Julie Unplugged

Growing with Children: The Joy of Loving Birds

This is Samuel, age 5, celebrating the coots at Hart Park

Late this afternoon I saw them swirling above the tallest evergreens in our neighborhood. “Look at those birds!” Samuel said, delighted. I could not remember their name. I used my still clogged nose as an excuse for not recalling quickly. I was thinking something fowl – like something hen… but eagle like? No, not that.

 

“Turkey vultures!” I cried out, hearing the door slam behind Samuel. I'm not sure he heard me.

I am not sure when my love of birds, specific birds, started.

I know it was less than seven years ago when I was still content to only hear the birds, not knowing whose song was whose and I would proclaim, “These birds don’t show themselves to me. I don’t need to know their names.”

Maybe it was when Samuel was home in first grade, after a tumultuous kindergarten and a school district that failed him in the beginning of first grade. We would spend hours at Hart Park hiking, looking, talking and growing. We bumped into a birder there one day. He was pleased to see us in a lovely, hidden grove by the bridge, a place Samuel called “God’s Garden” because it truly was divine, not because anyone else had proclaimed it so.

The boys took turns filling the bird feeder

This week I showed my Godson how to attract birds to the house: it was food, just like with any other species. We got bird seed, he stirred it up – and important part of the job – and he carefully filled my cheapo bird feeder and Samuel carefully hung it on our pine tree in a spot that has a perfect view from our kitchen table. This is, after all, the most likely place I am to sit, drink coffee, write and watch birds, noting with glee the sparrow or finch or, after Ciaran came, a nuthatch happened by. More specifically, it was a black eared nuthatch, I proudly told him when he came over the next time.

 

For whatever reason, Birds are the first lesson we are sharing. I have yet to pull out my vintage Peterson’s Field Guide to Western Birds and show it to Ciaran. Instead, I am allowing him to be wooed by the birds themselves. When we go for walks and I hear a bird I say something like, “I wonder what sort of bird sings that song?”

His head will lift and his eyes look to the sky, watching intently for the bird who matches the song. He looks for the bird, but like I used to be, is content for just the sounds. I smile, glad to have heard and shared the hearing.

He was being a "Muscovy Duck" whisperer. So fun!

This week we went to feed the ducks at Hart Park, a time honored tradition for my children. In the beginning we had all sorts of crazy names for the ducks. We used to call the Coots “Dumb Country Ducks” because they showed up in droves in the winter and seemed to dance atop the water doing country dances while the mallards sort of rolled their eyes, quacking the way a duck should quack since that is the sound a mallard makes, not the sound a wood duck makes or a coot makes or any of the many other ducks I have watched and admired sound.

 

I used to call the Muscovy Ducks “Turkey Ducks” because they look like, you guessed it, turkeys. They will also follow humans around on the grass, not only sticking to the water.

How many different breeds of ducks do you see here?

There were two kinds of geese at the park that day, the usual pure white ones as well as some lovely, grazing Canadian Geese. This excited me to no end because the Canadians looked so graceful and elegant to me. It also gave me a chance to talk about bird travels.

 

I know my father must have taught me something about birds when I was a little girl, but I don’t remember any of it.

I do know my children will remember it.

I loved how Emma explained the mallards to Ciaran and included, “Mallards are the ones that actually quack,” before ruining my fantasy about mallards mating for life later when our little friend wasn’t with us and was safely out of earshot.

I have been thinking since that afternoon why I feel empowered by knowing which duck and which bird is which.  Perhaps it is because I know the strength of specific via general word choices. Maybe it is because I simply like knowing which bird that looks like this sounds like that. Truly, it may be that I love recognizing the call and the face of traveling birds who move in and around this area at this time of year.

Whatever my inner, unknown motivation may be, I know our moments with the birds and the ducks and including their care, witness and presence in our lives manages to simply grow the sweetness of our life experience. That's worthy enough.

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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013

Devotion to Writing + An Unlikely Prompt = Oodles of Travel Memory Fun

I bought a book of LA Times Front Pages collected in a book. This one is from 1958. I thought it was the perfect "backdrop" for the Origami Dress

I couldn’t think of a thing to write about when my scheduled thirty minutes of #wordmongering writing started so I reached into my prompt boss and pulled out… a dress. An Origami dress. I reached in again and found… another origami dress, this one made from a map of Missouri with a touch of Oklahoma from what I can tell.

I’ve been working on flowers this weekend because I don’t want to get stuck on thinking all I can make are dresses, but they are so darn cute!

I’m going to run with the prompt: “Kansas” since that is the state on my doll dress map. I’m adding the “Grandmama” of all prompts: “I remember.”

Ready?

I remember driving across Kansas, a day of rolling prairie my brothers and sister deemed boring. I found it comforting. I found it beautiful. I reveled in the colors and sounds of the prairies.

I sort of understood why they may have thought it was not the most interesting landscape, but I was mesmerized by it.

Our cross country journey was more than thirty years ago, but I can still remember bits and pieces of it.

I remember in St. George, Utah, when I went to buy stamps from the front desk and the clerk thought I was checking in with the young man in front of me. At first I was shocked and confused and then, I must confess, it felt a little titillating and my fifteen-year-old mind and hormones imagined checking in with this young man, if he wasn’t a complete stranger, naturally.

In my mind I wrote biographies of the two of us and our romantic storyline. In memory, he is faceless to me. What I remember the most is the collar of his shirt – a regular t-shirt – and his hair, blonde and cleanly cut in a straight line leaving bronzy skin that I admired and wished I had myself. When he turned I kept my eyes steady and noticed his lips, another straight line. Not full, not completely thin – I glanced only for a moment to his eyes, a slate gray-blue.

I wonder whatever happened to him?

I remember Missouri, ordering dinner at a Howard Johnson’s type restaurant and Mom complaining that we kept ordering cokes. That’s what we called soft drinks then. Cokes. The universal name. To us, Cokes were quite a treat. We rarely had them in our home so ordering Cokes was exotic.

I remember in Colorado, we went to a hotel that had a pool from the neighboring hot springs. It felt weird to swim in it, not very refreshing, and the place we stayed was much more expensive than my mother would have liked. She was only cranky for a short while. I learned how to be a prize stoic from my mother, who never showed much in the way of anger nor much in the way of bliss or sadness. I never saw her cry until my baby daughter was stillborn. If I attempted to count the numbers of times my children have witnessed me cry, I would quickly lose count in the stew of my embarrassment.

I remember driving closer and closer to my Granny’s house in Pasadena. We drove on what I now know is the 210 Freeway. The green freeway signs seemed so organized to my undriving self.

I didn’t know then I wouldn’t drive across the country all the way from coast-to-coast again, even though I loved the process of taking such a journey. Perhaps the Summer of 2014 will be the one.

I must remember to remember.

(And to think that all came from an origami dress!)

 

 Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!) 

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013

 

Neighbors: Mixed Media Inspired By Love

 

I like to photograph my art pieces at the Panorama Bluffs. It is almost like praying for each piece as its form is complete.

My friend, Michelle, inspires me.

 She blessed me recently with some canvases to use in my art work. These weren’t any canvases, though, they once belonged to her father, who passed away.

I knew I had to create something special on them, especially the first one.

When I was in Hollywood, I asked where her father’s apartment was and I sought it out. I wanted to get an idea visually as well as energetically what I should create in his honor. Looking at the colorful, uniquely decorated apartment buildings built closely together, I came up with the theme of “Neighbors” and created this mixed media abstract as a result.

It is different from everything else I have done. The book pages are familiar, but I love the narrow length of the canvas. It is now hanging above one of my repurposed ladders and some of my smaller word-love art pieces. When I look to the right from my desk it is what I see.

This is how "Neighbors" looks on my wall. Below are other mixed media pieces, including the origami dress in the middle, which is another current theme.

It is sort of like Michelle's Dad is being a muse to my creativity. I smile each time I see the"apartment buildings" in different languages and genres, all reflecting love and hope.

Thank you, Michelle, and thank you to her father and his partner as well. I feel so privileged to have met you.

*****

 Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!) 

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013/6

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My Four Week Adventure with "Chemo-Face"

Three Gulps of Coffee, My Keyboard and Me -

 

Before I even got up after my lovely, nine hours of sleep I was wondering what I would write for Jana's Thinking Place and her Stream of Consciousness Sunday. This wondering was promptly followed by me scolding myself for even thinking about such a thing, I needed to wait and be surprised and let the five minutes of writing slowly woo me. That's exactly what I did. Also, for those who are unfamiliar with the term "WASPy" - the capital letters stand for White Anglo Saxon Protestant which basically means someone who has that ethnic identity as well as a certain expectation like my family has that you don't call anyone before 9 am and after 9 pm a rule I still follow. You know, sort of uptight, sort of proper, sort of worried about offending others way too much of the time. There. I think we're all ready for my SOC Sunday post, right?

PS- Thank you Jana. I know this was a toughweek. I'm grateful for all you do and the wonderful woman you are!

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There is nothing like the first gulp of coffee at my desk early in the morning.

I dreamt of houses last night, or rather, a house I was apparently moving into.

I remember a very cold kitchen and a lovely blue room – sort of a cross between my today living room and the room I had attached to my bedroom at 56 Hawthorne Avenue in Glen Ridge, New Jersey: we called it “The Doll Room”. It is actually the closest thing I had as Virginia Woolf’s suggested space, a room of my own.

I watched “Love it or List it” last night right before sleep. This and my reflections on mortality and life in general must be what ignited this series of images.

The second gulp of coffee, nearly as good as a first.

I’ve been sick much of this week. My first tactic was to charge forward anyway. This is an age old strategy, a good WASPy thing to do. Friday, I surrendered to it in the afternoon after a morning filled with running around and a meeting I would rather have avoided than attended. Remember above, the good WASPy thing is to show up. I got home worse than when the day started. Saturday was primarily a repeat of Friday but good news: I woke up today and my voice is almost normal.

Third big, lavish, languid gulp of coffee: much more contemplative than the first two.

I hear my time is up.

I don’t want to stop.

I don’t want to stop drinking coffee and leisurely writing because the time is up.

Alas, I will, because it is the good WASPy thing to do.

 

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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (find it at Jana's Thinking Place).
  
• Link up your post there, too.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

 

 

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013

The Most Important Parenting Advice I Can Give You

There are two pieces of advice I would give to a new parent or a struggling parent.

The first is this: no matter what be sure your child knows you absolutely, unconditionally love him or her. Ask yourself, when you were a child, did you go to sleep knowing you were absolutely, unconditionally loved? If you did, you are blessed. Remember how that felt and pass that gift to your child.

If you didn’t have that experience, you know what it is like to lie in bed wondering, “Does Mommy really love me?” or “Will Daddy forgive me?”. You know the insecurity of not being sure of love, of believing you had to somehow earn love or pay a price for your parents love. Remember how that felt and behave differently with your children.

Keep loving them well, obviously and truly even when they are acting in the least loveable ways. This is when they need to be sure of your love most of all.

The second piece of advice is this: follow your child’s fascinations even when they are not your own. I learned this from my son with autism.  He was diagnosed when he was five-years-old and I did what I felt I had to do. I pulled him out of public school in the beginning of first grade until they could get an appropriate program together for him. Until then, I decided I would homeschool him.

Or maybe it was he who decided to homeschool me.

My son has autism and is very bright. We filled his day with lots of lessons for him and even more for me. I had never studied a subject – my child and who he is was from moment to moment to moment – with such dogged attention.

I took my notebook along when we went to the park so that I could write. We baked a lot to get measuring, addition and subtraction math into our curriculum. He loved to put things in order, in lines, in arrangements with hoses and anything with water caught his attention. I took photos and cheered when he noticed a new water meter or an exceptionally exciting looking one. I was on water meter alert not because I had any interest in the subject but he did so therefore, I did, too.

This didn’t end when we stopped homeschooling.

Just a few weeks ago I discovered there was a WiiU Summer Tour event in Hollywood. I was there with my daughters. My middle daughter has a fascination for Taylor Swift so she and a friend enjoyed the concert while I spent one-on-one time with Katherine, my eldest, who was going back to Massachusetts for her senior year of college the next day.

It only had two more weeks to go so I made sure I knew which night was the least crowded and as soon as school was out the following Monday, we were on the road back to Hollywood. It’s about a two hour drive. Samuel played with the games for forty-five minutes and he was completely satisfied. I could have gotten frustrated with him for playing for such a short period of time. Instead, we took fun photos and went to dinner. Samuel and Emma were given special gifts for coming all the way from Bakersfield.

We laughed and told stories on the drive as well as made some new stories for the future.

Listen, please. Following your children’s or dear one’s fascination does not mean ditching your own.

It actually strengthens your own passion if you are aware and appreciative of others’ fascinations. Your children will learn to follow your lead and find more subjects interesting or at least acknowledge the power in giving others room to be who they are and like what they like and express that fascination freely knowing they will always love and be loved no matter what.

There is no better advice I am able to give.

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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013

 

Parenting Along the Autism Spectrum: A Miracle at the Kern County Fair

Last night Emma, Samuel and I spent a nearly perfect evening at the Kern County fair.

Wednesday was the day the Kern County Fair opened. Samuel sat on the porch with me and said, “Kern County Fair” something he had been saying off and on for the past few weeks. I acknowledged I heard him, but didn’t respond with a resounding “ohmigawsh! It’s the opening day of the fair! Let’s go!” I offhandedly told my son I didn’t have space in my calendar to go until Sunday night.

I explained these things needed to be planned, that he could ask his father about going to the fair before I was able to take him. “Planned this? I should have planned to go to the fair?” he squeaked, putting his head in his hands. Guilt swarmed my face as I thought I was overloading him, creating more anxiety in his always-close-to-the-surface-autism-spectrum-anxiety-life.

I wanted to wait until Sunday to go, since it was the first fair day I didn’t have commitments in the evening that was also a wristband day. My frugality always trumps the urgent desires of my kidlets and somehow I finally got Samuel to understand this.

When Sunday rolled around, it turned out I had a lot to do, including picking up Emma from her weekend retreat at 5:30 and skyping Katherine immediately afterwards. I made a commitment to myself I would only go to the fair if Samuel actually requested it. I almost thought I was off the hook because he hadn’t mentioned it all weekend.

Right before our skype visit with Katherine, he said again, "Kern County Fair." Translated into what that means, "Mommy, may we go to the fair like you said we could on Wednesday?"

Emma's face says it all: Best Kern County Fair Day Ever!

I agreed. On our drive there I thought we “didn’t have enough time” - which is one of my favorite laments, it seems – but I knew I needed to honor my commitment.

I didn’t know at the time it was to be my most comfortable, pleasant visits to the fair ever.

By Bakersfield standards it was downright chilly – in the mid 70’s. I have been attending the Kern County Fair for more than twenty years now and I don’t remember ever having a non-sweaty and overheated visit. This felt heavenly. I also realized most “normal” parents were busily preparing their children for the school week ahead on Sunday evening, so the lines

Samuel usually doesn't like getting his photo taken yet is very enthusiastic here - another miracle!

were ridiculously short.

My children zipped on and off rides with ease so much so that when it was 8:30, a full thirty minutes before I had said I wanted to leave, both Emma and Samuel declared they had had enough of the rides so there was only one thing left to do: share chocolate chip funnel cake.

There was even plenty of space to sit down to eat the funnel cake. When I was ordering drinks, I remembered to motion to Samuel rather than say his name. It was sometime in the last year he got “stranger danger” drilled into his head by well meaning people, I am sure, but ever since then whenever his name is spoken in a public place he gets nervous.

He looked at me and said, “You have been very good about not saying my name.”

I smiled at him, more than a little shocked he chose to compliment me before I responded, “I try very hard, sometimes I forget and I say your name… but I really try hard not to say it.”

He is not prone to spontaneous praise, so I experienced another – or could it be a first? - Kern County Fair miracle of mine.

Last night was also the first calendar evening of Autumn and it actually felt – would one believe it could happen – autumnal here in Bakersfield. I felt chilled as I walked around. Emma wore a sweater. Samuel was drenched both by water from his favorite fair ride and an awfully fine spirited mood.

This was the second Kern County Fair miracle of mine.

In this writing I have relived last night. Now its my turn to have a smile that would wrap around my head if I didn't have ears. I can feel those miracles continuing. Another perfect day whether we are at the fair or not.

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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!) 

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013

 

Artful Organization: Quick, Easy & Fun to Make a Place for Everything find Everything in its Place

I am forever seeking more organization and a more artful home, filled with pretty things. With this creation, I managed both.

It is a pleasant goal to have and achieve:  a more organized AND a more artful life. I think I hit some serious paydirt with this pinterest inspired project.

I have seen this assemblage - the art term for it - made as a dollar store craft.

I evolved it to become an upcycled, repurposed, family heirloom, story telling prompt work of art all in one piece.

Would you believe it took less than ten minutes to assemble?

Naturally, I am not including the time collecting the bits and pieces when I visit thrift stores, yard sales and estate sales. I have chosen different colors and textures of plates and cups and vases knowing I wanted to build an assemblage or perhaps many assemblages if the first one turned out well.

My concept was this: my daughter tends to not be organized and after the big hit I made from simply repurposing a vase into a sunglass holder for her, I wanted to take the next DIY Rockstar step.

This marvel was made this for my daughter to put on her dresser to keep all her hair accessories, rings and earrings organized but the same idea is used to serve desserts at parties or as place to store an artist/crafters tools in order to use space wisely.

All it took was some E6000 glue, two thrift score plates, one thrift score vase, one thrift score watering pitcher and an heirloom plate from family china.

Taking the time to shuffle & reshuffle dishes makes a better final outcome. I actually set several different arrangements and left the room in-between before making my final choice.

 

I took my time in stacking and re-stacking, trying different combinations of dishes. I ended up with what I did because I took my time and made several wrong choices before finding exactly what worked the best for me in this project.

 

The Glue Begins: My final decision was made because I thought my teen would like having a "secret compartment" in which to put small things (perhaps money, too) her younger siblings will leave alone.

 

 What took the most time was waiting for the glue to set. I linked to some E6ooo instructions above  in case you want to replicate this assemblage project.

 

The middle plate was originally an egg plate, I think. The indentations make it perfect for rings and earrings to nestle where deviled eggs once waited to be eaten.

My daughter was thrilled with the final result and immediately put some of her hairbows on top. Once again, she won't have to ask me in the morning where her bows and elastic bands may be found because they will be right here, where they are meant to be.

 

Finally, a place for everything and everything in its place... well, I'm getting there.

Watch for a blog post about how to use such functional art pieces to keep your family stories alive for future generations. This aspect of this brand of DIY delights me endlessly.

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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!) 

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013

 

 

Freedom in Freewriting: Scribing Any Old Word That Pops Onto the Page

Its my first week back with Stream of Consciousness Sunday - and wow, am I glad to be here. Our fearless and delightfully glorious leader, Jana at Jana'sThinkingPlace.com gave us permission today to just burp out a language rich brain dump so that, my loves, is what I did. The surprise is... it was not only entertaining to write, I engaged some ideas I hadn't thought up before that may turn into blog posts or something later. You simply must love when this happens!

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I just had a lovely breakfast with a dear friend of mine who has been gone from the Bakersfield area for what, two years now? I am sad to say I don’t remember clearly, but I do remember I want to honor that complete visit with a more organized post than this brain dump brewing through my fingers.

There is football on in the background, as there was for Jana, but it annoys the hell out of me. I have no clue about football season this year and I just don’t care for the most part. I am one of those people who goes to Super Bowl parties simply for the camaraderie. I know enough about football to be able to follow the game, but I’m just not into it. Sorry, Family of Origin and your obsession with the New York Giants.

Its like how I broke up with the LA Dodgers after they were sold by the O’Malley family to a media conglomerate. To me they just weren’t the Dodgers anymore. The whole Dodger Blue culture changed for me. I no longer know anything about baseball. I think the World Series is coming, but shouldn’t that have happened by now? I mean, aren’t baseball players sometimes called “The Boys of Summer?”

I should through in some sexism talk here since all the sports I am talking about not caring about are “men’s” sports.

I might actually do a weekly Women’s Volleyball watching event with friends if there was such a thing, and there very well may be. I just don’t know because the dollar follows the popularity and I’m too busy doing artsy stuff to look up ESPN’s schedule. I should check the schedule for my local colleges, though, and watch Volleyball even though I don’t have a friend on the team simply because I have liked it ever since I moved to California and actually learned some technique. What else is a Jersey girl to do when she moves to a quintessential beach town in Southern Orange County?

What? The timer is ringing?

That was way too much fun.

I can write about my breakfast later AND I may follow up with some articles about women’s sports and how to support them even if you normally spend most of your time going to theater and Celtic Music festivals and art shows and the like.

THANK YOU, JANA and the ongoing (so grateful to be here after a busy Summer!) Stream of Consciousness Sunday!

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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (find it at Jana's Thinking Place).
  
• Link up your post there, too.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

 

 

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2013

Day Two of #Bloggiesta --> Progress Feels So Good!

I have a full day ahead of me with no need to be anywhere at any specific time. The only thing on my schedule is.... two back to back episodes of Law and Order, SVU. Other than that, I am at my own whim here. I may do some prepping of several projects waiting for some attention, I may read a book and I am going to definitely make more progress on Bloggiesta!

I have managed to complete 2 mini challenges: I wrote my 50 Bookish Goals & I downloaded Pocket on both my computer and my phone (this is a featured from an old timey mini challenge. I'm always happy about finding new aps, so I'm including it.

I've posted 3 different blog posts, including scheduling Monday's for OctPoWriMo.com. I have been procrastinating on these so getting it in early was major! YAY me and #bloggiesta!

Included blog posts besides the OctPoWriMo one (which doesn't go live until Monday) are Nora: My Melanoma One Year Later are 5 Easy Steps to Be Your Teens DIY Rockstar

I participated in last night's twitter party. Wasn't as social as sometimes, but I got some good information.

I've commented on quite a few opening blog posts & thanks to those who commented mine so far!

Next up is to check out the next challenge I want to do (thinking SEO or Links?) and then am going to continue to set up my new computer. Woot!!

How is it going for you?

 

5 Easy Steps To Discover How to Be Your Teen's DIY Rockstar

Obviously I haven’t been a DIY Queen for my kids much since they were quite a bit younger. Their bedrooms aren’t decorated in any specific color or theme. They’re hardly decorated at all, actually, but Emma got new furniture this week and in her room we are completely starting from scratch.

Starting from scratch meant emptying her room of everything that was crammed in there and only “inviting back” what we thought was best and worthy to be in there.

In the process she found four pairs of “lost” sunglasses.

I knew her sunglasses would quickly get lost again if I didn’t do something about it.

I had gone thrifting the other day (when do I not go thrifting today or the other day?) and I had bought what was once a pink, glass Teleflora vase for use in a project-to-be. It was still on my dish rack when I took it and said, “Hey, pink…Hey! Pink sunglasses holder!!!”

I placed it on her dresser, put four pairs of my girl’s inexpensive sun glasses in it and instantly, the case of the missing sunglasses will never rise again, at least here for Emma’s sunglasses.

I sent her a photo during her lunch period and her friends were ooohing and ahhhhing my “creation.” I instantly became a DIY rock star, the Mom of the Moment, the cool Mom who actually does stuff for her kids instead of micromanaging their every breath. Or so they think.

Now I’m starting a real DIY to hold her multitude of hair bows, bobbie pins, elastic bands and other small accessory-ish things. If we could help her get a hold on those in a cute, festive way – life would be grand.

For now. I’m reveling in my meteoric rise to DIY fame.

The steps are simple:

                1.       Buy stuff at the thrift store you know you will eventually use in a project. 

                2.       Keep your mind open to new connections with your storage of stuff. 

                3.       Swoop in and repurpose an item without having to do a thing to it!

                4.       Accept lavish praise for your creativity

                5.       Repeat. Often. Smile and feel satisfied!

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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

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© 2013