I have been home for three weeks and I'm still feeling uplifted and energized creatively and otherwise from my time with Kasia, Jamie, and Zosia in Ashbourne, England. Filming my lessons for Wanderlust 2020 went well, I think. We'll see how it goes for Jamie (Well...I hope!) as he's editing all the footage! Kasia and Jamie welcomed me and took such good care of me...Kasia is an amazing cook! I felt at home with them in their cozy home and really enjoyed following them along in their day to day routine. They included me in their life for 10 days, which is more than you can ask of any host, and they did this with grace, love, and joy. I sometimes hear Zosia's adorable little voice (her very articulate 2-year-old English accent) asking "whatcha doin' Sarah?" from time to time when I'm focused on a project. Her question is a reminder to think about what I'm doing and come back to the moment. What a gift!
Kasia and I were able to have some art play time in her studio during the evening. Sitting across from each other at her "big art table", we created some foam stamps, art journaled, and built our own junk journals. Kasia would film her daily art journaling Instagram stories while I played in a junk journal I brought from home (it's almost full, guys!). It was exciting for me to be behind the scenes like this. Kasia is so generous and inspired me constantly...I'm feeling the effects of this, still. I am so grateful to have had this experience. I miss the Avery's!
I came home to a fairly organized home, a happy family, and a trained puppy (6 months:). I celebrated Halloween and took Harry to his surf contest in Morro Bay. Oh! And the monarchs have been hatching!
I was able to get my postcards made for iHanna's DIY Postcard Swap, and felt very inspired and energized during this process. Having a project like this to come home to and keep my creative juices flowing was great! I was inspired by Kasia to get my iPhone set up as an overhead video camera and managed to create some time-lapse clips of the process of making my cards, which I then made into a movie.
I have been swapping cards this way for 6 years! I had to look back at my posts and photos of all the cards I've made to figure this out. In the past I've managed to make more than the ten cards I needed for the swap, but for the past two swaps, I only made the ten. It is a process of letting go when I put the postcard stamp on and drop it into the out-going mail slot at the Post Office. With only ten cards, it is a little more difficult to do this! I may make another batch like my recent cards, because it was so fun and I kept it pretty simple. Then, I'll have some originals to share with others. I always scan my postcards so I can have them printed (Moo). I'm putting together some postcard sets of these Moo cards to sell on my Etsy shop (...coming soon!).
The cards are on their way now. Here are the scans:
Thank you for visiting! Maybe I'll see you in 2020 during Wanderlust ;)