Webflower Girls

My WebFlower WebGraphic project never saw the light of day. It was an intermediary project in between the SubVerse Poetry Tea Room and the Star Heart Cafe. I created many images and I am still using them in my stories, my greeting cards and a montage of them can be found on 'Kaleidoscope Girl,' a LornaJHart music video on YouTube. Above and below are some images from the WebFlower web pages I created at the time.

       

London Interrupted Part Four

My last London Interrupted excursion involved a walk from Regent's Park to Trafalgar Square to visit three different cafes.

The first Cafe has been on my list to visit for a long while, since March 2017​; The RIBA Cafe. RIBA was a suitably impressive building, considering that RIBA stands for the Royal Institute of British Architects, with airy rooms and a luxurious staircase. There was an interesting exhibition going on, involving Hastings Pier and the Honest Shop, featuring honest consumables. The Cafe itself was small and inexpensive, but also felt cosy and friendly.

It was quite a walk, for me, from Portland Place via Regent's Street, Oxford Street and Soho Square to Foyles' Book Shop and the ghost of Ray's Jazz Cafe.

I remember drinking coffee in Ray's Jazz Cafe years ago, it was quite pleasant but now long gone. Today the music collection is on Floor Two and the cafe is on Floor Five. I have visited the new cafe before, it was big and noisy. I decided to press on down Charing Cross Road to St Martin's in the Field and the Cafe in the Crypt.

The Crypt Cafe was an enjoyable experience, even though it was a bit busy and noisy. The environment was suitably Gothic and crypt-like, with high arches and soft, yellow lighting. I enjoyed my coffee and my mindful musings and my look at St Martin's Church which I don't usually pay much attention to.

I finished my walk at Trafalgar Square wishing I was wearing different shoes, more suitable for London Streets and London Rain.

50 Greeting Card Greetings

These fifty greeting card greetings are from my ten ALF Creations collections of cards. My first collection of cards which I developed around 2007 was called 'Versatility'. Some of the cards are based around Amy's childhood pictures, these are Amy Occasions, ALF Occassions and Four Seasons. Other cards have been developed around website designs I was working on from 2005 to 2007 these are 'Vesatility' and 'Passtimes'. I also have a variety of collage cards, these are 'With Virtue', 'Manly Virtues', 'Christimas Collage' and 'Empathy'. Lastly I have 'Fabric Brooch Cards' with the greetings 'All good wishes', 'Thinking of you', 'To someone Special' and 'With love'.

This table was full of my cards in a charity craft event in December 2016.

5450+

In 2017 I embarked on a mini bucket list called 5B450, which was a quest to achieve 5 smallish ambitions before turning 50 in November. These were:

1. Visit New York City
2. Get the house redecorated
3. Join a book club
4. Watch a play at the Globe Theatre
5. Attend a School of Life event

I accomplished all of these ambitions and then experienced a very difficult year in 2018. Because of 2017 and 2018, by 2019 I started formulating a new list called 5450+. This was not a new bucket list for things I want to do before I die. It is more a being list. It was a reflection on what gives my life meaning, what relaxes me, what keeps me going.

1. Arts and Crafts
2. Reading and Writing
3. Music and Drama
4. Mindfulness and Meditation
5. Walking and Water

I will be exploring my new list in future posts.

A Mindful Crafternoon

I am slowing my life down and taking time to enjoy whatever good things are in it. A good thing I have been developing recently is the concept of a mindful crafternoon with my daughter. These crafternoons involve drinking tea, mindful books and magazines and a lot of craft. Below are some of the crafts we have been working on. Amy has been working on her fantasy card game. I have been working on knitted purses, pouches and snuggle muffs and also mindful doodling and colouring. We have been watching Netflix shows while doing our crafting, we enjoyed Last Kingdom and are now enjoying Sense8.

Faith, Hope and Charity

Faith, Hope and Charity are the three theological virtues. I find they are very useful in helping me to be a better person and helping me to live a better life. To me Christianity has not been about what is going to happen to me after I die, but how to be a better person and live a better life now. I think that trying to live life more virtuously helps me everyday. The most important everyday virtues to me are, possibly, kindness, humility, diligence, love, hope, generosity and temperance.

May Fair

I hadn't set foot in a church since before Christmas. I miss churches, so it was really lovely setting up my craft stall in the URC Northwood Hills for their Christian Aid Coffee Morning. I was on my own this time and that was really nice too. It was a slow, quiet morning, but seeing as I mostly like slow, quiet times, I liked that aspect aswell. I was very pleased with my craft stall set up. I have a calmer mind now since doing mindfulness for over a year, so I think that helped. The cards and owl lavender scenters proved quite popular. The experience was so enjoyable I am looking forward to the chance to maybe coming here again, perhaps nearer Christmas.

  

   

   

London Therapy Part Two

I thought it would be really good for us to go and see another play, we didn't manage to see a play in London in 2018, only a panto (Cinderella) in Harrow at Christmas. I was a bit trepidatious about the Twilight Zone, but as it turns out, the play we saw at the Ambassadors Theatre on the 25th April 2019, was really rather wonderful.

Beforehand we also had a lovely dim sum lunch in China Town and an edifying wander around the National Portrait Gallery, where we viewed the Tudors and portraits of contemporary figures like Ed Sheran and Darcey Bussell.

This day represents my second London Therapy day, a mixture of mindful eating, art therapy and drama therapy. We had a bit of trouble with the tube getting in, but coping with being out and about is all part of our recovery.

The Twilight Zone - the play

I watched a lot of the Twilight Zone after my dad died, it gave me some comfort about different dimensions and the strangeness of life. My life has become even more weird since then, so I wondered how we would cope with such a strange concept play. I really loved it, I don't go to the theatre very often, so this was a real treat. There were several interweaving stories, all sci-fi based, verging on the supernatural. I followed it quite well, as did my daughter, who also loved it.