The Secret Me Book by Rachel Kempster and Meg Leder

The Secret Me Book is a journal-type book that prompts you to think about what makes you the person that you are. Through activities, prompts and ideas, the authors will guide you to self-recognition.

I really enjoyed this book. I haven't filled it all in yet, but I've made a good start. I love that there are no rules to filling out this book. You can fill it out in order or randomly. You can use a pen, pencil or crayon if you want. You can even type of the responses on your computer, print them out and tape them in the book. Because this is your book of your secret self, you can even skip, ignore or change the ones you don't like. Don't be too hasty with that, though. You might just discover something wonderful about yourself that you didn't know existed.

Some of the prompts seemed pretty easy until I really started thinking about them. All of a sudden a few of them became overwhelmingly hard. It's all good, though. I loved having to think about some of my answers. At times I found the space to record my response way too small; I wanted to write and write and write. Other times, I found the space too large; I only had a few words to say.

My one complaint about the book is the "Secret Survey" pages. On these, a question is asked and answers from various people are listed. I'm not sure why this was including in the book. Perhaps it's to show how others would answer the question. It was okay, I guess, as some of the answers were amusing, but otherwise, I would have omitted these pages altogether.

The authors do a bit of reminiscing in the book, usually to illustrate a point and further explain a prompt. I quite enjoyed reading those passages. Besides the remembrances by the authors, there are also some famous quotes or quotes by famous people, a few of which I've quoted below.

Favourite quotes:

It's not about self-help or self-improvement-- rather it's about self-recognition... (page viii)

I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering. Steven Wright (page 12)

There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. Sylvia Plath (page 70)

Rachel and Meg have also authored The Happy Book, which allows you to journal about things that make you happy. It sounds delightful. I'll be keeping my eye out for that one, too.

Recommended.

Heather from Book and Quilts has also reviewed this book. Click here to see what she had to say.

If you liked this book, there are tons of other journal-type books out there. Two of my favourites are by Keri Smith: How to Be an Explorer of the World and Wreck This Journal. I'd highly recommend both.

For more information about this book or to browse inside, please visit the Sourcebooks website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at Sourcebooks for this review copy.

The Secret Me Book by Rachel Kempster and Meg Leder, Sourcebooks, ©2012. ISBN 9781402265709(Trade Paperback), 196p.

Wreck This Journal - The End

It was a somewhat busy week (hence the late post) so I didn't get much done. I was going to make it a "best of" week and feature my favourite pages, but I just couldn't decide on just a few. I've posted 14 updates and with summer upon us, I'm finding less time to do this and fewer pages that need doing. I've had a blast working on Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal, but I think it's time to draw a close to this adventure...the weekly posting part anyway.

Thanks to everyone who made comments and dropped by to see how this adventure was going. Thanks to Shann at Illusion-Esk for playing along and to Cindy at Cindy's Love of Books for coming up with the idea.

Here are the links to the updates in case you missed one or want to take another look: The Beginning, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII, Part XIII, Part XIV.

I have a few other projects in mind and hope to start one of them soon. Stay tuned...

Wreck This Journal - The Guts - Part XIV

It's that time again to bring you up-to-date on my adventure with Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal. This week was a little busy with appointments and painting, but I still managed to work on a few pages.

Here's my update for week 14 of my journal wrecking adventure:



















A Place for Your Grocery Lists: This page was a work in progress. I usually make my grocery lists on scrap paper or on the back of a used envelope. I trimmed a few of them to fit on the page. I basically just added a few more lists that had accumulated and wrote another list around the edge of the pages.














Create a drawing using a piece (or several pieces) of your hair: When we were kids, we used to dip a piece of string in paint, lay it out on a piece of paper, fold over the paper (or put another piece of paper on top), place one hand over the paper and pull out the string to create a print. When I first saw this page, I was going to use several pieces of my hair in place of the string. Then six weeks ago, I got my hair cut short. I still loved the idea, but I no longer had the hair to do it. So, I cheated. I substituted a piece of string for the hair and used primary colours to reflect the childhood aspect of the project.

















Bring This book into the Shower with You: I wasn't going to totally destroy all of the work I did in this book by exposing it to water. So I enclosed it in a Ziploc bag to protect it. It stayed nice and dry while I had a shower. [Note: This is not a paid announcement for Ziploc. ;) ]

As you can see in the last photo, I added a few more stickers to the cover.

Links to other updates: The Beginning, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII, Part XIII.

I should be back next Sunday for another update.

Wreck This Journal - The Guts - Part XIII

With the big Bloggiesta this weekend, I completely forgot to post my progress on Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal. I completed one that was a work-in-progress and started two others.

Anyway, here's my update for week 13 of my journal wrecking adventure:






















Burn This Page:I just added some flames. Ok, so they don't look like flames, but I tried. I should have looked it up on the internet to get an idea of what they should look like, but I didn't think of it until it was too late. I'm going to stop here before I wreck it more than I already have.



















Do Some Rubbings with a Pencil:I tried a few items (on scrap paper) before settling on coins. I think the paper is a little thick to get many details. If you look closely enough, you can make out the twoonies.














Glue in a Page from a Magazine. Circle Words you Like:We don't have many magazines in the house. The only ones we get are the free ones that come with the newspaper. I couldn't find any articles that I found appealing, but I did find these great pictures of diamonds. Who doesn't like diamonds? I made my husband study the pictures while I was taking this photograph. The page looks like it needs something else. Probably a work in progress.

Links to other updates: The Beginning, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII.

I'll see you next Sunday for another update.

Wreck This Journal - The Guts - Part XII

I'm still working on Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal. As I looked through my journal this week, I realized that I have quite a few pages I really don't want to do. It's not that I'm losing interest it just that I've already done my favourite pages and I'm left with my not-so-favourite ones. :( I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet...other than pout.

Anyway, here's my update for week 12 of my journal wrecking adventure:
















Close Your Eyes. Connect the Dots from Memory: I did this 35 times with different markers. I also varied my starting point. Done.














Rub Here With Dirt:First I put the journal face down on the garage floor, then I stuck my fingers in the mud around the house and swirled them on the pages. I then stepped on it with my shoe. I wanted to dirty the page, but I kept in mind that I didn't want to totally destroy the book, yet. Probably a work in progress.













Pretend You are Doodling on the Back of an Envelope While on the Phone: I wasn't on the phone much this week, but I figured I'd start this one anyway. A work in progress.

Links to other updates: The Beginning, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI.

In my haste to post this I forgot to link to Shann's latest post on her journal. Check it out.

See you next Sunday for another update.

Wreck This Journal - The Guts - Part XI

I'm still working on Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal. I didn't spend a whole lot of time on my journal this week. I thought I might take a break and not post, but at the last minute I found some inspiration.

Two things I wanted to mention: First, I'm limiting my photos to three a week (plus the book cover). The photo files are quite large and take some time to upload. I made the decision in the beginning to set a limit, so it wouldn't take all that long to complete the post; I'd rather be reading or working on the journal. Second, I want to thank my husband for holding the book open while I take numerous photos of each page. Those are his fingers you see in each shot. He has more patience than me.

Here's my update for week 11 of my journal wrecking adventure:


















Doodle Over Top of the Title Page: I dug out a set of markers I had stashed away and used those along with a straight edge. I had tons of fun doing this one.













Drip Something Here. Close the Book to Make a Print:I purposely picked colours from one colour family (red/pink). The beige is actually "peach". I like the effect, but now I wish I had included some blue or yellow. Anyway, it's done.



















Doodle Over Top of the Warning/Acknowledgements Page: Ok. So I made this one up. All of the other pages had instructions for them, so I figured I'd wreck this one too. Anyway, I tried my hand at "Newspaper Blackout" poems (as per Austin Kleon's book Newspaper Blackout, here's my review ). It was hard, but fun. It's a little hard to read, but my "poem" says:

WARNING: Dirty foreign substances in you may begin to embrace your thoughts. Believe me. I charmed the world.

I have no idea what it means. However, I now have a headache from the fumes from the black marker. *sigh*

Links to other updates: The Beginning, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X.

Hopefully, I'll see you next Sunday for another update.

Wreck This Journal - The Guts - Part IX

I'm still working on Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal. I got a little bit done this week, including finishing one page I had marked "a work in progress". Yay!

Anyway, here's my update for week 9 of my journal wrecking adventure:


















Fill This Page with Circles: I think I added enough to this one to call it done. If I come across something in my travels that will be perfect for this page, I might add to it.















Doodle Over Top of the Instructions: When I was 5 or 6, I had pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. While there, I made a friend named Ruby. I can't remember much about her except that we had tons of fun colouring in our books. Somehow we ended up making little circles (like jelly beans?) on all of the pages after we coloured the pictures. I believe it was her idea; I thought she was a genius. Anyway, I don't know what happened to Ruby, but I still have some fond memories of her. So, if your name is Ruby and you were hospitalized at the Misericordia in Winnipeg in the early 70s, this page is for you.














Doodle Over Top of the Cover: Somehow one of those companies that send out mass mailings got the idea that I had children. So every once in awhile, they send me (and everyone else on the list) a sheet of stickers with the promotional material. Up until now, I didn't know what to do with them. I only put a few on the back staying away from the "to:", "from:" and stamp areas in case I decide that I really want to follow the instructions on the back (Tape This Journal Closed. Mail it to Yourself. ) I'm not sure I trust Canada Post that much. We'll see. A work in progress.















Sleep with the Journal: Describe the Experience Here: I enclosed the journal in a Ziploc bag to protect it (and us) during the night. I figured the safest place was under my pillow. Unfortunately, I had a terrible sleep worrying about house renovations. While I couldn't really feel the journal under the pillows, I think knowing it was there added to my sleeplessness. I hope I have better luck when I try the Bring This Book into the Shower with You page. I haven't yet described the experience in the journal. I'm going to print off this picture and perhaps add a few other "sleepy" type things to the page. A work in progress.

Links to other updates: The Beginning, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI. Part VII, Part VIII.

Shann from Illusion-Esk also has been wrecking her journal. Here's her latest update.

See you next Sunday for another update.

Wreck This Journal - The Guts - Part VIII

I'm still working on Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal. I had tons of inspiration this week. Ideas sprang to mind with each and every page I looked at. I didn't do them all of course, but I now have some plans for some future pages. Yay!

Cindy from Cindy's Love of Books who started this journey and invited others to join her, hasn't been able to post her updates for while, but I still wanted to give her credit for this awesome idea. Her original post about the book can be found here. Hopefully, she'll post another update soon.

Anyway, here's my update for week 8 of my journal wrecking adventure:



















Burn This Page: I didn't intend to burn the words right off the page, but fire tends to be a little unpredictable. I plan to add something else to the page to jazz it up a bit. A work in progress.















Fill This Page with Circles: A bunch of circles cut out of random materials I found in our house. A work in progress.














Collect Your Pocket /Dryer Lint, Glue it Here: I just need to apply the fixative to hold it more permanently.


I think I confused "Press leaves and other found things" with "Glue Random items Here". I knew I was collecting the items for some page and picked the wrong one. Anyway, now that the items are glued in, it'll have to stay like that.

I also realized that I have quite a few "works in progress". That's me. Not finishing one thing before picking up another. Hopefully a few of those pages will be finished in the next few weeks.

If you'd like to play along, you don't even need this book or a journal to do so. Just grab a notebook or even an old book (like an altered book) then check out the Random Exercise Generator at the Wreck This Journal website. You don't have to post on Sundays or even every week. Just when you feel like it. I'd love it if others joined me in this adventure.

Links to other updates: The Beginning, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII.

See you next Sunday for another update.

Wreck This Journal - The Guts - Part VII

I didn't have much time to work on the journal this week. (I'm starting to sounds like a broken record). I only manage to do a little on a few pages. Here's my update for week 7 of my journal wrecking adventure:


























Press leaves and other found things: Just a few items I found around the house/garage: bread bag closers (whatever they are called), two leaves, circular piece of painted dryer sheet (leftover from another page), QC sticker from new underwear, parking receipt. A work in progress.




















Pour, spill, drip, spit, fling your coffee here: My morning coffee applied with an eye dropper.















Collect Your Pocket (I'm Doing Dryer) Lint, Glue it Here: I thought about making a picture with it (there's actually an artist who does this), but I couldn't come up with enough colours. So I'm gluing the stuff I collected randomly. Dryer lint is quite delicate and will most likely disintegrate with handling if I don't do something to protect it. I'm thinking hair spray. Another work in progress.















My poor journal doesn't even close anymore now that it's filled with crap.



Links to other updates: The Beginning, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI.

See you next Sunday for another update.

Wreck This Journal - The Guts - Part VI

For the past several weeks, I’ve been wrecking my journal. Cindy from Cindy's Love of Books had also purchased the journal (Wreck This Journal) and invited others to join her in posting about their adventures. Her original post about the book can be found here.

Despite having a crappy week (see here) I got some work done on my journal. Here's my update for week 6 of my journal wrecking adventure:

Infuse this page with the smell of your choosing:When I first looked at this page, I thought, “Hmmm...smell? That’s so visual. Not!”. So I tried to find something that was visual and smelly. So here we have a Bounce dryer sheet with some thinned down paint dripped onto it.

It’s also interactive. Viewer can open the leaves (folded bits) to reveal the message.

A place for grocery lists:My grocery lists are mostly scribbled on the back of used envelopes. Here are a few I rescued from the recycle bin.

Write One Word Over and Over: I’m done with this one for now. I might go back and put in more “words”, but I’m happy with it as it is.

Trace Your Hands:I’m also done with this one. I like it.

I also worked on Collect Your Pocket Lint, Glue it Here, but I changed it to dryer lint. Collecting pocket lint would take way, way too long. I’ll have a photo next week, I hope.

Links to other updates: The Beginning, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V.

Last week, Heather of Book and Quilts announced that her daughter Shann was also working on this book. Here’s Heather’s post and Shann’s post.

MacBook update: I’m getting there. Part of the problem is that I haven’t hooked up my Wacom Tablet or ergonomic keyboard yet. The small touch pad thingy (technical term) is neat but not practical for everything I do. Also, when I was doing this post and copying the text from Pages (Apple's Word processing software), I was getting some pretty strange results; it took forever to fix. Anyway, I'm frustrated, but it's done.

See you next Sunday for another update.

Wreck This Journal - The Guts Part V

For those of you just tuning in, Cindy from Cindy's Love of Books came up with a great idea. She purchased Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal and invited others to join her on a journey of journaling. Her original post about the book can be found here.

This week I worked on a number of pages. We are still doing renovations around the house and some stuff around the yard now that it's nice outside, but I made sure I got some work done on the journal, too. Here's my update for week 5 of my journal wrecking adventure:



















Create a nonstop line: Finished! It was torturous, but it's done.





















Trace Your Hands: I liked the tracing one from last week so much I decided to do something similar. If I had given it some more thought I would have done it a little differently, but I'm happy with how it's turning out so far. It's a work in progress.















Write One Word Over and Over:I decided to take the literal approach when selecting my "word" for this page. My husband chuckled when he saw it. I just shrugged. It's me. Another work in progress.

I also worked on Cover this page with white things (found a few more items), Press leaves and other found things (not sure what to do with this yet, but found some dried up leaves outside that I set aside) and A place for your grocery lists pages (saved a few grocery lists and added them to the page). I'll include photos of these at a later date.

Links to other updates: The Beginning, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV.

See you next Sunday for another update.

Wreck This Journal - The Guts Part IV

I didn't have a very productive week and only worked on a few pages. Too many other things going on right now. I'm still having fun, though. Anyway, here's my update for week 4 of my journal wrecking adventure:









Sew this Page:I really didn't know what to do with this page when I started out and it really shows. I'm not happy with how it turned out. A mish-mash of stitches going higgly-piggly all of the page. I've stopped here because the page is getting quite soft and I fear that it will rip with any more handling. Did I mention that paper is not easy to sew? It's so unforgiving. I mostly let the needle guide my way. It obviously couldn't make up its mind as to which way to go. I've added a few buttons (sewn on) and a few straight pins as fillers. My favourite part of this page is that I left the needle in the upper right hand corner, right next to the picture of the needle. It's still threaded. I still need to get the page back into the book.



















Trace the Things in Your Bag (or Pockets). Let the Lines Overlap:I selected a few items from my purse and traced them here. I coloured in a few of the overlapping sections. I'll probably leave it here rather than add more colour. The page features four things I never leave home without: my casino card, my worry stone, my house key and of course, my marvellous Midol (labelled pain relief).














Collect the Stamps off of All Your Mail: I've added enough stamps to cover the pages. Now I'm just wondering how to finish it off.



















I also worked on Write One Word Over and Over and Cover This Page Using Only Office Supplies pages. We went grocery shopping, so the Collect Fruit Stickers Here page got a few more stickers. I'll include photos of these at a later date.

Links to other updates: The Beginning, Part I, Part II, Part III.

See you next Sunday for another update.

Happy Easter.

Wreck This Journal - The Guts Part III

I'm really starting to have fun with this despite not having much time again (we are still painting). Anyway, I managed to get a few pages completed or started in my journal. Here are this week's accomplishments:

This page is for Handprints or Fingerprints. Get them dirty then press down: This was fun to do. I used two stamping ink pads and my pinky to get the prints. I had a little trouble coming up with things to make them into. I also had trouble removing the ink from my fingers.



















Make a Paper Chain: I added some colour to the page. I'll probably leave it as is with every second section coloured rather than doing them all. If you remember from last week, I refused to cut up this page because on the back side was the page for fruit stickers. Anyway, I made the chain out of cardstock and then flattened it so that I could close the journal.



















Close the Journal. Write/scribble something on the edges: I knew I had to do this page soon because it was already having trouble closing the journal. I wasn't sure of what to write, so I settled on "Books Just Want to Be Free!!", the tag line of Bookcrossing. On the other side I wrote the website URL: Bookcrossing.com, which just happens to be my favourite website.















Cover This Page in White Things: A work in progress. I cheated a little by first adding some blue cardstock so that the white items would stand out. It's also going to absorb some of the glue that I'm using. I learned the hard way (on the stamp page) that the glue can seep through several pages while it's drying.














Create a Non-stop Line: Another work in progress. I'm getting really tired of this one. Can you tell? I'm torn between quickly finishing it up and putting it away for a few weeks to come back fresh and eager to do it right. Hmmmm...stay tuned.














Write a List of More Ways to Wreck This Journal: No explanation necessary. Purely spontaneous.














Links to other updates: The Beginning, Part I, Part II.

Update: Don't forget to check out Cindy's progress at Cindy's Love of Books.

See you next Sunday for another exciting update.