as the sun goes down

A beautiful and somewhat eerie late afternoon walk with Lola. 

 And a cold afternoon at the beach.

 Don't you think Instagram magically captures not just a scene but somehow the essence of a moment? There's so much mood and feeling in an Instagram photo and the best thing is how easy it is to take a picture that takes your breath away. I love it, wouldn't be without it and these pics make me want to pick up my paintbrush and paint. 

 So that's clearly a good thing.

love, peace and music

 From my etsy shop. This one holds memories of summer, festivals and good, good times. It'll always be a favorite. We haven't gotten around to hanging ours in our new house yet but as soon as we do I'll post a pic. 

keep it simple

 Easier said than done for sure. Though these days I've realised that it's more about the state of things inside my head rather than of those outside it.

Shit, I've got all that Lego to play with, and colouring to do, and my nose needs picking...

 Look at Edie, kids can do it easy peasy. Kids and dogs, lucky things. I'm eating. I'm playing.  I'm running. I'm kickin' back on my settee watching a DVD. No bullshit running through their brains at a hundred miles an hour. 

 Albert Einstein said, 

'Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler'.

 But we've always got to make things more complicated than they are. I'm always doing this, making simple things as hard as possible, letting them stew and rolling them around in my head until they're a mass of bubbling complexity. 

 I said I was going to be brave this year. Now I want my mantra to be,  

Be brave, think less. 

Although I suppose that's kinda making things more complicated, damn...

turning off the fairy lights

 Twelfth Night finally, and time at last to take down the tree. I'm usually a little sad to see it go but this year I'm more than ready to say goodbye. But poor Edie cried her heart out when I told her the pink tree in her bedroom was being put away, I didn't have the heart to ruthlessly squash it back into the box then and there so we compromised on doing it later (I have the suspicion that Edie's later is much later than mine).

Lola, in one of the rare moments today when she wasn't right up in my face. Taking the decs down = dog stress, look, she looks worried right here

My lovely friend Fiona made this for Edie.

Milk and biscuits soon perked Edie up, she's fickle like that.

 So now onwards into January and in the spirit of new things I opened my etsy shop again. Right now there's just one lonely print all alone but there are others that will follow soon.

on being brave

 We opted for a quiet New Year's Eve at home this year. We visited family, then slipped home for Italian food, champagne, David's best-tracks-of-2011 Spotify list and Cluedo, cos that's just how badass we are these days. The quote of the night came from David just minutes after the clock struck midnight, 

'Is it my eyes or is it misty in here?'. 

 We sat there contemplating the state of his eyes vs the possibility of real, actual mist inside our living room before, slowing sucumbing to the early affects of smoke inhalation, we splutteringly realised that the wood stacked up around our wood burner was ON FIRE.  Not the wood inside our wood burner, the wood outside it, on the hearth.
  
 Thankfully, our reactions had not been diminished by the champagne and the drama was over in a matter of minutes. Windows open, smoke alarm screeching, fingers burnt, lesson learnt.

 But, I'm not gonna let that wobbly start to 2012 set the precedent for the rest of the year. Hell, no. 

 I thought about making some resolutions, putting together a list of things I'd like to accomplish this year but, you know what? I don't really want to. Last year's list became defunct as early as January 5th when I injured my back and ended up on the emergency list for spinal surgery. Learning to surf was no longer a priority (tho apparently surfing is the new golf and the beaches are heaving with middle class, middle aged people every weekend. So I'm over it already).

 I've got so many things I'd like to be better at, so many flaws I'd be better off without, so many plans, ambitions and desires whirling around my head I don't know where to start. And the thing is, at the end of the day, I like myself anyway, whether I get up at 7am to cook a delicious breakfast and meditate or haul my ass outta bed at 8 and run around the house like a mad woman with no clean knickers to put on.

 So I've decided that this year I just want to be brave. I want to put myself out there more. I want to push a little at the boundaries of my safety zone. Cos that's one thing I always wish I could do. Push myself to show others the stuff that I do, the stuff that I make, the stuff that I write. Instead of being shy about it all.

 And I'm not gonna stack dry wood up around my wood burner whilst it's blazing an inferno again.


 Wish me luck. And good luck to you too. Be Brave.
  

Nice to meet you, 2012!

 I like the sound of 2012. It sounds assertive and definite. 2011 was a bit of a tongue twister (metaphorically speaking as well as practically). 

Two Thousand and Twelve.

Twenty Twelve.

 

  What have you got in store for us 2012? 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope your New Year has begun in a way that makes you happy!

December 1st

 Sticky little hands, sparkly card and gold star sequins. Hooray for December the first.