Spend Time Creating: Something Not Related to Music Therapy Today

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.
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.)
















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea...
Read more

Songwriting Sunday: Repetition

Image
One of the things that I find to be helpful with my client population (children, adolescents, and young adults with dual diagnoses) is repetition of phrases, lyrics, and music. As a result of 30+ years of working with this population in various iterations, I have found that my clients respond the most to songs with three repeated phrases to prime their responses with a different phrase to communicate the important part of the experience. DISCLAIMER: This is not a definite way to write music for clinical interactions. This is what seems to work well with my particular group of human beings. Don't go to your supervisors and tell them that I told you that this is the ONLY way to write music - It is NOT! You have to find what works for your clients and for their clinical goals. Since my clients respond well to this type of song, I tend to write songs in this format more than any other. What I have found is that my clients remember these songs more than the ones that I do in different f...
Read more

Being An Internship Director: On Hiatus

Image
It has been long enough since I have had an intern that I am seriously feeling like I have little to say on the subject. At the same time, I am currently writing Chapter 5 of my general internship handbook, so I am able to write about being an intern and what types of things to think about during this important time in our professional development. It is a strange place to be in, and it is one that is a bit challenging for me. Right now, I have had three vacant internship positions since the beginning of the calendar year. I will have a vacant position next month and that will be an entire year of rejected offers. In the past nine months, I have offered positions to three applicants who have declined. It is interesting how people complain that there aren't enough internship programs, but programs like mine are empty. I guess there aren't enough internship programs that pay large stipends (which mine cannot) out there. I get it. It is interesting to me how we have moved from an ...
Read more