Don't forget to play

While we all have busy schedules…

…don’t forget to take time for fun projects that bring you joy.

Throughout my apartment, I have artwork everywhere.

Some of it is street art created when I first picked up a camera years ago.

Some are photos of family photo albums.

And the rest is stuff that has emotional significance to me for one reason or another. 

Long story short, I don’t simply post work on the walls just because it fills up the space nicely. 

That is a nice byproduct, though :) 

Recently, I decided to focus on filling up two walls in my bedroom that have been bare since the day I moved in back in 2009. It’s been on my mind for a while now, and it was high time I did something about it!

So, I brainstormed some ideas on what I could put on those walls. Most of the ideas simply came and went. 

Why?

They centered on posting some more of my old street art photos, and I’d already done that bit and didn’t want to do more of the same. I was hoping for an option that had an artistic aspect to it, but I also wanted it to have some soul and purpose behind it, too. 

And just when I was ready to put this idea on ice for another couple years and move on with my day, the idea I was waiting for finally presented itself:

Repurpose some of my favorite photos from my client’s #bookboudoir sessions. 

YES - that’s the one!

I immediately went to my image library and culled over 1000 book photos to find the pull quotes, chapter titles, section headers and sentences that truly spoke to me. 

Next, I cropped the images to fit in a square format and ordered the prints. 

Within a week, the images arrived and, that next morning, I went to town mixing and matching the photos so that they have some kind of visual cohesion. 

Ohhhh, but the project didn’t end there!

When I revisited the photo collage in the evening, I basically moved every single one of them around again…and again…

…and yet again :)

I eventually grouped them into clusters where the words on the pages complimented each other to form what I like to call “mega thoughts.”  

Basically, I got to play and really be nerdy with the whole process for a couple hours :) 

And when I was finished, I sat on my bed and stared at these words with such happiness and joy - it was disgustingly magical, if I do say myself.

So, why am I sharing this little moment in time with you?

Let it serve as a reminder that while it’s important to be focused on delivering quality work for those you serve, it’s also important to pick your spots when allowing yourself down time to do something fun and pressure-free for yourself. 

While I serve experts by delivering photos daily, I very seldom get to do much with that work on a personal level. 

By combining my book boudoir photos with a personal art project objective, it was the merging of two parts of my world into one.

And, PS, it was an awesome experience - one that I appreciate every morning with a cup of coffee in hand, reflecting on the words staring back at me.

Finding a house project that can turn into something joyous is a great way to kill two birds with one stone. 

Keep that in the back of your mind when you’re looking to do something fun in your downtime :) 

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