Rediscover

Makeovers

Jeanna GLeave a comment

In middle school, the early 90s for me, we had pretty mid-out hairstyles. The 80s were far-out, so we were in a weird limbo, working our way back to some form of reserved. Aqua Net was essential. I had “The Wave,” a hard wall of bangs high above my forehead. At a slumber party, I was dared to shave the side of my head. I covered it with a section of hair so my mom wouldn’t know. (I have an incredible amount of hair). When she picked me up, she caressed my head while talking to my friend’s mom. It’s like she knew. Wide-eyed, I slinked away like any tween would from her mother’s touch. My friends all covered their open mouths and held their breath.

My daughter told me today that her best friend decided to chop her own hair off on a whim. She covered her mouth and giggled. I looked out the window and smiled while cheering her friend on in my head. New style, new life! At that age, it was so easy to change our image and become someone new. Are we ever too old for a makeover?

Moonshadow

Jeanna GLeave a comment

In high school, we got out of class to view a solar eclipse with the pinhole projectors we made in Science. I love that so many of us, as different as we were, actually wanted and tried to view the eclipse together.

My daughter won’t be in school for tomorrow’s eclipse, so I made a cereal box eclipse viewer for her. I’m sure she’ll find it as cool as I do. Eclipses are pretty cool… literallly! It actually gets cooler when the sun is obscured. (That’s the science nerd in me talking.)

One might get a little anxious when the world around us plunges into a dark, cold space. But during the eclipse, and always, I hope we can leap and hop on the moonshadow, because the faitfhful light will find us again.

Lyrics credit: Yusuf/Cat Stevens

The Lost Art of Shoebox Dioramas

Jeanna G6 Comments

I recently bought a pair of running shoes, and I kept them in their shoebox in my car for when I go to the gym. My dogs like to go for rides whenever possible, and the last time they jumped into the car, they both managed to trample the shoebox. My immediate thought was, “Darn it! I could’ve used that for something.” But then, when I was carrying the empty box to the recycling bin, I asked myself, “What would I use this for?” And then the answer came to me: A shoebox diorama! Growing up, at least once a year in elementary school, we had to make some kind of shoebox diorama. One year it was a farm yard, another was a scene from the Jurassic period, then outer space, symbols from one of the 50 states, and then the Wild West. I’m sure it’s no mystery what happened to these 3-D assignments that required more than just a swipe and tap of a finger.

My daughter has an app in which she designs rooms in houses, stores, restaurants, and other hangouts in a virtual world. When I was a kid, I built a dollhouse, painted the walls, and filled it with upcycled furniture, before upcycling was a trend. (Remember those little round pieces of plastic with three legs that kept the pizza box lids from sticking to the cheese? They made perfect end tables for my Barbies.) My brother builds pirate ships out of Legos, and my dad built one in a bottle out of wood, wire, and glue. All of these are dioramas, and perfect for hobbyists. Even so, I think building a shoebox diorama is an elementary school rite of passage that every child should experience.

When I walked back inside after recycling my shoebox, I saw my daughter was watching “Night at the Museum.” It occurred to me that the natural history museum is filled with giant dioramas.

The app my daughter uses is very cool, and she’s definitely learning and using her imagination, bu maybe we can think inside the box, instead. We can visit a museum, maybe one that exhibits interior design marvels. Or, we could go on a Parade of Homes to see how our contemporaries are decorating their spaces. And then, after some research, we design our dream space… inside a shoebox. I wonder, will she think my idea is a shoe-in, or will she tell me to put a lid on it?