A weekend in Lisbon - Tiles part 1

Paul and I have our birthdays within 6 days of one another - me on the 13th, and Paul on the 19th of March - and every year we try to do something as a joint celebration...a meal out, night away, day trip, or occasionally, a full weekend away.

This year, we managed to stick another pin in our imaginary map of places visited, when we jetted off to Lisbon on Friday 13th March.

For me, the interest in visiting Portugal's capital city, was sparked when we were in Hong Kong in 2009 and whilst there, we took a ferry to the former Portuguese colony of Macau for the day. A very hot day for a pale, freckly, red head...never in the history of me, has my hair been that frizzy, and my face that red! I'm sure everyone I passed thought I was about to explode.

hot and bothered in Macau 2009

I fell completely in the love with the bright tiles I saw on the exterior walls of some of the buildings there, as well as the incredible patterned, cobbled pedestrian areas. The tiles were naturally beautiful, but when the sun shone on them, the colours sang!

ahh the original Portuguese tiles in Macau

So did Lisbon live up to my tile expectations? Honestly, I was gobsmacked! 

Gobsmacked at how omnipresent they were, and at the sheer areas covered by them on the outside of the buildings - entire facades bedecked in them, and I'm not talking your two up two down English terraced house sized. Nope. Huge multi storied, multi windowed buildings, with the most beautiful tiles gracing their fronts. I couldn't quite wrap my head around having to tackle a task of that magnitude. Never mind the tedium of such a job!

After reading up a bit about them since we got home, I have learned that they are called azulejo in Portugal, and that whilst they are ornamental, they also served as a method of temperature control in homes. We did spot a few instances of them covering the walls of the basement rooms of restaurants in the city.

I've included a few photos showing the tiles and the buildings that they adorned. I took so many photos that I may do another post of the close ups I took, but there would be far too many to include them in this one.

Fabulous tiled panels on the frontage of this old pharmacy

I love the plants at the top of this tiled panel

Which are your favourites?

Cheers
Sarah
x

down the rabbit hole

I've just rescued myself from disappearing up my own bum!

I've been delving into the realms of Illustrator and Photoshop with gusto, of late, but I fear I delved so deep that I almost forgot to come up for air...in danger of vanishing into a warren of pixels, vectors and ctrl Z.

Do you do that? Get so completely engrossed with something, that you fixate on it to the exclusion of everything (& occasionally everyone) else?

I'm a bit of a bugger for doing just that, and this time it was Ps and Ai's turn as the object of my stalking.

A bit of background: My word for this year is DRIVE, and in my efforts to drive myself forward personally and professionally, one thing I wanted to tackle was the wondrous world of Adobe. So I signed up for Illustrator on Creative Cloud (I already had Photoshop) and set to, enrolling in as many courses as I could find on the subject, and watching as many tutorials as I could get me hands on.

Brilliant! Honestly, I have learned plenty in the past two and half months, though I'm light years away from being proficient in both applications, but still..I now have some skills that I am happy to wield with wild abandon. And by wild abandon I mean, whilst carefully following the notes I've made.

All is good, and I had a lovely (and very welcome) four day break whilst Paul & I explored Lisbon. Then we came home and I got right back into to it. Sucked deep down into the rabbit hole, once more.

I have spent the best part of the last two days trying to get a banner loaded into my website and my blog, that isn't stupidly, annoyingly blurry!!! Seriously, you create it in a package that supposedly can shrink and expand without loss of detail, then you upload it into your required place and {wet fart noise} all the super shiny clarity is lost.

I have driven myself potty trying to suss it out, thinking about it as I fell asleep last night, waking up to it in my mind this morning - I have only just got dressed* because I had to try one more idea (which lead to many ideas) with the same fuzzy naff result.

So there I was an hour ago...heading down the rabbit hole of fixation doom, my legs just poking out of the top..when I stopped, and pulled myself out in the nick of time.

I had completely lost myself inside my Macbook and my software programs. I was feeling utterly dejected at the lack of desired results; a tad lonely due to lacking in company whilst glaring at my screen; and if I'm honest, a bit blue.

It's time to take a break - even if it's just from banners and logos! - I haven't drawn in ages, and I need to get back to that, and the loo could do with a good clean, and fresh sheets would certainly cheer me up! But I definitely DO need to move away from the logos!!!

Besides, it's often walking away from something and the coming back to it refreshed, that's helps us see more clearly the problem at hand!

Cheers for now
Sarah
x

*I started typing this at 2:30pm but then my mum popped in for a cuppa, hence a little delay in getting this posted...a very happy delay at that!

Grown up

I'm having one of those 'I don't want to be a grown up' days. Do you have them?

I don't want to do the washing; clean the loos; vacuum the floors; make the tea; be responsible; be accountable; deal with the mundane, tedious and downright soul-sappingly dreary jobs that grown ups have to do.

Yes I know it's all part and parcel of having a lovely and happy home, life and family. I understand and accept that, and ordinarily have no problem with it - it's a trade off that I'm more than happy to do.

But some days. 

Some days, I want to...shut myself in my room, listen to my music, chat with friends, lig around on my bed, doodle, scribble in my journal...just be. 

No requirements of me.

No natterings at the back of my head twittering away at me to: not forget to text a friend to see if they're ok; buy salad; do some exercise; consume less sugar; read more; get out in the fresh air; sort the spare room out; reorganise the drawers in the study; wrap that birthday present; arrange to drop off that birthday present; tidy the house before Paul gets home; get my other jobs done before George gets home; remind George to do his homework; rearrange that night out; look at dates to have friends round; do that two hours work/work; get the tea made and eaten before George's dad picks him up at 6; get back on with the Ditsy to dos; put my face on; cheer the heck up; stop feeling like a stroppy teenager; JUST GET ON WITH IT!

I know it will pass. I know there's a (very) good chance it's hormonal. But still. Oh to just lig about on my bed, laying on my belly, reading a magazine with my music on, and not a care in my head.

George's 'domain'

I think it was sitting on George's bed, admiring his domain (as he called it yesterday), and remembering my own domain in my parent's house as a child, that set this all off. 

I just wanted to stay in there, shut the door on the rest of the house/the world, ignore everything that needed doing, and just enjoy the stillness of it.

Sarah
x

Normal 43 year old service will resume shortly :)

Taking the reins

Recently, the urge to draw has been so overwhelming, that it became a little obsessive. I found that it was all I wanted to do, all of the time...I woke up thinking about it, and fell asleep thinking about it. Now I'm all for a good flow of mojo, and an abundance of ideas, but when it starts to make you a bit twitchy and twisty, it needs to calm down.

Do you ever get that? You're so completely into whatever it is your doing - be it drawing, painting, crocheting, a good book, a Spring clean, decorating - that real life interfering with it makes you grumpy? (Think snarly dog with a big juicy bone...move away from the bone!) I'm sure most of us have had it at some point, and it brings out the stroppy toddler in me...I don't WANT to make dinner, clean up, do the washing, spend time with my family, because I WANT TO DRAW. Teddy out of the pram, and thank you very much. Ha ha!

Well, thankfully the obsessive period seems to have passed, and I'm now back into a gentle creative flow...which is so much easier to balance with everything else, and much easier on those I live with. And the guilt is gone. That guilt you get when you're doing your thing, but know you should be spending time with others. Hmm, cue more twisty twitchy witchiness.

Finding the balance is something I struggle with a lot. I'm either manically making or pretty much doing naff all! There doesn't seem to be a middle ground, no happy plateau of creating, just great big peaks and troughs.

pertinent doodle!

I'm working at managing this, at creating a steady flow of Ditsy Bird activity, at being consistent. I have to say it's hard! It clearly isn't a natural thing for me, or at least not with my own creativity. I don't have a problem with it at my office job. There, if I have work to do, I get on with with it at a steady and consistent momentum, until the task is completed...it's how I have always worked for someone else. Methodical, paced, accurate (generally), and reliable.

Translating that away from the black and white land of numbers and spreadsheets, into the rainbow land of imagination, mojo and creative urges, is something I am very keen to do.

My word for the year is DRIVE: 
*I want to drive my life forward, in the direction of my goals and dreams - not tread water as I have done for too many years now.
*I want the drive to do this.

There seems little point in having plans, designs and ideas coming out of my backside, if I haven't the oomph/desire/focus or courage to put them into practice. I need to take action, to be active, to actively pursue my dreams and work towards my goals.

So I am taking hold of the reins this year, and not letting go.

sketchbook thoughts on the word DRIVE

A part of this is tackling my ingrained, creative mentality - rather than waiting for the creative urge to strike, I am working on maintaining a creative flow by creating constantly - doodling and drawing every day, as opposed to just doing it when to mood strikes.

I am also trying to create consistently...in the character, quality, and effort of my designs...to cultivate a cohesive look and feel to my work, to further develop my own style.

My thinking is that, by following the constant and consistent path, I will even out the creative peaks and troughs a little, enabling a steady flow of ideas and designs to come out over the year.

I have a friend (a very good friend who I admire enormously for her drive and determination) who has a very full and happy life - what that girl can do in a week blows my mind. If she is a cheetah, I am Queen Sloth. Truthfully.

Whenever I see what she can achieve, I am always reminded of the "the more you do, the more you can do" philosophy. Obviously, if you do too much you'll burn out, *poof*, so there is a limit it to it, but that's a lot of doing to be done before the burn out stage is reached.

Setting goals, and hitting them; writing to do lists, and ticking them off; setting yourself challenges, and rising to them, gives you the burn and desire to do more - it also gives you the huge satisfaction of your achievements, and shows you the potential of what can be achieved.

I am my own cheerleader :)

I need a taste of that. I need to be brave. I need to see what I can achieve.

Most importantly, I need to do this for me. I need to not feel like I'm letting myself down, or that I'm wasting my talents. I need to see that I'm reaching my potential.

I want to know that I'm setting a great example to my son - if you want something, work for it! Put the effort and time into it, and you'll reap the rewards. If you put nothing in, well then, there'll be nothing to show for it. I need him to see it rather than rely on the old adage of "do as I say, not as I do".

I want to reach a point where I look back and go "yup, I did that", not "whoops, another year gone and bog all to show for it".

Ooh there is lots more on this subject that I want to talk about, but I think I'll leave it here for today, and revisit it another time.

So, do you have any tricks or tips, or go to resources to help you to be brave, to aim for the stars, to stay consistent?

Sarah
x

Feeling the love

Breakfast, chats and giggles with my bestie

Mum & Godmum popping in for a brew and a natter

My cousin sending me a Pinterest board entitled Papír

A wonderfully thoughtful comment on my last blog post

...happy

I hope you're feeling some love today

S

x

 

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Nudges from my psyche

Morning!

For a few weeks now, I've been dreaming about babies...from being given white kittens which, when fed and cuddled, each turned into a beautiful baby girl, to last night where I had two baby boys, both happy and gorgeous and I had to look after and nurture them.

This has happened a few times over the course of my forty three years, and usually occurs when I'm creatively dry. It could be that circumstances are restricting my creative time, or that I am mojo free. This time it's a little different.

There are things going on in life that are making me question things. Most things. Pretty much everything. You know when there's something BIG that makes everything else seem so small and inconsequential? That.

I love to draw. I love to make and paint and stick, and just create - be it art or cooking, there are creative opportunities abounding on a daily basis.

Recently my creativity had been tethered. Tied up, restricted, halted. By me.

I've had this underlying feeling that my drawing is so completely inconsequential that I've simply stopped, unable to get started again. There have been a couple of jumps starts, but inevitably the creative engine has stalled again.

Every time the seed of a creative urge has started to grow, there's this little voice in my head that quietly asks "what's the point?".

I was talking to my mum yesterday about it all and her answer was, that I love to draw and it's who I am, and it makes me happy. Agreed. Wholeheartedly. But isn't that just self indulgence? Well, yes I suppose it is to some extent...I draw because I enjoy it. But I also know that other people enjoy the things I draw and paint and sell so does that counter balance some of the self indulgent inconsequentiality of it?

Bit deep for me. Bit deep for a Monday morning!

So back to the dreams. Babies tend to signify new life, ideas, CREATIVITY.

I think my soul is quietly screaming at me to start drawing, making, painting, creating again.

This morning I'm watching the first video for an online art workshop in a bid to get the engine running smoothly again, get the babies out of my dreams*, and to forget about issues of inconsequentiality and the such and just enjoy the process.

How do you 'un-stall' your creativity?

Sarah
x

*frankly white kittens turning into pink, naked, baby girls was a bit trippy, even for my dreams!

Act

Hello! I have been a bit lapse on here of late, as is my wont.

This is something I really need to work on, and it fits in perfectly with my word for 2014 of ACT.

Thinking, planning and discussing is all well and good, but I need to start ACTing on my thoughts and plans.

With a bit of willpower, you should be seeing more of me and my goings on here in the near future!

x