Archiving as a service to others

I am enjoying the way this new business idea is making me feel, and like my novel I want to give time to it. Both are very positive and forward-looking. I like it because it is stoking my interest in people in this elemental way. The pictures above are from a holiday card, some free stickers that came in the mail of butterflies, number/letter stickers from the dollar bins at Target, pictures of kids at a summer camp, and scraps of my grandmother's tattered silk scarf. Just putting pretty papers under glass pebbles and gluing magnets to the back wouldn't be worth it; helping keep the things we like to preserve present in our lives is. For an example, I just copied London street maps from a set of cards I have depicting city walks and punched out circles for pebbles of the places my mother and I visited on our trips. In gathering the locations, I realized how much ground we covered in our two visits there.

On the desk in front of me happens to be an invitation from someone my husband works with to his graduation party. He moonlights in a card shop and is about to jump ship from corporate life to go pursue becoming an English professor. His graduation announcement is gorgeous, with beautiful graphic blocks and the ink color matched nicely. All I can think when I see it is that I want to make him some magnets out of little circles from the various designs and words. And I know he would love to have that small but visible keepsake, as much as he'll treasure his diploma in a simple but elegant frame up on a wall in an office some day.

I went to a friend's lingerie shower and took photos that I'll make a few marbles out of and glue magnets to the backs. Last night we were talking with friends about being a magnanimous magnet magnate. It just seems like the thing to do!