Thinking about stuff and a new journal page

Update: The journal page in this post is no longer available for download. For a selection of free, printable journal pages, please visit my Printable Journal Pages collection.

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As I get older, I find myself thinking more and talking less.  I've been thinking about that a lot lately (see?), about how I've become the world's most boring lunch date and party guest.

It's a tough one.  Deep down I know the reasons; many of them are neurotic, but some stem from the recognition that I still have a great deal to learn about life; that I want to be more sensitive about how I communicate my opinions; and that so many controversial, fun-to-debate issues can't be distilled into a simple right or wrong and most of the time I prefer to go at them on a case-by-case basis rather than choosing a side.

Writing, for me, is a wonderfully cathartic way to sort out all of those thoughts, especially when I'm not quite ready to talk about them just yet. 

That's what I was thinking about when I started working on today's journal page, which gives you the space to write about a few of the things you might not be ready to discuss . . .

There's also a place to record your goodness and your strangeness . . .

The whole page looks like this:

It's available in all its usual forms here (the border-free version) and here (the colour-it-yourself version) and here (the already-coloured version.)

Happy Friday friends!

Wasting time and a new journal page

Update: The journal page in this post is no longer available for download. For a selection of free, printable journal pages, please visit my Printable Journal Pages collection.

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I just couldn't get down to work on today's journal page.  So while my husband took our girls to visit his parents, I frittered away my time -- surfing the net, tidying rather aimlessly, baking . . .

Then, with a plate full of chocolate chip cookies and a tall glass of milk, I gave it another shot and it started to come together . . .

The lightning round was next . . .

Before I knew it, there was a plate of cookie crumbs on my desk and a full page on my screen . . .

I think that pretty much settles it -- chocolate really does fix everything.

You'll find today's page in the following formats:

• border-free,
• with a colour-it-yourself border,
• with the pre-coloured border you see above.

Happy Thursday friends!  And hey, if you've got a moment, I'd love to hear from you -- what are your favourite time-wasters?

New journal page -- #24 and counting . . .

Update: The journal page in this post is no longer available for download. For a selection of free, printable journal pages, please visit my Printable Journal Pages collection.

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It's a little nuts around here today.  Noise and clutter and nervous energy have taken over and the kids and I are feeling quite bonkers.  It must be a Friday-the-13th thing.  Or a mid-summer thing.  In any event, I've managed to escape the melee for just a few moments to visit this space and share today's journal page with you.

You'll find a lightning round that's all about colour . . .

and space to think about all of the things that you make with your own two hands . . .

The whole page looks like this:

And thanks to Raederle's suggestion, the available versions will be listed in bulleted form.  (Spell check is telling me that bulleted is not a word.  I see that squiggly line, spell check, but the dictionary says it's OK.  So there.)

Click on the link for the journal page of your choice:

• bordered and coloured;
• bordered, but not coloured;
• no border, no colour.  (Sounds rather dull, but it's all ready for a custom border of your own!)

Happy Friday friends!

Fluttered By

This photo was taken yesterday in a panic.

But let me begin at the beginning.

A few weeks ago, my father-in-law arrived with a gift for my seven year old daughter.  It was a glass bulb with a spotted caterpillar inside.  He found the caterpillar munching on the parsley plants in his garden and, knowing how much my daughter loves bugs and animals of all sorts, he put it and a whole bunch of parsley in the glass bulb and brought it for her to observe.

As a general rule, we allow the kids to pick up and study our neighbourhood bugs to their hearts' content, but after they've had a good look, they have to put the bugs back where they found them.  So this was a bit of a departure for us and we wanted to do our best to take good care of the little guy (or girl.)

We changed its parsley diligently every day and dumped out the caterpillar poop.  There was a lot of caterpillar poop.  Our little friend grew and grew and one day he (she?) climbed up the side of the glass and stayed there.  The next morning, there was a green chrysalis where the caterpillar had been the night before.  (Sigh of relief -- he (possibly she) wasn't sick - or worse.)

Then we waited.  And waited.  For about a week.  Yesterday, we awoke to the scene above.  The poor, sweet butterfly was bashing its lovely wings against the sides of the bulb trying to find a way out.  It was at that point that it occurred to us that perhaps the tiny hole at the top of the bulb, which had been plenty big enough to let in a caterpillar, might be far too small to let out a fully grown butterfly.

I took a quick, shaky photo, then we ran outside and removed the paper covering the top.  After many attempts with the hole in the glass facing up, down and sideways, there was still a frantic butterfly inside the glass and three frantic human beings on the outside trying to coax him (her?) out without damaging his (possibly her) wings.

Then my daughter had an idea:  put the opening near one of the clumps of purple flowers on our spirea bush.  We did and within seconds, the caterpillar had found the opening, folded its wings and crawled out onto the flowers as if it was the most natural thing in the world.  Then it winked at us (we might have imagined that part) and flew away.

Have you had any brushes with nature recently?

New journal page

Update: The journal page in this post is no longer available for download. For a selection of free, printable journal pages, please visit my Printable Journal Pages collection.

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Just stopping by quickly today with a new journal page.  It feels like it has been a very long week and I'm eager to get on with all the little things that need to be done before the weekend arrives.  Thanks so much for all of your comments on my last post!  It was such fun reading your thoughts and stories and I feel a little less mortified about the whole episode.

Today's page gives you room to write about the things that matter . . .

and a lightning round that, with any luck, is free of spelling errors . . .

The whole page looks a little something like this:

You'll find the border-free version here, the colourful, bordered version here and the colour-free, bordered version here.  (Ack.  That's a mouthful.  Still working on a less cumbersome way to write that.)

Happy Friday, friends!

Everybody makes mistakes. Right?

When I named this blog, I was thinking about how easy it is to be discouraged by the prospect of failure.  I wanted a name that would remind me to jump in with both feet, to share some ideas (even if they might be a little odd) and not to be held back by the fear of appearing ridiculous or awkward.

Grace is Overrated seemed a good place to start, so I bought the domain name, took a deep breath, and started posting.  This is now the place where I write and doodle and develop my ideas and it has been so good to get a few of them out of my head an onto the page and screen.  And along the way, I have read every single comment with delight.  I love the feedback.  Love it.

So.

Yesterday, schnuckiputzi left this sweet, thoughtful comment on the post with my newest journal page:

The part that caught me, as you might have already guessed was "'Lightning' not 'lightening' round -- sorry."

Yep, I've been spelling lightning incorrectly.  All along.  22 pages.

I was mortified.  Until I remembered why I started this thing in the first place.  Both feet, straight in.  There were bound to be bumps along the way and this was one of them.

Here's what I've been up to ever since:

1. I freaked out a little and checked every dictionary I could find and nowhere was lightning spelled lightening.  (Although one dictionary did helpfully point out that lightening can be confused with lightning.  Good to know.)
2. I called my husband at work and gave him the lurid details and he laughed.  But in a nice way.
3. I emailed schnuckiputzi to thank her for her comment.  
4. After the kids went to bed, I went back and changed every single instance of the word lightening to lightning.  
5. Step 4 took a long time.  It involved graphics files and pdf files and uploading and downloading and expletives, all of which ultimately led to step 6.
6. I will never again use the word lightening when what I really mean is lightning.
7. I realized that everybody makes the odd mistake here and there.  Right?

I'd love to hear your stories!  Anyone made any mistakes lately?

New journal page

Update: The journal page in this post is no longer available for download. For a selection of free, printable journal pages, please visit my Printable Journal Pages collection.

~~~
Early on, I assumed that once I gathered enough experience creating these journal pages, a rhythm would develop -- some sort of pattern or approach that would make it easy to dash off each page and get started on the next one.

Um.  No.

I do have a lot of the same elements in each page, i.e. a quote, a lightning round, a to-do list, etc., but developing ideas to fill each slot is more difficult than I imagined it would be.  With each page, I'm finding that I have to dig deeper for inspiration and pay more attention to the world around me.

Hmm.  That actually sounds like a good thing.  OK.  Never mind.  Moving on.

With this page, I was still thinking about ways for you to add your own colour.  At the same time, I was finding a lot of really short quotes that I liked, so I've used just the outlines for today's quote and I hope that you'll provide the rest . . .

And I've been running out of ideas for boxes and borders, so I've been doodling a lot more.  Which also is not a bad thing.  The odd, bookish shape below began with that sort of curvy, horizontal line at the top of the shape.  I added another at the bottom and it started to look like a book to me.  Ta da . . .

The page in its entirety looks like this:

You'll find a non-bordered version here; a coloured, bordered version here; and a colour-free, bordered version here.
(There's got to be a less cumbersome way to write that.  I'll work on it for the next page!)

Happy Tuesday friends!