Head, Heart, Hands #2
Things to make us think, feel, and do.
Welcome to Making Time. Each week, I explore the impact of time on creativity, ways to slow down, and scenes from my own life in rural Oregon. Head, Heart, Hands is a monthly feature full of links that delight me. If you’d like to follow along, you can subscribe for free.
I’ve recently returned from a trip to California, ostensibly to celebrate my mom’s birthday. Unfortunately, my 95-year-old grandmother had another fall, broke her hip, and wound up back in the hospital so the visit was also a chance to see her.
She’d just started recovering from her last fall (which was even worse), so it was all quite discouraging for her. Luckily, she’s strong. It’s a good reminder to keep lifting weights.
Now I’m home again, and all I want to do is work. I’m in a period of enormous creativity and motivation right now, and trying to harness that feeling as long as I can. Perhaps I’ll write more about that soon, but for now, enjoy these links I’ve been collecting over the last month or so.
3 helpful tips for creating something new by
Where All the Time Went: “The reason time seems to speed up over the years is that novelty naturally declines as we age. Life’s elements become increasingly familiar and routinized.”
The Good Enough Trap: How Technology Can Get Us Stuck In Place.
Accounting for Taste: “It’s with that lesson in mind that I’ve begun to consider the possibility that the constant acquisition of new clothes can actually make your style worse.”
Why do I put off seeing my friends? This one really hit home, especially the concept of “demand avoidance” (which is new to me).
The vorfreude secret: 30 zero-effort ways to fill your life with joy:“The trick lies in filling our calendar with lots of little moments to look forward to – like tiny baubles that, when seen from a distance, combine to make a more glittering future.”
5-4-3-2-1: I’ve been practicing some grounding exercises lately, which incorporate the body a bit more than my usual meditation practices. This is a lovely one that can be carried out any time in the day.
Nut & Seed Biscotti: These are so delicious on a cheese plate. Like seedy crackers, but sweeter.
I also made these almond flour cookies recently, and they are so good! They have that light, spongy texture that I love about almond flour. I eat them with my afternoon yogurt and fruit.
These figgy cornmeal cookies look really good.
Ok, sorry, one more cookie. I also made these double chocolate cookies and they are some of the best I’ve had. I buy the pound plus dark chocolate bars from Trader Joe’s and chop them up. This cookie is seriously about 50% chocolate chunks, which makes it perfect in my book.
How to double your art collection using things you already own. There are so many creative little ideas here, and I’ll bet you could come up with even more that feel very personal and expressive.
A friend sent me this adorable bow quilt in Liberty fabrics from Projekti TYYNY. All their quilts are absolutely lovely. If you’d like to make something like this, here’s a free pattern for a bow block.
These scrap bows are pretty cute!
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