live.life.create.art: 52Questions

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month already of prompts! I'm slightly proud of myself for creating something every week so far haha! I'm finding that the schedule of posting the prompt on Sundays really works for me - I have the entire week then to think about what I have to say about the prompt and then what it is that I want to create for it. So far I've been doing my writing and creating either late Saturday night or early Sunday mornings. It's proving to be the perfect way to wind down a bit from my work week and settle my heart a bit for what's ahead.

This week's prompt was strength:

I love how every prompt can be interpreted in so very many different ways. Strength will look and mean something entirely different depending on the person, what they're going through, their mood, the day, etc. I chose to write about how sometimes strength looks quiet and small. How sometimes I've looked outside of myself, to others, or to the world to tell me what it is that I should do based on if it was the "strong" thing to do when in reality true strength can be in those actions that are the most true to our hearts and not loud or showy or masquerading as "brave".

There was an instance in my life where I was faced with a difficult decision and I looked to my dad for words of advice and guidance. He made the comment to me that I would have to be a really strong person to choose one particular choice, and at the time and in my vulnerable state, I took what he was saying to mean that that is the thing I should choose because "being strong" is what it was that I was supposed to be. This being based on my own meaning of what "strong" meant at the time...and unfortunately, how I had chosen to navigate my life at that point in time. Now, so many years later I think I got his message wrong. He wasn't saying "strong" was the way or even particularly "good"...he was truly saying that it may be a very difficult path to maneuver. Strength today means a sort of vulnerability. It means truth. It means kindness to myself and to others. I've kept my journaling private for this week's prompt but you get the idea of what it is that I'm thinking and feeling based on what I've shared here I think.

I knew that I wanted to create something small for this week's entry and I thought a little book would be neat. I found a tutorial online for this adorable DIY Miniature Book and followed that to create my own.

I really love how this ended up...kind of obsessed with looking at it and holding it haha! My librarian mind is actually thinking of turning this into a program, so many things we could do with this! Harry Potter spell books, a book of motivational quotes for teens, love poems for valentine's day, a book of miniature photos of friends...hmmm.

I glued real pressed ferns to the front and back inside of my book because they are so delicate, I thought that worked with what I was trying to communicate about strength being something small, quiet, and almost fragile at times.

It probably doesn't look like it but my book as fourteen pages of text! So I was actually able to get quite a bit of journaling in there. My font size was 8.