do what you love Page 79 of 81

At home: Welcome to the garden

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garden table

On days like this I feel very lucky to work from home – Sunshine, freshly baked gingernut biscuits cooling in the kitchen and a pot of tea by my side.  What better way to get in the right frame of mind for working on exciting business plans?

There is a cute water feature surrounded by white stones which remind me of island hopping in Greece, although we don’t actually turn it on very often as it seems like such a waste of water. The neighbour’s cat tends to get more use of it, as a mirror in which to preen himself…

water feature

And there is a wall of black bamboo which reminds me of where I used to live in Kyoto, surrounded by rice fields and bamboo forest.

black bamboo

But my favourite bit of the garden is this sunken table, which has benches on each side and played host to a party of 15 with room to spare last weekend.  We had the clematis cut back a bit, got rid of the bindweed and tidied up the deck so it is now a lovely shady place to gossip, play cards or relax with a chilled glass of wine…  It looks magical at night, all lit up with small spotlights in the steps, and little candles on the table.  Now all we need is a barbecue…
sunken table
Having lived in flats with no outdoor space for years, this is a very special place indeed. 

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For more peeks around our new house see here.

Exciting creative business news

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Sometimes great things seem to drop from the sky just when you need them. This is one of those times.

With huge good fortune I have been chosen as one of around 15 young female entrepreneurs to be part of a groundbreaking business mentoring programme run by a leading national glossy magazine here in the UK. This awesome opportunity partners us with some of the country’s most inspiring and successful businesswomen.

Kanya King
Kanya King (photo courtesy of MOBO)

I have been gifted the most amazing mentor – Kanya King, founder of the MOBO Awards, the largest urban music awards in Europe with a television audience of 250 million. Kanya is a creative entrepreneur of quite astonishing energy, talent and courage. She founded the awards 15 years ago, remortgaging her house to pay for it. Since then Kanya has won over the music industry, negotiating major TV and sponsorship deals along the way, to turn MOBO into one of the high points of the annual music calendar.  Not only has it been a huge commercial success, but it has also become a shining light for social responsibility within the industry. 

I am so excited that we will be working together on branding and expansion of my creative business – and there are some seriously cool things in the pipeline which I will share with you here soon. I will also use this space to share the many things I know I am going to learn from Kanya, so stay tuned, and get yourself some mentoring by proxy! 

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This year’s MOBO Awards will be held in the music mecca of Liverpool on October 20.

Say it with a card…

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Having recently been overwhelmed by kindness I have many thank yous to say right now. There are many ways to say thank you, but I like the hand made way…

Here are some of the cards I have been making in my new studio this week, using gorgeous ribbons from East of India, Tim Holtz’s Distress Inks and hand made paper from Southern India, recycled from cotton rag.

postcard detail
postcards
Say it with a card... ty+card+25%25Say it with a card... ty+detail+25%25

How do you like to say thank you?

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the sea, the sea

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sea3_instant
‘The Sea’: 12″X12″ acrylic on canvas
I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face and a grey dawn breaking.I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.
by John Masefield

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I used this poem as the inspiration for this work-in-progress for Louise’s ‘Creative Color Challenge’. Check out all the other contributions here…


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Have you ever been on a tall ship? It is a magical experience. I once raced in the Cutty Sark Tall Ships’ Race across the Bay of Biscay, wind in my hair and dolphins at the bow. I love this poem as it captures that feeling so beautifully – the sense of freedom, and wandering wonder.

Learning to paint Jesse Reno style + 6 month blogiversary

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 paint pots

Anyone else signed up for An Artful Journey in California in February next year? For Jesse Reno’s class? It is going to be awesome, I just know it.  More energising days of organised creative chaos in those beautiful mountains, in the shadow of that magical redwood forest, with old friends and new. So exciting!

california  The Presentation Center, home to all sorts of creative magic at An Artful Journey

I started this blog after attending An Artful Journey last year, and it was a really important moment for me.  I began listening to my own creative whispers, and so many great things have happened as a result. 

And this is just the beginning…

In fact, today marks six months since my first ever blog post, which talked about the importance of doing what you love. And signing up to An Artful Journey again is one of the ways I am trying to stay true to that. With Squam coming up next month it is fast become a twice-yearly creative pilgrimage to the US, but I know it is going to be important again, for different reasons, as next year is going to be HUGE (you’ll have to wait a while to hear more about that…)

heart
For now, I just want to take a moment to thank you all for making this blogging experience so special, for leaving comments, sharing your stories, and hearing mine. To think that I knew nothing about this whole world of lovely creative souls just six months ago. 

What a precious thing this is, really.

At home: Welcome to my studio!

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“Pick one room and make it yours.

Go slowly through the house.

Be polite, introduce yourself,

so it can introduce itself to you.”

(borrowing the words quoted by the lovely Louise Gale as a comment in response to this blog post)

So that’s what I am going to do. Introduce myself, then introduce you, room by room, bit by bit. As we start to make friends with our new home. 

Here is a peek of the first one – my studio. Won’t you come in? 

fireplace

At one end it has this sweet fireplace, which will be great when winter sets in. I have just put up this picture for now while I work out what to do with the space above the mantelpiece. Any ideas?

painting table

Here’s my painting/making stuff table. There is an easel in the corner but I like making a horizontal mess! The glass table is actually more practical than it looks – it provides a brilliantly smooth surface for painting and is easy to cover, but also makes the most of the space in the room when it is uncovered. 

The wooden floorboards were reclaimed from an old school gymnasium. They are full of marks and stories – you can almost see generations of children jumping over benches and off climbing bars (and maybe even sneaking a first kiss behind the pommel horse). 


studio window chair

There are three big windows like this so they let in lots of light

drawers

Handy storage for my art supplies, and just enough space to squeeze blank canvasses underneath

books

No such thing as too many art books…

These old picnic hampers make great storage for my sewing stuff – fabric, ribbons, thread for the things I am slowly learning to make!

picnic hampers

And above them is the lovely painting from Judit at Pilgrim of the Moon (I talked about it in this post)

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One of my inspiration boards. This one includes prints by Juliette Crane and DJ Pettitt, and my Soul Collage cards that I made in California back in February.

lovely paper

I think the paper obsession, stationery obsession and book obsession may be linked…

craft supplies

Finally I have somewhere to put all my bits and bobs – paper ribbon, buttons, lovely shiny things

bonsai

My little bonsai friend (in need of a haircut)

Reading corner

My reading corner, and all important stereo –  a girl’s gotta have tunes to paint to!

So there it is, my new studio.

Would love to have you all come over to create and make mess. What’s your creative space like? What’s on your inspiration board?

Overwhelmed by kindness

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Housewarming gifts and cards have been pouring in before we have even had the chance to send out our new address to most of our friends. We have been overwhelmed by the kindness.

Here are a few of the things which have made my heart leap in the past couple of weeks, and which are indeed warming our new place:

  • A bay tree by the back door (I have dreamed of this ever since doing postgraduate study in the beautiful Roman city of Bath several years ago, where all the houses are honey coloured stone and many have bay trees outside).
kindness_baytree

 

  • A gorgeous original painting all the way from Spain, created especially for my new studio by the lovely Judit of Pilgrim of the Moon – so kind!  Thank you Judit – how did you know the colours would be perfect?
kindness_pilgrim
  • Flowers, flowers, flowers – these are now all over our house!
kindness_flowers
  • A hand-stitched picture of the Chinese character for love
kindness_love

We were also showered with welcomes (and vital rubbish-disposal information!) from our new neighbours, a new bird feeder for the garden and cards and messages galore…  I feel full of love for the world today!

Thank you everyone!

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Photos of the house to follow shortly I promise…

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Shoes and memories

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One of the best bits about unpacking and sorting boxes of stuff is rediscovering all the stuff you already have.  It’s like a shopping bonanza without spending any money.  However, it also slows down the task somewhat, as you think a little about each thing you pull out of the cardboard boxes.

As you can see, I quite like shoes and am trying to find a place to put them in the new house… 

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However many times I have a clearout I can never bring myself to throw shoes away, so I end up keeping them for years. For me shoes – especially the really impractical but gorgeous ones – spark memories. 

…The day I wore those sparkly flipflops on the beach in Brazil when I first tried surfing
…The night I wore the really high silver heels with a long tangerine dress and danced until dawn with my man
…Even the slippers I wore to climb the Great Wall of China back when I was 19, having rushed out of our Beijing hostel in a sleepy daze to catch the 5am bus, forgetting to actually put on a pair of proper shoes

You can see why it takes me a long time to unpack!

What do your favourite shoes remind you of?

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This month I am joining in Susannah Conway’s August Break, sharing daily photos of my life this August. Why not check out who else is joining in, or have a go yourself?

Pottering about

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Thinking about our new garden today, and realising how little I know about how to care for it. My gardening history to date has revolved around pots of basil and the odd tomato plant on many an apartment windowsill. Our house was empty for a few months before we moved in as the previous owners had emigrated to Australia. As a result the garden has gone a bit wild.  It has lots of tropical plants in it and I kind of like it that way, all a bit crazy, but it seems a shame not to be able to even see the sunken table, never mind eat dinner at it! Time to get green fingers…

feet and pot
Photo from recent island travels in Greece – photos of our new garden coming soon!

Joining in some creative summer fun!

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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?