About two and a half years ago I discovered junk journaling. When watching tutorials to get ideas, you see all these fancy tools and pretty papers being used. And? You guessed it, you’d like to take your own handmade books to that level as well. Needless to say, all of those fancies are quite expensive. When it comes to the pretty paper pads, often times there are a couple of patterns that I truly like and the others, well, not so much. But it is a package deal…
Lately, I’ve heard more and more creatives say, that they design their own papers with Canva and print them out. Aha! So, here I am learning the basics of Canva and what I can do with it. My struggle is, to get good looking layouts that actually make sense, in terms of placement and size. There’s lots for me to learn, still. And the funny thing is, depending upon how many papers and designs I end up printing out, it probably won’t be cheaper at all, but at least I can have exactly what I like. Now, if I get my layout struggles managed, I’m on my way to having fancy papers just like the others.
Author: Claudia
Iris – Evgeny Lebedev
Thanks for stopping by, to check out tonight’s musical nightcap. Have a good start to your week!
A Snippet Of Conversation
Life: “Go ahead and make plans. I’ll be sure to ignore them”.
Me: “Yah, I know. Lesson learned, thanks”.
Joyous Moments
🎧 listening to my favorite songs
🦋 seeing butterflies
🌲 a walk through the woods
🐦 listening to the birds sing
😊 my clutter-free apartment
A-Z Challenge: Klutz
Here we have yet another unbecoming truth about me: I’m a klutz. Not every day, but quite often I bump into furniture or door frames. How dare they get in my way, right? The same applies to my dropping things. Don’t hand me an item of value, if you want it to last for a long time. I may have a klutzy day and drop it – not intentionally, of course. Likewise, I fall up the stairs, because I missed a step, spill liquids, and pour too much into a cup or glass. That’s me, all of it. Regrettably, my fine motor skills aren’t the greatest, so that’s not helpful either. It gets nice and awkward, when I’m going for a walk and trip over my own feet. Luckily most often, no one sees me.
Unfortunately, my klutzy moments are worse when I’m in social situations, especially around people I don’t know or like. Yep, klutzy beyond repair. And there’s no way to put a positive or charming spin on it. 😊
A-Z Challenge: Jewelry
During my time in the USA I fell in love with Native American jewelry and acquired a few truly lovely pieces over the years. Most of them came from a shop, called The Silver Eagle, located in the next town from where I lived for the last nine years. I was there quite often to browse new items, or to purchase gifts for friends and co-workers.
Unfortunately I don’t have any of my Native American and Black Hills Gold jewelry anymore. Back in Germany it was “taken away” by a mean-spirited and manipulative man, as a punishment for not loving, and later leaving him. That was seven years ago, and I still get upset about it. This jewelry had so much meaning, as a memory of my time in the USA. One of the vacations we took, when my parents came to visit, was to South Dakota, which is known for Black Hills Gold. My dad bought a necklace for me, as a souvenir. No one and nothing can replace it.
These cherished jewelry pieces were a part of few truly American items I brought back to Germany with me. And now they’re gone.
Um, What Was That?
Besides German, English, French and basic math, high school didn’t teach me a lot. Listening to the teachers and reading books didn’t do anything for me. The knowledge I was supposed to gain didn’t stick with me because even to this present day, classroom education is not my way of learning.
Oh, right. What school did teach me is, that some teachers are really cruel if they don’t like you, or, that others really don’t give a rip whether or not you learn and understand a subject, because they only show up for this mandatory circus to cash their paychecks. [We did have a couple of awesome teachers, too, who really cared].
Everyday life was, and still is, the best and most valuable teacher. There have been some hard lessons in the past, but you best believe, that they will stick with me til kingdom come.
Um, high school?….Wasn’t there something?…..Oh! Thank goodness a very long time ago!
A-Z Challenge: Imitator
To begin with it is important to mention, that every autistic person has their individual set of challenges. If I understand correctly, however, quite a few of them imitate reactions and behaviors they see displayed by their peers, in an effort to learn. Count me in. Now some folks may label this as “seriously creepy conduct”. If you are one of them, do tell me how you would learn how to fit in with regard to social situations? What would be your strategy instead?
Since childhood, I’ve been watching people closely, without ever knowing, that doing so is not “standard practice”. My parents prepared me for life to the best of their abilities, always wondering about certain behaviors and reactions. I am not sure, how well known autism was in the 70’s, but no one ever thought to “shove me into that drawer” back then. Was this a blessing or a curse? In hindsight, life might have been easier in more ways than one, if I could have had therapy or some form of training to help me learn, what neurotypicals “just know”, or understand without effort. Especially social situations were an overwhelming mystery to me. And I started watching and imitating behaviors of others. Everything I learned was “filed away for future reference”, whenever needed and “hopefully” appropriate. To this day, I watch and imitate other people. Fortunately, I’m at that point in my life now [that old age], that I can judge unavoidable social situations better, and how to react properly. The stored away behaviors I choose to utilize, will now have my own spin and personality added. But it was a long way of getting there.
Peaceful Coexistence
It is one thing, to admire pretty flower beds, or generally a well maintained garden. Being on the same level with creepy, crawling creatures in the dirt is quite another. And for the longest time, that was a very loud and clear “no thank you!” for me. Even with a good long shower afterwards, it still felt as if one or more of these bugs would be crawling on me….do I have to say it? Eww!!
However, I have been working on my attitude towards gardening. I don’t think I will ever love it, but I do appreciate the feeling of satisfaction, when the flower beds are weed-free, or, when I finished cutting the grass. With regard to the creepy creatures: I am well aware, that I am invading their habitat, and I’m going to have to make peace with that, if I want to continue helping my mom. Do I still feel them crawling all over me? Oh, absolutely! To overcome this feeling of disgust will be a marathon, rather than a sprint I guess. But I am working on a peaceful coexistence. 🐛🙃🐌
Hula Hoop Happy
I enjoy going for long (nordic-) walks, whenever my mom doesn’t want to join me. With her, we have a much slower pace and certainly can’t walk as far. But either way, walking is a regular activity. Enjoying the scenery and the nice weather is an added bonus.
Just recently I discovered a fun way to exercise [if it can be called exercise], and that is hula hoop. Currently I’m working my way up to one hour per day. With hula hoop I finally found something, that is actually fun, while I’m doing something good for myself. We have a winner!! 🥇💯
Trivialities & Intricacies 
You must be logged in to post a comment.