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Join me for an adventure! Starts Monday – better get packing…

Posted on 2012-05-10 at 9:00 am.

[Image: Tiffany Kirchner Dixon]

Monday sees the relaunch of Do What You Love the e-course – and this time it is the Japan edition! Join me for a very special adventure…

As you travel this path expanding your comfort zone, nurturing your playful spirit and feeding your creative soul, I will be sharing snippets of my big adventure out East. Join me and others all over the globe to identify your passion and make it a greater part of your every day life.

The Do What You Love e-course has been described as ‘life changing’, ‘transformational’ and ‘awe-inspiring’. It will make you think. It will make you question things – sometimes not in a comfortable way. But it will help you realise that YOU GET TO CHOOSE the life you lead.

Join me, it is going to be awesome! Class kicks off on Monday but you can still squeeze in if you hurry. Find out more and register here!

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PS I am thrilled to be interviewed on Monica Lee’s fab site Smart Creative Women today! Her site is packed with great interviews – why not spend some time over there getting inspired!

Gratitude and happiness

Posted on 2012-05-08 at 11:16 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

The outpouring of congratulatory messages in response to our happy news has quite taken my breath away.

Thank you so much – I can’t tell you how much it means.

Still floating on a happy cloud over here…

We’re engaged! I’m going to get MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted on 2012-05-07 at 1:50 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

On my 35th birthday, in the quiet of a beautiful Japanese garden he went down on one knee.

He asked me to marry him.

And I said YES!!! (And cried, and danced, and laughed…)

So so so happy. Best birthday present EVER.

I am engaged to the most precious wonderful man and I can’t quite believe it…

Am I really turning 35?

Posted on 2012-05-05 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

It’s my birthday tomorrow. I’ll be 35. That rounds up to 40! It’s half way to 70! But what does it mean anyway? It’s just a number, right? On my ‘big’ birthdays (the ones ending in ‘0’ or ‘5’) I like to look back over my life so far and think about all the happiest moments of each year. So much has changed since the last time I did this at 30 (when I spent my birthday lying in a hammock next to the sea drinking gin & tonics in a tiny hotel north of Mumbai, India, before going for curry and champagne with friends!)

Since then I have fallen in love, started two businesses, changed industries, moved house four times, and visited countries in every corner of the world. They have been years lived at a fast pace, always on the move, always in search of adventure, knowledge and beauty.

As I sit here in Kyoto, perhaps my favourite city in the world, on the eve of my 35^th birthday, I am trying to decide how I would like the next five years to be. I have no idea what path I will follow, or what will unfold, but I know I want to slow down a little, breathe more deeply, sit up and enjoy the view. I wonder what is in store…

Let’s see, shall we? Cheers!

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I’m on a big adventure in Japan right now. If you fancy an adventure of your own why not join me for the Do What You Love e-course? Shake things up, expand your comfort zone, nurture your playful spirit and feed your creative soul. Identify your passion and make it a greater part of your every day life! Find out more and register here. But hurry, class starts soon!

Eye candy

Posted on 2012-05-04 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

The Japan Hobby Show was crazy. Literally thousands of craft lovers in one place, oohing and ahhing over buttons and ribbons, fawning over fabric, patiently queueing up for workshops.

And I was one of them!

I went to get some inspiration for The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design, and snapped some gorgeous eye candy – the images above and below are from my favourite stand from Scandinavian design company Tilda.

Now if this doesn’t make you want to stitch up an apron or cushion I don’t know what will!

I took a little workshop from Japanese collage artist and illustrator Yoko Inoue. Her work is really beautiful – she uses photos she takes herself, shrinks them down on a colour photocopier, then works them into gorgeous collages in muted colours.

In less than an hour there wasn’t much time to get into it, but it was fun to have a play around with all the free supplies! I used a couple of postcards of Lily Greenwood’s art in mine.

For the latest information about the Japan Hobby Show click HERE.

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Night traveller

Posted on 2012-05-03 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

Have you ever taken a night bus? It’s not the most comfortable way to travel – you have to sit in a chair for many hours (obviously) and even if you manage to sleep, you get woken every couple of hours at service stations when the driver stops for a rest. But even so, I kind of like the night bus.

Everyone is on a journey somewhere, heading to the big smoke for different reasons – perhaps for a job interview, to visit friends, to start a new life.

I love pressing my face against the steamed up window, watching the other night traffic whizzing past.

I love sitting in the dark with my iPod on, listening to Adele and thinking of random things.

And I love coming into the city at dawn, riding past the majestic Imperial Palace, seeing the capital wake up.

If you haven’t taken a night bus lately, why not try it? It really feels like an adventure.

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Our new neighbourhood

Posted on 2012-04-30 at 1:00 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

So here we are in Kyoto. Week 3 in our new home. I like to say it is ‘bijou’. I tend not to add that our entire apartment is about the same size as our kitchen at home… So it is small but we are loving it. We have a bakery next door, a tatami mat weaver down the road, a sweet pottery shop a couple of streets away and the famous Nishijin textile district just a stone’s throw away. I have so much to share from our first weeks here but I thought I would begin with a little tour of our new neighbourhood…

Won’t you pop round for some green tea?

Now that’s what I call a football stadium

Posted on 2012-04-28 at 3:00 pm.

Written by Beth Kempton

Home of Yamagata Montedio J2 team

I have been in a lot of football (soccer) stadiums in my time – from Argentina to England, Germany to Japan, including one for the FIFA World Cup Final. But I think thisis my favourite one – for the incredible mountain view, for the draft beer and fried noodles and for the Japanese fans who politely cheer the opposition team’s fans for honourably bothering to make the trip to see their team play away.

To round off our trip to Yamagata we went to watch my old team Montedio play (although I must admit I spent much of the match staring at the mountains in the distance…)

Gotenzeki

Posted on 2012-04-26 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

It is really hard to put your finger on just what it is that Japanese people do that makes everything so beautiful, but there is definitely something. They have this aesthetic sense which I have never seen anywhere else in the world – simple, perfectly imperfect (see ‘wabi sabi’), treating space and shadows with as much respect as objects and light. Look at the photo above, taken in this lovely shop at Gotenzeki – a cluster of beautiful shops and cafes just of the main street in Yamagata City.. Someone has just put some berries on a stick next to a teapot, but somehow it is a work of art!

And the buildings at Gotenzeki below – so serene yet cool at the same time. I know I will come back to this time and again while here, but this gorgeous little arcade of shops and cafes (designed by Yamagata-born sports car designer Ken Okuyama) really got me thinking…

The coolest drainpipe I have ever seen

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I am currently on a big adventure in Japan. If you fancy an adventure of your own, why not join me for the Do What You Love e-course (Japan edition!). Find out more and register here.

Learning to cook

Posted on 2012-04-25 at 9:00 am.

Written by Beth Kempton

One of the best things to do on a cold day in the countryside is to cook up a feast with deliciously fresh mountain vegetables.

Kyoko gave me a couple of quick cooking lessons on making tempura and shabu shabu – yum…

Looking forward to learning how to cook lots of new things while here in Japan!

What is your favourite Japanese food?