Shiny bits and sparkly bobs

Shiny bits and sparkly bobs

I haven’t blogged in darn close to a month. I’ve been slogging through knee-deep mud, everything from revamping some of my tools for communicating with clients to research for a committee-in-formation for one of my professional societies. Sometimes you just have to watch your step, avoid distractions, and pretend you’re a Clydesdale pulling a wagon. But even then, let yourself have shiny bits and sparkly bobs for your harness.

The research for my committee led to The Association for the Study of Play. Which reminded me that I first learned about the sentient world’s vital need for play through Brene Brown‘s The Power of Vulnerability Sounds True lectures. Brown notes that animals play, and they understand the practice far better than humans: humans mistake games, with pressure to excel, for play, which is entirely timeless and non-competitive. CHECK OUT BRENE BROWN. SHE’S AWESOME.

We need to play, and each of us is allowed to define play for ourselves. This July 8 2018 PsychCentral article, The Importance of Play for Adults by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S., a PsychCentral Associate Editor, is persuasive about every aspect of play: why we need it, what we’re “allowed” to do, when. Which leads to my bits and bobs.

I’ve taken up decoupage. Am I serious about it? Heck no. I mostly apply the glue with my fingers. It’s taken me weeks to break down and buy scissors that make it MUCH easier to cut little bits of paper. I’m paying no real attention to the rules about how long the lacquers cure, how many layers to apply. If I can catch 10 minutes to add one element to a surface I sometimes feel lucky. But….

OH MY GOSH am I having fun finding the bits and bobs. Cheap boxes at Goodwill. Goodwill-bundled packs of crafting odds & ends – greeting cards, stencils, transfers. The tags off tea bags – word of honor, I have a dozen sitting in my supply box now. Ben Franklin’s, with rules to avoid excess acquisition (I can only shop the sales bins unless it’s something I have to get new and/or retail like the glue; I can only shop for 1/2 hour at a time; I can only spend X per trip; I have to fit it all into a certain space in the house.). Used stamps. New stamps. Fake stamps. And I have to have an explicit use for what I make: bookmarks, boxes for awkwardly-shaped stuff around the house. Maybe some bookends next.

What’s your version of playful? And tell me what tea brand is on this box.SAhiny

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