January 15th, 2026, Issue # 109

One Year. One Box. One Promise.

Will it be kept?

A New Year lesson from scissors and glue

Howdie!

Happy Thursday!

The box overflowing with paper scraps that bulged like an overstuff suitcase had been perched on the studio counter for more than 365 days. Their purpose was to become greeting cards.

I chose it as my first project for the New Year. I packed that bulging treasure chest to take with me on vacation. Portable. Promising. Honest. As I did so, I made myself a rule: whatever didn’t become greeting cards would not come home.

Day one started before sunrise. Scissors slicing. Glue and glitter bottles upside down in a cup to speed application. Paper fragments metamorphosing into elegant beauties. Cards appeared—Black and white. Soft colors. Calm lines. Some monochrome. Others geometric. One after another.

By day’s end, 38 greeting cards leaned against one another, competing for space as the sun sank low. Soon they would all find their way onto the website. I glanced at the clock. Dan would be walking in at any minute. Time to clean up.

I glanced into the scrap box.

I felt a jolt of panic!

I hadn’t even skimmed the surface of the contents in the box. Mountains of scraps were eagerly whispering about what they could become.

Could I keep my promise? Could I leave scraps behind—unfinished, unrealized, still humming with possibility?

These are the lessons the work teaches me. The kind that keeps me out of a therapist’s office. Crafting isn't just therapy. It's a mirror. It reveals patterns—attachments, restraint, choices.

Those scraps represented every unfinished project, every "someday" promise, every piece of potential I cling to.

What would YOU do? – Tell me! Come time to go home, should I keep the remaining scraps or keep my promise? Your vote decides how this story will end.

Bye for now,

Nora