inner excavate-along (a few more details)

I am so excited to share more details about the Inner Excavation read-along that will begin in just about two weeks on June 11! I decided to create a video answering some questions and explaining how the read-along will work. You can find most of this information over on the Inner Excavate-along page. In the video, I clarify what I mean by a read-along and share some journal ideas + the journal I will be using this summer.

  

A few notes from the video:

• Posts will be on Mondays and Thursdays (with additional guest posts some weeks). Monday will include a video from me with some thoughts about the chapter theme. This post will be an opportunity for you to ask questions and share observations and thoughts about the chapter etc. (This means you might want to consider reading or at least looking through that week's chapter prior to Monday.) I will also share the prompt I am going to work with that week. On Thursdays I will share my new response to the prompt I chose and you will be able to link up with your responses to that week's chapter. (Again, this info is explained in more detail over here.)
• In the video, I show examples of a few possible journal choices including the regular sized SMASH journals and the large purple one (as I mention in the video, I'm going to use the large purple Smash in a new online workshop that will be coming out later this summer/early fall) and these kraft Moleskines.
• The journal I'll be using is one I found at Barnes and Noble last year I think, and they have them online here. I am really feeling pulled to have a journal full of blank white pages, but you should use whatever you feel comfortable using/have on hand. I think I might just decorate the cover with some happy washi tape and a photo. And Jon's going to play along and use a watercolor journal. 
• As I continue to gather supplies and use them in my prompt responses, I'll be sharing more about them in the posts throughout the read-along. In the video I share a glimpse at the envelopes + tags + a few of the other fun things I'll be using. 
• Be sure to join the Inner Excavation Flickr group. Consider sharing a photo of yourself in the group pool to introduce yourself as we gather.
• And if you are playing along this summer, please feel free to grab the button above to use on your site and in your posts.

Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments today! I deeply appreciate you coming along this summer (or winter if that is the season your find yourself entering). I am so excited!

an idea...

Inner Excavation edits . Spring 2010

In 2010, I had two babies: One was a curious, joy-filled, now-soon-to-be two beana named Ellie Jane. The other was an invitation to be curious and look inward and find your inner poet + capture the world through your lens + make something 144-page book named Inner Excavation.

And as those two creations found their way into the world, life turned a bit upside down as Ellie’s health and newborn needs pushed me to focus solely on her.

afternoon nap . late July 2010

Inner Excavation started shipping from Amazon while we were at Seattle Children’s Hospital when Ellie had her open-heart surgery in the fall of 2010. I simply didn’t have space to think about it. And the lack of space around this truth means I actually haven’t even reread my book. 

(I’ve wanted to write this here for a long time - this piece about how I haven’t really let in joy about my book being in the world because there wasn’t space for it because I was in this place holding fear and love as my daughter had life-saving surgery. And then I was in that place that is life with a baby who becomes an on-the-move toddler who is still overcoming health stuff.)

But sitting here with the sun coming in through the windows while my daughter sleeps down the hall, I am thinking about how I am ready to open the pages of my book and read it and work through some of the prompts again.

And I’m wondering if you want to join me?

I’m thinking this summer here on the blog. Kind of like a read along meets a free ecourse. Probably seven weeks with the seven chapters + a Flickr group where we can share what we create from the prompts in the book + some guest posts from a few of the book’s incredibly inspiring contributors. And videos from me where I share some new thoughts about the topics in the book and share my new responses to some of the prompts.

I would love for you to come along…

PS After such an awesome delightful response (thank you!), I have put together an information page here. And you can sign up for the Flickr group over here.