Day 18:  It is definitely good to do some research before jumping into a project, but too late for that!  I wanted to make a large paper mache bowl, and it made sense to me that if I molded it onto another bowl, it would just pop off when it dried.  Not even close, I had to pry and tear it off.  Pieces of the paper stuck to the other bowl, and I was left with a bowl that was badly torn in many places.  Then after the fact, I decided to look in a paper mache book that I have and read that it is good to coat the bowl you are using for a mold with petroleum jelly.  Of course!  Thinking at this point I might just burn the darn thing...

Day 19:  I decide that it's okay to take the previous days project and have another go at it.  After all I was about to throw it in the trash or burn it, so in a weird way it's recycling a recyled object.  I'm justifying it as a project of its own.  I used a bunch of glue to get it to stay together, and then covered it with tissue paper left over from a gift.  I'm not usually much of a pink person, but that is what is fun about using what you have lying around, it pushes you to use colors or objects you might not otherwise use.  The color pink also ended up being appropriate because I was thinking of my dear friend Diane while I was making this.  She has cancer and is in the hospital living out her last few days.  The bright colors reminded me of her because she had colors like these in her house.  So this bowl holds a lot of love for her and reminds me of how fragile and beautiful life is.  I'm glad I gave it another chance, letting it transform into something meaningful to me.  It felt like good medicine to let myself cry as I was tearing and gluing pieces of pink and green.  It reminds me of a giant shell.