I am doing Meredith Lewis Daily December challenge where she prompts us to get creative every day.
Today is a bit of a cop out for me because I simply ran out of time. I hate using this as an excuse usually because I’m always a believer that if something is important to you, you’ll make time for it.
In today’s challenge, she asks us to create a diorama of life in our last lockdown. Although I didn’t create one, I have been thinking about it for the last day and instead thought about what would be in it.
It also got me exploring dioramas. So here goes….
First of all I had to look the word up. It’s not a word we say nowadays. Dia means through and they’ve mashed up the word ‘panorama’ to get – diarama. So according to the dictionary it’s:
“a model representing a scene with three-dimensional figures, either in miniature or as a large-scale museum exhibit”
This set me off to explore on YouTube about diaramas but the majority of searches seem to relate to the miniature aspect of creating a realistic scene.
Last year I travelled to Lyon (I didn’t really, I pretended to do because we were in lockdown so I just made up the entire trip – as part of a fictional travel diary) and I missed out on seeing the Museum of Miniatures there!
What Would Be in My Diarama?
Thankfully, through the lockdowns, I was actively writing and trying to keep my mind occupied in other ways to reduce stress and anxiety. If I was to collect some items to pull together what would be in my diarama, they would be:
- Books, books, books – they were my saviours away from too much doom scrolling
- French studies – focusing my mind to learn a new skill to fluency and along the way making news friends across the world to speak to in this language
- Couch to 10K App- walking was the way I started my day. I was doing 10K steps every morning before work. These walks then became running and I’m proud to say that in the last lockdown, I got my running to the point that I can do nearly 10km. I just have about 2km to do then I achieved my target. This just took consistent running – at a very slow pace – and a grit to just force myself to get out of the mental slump of the last lockdown constantly battling with my head.
- My Journal – I wrote in my journal every day, all my thoughts, feelings, reflections, rants – at one stage I kept a Covid Art Diary but in the end, the writing won out. I filled out 7 journals over the last two years of COVID enough to make me realise some things in my life.
- Coffee Cup – during the last lockdown, my husband and I created a new routine where we would go to a local cafe and buy a coffee and toasted sandwich and then walk to the park to sit and enjoy watching the dogs run. It was an opportunity to chat to locals as all shops, cafes and restaurants were closed for months. The park seemed to be the place where people congregated for picnics and it was nice (when the weather was nice) to be out there too.
- Knitting Needles and Yarn – this year, my knitting skills have increased. I have completed a few items of clothing that use different techniques I’ve not used before. I’m immensely proud of myself of constantly pushing the edges with my knitting but I need to find my mojo again. For some reason, after my last jumper where I knitted a leaf design with stranded colour work, I was spent. I lost my “knitting mojo” and I wonder whether I’ll get it back….?
- This Blog – this blog has been my own creative space where I tie everything I do and create online together.
- Pud the Cat – Pud has been with me every single day keeping me company while I work and following me around the house. More like dog than cat, he’s been the best company in lockdown and provided us with laughter and so much love.
Feel Free to Share Your Thoughts