birthing a vision board

Chances are, you've heard of the term "vision board" in some way, either on  Facebook, in a seminar, or from a friend.
If you haven't, let me take a second to explain. A vision board, quite simply, is a collage of words and images that contain things that you want to attract to your life. For example, if you wanted to travel more, you might select a photo of Hawaii, and collage the word travel onto your board. If you didn't know you wanted to go to Hawaii, you might just put travel. Repeating the theme puts a stronger feel to it. By the laws of attraction, anything you put on the vision board will manifest in your life, so choose carefully. Make it good stuff! Have fun with it.
For me, this year, I'm just starting my vision board. I am not sure yet if I will share it on  my blog, but I will explain how I'm going about preparing it. For the past couple of weeks, I've been going through magazine after magazine, cutting out words and phrases. My boards usually have a lot of words and maybe a couple of pictures, if any. I like the mystery of discovery. I like knowing what I want, but not necessarily knowing exactly what it looks like.
I've done a few of these in the past, but I haven't been religious about it. I'm about to become a whole lot more disciplined. The other day, I came across my first one and realized I had the word travel over and over and over on it. Looking back, I created that vision board the year before I started traveling to Mississippi for a job. That same year, I also traveled to Idaho for Brave Girls Camp, as well as a couple of other places. Until the other day, that vision board was still hanging next to my bed. In the past 3 years, I have traveled to Mississippi, Rhode Island, Idaho and Oregon. My vision board has held true. Some of the other things on it I'm still working on, but I am making forward motion.
If you want to try to make your own vision board, there are lots of classes online, or, like me, you can run with scissors and make your own!

1. Find magazines like O, Self, Woman's World and First work best. I have had a small amount of success with people, and moderate success with Cosmopolitan. (Ok, that one could have had some fun!) 
2. Get scissors and go through the pages, cutting out whatever phrases or words strike my fancy. I put all of the phrases and words into a bin to keep them together.
3. Prepare a canvas, I usually use a 12x12. I paint the background whatever color speaks to me. It doesn't have to be one color, you can just splash some paint on any old way.
4. Using Mod Podge or Matte Medium and whatever brush you have handy, start collaging. For me, I try not to think. I try to let things fall where they will and assume that's wehre they belong. You may want to carefully plan out your vision board, instead. I also put phrases and words on the sides, where I know they are there, but the casual observer might miss them.

Once you finish and your board is dry, I like to hang it someplace where I see it when I wake up in the morning. This way, I have a constant reminder of what I'm reaching for and wanting more of in my life.
What do you say? Want to make a vision board this weekend? Let me know how it goes!

felt

When I was really little, my Mom taught me to sew. I learned using bits of floss and little kits that were printed, remember those? We used to get them at places like Ben Franklin or Kresge (east coast I think!).  I also remember doing a bit of "freestyle" embroidery then too. As I grew older, in high school, I remember embroidering on my overalls. Yes, I was a child of the 70s, I wore overalls to school and they were cool! I loved them, and mine were different because I embroidered on them. :) Growing up, I made a lot of my own clothing as well, and even won a contest or two. I love to sew, always have. I learned to quilt when I was 19, and continued to sew through to now. But, most of my work has been on the machine, since those early days. I learned to use a sewing machine when I was 8 or so, and it fed me "want it now" mentality perfectly. :)

At the start of this vacation, I was looking on Facebook and saw Stephanie Ackerman playing with felt. My fingers actually tingled, I wanted to play so badly. If you saw my valor post, then you saw that I caved and bought felt. But that's not all I made! Stephanie posted a little needle case she made, and that got me going again! Here's my needle case, both the front and inside view. The colors aren't quite as crazy in person as they are here, but I really love it. It makes me happy to look at and know that I created it.

That's about it for today. Just a bit about my felt adventure. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!