music, therapy, and me

It is Monday, and I am feeling my weekend. You wouldn't think that 13 hours of sitting and making things with paper would wreak havoc on a body, but it does. Also, the change in medication regimen has something to do with this, I am sure. I crashed hard this morning and did not want to get up at all. I have also not been eating well, so there are lots of things happening, but this weekend just coalesced everything into one big energy reset. Boy, I am just one big complaint this morning. Time to reset. I enjoyed my time making things with paper this weekend. I worked on my themed journals on Friday evening, and I putzed around with brainstorming as well as some other paper projects and Zentangling on Saturday. I made lots of plans on Saturday, and I have started to work through those projects.  I am working on passion projects right now. These are things that do not provide me with much financial benefit but that really make me feel satisfied. If I can get some financial support thr...

Most of this weekend was consumed with running my first ever solo conference, Rhythm to Results: Clinical Innovations for Music Therapy with Adolescents, but I also had an email from someone who was watching my Creativity Camp videos and wanted some thoughts. That started my own creativity going, and now I have some things to start generating for my TPT store and my Etsy shop! I love it when collaboration with other music therapists helps me figure out what to do next. The project that I have in front of me now is something that can be sustained almost indefinitely. I am looking forward to parsing the project, setting up templates, and then getting going on this project. I will be asking for ideas once I finish my own list, so stay tuned!  My book needs some love. Time to project plan the new ideas and continue to work on my current projects. I am going to see Hadestown, the musical movie, this morning, so I cannot spend all of my morning at my desk. That's a good thing. My sister ...

This weekend was mostly spent in bed, but I did accomplish a weekend challenge from one of my Facebook groups. Every weekend, one of the group members posts a challenge for us to create. This weekend's challenge was a Christmas-themed challenge, and I decided to participate. We had to figure out something with paper that included the following: envelopes, Santa, a holiday saying, glitter (nope for me), and lace. We could replace one of the elements with a button, so I took out the glitter part because I am hopeless with glitter. Here is what I created...  This is an envelope that I made out of cardstock. I covered all of the flaps with scrapbook paper, added some paper lace die-cuts, a picture of Santa, and a holiday sentiment. It is a fancy gift card holder that I will give to our family friend, Mary, this Christmas. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. The entire thing folds into the envelope shape and is held together by the string which wraps around the button on the front...

I did not do much this weekend as far as making things was concerned, but I did start two presentations for our conference in two Saturdays from now and worked on the books that I have in progress, so that's something. I started a course on Skillshare all about digital marketing. It is 12 hours long, so I have lots to do with it, but I think I will make this part of my evening routine. I have been having some trouble sleeping lately, and I think it has to do with how I am spending much of my leisure hours. I am going to try an experiment to see if I can get to sleep more easily than in the recent weeks. It is strange that my sleep schedule is so messed up, so I am going to try to reestablish a routine again. I am a month into my retirement break, and I feel the need to do more than I am doing right now. This was part of the plan to take time off before heading back into the workforce, but I am starting to itch a bit about going back to a work routine. My problem is that I don't...

The second ever (and hopefully, the first annual) Creativity Camp by musictherapyworks.com is now finished!! I am exhausted, but I feel good about what we accomplished this weekend. I have a BUNCH of new projects that are finished that I was able to complete in the 8 hours we were together, and the pile is growing as I get more inspiration from the campers' projects. That is the best thing about doing creative professional development workshops with and for music therapists - the expansion of ideas based on a similar format. I have done this type of workshop at regional conferences twice now, and this was the second online version of making things that I have finished. I think this will become a yearly workshop that I run from here at home. I have TONS of ideas that I enjoy sharing as starting points, so why not?? Currently, all of the cleaning that I did in preparation is in shambles. One of the problems that happens when creating is that there are messes that occur. While all of ...

It is Monday again, and I am sitting here, looking around my messy office space, and wondering what I will write about today. I didn't make much this weekend, but I did continue working on current projects. I have stitched in the signatures to the winter and turtle books (somewhat crookedly, to be sure - have to disguise/camouflage that in some way) and am starting to put in the signatures to the Christmas book. It is time to decorate books now, so I am going to look around for some turtley things. I already have plenty of winter stuff and Christmas stuff is always easily found. I did make a shelf. I am a fan of all things Disney, and one of the ways that has manifested is purchasing Doorables. If you don't know what I'm talking about - just look at the photo here. They are small characters in a particular style, and I love them! I had them in a small wooden house that I have had in my home for many years, but it was difficult to see them as they were all crammed together. ...

I spent most of the weekend getting things ready for my campers who are going to meet with me in a bit less than two weeks. It was a weekend tied to the computer, which is not always great, but it makes me think about how I create things for my clients. I hope that there will be some more folks sign up for camp, but the people who will be there will be fun to get to know. I am enjoying a bit of creativity when it comes to projects and how we will put things together. So, I have finished the lyric board, the game board pieces, the fill-in-the-blank songs, and the choice board. I still have the monster file to finish up before every project will be finished and ready to disseminate to my campers. OOOH! This is so much fun! This is something that I would LOVE to make an annual event. I did one of these back in 2015, and I wanted to do more, but life interfered. So, now that I have the time, I will work on making Creativity Camp a place where all music therapists can get together to make t...

It is Monday, and I have some maker stuff to talk about today. I actually made some things this weekend, so I can discuss them on this Make It Monday!! Hooray! Let's start off by talking about the new TPT (formerly known as Teachers Pay Teachers) file that I uploaded this weekend. I am getting ready to launch my first sing about  theme edition, and this file goes right along with it! Introducing Ocean Rhythm Cards ! I am excited about this resource because it provides me with a bunch of new therapeutic music experience (TME) ideas for use with clients in music therapy sessions. Since I do not have any current clients for music therapy, my brain is going to generic music therapy clients that I might work with in the future. I mean, I don't know who I will work with, but I want to share these ideas with those of you who are working with clients right now. These cards include twenty-seven pictures from Scrappin Doodles that include sea plants, animals, and humans in both color an...

I did not make anything yesterday, but I did move my desk to a different orientation in my office/craft basement room. That has resulted in a huge mess, but it has also allowed me to see things and evaluate how things are arranged in my living space. It was worth the strain on my back to have a new orientation for my working space. I am almost finished with the transition. I still need to move things off the desk and into more permanent locations, but I am not finished figuring those places out. I have invested in lots of different types of storage options for all the different things that I have collected, so I am trying to figure out where these things will live from now on. The main problem that I have is that I have to remove things from places so I can fill those places back up with other stuff... As I move things, I often find inspiration in the form of notes or resources that I have collected and then not looked at for a time. I have old ideas that I want to develop further writ...

Not many words today - lots of pictures!! Join us at 2026 Creativity Camp - link to registration and all the details here . 

I am currently organizing my Creativity Camp packets for Creativity Camp 2026. If you don't know, this is my latest CMTE offering to the music therapy community, especially those who like making things for their music therapy sessions. Part of the CMTE is a digital kit with instructions and all the information needed to make several projects. Right now, I am going through the task analyses of each project and writing them down to include in the digital kit. Task analyses were something that we focused on when I was in my undergraduate education, and it was something that I struggled with at every turn. Some of my peers were able to do them quickly, and I was able to do it when I was simply writing an analysis - we had to do one on taking a shower. That was easy. My difficulty came when I was expected to write these analyses for clinical interventions. I think I was bogged down more on the "what-ifs" than just writing things. This was my major struggle during my clinical ...

I am craving routine in my life as I am transitioning into trying to figure out my new life situation. One of the places where I can achieve structure and routine is here in the blog, so I am going to head back into some of the post series that I have started in the past. I am hoping that I will be someone who is able to offer ideas and therapeutic music experience (TME) suggestions on a regular basis. On Mondays, we make things. I am someone who tries to remain within her budget by making things that I see rather than buying things that I discover. There is no reason why I should spend $20.00 for something that I can make in four hours. At least, that is what the voice in my head tells me. Why spend money on music dot spots when I can fire up my trusty laminator and make the same things on my computer?? (This particular little voice is my mother's voice. It is amazing how messages passed on by parents can just stick, isn't it?) Now, I know that there are many other people in t...

It is time to finish up my holiday plans, print out the last little things for my Mom, and finish the laundry and the dishes. I have some routine car maintenance happening later this morning, so there are things to get going. I need to get the car washed (it is FILTHY!) before I take it to the car shop, so I have to get going here. Before I do all of that, though, I need to print out some digital files that I found for my mother's enjoyment. She is currently really into making Barbie sized miniatures, so I found some files that will help her do that. My sister just rolls her eyes when Mom gets started, but I keep reminding Sis that it could be worse and that Mom's habit is not that bad as far as things go. It is a messy hobby, though, and Mom hasn't been able to get rid of her other hobby materials, so things do pile up. As they do around here. Wonder where I get it from? I don't. I have to make different sized pages in order to get these things at the appropriate size ...

I did it! I spent most of my weekend engaged in crafting, and I have a new trip journal to show for it! One of the signature pages The front cover Now, the pictures here are just a bit of what I actually created this weekend. This journal has five signatures of about 20 pages each. and I managed to put in pockets and pictures and things called belly bands all over the place. It is ready to go on a trip with me later this month!! It is the second journal that I made over the weekend. The first just did not work the way I had envisioned, and the paper I used (wrapping paper) spread ink all over my fingers. So, it is currently abiding at the bottom of my craft bag, waiting for the oblivion of the recycling bin here pretty quickly. That's the nice thing about making things out of recyclable materials - it is okay to dispose of them as well! The actual experience was pretty fun as well. I met some new crafters and chatted about different things during the two days. That is the kind of o...

Today is the Monday before Thanksgiving - a forlorn space in a school therapy setting and twice as challenging in a school space in a psychiatric residential treatment facility like mine. There are two days before a five-day weekend break from school, and that causes additional problems for the staff who are required to work the holiday and for those of us who are required to leave. It is always an interesting time, and I am going in to do ten sessions with students and staff members who are not happy to be doing anything. I am debating what I want to do this week with my clients, and I think I have decided that we will throw splash balls at drums. This tends to be a good, non-speech centered TME that allows us to hit something that will not hit back and that can allow us to express some of our frustrations. I will get all of my drums out, and we will throw balls and continue until we are tired. It is a low planning, high reward type of TME, and it requires very little preparation on m...

On Friday, I put 20 file folder activities into the boxes of four classrooms. It was a huge stack of binder pages with various matching, communication, letter sound, and errorless tasks. I also gave away about 12 safety sign mini folders to another group of classrooms. All of this while the HVAC people have to crawl around in my ceiling so my office is disordered to make space for them. I find it ironic that my broken HVAC system is controlled from my office ceiling space. It took them about 3 years to even find the hub and now people have to interfere with my planning, preparation, and office space to make my room feel very hot or very cold. There is no inbetween. It is really annoying right now because they have smushed my desk space. I cannot get in there easily because they have to access the ceiling system several times a day. It is now time to put some finishing touches on some social stories that I have downloaded that are all about school. I need to take my binding machine in t...

I have ideas.  I have so many ideas for what I want to do as well as for how to do it, but I am stuck in task paralysis and can't find the impetus to start anything. So, here I am. looking at all the stuff to make my ideas come to fruition, but without anything to show for it all. Once I start the process, things go really easily, but getting started can be daunting. For the moment, I am just collecting ideas without getting too nervous about not making them realities. This is a good time of year for me. I do much better in the cool and the cold than I do in the heat and humidity. It is a cozy time of year, and I enjoy that. There is the promise of getting home and being all snuggly in my craft space where I can experiment with paper and laminate visual aids and make new things. I did work on a page in my art journal yesterday. It is not quite finished yet. I have to glue things down and decide if I need more to add or not. I also prepared some prism crystals to add to my current l...

I am currently trying to figure out how to release a free file to all of you, but I am getting bogged down in the details of how to get this going. I have the file ready, but I am unsure how to get you to that file. I can do it through a quick website update, but I need some time to do that website update. This is causing me to change some plans, but that is fine. Anyway, is anyone up for a November freebie? I am going to release information about a free resource this week. I am. I just need to get things organized on my side of things. In the meantime, I am getting ready for (ugh) Spirit Week and Halloween at work. I am going to share my Halloween resources with groups this week after we talk about our October Musicians of the Month. I have books, carols, games, and all sorts of Halloween-ish stuff. I am working on the pattern for a Halloween lapbook, but that will probably not be ready to share by Friday. It is spurring my creativity, though. I love lapbooks, but I haven't produc...

I have been challenged to promote the tools, materials, and books that I have developed over the years to let people know what is going on over here at musictherapyworks.com. I have a freebie to offer for this month, but I am not quite ready to release it yet - keep an eye on this blog and my website for more information towards the end of this week... It's a trick or treating song!! It is kinda in the form of social story song - kinda - and goes through picking a costume to what to do when someone opens a door. It has original artwork as well as a way to work on sequencing. I hope it will enrich the TME options that you have for this October. If you want more TMEs, then check out my TPT store for the October editions of my sing about songs . The full TME to the freebie is available in the sing about October - year one  edition, but you have to get the freebie to get the visuals!! Anyway, I hope you will keep an eye on my social media spaces to get access to this therapeutic music ...

It is Monday again, and I am watching a British sewing show as I am sitting here. There is a stack of file folders waiting lamination, but I am not really all that interested in laminating at the moment. I could get through the stack pretty quickly, but I think I will wait until this afternoon to get this part of my project finished. Laminating folders is a good task when my brain and body are tired. I can just sit, watch television, and feed folders through the laminating machine. These folders are not for me. They are not something I will use in my sessions at my current facility. They are for a teacher who has specific goals for these folders. One of the things that I do during my planning/preparation time at work is make these things for others. So, I have a stack of large safety signs that I am making in large and mini versions. When I am making visuals, I always try to make them in file folder size and both larger than that and smaller than that as well. My thinking behind having...