Excerpt from my journal...

Saturday Thoughts

I remember when I was a young girl, sometimes after church on Sunday, we would go for a drive.  No where in particular, just a drive.  Sometimes we would pick up something to eat and have lunch in the car on our way to nowhere.  To me, that was fun.  Sometimes we would go to Lincoln Park in Los Angeles and go on the pony rides.  Across the way was the Merry-Go-Round.

It had a Calliope that would play music as we went around and around.  You had to try and catch the brass ring.  I never did, but I think my Dad did, once. 

Things were very simple back then, but to me, so much more fun.  So much more enjoyable.  We didn't have things to do things with, but yet we still did things.  We had fun enjoying what we had.  

Today we have so much, but like a child at Christmas, once the presents are opened, we tire and want to know, "what's next."  We are bored with the old, at the same time, not enjoying what we have.  So much more progress, yet so much more unhappiness.  It should be the opposite.  

What happened?  

What changed?

Valentine's Day

Be My Valentine

Valentine's Day is just around the corner.  Soon love ones and sweethearts will come together to express their love and affections for one another.

There will be candle lit dinners or maybe a romantic dinner for two or maybe a simple romantic quiet picnic for two.

In keeping with my goal for this year, I am planning on making a book and/or journal a month.  This month's theme is a Valentine Writing Journal.

I kept this little journal (5" X 7") very simple.  It starts off with a little tuck spot and a Valentine's Poem.

Writing pages have been added for writing.

Some flip outs and fold outs.

A Belly Band in the back to hole a small glassine bag of bits and pieced of ephemera.

So, what is Valentine's Day and when did it start?

Valentine's Day is a day when people show their affections for one another by sending cards, flowers and/or chocolates with messages of love.

At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius declared February 14, "St. Valentine's Day", and since then February 14 has been a day of celebration whether it be religious or romantic.

The history of Valentine's Day, and the story of its patron saint, is shrouded in mystery.  We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentin's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman Tradition.

The day is popular in the United States as well as Britain, Canada and Australia.  It is also celebrated in other countries including Argentina, France, Mexico and South Korea.  In the Philippines, it is the most common wedding anniversary, and mass weddings of hundreds of couples are not uncommon on that date.

So, what do  you have planned for Valentine's Day?

Zine

What is a Zine?

(Pronounced Zeen)

A "Zine" is a small, self published booklet that falls somewhere 

between a newsletter and a magazine.

Zines have been created all over the world for quite some time now.  The history of today's incarnation of the Zine can be traced back to sci-fi fanzines of the 1930-60s.  The 1970s is when the rise of the Punk Zines came about, but the 1980-90s ushered in the Zine explosion.

A Zine is not hard to make.  The size of a Zine will determine on the size of the paper you use.  It can be made as simple or elaborate as you would like.  Only a few simple tools are needed to make a Zine.  Paper (your choice), mark making tools, and/or collage papers.  

A Zine can be on any topic from Art to Political, Text to Drawings, and so on.

This link has some great ideas for topics to use in your Zine:

http://www.seagreenzines.com/51-more-ideas-for-your-next-zine/

Your Zine can be bound using either a stapler, pamphlet stitch, gluing it together, or left unbound should want to make additional copies.

For my Zine, I selected the topic of "Birds".

I used collage elements, colored pencils/pens, some text, and left a blank page to be filled in later.  But for now I think I will leave it blank.  I chose to leave my Zine unbound, so that I am able to make additional copies at a later time.

I hope that you found this topic on Zines a little interesting and that you will try to make one of your own.