One Little Word: Push - Vision Board!

This year I am participating in Ali Edward’s One Little Word class. I am completely loving it. Here’s how it works: basically, you choose one word you would like to focus on throughout the year. Ali then guides you monthly with different activities to help you stay connected to your word. In January we started our binder. If you know me, you know I love a binder, so immediately I was excited! We filled out a couple worksheets - defining our word and reflecting on it. This month we made a vision board. I LOVE A VISION BOARD!! And as an adult, when do you get a chance to make one? Ali, you’re giving me an excuse to cut up magazines and glue the images on canvas – I am in!!

My word is PUSH! You can read more about why I chose it – here! I am so happy with this word. Already it has helped with my business (you can now also buy our cards at Paper Presentation in NYC). I feel more organized than ever before in terms of running our house and being a mom. And who are we kidding? It’s not like I got much sleep before but now, with PUSH in the back of my mind, my kid-free time is even more productive. I like to compare it to when you are working out or training for something. When you think you can’t lift more weight or run any further, you reach inside yourself and do it!! Thank you, Ali Edwards, for being my motivational coach!!

To make my vision board I bought two new magazines. I went with Cosmopolitan & Shop Smart. Cosmo was very fun, plus, I love Gwen Stefani so that was an easy choice. I went with Shop Smart because I love organizing and I actually own those translucent, rainbow-colored, nesting boxes on the cover. I spent two separate “sessions” cutting. The first was at my parents’ kitchen table while Grammy played with my kids in the back yard. Listening to Taylor Swift and drinking my WaWa coffee, it was 15 minutes of pure bliss. Then life got busy again. The entire month almost went by, but I was determined to finish this before February came to an end. This past weekend I stayed up late Saturday night as my husband nodded off on the couch. I finished flipping through the pages and clipping sayings that spoke to me. I also had two envelopes of magazine clippings I had saved over the years. Yes, I tend to hoard paper. This was the perfect excuse to go through them and throw away the scraps I didn’t want to use on this project. It was very interesting to see what I cut out in my early twenties. Many of the clippings still applied and, ironically, I also had a couple pictures of Gwen Stefani.

I ended up using two canvases. They were sold as a set of two and I couldn’t figure out how to include everything on just one. On the left, I made my own pyramid of words. It was almost like writing a poem. “Start, Before-You-Begin-Checklist -> Discover the power of just one shower // notes to self // do good // LOVE // shop smarter // LIVE IT UP! // Get your money in order // purse smart // Let’s elevate the moment. // Declutter your desktop!” I cut out the letters to spell “push” and some other inspirational quotes. I really believe in the mantra, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” I found the first part of that saying in the current Cosmo and I love it juxtaposed next to the photo of Wonder Woman, which was in my envelope from my twenties. I also love the photo of Rosie The Riveter! I like the word bubble saying “We Can Do It.” It’s very supportive of other women!! For the background of this canvas, I wallpapered an old Love Jac Catalog from the National Stationery Show. I finished it off with the year in sparkly gold numbers at the top. I don’t even mind that it covers up some of the words, because I know they are there and connect with what they say.

The second canvas features my word PUSH in the same gold sparkly letters. The majority of the background of this canvas is filled with a beautiful cutout of a cherry blossom tree. I covered the model in the advertisement with a photo of Gwen. I did a lot of smaller words that make me happy on this canvas. Many organization nouns, some straight forward directions – such as “Toss your contact lens case” - and rows of business adjectives from a Bloomberg magazine I borrowed from a friend. I love the big clipping, “50 Things To Do This Month,” because that’s pretty much the story of my life. A quote about being grateful sets the tone and “3 Year Plan” helps me breathe and not get overwhelmed. 

I used both spray adhesive and a glue stick to keep my collage together. I finished it off with some washi tape to give it a border. Afterwards, because the washi tape wasn’t sticking as well as I had hoped, I covered with clear packing tape.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my crazy colorful brain. I highly recommend getting out some magazines and making your own vision board. It’s therapeutic during the process and extremely inspirational hanging on the wall. I definitely think there’s something to be said in putting things on paper and getting them out into the universe. So I say, try it!! You might just love it, and the things you want in life might start happening!!

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