Go wild

   I've been creative all week. I never knew putting an idea into practice takes so much time and dedication, though... well, at least if you're a perfectionist like me, it will:) 

   I started my creative days with this activity where I had to talk about emotion recognition with my kindergarten kids so I initially planned to ask them to draw their present emotion. But then I thought to myself "Hey, why not ask them to draw it on a leaf?" then "Wow, I could actually make a tree of emotions. If they're all happy it's gonna be a happy autumn tree!":) And so it was. I had to cut a whole LOAD of leaves for 3 consecutive days (given the 120 kids I wanted to involve in this activity) but it was all worth it:) Then I had to print 3 tree trunks and paint them and then start working on the beautiful autumn trees:) I'm glad to say all my kids said they were happy at the moment of our activity so all my trees are Happy:) Yaaay!:) This is how the trees look like:

   Then today, as being the baking day, I decided to make some donuts and play with toppings:) So many wild ideas popped in my head and I'm so happy my mom didn't judge me at all:) She joined in my funny creative process and we had a blast all the way:)

   At the end of the week I realized that the awesome thing about working in a kindergarten is that I can ALWAYS go wild with my creativity and I'll fit right in without anyone suspecting anything about me being "childish":) So I can't be anything but full of joy at the thought of a whole school year awaiting for new awesome ideas:) Bring it on!

Day 239. Encourage creativity

   Today I felt just like I did last Christmas when I finished decorating the Christmas tree of my dreams. And all this because I got creative:)

   This year I decided to add my personal touch to the tradition of dyeing the Easter eggs and I've done some extensive research on how I want them to look like. So today, besides the traditional red ones, I can proudly check having dyed the Easter eggs of my dreams:) 

   While I was looking at the final result I was thinking about how easily 

it is to get creative and personalize things around you without even spending too much money. 

   If I wouldn't get creative every time I felt like, I would be living upon the others' opinions regarding my life and I wouldn't be ME anymore. So take a good look at present day Dana:) She's doing what she feels like and she loves what she's doing:)

Day 159. The bright side

   These days I've been having some awesome dreams, not the kind I usually do. These ones are like one long story, easy to understand and interpret. Nothing complicated or twisted, no fear involved, no one wanting to harm me. Actually I was a leader and I had to choose my teammates to achieve some purpose. I was assessing their skills in various ways and I found out they were all very smart and I was proud of that. Looking back, I'm not sure I dreamt all those or actually imagined it while being feverish and not being able to sleep. I'll never know. 

   Then, another strange thing that's been happening to me while feverish was that I saw things that weren't supposed to be there... shapes and shadows were forming human faces, some of them of people everybody knows. I've seen Bob Marley, how sick is that? This usually happened right before going to sleep, when my room was sinking in partial darkness and a whole series of shadows began to show up in front of my eyes. I was actually enjoying this, you know? I guess I was feeling high.

    But the thing is that after starting to take antibiotics, the fever dropped and the awesome dreams stopped and so did my other power no matter how much I tried to bring it back. The magic is gone now.

   So maybe there was a bright side in all this sad, sad story of me being sick again. Maybe fever was a good thing after all since it made me more creative. Who knew? 

Day 97. Curiosity

... didn't always kill the cat!:) It's already a while since I got bored of the same home-work-home road. Today I beat my fear of the unknown and I tried to find a new way towards the kindergarten so I followed a different path and I was amazed. That very moment I felt like the squirrel in Ice Age when finding THE nut. In my case it was a shorter road and it looked even cuter than the previous one (of course, the NEW always seems more interesting than the OLD):D Therefore, I decided to change my course. I'm proud of myself:)

   Note to self: Don't get stuck in the same routines only because you know they work. Be curious! You might find better solutions to your problems:)

Day 81. About second chances

   

   Each day we have to be creative, starting with what we're eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner, what we're wearing that day, how we're going to school/work, how and when we study for the exams and so on. Today I realized that not always the first idea is also the best. Rushing only leads to facing the bad outcomes of our own decision. That's why we should take our time and ponder more often about the costs and the benefits of that idea and the decision that comes with it. If that doesn't help, second chances might.

   Luckily, in my case, it was just about decorating the Christmas tree from my office in blue, silver and white. Bad call. It looked somehow odd in the end. Pitty I was so enthuziastic about having a second Christmas tree this year that I didn't take time to think if I really liked the result. I just wanted something different and I went with the flow. In the end I had mixed feelings... On one hand, I was disappointed about my blue idea but on the other hand I was happy to have my best friend over and decorate the odd Christmas tree together:) At the end of the day, I gave myself a second chance. Second chances are good sometimes.

   So... all the blue and silver Christmas balls are history (call me perfectionist - also, the photo looks better than reality, trust me). Tomorrow is going to be a brand new day for decorating: Red and White this time:) And it's going to look gorgeous. Santa is red and white, right? He must know something^^