In two or three months I WILL be in our new house (notice the intention sending?). And I'm yearning for the chance to express my blooming creativity through decor.

After living in rented accommodation, and our previous two houses decorated to sell, I need to make an environment that feels me.

I rediscovered tumblr, and am loving my time there. It's quick painless blogging, or tumblogging, or something. Anyway, my space there is to collect images that inspire me, as well as anything Bohemian, similar to here but more visual, and including pics I wouldn't bother blogging about. I'm keeping that space very Bohemian, as a collection spot of sorts, for others like-minded. I've enjoyed having other tumblr loggers share their inspirations, and have been bombarded with beauty this last week.

Anyway this post is to share with you my home decor style, or glimpses anyway. It's the style I've always had in one way or another.

These are some of my faves from my tumblr spot. I don't necessarily love every element in every pic though. And I dislike too much clutter. Nor could I do fuschia wall colour! Love the pic but living in it would give me a headache.
And let me just preface this by saying that there's nothing amazing here. I'm not looking at interior design, but real living spaces. You can click the pics for larger versions.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

More of my bohemian interior picks here.


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Books, travel, typography, and smart design. What a combo.

Brazilian design agency headed up by João Pessoa, came up with these witty book covers for Penguin.

In 2003 a sketchbook was sent in random order between four artists; two in Brooklyn, NY, and two in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Artists: Oliver Jeffers, Rory Jeffers, Mac Premo and Duke Riley.

Each artist had five days to complete a spread in response to the one that preceded it.

A small portion of each entry extended onto the following page. Beyond this there was no communication between the artists concerning the content of Book during its making.

Book's first trip across the Atlantic was on 2 June, 2003. It's final trip was on 2 February, 2004. The Book travelled over sixty thousand miles in thirty six weeks.

A hardcover limited edition reproduction of Book was offered for sale. Only 500 signed copies were made, that included an audio CD of the artist's comments about each page.

They are doing it again with Book II.

Around 1992, a few friends and I tried something similar.... except, we were just art students........ and we all lived in the same town........ and we didn't get past 3 of us doing a couple of pages....... still..........
it was a moment.

---

It wasn't so much
that she stood on
tiptoe
but that the
architectural softness
of her arches
lured me into
something I hadn't
planned on


at least not out loud.

copyright Monica 2010

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
Worth: 3/5
Enjoyed: 2/5

This is a fiction story that wraps itself around the philosophical ideas of the author. Kuranda's prose is witty and deceptively conversational, and his ideas and observations are, on a few occasions, captivating. Despite the onus on philosophy, it's actually a fairly light read.

However, these good points began to weigh heavy (yes, pun) after the first quarter. The potentially exciting philosophical ponderings disintegrate, for me, into meaningless and sometimes off-putting excuses for adultery. Off-putting in that it becomes super dull, and because the wife is first annoyingly passive (rather than fascinatingly so) and then self-reproachful for not accepting her husband's love as it was! I'm all for freedom in love, but playing the numbers game on one side, and years of sadness on the other, is a big snooze.

This is first and foremost a book of ideas, so the story is secondary. Yet it is the vehicle for the ideas, and for me, are driven not over the edge, but simply stall. I could have accepted his meanderings and disconnected ideas if his prose was lyrical, poetic, which, while good, isn't either.

What I don't accept are his flimsy philosophical observations. His basic premise - questioning whether lightness is preferable to heaviness, or whether heaviness is a bad thing - is a worthwhile one. Yet the explanations are assumptions backed up by, more often than not, grammatical rather than conceptual links. Just using 'therefore' doesn't a legitimate point make.

I think that I would have enjoyed this in my early 20's, when I was particularly open to being pushed philosophically, legitimate or not, and everything seemed amazing because of it's new opportunity to push. There was no pushing now, and the gentle nudges were easy to forget.

I gave it 3 stars for worth because it does have it's place, mostly for stylistic and cultural reasons, and partly because it's so well known, so it's worth discovering what it's all about, if you have that much extra time. I didn't hate it, but I would have preferred having had spent my time chewing on a different book.

I've been creative, and after almost two solid hours of this the other day, I was on a high for the rest of the day. And I believe the glow remains. I still feel it's tingle.

 Astronomer by Candlelight, Gerrit Dou

Over the years, I've been living under the Shadow of Impatience. Also, I allowed myself to be in a life where I felt restricted as well as pressured to be something other than I was.

What this meant, is that I was constantly self-learning, formally studying, or working jobs, that were usually not my calling. On the flip side, I would learn or work in something I loved, but was impatient, or felt pressured, to Do Something With It.

I would dive into a course of study for example, but wanted to be an expert Now, or start earning within a year, despite it being a vocation that would likely take years.

Mystic, David Michalcyzk

Now, at almost 40, I look back and see, okay, not wasted time, because I refuse to view my life like that, despite the pull towards that perspective.... but, I see how if I had taken things slowly and steadily, I could have achieved so, so much more.

I'm not a results-orientated person when it comes to career, I love learning for its own sake, and I've never been driven by the dollar. I'm okay at not being an expert, or not having that PhD (which was really just another trap). So that's not what I mean by achieved more.

What I'm not okay with, is the lie that I told myself each time I started on a new path - it's no use, it will take me years to finish this, to be really good at this, so there's no point.

I look back at say, 10 years, and see how I could have studied something slowly, even taken 10 years to do it, and here today, I would have the substantial knowledge of the subject. Or pacticed an art, craft, or skill.

And again, I don't mean because I would then be an expert and admired, or feel the sense of achievement, or have a brilliant career. No, what I mean is that I would have peace and regular highs.

Woman reading by candlelight, Peter Vilhelm Ilsted  

Without the anxiety of feeling I had to be or do something other than my passion, I would feel peace. I would be doing what I was doing for the pure joy of it. Not because of a pressure to do something useful with it.

And, without the constant stumbling due to the gaps in my knowledge or abilities, I would be able to enter the Flow of creativity more often and with little effort. Or even do something useful or earn money but in the area I was passionate about.

It's this latter awareness that really was a slap in the face for me.

At 30, the prospect of it taking 10 years to achieve my goal looked not only daunting but highly ridiculous to me. And so, I would drop that path and head to another.
Now, I'm on the other side of those same 10 years. An entirely different perspective of the time.

I have spent most of the last 2 months since I came up with my book idea, feeling frustrated, or trying to accept things as they were, because I had no time to write. Time was slipping away I felt.

After my realisation of time, I felt a new dawn.

If it takes me 3, 5, 10 years, to write this book, it will eventually be written, rather than choosing to do nothing and then look back when I'm 50 and saying, oh no, I did it again.

A huge burden dropped away.

Vasalisa, Laura Chicote

So a lot going on here: anxiety of fleeting time, pressure to Do Something Useful, frustration at lack of time, wanting something immediately....

I'm reigning in earthy energy, for steady progress. If the process is what brings me joy, which it most definitely is, then time is irrelevant, right?

How can creativity flow when we place restrictions on it, or when we demand ideal conditions. As a mother, isn't hoping for the latter just plain crazy?
It's likely that the 'perfect' conditions will be rare or non-existent. However, I have many many small moments at my disposal, and even the occassional chunk.
Either this is absolutely unacceptable, and so I change things, or accept things I can't change. Or, if I don't want to change things, I realise that I can choose to embrace the moments. The other option is to remain at a stale mate with life.

Right now, I'm choosing to embrace the moments.

And just like that, I fully see the lie learnt in my chilhood, that happiness is found only in freedom, in ideals. No, happiness can be found within limits, even for an Airy-Firey person like me!

So with this lightness, I didn't say, I can only write at this specific time, and didn't even say, I'm going to write. Instead, I picked up one tiny piece and examined it and played with it, and very soon, without realising it, I found myself writing anyway. Doing my passion, expressing myself, allowing creativity the Flow.

The flame of a candle, is it restricted, or is it the wildness of fire become productive?

What a high!