To All

I'm as busy as everyone else here at the end of the calendar year. But, I still find time to carve out small 'me' moments, where I can do something just because I want to. I did that recently, with no planning or forethought whatsoever. On task, I piddled around for about an hour messing around with something, then I made sure to take pictures so that I could show you the fruits of my play-labor.

But first, the backstory.

My mom was a very creative soul. She was an artist and crafter who loved to find beauty in the world. She made a point of adding a little sumpin' sumpin' to everyday objects just to make them more interesting.  Not, mind you, elegant or showy. But warm & inviting. She tried to develop & squeeze every creative drop out of all of her family members, encouraging each of us to express ourselves through the arts. We didn't always rise to the challenge, but she was never discouraged. She persevered in her quest to make things special and bring us along for the ride.

A few years ago my mom passed away, and my sister & I began cleaning out my parents' house. With hundreds (thousands?) of art supplies, we had our work cut out for us. But, through multiple sales, online and in person, we rehomed a staggering number of drawing, painting, stenciling, stamping, flower-arranging, jewelry-making, sketching, writing, collaging, scrapbooking, and other various and sundry supplies. My sister and I also kept some of the art supplies for ourselves.

Now at my house, anytime I pull out treasures or supplies that I got from my mom's art room, I think about her creative spirit and her knack for adding beauty to our lives. Recently, I stumbled on something from my mom's house that I hadn't seen for a long while. I had forgotten about it. But, when I found it, I thought of my mom, and it immediately put me in the mood for creativity.

Magnetic poetry kits.

What's that?, you say? These are sets of tiny magnets, each printed with one word. You arrange the words on a magnetic surface to create your own poetry or sentences or messages. My mom often used these magnets for inspiration, or sometimes just for fooling around.

When I found the magnets, I knew that I needed to use them to create an uplifting message that I could display for the holiday season.

When I first took possession of these magnet sets a few years ago, I went into full obsessive compulsive mode. I knew that I would never use the magnets if they were crammed haphazardly into their respective boxes. That would be like trying to work a jigsaw puzzle while all the pieces were still in the box. Impossible. So, back then, I reasoned that to allow for easy access to the magnets, I needed to sort out all the words alphabetically and group them together. Next, I purchased trays from the dollar store and laid out the magnets in alphabetic letter grouping. (All the words that start with A go here; all the words that start with B go here... It was a lot of work for something that would be so rarely used. But, as predicted, when inspiration hit and I DID want to use the magnets, it made all the difference. I could see what words I had to work with when I crafting my message.

So, on this particular day, I got busy with the sets of magnet words. Here is the holiday message, that I crafted to display in my room, as I channeled fond memories of my mom:

While composing this little poem/message, I realized that I was limited by the words available to me on the trays. I could create, but under the constraints of the product. Using only THIS set of words, what could I say? Satisfied with my complete message, as shown above, I then decided to have a little fun & mix it up, using my limited vocabulary. Following are additional messages that I crafted from the words on the trays. Just a little silliness, which is typical for me. (Please ignore improper plurals - I worked with what I had!)

Do you like my efforts? Which message is your favorite? What magnetic words would you like to add?

I challenge you to make your own TO ALL poem, using any words of your choice.

My final message to you at the end of 2023: