GOMO // 12 Ideas to Get You Walking

Eventbrite, the largest self-service ticketing platform out there (!) coined the new term, "Go Out More Often," abbreviated "GOMO," made up to counteract this other term, "Fear of Missing Out," abbreviated (betcha can't guess) "FOMO."

I don't have any, like, any (ANY) desire to go out more often, and I can't relate to this fear of missing out that people seem to have.  I've got lots of school to do these days, and when I'm not doing school, I'd like to be all nicely cooped in my house doing crafty thangs.

BUT, I do enjoy a good walk now and then, so when I started brainstorming a list of ideas, I actually got really excited about the idea of going out more often, if only to go on a walk!  Perhaps you could use Eventbrite's event management software to host your own walk of sorts, like a charity event or something!

Many people who write posts for EventBrite put "Go on a walk" as one of their listees.  I decided to  go all out with that one option.  I tried to make all of these ideas free of the need to spend any money.  However, many of these, if not all, require a good bit of time.  Also, most of these would be best done someplace with many people, and like, in a cool dowtowny place.  As I made the list, I kept thinking of downtown Wake Forest near us.  It would be so much fun to tramp around there!

Sooo, here is a list of all sorts of different walks you could go on to Go Out More Often!

• Scavenger Hunt >> Come up with a list of things to look for, based on where you're walking, and check them off as you find them!
• Word Search >> Come up with a list of words to find, words you would expect to see where you're going, and some you wouldn't expect.  Bonus if you can find words you didn't expect to see!
• Talk to Total Strangers >> Come up with a list of random and silly questions, and then go to town or somewhere with many people, and ask random people your random questions!  And then give them candy or something for their participation.
• Random Acts of Kindness >> This isn't specifically a walk, but I mean, how can you do this without walking some?  Honestly, this idea kind of scares me a little.  I'm like, "You said what now?  You want me to advance out of the regions of my comfort zone and talk to people - total strangers (again)?!"  But it's a very good thing to be kind to everyone all the time anyway, and this is an opportunity to share the love of Christ!
• Hide-and-Go-Seek Walk >> This would be a good option if you have four or five people.  Together, plan your route, and then everyone except "it" will hide somewhere along the route.  (It might be a good idea to have everyone meet at a certain place after some amount of time.  You don't want to seek for too long!)
• Not Halloween Walk >> We've never done Halloween, and I'm totally cool with that, but I still really like the idea of giving out candy to total strangers (especially kids, but I digress).  So, carry around a bucket or basket of candy (or homemade cookies?), and randomly give it away!  Even better, do this sometime not around Halloween or the holiday season!
• Christmas Light Sightseeing >> Crazily, Christmas is not that far away, and pretty soon, Christmas lights will start to appear!  If you live in or near a neighborhood where lots of people decorate for Christmas, take the opportunity to walk (or drive) around and look at them all!
• Make Someone Else Go On a Walk >> This would be a fun birthday surprise!  Arrange for a friend to arrive (notice I did not say meet) at a specific location.  Before they come, grab some sticky notes or small pieces of paper and tape, and put them up around, on light poles and the like, with directions on each for where to go next, or maybe just arrows!  Where the friend first arrives should clearly be the starting point, and the last should clearly be the end point.  At the end, have some little (or big) surprise for the person.
• Color Walk >> Make some sort of chart (or not!) and tally how many times you see each color, and then make something using however many swatches of however many times you saw each color.
• Shop Hop >> Bar hopping is where you "hop" from bar to bar, so shop hopping is "hopping" from shop to shop.  You don't even have to spend money if you don't want to!
• Draw Your Journey >> As you go along, draw any interesting, or not interesting, places you see, and label what place it is.  You could also photograph, but to me, drawing sounds better for this.
• Night Walk >> Need I say more?  Try to do it on a really light, bright night.

And there you have it!  Which of these will YOU try out?

Card Tutorial // You (Yes, You!) Take Me Someplace Special.

The centerpiece of this card had been sitting on my desk for, literally, months, before I finally got around to making the card!  (In fact, I think I created this centerpiece around the same time I made this card, and I used the same sharpie for both!)  (I go through extra-fine back sharpies rather quickly.)  I was playing around with fonts and cheesy but sweet sentiments, and this is what I came up with.  I wanted to make a card that would be just as lovely, because this was somethin' special here!

As it turns out, the card I made with it was not my best, and if I could go back and remake the card, I would do it a bit differently, but you know what?  IT'S OKAY!  I still love the sentiment.

Supplies
Doily
Scissors
Sharpies (multiple shades and thicknesses of one color, + an extra-fine black sharpie)
Baker's Twine
Glue
Card

So first, we're going to start with a doily, like we've used many times before.  Now look at the doily.  It has ten sides, see?  So we're going to cut it into ten little triangles.  You'll cut from the "1" to the "6," the "2" to the "7," and so on.

After you cut the doily in half the first time, you'll need to hold the two halves together as you cut it in half another way.

Then you can use the pointy middle to make sure you're cutting it straight through...the middle!  (Do I make sense?  Me thinks not.  So this is where you refer to the picture.)

There, ten little triangles!

Get out your trusty sharpies, and draw some horizontal lines on those triangles!  I used five sharpies, and did two triangles per sharpie, drawing the horizontal lines opposite ways for the two (except I accidentally did the lines the same way for those two on the right).  Can you tell which sharpies I used for which triangles?

It makes a pretty good stack of colored triangles.  We'll only use four of them today, so you can stash the others away somewhere.  (My extras are still...ahem...on my desk.)

Yay, baker's twine!  This stuff is so pretty, don't you think?

I got this idea from this pin I saw on Pinterest, but wanted a little something more, and that's why I added the stripes.  Eep, this is so pretty!  Set this aside for latah.

I already had my centerpiece made when I got around to making this card, so I didn't take pictures of it as I drew/wrote it, but you probably don't have one yet!  If you're nervous about trying fancy typography, you don't have to try it!  You could totally just use your regular old handwriting, or, if you want, you may be able to find a stamp with a similar sentiment that you could use.  But it is really fun to experiment with hand-lettering.  If you would like to try hand-lettering, you should check out Jennie's post on the subject!

After you get it written, you can cut it out in an oval shape.  I used a stencil.

 Now all the elements are made, and all we have to do is figure out how the card will be layed out.  This was my first idea.  I actually really like this, but I nixed it because I wanted to include a bow, and there didn't seems to be a place for a bow with this layout.  Also I would have had to cut off parts of the triangles, which I didn't want to do.

 So I played around a bit more, and came up with this.  As you can see, there are now only four triangles visible.

Now that it's decided, we can begin to glue everything down permanently.  But first, I wanted to knot the ends of the string, to kind of give the impression that it's hanging up.

After the ends are tied, put a little glue under each knot, and let dry.  Don't try to do anything else until they're dry, because the string will move from the glue very easily before it's dry.  And if that happens, you just might go crazayyy!

Alright, cool.  The glue under the knotted string is dry now.  (That was quick!)  So now you can glue down the triangles.  Which, surprisingly, can be a little tricky.  Because you want them to be at exactly the right place so that the centerpiece will be right in the middle of them.  I kind of had to maneuver them into place until they were right.

Then when they're all behaved and glued down and dried, you can glue down the centerpiece.  As the catchy commercial goes, "Push it REAL good!"  Meaning, push that centerpiece down.  Keep it calm. Give it a nice long back rub.

There we go!  All the main elements are glued on!  (What do you think of it at this point?)

I was not satisfied at that point, so I added some outlining lines.  I'm not sure I really like the look of it, but you know what?  IT'S OKAY!

I knew it needed a bow the whole time (remember what I said up ther'?), and finally!  The chance came!  I made a pretty little bow from the baker's twine used for the doily triangles.  (Hey, did you knooow, there's actually a fancy name for that, other than doily triangles?  It's called bunting.  Yes, I do know words sometimes.)  Maybe someday I will show you people how to make one of these perfect bows, but alas!  Today is not the day.

Then I still thought it needed somethin' more, specifically, black adhesive pearls, which I do not own.  So, I just drew some, which do not look near as classy, but you know what?  IT'S OKAY!

There we go!  It's all done!  Whew!

The finished card!

What do you think of the sentiment?  Do you think it's cute as can be, or plain cheesy?

Journaling ~ What to Write?

I love the feeling of a pen in my hand.  I feel safer with a sharpie at my disposal.  That's part of why I love journaling, and letter writing, and writing blog drafts (on real paper).

It's addicting, almost.  Where most people nowadays find it hard to get off their devices, I find it hard to get off my journal, whether writing or reading it, and I am totally fine with that!  (Although, it is sort of a waste of time to sit for an hour reading my own thoughts when I should be doing homework...)

I recently wrote this post about journaling, listing all the reasons you might have for needing to journal.*  But, I did not go into what you could journal about, which seems to be a major roadblock to many people who would like to get into journaling.  So, I came up with this very long list of things to journal on, just to get you started!

*I'm not actually saying every single person absolutely needs to journal.  Maybe you like gardening, or building, or driving, or whatever else.  What I'm saying is, journaling isn't for everyone.  People say they'd like to journal, but either a) don't have time, or b) don't know what to write about.  Well, the fact is, if you really want to enough, you'll make it happen!  If, deep down, you really don't feel like journaling, and you have plenty of other things to occupy your time, then you're probably not going to get to journaling.  And you know what?  That is fine.  Journaling is a kind of therapy, and maybe it's not your preferred form.  That is okay.  Alright, rant over.  :)

For those of you who find it hard to think of things to write about, maybe this is what you find yourself staring at when you sit down to write:

And then, after staring at it for long enough, you decide to close it up, and you're looking at this:

You don't want that.  (I hope not, at least!)  So, I'm here to help you be able to look at something like this:

As you can see, you don't have to write all fancily or prettily, in words you say or the way they look on the page.  This your journal.

Sooo, here (finally) is a list of possibly all the things anyone could think up to journal about/on, so you can sit down to write, and write.

What to Journal About/On

• Lists
• Happy lists
• Sad lists
• Favorites lists
• Season (you know mine!)
• Colors
• Holidays
• Siblings (ha! jk)
• Shoes
• Memories
• Thankfulness lists
• Fears lists
• What do you wonder about?  Write about it!
• Secrets - duh.
• Prayers to God
• Letters to people, like...
• Friends
• Celebrities
• Your younger/older self
• Your children (whether or not you have them)
• Your spouse (^^^)
• People you'll never see again
• People you see everyday
• Total strangers
• Memories
• What you did today
• Imaginary conversations
• How (and why?) you don't want to eat your veggies
• All your problems with broccolli
• Rants on what makes you happy
• All your wonderments
• All you wanderments
• Quotes you like
• What makes you...
• Angry
• Jump for joy
• Nervous
• Sad
• Your life...
• Plans
• Ambitions
• Dreams
• Hopes
• Goals
• Special verses
• Devotionals
• Just doodle, or whatever.  Don't even write if you don't want to.
• Your crazy ideas that you're too embarrassed/ashamed to tell anyone else (or maybe you wisely decide not to?)
• Your plan to take over the world (gotta write these things down so you don't forget, ya know?)
• Whatever you're obsessed with
• What you're eating for lunch tomorrow (or yesterday, or right now)
• What if you lived in an alternate universe?
• Praises to God
• Observations
• Why you're passionate about whatever you're passionate about
• Mind map
• Brainstorm
• Experiences
• What would your perfect day be like?
• Ideal...
• Day
• Summer
• Week
• Pie
• Weather
• What are all the things you want to be "when you grow up"?  (Whether or not you've already grown up)
• Expectations for the future
• Struggles
• Free write
• Post on social media every day?  Write in your journal what you would post on social media.  (Probably all your friends don't mind if you neglect to tell them your two cents about life for just one day.)
• And um, so much more!

Hopefully this has whet your appetite!  Then, later on, you can look at this again, satisfied this time, knowing you done wrote in your journal!  *high five!*:

There are literally a thousand things you could write about in your journal.  This was only a few of them.  Or, this was all (?) of them, but generalized.  Okay, no, let's be real.  This only scratched the surface of what you can write in your journal!  Hopefully I've inspired you, and you can come up with even more things to write about!

Basically, you can write about ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING you want!

What are your favorites from the list?  What can you add to the list?

You Need to Journal If...

I didn't use to journal much.  It's not like I didn't want to.  In fact, I've always liked the idea, I think.  But for the longest time (meaning up until, like two months ago), I only kept a journal sporadically and only wrote when I would die if I didn't.  (Strangely, I very often now feel like I'll die if I don't write.)

It ain't gotta be fancy.  I use a plain ol' spiral noteook!

But lately, I've wanted to get into it more, not just as an occasional thing, but an almost every day kind of thing.  And man, I am so glad I've jumped into it!  When I used up my little purse journal in early August, I began a new purse journal, and simultaneously, a new start to journaling!

This "new" journal I began again in, was actually an old, unused journal I still had from years ago, that I had written verses in at the top of each page (except for the last few), which is just perfect!

If you're wondering why it's blurry, it's because no, you may not read my journal.  Ha!

Wewere at a friend's (multiple friends, actually) house last weekend, and amidst doing homework pondering life upstairs on Saturday night, I came up with a long list of reasons YOU need to journal!  Because I really think journaling is so beneficial.  All Most of these apply to meself too!*  Here's the list (I'm not referring to the picture...).  :D

I wrote this list for Jennie's Creative Play Challenge, week two.

*If all of these apply to you, please go turn yourself into jail before taking over the world.  Thx.

You Need to Journal If...

• You feel guilt when you write suuuper long letters to friends because you're afraid of boring them, but you need to write it all down.
• You have big dreams.
• You have words practically pooping out of your brain and YOU JUST NEED TO LET THEM OUT.
• You're an emotional teenage girl.
• You're an emotional human being.
• You have a disorganized brain.
• You feel like no one else understands you (this would also be a fantastic time to talk to God + read the Psalms).
• You want to practice your handwriting doing something productive.
• You want to be able to write and not care how your handwriting looks.
• You have lots of secret thoughts and must tell someone, but there's no one you want to tell.
• You have secret evil plans to take over the world.
• You are super duper annoyed about someone/something, but you don't want to gossip to others.
• You've pledged to keep a secret, but you HAVE to tell someone.  RIGHT NOOOW.  (And who better to tell than yourself?)
• You want your life story recorded for future generations.
• You want to be remembered in history and have your journal put in some cool museum for people all around the world to see.  After you die.  Duh.
• You want to record your thoughts, dreams, wonderments, wanderments, and joys, throughout the years to look back on later.
• You want to remember the small things, as well as the big.
• You want to come back later and see how your handwriting has evolved.
• You want to come back later and see how your thought process has evolved.
• You want to remember the good times, and the bad, and learn from them.
• You have any life problems, at all.
• You need to sort your thoughts.
• You discovered something amazing that will impact the rest of history.
• You're stressed about life.
• You want to talk to yourself, but you know it's more socially acceptable to journal.  (Who cares?  I do both!)  (They're basically the same anywho!)
• You want to talk to yourself, but you're in a situation where if any sound issues forth from your mouth, you instantly die.
• You need a productive way to procrastinate on school.
• You need a productive way to procrastinate on life.
• You're an introvert and people stress you out.
• You're an extrovert and people stress you out (does that happen?  I wouldn't know.)
•  You have a speaking disorder but love to talk.  A lot.  (AKA, you mumble and mix up words a lot so it's very hard to talk, and you find it easier to just write it all down.)  (AKA, me.)

I know there have got to be so many more reasons that YOU (and I) need to journal.  What are they?

P.S.  Should I do more posts on journal-y stuffs?  I like the idea...