New dolls
This is a doll design I've been working on lately that is much more practical time-wise than my older designs (see yesterday's post if you like). They're only about 4cm and they take about twenty minutes each (if the heads are already made, that is). Keep reading →
Old dolls
A year or two ago now I discovered that something I really, really love to do is doll-making. I REALLY love it. And I spent hours and hours doing it - often on just the one doll. Keep reading →
Monkeys
Sociologists (which I am sort of one of) have a bit of an ongoing feud with psychologists, don’t we? Even though we quite like to read their stuff and are happy enough to shelve Durkheim and barge into their offices when we have actual problems. Keep reading →
An unmet Leonardo
Earlier in the week I read a magazine article about synaesthesia, a condition causing (allowing?) words to be experienced with shapes, colours, flavours and sizes. I'm sure I'm not synaesthetic, but I don't find it very hard to imagine what it must be like. Keep reading →
Picasso
A couple of weeks ago I went to the gallery with my friend D who is an artist and an art therapist and (I secretly suspect) a sort of angel in disguise. For me, visual art is an acquired taste and one I am still acquiring. Keep reading →
Nattering with K
Last night I had a cup of tea with my friend K (which is always a nice thing to do) and she and I were thinking about whether its better to be the sort of person who takes themselves and their experiences very seriously, or the sort of person who doesn't. Keep reading →
One of the reasons I love Alain de Botton
There are actually quite a lot of reasons. He expresses things that I would have expressed myself if I’d actually known I thought them. It’s always relieving to find one’s almost inexpressible thoughts laid out neatly on a page. He also enables my students to write much better essays, since I do believe he is among the very few intellectuals who want to be understood Keep reading →
Passionfruit
My neighbor (whose thumb is much greener than mine) planted a passion fruit vine last year and luckily for me it has grown over the fence and into my garden. Its flowers are just about the most extraordinary things I’ve ever seen! And the fruit are lovely too. They hang Chinese lantern-like outside my bedroom window. Keep reading →
Committed
Like lots of other women in the world in my age bracket I have been reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed. I like it. I was glad to be reminded by her of the words of Julian of Norwich (1342-1416) Keep reading →
Small victories
In my experience, goals feel much clearer when you set them than when you come to tick them off. Writing a children’s book, for example. When is that goal complete? When you finish writing it? When you mail it off? When an agent agrees to try to sell it? When a publisher agrees to publish it? When you sign the contract? Keep reading →
