PICTURES OF THE WEEK
I turned an old button-down shirt into a kids dress! Now I have the pattern, the next on I can do in half the time!
WHAT A WEEK! - More Baby, Less Bathwater!
or what I am doing to quit social media, while still trying to connect with folks.
I remember when I first heard about that digital social network that my brother was on, it was only for college students of certain schools. It sounded really interesting! And one day when I heard you no longer had to be part of a university to join, I signed up! I wasn’t really sure what it was all about, but it was great to see what everyone was up to.
Now, I feel like that social network is more of a chore than a joy: While I go looking for funny pet pictures and what my love ones had for lunch, I seem to get a lot of drama, negativity and hype.
Don’t get me wrong: those things likely have meaningful roots, and deserve their time and place. But, I think things have gotten out of hand: too many hot vents, algorithms sending things to maximize clicks and 140 character thinking in favor of a few more thought through paragraphs.
I’ve slowly been limiting my social media consumption - putting barriers and hindrances in my way so it takes effort to check in. But, I really do like that I get to read a personal newspaper of all the happenings of my family, friends and acquaintances.
So, I thought about it: what’s a way for me to stay connected, share thoughts, photos, events and observations without being part of a digital social network. The answer came to me: a newsletter inspired by social networks! More Baby (solid content that people can browse through) and less Bathwater (hit or miss slogging through everything that gets thrown at you).
Here’s how I set it up:
Page 1 - 3 images from this week, and a longer copy piece.
Page 2 - A quick calendar update - things I did last week you may want to know about, and things that are coming up. And then, odds and ends: reviews of things, for sale and help wanted, links to things I think are awesome. I’ve also left the bottom of the page open. I’ve got the notion to try to mail a few of these out, any maybe stuffing some stickers or something in the middle. Would you like to read this by mail?
Oh, another thing: I’m doing this in Google docs. If you want to do your own (and I hope you do), make a copy and send it out. I intend to distribute mine as images, emails and text, but if you find your way to the digital version, feel free to leave me comments on the doc.
I thought this was lovely: the sun reflecting off the brass through the grate.
When I drive at night, I’m really looking for lights on the road. Since I’ve been using the bike share for my commute, I wanted brighter lights higher up for the ride home.
Now I have a headlamp on my helmet I think is the way to be seen!
