Page 122 of 125

Unpacking

Written by

vase colour cross15%

How come the things which make us happiest often stress us most along the way?  

I am exhausted from the move,

from all the unpacking,

from the decorating, 

from trying to make it all perfect

from day one.   

But today,

we just stopped,

dropped the boxes,

and shut the door. 

We left the paintings unhung,

the books unshelved,

the shoes un-put-away. 

And flopped.  

Given the small inconvenience of not having a sofa until September,

that actually meant we flopped onto the floor.  

Still, the icecream tasted just as good sat leaning against the wall.

And as we sat laughing,

surveying our new home,

the aches started to fade, the excitement returned

and we remembered what it was all about.

I think we’re going to like it here

***

This month I am going to aim for more photos, less words, so keep a look out for a peek into my August (including some shots of our new house, once we have unpacked a little more!)

We got our dreamy little new home!

Written by

homesign
Sign on the wall in our ‘old’ kitchen

We’re in! 

All the wishing worked! 

Our dream has come true…

Thank you to all of you who wished for us. 

This is such a special day.

We LOVE the house,

and are so excited about turning it into a home.

 

You are all welcome for tea and home baked cakes anytime.

Over the next few weeks

I look forward to sharing a window on our little place

as we unpack

settle in and snuggle up

Joining in some creative summer fun!

Written by

Just wanted to share a couple of cool things I am joining in with this summer, in case you fancy having a go yourself.

The lovely Louise over at Dream, Inspire, Create has launched a ‘Creative Color Challenge’.  It’s a great idea, and gives you a bit of a steer for creating but also gives you a lot of freedom to play with juicy colours. I will be sharing what I make over the next month right here.

creative color
Image: from Louise Gale

And Susannah Conway has just launched the ‘August Break’, a photo blogging challenge for the summer – so I will try to share a photo (nearly) every day in August. 

Joining in some creative summer fun! august+break
Image: from Susannah Conway

And I am also trying to keep up with learning some new techniques from the very talented Claudine Hellmuth.  Her class ‘@ Home with Claudine Hellmuth’ is very cool.  I will share some of the things I make over there in the coming weeks too.

Joining in some creative summer fun! %40home
Image: from Claudine Hellmuth

What creative challenge are you setting yourself this summer?

Do What You Love interview – Suzanne Woolcott of Gorjuss™

Written by

thebiginterview1

This week I am delighted to share a conversation with Suzanne Woolcott, the inspiring creative brains behind the Gorjuss™ empire. Some of her fans are so crazy about her work, they have had her designs tattooed on their bodies! Suzanne’s Gorjuss™ Girls are licensed by Santoro, a brand creator, design and publishing company with distribution in over 50 countries around the world.

Suzanne runs her company with her husband Grant, from their studio in Glasgow, Scotland, where they live with their three children. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across the globe, but most regularly in Hollywood, LA , New York, NY, and Hong Kong (how cool is that?!)

Do What You Love interview - Suzanne Woolcott of Gorjuss™ blacksky
All images used with kind permission of Suzanne Woolcott

(more…)

The power of photography

Written by

DWYL_BLOG_SHAREDSTORIES_650X250PX_LR

“When we look with our eyes, from our hearts, through the lens, it’s a completely different photo and something really powerful can happen” Jen Lemen

Check out this awesome video of Jen’s story on her journey from happy snapper to $50,000 world photography prize winner…

***

And if you are in the mood for wishing, please help me make a dream come true here!

A dream about to come true?

Written by

I do believe in the power of wishing, and of visualisation, to help make things really happen (like it did here a few months ago). But sometimes some things just seem that little bit too big and too important to say out loud. I always have a niggling fear that speaking about the dreams you really really want to come true will somehow jinx them, and make them not come true after all.

That is why I haven’t mentioned anything about our dream house until now.

keyring new house
(cute stitched keyring from the lovely Dear Emma)
My man and I have been living together for some time, but in his place, not in our place. To his eternal credit, when I moved in he let me change a few things around (read ‘new wooden flooring, new doors, new paint on every wall, new furniture…’) and we have been happy here. But for a long time we have wanted a home of our own, that we chose together, with a little garden, space to spread out, and maybe even a nice big studio for me(!).

And then, all of a sudden, a couple of months ago, we found it. The perfect house for us, right now.

And then one serendipitous thing after another happened, which brought us closer to actually buying the house.  And guess what?  If all goes to plan, it will be ours next Thursday!

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this!

There is something very comforting about a house, with actual staircases. Having lived in a flat for so long, I cannot wait to go upstairs to bed! And downstairs in the morning, to make a brew and then sit in the garden having breakfast and chatting to the birds.

So please, wish hard for us that everything goes right and we get the keys next week, as is supposed to happen according to our dream. And then I can invite you round for tea!

Adventure is good for the soul

Written by

DWYL_BLOG_SHIFT_650X250PX_LR

I’m back from my little African adventure.

Energised.

Refreshed.

Inspired.

I went alone but travelled in good company

with people I found along the way.

 

I visited a prison,

played with a lion,

hung out with new friends and old.

And I soaked up the energy of the world’s football fans

dancing on African soil.

 

New places, new faces.

New perspectives.

New memories.

Nothing like a little travel to shake it all up.

shadow2

What little adventures have you lived recently? 

Do What You Love interview – Niel Jonker

Written by

thebiginterview1
Today’s Do What You Love interview comes hot off the press from South Africa, where I am currently on a little adventure of my own. Niel Jonker is an artisan breadmaker, bronze sculptor and painter living in the remote village of Baardskeerdersbos, in the Western Cape. He shares his deep love of creating, his view on the business of art, and his favourite aspects of being an artist. Enjoy!
Do What You Love interview - Niel Jonker breadmaking2
Image courtesy of Niel Jonker

(more…)

Back to basics

Written by

Imagine the scene. Ten people sketching furiously to a strict time limit of ten seconds, one life model pose after another, papers flying everywhere, tossed to the floor on each ring of the bell for a new pose, new piece of paper, new sketch. A veritable storm of drawing paper and charcoal dust…

Sketch10 second sketch (10 seconds is seriously quick! I’m not sure I even looked at the paper in that time!)

I spent most of Saturday at the Northern Film School taking a fascinating workshop on Drawing Figures for Animation.  Five solid hours of live drawing, with the longest sitting at 20 minutes – exhausting but exhilarating. And seriously good practice.  We did a mixture of contour drawings, gesture drawings and charicatures with charcoal, pencil and marker pens.  I came away with about eighty sketches, and a whole lot more confidence in figure drawing. 

Sketch 130 second sketch

Sometimes it is worth putting a time limit on your work to focus your attention and really make you look.  Then it’s up to you whether you stick to the rules, break the rules or abandon the rules altogether!

Sketch 22-minute sketch

When was the last time you played around in your sketchbook?

Do What You Love interview – Dimitri Kolioussis

Written by

thebiginterview1

Today’s Do What You Love interview isn’t really an interview. It is more of a conversation, with one of the last real professional Icon Painters in Greece. I dropped in to visit Dimitri Kolioussis in his studio on the beautiful island of Santorini when I was there on holiday recently. Dimitri learnt all the important things he knows about painting from the elders in his village. 

His work is so revered that he has been commissioned to paint 14 icons for the legendary Panagia Episkopi Church on Santorini, a church which has existed on the island for over 1,000 years.

He is the first artist I have ever met who expects his work to last ‘for hundreds of years’. That in itself is a lesson to us all to have confidence in the longevity of what we produce (and use archival quality materials!)

greecelab
Dimitri’s cave studio

(more…)