Stamps and Stickers.

Some of my favorite memories are of shopping for stickers and rubber stamps with my Nanna. I'm not sure how old I was...10-14? Scrapbooking was so popular then, so a lot of related shops popped up. One shop we visited was in what seemed like a cute little retail village.

I think about those outings whenever I put stickers in my journal. The ones I bought (I remember saving up sometimes) or that Nanna gave me are long gone, following the narrative of my life through their corners on old journal pages. I do, however, still have a lot of stamps from that time. They live in a hot pink box and in a pink tin with black chandeliers on it.

Stickers are my favorite, but I do love stamps--beautiful, reusable. I even got some in my stocking last Christmas! And last night, I tried using stamps instead of stickers in a journal. Most of them turned out well.

I remember the wonder of all those designs. Nanna gave me another source of beauty and creativity, and my life has some more bright-bright spots because of it.

Book Seasons.

Some years ago, I was trying to write short stories and realized that I had actually read very few volumes of stories. I love those I'd read at Queens, but I knew I was far from prepared to write my own.

So I decided to have a "short story summer." I read lots of different books, but I focused on short stories. I bought them used and checked them out from the library's new releases. Josh bought me a volume for my birthday and wrote in it: "For your short story summer."

So now, I realize that I've not read many short stories lately. So I want to bring back the short story summer but also add

• The Children's Lit Winter
• The Young Adult Spring
• The Memoir/Diary Fall

I won't limit myself to these, but they will be my focus. I should be reading novels and poetry all the time.

The Children's Lit focus starts now!

About Purple.

Purple was my first favorite color before I learned that pink was the more acceptable color. So my favorite color was pink. Then, I decided to rebel and love blue best. I was nearing adulthood when I went back to purple and added green as a close second. You see, colors are so very important.

When I'd been teaching for a while, I was amazed to find beautiful plum dress pants. I had a new way to wear my favorite color.

I remember shopping with Mom at Francesca's. I saw a violet jacket with puffed shoulders, asymmetrical buttons, ruffles at the wrist, and a striped cotton lining. It was a necessary jacket, and I should wear it more.

Grape Jolly Ranchers. Mmm.

Purple hanging files and a purple glitter inbox on Josh's desk. Luckily, I love purple and teal, and I have a lot of both in the house, and those are the colors of Josh's favorite sports team.

I love writing in purple. It often seems like the right color for my words.