My 5 Year Journal - Complete!

Well, almost.  I have just a few days left to finish 5 years of journaling a few words a day in my 5 year journal!

Five years ago I learned about this from Debbie Hodge's website.  There is a question for each day of the year.  You answer the question usually with a word, phrase or maybe one sentence.  The next year you answer the same questions on the same day. So there is one question for January 1 and you answer it 5 times, a different question for January 2 and so on.  It's interesting to see what stays the same each year and what changes.  Here are a couple of samples from my completed journal:

(Answers I would expect)
What movie are you looking forward to?
Each year I answer 'none' because I'm not a movie person.

(Answers that surprised me.)
September:  How old do you feel?
The first two years I answered older than I am, then a little younger feeling, and by this year I felt younger than I really am because I now weigh what I did in the 90's.

I have printed out the pages (about 75) and I'm putting them in some type of folder in the back of one of my albums.  I wanted to capture a bit of the process and celebrate keeping a new habit for a full 5 years with a layout.  Here's the video:



Here is the information about the journal I used on Debbie Hodge's website. The questions were developed by Tami Taylor.

5 Year Journal

I cut and pasted the questions to Microsoft Word so it would be easy to pull up a document and just answer the questions.  I kept a separate document for each month but you could do one large file just keep it backed up.  You could handwrite your answers as well perhaps in a pretty journal which would be a treasure to keep for the future.

I think it will be especially interesting to look at this a few years down the road and perhaps answer the questions again to see what is the same and what has changed.

Thanks for visiting!

Winter cardigan just in time

 I have a habit of finishing my knitting projects just as the season was ending. I was beginning to think we would run out of cold weather before I finished this sweater started in September.  We are expecting very cold weather next week so it looks like I'll have lots of days to wear it.

The colors were a challenge.  It hand dyed Malabrigo Rios yarn in Candombe  and was almost all the same dye lot.  However, the spools were often very different.  The back is mostly black but when I caught onto the color changes, I alternated spools so it blends reasonably well. Still the back is mostly black and the sleeves mostly blue and green. The front is mostly purple which goes with the purple buttons I got at the same yarn shop.  I've loved working with this yarn and mostly loved going to my local knitting shop when I have a chance to knit amongst fellow crafters.

The colors don't show up that well in the photos.  The pattern was originally Drift from Ravelry.com.  I modified it to add a mock cable design and to add a design to the sleeves.  It was easy to do and is very warm.  I'd love to find a royal blue or purple blouse for it.

I have a scrapbook layout on my worktable and a video in progress so hopefully I'll have something new on my channel soon.  Thanks for visiting today.

Bookmarks for Book Club

I love my book club.  A couple of years ago, DH and I simultaneously and unbeknownst to each other started looking for more social opportunities.  He found a group who kayaks, something he had been wanting to take up, and I found a book club that meets monthly about 15 miles from us. My group has been around for a long time but I just hadn't gone searching for anything in many years.  They are the best!  And it isn't just me saying that.  A few people have joined after me and some have left having moved away.  We always get reports back through their friends that they have tried to find a group as good in their new town but haven't been successful.

What makes my book club great?  We talk about the book.  It isn't gossipy.  Our organizer starts and ends on time and generally keeps us on track.  We don't do food or drink so there are no obligations to whip up an impressive dessert when it is your turn to host.  You don't even have to ever host or lead the discussion.  We all read the same book each month with a mix of fiction and non-fiction. We nominate and vote on the books to read once per year.

Through our discussion, we discover a bit about each other here and there whatever people want to share but only as it relates to the book.  Very few members are native to this area originally and many have moved here in recent years.  They are also 'my people' politically which is a rarity in this part of the country.

The first Christmas I was in the club I made these types of bookmarks.  I placed them on the table in the center of the room and let people choose one if they wanted.  I think most of our members are still reading printed books at least part of the time.  Since we've had some new people join up, I thought I'd do this again this year. I've also made some more traditional bookmarks using stamps and and papers from October Afternoon's Public Library collection.

Ironically, I just bought myself a tablet so I'm starting to read books in that format and am enjoying it.  I still like the traditional bound book and many of the ones we read - both fiction and non-fiction - are found at our local libraries so my bookmarks won't sit idle.

Making these is easy with a gelli plate, stencils and packing tape.  It takes a little time as you have to wait between coats for the paint to dry but you get 5 bookmarks per print on an 8x10 plate.  Here's the video:



At our December meeting, the author of our latest book "With Love from the Inside", Angela Pisel, is coming to our meeting.  She is local and I'm anxious to find out how she did the research for this book with one of the characters on death row and what inspired her to tell this mother/daughter story. 

Do you have a social club you just love?