If I knew then what I know now.
There are discoveries about yourself and life that you can only learn when you experience certain seasons. Until you go through challenges yourself, you really have no idea. You think you do though. You always see the world through your own glasses, eyes, truths and wisdom.
Take parenting for example. Let’s be honest. We don’t have a clue about what we are doing. Nor should we. We’ve never been a parent to that particular child before. And there is NO one who knows them like you do. And life now is totally and utterly different than when we were little. Home work on screens … man what is the world coming too. Really? Where are the sweet wafts of new paper, the ink splattered fingers and the scrumpled homework sheets at the bottom of the bag gone? Mmm maybe things will come back around? There’s definitely a whole new crowd of makers, creatives, people who want to do things differently emerging. That excites me. Infact, next week I will be visiting the Artytime in Crowborough, which essentially allows you to pay an annual fee to browse their donated scrap. I love to forage for materials, it is so inspiring and so brilliant that it won’t be packed in landfill. Perhaps it will make something beautiful instead?
On another note, I’ve been taking a keen interest in working out what foods are going to keep me healthy. I don’t know if it’s because I’m feeling a little bit older these days… there are defo some bingo wings emerging! Time goes way quicker than you think. And what you busy yourself with forms you. One lifestyle change seems to be to eat more plants, for more variety, less rubbish. Apparently it’s good for our gut microbiomes. Who knew! Anyways you can download my free poster for your fridge to help you, buy and eat more plants! I’ve left some more space at the bottom of the list for you to write your own go to veg in. Like cauliflower … oh my. I love a cauliflower curry!
You can download this for free on my website.
Enjoy!
Today is a going to be a good day…
Today is going to be a good day.
I’m just wondering how looking ahead to 2023 is going for you?
I mean, it always feels like this will be the year where everything fits into place. Won’t it, surely?
Perhaps there is a point where, yes it’s good to dream of what could be, but if we don’t do today well, then it defeats the tomorrow that we are dreaming for?
What can I do today that makes it purposeful and worth something? What one thing can I bring to the table that is the best of me?
Taking risks into the space that we inhabit? Taking risks, even, in the thoughts that inhabit us?
What we think changes us.
I picked up a brill book recently at the DEMELZA Charity Shop in Maidstone by Madelaine Dore called ‘I didn’t do the thing today’ all about productivity guilt. It’s brilliant and with a great price tag of £2! Over many years Madelaine has asked lots of creatives about how they structure their day to make it more productive. Getting those creative brains geared for success and all that …
My summary of the book so far is that her research has led to the conclusion that success is less about routines and structure that you plan in to every moment, and more about creating fertile ground within so that good things grow. Fruitfulness in your day if you like. That sounds like a good plan to me, it shifts the focus from the to-dos to the to-be’s - forgive my lack of grammar here - so let’s do kindness, patience, perseverance, and gratefulness to see what spring’s up!
Anyway, that was my happy thought for today.
Here it is. Worth a read.
In the last year, the Mental Health Foundation completed a Survey with over around 4.5k participants, the largest-ever survey on stress. 74% of those people had experienced stress. You can read more here https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/mental-health-statistics/stress-statistics.
This is just one of the mental health illnesses permeating our culture. It may be that nowadays, we are more aware of these illnesses and they were always there previously but we didn’t see it, or it may be that how we have built our culture is having an impact on our resilience and ability to move forward and thrive. Whichever is the case, the constant need for production and delivery and success is having an impact on a lot of the population.
As an artist, what is my response to this ‘crisis’? Well, I think mostly it’s starting and seeing what brings me peace and giving that to the world. Let’s start there.
I think we are all given unique gifts and as we work those out we can bring them to the world, in whatever form that takes. There’s no blueprint.
SECOND-HAND SEPTEMBER
Slow down September, you are disappearing way too fast …
Do we ever mull over what impact our purchases make on the world? Well, I think we are beginning too. Which is a start.
As some of you may know, this month is Second-hand September. This means, embracing the used, the recycled, the upcycled, the repurposed, the revived, and the renaissance of things that were, into new potential products.
How on earth do we keep this as a lifestyle? Well, I think it’s by starting small.
Changing one thing at a time. If you are anything like me, I get all overwhelmed by the hundreds of things I need to change then get stuck and don’t do any of them.
Nevertheless, many of my friends and I, have embraced the local second-hand shop. Why? Because it cuts down the petrol to go to other shops, it saves time because we then have only that opportunity to get the things we may want/need and also it makes sense that my money goes towards causes that I otherwise couldn’t afford to give to. Everyone wins.
Recently, I enquired on our local Facebook page to see if anyone had any used trainers that we could purchase or were going free. To be honest I wasn’t sure if we would have any response. I know trainers are a big thing! But nevertheless, some lovely lady gave us not 1, but 4 pairs of trainers.
I was speechless. My son, whose feet never stop growing, (he is 8 with the same sized feet as me now an adult 7) was particularly excited, as they were all brands that he loved.
Ok, did I feel guilty that perhaps trainers aren’t the priority for our monthly budget… If you have kids you need to afford to dress them right? Well slightly. But it was more my own embarrassment in asking that was the stumbling block on this occasion. I wondered why? We are of course in the top 3% of world wealth so really I have nothing to complain about living in the UK. If someone no longer needed those shoes and wanted to give them. Then that was a gift. Of which we were very grateful.
Likewise, I am grateful for the furniture passed down to us from my parents when they moved into their country cottage. Their 1950’s teak furniture didn’t really look the part there, but by heck has it lasted here. I mean if it’s in our house it is really tested!! The mirror is now up in my daughter’s room and the kitchen table is still being used at our meal times.
Our 50 year old Teak Mirror. Still intact which is a miracle.
And also it depends on what success for our family looks like… we all have different value systems. We are trying to build our kids into confident people who are confident inside and out. Not just looking good. Receiving help is a good thing. We can then give help to others. We give our plethora of shoes to our friend’s kids now once my kids grow out of them. We pass on the kindness, so they and their budget benefit too.
Everything is useful to someone.
It does beg the question, do we need to think more of living in community again? Giving, trading, offering support, getting to know our neighbours again, it takes a village to raise our kids doesn’t it? I’d like to think so. I think infact it is slowly beginning to reform back to what once was.
I recently got given some pallet boxes… I am desperate to make them into veg planters on the side of my house, in an attempt to live the good life, in my new build development (that’s a whole other story). I need help. Seriously. I am in great need of mucking up if I don’t get some wisdom and technical know-how! So I am going to ask my lovely friend Kim. It was her that inspired me. I can’t wait… these things make me insanely happy.
So what one thing could you start to give that’s already been used? And what one thing could you find that you could revive? Start small. One thing at a time. Like my Pilea plants. I’ve managed to keep them alive and they just keep on growing baby ones. Almost every window ledge (Got to love a ledge) is laden with some new Pilea pot. It’s been a contagious idea, and now my doppelganger daughter Liv has now grown baby Aloe which accompanies the Pileas in hot pursuit of all the ledges known to man!
I’ve no idea what we will do with all these Pileas. That’s ok, they make me happy, then I give the babies away as pressies once they have got through their toddler years. Then Liv makes face creams from the Aloes.
With my ALL MADE FOR GREATNESS artwork, I felt compelled to use what I already had around me to start my collages. Otherwise, I could just keep making excuses.
There’s already enough waste in the world I kept thinking.
Why create any more when I can use the materials around me that have been discarded, no longer needed and forgotten? What if that newspaper that I did my crossword on could be used as a background to an artwork? Why don’t I use the wallpaper paste at the back of the garage to apply it? Where did all those tester pots go from when we moved last? Even if the end result isn’t what I imagine, I thought, why not make it anyway?
Why not make it anyway?
What if the reason for the journey is the process of finding beauty? Is that enough, even if I don’t like the end piece? What if I made art and gave it away?
My boy makes helmets in the same vain … just look at these Star Wars inspired pieces … No wonder my Teak table top gets a battering!
He helps himself to the paper/cardboard box that lies waiting for the bin man on a Tuesday unless the cardboard boxes have been nabbed by busy fingers…
Something created by hand is so much more than just a gift. It involves time and the life and creativity that has been planted in you and culminated in you since you learned to see and touch. It’s a big deal. And I get excited at that prospect. Do you?
