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The Mother of Invention

My mind has recently taken to thinking up inventions and website development ideas. Of course, I don’t have the wherewithal to carry most of them out (or maybe I do and don’t know it). I just like to think them up. I keep reading about 16-year-olds who started up their own websites and became overnight millionaires. I’m not necessarily looking at this with dollar signs in my eyes, but the concept of coming up with these ideas just fascinates and intrigues me beyond belief.

Some of the websites that I’ve been thinking about are already out there in cyberspace. And they help me tremendously once I find them, such as this online recipe organizer. I start with the basic concept that the mother of all invention is necessity (I really need a place to store all my favorite recipes online!). Such a simple adage with such profound effects in the world.

I’m working on developing a personalized notebook where you can reload or remove sheets as needed. It would also include and organize a bunch of needs in one place. Mine would have about a million tabs in it for writing ideas, sketches, gratitude lists, books to read lists, things to buy lists and about 999,995 more. Different types of papers and designs would also be required. My notebook would probably be more like something you would find on Etsy. I’ve been doing a lot of research on quality sketch and watercolor papers and bookbinding techniques to make it just right. If I get good momentum going, I could probably make some others for upcoming gifts and sell them in my own yet-unestablished Etsy store. Here is a peek at some of the designs that are inspiring me right now:

I absolutely love the three-ring laminated designs by Crown Bindery

Monika Wright’s mini notebooks and albums are just darling and absolutely perfect.
I am a big fan of repurposing old tattered old books into something new and cherished. I’ve had my eye on storybook notebooks like this one from BigLittle’s shop for awhile now.
My husband has promised to try an experiment with a drill to see if we can bring some of my ideas to fruition. I am at least hopeful that we can “invent” some kind of paper organization system that works for me. I am so tired of seeing my little piles of tattered notes and musings scattered about everywhere. I need a place to keep them all safe and sound.
Plus, I’ve been on an artsy creation streak for awhile now. I recently made some no-sew applique scarves, fridge menu boards, fabric flowers and other ephemera. I just.can’t.sit.still!!!!

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

Well, today marks the first year anniversary of my first post in the blogosphere and it feels truly inspiring. Not only am I, myself, another year stronger, but so are my words. Sometimes just getting into the habit of writing can be a struggle. But this personal place allows me to explore ideas in an informal, yet sometimes informative way. And once I get into that routine habit of writing, the ideas swirl around in my mind much more freely which, in turn, enriches my life and my writing and the momentum continues to forge ahead.

This coming year, I plan to get a little bit more technical with this blog stuff. I know, I know. I need pictures. I need Technorati to pick me up. I need to learn a little bit more about html coding and such so that I can deck these walls with extra emphasis. This is a whole new world to me. That’s goal number one.

Goal number two is to blog more frequently. As I said above, the more I write, the more I start to piece things together in my head and the more receptive I am to my environment and world. It’s good for the blog and it’s good for me. And hopefully it’s good for someone else out there.

I blog because I love the freedom of expression it gives me. It’s cathartic in some ways and soul-enriching in others. I also love the outlet this blog offers me to express what I’ve learned to everyday people with similar interests and concerns. I am a complete fitness junkie, devoted momma and writing fanatic among many other things. And my passion is for my words and I to reach out and to make connections with people. So, we move into this second year with abundant anticipation and enthusiasm.

Take a second to peruse some of my favorites from this past year:

1. Add more roughage to your diet with these tips.
2. A personal tidbit about motherhood
3. My Ultimate Thrifty Guide to getting fit
4. My best advice for getting into a fitness habit is writing a note like this to yourself.

The Writing Structure and its Builders

Great writers know that reading is one of the most important things that they can do to improve their craft. And here’s another reason why. It’s not always the content itself that inspires writing, but the form the writing takes. I remember reading a book in high school and the teacher asked us to write about one thing we learned from the book. I wrote about how the book opened me up to a completely different style of writing.

The book in question was written completely in vignettes. It didn’t read like a regular book with a build-up, climax, and falling action. The vignettes were sort of scattered, but still contributed to the overall story. I remember thinking: “this is truly brilliant.” I can do that! That’s how my mind works anyhow, in bits and scattered chunks.

In college, we read poems and then copied their forms or subjects in our own way. Recently, I read a book that I’ve mentioned before called Wear More Cashmere. The style of that book and its celebration of womanhood has spawned some amazing writing ideas inside of me, but that I would like to express in my own way.

I can’t wait to get started!

Sentimentality is Never Stationary

I bought me some stationery yesterday with that bonus check I was talking about.

I just love the sentimental glamor of having a stash of expressive stationery on-hand on which to pen personalized “correspondence” like someone out of a Jane Austen novel. I’m a sucker for handwritten notes that actually come in the mail. A tactile demonstration that someone was thinking enough about you to break out the pen, ink, and stamp. Something that can be returned to with reminiscent pleasure.

Now, I’m trying to think of who the first lucky recipient will be. I know of a few folks who would raise their eyebrows at the old pen-and-ink way to communicate. I know of a few more to whom I talk quite frequently online and to whom it makes no sense to drop a letter in the mail.

But at least I have the pretty, graphic, delicate stationery to start with.

Carrying it All

So, I started ink sketching again. Something I haven’t done since…oh, my college days. I’m not really sure why I ever abandoned it, but some new sources of inspiration have rekindled my desire to put pen to paper. I can even be productive in front of the tube. Wait, did I just say that? I’m not watching TV anymore remember? Anyway… I’ve been going in several other directions lately too, such as a paper bag tag project, the novel-in-progress, word bits and pieces that will one day form a poem, collage art, and so much more.

So, what’s an artist to do? Sometimes on my work lunch breaks I feel like sketching and sometimes I want to write. Reading by the water is another favorite past time. Magazines tell me to keep a gratitude journal, an exercise log, a food tracker and a memory keeper. Writers like to keep journals to stay in the practice of writing and artists carry around sketchbooks whenever the mood strikes. Gurus and life coaches preach the powers of visualization and vision boards. What should an artist/writer/grateful human/dreamer/runner/healthy eater do? Carry around a backpack full of journals that weigh them down instead of lift them off? I think this is why artists always appear fragmented, disheveled and disorganized. It must be!

I can feel the invention wheels rolling in my head again. Something to reel in the restlessness yet fulfill all those roles.

Quest for Ideas

So, I’m stuck in a bit of a rut. I have motivation, inspiration, stars-in-my-eyes overload with no outlet for it. For the life of me, no poem ideas, children’s storybook ideas, or art project ideas are sparking interest within me. It’s either I have the ideas or the inspiration, rarely both.

So, I’m just going to sit down and brainstorm. I’ve decided I’m going to force myself to harvest this crop of inspiration. Not the momma-said-so-I’m-not-going-to force myself, but a sit-in-front-of-computer-screen-until-something-comes-out force. Perhaps rummaging through some of my reading list and following links from there will lead me on a path of discovery. But therein lies some of the problem. I like to get caught up in other peoples’ ideas and start the I-wish-I-would’ve-thought-of-that mind game that could make it worse.

Kids, this is the reason they tell you to be in constant practice of your chosen art form. The second you stop writing, drawing, knitting, drafting, etc is the moment you lose your mojo. Some of my best ideas were born when I was the busiest I’ve ever been in my life, so I can’t use the I-have-no-time excuse. Here I go…weeeeeee!

A Dream Journal Entry

I had a dream last night that I was commending a younger woman, maybe 21, for publishing her first book. It almost felt as though I was talking to a different manifestation of myself. The girl was at a book release party and I was offering my praise to her for writing without consequence, indulging her talent despite the oppressive gamble that a writing profession can become, and making her way despite all the cumbersome rules and regulations of the writing world. She just wrote, simple as that. She did not fear the critics in her future. She did not read all the writing literature that could have made her feel like an unqualified impostor. She did not put down her pen when the plot puzzle seemed insolvable. She wrote, she worked, she succeeded.

This dream seemed to be a push for my later-20s self to get to it! Just write! And perhaps enjoy my productive 20s exactly as I would like them.

Come Fade Away With Me

Ever have one of those brilliant ideas that fade into vapor, never to be reached again? Oh, I just had one of those last night. I know, I know, I should always keep a pen and paper by my bedside. I think I had a dream where a story idea came to me, and I consciously remember thinking that I needed to remember the idea. I’m pretty sure I fell back asleep or never really fully roused myself to begin with, sending the idea back out into oblivion. Perhaps I can train myself in the art of lucid dreaming and attempt to retrieve this idea. Alas, I think it is gone.

This is one of three very memorable occasions upon which I have lost seemingly-significant ideas. One was driving in the car on my way home from work at midnight. I think I saw a shooting star and “just like that” the celestial sighting overshadowed the idea and when I went back into my mind to retrieve it, it was long gone.

The second instance was also in bed. I woke with a full set of lyrics and tune in my head. I had never really considered songwriting, but this song seemed, at least to my REM-induced head, complete. I remember getting up and writing one of the most important lines of the song on a piece of paper. To this day, I have no idea which piece of paper I used or where it ever ended up. Of course, by the time I woke the next morning the tune was also washed away. Even if I would’ve remembered it, I have absolutely no talent for translating tunes in my head into real music.

I need to think of some sort of strategy to harness those ideas so I won’t lose out on that Pulitzer. (Funny, those ideas probably weren’t that great to begin with, they just seemed crucial to remember after they were gone.) Either that, or I need to invent idea insurance.

A Broken Muse

My muse is broken. My muse comes in human form. My muse has left me due to distance, circumstance and irreconcilable differences, or something like that. No, my husband is not my muse, although that would be rather convenient, wouldn’t it?

This human had a way of bringing out the charisma, the passion, the impulsive spirit of my creative talents. She somehow vitalized me in a way that hasn’t been replicated before or since. It was nothing she really did or said, it was just her aura and her arousing spirit that somehow affected me to the soul, took my muse by hand, and opened her up to the sunlight.

I read a quote that had me thinking about that elusive muse. I get the Daily Om newsletter which had a quote today that struck me: “If you surround yourself with people who support you, keep a pen and paper handy, immerse yourself in culture, and brainstorm frequently, you will soon reconnect with your muse.” I love this idea! Immerse yourself in culture? It’s so true. Whenever I am surrounded by art and ideas, I myself start to bud new little ideas. Some of my best work was woven between the demands of full-time work, full-time college and other extra-curricular activities. All that responsibility is actually fuel. Stories seeped through the textbook chapters and the backs of all my notebooks were scribbled with snippets for songs, short stories and poems.

Surrounding yourself with people who support you is 100% essential as well. On the other hand, people who don’t support you will stifle the poo out of you. That’s one of the worst characteristics of a friend or family member, when they don’t support you, because there’s no excuse for stealing someone’s spirit.

So, as I go in search of a new muse, I will give these tactics a try. Perhaps I can take the proactive approach and create the muse with my own two hands, figuratively speaking. (I guess that means I should leave the cliches in the wind!)

As a side, I’m writing about chocolate before lunch–someone help me!

Notebook Obsession

Hello, my name is Jessica, and I am a notebook addict. Spiral-bound, perfect-bound, lined, unlined, hidden folder pockets, glossy untouched covers, journals, portfolios, executive-style leather folios…Oh, I’m drooling. The back-to-school sections of stores and even office-supply stores themselves draw me in with magnetic force. I don’t really know what it is. Perhaps it’s the boundless potential all those crisp white pages hold. The novels, the brilliant ideas, the lists, and oh the limitless capacities those wide-ruled lines promise make them completely irresistible to me. Add a shimmering pen and a whimsical cover design and I’m completely sold!

I even wrote a poem about this that I submitted to a tanka poetry publication (the rejection letter was actually very promising):

The note he left
was stacks of collected
white paper
he never could
penetrate

This reflects my (ahem, I mean some guy’s) notebook obsession combined with the utter listlessness I feel sometimes when it comes to actually writing something of substance. I have a deep passion for writing but a debilitating apathy for actually doing it some days. So, when I die, I wonder if my only contribution to the world will be stacks of empty paper or if I really will be able to penetrate them with my creativity.