Randomness and links

I think it's time for another Randomness and links post, don't you? If only because I've been writing this one since July!

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This made me smile...

Yep, I've been there! If I work from home, it doesn't mean I'll have time to do the laundry, the shopping and the cleaning. Also, no I can't meet you for coffee. I'm working. Although if I'm totally honest, I guess I also have moments of this:  

For more Artsyville prints, visit her Etsy shop.

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The five rules from life blog is very inspirational. Every time I visit, there are new ideas to think about. I think these rules are my favourite at the moment. Oh, and just in case you missed mine, they are here. What would your five rules for life be?

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I'm one of those people who have to arrive at the cinema BEFORE they dim the lights, before the adverts, and obviously, before the movie starts. I also like to wait until the very end to leave; yes, I leave after the closing titles have finished. I love the experience of going to the cinema and I don't want to miss a single second. This is all better it the movie has creative title and ending sequences. I really don't like it when the movie starts straight away, I think everyone involved in making it deserves to have their name displayed in an interesting opening sequence! The Art of the Title website pays homage to some interesting film and TV opening sequences.

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Ah, Polaroid! There is something very special about them. For me, Polaroids are about small moments, about those rutinary objects that we never pay attention to, those scenes that we see every day. The uniqueness of the day to the day. I recently heard about Jamie Livingston, who took a Polaroid photo a day from 1979 to 1997. The story of his life (better, his day to day) on Polaroids. Go here to see them all, or read more about it here.

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And for more creative photo projects, I'm loving The Photographic Dictionary. They keep adding more words and the photos keep getting better. Some of my favourites are birthday (hilarious), home, pink, and plastic. I could spend hours checking every word!

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I'm loving the idea of Hope notes. It's easy, it's beautiful, and it makes me smile. See how Kristin started the hope revolution here. I heard about it from Sas, who has already done it. I think for my first hope expedition I'm going to go around my office. We're not a miserable bunch, but the the days are getting shorter, mornings are becoming colder and we're all feeling a bit blue.

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For more hope and random fun, go check the latest project of Improve Everywhere. They organized a photobooth in the underground! Brilliant! They should tour the world bringing fun to public transport. I love my bike, but one of the reasons why I cycle to work, even though it means getting up earlier and doing exercise first thing in the morning, is that everyone on the bus is always so miserable. It's not a good way to start your day!

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This is a beautiful love story set in Rome, I love everything about it, specially the fact that it was made of photographs. Isn't it clever? I found it at M. A. Belle blog. Enjoy!

12 months of being 30: new beginnings

* This post is part of my 12 months of being 30 project, an attempt to record what happens during my year of being 30.

Slightly different format for my 12 months of being 30 this time. Lately, there hasn't been much time to make collages (or reading blogs, or writing here for that matter). So much has happened... And so, this post is all about a tale of new beginnings.

If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook, you already know about my news (Sorry to those of you that are both on my Twitter and Facebook accounts, I promise this is the last time you have to read about this!)

Firstly, I got a new job! It's a very exciting new post in the same publishing company I work for, but I'm now working on digital material. I'll still work with some of the same people I've been working with over the years but the job is totally new. I'm very excited and looking forward to more responsibilities and some great new projects.

And I have just bought my first property! My family owned a flat in my home town in Spain, Salamanca, and we didn't know what to do with it. Most people wanted to sell it, and so my boyfriend and I decided it was the perfect opportunity to buy everyone else off and get on the property ladder (which is a very English thing to do!). Of course, I live in England, the flat is in Spain and this throws all sorts of questions about home and the future. For now, I'm not thinking about it!

It's funny how these two things have been in the pipeline for a while. Forever, it seems. And then, they both happened at the same time. Right when I was reflecting about September, new beginnings, small and big changes. I feel as if I'm finally moving forward. It's been a weird year, since we came back from South America. What do you do after one of your big dreams becomes a reality? How do you move forward after such an important time in your life? And so, this year, I've been a bit lost, looking back, concentrating on the past.

This blog has really helped me during this process. I've also been journaling a lot, but writing here and knowing that someone was reading has helped me to keep on track. Everyone I've met (both offline and online) because of this blog has inspired me in one way or another, to think about what I really want and how to get it. So thanks so much for being there! You know who you are.

Now it's time to live the past behind, enjoy the present, embrace the new opportunities, and more importantly, start looking ahead. Exciting things are happening, new possibilities are opening. And I'm ready for them. I hope you're ready to come with me.

Corner view: September in the UK

Corner View is back after our summer break! The very timely topic this week is September.

For me, September has always meant a new beginning. It's of course, the back to school feeling. After a summer of fun, I was always more or less ready to go home, to see my friends, to get back into a routine, and yes, even to go back to school. Because the new school year was full of possibilities, of new things to learn, of new ways of doing things.

It's funny, I had that same feeling at the end of my year travelling last December. After an amazing time, I was ready to come back and create new routines and a new life with the boyfriend. This year has been difficult, but we're getting to the place that we imagined at the beginning of the year. A place where we want to stay for a while. Everything we've done this year (and before) has brought us here. To this September. And, once again, September has brought with it exciting opportunities and new beginnings.

I'll tell you all about the details of our new beginnings soon. In the meantime, I leave you with these September photos that I snapped last week in a visit to my friends in Chichester, in Surrey, England. It was my first time in the area, and it's so beautiful, I can't believe I never knew.

Visit more Corner Views around the world:

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad, caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, crescent moon, erin, otli, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, april, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, desiree, travelingmama, aimee, sunnymama, amanda, ali, jenell, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian, athena, pienduzz, latisha, clairette, kelleyn, iris, demara, mus, ninja, guusje, di, sammi, theresa, cherry b, victoria

9.09.09: A day for wishes

It's 9.09.09, a day for wishes.

I wish for a happy family, for smiley babies and tired parents

I wish for a simpler life, with fewer things and more fun

I wish for more time to write

I wish for a finished book, for a publishing deal, I wish to one day hold my own book in my hands

I wish for a road trip in North America

I wish for Blog Camp in New Zealand

I wish for my own coffee shop, a relaxed place where people come for coffee while they write, draw and talk. A place to be crafty, to discover and try out new things

I wish for more time, more space and less worries
I wish to keep on learning
I wish to keep on wishing.

What do you wish for?

I'm on Disco Underworld! Come and vote for me!

I've been interviewed for the latest issue of the online magazine Disco Underworld about my time volunteering in South America! It's been great to remember and reflect on my time in Ecuador. Now, more than ever, I can't wait to go back one day.

As you probably know, Disco Underworld is published monthly online and they also have one annual print edition that includes the best articles and interviews of the year (You can get the Gold Issue here). Please go and read my interview and vote for me to appear in the print issue, please, please, please! I want to be in print! You only have to enter your email address and vote at the end of the article about me.

The boyfriend and I in the Salt Flats in Uyuni, Bolivia

And since you are there, you may as well read the rest of the magazine. The monthly theme is Positive Impact and there are plenty of interesting stories about giving back. As always, Stacey has done an amazing job at putting together another brilliant issue of Disco Underworld. Oh, and have you heard about her new project, Music Sandwich? I wrote an article about Tango in Buenos Aires for that one! It's very exciting to see this project coming to life and am really looking forward to the first issue!

12 months of being 30

* This post is part of my 12 months of being 30 project, an attempt to record what happens during my 30th year on Earth.

Hello! Do you remember me, dear blog? I know, I know I haven't been around much. To be honest, I haven't been doing anything except working, in case you were thinking I've been having wonderful adventures somewhere exotic.
But here I am! A bit late, but I bring you a selection of the collages I made last month for my 12 months of being 30 project. I'm quickly realizing that my collages for this project seem to be more about what I need than about what I have. Even though I've been busy with work and various other things for weeks, my collages are calm and quiet, inviting me to pace myself and to do nothing.
Do you remember I promised to have a creative summer? Well, I've been making jewelry, sewing tote bags, embellishing my underwear (for real!), writing and making small books; I went to the Latitude festival and wrote about it at the amazing discounderwold magazine; I went to Blog Camp and came back inspired to make my photography better (and Spud is further inspiring me with her online photography club). I've loved doing every single one of these things, but now I'm plain exhausted.
I've been exposed to so many types of inspiration that my brain is full of ideas, projects, plans... Unfortunately, I can't take any of them past the initial drafting stage. It's time to stop, let the ideas settle down and think about which one of these projects I want to pursue right now, which ones I'll reserve for later and which ones are simply crazy ideas not meant to become a reality.
It's time to allow myself some space. To sit down and do nothing for a while. To pace myself. Which is exactly what I'm doing this Bank Holiday weekend.

In Blog Camp...

There were six bloggers, and two suspicious partners.

There were Nikons and iPhones... And photos of the Nikons taken with the iPhones.

There were only good surprises...

There was Blog Camp Jam, made by the hostess...

There were of course, stones....

There was exchange of lenses, and lots of playing with them...

And there were also many things that I can't show you through photographs. The interesting conversations, about blogging, about books, about life; the laughs, the random ideas, the projects, the plans to meet again... and that fizzy feeling, the realization that something good was happening, that friendships were growing, the knowledge that we would meet again, in the blogosphere and beyond.

Still a blogger...

Random photo not related to this post

I seem to have taken an unintentional break from blogging, but I'm still here. I'm still a blogger, otherwise I wouldn't be going to Blog Camp UK tomorrow. I'm so excited about seeing Polly, Julochka and Kristina again. I can't wait to meet Spudballoo and Bee, who is hosting this edition of Blog Camp, in her house (that happens to be just half an hour away from my boyfriend's parents' house).  We'll miss Seaside Girl and Extranjera, but no doubt would be cheering on their honour.

I know it's going to be a creative and fun weekend, because I'm going to be in the company of these amazingly creative and fun women!  Right, maybe I should finish the presents for them, then!

I'll tell you all about it next week!

Seeing blue

Did I tell you I started a photography club at work? A friend of mine got a camera (not a Nikon, sadly...) almost at the same time as me. We were both excited, carrying our cameras everywhere and taking photos of everything. We got talking about how we sometimes felt too shy to stop and take a photo in the middle of the street, specially when you have to get on your knees, or you're seemingly taking a photo of something irrelevant on the road and people wonder what you are doing...

So we got a group of friends together and now we choose a topic and go out once a month during our lunchtime to take photos around Oxford. Last month we took photos of blue things and next week we're expanding the theme to take photos of blocks of colour. We're going to submit the best ones to the Tate Liverpool Colour chart group in Flickr.

These are some of the ones I took last month. It's amazing what you see when you start looking, there was blue everywhere!

disco underworld & me

Hello, hello! It's been a while, forgive me! I've been on a staycation: A vacation where you stay home. I've always done and loved doing this, and people used to think I was crazy to waste my holiday staying home. However, this year, because of the recession, it's the cool thing to do and it even has a name!
It's been a busy staycation mind you. For a couple of days, I pretended to be a freelance writer and photographer. I took my laptop, my Nikon and my iPhone, walked around town taking photos and then walked to a nice coffee shop and wrote, wrote wrote. I tell you, it felt really, really good.
And I wasn't only pretending, as I was writing an article for the online magazine Disco Underworld. I wrote a review of the music at Latitude, focusing on music by women. You can now read it in the 10th issue of the magazine, which is dedicated to music. I really loved doing it! The photo on the cover is also mine! And there is more from me coming in the next issue... but I can't tell you anything yet.
If you don't know the magazine and the mastermind behind it, Stacey Childs, go and visit the website and her blog now. I really admire her energy and her endless ideas, she comes up with the most creative ways to promote the magazine!
And talking of women in music, I can't stop listening to Regina Spektor, who we also saw at Latitude and features in my article. She's so cute, I think she's my new woman crush (although I still like Zooey Deschanel). Here's a video of one of my favourite songs, On the radio:

During the rest of the week, I've been doing a course at a local school called Beginning Books, it was a mix of creative writing and paper crafts that I absolutely loved. I'll tell you more about it and show you some photos in my next post. In the meantime, go and read the story and tell me what you think.