Monday, April 07, 2025

Ch. #130--Anything Goes POSITIVE with the Opt. Twist of: Embracing the Unexpected Through Decluttering

Badge for Monthly Challenge
 
Hello everyone and welcome to the Path of Positivity Challenge Blog! It is the first Monday of the month and it is time for our latest challenge to begin! We hope that you and your families continue to stay healthy and safe out there. 
 
Before we start, I want to welcome Kathy to her very first posting. We were lucky to get her as a team member as I have been after her for years. I introduced her on April 1st. If you missed it, you can find that post here and get to know her a little bit.
 
Since we are not your typical challenge blog, it is important for you to understand how things work in order to be sure you are eligible to win any of the prizes offered. If you are new to this unique challenge, you can find out the impetus behind why I started it under the 'Introductions' tab and you can find out all the details you need to know in order to participate, in the 'Challenge Details' tab (both tabs located at the top of the blog). For your convenience, a summary of the most important rules can also be found in the right sidebar under the heading 'General Rules'.
 
Right now, it is time to get down to the business of our latest challenge. Here is what you need to know...

 

Challenge #130

Anything Goes POSITIVE with the Opt. Twist of 

Embracing The Unexpected: 

Through Decluttering


This year's goal is to Embrace the Unexpected in our lives (click here if you'd like to read more in depth about our overall theme for 2025). No matter how much planning we do throughout our years on this earth, we're going to come across circumstances that we can't plan for. These unexpected things may be small or they may be huge and life altering. The only thing that we can control is how we react to these events. So this year, instead of BRACING for the unexpected, we are going to flip that and get in the habit of EMBRACING the unexpected. This will help us to train ourselves to look at these types of events in a different light.

To help inspire you on this journey, each month we will be doing things such as creating fun unexpected projects, working with items we might not typically work with, taking approaches that are different from what we normally do, offering up the unexpected to someone in our life, etc. So, let's get to the details for this month's challenge.
    
Spring is here and so is the annual spring cleaning session that many homes go through at this time of year. For some of us this means taking some time to do a bit of decluttering. It is amazing what one can come across when going through our belongings. Whether finding lost treasures or getting lost in the associated memories, decluttering can be therapeutic in so many different ways. For our purposes though, we are going to use decluttering to help inspire us in our creative journey.

For your optional project this month, go through your junk drawer or a closet and take inspiration from something unexpected that you find within. Some of our drawers and closets are probably full of seemingly random or unimportant objects but they might also be filled with items that spark a creative idea, provide a sudden burst of inspiration, or give us a new perspective on something. Here are some examples to get you thinking:
  • Finding old photos may inspire you to create a collage or scrapbooking page. They may also inspire you to write a story about your family's history or start delving into genealogy.
  • Finding an old receipt may trigger a thought for a creative project on consumerism.
  • Coming across a collection of mismatched buttons could inspire a unique piece of jewellery or a pattern for a textile design.
  • Going through the drawers in your art room, you may come across a number of materials that you haven't worked with yet.
  • Coming across old greeting cards that you've kept over the years, may inspire you to create some new ones.
 
Remember, the twist is completely optional and you don't need to follow it in order to win. However, in order to be considered eligible for this month's goodies, remember that general types of projects/posts will not qualify for the honours and prize UNLESS they are also positive, inspirational, motivational or encouraging in some nature. Additionally, even if a project may qualify as positive, if your post promotes negativity, hatred or anything of an abhorrent nature, your project will be disqualified. Honours and Prize include:
  • $6 worth of images from Scribbles Designs, for a person chosen in a random draw based on all qualifying entrants.
  • A badge for the following honours: Top Pick, Most Inspirational, Random Winner, DT Delight.
decorative border of footprints
 
Now check out what my awesome design team came up with to inspire you. Clicking on each team member's name will take you to their blog where you can check out the details for their inspirational creations.

 
http://scrappyhorses.blogspot.ca
framed image of Katrina's creation
 


framed image of Carole's creation

 
 
 framed image of Kathy's creation

framed image of Kathy's second creation

My wonderful design team continues to astound me each and every month! They all have their own approach and deft insight into the twist. Even after all this time, I continue to be astonished by the purview of greatness in their work! Each of these artful conceptions has showcased the notion of Embracing the Unexpected: Through Decluttering admirably and I hope we have inspired you to commence on your own exploration of creativity. Be sure to go and visit each team member so you can see how her project further connects to the twist.

So what are you waiting for? Create a project and/or post that is positive, inspirational, motivational or encouraging in some nature and join our link up. How about stretching yourself by also opting to follow the twist?! While it isn't mandatory, we'd also love to find out how this month's twist affects your own life. How do you typically deal with the unexpected in your life? Do you view it with trepidation or take it on as a challenge? This month it is time to be inspired by something hanging about in your closet or junk drawer as you go through the decluttering process. Use a cleaning session to help you come up with a unique project this month. Be sure to check above for some specific suggestions. If you want to share your process on how you decided your project, you can write a sentence or two in the body of your post, write a sentence at the bottom of your post next to the link up for this challenge, or simply leave a comment on this post if you'd like. Finally, remember that we're trying to create a Path of Positivity so if you have some time, please visit other people participating throughout the month.

Please join us again next week when we will [hopefully] post the Top Picks for Challenge #129. Then, be sure to join us again on April 21st when we'll be back with our midway featuring more great projects. 
 
If you ever have any questions be sure to send an email to decossesdynamitedoodles {at} yahoo {dot} ca (don't forget to replace {at} and {dot} with the appropriate symbols), or just leave me a comment.

We look forward to seeing you participate!

team signature


Link Up Below:
If you have any problems linking up, please be sure to let me know by leaving a comment on this post.

Ch. #130--Anything Goes POSITIVE with the Opt. Twist of Embracing the Unexpected: Through Decluttering

This is the place to link up something that you have created during the month that you consider positive, inspirational, motivational or encouraging in some nature. Entries for this challenge will be accepted from April 7th until 11:59 p.m. (ET) on May 4th, 2025

SEVEN entries MAX. Please click on the 'Challenge Details' tab located at the top of the blog to see all the rules. A summary of the most important rules can also be found in the right sidebar under the heading 'General Rules'. If you would like to be a Guest Designer in a future challenge, please add the letters GDT after your name.
 


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This list will close in 26 days, 13 hrs, 53 min (5/4/2025 11:59 PM North America - Eastern Standard Time)

Tuesday, April 01, 2025

đź‘Ź New Member Joining Us!!!

Hello everyone! I hope that none of you were pranked too badly this morning. I have some exciting news to share and this definitely isn't an April Fool's Day joke. 
 
I am excited to let you know that we have a new team member joining us. Goodness, it has been five years since I've been able to say those words! It is also perfect timing since our already very small team recently became a duo with the loss of Suze in December. Thankfully, someone that I have been trying to get on this team for many years now, is finally in a place in her life where she has more leisure time and is looking to embark on new adventures to fill up some of that free time!
 
I won't keep you in suspense any longer. Kathy from My Asperations will be joining us. Kathy has been a supporter of this blog for several years now and thankfully she was in a position to take on some new design team work. We are so incredibly lucky to have this amazing woman join us. Her bright optimism and awesome design skills will definitely be assets to the team. Let's get to know her a bit, shall we?

 
 
 
Hello, my name is Kathy Asper. I’ve loved to draw, color and create since I could hold a pencil! In 1996 I was introduced to rubber stamps… and they became my favorite therapy! Fast forward to digi stamps, which allowed me to resize images, and alcohol inks, which are… well,.. magical! I started blogging in 2017, which lead me to the Path of Positivity Challenge, which has become a favorite of mine. I am thrilled to be joining Lisa’s Design Team, and look forward to helping promote positivity in my future posts!

 
Please join me in welcoming Kathy to the team. You will get to see one of her amazing creations in just a few days as she officially comes on board, beginning this Monday evening, on April 7th. To visit Kathy beforehand, just click on her blog badge or name above.
 
If you, yourself, happen to have some extra time in your schedule and would like to consider joining our small but mighty team, send me a message at decossesdynamitedoodles {at} yahoo {ca} so that we can further discuss the details.

I hope to see you all very soon when Challenge #130 begins! Toodles until next time!!!