Five Things
1. The California Design exhibit just opened at LACMA ~ I can’t wait to check it out.
2. The premiere issue of Mingle magazine is here!
3. Battery Solutions ~ How to recycle all those pesky old batteries
4. Welcome to The Old Printing Shop of London
5. I love to travel vicariously through Wonderings & Wanderings
Today…
This photo was taken at Petra, Jordan in March of last year ~ a wild dream come true that came about thanks to the lovely Tara Bradford. I recently interviewed her for Global Inspirations over at Create Mixed Media, when she shared some snippets from her experiences in Nepal.
100 Books Project :: Kinsale, Ireland
{Book #92, left in Kinsale, Ireland by Book Fairy Denise Miller}
After depositing a book in Washington, DC, Denise headed across the pond to Ireland with Book #92. Here’s here story ~
Sounds perfect!
Five Things
1. The Creative Joy Retreat ~ this looks divine!
2. One Mango Tree ~ I’ll be interviewing the founder, Halle Butvin, next month at Global Inspirations!
4. LightBox ~ From the editors of Time Magazine
5. On a recent visit to LACMA, Cy Twombly’s work caught my eye.
The Yoga Pants Video Challenge
Way back when, almost a year ago, my husband and I were having a chat, during which I happened to use the phrase YOGA PANTS. This small moment in our marriage opened an unexpectedly creative can o’ worms, which started here, then went here, and has since inspired an ongoing series of jokes, emails, and little notes from readers all over the world.
“I saw this ad for YOGA PANTS and thought of your husband!”
Or, someone comes over for a visit, my husband walks by, and my friend says, “Um, excuse me, but do have a pair of YOGA PANTS I can borrow?” and then we both fall on the floor laughing.
My husband, of course, just stands there nodding, pretending to be mildly annoyed, but really, he loves it.
The circumstances that started the whole YOGA PANTS brigade happened again recently, but not with a phrase or a word, but a sound effect. The video will explain everything, including my Yoga Pants Video Challenge.
All I can say is that it’s time to take this up a notch.
Once your video is ready, send it to my inbox at christine@swirlygirl.com and I’ll assemble a lovely compilation especially for the love of my life.
P.S. What’s all that noise in the background, you ask? Why that would be The Tilda Bear destroying a cardboard box.
P.P.S. If the idea of shooting a video is too much to contemplate, feel free to leave a line in the comments and I will act it out for you!
Out & About
This week you can find me over at Gypsy Girl’s Guide with a story about my last time in Rome, and my first Global Inspirations interview is up at Create Mixed Media with the lovely Susannah Conway.
And don’t forget that tomorrow is the last day to receive a $20 discount for PaperStories, my one-day workshop at Teahouse Studios with the divine Maya Stein on Saturday, October 22, 2011.
Brave Again
I purchased this painting a few years ago ~ a mixed media creation on canvas by the uber-talented Anne Carmack. Even though I have not – miraculously – moved since the day I brought it home, it feels like something that has followed me. Anytime I look at it or pick it up, I think of it as a companion of sorts ~ something that has been content to sit quietly and be comfortable wherever I end up putting it.
I had a monumentally bad afternoon with the Tilda Bear last week, and in the midst of it, as I walked by this painting ~ which was sitting on the floor with a few other paintings just outside my studio ~ I instinctually grabbed it and set it atop my studio work table. I needed to hold it, to have it up higher ~ somewhere that its message was more readily and consistently available. Because training and working with Tilda has been about that word ~ again. It has been about disciplining her again. Taking her for a walk again. Picking up her poo and pulling a half-eaten sock out of her mouth again.
That is why this piece has been such a guidepost for me ~ it is a reminder that anything worthwhile and meaningful is all about the agains. I send out a story, it is rejected, so I revise it again and send it out again. I sit still again. I pull my awareness into the present again. I do laundry and dishes and balance our checkbook again and again and again. Life is an ongoing series of agains ~ of giving something a go, creating something, or putting an idea into action, and then having to tweak and adjust and correct and clean up and give in and stand up and sit down and take a risk…again.
I treasure those moments of completion and accomplishment, but they only exist because of the agains. They rest on a foundation of all the moments when I am willing to say, “It’s time to Be Brave Again.”
Global Inspirations
Head over to CreateMixedMedia for a new series of bi-monthly interviews. Christine is the curator of extraordinary stories of artistic and humanitarian inspiration taking place all over the world, from Morocco and Turkey to Uganda and India.
100 Books Project :: Washington, DC
{Book #91, left in Washington, DC by Book Fairy Denise Miller.}
Oh my STARS! There are still a few straggling stories from the 100 Books Projects! Here’s a lovely one from Book Fairy Denise Miller, who took care of Book #91 in Washington, DC ~
Gypsy Girl’s Guide
Christine was a regular contributor to Gypsy Girl’s Guide, with monthly stories from more than two decades of travel adventures that have taken her all over the world.
