quince

To bring you up to speed, this year has so far been a roller-coaster. 

My mom, who had COPD took a turn for the worse in February, so I dropped everything and took the next flight back to the UK. I ended up staying for 2 months, helping my brother sort out care options and getting the house in order, decluttering, sorting paperwork and whatnot. As well as keeping up with my work. Which fortunately, I can do from anywhere. 

Oh yes, and a few days after I landed, that orange idiot in America declared war on Iran which meant flying back through the Middle East - my usual route was a hard no and all the flight prices shot up.

In the end I had to leave because I had a medical appointment and needed a top up of prescription pills which I couldn't get in the UK.

Not long after mom passed away, in her sleep, peacefully, for that I'm grateful for. She had had enough and just wanted to 'pop off' (her words), she wasn't going to get better so it was for the best. But still hard.

She hadn't wanted a funeral so that side of things was fairly quick and easy to deal with, I'll be going back in September - assuming I can due to the war. And we'll have a celebration of life then. 

My original plans had been to go over in June for my brothers wedding but that all got scuppered. My youngest brother is a bit of a Viking hippy, love the earth type of guy. He is looking for land to buy to start his own farm and homestead. 

I didn't want to buy a gift that was just going to clutter up the house, and decided on a couple of trees so he could plant them on his land when he gets it. I know he has a few fruit trees already and didn't want to get them something they already had. So I had to put my thinking hat on.

I decided weird was the way to go. He loves learning about plants and so when I stumbled upon the medlar tree I knew I had a winner.  The other one I found was quince, which you can make a great jelly from to go with cheese, always a winner in my books.

I ordered the trees and then painted some quince fruit to make into a card, I tried medlar fruit but well, if you read the line from Shakespeare below you'll understand why it wasn't really suitable for a wedding hard! Lol.

For thousands of years quince has been a symbol of love, marriage and fertility. It was a favourite of the Greek goddess Aphrodite! The ancient Greeks gave quinces to newly weds as a wish for happiness and prosperity. Clearly a better gift than an airfryer!

Medlar trees on the other hand...

Are gloriously old trees that refuse to do things the normal way. (Which seems fitting if you know my brother). Their fruit has to go through a process known as 'bletting' before it becomes sweet enough to eat. And the old romantic William Shakespeare preferred to call it open arse fruit! Make of that as you will.

So yes, keeping it weird and in the family. Nothing new there.

We also decided that we'd get a tree for mom and bury her ashes under it, perhaps a cherry blossom as they were always in bloom for her birthday. I think she would have liked that.

Stay creative!

Jo xx

KEEP YOUR KIDS BUSY AND LEARNING WITH THE FREE CURIOSITY FILES

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Time to dream...

The first quarter of the year seemed to be wam, bam, thank you mam!  Working through stuff that I knew had to be done, launches and lots of behind the scenes gubbins.

But I have committed to spending time to create on a regular basis and to be able to do that I need time to dream or day dream. Walks in nature, quiet cups of uninterrupted cups of tea and long soaks in the bath!

And so my new project was born. The name I have owned for a while and the idea has been percolating but I didn't have a clear view of what it would amount to. Having time to just day dream and chatting with my mastermind buddy helped bring it into focus.

So as we lead into Q2 I have new enthusiasm and excitement for something that I know is going to be amazing and I finally feel that I can bring everything together. That I can be the mulitpotentialite I know I am but still have the focus I need to succeed.

I know this all a bit vague but you won't have to wait long... I promise!

Creativity Challenge - Fancy Monsters

Today's side by side creativity challenge was to draw a fancy monster, that is to say a monster in his or her best party clothes! Why? Who knows.

It's funny how we didn't look at each others work until we had finished but our monsters are quite similar, both in top hats and bow ties and and  the same type of mouth - how strange!

Ebi-kun's is actually a Mermonster, I like him!

Mine is more of a disco monster, although a top hat at a disco is quite odd, maybe not as odd as a monster at a disco!

Are you joining in with the challenge? What does your fancy monster look like?

Creativity Challenge - new paints

New Watercolour Paints!

As we continue with out creativity challenge I decided it was about time I treated myself to some new paints. Or more accurately, some paints! All the paints I have bought in recent years have been for Ebi-kun really. 

I have been feeling drawn to doing more water colour work, so when I was in Tokyo I went on a mission to find something suitable. 

I remembered going to a big art store with  my friend Paige but couldn't remember where it was, I sent her a quick message and she sent me the name of an art shop back, plugged it into google maps and off I went. When I got there I realised it wasn't the store we were at before but it was 4 floors of arty goodness. Yes, I was in there quite a while!

It is a loooong time since I have done any watercolour work and the brush that came with the set holds water in the handle, I was a bit dubious at first but now I am loving it!

So here is one of my first dabbles, you can probably tell I am still trying to get used to the new brush but I liked how they turned out.

So how is your creativity challenge going? Did you try anything new this week?

Being More Mindful About Creativity...

It dawned on me the other day that the reason I have been neglecting the blog a bit recently is because I usually get inspired to write from the photos I've taken. The photos are often something we have been doing, places we have visited, crafts and projects we have been working on.

Well in the last couple of months, I have been busy with work and Ebi-kun doesn't have as much free time thanks to school so our creative endeavour have taken a bit of a nose dive.

So we decided this week to be more mindful and to actually make an effort to do more of the fun stuff, whether it be crafting, drawing, painting or experimenting.

I thrive on creativity and need to be doing something creative or I go into a boredom coma!

I picked up a couple of new sketch books and we are thinking of challenges to do, we have our own book so we will do the same challenge but interpret it in our own way. Hopefully this will produce some interesting results!

Challenge #1 - Decorate Your Sketch Book

We decided it was easier to flip it over and decorate the back of the book that to try and cover the flimsy front...

Of course, Ebi-kun went for a football theme, he is somewhat footie mad at the moment and currently reading Ronaldo's biography, I can't really complain, there are worse people out there that could be a role model!

I managed to do mine with the book upside down! doh! Of course I didn't realise until I was almost finished. Of well, it's just a sketch book, not exactly the end of the world. I treated myself to some new pens last week so this was a good excuse to play with them!

I've also been playing with some ipad apps, I still prefer pen and paper and because I work online, it's good to get off the screen but I'm a geek and I like playing around with new apps, what can I say!

I'd love to know what you have been up to recently, feel free to join in with the challenges if you need a creative boost!

I'm off to Tokyo tomorrow so that should provide me with some arty inspiration!

 We will be back with more next week...

The Universe And Art

Daddy was working on Saturday, so Ebi-kun and I went on a date to Roppongi to the Mori Arts centre.

We stopped off at the little German market first, there are only a few stalls but it wasn't overly crowded so we grabbed a couple of pretzels and brotwurst and of course Gluwein (for me) for lunch

Then we headed up to the museum. Luckily it wasn't busy, so we outdated our time and saunter around.

It was quite a strange mush mash of exhibits from Leonardo Da Vinci and Galileo to installations by teamLab

As you walk through it kind of takes you through the ages, although I feel they were grasping at straws with some on the items on display it was interesting and enough to keep the kids interested too.

I think the museums are catching on that social media can be free advertising for them. Although you can't photograph everything in the exhibit, there were quite a few pieces marked with a photo ok sign. And social media icons so you can hashtag each one.

Win-win as far as I'm concerned, we get to share what we are up to and they get free publicity.

This exhibit is on until Jan 9th
Www.mori.art.museum

Don't forget to check out the view, it really is stunning in the winter

Keith Haring Museum Nakamura

For Golden Week, we booked a cottage up in Nakamura, Yamanashi for a few days. The day we arrived we decided to go for lunch and drove past the Keith Haring museum, of course it meant we had to go back and check it out!

One of the things I love about Japan is the high quality of art galleries and museums. Back when the economy was booming a lot of rich businessmen invested in art and would tend to specialise in one artist, so there are several very high quality museums around the place. We have been to a Dali one in Fukushima and The Picasso one in Hakone, I'm sure there are plenty more to discover.

The Keith Haring museum was no exception. It was, as expected, a lot of fun and they were fine about taking photos as long no flash was used and there was one piece that they asked not to take photos of. We have studied about Keith Haring in the past, so it wasn't a totally new artist for Ebi-kun and he remembered many of the pieces. We have a fun Haring inspired activity HERE

This of course meant there was a lot of silliness going on, which was only made worse by the fact there were no other people in the place!

I love this one of Ebi-kun, the almost invisible boy...

And this one cracks me up! Nutters!

The shop was full of amazing things, most of which would have happily made their way home with me, sadly I could only choose one and this Jump From Paper bag HAD to be it. 

Yes, I do have to keep staring at it because it's so quirky! Keep your LV and Coach bags, I'd rather have something wacky like this!

And if you want to take your kids to art museums and have them learning and enjoying the experience, you need to grab this book!

100 days of sketches...

It's weird... 

at one point I was blogging on here up to 10 times a week - yes a WEEK! How crazy pants was that and then I fell into a routine of about 5 posts a week - that felt good!

My routine was to sort the boy out with yochien/school and then make a cuppa, spend half an hour reading my favourite blogs and then writing my blog for the day.

Then Google in their stupid wisdom closed down the app I used to read my blogs, I tried some of the others but non of them really stuck. It's got to the point where I read very few blogs at all these days...

*sob*

Well, I was thinking, part of my joy in blog reading was seeing what other people were up to, what they were creating and making. The beautiful and sometimes not so beautiful photos. Watching their kids grow, enjoying their wins and success and shedding tears through the sad times.

And you know what, I miss it, I REALLY miss it.

I thought I would try blogging in the evenings, once my work is out of the way, but the truth is, I'm too tired and if I have been on the computer all day, the last thing I want to do is to look at the screen. Big fat failure.

The other problem I had was that I used to blog a lot about what me and Ebi-kun got up to, how he was developing, arts and crafts, Montessori and bilingual stuff. We still do all that but these days he is more likely to go off and do things on his own or crack open the craft box with his friends, leaving me, well... twiddling my thumbs!

So, in an attempt to get back in the saddle and relight the passion I had for blogging and the love of reading blogs, I'm taking a burst of inspiration from my Facebook friend and artist Dave Conrey who runs FreshRag. He is doing 100 days of sketching, grabbing his pen and pad first thing in the morning.

I'm going to do the same but early morning just isn't going to cut it, not when I have breakfast to make and family to organise, so my #100 will be after my bath, as I wind down for the evening.

Then, I will use those as the jumping point for blog posts, reflecting on the day and what is to come.

Despite the advice from virtually every business coach I have worked with, I have always wanted to keep this blog separate from my work site. For me, they are two different entities, here I have no rules, anything goes, I can write about what I want, when I want and it's cool. Some posts will resonate with you and some won't - I don't worry about trying to please all of my readers all of the time. No rules, no stress, it's easy.

Of course there will always be some crossover, I want to share with you what is going on and what is coming next! So here's to getting back in the saddle...

my #100days I'm doodling in a little rainbow coloured notebook that I picked up from Flying Tiger - have you been in there? I could buy the whole shop! 

Yesterday was #1 and the whole days just seemed to flow, no major hiccups or spanners in the works, it was lovely day with a bike ride to my favourite cafe (and free coffee and cake) and very productive as far as work went....

If you are up for it, join the #100days challenge, I'll be posting on Instagram

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Coffee Filter Science and Art

Coffee Filter Science and Art

To be honest, I can't remember what inspired this activity! I think it was something to do with pens having permanent ink or water based inks. It doesn't really matter, it was fun and the science behind it is a bonus point!

What you need:

• Some coffee filters
• Pens, try different types to see what happens
• A tray or dish 
• Water

Start off by drawing your design on the coffee filters, leave some space between the colours for the pens where the ink will run. If you are experimenting with different types of pen, use a biro and write the pen type along the sealed edge of the coffee filter.

When you have completed the design. Pour some water into the tray, open the coffee filter and stand it up in the tray, watch as the water gets soaked into the filter...

Remember to ask your child to predict what will happen and why.

This is also a lesson in patience as it takes some time to let the water soak up but slowly the magic starts to happen...

And eventually you end up with some beautiful designs. 

If you split open the coffee filters and leave to dry you can then use them for crafting, they make an interesting addition to the craft paper drawer.

The beauty of this experiment is that it can be done with kids of any age and mixed ages if you have siblings.

The Science:

Permanent markers (think Sharpie) use three main ingredients is specific quantities: colorant, pigment and resin. And although they are called permanent realistically the ink can last from a few months to several years depending on the surface that it's written on.

The colorant in a permanent pen is usually from pigment as it is less likely to bleed through paper and fade less that dyes.

Carriers otherwise known as solvents are what is used to carry the pigment to the paper and must evaporate quickly. These days most pens use alcohol based solvents.

The resin is the binder and this is what causes the pigment to stick the paper and creates a film over it once the carrier evaporates.

The other type of pen are water based markers (like Crayola or Copic) - these re more popular with parents because the ink is easier to remove when you child decides to do a Picasso on the white sofa! (why do people buy white sofas?)

Water based pen use water (duh) or glycerine to suspend the dye in. And because it is water based it's much easier to remove that permanent or alcohol based pens. It also means that in experiments like this the ink will run with the coffee filter in water. To get the same effect with permanent pens try adding a few drops of alcohol (not you gin, that would be a waste) or nail varnish remover may work too.

It would be a good way to extend the experiment, trying different solutions to see what effect it has. Just be sure not to be mixing them together. Start afresh with each new experiment, mixing chemicals together when you don't know what you are doing can lead to some nasty results!

If you try this at home, let me know how it goes!

The Louvre - tips for your trip

[August 14th]

Well as if we could go to Paris without going to the Louvre! We knew this was going to be a biggie so we got up early and made it to the museum by 8.30am for the 9.00am opening. There is an entrance as you come out of the metro but if you have a pass or pre-paid tickets you can't use that entrance (learn from our mistake). We made our way to the main entrance and there was already a queue, this is where it gets confusing, as you look at the pyramid there are two lines but as you enter the square this isn't apparent. 

The closest line is for ticket/pass holders, there is another queue for those paying to go in, what we noticed was that most people were joining the ticket/pass queue and it wasn't until the doors opened and they had to show the pass that they realised they were in the wrong place and then had to queue all over again!

The other weird thing was that pass holders had their bags checked by the guard looking inside but those paying to get in had to have their bags x-rayed which makes NO sense to me! Surely if you were going to bomb the place, you would buy the ticket beforehand so you didn't have to wait so long to get in? Anyway, I just wanted to give you the heads up, let's continue...

Now we knew that everyone and their dog was going to head to the star of the show, the Mona Lisa, so we did the same thing in attempt to get it done and out of the way first. It wasn't too bad when we got there, it is quite a yomp from the main entrance!

Da Vinci should have had the forethought to paint her bigger, really, she is tiny! We got the obligatory selfie - oh we are such tourists! I posted this pic on social media and had some brainless fuckwit leave a nasty comment about not being allowed to take photos of paintings. It is fine to take photos as long as the flash isn't used, and if you do use it, expect some angry guards to give you an earful. These days, even mobile phones are able to take a decent photo in bad lighting so there really is no issue.

The we headed off to see the other two famous ladies, Venus Di Milo, who is stunning....

And the Winged Victory of Samothrace, daddy-ebi had downloaded an app for guided tours of the museum which was rather handy and filled us in with lots of facts.

 To be totally honest, I found the museum to be completely overwhelming, there is So - Much - Stuff! And it's so big, we found ourself meandering and not really taking in the art. We did play a couple of games to keep us amused as we made our way through the endless corridors... copy the statue/painting is always amusing...

And the other favourite was "What are they saying", I'm not sure I can repeat some of the suggestions for this one....

There are more ideas for making museum trip fun in my Gallery and Museum Survival Guide. I have absolutely no idea where we were when we spotted this but I took a photo because it reminded me of the Montessori materials..

I do recommend making your way to the Napoleon Rooms, they are so decadent and over the top, the chandeliers alone are amazing and I love these chairs...

Just look at the dining room, and to think how many important people have sat around this table!

We spent most of the day in there and were pooped by the end. The restaurant was pretty blah and over-priced (to be expected really) so if you can, take a snack in with you. Plan ahead and accept that you will only get to see a fraction of the place. Personally, I felt it was way to big so many of the amazing pieces of work were just lost in a sea of art and sculpture. At least I can check it off my bucket list now!

We grabbed some meats and cheese and had a simple dinner at home. I managed to stay awake long enough to see the Eiffel tower search light, you could just about see the top of the tower from our apartment...

The street we were on wasn't very exciting by day but looked quite pretty by night. I turned in early because we had another big day coming up!

Me, the boy and Rene Magritte

At the weekend, Daddy-Ebi had an Aikido thing so Ebi-kun and I decided to go and do our own thing. I had a look online and there was a Star Wars Exhibition and a Rene Magritte one. So I asked the boy, which one he wanted to go to, of course he said Magritte!

We left home and travelled in with Daddy-ebi but then he went on his way and we headed into Roppongi, to the National Art Centre. I was glad we had got there early because when we came out the queues just for the tickets were miles long!

The exhibition is great, we are so lucky having world class exhibits so close by. Ebi-kun has seen far more exceptional art by the age of 9 then I had at his age, in fact, I don't remember going to an art gallery until I went to art school! 

Like I suggest in my book "The Gallery And Museum Survival Guide" I put a quiz together before we left. I wish galleries would think ahead and actually make these for the kids, it take next to no time and makes a HUGE difference to the child's experience.

Anyway, we both enjoyed the show, Ebi-kun can now confidently draw parallels to Dali, Picasso and Monet, animatedly talks about how how one influences the other and the conclusions he draws from that. It's not just about the art, when the exhibition is focused on one specific artist, he can now see that the stages of the artist's life are influences to the work, how Margittes work got very dark around the time of World War II for example. And knowing the artist's struggles and hardships is inspiring for him too. I do wish I could introduce music in the same way, but I have neither the passion nor the knowledge to do so!

We couldn't take photos in the exhibit but the National Art Centre is an interesting building in itself...

Then we headed down to Roppongi Mid Town and discovered Godzilla...

I love that there are so many weird and wonderful things around in Tokyo. We had a look around the "posh" shops and I asked Ebi-kun to compare the difference to our local mall. It was interesting to listen to his observations.

Taking time out to stop and really see what is around us is important and I really want Ebi-kun to do that too. Like spotting the rainbows on the roof...