrate our canceled Christmas (hence the Grogu Christmas wrapping paper). I made it out of a box that some of my gifts came in and the wrapping paper. Inside, I put some copy paper for pages, and I started decorating.

I now have three trips chronicled in this book. I put in several pages from my trips in March to California (home) and Nebraska (music therapy conference #1 for this year). Right now, I am in the process of putting together the pictures that I took during our recent trip (music therapy conference #2).

I enjoy making books, but I do not often use the books that I make. I am not really sure why I feel like I cannot use these books, but I just don't. So, as a result, I make lots of books, but I don't use them. This one, though, I pledged to use because it was made out of personal materials - things I was given by my family. I made the book with the materials available to me in my mom's house. The copy paper is not sturdy enough to journal on directly - the pens I use bleed through, so each page has to have additional layers for journaling. I have made lots of envelopes and journaling cards to include, and I am using the postcards that I bought at the aquarium for some additional places to put some of my thoughts and experiences. The book is quickly becoming stuffed full of pictures and memories, and I love it, but that's not all that I am creating over here...

After I spent that hour in my scrapbook/art journal book, I sat down with my markers and my various books to put out some ideas for things that I want to do in the next six months. It is time to start putting together my sing about songs series again. I am thinking about places where I can share my work and where others will actually find it! I have SO much to share and no one knows about it!!

The first new edition will be coming out pretty soon - new TMEs and new formats. Keep an eye here for the announcement...

Since today doesn't seem to be a crying day (at least, not yet), I am going to spend some more time making things for my music therapy room this year. At the beginning of the summer, I had a brainstorm about how to use my cabinets for some incidental and programmed learning moments - music history timeline!! I took everything off the cabinets and put up some masking tape in a (well - almost) straight line across the span of the four cabinets that are in my room. Yesterday, I bought some colorful tape to use to indicate different music genres once we get to the twentieth century and the first 23 years of the twenty-first century. So, I need some visuals to laminate and put onto the timeline. This project will be never-ending, just like my communication binders...

Spend Time Creating: Watercolor swirls in pastel colors in the background. Text includes the following: “#MusicTherapyMaker,” “Saturdays at musictxandme.blogspot.com,” and the website URL: www.musictherapyworks.com.
I already have the major line up on the cabinets. The things that I want to make this Saturday are some time/year indicators to put up on the line to orient us to our concept of time. I will make this an interactive concept, so students will help me fill in the information and the musicians that need to be included on our timeline. Eventually, I will make this a music selection board for students to select specific musicians for our listening TMEs. So, I will want elements to be able to be removed and brought to me. All of these thoughts have to go into the planning process, and it helps when these things occur to me BEFORE I have put the entire visual together! I will Velcro names and pictures of performers onto the cabinets so they can be removed and replaced as needed or necessary. This will fit in with my Musician of the Month theme that I already have established.

Time to stop talking about this and get to creation! I have to find my sentence strips (purchased at the Dollar Tree) so I can start my time/year indicator creation. I think that will be my project for today - making the indicator signs and laminating them. That's it for today. See you tomorrow??

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