Up Close and Personal
Inspiration

Links for the Weekend

Sometimes the best way to play trains is up close and personal.

I continue to be flabbergasted by the number of American politicians trying to send women’s right back into the dark ages.

Read 10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the US is Nuts, the best article I’ve read yet on the insanity of this debate.

Then read Twitter’s Tales of Sexism and why feminism shouldn’t be a dirty word.

9 Books on Reading and Writing

Try this gesture based calculator for the iPhone.  I didn’t know the calculator needed to be reinvented but this is pretty cool.

What Apple’s Money Could Buy

Sea urchins?  No.  Elaborate life-like pencil sculptures

5000 Books Pour Out of a Building in Spain

It’s so easy to send an email, people rarely send handwritten notes anymore.  I know I don’t.  But this essay On Letter Writing might inspire me to get pen and paper out.

Submission Guidelines for Our Refrigerator Door

Have a happy weekend.

x

March 23, 2012
He Loves Cars
Motherhood

The Things He Carried

For as long as I can remember, my little man has been obsessed with carrying around what I call “modes of transport.”  Cars, trucks, trains, heavy machinery.  They’ve all come along on our various adventures, imprisoned by the kung-fu grip of one of his tiny little hands.

It’s not the same thing every day.  Sometimes they’re small things, sometimes they’re inappropriately large things.  Some days he can even go without.  But on the days he’s chosen to carry around a little plastic friend, he becomes so attached that it’s near impossible to get him to do anything without holding it.  He’s carried a plastic train into his swimming lesson.  A large Playmobil fire engine accompanied us to the dentist and then to the shops.  And just last week I dropped my son off at school where he proudly introduced his teacher to a lump of clay he called “Harvey.”

Occasionally, I’ve adopted the tactic of hiding the item in the hopes that he’d forget it existed. But that doesn’t work anymore. He remembers everything.  A few weeks ago we embarked on a desperate bedtime mission to find the “pickup truck” he’d been carrying around.  I honestly did not even know what the “pickup truck” was but it was lost.  Thankfully, that night Daddy realized what it was and found it.  It bears no resemblance to a pickup truck by the way.

Mostly, I don’t have the heart to take these things away from him.  As I’ve said before, I am weak and unable to say no to him when it doesn’t really matter.  And, if carrying around a little toy car is what gives him the confidence to get through his challenging toddler day, then why not?

What if someone took away the things we carry around all day, the things we’re attached to?  If someone said to me, “right, that phone, I’m taking it away because you’re using it in too many inappropriate places.”  I know I’d feel naked and incomplete.

Do you have things you carry around all day that you’d feel lost without?

March 21, 2012
Making a Story at the Roald Dahl Museum
Travels

The Roald Dahl Museum: A Phizz-whizzing Time

Recently, I mentioned how the little man had become interested in Roald Dahl’s books.  It took me by surprise that he’d actually sit through something with more words than pictures, but it’s really been a joy to read them.  All of these books are new to me as well, having never read them as a child, so reading them to the little man has given me a new-found appreciation for Roald Dahl’s imagination.

And lucky for us, Roald Dahl spent most of his adult life just a hop skip and jump from here.  In the town where he lived there is a museum, the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, and we went for a visit last week.

According to their website, the Museum’s vision is to:

To be an inspirational Museum that encourages children and adults to unlock their imaginations, engage with reading and have a go at creative writing.

In a world filled with television and video games, how great is that?

I think the little man will enjoy the place a bit more when he’s a little older, but there was still lots to do.  Kids can dress up as some of their favorite characters, make little movies, do arts and crafts, make stories out of magnetic words, and hang out in the cockpit of a WWII plane like Dahl flew.

One of my favorite things at the Museum were the sets from the Fantastic Mr. Fox movie.  Movie making always fascinates me but, the attention to detail in the models they created for this move, just amazing.  The model of a pub even had, in TINY lettering, a sign above the door with the proprietor’s name, a detail you’d never even notice in split second of movie frame, but that some artist felt compelled to include.

You also get a peek into Dahl’s writing process and the things in his life that inspired him.  You can see Dahl’s Writing Hut and the odd assortment of bugwhiffles and buzzwangles he surrounded himself with while writing. And what a prolific writer he was, the shelves in the museum shop are just chock full of his books.

Cafe Twit, where we stopped for a bite of lunch, was full of decadent delicious treats.  The desserts were all crafted with a bit of whimsy, all very Wonka-ish.  And did I mention the hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows?  I can’t remember the last time I had that.  It was like drinking up a little memory of childhood.  Scrumdiddlyumptious!

Really, I don’t think I can sum it all up better than this:

Here’s to believing in magic.

March 20, 2012
Uncategorized

Links for the Weekend

This week we had a day out at one of my favorite places to take the little man, the Cotswold Wildlife Park.  We watched the penguins swim around and then some white rhinos gave us a little show as they were doing their best to ensure the survival of their species.

And because we’ve done the penguin thing this week I thought I’d share the LIVE Penguin Cam from SeaWorld San Diego.  If it’s one of those days where you need a little smile, have a peek.

35 Simple Ways to Be Beautiful.

I think I was well into adult hood before I realized that brownies didn’t just come out of a Duncan Hines box.  But hey!  You can make them from scratch!  Check out these 10 ways to make better brownies.  Or, you can just make them from the box, smother them with fudge sauce and vanilla ice cream and they’ll be just as good.

Steal Like and Artist, a manifesto about being creative.

This new Starbucks concept store in Amsterdam is amazing.  I want to hang out here and drink lattes all day long.

Epic action photos of porcelain figurines shattering on the ground.

How amazing is the big rock we live on?  The Envisat satellite gathered these gorgeous images of Earth from space over the past 10 years.

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency has some of the best creative writing on the Internet.  Check out this gem on the implausibility of the Death Star’s trash compactor.

And, just to step up the geek factor this week, here are five leadership lessons from Jean-Luc Picard.

Seriously, how can I not include this dancing bear.

Happy Mother’s Day weekend to everyone in the UK!

xx

March 16, 2012
Inspiration

Inspired To Do a Little Spring Cleaning

Well I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that I’ve had a facelift.  A blog facelift that is.  Mom, dad, grandma, and the handful of you that stop by regularly have surely noticed the change over the past few days.  I’m sorry if I made you dizzy.

Those of you stopping by for the first time, well, hello, and welcome.  It’s a new year so the site’s got a new look.  But then you’ve never been here before so just assume it’s always looked like this.  iWeb?  Don’t be silly, I never used that.

What’s brought about all this change?  Well, I guess it’s all about why I put the time into this thing in the first place and how those reasons have evolved over time.

When I moved to the UK several years ago, I just thought having a “blog” would be a good way to keep in touch with family.  I didn’t even know what having a blog really meant.  At the time, I just thought it was posting photos online with little writeups saying “Look!  We did this!”  But in the early days, well, I never really embraced the blogging thing.  I did the best I could but I was working a demanding job and getting around to writing up a post felt like a chore, something I had to do for someone else, not for me.  And posting 4 or 5 times a year really isn’t going to do a great job of keeping your family in the loop never mind get you much of a following.

But having my little man and the opportunity to take some time away from the corporate treadmill I’d been on for about 20 years, well, it’s opened my eyes.  It’s allowed me to visualize a more creative life and it’s opened my eyes to world of interesting and inspirational people who share their stories and life experiences online, writers and photographers.  Until just a short time ago I had no idea these people existed.  Seriously, no idea.

And it’s because of all these amazing people who I’ve come across that I’ve been inspired to make this space something more than just photos of our latest family outing.  It’s inspired me to create something that’s my own little piece of the Internet where I can nurture the creative side of me that’s been dormant for a long, long time.

One of the people who has inspired me on this journey is Susannah Conway and I’m taking her Blogging from the Heart course.  And last week she inspired me to revisit some of the design elements of my blog.  It needed a bit of a tidy-up, a little more whitespace, and a cleaner, fresher look.

I also cannot say enough good things about Katrina at Pugly Pixel.  Her creativity and sense of design are just brilliant and without her graphics and tutorials I couldn’t have come this far.

So welcome to the new space.  Take your coat off and stay for a while.  I’ll put the kettle on.

I’m always interested in constructive feedback, so if you’d like to share any thoughts on the new design, please feel free to post a comment.

Iphone Processing:  Shot with Hipstamatic:  Libatique 73 lens, Blanko Freedom 13 film.
March 14, 2012