The stack of magazines was growing tall, some unread, some half-read, some from months ago–People, Whole Living, The Sun, O, Country Living, Marie Claire, Food Network–how did the list get so long?  Instead of throwing them away, I took my mom’s advice and made a collage.  Then another, and another.  Once all the images and words were before me, they started naturally categorizing themselves into different thoughts, emotions, ideas.  What is so soothing about cutting and ripping and gluing, seizing images and words that are appealing?  It’s just plain fun.

I laid out my pictures first, then added words to tell the rest of the story.  So not to get all woo-woo symbolism on you, but here is one collage, with the words and images I chose:

Odds and Ends

Images:

fox

s’more

weights

perfume

portrait

botanical plate

poterry

pink bow

dog in a costume

map of California

tree

diamond cuff

berries

Words:

“Pure”

“Wisdom”

“Be vibrant”

“windswept”

“beyond the individual self”

“sound off!”

“Wisdom comes with what you let go of, not what you hold onto.”

“Uncommon wisdom”

“openings”

“collecting”

“beauty sleep”

“Aging isn’t about losing yourself but affirming who you are, who you’ve been all along.”

“Rally round the campfire”

“splash through a creek”

“connect”

“now”

“Discover”

“out and about”

Meaning:

This was the eighth (and final) collage I made, basically everything that was left over.  It’s just a mishmash of pictures and words that I liked, but don’t really go together.  And sometimes, that’s half the fun!  With the other collages, I carefully chose the pictures and words, and arranged them on the paper before gluing them down.  This final time, I just picked randomly and glued as I went.  It was kind of liberating, and I felt like a kid again.  Although I’m sure you and I both know that I was never that kind of free, careless kid–but it was fun to pretend 🙂

Hope you enjoyed my Odds and Ends collage!  That’s all (for now) on the collage front, folks!