My New Passion

I'm developing a new passion.  It's not exacty "new," and it's not exactly unexpected, but I joined SwapBot a couple of years ago.  I'm not a crafty person, and most of the folks on SwapBot are knitters, crocheters, makers of something called ATCs, quilters, jewelry makers, and all sorts of talented crafty people who like exchanging things with each other.

I joined a discussion group there for people over 50 and have enjoyed that, though it's not nearly as intimate or as lively as our CompuServe group.  But still it's fun to learn about other people.

I've also joined post card swaps, some of which involve just sending a regular postcard to someone, but I've also made my own postcards, and sent specific kinds of post cards, like "ugly" postcards, "weird" postcards, "free" cards (advertising cards), and other themes chosen by the person who is running that particular swap.

I've joined pen pal swaps, most of which involve sending one letter to one person, and sometimes they write back, but your job is done when you've mailed that first letter.

There are recipe swaps, which are fun, though I reached a point where I decided I don't really collect recipes any more and while I was more than happy to share what I have, I didn't really want any other recipes cluttering my files!

And then there are the journal swaps.  The first one I joined was a Composition Journal swap, where you keep a journal for at least 2 months, with a minimum of 50 entries and then send it off.  My journal was OK, but the one I received from someone named Linda in Georgia was amazing and I posted this picture of some of the pages to give people the idea.

This creative I ain't but I had so much fun getting this one that I decided to join the next Composition Journal Swap and I'm having the best time creating pages.  They don't equal Linda's by a long shot, but here are a couple of favorites.

The left page is about Polly but the right page was a way to preserve a weird catalog I received.  What I have written there is "Father has strange tastes in clothing."

And then there was this fun page.  The woman I'm making this book for lists butterflies as one of her favorite things and I found some butterfly sticker edging at Michael's Craft Store and created this page.

On the left side of the page is a gift notecard for her...when you lift the note card out of the envelope it's a butterfly, of course.

I'm really sorry I didn't take pictures of the last book I made.   I'd like to compare them, but I'm going to have a record of this book and am pretty happy with how it is turning out.  It's a nice respite from worry about my mother.   Once she is safely ensconced in her new home, I can relax, but right now it's what I think about when going to sleep, what I wake up thinking about, and what obsesses me during the day.  Is this the right decision?  Will the money last?  Etc., etc., etc.

I'm not sure if there is a correlation between creativity and stress, but I'm glad I have this composition journal to busy myself with and forget about thinking for a few moments!