January: In the studio
A new organisational tool, gut/brain connection, it's design time + eyes-peeled for a rebrand.
Hello dear reader, you find me in that foggy period after the new year, where the paradox of keenly wanting to crack on with this fresh new trip around the sun, collides whole-heartedly with keenly wanting to ignore it all and float about in the sea.
Full disclosure though, I wrote this last week, because this week I’m deep into a 2-week Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC). So no doubt by now, I’ve cracked on and engaged my brain fully to soak up all the mind-expanding permie goodness to kick off my year.
This is the second PDC, for me, because I feel the pull to get pen to paper a bit more this year, and of course, we have a new yard to permaculture-ify.
I’m excited to dig into a design that’ll enable us to tumble out of our kitchen door with a full compost bucket and return moments later (or hours later if we get distracted…likely!) with an armful of nutrient-dense fruit, veg, and eggs, bird song in our ears, dirt under our nails, healthy bodies, activated minds, and awe and happiness hearts. That’s the dream.
Left image: I’m so grateful to the previous gardener, she planted some delicious things that we’re now enjoying. Apricots, cherries, and these thornless blackberries that are slow ripening. Yum.
Right image: a couple of the local bookworms in a shady spot in the garden on a scorching day.
In the studio this month
I have some fun things in the pipeline this year that I’ve been dabbling with (between floats in the sea). I’ll start banging on about them after the PDC I reckon. But as a teaser: I’m building an umbrella brand that encapsulates everything I do, which looks like a big re-think and re-brand. More colour. More joy.
If you get a newsletter from me that looks different, panic-not, it’ll just be me reinventing my online presence. Hopefully, you’ll love it as much as I’m loving the creative challenge.
Left image: I’ve been setting up my studio a little bit more since the flurry of moving in a few months ago. I bought a second desk from Marketplace for non-screen related activities (drawing, lino printing, and whatnot) of which I hope there will be much more this year.
Also, you’ll spy a rainbow of goals on a hand draw calendar in that photo too, I’m excited to tell you about that below.
Right image: a lino print that says ‘Imagination’. I’m loving learning about lino printing at the moment and mucking around with a few ideas, including turning this print into something like a proper poster. I’m not sure yet. But I’ve been thinking a lot about how nothing in the world (good or bad) happens without someone’s imagination kicking off an idea. I was reading From What Is, To What If by Rob Hopkins while I partook in my first PDC actually, which is all about using our imagination to create an awesome future. Highly recommend.
I’ve been paying attention to…
I stumbled across this video on how to plan out your business/project goals for the year on paper. I gave it a go (see photo above) and so far I love how visual and simple it is. I’ll see how it goes over the year, I might have to add it to my repertoire of organisational tools. I’m hoping to drag my career from survival mode, to thrive(al?) mode this year, and this feels like an intentional way to start.
I’ve only just started reading Gut Feelings: Healing the Shame-Fueled Relationship Between What You Eat and How You Feel, by Dr. Will Cole, but I’m ready to recommend it. We don’t have the energy to do the good things in the world unless we’re fuelling up well, and feeling good. And this book “approaches nutrition and wellness from a place of self-love and will help you eliminate stubborn health conditions, on your own terms.”
I’m just discovering Reskillience, a podcast by Catie Payne. So much packed into each ep, it’s a romp. Be ready to plunge headlong into the collapse though, this is not a light, sugar-coated listen.
And here is an ongoing list of great links for books, podcasts, films, etc, that I’ve loved, maybe you will too.
Okie dokie, that’s all from me today. I hope there’s something juicy in there for you.
May your new year bring whatever you need,
Excited to watch what you do, Nat. PS: And have to agree that you go into the garden for 5 minutes and come back 2 hours later after playing in the dirt and picking fruit and veg. What's not to love?
Your career seems very thrival rather than survival when viewed from the outside, so I’m excited to see what else you do for it to feel thrival (love the word) from the inside! How fun for you!