JOURNAL
documenting
&
discovering joyful things
Suitcases
Source: viksvicious.tumblr.com via Gin on Pinterest
Source: google.com via Bethany on Pinterest
Source: theeclecticlife.wordpress.com via Megan on Pinterest
A new adventure
I said "I couldn't tell you where I'm from any more." I don't know a place that is my home. I guess I've just packed and unpacked too many suitcases.
What do suitcases mean to you?
Snail mail: secret airmail
Guess what? Four little letters with four little books are on their way to four of my favourite bloggers. I hope they like the surprise they find in their mailboxes.
New York trash - alive!
I’m always going to love street art. What’s not to love about generous, creative souls who package up magical little (or big) surprises for us as we go about our daily lives? Why do they do it? Just because. And I think that’s gold.
The air vents on the pavements and roads of New York are everywhere, and they're almost as iconic as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. When I lived in SoHo, those vents gave my dog nightmares, and he went to great and at times life-threatening (given the New York traffic) lengths to avoid stepping on them.
I wonder what my dog would have made of the vents if he’d been there when the trash strewn over them suddenly came to life.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH6xCT2aTSo]
Five fabulous field-books
When I'm on a long telephone conversation, I doodle on whatever paper comes to hand. I tend to draw swirls and concentric circles, and a mermaid or two. Mermaids? Yeah, I don't know why.
What do you doodle? Because let's face it, everyone loves a good scribble. Maybe there's something subconscious about using our hands while talking on the phone... I don't know.
Mr B writes his name over and over again, and my name, and the girls' names, like he's practicing our signatures. You'll find lists of names on loose sheets of paper, in the sleeves of books, on napkins, pretty much anywhere that Mr B has been talking on the telephone.
Of course, some people have a real knack for doodling. So it's these folk that I'm going to celebrate in today's mashup of fabulous field-books. (Field-books in this case meaning: doodles done well, and then a step beyond).
In no particular order...
1. First up, the Frankie magazine project. Frankie sent empty field-books out to just these types of creative doodling folks recently, and asked them to fill the books any which way they saw fit. The books are slowly filtering back, stuffed with drawings, paintings, decoupage and myriad other wonderful, artistic techniques.
2. I love Joanne Thies' red and pink themed field-book, sent to Frankie, filled with intricate patterns and lines, layered one over the other. I wish I had this notebook to thumb through for an hour or eight. Her blog is also well worth a follow, full of lovely things hand-drawn.
3. Super crafter Elise Blaha also has a field-book I love. She calls it a Summer Minibook, and uses a base of coloured or patterned paper to collect "an entire season through photos, ephemera and text."
4. I've blogged about the fascinating Burning House project before. More recently, I fell in love with this travel journal, created by Burning House participant Sarah E Farbo by using an old classic as the base. The book was the Ancient History of Herodotus, "a special gift I recieved on my 21st birthday, which I then used as a journal on my adventures through Europe." What a fabulous idea! When my own field-book is full, I'm going to try something like this next. I wonder what book I should choose...
5. And, finally, we return to doodles. The aptly named blog The Notebook Doodles is another online pool I love to dip my toes into regularly. It's filled with sweet, sometimes sad sayings, drawings and photos, scribbled over grid paper in a moleskin book.
About freedom
Freedom, I used to have it. At least, I had it in the traditional way that we see the word.
I'm not trying to get too deep here, I'm only really talking about fairly superficial freedoms. You know, the freedom to buy those $400 shoes if you really want them. The freedom to take that holiday you can't exactly afford because, dammit, you know you need it. Even the freedom to downsize your apartment and sell the car in order to save money so that one day you can buy those shoes or take that holiday.
All these things represent freedom. Your choice as to how you spend your time and money, how you make plans, even how you make sacrifices.
In the space of 18 months, I have traded in a life of freedom (read: living in SoHo New York as a freelance writer, popping over to London or Peru when I felt like it, traipsing up to Maine for lobster, Rhode Island to research vampires, or down to New Mexico to watch the sky, all while wearing my admittedly several seasons old but still pretty Gucci, Stella McCartney and Louis Vuitton shoes)...
...For a life that definitely does not fit the standard definition of freedom. I am back in Australia which, by its geographical isolation alone, makes travel a much more expensive and significant undertaking. I am married (no more travel romances for me, although that's how I met Mr B, which is another story for another time). I have inherited two beautiful teenaged daughters. I have undertaken two much less beautiful mortgages. But we don't live in either of the houses we're paying off. This means renting, so: no garden, no painting or fixing up the house, no nesting.
And I couldn't be happier.
After all, what's freedom, really? Is it being unfettered? I don't think so. I think freedom is the opportunity to choose, and I am well aware that I represent a very lucky minority in this world that has that opportunity.
The life I have now is more richly rewarding, more challenging, and more surprising than anything I had before. It is also filled to the brim with love. I choose this life.
What does freedom mean to you?
Chocolate record!
Oh, gosh, whatever shall I get Naomi for her birthday? Why, I know! How about this little 7-inch Found record sung with delicious Scottish accents that, when she has finished listening to it, she can EAT. Oh, yes. That would be the BEST. PRESENT. EVER.
The secret bookstore
Imagine being so passionate about something that you do it even if it doesn't pay the bills, even if it's illegal, and even if you believe it is ultimately doomed.
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/26293855 w=525&h=295]
There's No Place Like Here: Brazenhead Books from Etsy on Vimeo.
Michael, the owner of Brazenhead Books in New York, is that passionate. Michael sells his books illegally from a secret, private residence, because the rents in NYC make it impossible for secondhand booksellers to survive, he says. But Michael has always been a bookseller and he's not going to stop now. If you really want to find him, he's in the phone book.
Thank you to Andrew David Watson for making this poignant and inspiring short film about Michael, his passion, and his haven of a bookstore. More about the making of this film here.
A thousand bees
Imagine a thousand bees. Scary? Or pretty? Then imagine taking more than four thousand photographs, and editing them together into a sweet little Sara Lov stop-motion music video. Definitely scary, although the result is very pretty indeed.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxHFV4v2rAc]
Sunshine in winter (+ other things not so bad about Queensland)
This blog has been brought to you from the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, for the past two months. We have one more month to go before we move back down to cooler climes.
I have been complaining about living here but that just goes to show how ungrateful I am, and that I need an attitude readjustment. To show I've made my peace with Queensland, I wanted to bring you these sweet scenes from my daily walk with the dog.
And by way of apology to the northern State, here are some other lovely things about Queensland that I hope will cheer your day and inspire your weekend.
* Shopping at the BrisStyle indie markets for something unique and handmade * Free music on Sunday afternoon in the Bond University amphitheatre overlooking the lake * Treasure hunting at the Woollongabba Antique Centre in Brisbane * Eggs for breakfast on Sunday at Vintage Espresso in Mermaid Beach * Musings and tidbits from reading this Queenslander's blog