Journal as Dress

To wrap up journaling week, here's a video showing how Ruth Rae journaled in a very unusual way by stitching poems on fabric, and making it into a dress. I love that she hid some of her journaling in the inside of the garment, too (background music):

red thread journal dress from ruth rae on Vimeo.

Journal as Bullet List Central

Yesterday's journal entry is online (click here to view the .pdf), and it begins with a miniature I made of my office organizer idea (which didn't scan well, so I snapped a pic to go with this post.) Before I commit a lot of fabric to any project I usually make a little practice version to test out placement, materials and so forth. I'm going to replace the actual miniature in my journal with a printout of the photo, some fabric swatches and measurements once I have time to do all that. Going to the city ate up a lot of my time.

Since Father's Day is on the horizon I also talked about my dad, and while I got a little teary I think I'm finally coming to terms with losing him. Cooking helps a lot; he's always in my kitchen in spirit, I think. Regarding my blues, we always say "He wouldn't want you to be unhappy" as a comfort thing, but until this year I really didn't think about how much Dad would hate me feeling miserable about his passing. So while I was in the city I channeled him, found a neat gift plus a cute card for the father of my kids, and felt better for it.

I meant to write bullet lists in my journal to illustrate today's post, but that's the thing about journals -- you write what you need to write on that day, and I needed to talk about Dad. While I do try to stay upbeat, I don't always succeed. There are no journal police; you can write whatever you like on your pages. If it's something you don't want to save, rip them out and trash or burn them. But just getting those thoughts down in my journal was calming and cleansing. Now I can enjoy my weekend with my kids' dad and not have to carry around the sadness over my father while I do.

Fortunately I do have some lovely examples to show you -- these are from my daughter's journal, which she graciously allowed me to scan to share with you:





A bullet journal, which is best described as a running to-do list that helps keep her organized with work, school, events, etc., can be a neat alternative to traditional journaling. This approach is very popular among young people like my daughter who journal. I admire her illustrations, and the little motivational notes she writes to herself -- those make the pages fun. She also has an interesting way of tracking her health goals, such as drawing glasses or apples and then coloring them in as she drinks water or eats some fruit. Since she's very organized (sometimes even more so than me) I'd say it works.

This speedy, interesting video explains the bare bones of how a traditional bullet journal works (narrated):

Bullet Journal from Ryder on Vimeo.

Asian Pearl

Take a three-minute tour of the city of Hong Kong with this delightful video (background music):

7 Days in Hong Kong from Xavier on Vimeo.

The Math of Making

When you see someone use their hands to create something it feels exactly like this lovely little video (background music):

The Art of Making, Geometry from Deep Green Sea on Vimeo.

Lucky Seven

Here's a rather spiritual short video with some interesting things for everyone to ponder (narration, background music):

7 Things I Learned in 7 Years of Reading, Writing, and Living from Dissolve on Vimeo.

The Art of Paper

Watch the delicate, beautiful and painstaking art of hand-making paper in Japan (background music):

Making of Japanese handmade paper of Kyoto Kurotani from Kuroyanagi Takashi on Vimeo.

The Count

If only my writing instruments were this cute (narration, background music):

Pencilvanya from Studio Tinto on Vimeo.

Escape

I hope this delightful short film doesn't give my Fiskars any ideas (background music):

A Small Escape from David Sandell on Vimeo.

A to Z

I never imagined so much work could go into recreating, printing and binding an old dictionary (narration, background music):

Pictorial Webster's: Inspiration to Completion from John Carrera on Vimeo.

Way Back Machine

Here's a delightful animated video that will whisk you back to 1931 via a steampunk photo album (background music):

"The Old New World" (Photo-based animation project) from seccovan on Vimeo.

(video link nicked from Gerard at The Presurfer)

Kindness

This film is beautiful and sad and full of hope and wonder (background music, narration, and you will probably tear up):

The Gnomist: A Great Big Beautiful Act Of Kindness from Great Big Story on Vimeo.

My Next Shop Stop

I think I've run out of ways to torment you all for April Fool's Day, so instead here's one of my favorite prank videos (narrated, background music):

American Beagle from Animal on Vimeo.

Undies

Here's an interesting (and for us ladies, painful) look at the history of women's underwear from the Victoria and Albert Museum (narrated, background music):

Underwear: From corsets to bullet-bras and back from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.

Ebéniste mécanicien

I love antique roll top desks, especially ones with hidden compartments, so this video of one at the Met really wowed me. If James Bond had been a cabinet maker, I think he would have wanted David Roentgen to be his Q:

Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen Demonstration from Metropolitan Museum of Art on Vimeo.

Steampunk Symphony

A one-man band takes on a whole new meaning with Martin Molin and his Marble Machine. I could see something like this existing in Toriana (music):

Wintergatan - Marble Machine from Wintergatan on Vimeo.

The Sea Above

Here's a lovely time lapse video by Chris Pritchard to remind us all to look up a little more often (with background music):

Skylight from Chris Pritchard on Vimeo.

Little Boxes

I found this lovely video while looking through hand made art films. The maker has a shop on Etsy here where you can see more of and buy her work (background music, narration by the artist):

Tommy's Hut from Historia Films on Vimeo.

Cat Stories

There are a million zillion cat videos on the Internet, but this one is truly hilarious (with background music):

Stories we make up about our cats from Wiggly Piggly on Vimeo.

Dedicated to:

Nailed It

200 hours + 13,000 nails + 14.9 miles of thread = art (background music):

Southie

Here's a lovely longish video that takes you on a pretty stunning snapshot tour of the south of France (background music, and a tiny bit of bull fighting at the end):

French Taste from Paul Wex on Vimeo.