The emails of inspiration continue to come in and I am so humbled!

"Tracy, you are an inspiration! I love the whole concept behind the gratitude journal and hope to be starting mine in April. Love love love your artistry and love that you share so much of yourself with us everyday. Hope you feel better soon! {hugs}" ~ dlwidder

I have to say that last week I got an email that bummed me out.  It was the notice that my local Borders was going out of town.  In these times stores go out of business all the time which is sad but this store is different for me.  I have lots of great memories at this bookstore starting when I was I was kid.  As was typical of dads my dad worked and it was special when he took a day off and my parents would take us to Borders in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  It was an original one in an old brick building and was multiple floors…not the big superstore it is today.  Then we would have lunch.  I loved it.

I carried that tradition on with my kids and it has always been a little getaway for us where we could all find something that interested us.  I loved sipping a cup of tea, perusing a good book or magazine and spending an afternoon there. There is something about walking in and opening a crisp new book, reading the back cover and finding something you never expected.  It is sad to see those days are gone as my local store is closing. 

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I took the time this week to make a visit and check out the liquidation sale.  I picked up my favorite journals and found this little treasure (all 40% off!):

Gratitude 

That is the the Workbook to "Living Life as a Thank You" that I am loving so much!  Might be some great ideas to include in my art.

As I checked out there was a man next to me paying and he was rather mad that they had to take a black pen and wiped through the UPC barcodes on the backs of the books (policy as sales are final).  He proceeded to throw a fit and was berating the checker and loudly asked for a manager that they "ruined the books".  I rolled my eyes to my checker as he carried on and made them cancel the whole transaction.  I leaned over to my checker and said "how sad that he does not realize that you are all losing your jobs".  She smiled and said "I have been here for 15 years and love this place…thank you".  I was sad for him because he was missing the big picture.  The words were still in those books while we were losing a great store and people were losing their jobs.

It gave me my entry in my Gratitude Journal…  

 TWB_7962a MATERIALS LIST:

  • Helmar: Decoupage, Crackle (Step 1 and 2), 450 Quick Dry
  • Acrylic Paints – DecoArt & Golden
  • Indian Ink
  • Button
  • Charcoal Pencil
  • Punch:  Marvy
  • Inks:  Marvy

TWB_7959aSeriously, if you have not tried Helmar's Decoupage & Crackle Medium they are so much fun to play with!  I loved playing with book pages for my background….

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I don't know if that guy could have been having a bad day, week, year but having that perspective that others have it worse is important.  It it hard sometimes to look outside ourselves but oh so important, an important lesson. 

Thanks Borders for years of memories and Perspective.

Tracy 

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” — Mary Lou Cook