What has a rainbow drop got to do with Gabrielle Roth?

I guess it's nothing really, but finding a headline that covers both of my topics of the day is not that easy. If you have any better ideas or suggestions, leave a comment! 

A few weeks ago, I discovered that the dancer and musician Gabrielle Roth, who created the 5 Rhythms in the early seventies, passed away in October 2012. That made me remember her dance seminar of which I was present for in Hamburg, in 2002 with her son Jonathan Horan.

The seminar started on a Friday afternoon and ended on Sunday evening. My friend Anne, I and some fifty other people danced through the whole weekend. No judgement of dance moves just the freedom of expression through my body and the bliss of forgetting myself in the rhythm of the music. 

Gabrielle Roth dreamt of becoming a dancer since she was a small child, but the experience of going to a catholic school where the nuns condemned the body as a source of pleasure and the experience of a strict ballet teacher who punished her for every wrong move, made her abandon her dream when she grew older.

Eventually, she became a masseuse in the retreat centre Esalen, which focuses upon humanistic alternative education like psychology, meditation, yoga and spirituality. One day, Fritz Pearls asked her to teach movement classes. She was surpised to discover how many of  her students were stiff in their motoric, afraid of letting their body move freely. In an exercise she asked the participants of the class to lie on the floor and to shake their hips.This simple but challenging excercise released surpressed emotions in a lot of the participants who had to start sobbing. 

Gabrielle discovered there, that the body can't lie; "put into motion, and the truth kicks in".

She realized that emotions, which have been denied, are trapped in the memory of our body. By bringing the body parts into motion, different emotions can emerge and confront us with the neglected truth of our body. All she wanted from this time on, was to "seduce people back into their body". 

Over time she created the 5 Rhythms which are connected to our emotional landscape:

Flowing - Fear

Staccato - Anger

Chaos - Sadness

Lyrical - Joy

Stillness - Compassion

All together are called a "wave". Dancing through the wave can help us to re-connect us with our soul. 

We dance through the different emotions until we come to rest in stillness. Like in meditation, we focus on our breath and our heartbeat. 

The 5 Rhythms are a powerful exercise. Although there are a lot of trained 5 Rhythms teacher everywhere in the world, there is a easy exercise that you can do at home and which can teach you to free your body. 

In the book series of the "Peaceful warrior" by Dan Millman, the writer suggests 25 very basic and easy to follow fitness exercises. Like in Yoga, he points out the benefits they have on our emotional and energetic body. One exercise is called "free motion" and he recommends doing at least this exercise daily if you don't have time for the other.

The instructions are the following:

- Take at least 30 seconds for this exercise

- Let your body flow in a continous motion

- Be relaxed, aware and breath deeply

- Move in different level of height: close to the ground, stretch to the side, stand on your tip toes.

- Move without thinking or planning what to do next. Try new movements, vary them.

This exercise is supposed to strenghen creativity, spontaneity, grace and confidence. I try to include every part of my body during this exercise. In autogenic training you have to move your consciousness from one body part to another (e.g. hips, thighs, lower leg, ankles, foot and toes) in order to relax, I try to do the same, but instead I try to include them into the motion (roll my neck, bend my back, stretch my arms).

Now, to something totally different. In case you were wondering, what I was up to the past weeks: voilà!

The name for this crafty project is called Rainbow drop. I am always amazed how sunlight and rain can create something as beautiful as a rainbow.

The explanation of the phenomenon: the rainbow is caused by light being bent when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it. The observer sees the layer of reflecting water droplets in front of him (with the sun in his back). All rainbows are full circles, however, the average observer on the ground sees only approximately the upper half of the arc.
The rainbow has always had an interesting role in our culture (e.g. religion or mythology) and is used as a symbol in our society (e.g. peace symbol).

My idea for this project was not to simply do a cloud mobile but to reference the magical aspect of the sunlight, which can create a rainbow with the sparkling sequins on the frame and the rainbow drops
I choose not to use the spectrum colours of a rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), but to choose a colour palette (pink, orange, yellow, mint, turquoise) that has a bright and cheerful character.

The Cloud is made of wire (pipe cleaner wrapped around it to enforce the frame). I cut grey felt into long stripes and sew them together with the sewing machine, winding it around the carcase. I then sewed the sequins onto the felt with a transparent plastic thread.

The raindrops were an easy project compared to the cloud frame. After cutting the rainbow drop shapes out of the felt, I decorated them with colour matching sequins. I sewed the matching felt sides together and stuffed it with a bit of wadding before sealing the loophole.

The tricky part was to arrange to drops, that they would hang evenly in one line. It is definitely easier if you have the mobile lying on the floor, and knot the thread to the raindrops first. Like that you can rectify with the length of the thread before tying it to the cloud frame.

Something I am really chuffed about is the winner of the Eurovision Contest 2014: Conchita Wurst, I just love her!

I would love to fight for the right to grow a beard, but some things in life are just unfair ;-)

I've been nominated for the Liebster Award

Thank you very much, Tiny Tang from Life as a Petite for nominating me for the Liebster Award.

I thought if I ever get nominated I would definitly nominate you, but now you were quicker.

I love your blog because you talk about the things you love (fashion, craft and lifestyle) in a very personal and cute way. 

To give you a little introduction - the Liebster Award is an online award which is passed on by bloggers to other bloggers with 200 or less followers. It is a great and simple way for the blogging community to get to know each other a little better. 

The rules for the Liebster Award are:

1. You must link back to the person who nominated you.

2. You must state 11 facts about yourself.

3. You must answer the 11 questions given to you, from your nominator. 

4. You must nominate other bloggers, and set 11 questions for them to answer.

5. You can't nominate the person who nominated you.

6. You must tell the people you've nominated them, so they can take part!

11 quick facts about me;
Although I live now in Newcastle upon Tyne, I'm originally from the North of Germany, from a beautiful town called Lübeck.
I studied Art Therapy and did an apprenticeship to be a bookseller. 
I love reading books and some of my favourite writers are J.S.Foer, John Irving, Haruki Murakami, Nina Blazon and many more.
I love all kind of art, from Street Art to Guerilla Knitting (I have a thing for Anarchy) to Nicolas de Staël and Giogio Morandi.
Since I live in the UK I have discovered my passion for sewing and crafting, and enjoy reading crafting blogs and browsing on Pinterest.


And here are my answers to the questions given by TinyTang. 

What's your favourite colour?
My favourite colour is white. White can be combined with every other colour and still looks great. White is refreshing, it reminds me of fresh laundry or sailing on the open sea on a sunny day.

White is the colour of a blank canvas, a place where my imagination can run wild and I can express myself.

White is like a mystery, like a thick fog, or deep snow. White covers all things and keeps it a secret. It lets you guess what’s behind the layers.

White light contains according to physics, all colours. When you add all coloured lights, the result is white light, that fact always fascinated me.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?
My altruistic wish would be that human kind would come to their senses and would value life & health more than fictional money & fame. I do not understand why innocent children have to suffer from starvation when people on other parts of the planet thinking about building a lift into space.

My selfish wish is to learn a language quicker (like Neo in “The Matrix” just simply downloading the content). It would be awesome to travel to other countries and to speak the native language. Socialising and learning about other cultures would be so much easier. For starters, I would love to speak Italian, Chinese, Spanish and Polish.

Name 3 of your fashion must-haves
NEON pink - Although more of an accessory, otherwise I would look like Barbie - and that’s not desirable. Pink is one of those secret pleasures of being a girly girl.

A good quality handbag – Even if you wear simple clothes, combined with a quality handbag , you look mysteriously awesome. The same principle applies to good shoes.

Confidence in your own style – Don’t just follow trends, make it yours, be individual, mix it and make the world a brighter and more colourful place.

What's your pet peeve(s)?
I’m getting really annoyed with people who skip a queue as if they were a VIP.

What's your most used word(s) or phrase(s)?
I have lots of geeky running jokes with my boyfriend Steve - depending on what movie we are watching.The all time classic is  from 24 and applicable in a lot of situations is...

“We are running out of time! We don’t have choice!”

6. Do you have any hidden talents? 
I have some awesome cabaret moves. My jazz hands are unbeatable.

And I can fall asleep nearly everywhere. Just give me a minute or two.

7. What's your favourite thing about blogging and where did you get your inspiration to start a blog from?
My favourite thing about blogging is that I can share my creative ideas and hopefully inspire and encourage others to get creative.

I’m not quite sure how it exactly started, but after a chat with my friend Irina about online business, as she is currently programming a language learning website, I was inspired to know more about blogging and bought the book "Blog Inc.” by Joy Cho which turned out to be a great source of information.

In the chapter “Why Blog” the author lists several reasons why we should start our own blog although there are literally hundreds of millions of public blogs out there.
A simple answer of hers is - " we have something unique to say too".

That finally encouraged me to start my own blog, and I am very happy since to have a dedicated space to my creativity.   

8. Have you met any celebrities? If so, who was your favourite?  And if not, if you could meet any celebrity, dead or alive, who would it be?
I have never met a celebrity apart from the usual, seeing them in concerts, on at a convention or at a reading.

I would love to meet Simon Pegg. I am a huge fan of “Spaced” and I follow him on Twitter. He is so mischievous and funny! He pranked his colleagues on the set of “Star Trek – Into Darkness” by claiming they needed to use neutron cream against harmful ionic effects. Eventually the whole crew got involved and even the Make-up department created actual jars of cream to pass around and were telling people they have to shake their hands to release the ions from their body. Epic! How lame is the 1^st of April?

9. What’s your guilty pleasure?
I love watching romantic comedies and reading girly teen novels - they make me happy.

10. What's one food you couldn't live without?
Does coffee count as food? If I’m honest, I couldn’t cope very well without coffee. That reminds me, I’ll be back in 2 minutes, just making some ...

11. Take a picture of your favourite item of clothing/accessory.

I love my embroidered red shoes from Dune.

My nominations for the Liebster Award are:
Tierschutz geht uns alle an
Loosing weight and keeping it off

And my 11 questions for the nominees are:

When you have 1 hour of free time, how do you prefer to spend it?
What was the best gift you have ever received?

If you could go on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would you like to go?

If you could travel back in time, which place in time would you like to visit?

What do you miss most about being a kid?

What was your favourite subject in school?

Who would you like to be your mentor, if you could choose anyone?

What’s your favourite movie or television series?

If you could be a Disney character and live in their movie world, who would you like to be?

What is your favourite book, and why?

What songs would be included on the soundtrack of your life?

I hope you have fun answering those questions :)

Starting Spring with a colourful Boho clutch

Spring is in the air. We had some wonderful mild weeks here in Newcastle with lovely sunshine. I enjoyed the weather by sitting on my little bench in the garden and embroidering this new project of mine: a felt clutch.

When I started with the idea, I thought it would take only a few days to finish, but with the pattern for the inlay and the embroidery design it actually took 4 weeks.

More about the clutch in a few moments as I apologize to interrupt this program to bring you an important news flash.

Steve and I signed up for the Great North Run on the 7^th of September. It is the second largest half marathon (13.1 miles) in the world. It starts in Newcastle and finishes in South Shields.

I know it sounds crazy when you think of the long distance, but I am really looking forward to this event! I already started training every week and will increase towards summer with longer routes.

We will run raising sponsorship money for the Mind Charity. Mind is the leading mental health charity in England and Wales to supports people who struggle with their mental health. Their service includes supported housing, crisis helplines, drop-in centres, employment and training schemes, counselling and befriending.

It is important to raise the awareness for mental health problems as there are many prejudices against it in our society. Every year, one in four will experience a mental health problem, it is vital that we have an open public discussion on mental health issues, so that no one concerned has to be ashamed asking for help.

I will write more about the Great North Run and on the Mind Charity, as the events get closer. As I am fundraising, any donation how small is much appreciated. Please find my fundraising account here.

Please note that already a donation of £8.70 can support the Mind Infoline team taking a call to someone in desperate need.

Back to a less serious subject.

I have discovered a new passion besides sewing soft toys: sewing Clutches!

When browsing on Pinterest, I discovered so many awesome DIY clutches of fellow bloggers, that I felt inspired to have a go myself.

At her last visit, my mother brought me some 100% pure wool felt in a Natural Beige colour from Germany as a present, knowing my high demand on crafting material.

The natural felt reminded me of traditional Bavarian folk design, and so I decided to mix up a folkloristic design from Hungary and Scandinavia with bright colours. The result was a boho chic clutch. 

To clarify the term Boho chic -

Boho chic is inspired by bohemian and hippie influences. In modern usage, the term "Bohemian" is applied to people who live unconventional, usually artistic, lives. The original "Bohemians" were actually travellers or refugees from central Europe (hence, the French bohémien, for "gypsy").

The romantic perception of Gypsy culture includes free-spirited living and travelling, colourful fabric and cloths, jingling jewellery, the magic of tarot and palm reading, cheerful music and liberating dancing.

I would like to pick up the gipsy theme at a different time and working with vintage thrift to create decoration, toys and clothes. The Blog Dottie Angel is a great source for vintage inspired crafting.  

Every learning curve comes with its trials and errors.

Although the design of the clutch seems to be quite easy and straight forward, coming up with the pattern wasn’t.

Next time I will keep in mind to make the lid smaller than the body of the clutch.

And another flaw, I sewed the little pockets to the wrong side, namely to the front/inside.

But I do love my little gem anyway. I can’t wait to try it out on the staff night out on Sunday.

Paper Cutting - please cut here

The past weeks have been a bit tough on me. Due to commuting I wasn't able to do much crafting. When I finally had the time, crafting felt like working from a to-do list. It actually felt like duty, not a pleasure. How can you share joy in a blog if you don't enjoy yourself?

But Happy Days! I'm now waiting for my new part time job to start, which will be just around the corner. I enjoyed a few days off and I've recharged my batteries. Now I am slowly starting to get creative again and playing around with ideas.

When I can't do crafting, like the past weeks, I tend to buy craft books as a surrogate (although it works only as a 5% replacement and then I get jealous of the cool stuff other people do).
The past few weeks I piled up a nice collection of "Mollie Makes Specials" and Sewing books like "50 Fabric Animals" and "So Pretty! Felt" which I now flick through in enjoyment and am inspired.

What I learned so far of myself is that I like to sew or craft things based on my own designs. It would be easier to learn sewing techniques by following tutorials but I find following a tutorial 1:1 is sometimes a bit boring as there is no place for spontaneity or creativity.

Unfortunately working from my own designs makes the process predestined for mistakes ... And correcting them can be quite time consuming e.g. Yesterday I worked on a table runner with geometric felt shapes but then it reminded me of the scarecrow in "Wizard of Oz" and I had to stop sewing. I blame the square patches for it.

The photos in this blog post show some paper cutting I made in January. Paper Cutting is a fun technique and easy to do if you don't have enough time for more complex projects. As you can probably imagine, it was the perfect occasion to use my old favourite NEON coloured paper again. Below you can see a list of my Paper Cutting Designs, in chronological order:

- The little hut in the woods

- The Palace of the Maharaja

- Family Welcome Sign

- Matryoshka 

Paper cutting has a really interesting history as it was first documented in China in the 6th century. From there it spread out to other cultures and countries which evolved their own technique and style. Paper cutting experienced recently a revival in modern art. Contemporary artists (e.g. Mia Perlman, Rob Ryan, Béatrice Coron) and their works are introduced in the inspiring book "Paper Cutting" by Chronicle Books, which I can't recommend highly enough! It's beautiful! 

What about some pretty Winter Decoration for the New Year?

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a good start to the New Year 2014.

I had an amazing Christmas this year with my family staying over. We crafted and decorated the house with festive paper chains, candle lanterns and Christmas tree decorations. My boyfriend cooked a festive meal on the 25th - turkey with roast vegetables. I do have to admit though, that I'm not much of a Christmas pudding fan. 

I had also tremendous fun buying gifts for everyone. My brother really enjoys watching British comedies, such as "Black Books" and "The IT Crowd", to name a few. It was recommended that I get him Channel 4 classic "Green Wing" to go with "Spaced" that I'd already bought. I hadn't seen it before and was a bit baffled when I started watching it yesterday. I began to second guess if he'd like it? Luckily he loves it, and he advised me that he thought that it would take me about 8 episodes to get used to the humour. We shall see.

"Spaced" on the other hand... I can really relate with the character of the artist Brian. I think it is the best parody of an artist ever made. This strange man - who lives on the ground floor of this apartment house, trying to be creative and to express his troubled emotions, epic - I would highly recommend it!

We got rid of our Christmas tree quite early this time, because we have a small house and it was nice to get the space back, especially for crafting. We still have some decorations remaining including some silver sparkly twigs, decorated with handmade felt baubles. 

You will need:

- Twigs (you get the sprayed ones from the florist, or you can spray them yourself)

- Felt (a good way to use up some felt scraps)

- Various pearls and beads

- Fabric scissors

- Pearl cotton embroidery floss

- Needle

So here is a quick How-To:

1. Cut out little circles of the felt scraps in various sizes and colours. 

2. Thread the needle and pick up a bead to fix it with a knot to mark the start.

3. You can add some more beads or start threading the felt circles. To achieve the form of a bauble, start     

    picking small circles moving to bigger ones and then picking smaller ones towards the end again.

4. When you are finished threading, fix the pile of felt circles with a bead and a knot. 

5. Make a little loop out of the rest of the thread, to have a little hook to hang up the felt bauble. 

I wish everyone a happy new year for 2014, may all your wishes come true!

Durham Lumière Festival 2013

I'm currently working some extra shifts for Christmas and it is difficult to keep posting regularly. I don't know how other bloggers manage to keep up so well. So, I'm a bit late with the post on Durham Lumière, which was at the end of November (14 -17 Nov.), but I made sure, that you would get the best pictures from it! Here you are, I hope you enjoy it.

Durham Lumière is an amazing event, organised by the outdoor event planner Artichoke, it occurs every two years. During the festival time, the city is transformed into a magical place using interesting lighting to illuminate Durham's buildings, streets and public spaces.

Durham Lumière 2011 had some impressive art works (the waterfall bridge, the monument that was transformed into a huge snowball globe, the heavenly installation inside the cathedral, the fire alchemy in the cloister garden), so the expectations were high. 

I have to admit that this year's Durham Lumière wasn't quite as impressive, but it did have some spectacular and magical installations.

My journey started in the marketplace. I was expecting something monumental as this is the city centre; I was left searching for a hidden treasure in this crowded place. I finally found it - a phone box, transformed into an aquarium, off the beaten path. 

Due to a large crowd, I waited patiently for my turn to view it up-close; the phone box had been turned into a lit aquarium with colourful swimming fish.  An exotic little world, a quirky living universe at the heart of Durham. 

Looking at it, made me dream of the crystal blue water on a tropical island. The goldfish reminded me of quirky images I've seen in movies - a girl bringing home a goldfish in a plastic back, which she had won at the funfair, or a lonesome little goldfish, swimming in one of those tiny, empty fish bowls.

The next thing that grabbed my attention, was some colourful street decoration which turned out (upon closer inspection) to be made of lots of plastic bags. It irritated me that something I would normaly associate with pollution, could create such a happy atmosphere. 

I continued to walk down the beautifully decorated Durham shopping mile, which lead me directly to an unconventional Christmas tree...

To see this beautiful Christmas tree was certainly a surprise. As far as I am aware the artist wanted to make us visitors aware of the pollution of our environment, but this was quite a different picture from the growing piles of rubbish away from our everyday view. It illuminated the place with colours of yellow, orange, blue, white and green. Even the children were fascinated by it, and were drawn back to have a closer look.

One of the highlights was the lightshow "Crown of Lights" at Durham cathedral itself. The cathedral is one of my favourite places, but seeing it illuminated in such bright and clear colours, was amazing and breathtaking. 

The light show retold the history of Christianity in the North East with images of the ancient book, the Lindisfarm Gospel. Images of the attacks and destruction of holy island by the Vikings, an all-exciting fire, and the re-building of the cloister were only some of the powerful images displayed on these ancient walls. No words, just music, and pictures.

If you would like to view a more vivid interpretation of how the Vikings attacked the holy island with the Lindisfarne priory, watch the television series "The Vikings" - S1E2, it's quite the eye opener.

Another pleasurable experience was at the sanctuary, several neon bird boxes were hidden in the trees at the old graveyard of St. Oswald church, accompanied by the soundtrack of bird calls. It seemed rather creepy to me, standing in the middle of some old stone tombs, and hearing the voices of ravens, but the sound began to turn into morning bird song and I felt reminded of spring. Strangely enough my body reacted with a tickling nose and several sneezes. It was definitely a magical place, where I would have loved to resided longer.

This installation showed a model of the sun on a more approachable scale. A huge helium balloon was flying in an open space between the university buildings, changing colour to simulate the turbulence of the sun's surface, accompanied by a growling background noise.

I took several pictures of the balloon itself and its changing surface, but it could not truly catch the atmosphere and do it justice. Finally I decided to take a picture of its mirror image in one of the university building windows. Maybe we are used to see the moon, looking outside the window, but certainly not a view of the sun in this size so close.

Like in a scene from Jurassic Park, where the protagonists could feel the Tyrannosaurus Rex approaching them by the rhythmic stamping of its heavy footsteps (depicted through ripples of water in a glass), you could hear the heavy footsteps of this elephant hundreds meter away.

The sight was mesmerizing. The elephant looked real and its movements were natural. It looked like it was trapped within a huge canvas, and made me wants to get closer and console him by feeding him some vegetables. I couldn't help but feel a sudden urge to visit a zoo. 

Just like last time, I was lucky to visit Durham Lumière twice. Once to check out the initial big attractions, and a second time to enjoy my favourite ones again. I hope that Artichoke and Durham Council will continue this successful partnership and I'm looking forward to Durham Lumiere 2015. 

What is NaNoWriMo? The National Novel Writing Month!

Maybe you have wondering where I have been the past week? I came across the abbreviation NaNoWriMo on Google+ and saw people posting random numbers like 11200 or 6450. I was intrigued to find out what the buzz was about. 

I fired up the search engine to do some research, and it came up with the website of the National Novel Writing Month  (NaNoWriMo). As I was always keen in writing a novel myself, I was curious to find out more.

NaNoWriMo is actually a free creative writing project that takes place every November. The aim is to write a 50,000 words novel (or simply 50,000 words of a novel to be completed later) writing an average of 1600 words a day. There is no emphasis on what your story has to be about or a strict rule on plotline, you can simply follow your stream of consciousness and discover your characters. 
The reason this is, is to encourage people to start writing and overcome their fear of failure. The community gives you support with daily writing challenges (there are even regional meetings, hosted by volunteers) and the deadline works as an incentive to get the story going. Popular novels like "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern or "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen have been written using NaNoWriMo. 

NaNoWriMo was founded by Chris Baty in 1999 - he started with a small writing group of 21 people, and has now grown into a huge community of 300.000 participating writers. In 2006 NaNoWriMo became a non-profit organisation under the name "The Office of Letters and Light". Donations keep the NaNoWriMo events running as well as letting them host other creative writing projects like the "Young Writers Program" for children and teens. 

It was middle of November, but I'd missed the start of the writing month - but I felt compelled to jump right in and to give NaNoWriMo a try. I started writing on Microsoft Word, but then discover 'Scrivener', and soon changed software. It gives you a much clearer view of different chapters, ideas and characters. My aim is not to write great literature, but to write a story that my writing buddy Anne will find entertaining. Anne and I had a phase ten years ago, when we used to write and share our stories regularly. It was always exciting to hear what our main character and his love interest were up to and what they had to struggle with. It's an amazing experience to create a whole new world and bring characters to life.
Although I won't be crossing the finish line at the end of November, I have learned a lot in the past few days. I wrote more words than ever before for my novel and I discovered an encouraging online writing community.

NaNoWriMo 2014 - Count me in! :)

As creative people we are vulnerable by our dreams and creations and it is important to surround oneself with people who believe in us and encourage us in our work. Sometimes it is difficult to see the value of our work with so many talented people out there, but every voice is unique and there is an abundance of ideas out there! Let's rock!

I'm so lucky to have my creative allies!
Thank you to Steve, Brigitte, Michael, Anne, Stine, Amelie, Vanessa, Mieke and Irina for sharing COFFEE and bringing about a lot of creative sparks!