Spend Time Creating: Something Not Related to Music Therapy Today

It is Saturday. We are getting ready for excessive heat for the next five days (at least), and I am going to need something to do to keep me inside and not as depressed as I get when it gets hot. So, I am looking around my overwhelmingly messy craft desk to find something that I want to do.

It has been a bit since I made a book, so that may be the project that I work on today. By the end of today, I am hoping that the craft desk looks less cluttered and more functional. Before that point, though, I have an appointment with an allergist for the first time in my life. That's not the point of this post, though. This post is about making things.

Yesterday, I spent a long time in my work area making file folders and binder pages for some of my students. I finished twenty and distributed them between the three classes that I had heard from. I have one more stack for the class that I haven't heard from... I cleaned the area and then finished my clinical interactions for the day before heading home after bus duty.

Today is reserved for things for me. I am going to go to the appointment and then get home before the heat becomes oppressive. I plan on spending most of my time downstairs for the next several days. I think I might want some cool food options to eat. Not cool like "wow, that's so cool" but cool like "the temperature is lower than the outside right now." To keep me engaged and entertained, I am diving back into my non-music love of crafting.

I do lots of things, but my favorite crafting thing is making journals. I make all sorts and sizes of journals for others to use and try out. I've given several away. I make them with the things that I have around me - and I have lots of things around me. My favorite journals are the ones that are colorful and quirky. I have a new project that I want to try out, but it requires the use of the laminator to strengthen the covers. I'm not ready to do that yet.

Crafting is a place where I try things. I enjoy taking things and making them into new things. I just don't have much of a place to distribute those new things. I will wander around the office/craft room for a bit, trying hard to think of something to do, and then I will focus on something to make. I've been feeling a watercolor tingle lately, so that might be what happens later. Who knows? 

To leave you, here are some pictures of the journals that I have made lately. If you want one, leave me a comment, and I will send you one. There you go. (Picture descriptions: Each picture includes a shot of one of the journals that I make. They have a variety of colors, themes, and styles.)