Blog - Page 7 of 29 - abi partridge

Blog

Two ways to be present in the moment

March 15, 2018

Lately, I have had a lot of things to get done. I have been juggling a part-time job, launching a new magazine, spending time with my husband, parenting three children and running their busy lives, (or rather, running them around for their busy lives!) There have been snow days and dental appointments, drama productions and upcoming exams, there are broken drainpipes and peeling paint on bathroom ceilings. Not to mention all the other daily and weekly chores that have to get done. We also have the normal and abnormal financial pressures and family commitments and it all gets a bit overwhelming. I’m sure you have your own kind of busy days and weeks too. There is always something to think on, plan for or worry about. Making a breathing space for my mind and soul has to be intentional, it doesn’t just happen without my choice to turn the whirring thoughts off. I have to practice the absence of worry and planning to be present, fully present to the real, good and true things of life.

One

Being present means making space to notice the small things, the beautiful things, the real things. Those moments that bring delight and joy and make life seem worthwhile. The moments that make us exhale with contentment and a sense that ‘it is well with my soul’. The beauty around that requires nothing from us. I have to ignore, for a time, the hard things and notice the good things, in order for those hard things to feel a little more surmountable and smaller.

One way I try to be intentional about noticing these moments is to intentionally seek them out by taking photos of beautiful flowers or nature and that which helps me to exhale. When it feels like I haven’t had time to be creative, I know that this is creativity; to stop and notice and capture.

I’ve made some Spring phone screens to remind us that creativity can be as complicated as stopping, noticing and capturing. Capturing a photo on a phone. Click on the photo to get the downloads.

Two

I also know that noticing the small gifts, those small moments and then being grateful for them helps me to be present to the moment. Gratitude directed to someone is full of purpose. Gratitude for someone has a direction, an energy, an intent, it is not merely a feeling that makes me feel good. Gratitude directed and expressed becomes an act of love. Have you noticed that showing thanks to someone is a reciprocal act? I honour and bless the recipient of my thanks, it is not only I that feels better. I’m not naturally inclined to feel grateful so anything that helps me to be more intentionally thankful helps. I want to be present for others too. So I’ve made some printable thanks cards for us.

Click on the photos to get the downloads.

Blog

What I learned this winter

March 1, 2018March 2, 2018

Ever get a little bit stuck in your creative practice? I do and sometimes I need a little push start, kick, or prompt to get me going. Today I’m using Emily P Freeman’s prompt roundup series “What I learned this Winter”.

Full disclosure: this post contains affiliate links, which if you were to buy through I would get a tiny little commission at no cost to you.

A change in life makes me laser focused.

I started a part-time job in November but I didn’t want to leave this little online space completely. This is my space to encourage others (and myself) to be creative for their wellbeing, and I love working here. But I knew that I would now have less time to give to it. Looking forward to the change in my days, made me dig down into what it is about this space that I really love. If I could only do one thing what would it be? I came back to my comfort space of magazines. Creating a magazine in the best way I know how. So that was the beginning of Iola. It meant that I haven’t written any tutorial posts, and my creativity has been limited to design. As a creative, I can bounce around from idea to idea, there’s always so many, but actually being limited by time and money has made me focus on what really matters. And I hope that the results are better for it.

Making space for fun

There have been quite a few changes in the Partridge house over the winter months and honestly, it’s been really tough. When seasons are like this it’s hard to put having fun on the agenda. Some dear friends hosted a fancy dress party at the beginning of December, Tim and I dressed up as Winter Wonderland and Mr Tumnus! I made a skirt from a bridal underskirt and battery lights and fake ivy and Tim some trousers from fake fur. It was so much fun to dress up with friends and I loved my skirt! A friend and mentor remarked that just before Christmas I seemed lighter and I was, Christmas brings hope to my heart for many reasons.

Seasons can be hard but still beautiful

I’m learning to find those diamonds in the dark. Winter has been a season of yelling “plot twist” and carrying on. But there have been glimmers of light. Beautiful walks in nature, iola, sledging in the snow for the first time in a few years, an amazing school production where my older two worked so hard and were A-mazing.

My weekly notebook from Moleskine saves my working day.

I work a day on, a day off at my paid job and have lots of little things to do, I wouldn’t survive without my moleskine weekly notebook. I can easily forget things between work days so my weekly notebook saves things getting missed. You can write deadlines on the left-hand side page which is the weekly diary and all the to-do things on the right-hand side. Although I work on screens all day, I have to write things down, it is better for my brain that way!

I will always be a Mac

Do you remember those ads? I started university back when we had computer labs and that was the year I got my first email address. (That gives you an idea how old I am!) Since then working as a designer I’ve only used Macs. PCs scared me. I have to work on a pc at the office and though at first, it was annoying, I’ve learnt how to use it, sort of. I’m still a Mac though.

I’m not good at reading when I’m tired.

My reading this winter has suffered. I’ve been tired and scattered and not had the energy to engage with reading books. I’m not ok with this. I need to change this soon. There are so many books on my to-read list.

I started to read Walking on Water: reflections on faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle and wrote down this:

“Art is communication, and if there is no communication it is as though the work had been stillborn.” – That’s one for your critics!

What I have loved

The Greatest Showman

We watched the film with the in-laws in the cinema on a rainy Boxing Day on a bit of a whim really. I loved it. The story spoke to me in so many ways, the dynamic of Barnum and his wife’s relationship, the building of the ‘greatest’ show, the circus family of misfits. I’ve even watched all the little youtube films on the making of it, I loved how they did the promotion for this movie. If you’ve not seen the James Corden Crosswalk on Broadway or the clip from Keala singing “This is me” yet then here they are.

If for some reason you have not seen the film – I would recommend it. We’ve been listening to the soundtrack on repeat too.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I just watched “The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” on Now tv. It’s the adaptation of a book that is based on a true story. Henrietta’s cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s, which became a multimillion-dollar industry and one of the most important tools in medicine. The film follows a writer’s quest to tell Henrietta’s story, (who died of cancer,) through talking to her family. It explores the death of a mother and the intricate repercussions on a family. I don’t know how I missed the book, but I want to read it now. It is a fascinating story, in the film Oprah plays Deborah Lacks, a character who is captivating. I don’t think I’ve watched anything quite like it recently. It’s worth hunting out.

Learned or Learnt?

Whilst writing this I wasn’t sure on my usage so this is what I found when I googled: “These are alternative forms of the past tense and past participle of the verb learn. Both are acceptable, but learned is often used in both British English and American English, while learnt is much more common in British English than in American English.” So now I know, and so do you.

What have you learned/learnt this winter?

creative wellbeing

When your simple treat is not treating you well

February 15, 2018February 17, 2018

A few years back when I managed to get out of the house, still heavy-eyed from broken nights of sleep, desperate for coffee and a few moments of respite without pawing toddler hands and constant questions, I would head to the coffee shop via the magazine stand. I was craving the need to sit with uninterrupted thoughts, able to finally gather my mind together from it’s scattered avenues of children’s needs to fulfil, a chore to be done, a meal to be cooked, an appointment to be made and another load of laundry to drag from the washing machine before it started to smell and not forgetting that cup of tea still sitting in the microwave long after the ping. A simple treat.

I’ve always loved magazines, a visual escape when my brain wasn’t awake enough to read the length of a book this was especially so. I wanted the combination of words and beautiful pictures that weren’t animated characters. When I was younger it was all about boyfriends and pop music in copies of Just Seventeen and Top of the Pops. As I grew older it became fashion magazines, then home magazines and craft ones, I loved to read them. But as I hit some struggles in my life I no longer found the sanctuary I wanted in magazines. Magazines that showed aspirational lifestyles that seemed so different to my situation.

The magazines started to make me feel inadequate, I didn’t have and couldn’t afford a beautifully and expensively decorated home. I didn’t want to buy lots of equipment to create something that I’d just have to dust. I couldn’t afford to spend £500 on one pair of boots. It was at this point I started to discover blogs on the internet, I discovered sites that gave me hope, where I didn’t feel so alone. I discovered the Nester, who managed to make her rental home look beautiful without worrying about it being perfect or expensive. I found incourage where women were encouraging each other with posts that brought life. I discovered Ann Voskamp who seemed to understand the depth of my emotions without piling on judgement or guilt. My love for printed magazines dwindled.

But part of my dreams growing up was to work in magazines, I wanted to be part of bringing words and pictures of hope to readers. I wanted to create beauty. As a teenager I wrote to the editor of Brio magazine and was amazed when she wrote back, it was such an encouraging letter I treasured it for years. I even made my own little magazines as a child and teenager.

I’ve been writing online for a good few years now, I think it’s nearly six years, first writing creative tutorials for a crafts event that I co-ran, then more personal blogs and about creativity and mental health. It became a way of creating my own little online magazine. Having worked as a designer my first love is print, I love the smell of print on paper and paper-based design. I love the single-minded devotion of paying attention to a book or a magazine without reading on my task manager which my phone has become. It’s too easy to do everything on that computer in my pocket, I can call my husband, text the kids, write my to-do list, catch up on social media, book and order the Tesco delivery, order the niece’s birthday present all at my fingertips and at the same time (well nearly), meaning I can be too distracted to pay mindful attention to what I am reading.

To read fully present I want to be offline, I want to feel the touch of paper on my fingertips, I want the slow turn of a page over the frantic scroll of a finger. Aware of my need for this and remembering that when I was a tired young mother, I also needed the simple treat of a coffee and a magazine – I knew there was a need for a new kind of magazine.

I’m a member of a writing training community and I floated my idea to them. I talked about my reader – her life stage, struggles, desires, dreams and they were keen to contribute. I couldn’t pay them, but I could offer them a beautiful magazine to be a part of and they could buy copies at a discounted rate to sell on. These writers are full or part-time writers with a heart to reach readers with words of hope. They have been so helpful and this magazine wouldn’t exist without them.

So here it is, iola magazine. If your idea of a simple treat is a cup of coffee (or tea!) and a magazine, instead of reading another celeb, home, or fashion mag, read iola. Iola will feed your mind with encouraging stories, gently prompt your creative soul and give it photos to breathe in and inspiring songs to hum. You don’t need another magazine to make you feel inadequate, you need one to read that makes you feel welcome like an old friend, right at home.

Follow this link to iola magazine.