ZnetShows' Creative Spark 2014

Many of you might not know it, but I'm currently the Social Media Manager for ZnetShows. Part of this job includes the quarterly publication of our online magazine, "Creative Spark." The Spring issue was released just this morning, and I'd love it if you took the time to see what the designers and myself have worked so hard on over the past month or so.

Click to view Creative Spark - Spring 2014 on GLOSSI.COM

Let me know what you think!!

30 Words: Icicles

From the eaves they dangle
Melting to form a point;
Sharp like teeth,
Biting cold.
Yet even more pronounced
Is the blue sky promise
Of a warmer, dryer day ahead.

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The premise of 30 Words Thursdays is simple...

Take an image.
Write 30 Words about it. No more. No less.
Post it each Thursday.
Share it on Erin's Treasure's Found blog.

30 Words: Fairy Cove

A crisp, clear day had me yearning for adventure. That desire was fed by biking along the water’s edge, down long stretches of road, and into this hidden fairy cove.
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The premise of 30 Words Thursdays is simple...

Take an image.
Write 30 Words about it. No more. No less.
Post it each Thursday.
Share it on Erin's Treasure's Found blog.

Wordy

I get stuck on words ALL the time. It's probably something no one else notices but me. Sometimes it's a simple, nothing word. I think I'm finishing up my bout with the word 'just.' I see it in my blog posts and in the comments I write on others' blogs. Sometimes I hear myself saying these words repetitively, but it's usually in writing that it bothers me the most.

As I try to catch up on my blog reading and commenting (at long last. . .of course, it won't be long before I'm behind again), I'm finding myself over use the word 'love'. It bothers me immensely. This has been a favorite word for the past few weeks and it's getting worse. I see a piece of jewelry on someones blog or facebook or read them utter a statement with which I identify and my first response is to say, "I LOVE IT!!!"

What the hay? I think it might be physically impossible to love all of that. And I question what my real feelings are over what I'm seeing in front of me. Do I really just like the item/statement/emotion/expression a whole lot? Can I not find any other words in my whole vocabulary to express what I'm feeling? I think this the problem, my internal thesaurus has become condensed. [Side note: As a kid I had an exceptional vocabulary. . .or so I'm told. What I remember about my vocabulary was me TRYING to use big words and instead getting the words 'manure' and 'maneuver' mixed up as well as confusing the words 'tentacle' and 'testicle'. Yeah, you say that at the age of five to your mid-twenties aged parents and they laugh their asses off at you. It's kinda humiliating.]

I'm putting this out there because thinking about reducing my use of the word 'love' has me pondering WHY it feels like my vocabulary has become so restricted. I came to one resounding conclusion; because I just don't write as much as I used to. As a kid, there were essays for school and diary entries. As a teenager and into college, I wrote lengthy papers and in my 'journal' (I had far outgrown a diary). I also fancied myself a poet for most of my formative years. That stopped after I graduated college. Now as the years have weathered on, I find that I hardly write anything of substance anymore. There are my to-do lists and grocery lists and jewelry descriptions. And, of course, I write blog posts. These blog posts are the closest thing I've had to real writing in years. Yet, all the blog writing experts profess that we bloggers should simplify our writing to appeal to a variety of readers. Sigh.

I'm exasperated with my limited, dumbed-down, repetitive vocabulary. I'm ready to break out of this word tomb I feel encased in.

The solution? Write MORE. I've heard for years that the more you create, the more creative you become. I've been working on that for quite a while in my jewelry-making, but I really need to apply it to writing too. I'm hoping to comment on blogs more often, possibly have a few more of these rambling posts (I apologize in advance), and dust off my long neglected journal. Who knows, I might even knock out a poem or two.

Don't say you haven't been warned.

Oh, and speaking of 'love'. . .I was featured in this treasury titled "I Love Adventure"

Are you ready to go on this adventure with me? I think this is the starting point, but I have no idea how long it will be or where I'll end up. Dang, I kinda feel like a Hobbit.