“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…
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And if you are in the mood for wishing, please help me make a dream come true here!
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.
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!
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.
What little adventures have you lived recently?
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…
10 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.
30 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!
2-minute sketch
When was the last time you played around in your sketchbook?
Doing nothing does not come easily to me, but island hopping in Greece was the perfect opportunity to take a step back, get some much needed rest, soak up the sun and have no schedule for over two weeks (except ‘swim time’, ‘ice cream time’, ‘dinner time’ etc – you get the picture). It has been time for:
… ice cold watermelon
… cool swims in sparkling seas
… dancing in the sand
… long chats over dinner as the sun set
… and a time to wander and explore tradition and modernity
It has also been a time for clearing out my head, which arrived in the baking heat of Athens jumbled and full, noisy and impatient.
The gentle breeze, clear skies and luxurious sun have calmed it, and made space for new ideas, plans and adventures. I have made real progress on two exciting projects I am working on (more on this soon) – baby steps towards a big dream.
I feel healthier, energised and ready to play.
It’s funny how quite a few of us have been talking about rest recently, as Louise pointed out.
It’s half way through a big year, spring is turning into summer, and we all need to take time to replenish our energy reserves every now and then.
Are you taking care of yourself?
Friends are so precious, and losing one is so painful. An old university friend of mine was killed in a hit and run accident on holiday last week. I wanted to take a moment and use this space to honour his memory. Part of me feels this is too personal to share, part of me thinks it is too important not to. I hope you don’t mind.
Matt was one of life’s good people. I hate it that I have written that in the past tense. He should have had much much more time.
He was a big strong rugby player with a heart to match. I have been reminiscing about a big adventure we shared several years ago when I joined him and two other guys on a crazy road trip around New Zealand. We were three strapping lads and a wandering girl with a rucksack bigger than herself packed into a tiny car. We got stuck (in a ford), got drunk (on cheap beer), got lost (in the mountains), and I even got a shoulder ride into town. Those boys gave me the courage to do my first terrifying bungee jump, and wisely advised me not to look down as we sped around narrow mountain paths. We traversed a glacier, ate mooncake at a stranger’s party and hung out on a kiwi farm. But more than anything, we laughed. A lot.
Along with the gripping shock and hollow sadness of losing a friend to a freak accident comes a deep questioning and reflection on our own lives.
I’ve been here before (in my very first post on this blog), but I am back again.
It shouldn’t take a tragedy for us to do just that, but often, sadly, it does. There is nothing anyone can do or say to make loss any easier to handle or understand. There is no fairness, and no reason. Three are many questions, but no answers.
To honour and celebrate the big life of my friend, I want to revisit that question and commit to making a few small changes (and maybe a couple of big ones) that will allow me to completely and absolutely say YES, I am living my best life, every day, every hour, every minute.
Won’t you join me?
Goodbye MD, you will be missed so very much
You guys rock!! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Seriously, I cannot believe how generously you shared your advice to help me get over my first-machine-use-phobia. And I think you cured me!! I started off with baby steps as advised by the lovely Anne at Craft Gossip Sewing, and then I realised how much fun it was, and just started whizzing along!
Look what I made, thanks to you (and I surprised myself that I actually don’t care they are all wonky)…
Stitched postcards…
A four-weeks-at-a-glance wall planner with interchangeable pockets (red thread inspired by Rebecca Sower – thanks for the intro Stella)…
A journal (thanks Lorrie – remember the little heart?)…
And some other bits and pieces too. I am now officially in love with my sewing machine.
And I love all the blog and website links you shared. So inspiring and lots still to check out.
Did I say thank you SO much!
Is it just me or she beautiful, this shiny new birthday present of mine?
In fact, she is so beautiful, I am too scared to plug her in.
I so want to make gorgeous things.
But I haven’t the first clue how to use her.
I have a pile of fabric. And ribbon. And some buttons.
But I might break my beautiful machine when I try to stitch them all together.
So I bought a book, like I always do when I’m stuck.
And another, like I always do when I’m still stuck.
I now have eleven books on sewing.
But I still don’t know where to start.
It’s like I need to know everything before I can make anything.
I don’t know how much is enough.
Please help me!
Any inspiring sewing blogs, project ideas, mixed media artists using stitch, you name it, I want to know about it. Do you have a story about how you learnt to sew? I want to hear about it!
Just a little bit more knowledge. And then I promise to plug her in.
Today I am 32. Tomorrow I will be 33. Pretty old, pretty young, depending on your perspective. Or maybe just right, for me, right now.
It has been quite a year.
1. I quit my job
Some say change is stressful, I say it is energising, important, refreshing. Quitting my job was hard. It wasn’t a boring, draining, rat-race type office job. It was an uplifting, challenging experience that taught me so much and I loved it. I had five amazing years at UNICEF, the world’s biggest organisation working for children and children’s rights.It took me to the edges of humanity, introducing me to amazing people shining brightly in the darkest of situations. I travelled the world, venturing far beyond the urban jungle out into the places where life happens for so many.
Photo: Francois d’Elbee
I met children with bare feet, guns, no parents, ambition, hope
I met world leaders, religious leaders, and gang leaders
I travelled with sports stars, famous actors and cabinet ministers
I dined with a prince, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner
I learnt how to shoot a camera,
how to shoot a handmade football,
how to shoot a bow and arrow,
how to shoot an AK47*
*obviously not at people or animals
Photo: Francois d’Elbee
We shared childhood games
We shared long bumpy car rides
We shared untold secrets
And we shared our stories
Photo: Francois d’Elbee
I saw pain, beauty, courage, love
I questioned and I listened
I changed and I grew
It will stay with me always
2. I started my own company
Shortly after my last birthday, I finally recognised that although I loved my job, it ate all my time and there were other things I wanted to do. I took the plunge to start my own company and set off in a new direction. It has been a fantastic roller coaster full of unknowns, challenges and new experiences. I love this delicious freedom.
3. I moved house
Enjoying a cup of tea in my new studio in (quite often rainy) Yorkshire
4. I learnt to surf… (well kind of)
(no chance you are getting a picture of that!!!)
5. I watched a moon rise in the Sahara Desert, and welcomed in the new year from the top of a giant sand dune with my man
Photo by me, dunes by some mysterious natural phenomena
6. I became an auntie for the third time, and experienced the magic of meeting her the day she was born.
Photo: Chris Nicholls
Photo: Chris Nicholls
7. I bumped into my old friend ‘me the artist’ at a mountain retreat in California, and we have been hanging out a lot together ever since.
With teachers Kelly Rae Roberts & Mati Rose McDonough and my An Artful Journey sisters
…and much more besides. I loved it all, and I have a feeling there is a big year ahead. Join me on the journey!
Photo: Francois d’Elbee
”When you are in your 30s you are old enough to know better,
but young enough to do it anyway” ~ Bridgette Bardot
Capturing a fleeting moment in a way which one day will take you right back to that place, the smells, the sounds, the feeling. There is magic in photography. I love taking photos and I think something in me helps me take some sweet shots with the occasional flukey great one, but I don’t really know why I like the ones I like, and I know there is so much more to learn. So I have just taken a class with photographer extraordinaire Susannah Conway, learning more about composition, light, and all sorts of other things I never really think much about.
I photographed my cup of tea, and then played around with some editing tools. Which one do you like best? And which one do you like least? I’d love to know which and why.
Original photo:
I quite like the original photo, but think altered version number 12 is my favourite. I love the difference in texture either side of the diagonal line, and the pattern in the bottom right corner would make fantastic wrapping paper!
Photography actually runs through my family (right back four generations) so maybe this is just awakening something that has always been there… more on that another day.