Right now...

It's windy, rainy and dark outside, my head is full of random thoughts, I can't focus on what I'm doing or decide what to do next. It's the perfect time for a bit of randomness...

I'm happy that I saw Beth, Polly and Jelica yesterday. I needed to step away from my daily life and talk blogging, photography, books and creativity. Thanks, girls!

I'm thinking about starting a photography journal, with ideas for shootings and notes on techniques. Do any of you do this? Is it useful?

I'm trying to decide between watching a romantic comedy that I know will disappoint (Letters to Juliet) or a beautiful movie that may require some brain action while watching (Fur, An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus)


I'm frustrated that I've been trying to write a post on learning and photography for three days and I can't seem to convey my thoughts on paper (or screen).

I'm wondering whether the fact that Borders is going to be replaced by a Tesco supermarket is a sign that it's time to leave Oxford. 

I'm happy that I came back to blogging. Each and every one of the comments in my previous post made me SMILE!

I'm sad that I'm missing the next Blog Camp.

I'm thinking where to go next... I've just finished reading Lone traveller, by Anne Mustoe (She was an amazing woman!) and the temptation of leaving it all behind and leave with the boy and our bikes in search of adventures is almost irresistible.

I'm waiting for things to settle, for my to do list to become shorter and for the summer to arrive.

I'm hoping that I can focus and write a proper blog post soon.

What are you doing right now?

The perfect digital journal

I've been waiting for this all my life (at least all my online life!). The perfect mix of access to the online world with a traditional journal to sketch, write or store inspiration on.
It's so good, I'm finding it hard to believe that Microsoft would be able to pull it off, but if they do, I'm definitely getting one! iPad, what iPad? (Said by a self-confessed Apple girl!)
I'm seriously excited about the possibilities, watch the video and see for yourself!




Information and video via endgadget.

Randomness and links

I don't normally write random posts, but today my head is full of randomness and more than a bit fuzzy. This may or may not be due to the fact that I haven't had coffee in over 24 hours. I didn't decide not to have it (could never do THAT), but my stomach is telling me that it may be a good idea not to drink coffee for a while, like until tomorrow. And this leads me to the first bit of randomness:

How come I spent a whole year in South America, and didn't get any stomach bugs, while everyone around me was ill, then I come back to Europe and I start getting them? So I asked this very important question @ Twitter and I got interesting responses, VEG thinks that it's the Universe telling me to drink more coffee to kill the bugs, Extranjera thinks that the bugs already on my stomach were killing the South American bugs. I, the eternal optimistic, think that it's the Universe telling me to go and live in South America, since I liked it so much.

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Which leads me to Twitter (Ha! Not so random after all, there IS a method to my randomness), I've been on it for while but couldn't actually understand the point of it! Suddenly I totally get it! See? I was told Twittering was microblogging, which may sound very exciting but gets boring after a while, specially if you like talking non stop (140 characters is not enough!). But it's actually such a good conversational tool and, when you are following interesting people, they post really good links to lots of good articles and websites. Do you twitter? If you want to follow me, I have a link on my sidebar.

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I don't normally miss receiving letters in the mail, I think it's much easier keeping in touch in the age of email and Facebook, but I do miss getting pretty cards and postcards. If you want to start getting postcards from all over the world, join Postcrossing here. I've just joined! I discovered this website because it was tweeted (is that a word?) by Angelthreats. (Ah, Twitter again)

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If you are anything like me and the blog camp girls and like to spend your whole day in your pyjamas, but feel bad and lazy when you do, and unfortunately need to eventually get changed when you have to leave the house, then go to this clothes website here. They had me at their name, Pyjama Room and their motto: "comfortable luxury". Is there anything better?

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Finally started to properly read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao for The Hermit Book Club. I'm loving the writing style and specially the humour; the author manages to make everything funny. Even some very tragic things. I'll tell you some more when I'm at least half way through (hopefully I'll have time to read this weekend, as we're discussing it at the end of next week!

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If you have a business and are struggling to find a cool name for it, go here. If you don't need a business name, go anyway, because it's so much fun! I quite like Peach Banana Design and Red Parrot Labs.

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To end on a lovely note, lovely Lynette from the lovely blog My creative fling, gave me a lovely award. I want to pass on this award to lovely Jan, who writes a beautiful blog called Race of Style. Jan always finds the best things from Britain, tells us all we need to know about Paris Hilton (please, don't stop) and loves Cecil Beaton. Although she's not keen on Twitter. But she's a caring and lovely lady, so she truly deserves a lovely award. Go and visit her!

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What randomness is going on in your head at this very minute?

Where is home?

I'm writing this from Spain, where we've come to spend a long weekend. I should be happy to spend some time with friends and family (and I am) but I'm seriously tired and, probably as a result of it, feeling a bit weird and lost. I thought I'd got to a place where I was at peace with being a Spanish in England. I like leaving in England (yes, despite the rain) for lots of reasons and I enjoy spending some of my holiday in Spain.
During the 8 years I've been living in England, I've gone trough different phases. At first, it was hard to live in another country, specially one where I didn't speak the language, and where I didn't understand many of the customs or personality traits. Then, I started to really like England, feeling at ease there, to the point where so many "Spanish things" started to seem strange or even wrong to me. Finally, I enjoyed having two so different homes so close to each other and the fact that I could easily switch from English to Spanish (most of the time).
Now, I'm starting to feel a bit lost in both countries, missing one when I'm in the other, and never completely happy where I am. Where is home? I keep asking myself. I've always thought that at some point in my life I'd go back to Spain and settle down, as my Mum puts it (I think I'm pretty settled in England but this obviously doesn't count for her, since it's in "another country" which means I'm "traveling"), now I'm not so sure. But I don't see myself staying in England either.
I read somewhere that "Home is where my books are", something I completely agree on (because you know that books are my friends). The problem is that at the moment, my books (and many other of my possessions) are in two different places.

This moment

I need to remember this, remember to enjoy the present, because it really is all we have. I always have lots of plans and ideas about things I want to do, what I want my life to be like. This means that I tend to focus on the future; I'm always convinced that I'll be happy when I have more money/the weekend arrives/I start that course (delete as appropriate).
The truth is that there are plenty of things that I can be grateful for at this very moment, but I need to remember to stop and count them. Some of these are: my boyfriend, my family (yes, they can be a pain, but yes, they are always there for me), that fact that I was able to come back to my job after a year traveling in the middle of a recession, friends in lots of different countries, my books (I could count my books as friends)...
Today, I'm going to try and be happy every moment... even the moment when I have to go to my boss' office because I realized last night that I made a mistake that's going to be a bit expensive to solve (sigh).

Image from dazeychic-etsy, via Lovely Little Things

New Year´s resolutions

Happy 2009 by Cuttingsonablog

Aunque todo el mundo habla de crisis, estoy segura de que el 2009 va ser un año de oportunidades y reflexión, de decidir cómo queremos vivir. Para mí, el 2009, va a ser un año de transición. Después de 10 meses viajando por Sudamérica, algo que me ha servido para conocerme mejor a mí misma, este va a ser el primer año de mi nueva vida, el año en el que empezaré a hacer realidad el modo de vida que ahora sé que quiero.

Everyone is talking about the crisis and how it's going to affect us in 2009. But I'm optimistic and think that 2009 is going to be a year of opportunities, a time to think how we really want to live our life. For me, 2009 is going to be a transition year. In 2008, I spent 10 months traveling in South America, and after my trip I know myself better, and I have a clearer idea of what I want to do with my life. It's time to start living that life.

Entre otras cosas, quiero tener más tiempo para explorar mi creatividad, rodearme de cosas bonitas, aprender a valorar la belleza y sencillez de las cosas hechas a mano. Durante la primera semana del año, voy a ir añadiendo cosas relacionadas con la creatividad que he incluido en mi lista de propósitos de este año. Por supuesto, una de ellas será tener tiempo para seguir jugando con mi nueva página web favorita, Polyvore.

Among other things, I want to spend more time exploring my creativity, I want to surround myself with beautiful things, learn the value of the simple beauty of handmade objects. During the first week of the year, I'll be posting about some of my creativity-related New Year's resolutions. One of them, of course, will be having more time to play with my new favourite website, Polyvore.

Happy New Year

Feliz año nuevo! De nuevo tenemos la oportunidad de reinventarnos a nosotros mismos. ¿Quien vas a ser en el 2009?
Happy New Year! Once again, we are given an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. ¿Who would you be in 2009?

Photo from Poppytalk

More yellow

Parece que no soy la única a la que le gusta el amarillo. En la última media hora lo he visto en Habitually Chic, The City Sage y en This is love forever. Estas dos últimas mencionan a Twig Hutchinson, que es la estilista de esta foto, que me encaaaanta.

It seems I'm not the only one who likes yellow. In the last hour only I have seen it in Habitually Chic, The City Sage and in This is love forever. The last two mention Twig Hutchinson, stylist of what it has to be my favourite photo at the moment:


Por si eso no fuera suficiente, los expertos tambien afirman que el amarillo es el color del 2009. La alegría, la vitalidad y el optimismo del amarillo es algo que el mundo necesita ahora mismo, ¿no creeis?

As if that wasn't enough, the experts are also predicting that yellow is THE colour of 2009. The world definitely needs some of the joy, vitality and optimism that yellow brings, don't you think?

Photo @ Twig Hutchinson

Would you live in a church?

¿Vivirías en una Iglesia? ¿No? Yo me lo pensaría si es tan acogedora como esta, que ha sido reconvertida en pisos.

Would you live in a church? No? I think I’d consider it… if it looks as gorgeous as this one, which has been transformed into flats.

Photos from realstate found @ Desire to inspire

Además, me parece que recuperar y conservar edificios antiguos para darles otra función es una idea genial. Uno de mis restaurantes/bares de cocktails favoritos en Oxford es Frevd, que está en una antigua iglesia.

I also think that renovating buildings and giving them a new purpose is great! One of my favourite restaurants/cocktail bars in Oxford is Frevd, inside an old church.

This fantastic photo is from Flickr

Puede que a alguien le parezca una falta de respeto, ¿es así? Pero ¿no es mejor que dejar que el edificio se caiga?

Some people may consider this disrespectful. Do you? But surely, this is better than leaving the building crumble away…