Something for the weekend

Lessons learned from writing love letters to strangers

Loving Project Wild Thing (via Jo)

Downloaded: Sourced Cities on my iPad

When why-ning works

Your Instagram horoscope

How to make a vision board 1 | How to make a vision board 2 (via Cheryl)

have you seen Jen’s gorgeous jewellery emporium?

You know I backed this: the Impossible Instant Lab!

How to run your own race

Pumpkin spice creme brulee | coffee: a chemex method | Nutella, brown butter & sea salt cookies

Okay that’s it: I want to move to Iceland

Currently reading: this | this | this

Six steps to making friends after college

50+ better questions to ask than how to be more productive

Happy weekend, everybody!

My superpower


My friend Andrea launched her gorgeous new site, Superhero Life, today and to celebrate she put the call out asking us a question:

What’s your superpower?

There are many things I feel i’m pretty good at, but the one trait that seems to be infused through everything I do is… truth-telling.

I had a few moments when I was writing the book when I worried that I was sharing too much. When I wrote about the stuff I wasn’t proud of — failed friendships, family difficulties — or embarassed by — anecdotes about my body were particularly hard to share — I wondered if I was going to regret being so open, laying it all out for public consumption. I have absolutely no idea why I share the way i do — it just feels very natural to do it. As I wrote about recently, i don’t share everything, but truthfulness comes up in my work again and again.

You want to talk about grief? I’ll tell you everything I felt and experienced. PMS? Easy peasy. Why being single for eight years is actually rather hard? Bring it on. That I rarely shave my legs? Done.

One of the most challenging side-effects of our 24/7 access to others on the internet is how easy it is to think that “everyone else” has a perfect life. We can curate our lives in social media, showing the bestest shiny parts and editing out all the less-than-stellar moments. Who hasn’t scrolled through their Facebook feed and thought shit, everyone else’s lives are so awesome and mine is so boring. I only have to glance at my Twitter feed on the wrong day to feel like an absolute failure. <—- truth.

Sometimes I have to unfollow people on Instagram because their photos/lives are so photogenic and fabulous I end up feeling crap about my little single existence. <—- more truth.

But then I also know that others may look at my Instagram feed and think it’s all rainbows and unicorns over here in Conwayland. It’s not. Some days are really great. Some days just plain suck. You know — a normal life :) On the sucky days I tend not to post any images to Instagram, or post anything to social media at all. Maybe that’s letting the side down, somehow, I don’t know. I just try to get the balance right between being truthful and moaning.

So yeah… truth-telling. Lately I’ve been feeling the urge to do even more of it here on this blog.

But I won’t be posting photos of my unshaved legs on Instagram. <—- the truth to end all truths.

_______

What’s your superpower?

Something for the weekend

Building the Statue of Liberty in Paris

Addicted to incense from here, especially White Sage and Douglas Fir (UK peeps: i bought mine from Toast)

[video] Shawn Achor on the Happiness Advantage

The world’s simplest meditation

Sesame banana bread | sugar-free granola | fish soup with kale

Life lessons from a 40th birthday (I adore Justine. And I turn 40 in February — eep!)

“You must not fear, hold back, count or be a miser with your thoughts and feelings. It is also true that creation comes from an overflow, so you have to learn to intake, to imbibe, to nourish yourself and not be afraid of fullness. The fullness is like a tidal wave which then carries you, sweeps you into experience and into writing.” Anais Nin, via Brain Pickings

The extreme importance of letting yourself be occasionally ugly

The new economics of photojournalism: the rise of Instagram

The very lovely Paul Jarvis shares what he used to self-publish his book

The internet map (via Swiss Miss)

Loving Angie’s beautifully subtle Photoshop actions (and they’re free!)

[video] Mad Men perform Rick Astley (this is genius — thank you, Sas)

[video] This also REALLY made me laugh :)

Have a great weekend, everybody! xo

The Simple Things


First of all, thank you so much for your lovely congratulatory and supportive comments on the last post. It really does mean the world to me, and actually, i got a bit teary reading your words — it’s an amazing thing to feel supported by people who don’t know you (even though we do know each really, don’t we) — thank you so much for your kindness and generosity. It’s going to keep me going as i navigate this odd inbetween time and prepare to make the big jump… xo


Yesterday I nipped up to Londontown to toast the birth of The Simple Things. I’ve been having brainstorming lunches with Janet, the creator of the magazine, since last year, and to see it in its finished form is so exciting. It’s a really lovely magazine, one to savour with a cup of tea and a slice of cake, and I’m honoured to be contributing a monthly column about mindfulness and exploring the senses. In an age of digital communications it’s a treat to flick through a paper magazine, one you’ll definitely want to keep and refer back to.

They’re currently offering three issues for just £5 when you susbcribe — overseas subscribers get a good deal too.

(The other thing i love about the magazine is that it’s full of images we can use for vision boarding. All you need is that and few Toast catalogues and you’re all set ;-)