Jumping right into it, here are five (more or less!) things/activities that kept me going the last seven days…
1. Online Craft Class
I partnered with SkillSkout to teach a series of online craft classes for kids this month. To kick it off, we did a free FB Live craft session last Saturday making Tic Tac Toe sets out of household recyclables. I’m happy to be teaching again and even happier to see some of the finished projects by some of those who participated.
The video is still on my Facebook Page if you’d like your kids to make their own (CLICK HERE). You can also sign up your kids for my upcoming craft classes with Skill Skout. We’ll be making dioramas, marionette’s and collage. Info and registration RIGHT HERE!
2. Junk Journals
I find great solace in cutting and gluing paper. So even if I had a busy week working on design jobs and preparing for workshops, I spent Friday afternoon stitching together scraps of paper to make journals. Then the night after was spent filling said journals with more scraps from magazine pages to make collages. It is deeply satisfying. For a time such as this when there is overwhelming uncertainty, engaging in an activity of which we have a certain level of control is quite settling. Here is a FLIP THROUGH VIDEO of the journal I had partially filled over the weekend.
3. Almost Famous
I watched the extended (two hour long) version of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous with my sister in law. I’ve always enjoyed seeing this movie. Apart from the music and the story, I enjoy seeing the costumes (specifically Penny Lane’s), props and set designs that capture the zany, playful and psychedelic vibe of the 70s.
Here’s an unforgettable quote from the movie, spoken by Lester Bangs, a character played by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman:
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we’re uncool.”
— Lester Bangs, Almost Famous, 2000
4. Current Reads
I’m reading two books at the moment and they’re nothing like each other but are equally entertaining. I do this often — read two books from vastly different genres — to keep things interesting. One is BANKSY: The Man Behind The Wall by Will Ellisworth-Jones which starts out with a deep dive into the history of Bristol’s graffiti scene. The other one is Shirley Jackson’s Life Among The Savages which is a delightful memoir about her rural family life, their everyday mishaps and adventures.
5. Floral Stamps
I just started carving another series of stamps. This time I’m making plants and flowers native to or widely found in the Philippines. So far I have Ylang ylang, Makahiya and Bougainvillea. As I make them, I also try to learn at least one fun fact about them, which is fun.
You can follow this 100 Day Project on my Instagram and Facebook pages to see the stamps I’ve created so far.
I know everyone is very eager to go out and attempt to get their lives back, specially here in Manila where the enhanced quarantine has ended (or has it really?) and places have started opening again. Just within a couple of days, malls have started filling up with people. While I’m personally choosing not to go anywhere just yet, maybe for another month or so, I really can’t blame those who choose to do so. Perhaps to them, it’s a necessity. Even Kayo has to start going to the studio already and put some things in order at work. Whatever the case, I know that we are all dealing with the daunting idea that things may never fully go back to normal again. It’s just difficult to go back to normal knowing that the threat of contracting this virus is still around out there somewhere, anywhere. I tell everyone I chat with online to take care and stay safe not because it’s just a thing to say and everybody’s saying it. I really mean it and I say it over and over because, quite frankly, our lives depend on it.
Whether life requires you to get back out there already or you’re like me, still hunkering down, keeping the kids safe and snug under my wings, waiting to see how the world deals, carefully ticking off all the signs that say “Go ahead, the coast is clear!,” hang in there. It may take more time for things to feel more stable. But until then let’s all take care and stay safe.
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