#ZineWriMo Day 17: Sharing is Caring: Your Snacks of Choice

It is day 17 of ZineWriMo, and today we’re talking about our favourite snacks.

Why?

Don’t you have snacks while you’re creating? No? Oh. Well I do!

I’m a foodie with a sweet tooth, and I like finding out about food from around the world. Moving from a tiny town in Wisconsin to a big ol’ city in Australia opened my world to all kinds of different foods from Thai to Greek, and there’s no way I’m going back.

Plus having a snack can make your creative time all the more pleasurable.

I know how I’m usually going on about chocolate covered pretzels because I love the sweet/salt combo but they aren’t exactly easy to find in Australia. (It’s possible, but not easy.) That’s my ideal snack of choice.

Alas, I have to be healthy some of the time – plus it’s spring going on summer in Australia. Time for fruit!

Honestly I have been craving all sorts of fruit lately. So while I don’t always eat a platter like this, this isn’t exactly an abnormal plate for me. Hehe. I especially love the mandarins. Yum.

The only trouble with fruit is that it makes for sticky fingers, which means it’s difficult to create while having fruit as a snack.

Anyone care to share their favourite snacks to have while creating? Let me know in the comments.

Zine Review: Intimacies Volume 1

Intimacies Volume 1
Dara Idris
intimacieszine.bigcartel.com

Intimacies Volume 1 is a black and white half-fold zine about a personal journey with physical intimacy, sex, and expectations told through a collection of short essays.

By and large, I experience zines within the realms of zines that tell me things and zines that share things with me. It’s a delicate distinction and one that may only make sense to me (and I love both types). The difference is telling zines come across as ‘this is an experience, and this is what I take from it’ whereas sharing zines run more along the lines of ‘this is an experience – make what you will of it’.

With the exception of the introduction, Intimacies Volume 1 is a zine that shared experiences.

Over the course of various short pieces, Dara shares experiences from the view of someone who desires things like physical intimacy but questions those desires and the timeline in which to have them imposed by the world and society. Through these experiences you get a picture of what it’s like from the view of someone who explores everything from sex fantasies to the gravity of one’s first kiss – all with the same thought and respect.

Aesthetically, this is a text-heavy zine, with essays broken up by quotes in larger fonts and ‘new section’ tables of contents. I feel like this is a zine you need to sit down and devote your full attention to.

The writing can get a bit confusing as people are named as letters, and the only people who seem to be consistent are Dara and ‘you’. I did get confused in the first piece as to who was speaking with whom and who Dara really was in the context of that piece.

The ‘background’ details got confusing for me at other times, too, but at those points I was so engaged on the thoughts about sex and intimacy being written about that it didn’t stop me.

This zine also had single lines that really stuck out to me:

‘And who knows what I want, except me?’
‘…we were taught to take care of so much, not least our bodies which were never, ever ours.’

Though the first line in the copyright note on the back was more about the laugh it gave me:

‘Don’t be a dick is a good rule, isn’t it!’

By and large, the writing is incredibly vulnerable and open about such intimate things like sexual fantasy and self-pleasure that it gives the zine as a whole its own kind of beauty. It’s a zine of exploring thoughts but not presenting you with conclusions.

If you think that sounds like the zine for you, then check out Intimacies Volume 1.

#ZineWriMo Day 16: Write/Draw With Something New

Hello, zine friends, and welcome to the second half of the month! For today’s activity we have…

Try Something New: Write/Draw with Something New

Of course, by new, I mean new-to-you. If you’ve never painted with water colours or never written with a fountain pen. Pastels, paints, gel pens, watercolour pencils, so on and so forth.

On the bigger scale of things, it’s about getting you a safe step outside of your comfort zone to enjoy having a to at something new.

Now this is the embarrassing part where I tell you what I intended to do and why I didn’t… 🙁

I have used watercolours before (in school art class when I was about seven), but what I wanted to do is get one of these cool pallet things and a water brush pen (I’ve definitely never used one of those) to have a go at some writing and some painting.

Don’t they look cool?

So that was my intention for today… but then the combination of time, money, shipping times, my foggy memory, so on and so forth. Yeah. All the excuses.

I am sorry. I’ve played with all of the various art supplies I do have, so it wouldn’t be new. I do hope you had a chance to try out something new today or, at least, have some fun zine time.

If you did, let me know in the comments.

#ZineWriMo Day 15 – Halfway Point! Your Day, Your Way

Happy halfway point!

I don’t know about you, but I am definitely feeling the halfway point. What a busy month! Three of my goals are in progress and one is done. I haven’t moved on to the bonus round, but I’m already happy with how far I’ve come.

Today for the halfway point, it’s up to you to choose what to do.

I had a lot of errands and such today, but I decided to use my zine time writing out pieces for Don’t Call Me Cupcake 9. I’ve had a bad case of doubts lately, but I’m trying to write my way through it.

What did you do with your day?

#ZineWriMo Day 14 – Create a Zinemaker Travel Kit

Hello, zine friends. It’s day 14 of ZineWriMo, and that means it’s time to…

Create a Zinemaker Travel Kit

How you choose to interpret this is, of course, up to you. You may want to make a small kit for a friend or load up a full project bag so you can zine while you’re out on an adventure.

Me? I went with ‘day trip’. Haha.

This is a present from last year that proved incredibly valuable during the house move. I had everything from a box cutter to medicine scripts in this thing, and it was great to have it all in one spot. It comes with two zippered pockets.

This is the first compartment. This is meant to be for organising cables and such, but it’s perfect for my various pens and pencils. The little net zippered pocket holds my two-sided tape, super glue, ruler, and – because I forgot to take it out after I de-moving-bagged it – a lighter.

The second pocket doesn’t hold much at the moment – mostly because I’m not going out a lot. A full sized pair of scissors fits in here perfectly. At the moment, I keep spare paper for notes, mini-zine blanks, and my A5 clipboard.

If I didn’t have this, I would very likely have stuck with my old method of travel creation – a big pencil bag with whatever supplies fit and mini-zine blanks.

Do you have a travel bag for creating on the go? Tell me about it in the comments. 🙂

#ZineWriMo Day 13 – Make Something for YOU

Hello, zine friends, and welcome to day 13 of ZineWriMo. November is already flying by for me. Maybe that’s just the way of things come this time of year.

The idea behind today’s to-do came from a quote I read ages ago. It’s been too long to get it exactly right, but it came down to the idea that you need to make things that are for your own pleasure and enjoyment. If you keep making things solely for others, you may lose that spark that gives you joy in creating.

I didn’t have the energy to create anything as such today, unfortunately. Instead of gifting myself creating something for me, I gifted myself with a day to relax a bit.

Dreadfully boring, I’m afraid.

How about you? Did you make anything for you today? Do something else nice for yourself? Let me know in the comments.

Happy Mail Monday – Glorious Pins Edition

http://giphy.com/gifs/rainbow-lol-gif-vomit-LwIw5RCH3hwGc

It’s Happy Mail Monday, and oh what a happy Monday it is! So much fun mail. 🙂

Pins, glorious pins from Sober Bob! We made a trade, but Bob had to wait for the pins to come in. Obviously, they’ve arrived! I’m so excited. I’ve had eyes for the ‘prepared for nothing’ pin since I first saw it.

Yay for trades, and yay (and thank you) for Sober Bob!

Issues 3 and 4 of Lost Projects Zine came as a complete surprise – and came with a sticker and pin!

If you’re not familiar, Lost Projects zine is:

This zine is about those lost things, that snarl at you across time and space… the ones that you don’t or won’t let go… those that skew memories and alter self-image and friendliness sharing…

I love the whole concept of this zine, and I am absolutely thrilled they thought to send me copies of their zine. I’m eager to dig in – and to submit work to future issues!

Thank you, Lost Projects!

Latibule Art got in contact with me after reading Don’t Call Me Cupcake 1. We ended up sorting out a big ol’ zine trade (lifeblood of the zine community!), and Latibule included some extras as well!

Check out those art skills! Colour me envious. 🙂

Check out that pin! And what a lovely message on it, too.

Thank you, Latibule Art (not sure it’s okay to share the legal name, so playing it safe)!

This is a zine from across the big oceans blue from @Cavedweller71. It seems to be a very personal zine, so I’m playing it safe and keeping most of it covered. I apologise if that riles anybody. I want to share all my mail no matter what, so there we go.

Anyway, thank you to Andrew (aka cavedweller) for sending your zine and such a lovely note to go along with it. 🙂

What a wonderful week for me and my post box. I am always stunned and grateful for the generosity of everyone who sends me zines and other goodies. ^_^

That’s me for the moment. I’ll be back soon with ZineWriMo day 13.

#ZineWriMo Day 12 – Make a Double-Sided Mini-Zine

Hello, hello, and happy Sunday. It’s a hot and lazy one here in this little part of Oz. However, it is a happy one, as today’s activity lined up perfectly for me.

This is one of my Little Reminders zines. Unlike the other ones, though, I didn’t feel ‘finished’ when I finished the ink work.

Sneaky note time! I wrote out all the things that I wanted to say and printed it so it could hide on the inside of the zine for anyone who sees the little star to read.

NOW it feels finished. 🙂

Did you make a double-sided mini-zine today? Let me know about it in the comments.

#ZineWriMo Day 11 – Make a Media Box

Hello, zine friends. It’s that time for that great and mysterious thing: the media box.

Of course, I jest.

When I first started spreading the list of daily activities around, people were confused about what a media box actually was. My bad. At its simplest, a media box is…

…a place to keep all the cut and paste bits and pieces that go with and inspire your zine creating.

If you missed it and want a longer explanation, check out my post So What’s a Media Box for more details.

Just in case anyone is nervous, I didn’t actually make a media box. I just picked one out. Well, two, really…

The first is a cheap storage box from a $2 store, and the other is a makeup bag.

I don’t have much in the first container yet, as I’ve just started collecting bits and pieces – mostly die cuts and paper patterns I like. It has been nice to be able to grab it and get to zine-ing with whatever colours and such take my attention. My washi collection needed a container of its own. Haha.

So those are my media boxes. Do you have one? Did you make one? Let me know in the comments.