Idea Into Action

I want to put your wishes into mini origami stars! Why?

My biological mother died a little over a year ago. Harsh way to start off a blog, I know, but it's important. To keep my sanity I started cultivating simple repetitive tasks. Knitting was one, and mini origami stars was another. Knitting eventually grew too difficult for my taxed brain to handle so origami stars it was. Learning to cut the strips of origami paper to correct lengths and widths took up quite a bit of my time. Developing the perfect technique to create just the right shape to turn into a teeny tiny star took up quite a bit more. It was simple, time consuming and repetitive.
Perfect.

As you can imagine, my brain eventually turned back on, and could handle things like cooking dinner and knitting complex patterns, among my myriad of other regular activities. But the habit stuck, a simple little thing to keep my hands busy while my mind handled other matters.

It has been over a year and try as I might to give these things away, to everyone I know and people that I've never met, I still have thousands. Literally. In all colors and textures. It's just...well, it's ridiculous.

So! I decided to come up with a brilliant idea to turn what was quickly becoming a bad habit into something at least a little bit useful.

Which is where you come in.

What I need, are wishes. Legend has it that the maker of a 1000 origami stars is granted a wish. I don't really need any wishes right this second, and besides I've spent the last year making plenty. What I want to do now is make stars - and wishes - for other people.

The idea is that I'll collect anonymous wishes, from scraps of paper mailed to me, to comments on this blog, and I'll write them down on the strips of paper I use to make a star. One wish per star. 1000 stars per jar. Then I will try and sell the jar, and donate the money to a charity that is devoted to making wishes come true. You know the ones. (Suggestions are always appreciated.)

Now, I'm sure this sounds downright silly, and I'll give you that. But help a girl out - if I'm going to keep making these damn things they might as well have a purpose.

Wishes! I want your wishes, your hopes, your dreams! You wake up in the morning and wish you didn't have to go to school or work or that it wasn't raining, or that it was. You hope that college acceptance letter comes in the mail today, that your hair will do what you want, that the boy you sit across from on the subway looks up at you. Your dreams of the perfect dress with the perfect shoes for the perfect event, or a daring adventure the Tuesday after next. I want them all.

I know, daunting, both for you, and me. But I will do my best to keep up, and try and give you as many ideas as I can. And it's easy! Just comment on this post or posts to come, plus it is totally anonymous. Your deepest, darkest (or shiniest) secret wishes can remain just that.

And thank you.