Picture books, paper goods & pretty things.
I keep seeing lots of vloggers and folks on Instagram recommending Adriene’s videos for forming a yoga practice. I had a little look at her account and can see immediately why she’s so popular. I started with this seven minute meditation and loved her gentle, easy approach. I especially like the moment when you bow your head to your heart. It felt really meaningful. A lovely treat for a Sunday.
I love New York. I love illustration. I love the MET. And I love Frannerd. So I really loved this video. Fran really inspires me to get out and about to draw and study classical art for inspiration.
I also loved seeing the Temple of Dendur when I visited. I read that the room was known as Jackie’s nightlight because JFK had the light in the room left on each night so his wife could see it across Central Park. I’ve no idea if it’s true but what a romantic story.
When I was about seven we were set a task at school that involved a scavenger hunt. We had to find lots of little things that were on a list. A leaf. A conker. A penny. To me, every little thing was a treasure and I gathered them studiously. Lining them up to gaze at them and revelling in their detail. Yesterday evening I set myself a similar challenge, to find little autumnal things on my way home. I realised what I had enjoyed so much all those years ago. The task slowed me down, made me look, kept me in the moment. It made me feel like a child again. And at home, I laid my treasures out before me and admired them like jewels. A beautiful autumnal gathering.
I’ve been watching Dan’s channel since he launched it earlier this year and it’s like watching the sparks of his creative imagination burn brighter and brighter. His latest project Humankind is his most ambitious yet. He appealed to film makers across the world to contribute clips and has brought 100 of them together to make something truly beautiful. In four minutes he takes us around the world and shows how we are all one human. Just stunning.
So many sweet little stories hiding in the woods.
"The silence and the waiting and the rush of all aboard
Fifty souls to a carriage I’m trying hard to be ignored
Then my telephone shakes into life and I see your name
And the wheat fields explode into gold either side of the train..."
A perfect discovery for the first Sunday in September...
As life throws curve balls across my path, I find watercolour a perfect place to hideout. This piece is inspired by Laura Horn who I follow on Instagram. Her art opened my eyes to how delicate abstracts can be. How tiny details can enhance. And to how things don't have to be under our control to be beautiful.
“I think the creative personality is a strange mix of absolute conviction & a crippling insecurity & somewhere amongst all that is pushing yourself to the limits of experience so you can really feel fully...” Kate Tempest
This conversation between James O'Brien and writer, singer and poet Kate Tempest on the Unfiltered podcast is absolutely wonderful. I often look for ways to describe how I feel about creativity and what it means to create. Kate is one of the most eloquent speakers on the subject that I've ever heard.
I loved hearing her insight into how people in Brazil use the word 'poet' as a term of praise. Kate says, "... it's a term of endearment. You say 'oh my poet' when somebody's being particularly sweet natured, sensitive, open..." And of creativity, she muses, "... it's more like a frequency that you're tuned into life at... and when you're of that frequency. the minute you connect with others at that frequency it's a big shock. It's a beautiful thing to have a community like that..."
“Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness...” - John Keats
It feels like we’re suddenly in the final throws of summer & the air is slowly turning autumnal. The sun is sinking lower in the sky and the mornings have a renewed crispness to them. I love embracing the change of seasons & the feeling of going ‘back to school’. Even now, I buy myself new stationery and make resolutions about what I want to achieve in the months before Christmas. It’s a time of tea and buttered toast with homemade jam, finding your slippers at the back of the wardrobe and digging out your cosiest jumpers. I love the early twilight and the twinkle of fairy lights as I take time over cooking soups and curries. I love baking scones and eating them fresh from the oven and curling up on the sofa under a blanket to devour a Netflix box set. Don’t mourn the summer, my friends, embrace the light and warmth of Autumn and enjoy picking out that new pencil case.
"I am here. Waiting. It's happening
The moment that you want is coming
If you give it time..."
