100 days of Summer

This week I started a 100 days of Summer project.

The idea is to capture everyday, family photographs - everything from the picnics in the park and ice creams on the beach to tantrums and meltdowns - real family life over 100 days.

A 365 photography project has been on my radar for a while but it felt a bit daunting to create and post an image each day. 100 days of Summer will be a great way of dipping my toe in the water and seeing how I find it.

I’ve joined up with other photographers around the world for the 100 days challenge - sharing and discussing our work in a Facebook group.

I’m a big believer in personal projects - doing a project just for yourself and I can’t wait to put together an album at the end of the Summer.

Here’s some of the pictures so far:

Currently... tuning into, reading & watching

I've read, listened to and watched some brilliant things over the past few weeks and I wanted to share them with you.

1. The podcast Don't Keep Your Day Job is a new discovery for me and its really inspiring, particularly this episode with the photographer Elisabeth Caren.

2. I'm a huge fan of Austin Kleon who talks a lot about creativity and productivity. This talk is called 'How to Keep Going' and is packed full of great advice.

3. I finished the book Endurance by Scott Kelly a week ago  - it charts the astronaut's year in space and is completely fascinating. I'm now reading The Lido by Libby Page - it's hooked me from the start and a bonus is that it has short chapters (don't judge me). It's out in just over a week.

4. My standout film so far this year is Call Me By Your Name. It's a moving, sizzling, romantic drama with a beautiful soundtrack and superb acting. Not to be missed. 

5. The impressive exhibition by the photographer Andreas Gurksy at the Southbank Centre is in its last few weeks. You can read more about it here.

6.  For a website that will make your heart melt, check out Folded Wisdom. Artist and father Bob Guest would wake up early before his young children and write and draw them little notes that would be tucked in their lunchboxes. Many of them were kept and can be seen on this website.

7. The Oscar winning UK-made short film The Silent Child is currently on BBC iPlayer. It's an incredible 20 minute movie with an important message about the importance of sign language being taught in schools. Don't miss it.

8. If ever there was an excuse to unplug and get outside, this 3 minute movie is it. A perfect reminder to look up in the world (literally).

I'm always on the lookout for new podcasts, movies to watch and books to read. I'd love to hear any of your suggestions!

The importance of 'me-time'

“‘Taking time out for yourself is not indulgent. It’s essential’”

I came across these words from Marina Fogle, founder of ‘The Bump Class’ and the wife of TV presenter Ben Fogle, when skimming through the Sunday papers and I literally couldn’t agree more.

Just a few days beforehand, after a hectic day with our two young girls, I cornered my husband and told him I desperately needed some ‘me-time’. 

I wanted to either check into a hotel for the night or find a spa with a pool I could sink into for the afternoon.

I personally believe taking time out to recharge is absolutely essential. 

I’m a bit of a slave to my phone at the moment and to social media - I’m falling behind with reading and watching films.

I'm easily distracted by technology, my mind is distracted and foggy.

Sharmadean Read who founded WAH Nails and beautystack.com offers some great advice in her column in The Guardian’s Weekend magazine :

“‘You don’t need to move 100 miles to get headspace: simply scheduling a long Saturday afternoon walk in empty fields will do. Go on your own though. It’s remarkable what your brain comes up with when you aren’t preoccupied with other people.’”

So my headspace came in the form of a spa afternoon. I found an offer at a favourite London hotel of mine -  One Aldwych and booked myself in for a Sip and Spa treatment - a signature Glow Oskia facial which included a cocktail in the bar afterwards and also access to the indoor pool.

The facial was 75 minutes of luxury pampering and deep cleaning. The luxury treatments on my skin included warm candle wax painted on my face which was just blissful.

I had the pool (which plays music underwater) to myself and got some laps in before sinking into one of the lounger chairs in my fluffy robe and reading a magazine.

© One Aldwych Hotel

 

A Rose de Mai cocktail was served up in the hotel’s Lobby Bar afterwards. I remember first visiting this bar a few years back, enjoying afternoon tea as the sunlight snuck in and filled the room and its high ceilings with light. 

It's so easy to put off ‘me-time’ - make excuses, feel guilty for leaving the kids, or maybe for spending the money.

I can honestly say, a few hours out, even for a spa, dinner or a coffee alone, really can make the world of difference physically and mentally.

Entertaining kids at home at Easter

With a few weeks off nursery on the horizon, I'm getting my thinking cap on as to how I can keep my 4 and 2 year-olds entertained.

Whilst we're hoping for some crisp Spring days in the park, I'm also prepared for rain and some time at home. To stop the girls from going mad and bickering with each other, I've come up with a few crafty ideas to keep them amused:

Mrs Mactivity

Mrs Mactivity is a website I've only just discovered and it's fab. It's packed full of mostly free designs you can print off and make/colour at home. There are regular themed designs - in the past week we have been having great fun making the Easter cards (see above). It's a website set up by a collective of ex and current teachers and designers with the aim to make learning fun. Many designs are currently free, there's also a subscription option offering unlimited downloads and some extra content.

Collage

Get a stack of old magazines and cut up faces, bodies, objects -anything really.

I tend to cut things out in advance and put them on the table with a piece of white card and glue. Both girls will happily sit for maybe 20 minutes sticking the cuttings all over the page. I find it quite fascinating to see what they come up with!

Shortly after we did the first collage together, our eldest was asked to bring a picture in to nursery school for Show and Tell to illustrate 'Autumn Arriving'. I cut out anything remotely Autumnal from the weekend's newspapers and recent magazines and she had some artwork ready to take to school.

Gingerbread decorating

Some supermarkets - Sainsbury's and Morrisons are two - sell Gingerbread decorating sets.

For under £2 you get at least 5 gingerbread men, coloured icing and sprinkles. 

I lay out the gingerbread and accessories and leave my eldest to decorate. She usually spends a good 10 minutes decorating before getting round to eating it.

I tried making gingerbread myself but it was a disaster! This keeps things simple and the children love it!

Window Colouring

A good, no mess activity that works well for getting great pictures of your children.

We use Crayola washables which wipe off easily and let the girls colour on our glass kitchen doors.

You can then get some photographs of them in action by photographing them from outside.

Head to my blog post here to see more examples.

Flower Pressing

I have fond memories of having a flower press as a child - carefully collecting flowers from the garden and placing them in the press - using the results on birthday cards or homemade art.

It's quite an old school idea but there's something quite nice about introducing the little ones to nature and making a game out of collecting flowers and leaves from the garden or on the walk home from school/nursery.

We bought this one from Amazon and it's a good size with plenty of space for holding your flowers.

 

I'd love to hear your ideas for what to do with the kids on a day at home, let me know in the comments below.

 

Andreas Gursky Exhibition (with my 4-year-old)

"The Gursky Exhibition is brilliant, you MUST see it!" a good photographer friend reported back to me after visiting with her baby soon after it opened. 

Her advice was to book tickets in advance and aim to go at the opening time - 11am. This was great advice and I would say the same - plan in advance - it gets busy.

I was a little unsure about taking my 4-year-old but figured it would be great mother-daughter bonding time - afterwards there was the promise of a new sticker book and pizza.

So we headed off together to see the work of Andreas Gursky at the newly renovated Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre.

Amazon
2016 

This exhibition explores the work of the photographer over the past four decades and is the first major retrospective of his work in the UK.

There are over 60 of the artist’s photographs, from the 1980s through to his most recent work. The images are packed full of detail, an Amazon warehouse, 99 cent store and huge, impressive landscapes. There's also the fascinating Paris, Montparnasse (1993), showing all 750 flats in the city’s largest apartment block, created using multiple shots taken from two different vantage points. It's one of Gursky's early examples of digital manipulation which he started experimenting with in 1992.

Review
2015 

SH- 1 Iron Man (2013) one of Gursky's more recent works

Pyongyang VI
2017 (2007) 

Tokyo
2017 

Though I originally planned to sneak out and see this exhibition on my own (leaving my young girls at home)  I loved having my 4-year-old for company. 

Although losing patience towards the end, she was really well behaved while we looked round and I loved watching her taking it all in. It was wonderful sitting and chatting on her bed later that evening, deciding which was her favourite photograph (the one with the cows, in case you're interested).

If you get the chance to see this exhibition, it's well worth it. The images (many of which are large in scale) are beautifully exhibited over several floors of the Hayward. I enjoyed it so much and plan to go back.

Andreas Gursky runs until 22 April 2018

Why start a Blog?

My eldest was 6 months old when I had the idea to start a blog.

The crazy early months of non-stop feeding and little sleep had calmed down. Our daughter liked to nap and sometimes for up to 3 hours each afternoon. I suddenly found myself with 'me' time!

I'd always been fascinated with starting a blog but what the hell would I write about? And surely that's what other people did, not me? What could I bring to the table?

It was an online blogging class that got things started for me. I signed up to a course on Creative Live called How to Build a Successful Creative Blog by April Bowles Olin. It was a real game-changer for me.

The class gave me the confidence to dive right in to the blogging world and start a blog page on my already up and running website. I instantly warmed to April's teaching style. It was clear she had put SO much work into the course. Most of all she asked the question 'Well, why shouldn't you blog?' 

Learning online was the perfect fit for me. I could watch a segment from the class at lunchtimes, learning slowly as the days went by.

There were a few things that I hadn't really appreciated about blogging at this stage - mainly the planning. There's firstly the brainstorming of ideas, then writing posts, planning when they go live, sourcing or taking pictures yourself and, in order to get people reading your blog, a social media plan.

For me personally, starting a blog was the creative outlet I needed. I also wanted to keep my website current while I was on maternity leave.

A few posts in and I started to view it as more of a journal - a place to share hobbies, photography, life with my husband and girls, books I love etc.

I often turn to other blogs myself.

A few months back I was considering signing up to an online photography class. It wasn't cheap and I really wanted to hear first hand if it was worth the money. Luckily someone who had taken the course had written a blog post about it. I then got in touch with them over Instagram and quizzed her before I did ultimately sign up.

I know some people take the view that blogging is perhaps self-indulgent; they don't really get the point of it and the word 'blogger' instantly makes some people cringe.

For me it’s all about sharing - sharing thoughts, ideas, making connections and showing your creations. The title of a book by writer Austin Kleon sums it up - 'Show Your Work' (read this, it's wonderful)

A few other great resources I have found along the way are two blogging magazines - Blogosphere (British) and Artful Blogging (American). They are packed full of inspiring stories about bloggers, why they started and what it has led to for them. I always reach for these if I am feeling like I need a little boost.

The Blogtacular podcast is also chock full of great advice and interviews. You can find it here.

If you're thinking about starting a blog - my advice? Just go for it. Don't care what others might think. Set up a Wordpress account. Start a free Squarespace trial. Decide how often you want to blog and plan your next 2 months’ worth of posts. You don't have to write them all upfront - just have ideas in mind.

70+ posts down the line and I still feel very much like a newbie - I am learning all the time. Most of all though, I really enjoy it; it makes me happy. 

Blogging has led to wonderful connections and made me push myself into being braver, achieving more and appreciating the everyday. I'm glad I made the move.

Getting started with Hand Lettering

Fonts and Hand Lettering are a constant fascination to me.

I can be put right off a TV programme if the titles or credits are an odd font. And don't get me started on Comic Sans, it's just the worst!

One of my plans for 2017 was to learn Modern Calligraphy. Actually I couldn't decide between Modern Calligraphy or Brush Lettering so I took an evening class in both.

Modern Calligraphy requires patience and precision. If this is something you want to try, I'd do a class - Quill London is great and Lucy, the founder, has written an excellent book called 'Modern Calligraphy'. From there, armed with your supplies, it's all about practice. 

I found the same with Brush Lettering - whether you are using a paintbrush or brush pens, it's practice, practice, practice, mastering each letter in the alphabet and then learning to form words and sentences. 

Following on from those classes, I'm now trying Hand Lettering.

This is totally new to me but I am loving scouring Pinterest for ideas to try. I also started following Mye De Leon on Instagram. She's an illustrator based in Singapore who creates beautiful work. Her book 'Mastering Hand Lettering' is my favourite on the subject so far. It's beautifully presented and easy to follow.

What I love most about Hand Lettering is getting lost in a little project. I look at my eldest (who is almost 4) and when she does her sticker projects you can see that she is completely engaged in her own little world. 

Getting involved in a new hobby, whether it's painting, calligraphy, hand lettering, collage or something else is a great way of switching off, getting away from the iPhone or computer and taking some time out.

Who knows whether this current project will last a few weeks or years but I figure it's never too late to try something new and have a bit of fun with it!

These are some of the supplies I am using to get started with Hand Lettering:

• Rhodia Dot Pad

• Zig Calligraphy II pen by Kuretake

• Kuretake Bimoji pens

• Tombow Brush pens

• HB pencil, an eraser and sharpener

I decided to put myself out there and start a separate Instagram account just for Hand lettering - it's called @letsgolettering

If you have any tips on pens to use for Hand Lettering or books to read on the subject, let me know in the comments below.

Learning to Scrapbook

I remember when I was about 11 years-old - it was September, a brand new term at school. Sharpened pencils, a new shiny pencil case and maybe even a pristine set of new colouring pencils, too good to be removed from their box.

A friend had returned from a Summer holiday adventure and was neatly arranging her keepsakes from her trip in a scrapbook.

Photographs, tickets, notes, all mixed with pretty pastel coloured card and intricate designs printed on delicate paper. 

I was mesmerised and watched wide-eyed as she glued, coloured and weaved together her findings in a book bound together with ribbon.

The truth is for a long time, and particularly at school, art was never my thing. Painting and drawing I loved but I was simply not good enough (or encouraged) to take art as a subject at GCSE.

It's only now, in my thirties, that I'm exploring new crafts and having fun trying new skills. There's no pressure to pass exams, just to learn and have fun.

I came across Project Craft at Paperchase by chance when looking for a new diary on their website.

I discovered the flagship store in London's Tottenham Court Road offers a range of craft classes, just a few hours long and enough to dip your toe in to see if you warm to it.

I chose the Scrapbooking class for a very reasonable £20 (including all supplies). There's also Card Making, Creative Journaling, Origami Flowers, Paper Cactus making and more.

Cameron, a friendly and enthusiastic art student (who also works part-time at Paperchase) was my teacher for the afternoon and  encouraged me to choose a theme for my scrapbook - I chose travel.

I had brought along pictures, tickets and cuttings from a previous (poor) scrapbooking attempt and he helped me weave all the materials together into a double-page spread using coloured card, designer paper, washi tape and coloured string (for the bunting). He also showed me how to create pockets to store tickets and small mementos.

This was a brilliant introduction to Scrapbooking. My main reason for booking the class was so that for future travels I can involve our two girls and we can continue to create the scrapbook together.

In the two hours I also learnt:

• How to be more confident using a cutting mat and knife

• That it's much better to use double sided tape than Pritt Stick (curls at the edges)

• How to be creative with washi tape (I always just used it like sellotape before - hello washi tape bunting!)

So thank you Paperchase (and Cameron) for a great introduction to Scrapbooking - I hope to be back soon. in the meantime here's a Pinterest board I've put together with Scrapbooking ideas.

You can read more about Project Craft classes (available in London, Manchester & Glasgow)  here