115.

[no i do not weep at the world - i am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.

z.n.hurston, how it feels to be colored me]

this is a post about the past. a pastpost about action and risk-taking and trying new things. even if you don't get nothing!

i've traveled lots this summer and each mile marker down 26, 35, 75, 80, 90, 95, 495, and the countless other state roads i moseyed had my mind's wheels turning. i'm not quite ready to start reflecting on those thoughts yet. in part, because reflecting on summer suggests she's on her way out. right now i'd prefer she stick around for a while. and i'm not quite sure what to do with all the everythings that i've taken in this summer just yet. i'm hoping soon enough some lessons will start rising up to the surface. until then, here's a little something i wanted to do a long time ago...

i once (this past year) made a portfolio and shipped it old-fashioned style (my favorite style) to Hatch Show Print in Nashville, TN. i wanted to try my hand at more formally studying the craft of print-making, rather than being a dabbler, a doodler, and an uneven measurer. i didn't get to be their intern, but i was pleased that i made a portfolio. i, a boring old english teacher, made a portfolio that hardly even had any words in it (and as y'all know...i've got lots of words). 

this post is dedicated to taking creative risks, because if we don't our lives could be far, far less rich.

***
[portfolio town, usa]

first i made a 4 x 16(ish) envelope to house my goods

then i made an ambiguously cute legend:
a. on the small things
b. on heart strings
c. on slowness
d. on surprises
e. and, of course, cowboys

the contents of the portfolio consisted of five 4x16 strips that displayed books i've made, journals i've crafted, letters i've written, and etcetera.

views of:
a.) tiny book for big ideas, small things
b.) wedding gift incorporating years worth of correspondence, heart strings
c.) tiny thought journal for giving credence, "pea-sized," thoughts, slowness
 

surprises section was miscellany...gifts i have made for folks i love:
-with horns, letter packaging
- multi-layered birthday card  

that baby at the bottom is a cowboy birdhouse i made some time ago. 

last, but not least all of it packaged together.

***

in the bottom right corner there lived a mark twain quote that read: to a man with a hammer, everything looks like  a nail. 

one of my favorite...even though i'm not sure i can decide on a single interpretation.

with the help of a friend i put that baby together, sealed it up, and shipped it out there into the world. it's the only one i made, the only one like it in all of the world, and i didn't ask for it back. i like to think that the risk was in as the making of it. of stepping outside of my identity as teacher lady and firmly planting my feet into cortfolio making lady and showing myself, hey self, you can do anything...maybe!