New Website!

Ok! This will officially be my last post to this blog.

To submit your wishes, please go to

www.wishingstarcollective.com

It's still in the beginning stages, but I hope to expand soon.

Tell all your friends!

(I'm so excited!)

New Things!

Hello World!

I have some fun news! I have been interviewed for a Salt students radio show, about a month ago - which was fantastic. And tomorrow I am going to be interviewed for a Who I Met blog. Exciting! I am not good at interviews, but I trust these people to make me not sound weird. I will get links to you all for both as soon as possible.

I am also thinking about expanding in some way. I came up with some interesting ideas for a kit for teachers to reward their students with (younger grades, obviously.) I have also attempted to start up a twitter account...I'm not sure if it works...but. You should follow me! If you search for @wishingstarcol, it should come up. Whats with not being able to put in the full name, by the way? I was not pleased with that. But then, I should know better, it is kind of an epically long name.

On another note, wishingstarcollective.blogspot.com will be moving soon! We will be living at wishingstarcollective.com, hopefully with a fancy new way to post wishes, that doesn't involve digging into posts. All anonymous, of course.

And that is that!

I hope the website looks fantastic.
I wish I could spend more time just working on this project.
I wish I had realized my email wasn't forwarding...sorry to anyone I didn't get too sooner!

Little bits of Progress

I am continually surprised at how fast the stars are disappearing. The little jar of cards I left out is completely empty as well on an almost daily basis. Seems hard to keep up.

The other day, when I stopped by the coffee shop, I walked past a table in the corner and saw a little girl, maybe 8 years old? With two older women. They each had a pile of about 5 capsules each in front of them and the little girl was explaining why they each had which capsules. I caught something about being happy and sad and great. It made me happy.

I am also amused at the number of stars I find left behind that have clearly been taken apart. I can only assume people are looking for wishes. In truth, I did accidentally lose a whole afternoons worth of wishes about a year ago. I wrote all the wishes out and then had to hurry to an appointment, and mixed all the wish written paper in with the unwished paper. I had folded all the paper in my little carry case before I realized what I'd done - so you might find one. Maybe. But the stars in the machine aren't the wishing stars - those are going to go up for auction as soon as I have a thousand wishes. I think I'm getting closer. I haven't counted in a while.

I wish it wasn't so cold.
I hope I survive the winter this time.
I wish some things had remained whole.

What are your wishes today?

Beginner's Success!

Beginner's Success!

You will notice that in this shot the machine appears to be about half full - because it is! To date I have had to top it off 4 times. I am very excited. I also got the story laminated and a little cup of stars to hold the business cards I had made. I also had to have a sign made about them not being edible...I'm sure the paper wouldn't really hurt anyone, but people seem to assume they are edible since it is a bubblegum machine. Better safe than sorry.

I have been asked a few times where one can leave wishes - in the comments section! You can leave them anonymously, or with your name, whichever makes you most comfortable.

I walked into Hilltop the other day, just looking to buy some chai, and saw a little girl at a table with two older women, and they each had a pile of these little capsules in front of them - she was somehow divvying them up when I walked past. It made me laugh.

I wish I had more places to put these, since they are obviously successful!
I hope that they inspire people to visit the site and leave their wishes!
I wish it was warm again, but that will happen in due time I suppose.

What are your wishes today?

Hilltop Coffee, Portland, Maine

Hilltop Coffee, Portland, Maine

That pretty face is Kendyll, and she is a barrista at Hilltop Coffee in Portland, Maine - which is where my origami star machine is! Yay!

There will eventually be a sign - there were technical difficulties. That big white square is an artist statement though. 

For those of you who don't know - the machine has little capsules with 10 to 12 mini origami stars in it, as well as a strip of paper with wishingstarcollective.blogspot.com on it. To get a capsule, you pay a quarter. The artist statement explains the whole story, why I started the project and how it all took off, and encourages people to visit this website! And that little jar next to the machine has the little business cards I've been carrying around with me in it. 

Oh, and while I was sitting there, chatting with Kendyll, 3 people used the machine! And it was nighttime, which is a super slow time for a coffee shop. We'll see what happens tomorrow morning! 

For local Portlander's, please stop by and say hi to the lovely ladies at Hilltop Coffee. For those of you elsewhere, wouldn't you like to see one of those in your local coffee shop?

Leave your wishes! 

Make any wishes today?

Did you find a stray eye lash today?
Did you happen to notice when the clock said 11:11?
Did you see a shooting star last night?
Did you get the big side of a wishbone?

What did you wish for?

Times

There are times when you realize you have too much of a good thing.

When I hit 2,000 I stopped counting. Unfortunately, those are unwished stars - the ones I make just sitting next to the couch keeping my hands busy.

I realized I haven't paid enough attention to this blog nearly enough, my writing thoughts have been bent on my book. But I didn't realize I wasn't paying attention because I was always making the stars, every day, every week, more and more and more of them.

Wishes! I wish my little star machines were welcome in more places. I wish I could get the word out about this collective a little better.

And you?