July (The Epitome of Summer)

 

July is, without a doubt, my favorite month of the year for a few reasons.

1.       It is my birth month!

2.       It is smack dab in the middle of summer vacation (June, you are still settling into summer and, by August, you are rushing to get ready for back-to-school).

3.       Its warm days and cool nights have an innate laid-back spirit that cannot be replicated at other times of the year.

Beneath the sweltering sun, the need for perfection seems to melt away. By July, I have traded my meticulously kept notebooks for beach towels and bathing suits. Even the work that I do have to accomplish seems more leisurely when done during the lazy summer hours. I find myself feeling truly grateful for the time spent enjoying the weather with my friends and family while grilling outside, swimming in the pool, and spending time catching up. It is all too easy to fall into the relaxed state that July naturally creates.

               

To embrace the spirit of July, I decided to take on a craft project that both recycled and welcomed imperfections. This T-shirt bag is made from an old tie-dyed T-shirt (size small, but you can use any size) and I especially loved the warm colors that made the bag appear bright yet still relaxed. In the making of the actual bag, no sewing is required, simply cut off the sleeves and neck and slit and tie the ends. To decorate and utilize as much of the bag as possible, I cut strips from the sleeves and braided them. Then, I loosely hand-sewed the braids onto the bag. I left them a little uneven to continue the laid back feel of the bag (plus, I was too eager to get out into the summer sun to spend the time making the perfect edge). To add a bit of decoration, I sewed a few buttons beneath the braids. The bag itself can be made in less than ten minutes. It is perfect as a quick purse or a casual bag for running to the store or the gym. With the cute imperfections and completely homemade, recycled feel, it is the ideal July bag.

In an effort to waist as little as possible, I continued to use leftover fabric from the sleeves to make a quick braided wrap bracelet. I lined up the three pieces (on top of each other), sewed a button on to keep the pieces together, and stretched, braided and tied the pieces. When the strands are stretched, this bracelet wraps around my wrist three times.

Reminders

The human brain can only take so much pressure. Memorize this! Recall this! Remember that! Though the highly developed bundle of nerves is capable of more than we will ever understand, even the brain can use some help sometimes. So, we turn to reminders. Everyone has their reminders. My reminders crowd my desk and bulletin board in the form of lists and post-it notes. Other people rely on their phones to tell them when and where they need to be and what they need to remember. Whatever form they take, reminders are our way of giving our brains a helping hand so they can maintain maximum efficiency and NEVER slow down. But, that’s the problem.

If we rely on so many reminders all the time, maybe we should remind ourselves that our brains need a break too. The constant influx of information that results from classes, technology, talking with our friends, and just thinking about what we need to do next keeps us so plugged in to the world that we tend to forget about ourselves.

This past week, while studying for my Physics exam, I found myself getting buried in papers as the time progressed. My desk was covered with to-do lists, problems I still had to work out, and notes I still needed to review. The whole mess was just a reminder that my exam was rapidly approaching, and I had to arm myself with as much knowledge as possible. As I spent hours surrounded by the never ending list of equations and problems, I began to feel run down. My head ached and my throat was parched. I had forgotten to remind myself of something very essential to my success… myself.

I realized that the only reminder I really needed was that one that would tell me to stop, breath, unplug myself from the world, and truly release. My brain just needed a break. It didn’t need to be told what else it had to do or remember, it needed to be told not to do anything at all.

So, after that long winded realization, I have resolved to always have a new kind of reminder. I need a one-word mantra to tell myself to release. There is so much jumbled information inside my head that I have lost all sense of calm. Due to this, my current mantra is calm. When I think calm, I will stop whatever I am doing and take care of the most precious resources for success that I have, my mind and my body.

These bracelets are some one-word reminders that I intend to give to some of my friends. It's similar to the old "tie a string around your finger for the things you need to remember" trick except much simpler and, hopefully, a little more stylish.