“What did you achieve in the last month, and what are your goals for the next month?”
This is a question my sister asks me every month. I avoid answering it – honestly, I find it a tad bit irritating. Why?
Because it makes me uncomfortable. It makes me realize that I am wasting my precious life under the cover of being busy. I am hiding behind the daily routine of work, cooking, and running errands. The unexamined life may not be worth living, but it sure is comfortable.
So this month, September, I am going to try and have some fun, and in the process, do something different from the usual.
I am going to be creative this month.
Not in the true sense of the word, which according to the dictionaries means to make something ‘new’. But I will be creating something new to me.
A streak of creative actions this month.
And a streak of blogging about it.
Well, blogging itself is creative, so that covers it.
I should have started yesterday, but, oh well.
So today I made paper pompoms.
That sounds so juvenile.
Why is a grown woman playing with rainbow colored tissue paper?
For my daughters’ birthdays in September, I always decorate a wall with streamers and their names and ages written with craft paper.
I was going to stop this year, surely they are over it. But as the days drew nearer, even my husband started asking about the wall…decorations.
Today I decided to change up the decoration a bit – I learnt how to make paper pompoms.
It was…is a fun activity. It reminded me of a summer spent learning how to make paper flowers. We used special tissue paper, slightly thicker than the one I used today, with thick wire for the stems. We made loads of them, the whole house was littered with tissue paper and bits of wire and flowers. The brightest of colors, never to be seen in nature, but each one held proudly and admired.
There are only three things needed to make these.
I got the tissue paper but forgot the fabric covered floral wire. I have the scissors. Two out of three ingredients is ok.
That’s why I am not a good cook. I add and subtract ingredients at will.
Anyways, the first attempt was too big.
The next two attempts were better because I cut the paper in half.
Still not perfect, not like the fluffy ones I see everywhere. But I made them. And I am a huge believer in practice makes perfect. So I will try and make a few more for the wall.
I enjoyed doing this. There’s something about playing with colored paper and scissors that brings out all the sweet memories of kindergarten and elementary school.
Try it, and tell me what you made.
That reminds me, I want to learn how to make those paper cranes -origami. One of these days.