Always, sometimes, never

I like to inspire myself to think creatively with different exercises.  Also, I just enjoy taking a few minutes to think about myself, my habits and interests, and I found this "Always, sometimes, never" exercise on a blog I read, Dove Tree Design.  I thought it would be pretty fun to do for myself.  Here goes:

I always:

• Dream.  Right now, mostly about a house, garden, studio space, and a simple life.
• Drink water everyday.  
• Spend a few hours a week thinking about better ways to organize and repurpose furniture and household items.
• Enjoy looking at trees, I really like 'em.
• Wish my curtains worked better than they do - pretty AND functional would be super:

I sometimes:

• Like eating meringue.  It's a weird substance for me to consider.
• Forget that I often talk and laugh loudly.  I think I have hearing damage from concerts and playing loud music in my car.
• Stop to realize that my job is pretty great.
• Hate cable television.  We have a small cable package and DVR, yet we don't get the channel with Gilmore Girls, Clean House, and right now there is a Harry Potter marathon I'm missing because we don't get that channel either.  We do, however, get two different channels that play Laverne and Shirley pretty often every week.  Still, I'm thinking of cancelling since it's pretty expensive and there are other options out there that are more customizable.
• Think about moving to Canada.
• Think about the best way to be a happy, mature, and capable grown up while remaining imaginative and keeping some of my childlike interests.
• Don't know what color my hair is at any given moment.
• Remember that we all have star dust in us and flip out because that is so cool (I love the song behind that link, check it out!)

I never:

• Go the speed limit.  Always over or under, mostly over.
• Adapt right away to new technology trends.  I just can't jump on board with the newfangled stuff until it's been out a while and the bugs are all worked out.  Even then, I'm usually wary.  I don't like how distracted so many people are these days with their gadgets.
• Go more than a few days without balancing my checkbook.
• Write enough down.  I used to journal, but gave it up a while ago and would like to get into the habit again.  I'm always forgetting things and am glad to have awesome friends and family to job my memory.
• Eat meat.  Anymore.  I've been vegetarian for over a year now with one small exception, a bite of venison salami over the holidays from a deer my brother shot last fall.
• Read every book I have checked out from the library.

Honestly, I've started reading at least 5 of those books and will hopefully get through at least 4 from the whole pile - and that's stretching it!

What's on your always/sometimes/never list?

Day 4

Challenge:  Take a five-minute walk, then make something using whatever materials are available where you've ended up.  Leave it there for someone else to discover, but be sure to document it first.

I love this idea, totally and completely.  However, today isn't really a day where a 5 minute walk will easily fit into my life.  Noah Scalin is a pretty cool guy who seems to understand these types of challenges:

"If you feel inspired to do something completely different, go for it!  A daily project is all about the rules you make for yourself, and there is no punishment for breaking those rules."

So while I'd like to take a walk outside and gather natural materials and leave a cool sculpture out there for someone to find, like the completely inspiring Andy Goldsworthy, I took a different approach.

I subscribe to a blog called 100 Scope Notes, and saw on there that the creator of the blog and his students create short poems using the spine labels of books.  I'm a librarian myself and thought that this idea was funny and creative and even showed some friends a few of the funnier compilations on the blog, but I never made any myself.  That's a big problem of mine!  I think that other people's ideas are pretty cool, but I can cop this "it's been done before" attitude sometimes that prevents me from trying things that are new for ME.

So I made a few spine stories/poems:

(not really sure how to comfort witches...)

(I did have "Hush Little Baby" at the end of this one originally, but decided against it)

And my favorite:

Here are some of the more recent spine poem creations from 100 Scope Notes.  This is probably my favorite of all time, although I find this one to be pretty great as well.

I didn't leave my creations out for anyone to discover, because it's just not a nice thing to do to our employees who spend a lot of time cleaning up other people's messes, but I did show another librarian my project and she seemed to get a kick out of it.