Something a bit different for Easter

Excuse the silence blog friends...the school holidays arrived, and with them chicken pox. One of our little ones has now gone through it and we are waiting for the other to come down with it. So many thoughts have been brewing in my head that I have wanted to externalise into blog posts, but they will need to wait. So, I hope you like this Easter offering....

Every year at Easter when I was a child, my mum and aunt would make traditional Southern Italian biscuits...they are quite unique in that they are big and at the centre, you have a hard boiled egg, still in its shell. I remember year after year, sitting, munching my way round and round the biscuit (this could take half an hour!) until I was left with my egg.

These biscuits are called Pupi cu l'ova (southern dialect for doll with an egg) and are traditionally made in shapes such as bears, dolls, hen's or baskets.

I haven't had one for...well at least 25 years, until this morning! We found a recipe online - the one we used is here though I really wanted to do this one as its more like the one I remember, but I was missing a couple of ingredients.  Well, they tasted fabulous, just like I remember. Taste buds sure give you a trip down memory lane don't they?

 

And the kids loved making them and more particularly, eating them! There is a lot of childhood delight in munching through a giant cookie ;)

Why not give them a go? Something a little different for Easter...

Lastly, here's some of our Easter decorations (I have started keeping a little box with Easter decs in them...why should decorating our homes be just for Christmas eh?).

The wreath was something I started last year and finished yesterday...at last (that's just the pace of how it goes round here...).

Wishing you the best of what Easter can give...new life and the power of transformation.

Concetta xx

A week of firsts

Its been a busy 'ole week here in Glittering Shards land. We have had dear friends visiting all week and this weekend too.

I have finished another mosaic piece for an exhibition - will post pics in the week - and have started on a beautiful, delicate commission for a 40th wedding anniversary.

Workshops continue apace - 3 a week at the moment - with students (all beginners) launching into some pretty exciting projects.

 I am also in full preparation mode for 2 more community art projects which I am really looking forward to.

In the midst of all this activity, a week of firsts:

...the first day of going out without a coat or jacket

...the first opportunity to hang the washing out to dry...

... our first day back at our lovely community farm after the winter break and the first lawn mow of the year. Oh the smell. Bliss. Yup, spring has definitely sprung in London town. Blossoms are out in full force. I feel like sitting under the candy pink blossom in our neighbour's garden for hours just to take it all in before it goes (which it does all too quickly).

 
To round it all off, I am now into week 4 of the 30 day vegan workshop and doing great. Have got  the whole family drinking green smoothies - we are bouncing full of sunshine and happy vitamins! Hope sunshine and goodness is reaching you too.

Have I introduced you to....

    ...Chloe, our new cat?

She was given to us by one of my lovely mosaic students because their family could not keep her. And what a character she is.

Utterly royal in her composure, I think she has finally accepted that she is in an house that values equality...and is making friends with our two dear rescue kittens!

Here she is sleeping with Isabella, as she does every evening....

...with me in my studio.

 

And yesterday, oh my...she followed Isabella all the way to school (a 10 minute walk!) and despite being returned home, she went back 4 times and decided to sit in the Art Room of all places (my kind of cat).  By the end of the day, half the school knew her name! A character indeed, and a most welcome addition to our family ;)

Home organising and rhythm setting

There is something about my personality and life experience which means I need a sense of rhythm to my life. Since becoming  a parent, that need has become acute. I have tried to push it aside and live by 'going with the flow', but it hasn't worked for me, especially with the demands of a growing creative business.

So I declared 2011 to be my Year of Living Rhythmically. My year of finding a pace to life that feels more realistic and respectful of where I am at in my stage of life (with two young children to nurture,  a family home to maintain and 'art' calling me). A way of running my life so that it feels more balanced rather than being so deep in one area of life that I  neglect the rest. A way of living that decreases stress and increases calm. A pattern to life that respects my need to know where I am at and what I am to give my attention to at a given moment rather than feeling that I have to deal with / develop / achieve everything right now (recipe for overwhelm if there ever was one).

I have tons I want to say about what rhythmical living means and does not mean to me but for now, let me tell you how I have begun:

1. By clearing the physical space in my life
2. By developing a way to intuitively plan my use of time.

On the latter, I have invented a 'tool' to do this (its taken me 4 weeks to 'make'!) and I am going to start using it tomorrow. For those of you interested, I will report back and tell you all about it in a month (once I know if it works for me or not).

As for clearing the space...oh my! I have done my best over the last 5 years since having children to keep some sort of home organisation going. But, truth be told,  many, many corners of the home have been filled with things tidily shoved away. Seeing these hot spots of neglect have left me frequently hyperventilating (you know that feeling, when you can't find what you need or you open the cupboard door and things tumble out?)

So, in my quest to clear the metaphorical dance floor of my life so that I can dance my rhythm without tripping, I have spent the last 10 weeks sorting, de-cluttering and tidying. So far I have tackled:

• the kitchen cupboards (happily, in good preparation for this course on Vegan living that start tomorrow)
• the utensils draws in the kitchen (yay! The draw has not got stuck once since!)
• the understairs cuboard (including using the genius system from my friend Kate, for organising medicine into two boxes - 'internal' and 'external')
• all our paperwork and filing has been gone through and stuff chucked, organised or archived. I feel like I need an enourmous round of applause for this as its over 5 years worth - phew! I think that we may now be able to actually find a piece of paper when we need it!
• I have sorted my jewelry and made this display frame from a beautiful piece of lace  (hand-made and given to me by a dear lady in Finland) which I have mounted on a wooden frame.

I adapted this idea from Heather at Beauty that Moves who showed how she used a small bit of lace in an embroidery hoop for hanging earrings. It's so lovely seeing all the various sparkly bits (many with feelings attached) on display - it is like using all your jewelry to make a work of art!

• my artists studio has been thoroughly cleared out and I have nearly finished sorting all my tiles (will post pics of the inside when I do)
• kids toys have been thinned out, sorted and tidied including all the girly nick nacks (how many bracelets and necklaces can a little girl have? Mmm...about as many as her mummy maybe?)
• our hat gallery is back!

• my sewing area is finally cleared, sorted and set up and I will finish our family snuggle quilt for the living room by next winter...

Still many house projects to tackle but it feels sooo good to have made such headway, particularly as I have a busy time coming up with my art in the next few months (some exciting news to share soon!).

PS. The picture above my sewing desk is by Nikki McClure , an inspiring self-taught artist and children's author who makes the most beautiful paper-cut art. The picture was a 40th birthday present from friend, blogger and fellow Tooting creative Gillian. When she gave it to me, it literally choked me up - there is something in the picture that touches me deeply.

So many things to celebrate! And a round up of blog love...

Oh my, I don't know if my stars are lined up or what but the last couple of weeks have been worthy of some serious looking back and Celebrating!

Gosh, I really should do a winter version of my toes!

Before I share, I have to report back that several people have said to me  "Please don't stop the Celebrating Each Step forum." And tonight I just discovered a beautiful new photography and mosaic site with the Celebrating Each Step badge on and I felt a twinge as I know there is a fair sprinkling of badges for the Celebrating forum in the blogosphere.

So here's the deal. I will continue to post my celebrations and acknowledgments of the steps I take, when I need to, because...well... I need to (and want to). Read all about it by clicking the "I'm Celebrating..." tab at the top right of the blog where I have also put the blog badge for you to grab.  If you are a regular reader or just happen upon a 'Celebrating' post, please join me in celebrating your own recent accomplishments, big and small (either in the comments or on your own blog for you to link to). One dear friend has told me that looking back every day and acknowledging our big and small steps with gratitude is a key tenet of Ignatian spirituality. It is good to remind ourselves that when we engage in this practice of reflection, we are in good company, stretching back through ages and traditions ;)

And so...here's me celebrating...

Sold! Great story behind this piece here

• selling two pieces of mosaic art this week - yay!

• 

  Sold!

• a new commission to make some gorgeous mosaic dragonflies for a garden
• a commission to do a 2 day workshop and a piece of public art with children in care. This is rather wonderful as I was a social worker and advocate with children in care until recently, so it brings two parts of my life together  :)
• a really successful pilot of mosaic workshops at the Artyard.  People really got the mosaic bug and were so complementary about the course that we have now booked another month's worth of workshops!
• announcement that one of my students, Silvia, won the local round of the Topps Tiles Award for Achievement in Mosaics for her first mosaic 'Starling'. She now goes through to the national round. Well done Silvia!



Silvia's award winning first mosaic

• I have been approached by a wonderful looking gallery and art education centre who are interested in my work. Exciting...!
• I have been nominated for a Stylish Blog award by the lovely Creating Trouble! Thank you so much...feel honoured.  Head on over there to see some lovely art, cards, mosaics and quilting. Lovely to find another mosaic-lovin' blogger in London too!

As part of receiving the Award, I have to tell you 7 things about myself, pass the Award onto 15 other blogs that I love and then let them know!   Here goes:


7 things about me...
1. I love artichokes (mmmm....), and fish and rice and watermelon (my desert island foods)
2. I can say the alphabet backwards very fast (good party trick)
3. I wrote a book on the rights of children who are locked-up, which was widely distributed to young people in prison several years ago
4. I am a bit of a crooner...love singing and miss miss miss the choir I was part of BC (before children)
5. I spent part of my childhood in Southern Italy, in a beautiful seaside town called Marina di Ginosa, with the loveliest white sandy beaches and acres of vineyard
6. Van Morrison is my all time favourite musical artist - Irish mystic and musical genius
7. Yup, my hair is naturally curly.

And I award the Stylish Blog Award to the following blogs:

1. Dana Barbieri Art
2. Mosaic is Art
3. Sy's Prints
4. Elemental
5. The Prairie Girl
6. 101 Birdtales
7. Ordinary Courage
8. Beauty That Moves
9. A Little Hut
10. The Crafty Crow
11. Blue Sky Butterfly Studio
12. Marmalade Moon
13. Mousy Brown's House
14. Kelly Rae Roberts
15. Makiko Hastings

So much I could say about each one - some newly discovered, others have been regular pit stops in my blog journeying - but safe to say that I have chosen these as they represent  some of the  wonderful 'blog-homes' of some amazing, inspiring women, each following their hearts, creating beautiful things in various mediums and struggling to balance  creativity, daily life and -in many cases- parenthood. Thank you blog sisters.  The Stylish Blog Awards, as I see it, are a sweet way of acknowledging each others goodness and giving others a chance to discover this goodness - so head on over as there's a lot of goodness going on!

Handing over to you...to pause and breathe...and wonder... What  steps have you taken that you haven't properly acknowledged because of life's busyness and the pull of the 'to do' list?

Changing the world...

 My sweet firstborn is 5 years old today! I still look at her and am full of awe at how this little human life IS. Joy at how she is unfolding into her years.

Everyone says (and we know), that it goes fast, so fast.

Over the last few years, I have often had this phrase floating round my head:  "You are shaping another person's childhood". That is an awesome and wonderful thing, especially for those us for whom childhood has held dark times.

The power to create a big stock of happy memories.

Memories of simply being held and touched.

Memories of play, creativity, romping on the floor, silliness, inquisitve questioning.

Memories of being heard, deeply listened to and valued for what you say and are.

Memories of knowing you matter, your feelings matter and are worthy of a loving (which sometimes means firm) response.

Memories of community, of relatedness and connection to a 'tribe' of people (in our case, urban and patched together from many walks of life!).

This is our power, our responsibility as parents and carers of children - to create childhoods that whilst not perfect (for we will all bear internal wounds as well as grazes to our childhood knees) are nonetheless brimming with  goodness, connectedness, creativity and a sense of wonder that will give our little people all they need to stand tall as loving humans in the middle of a broken world. This is our power - to face up to the historical wounds that have remained toxic, unhealed and passed from generation to generation,  look them square in the eye and say "The buck stops here - the poison from this wound goes no further".

I am helping create my sweet babe's childhoods through love, kindness and hard internal work using the tools of self-awareness, honesty, grace and hope.

This is how we change the world. One childhood at a time.

Rhythm setting

My year of living rhythmically is 10 days old. I have been spending some wonderfully rich moments writing down all that has been in my head and heart on the subject - several years worth of gestation - and externalising it onto paper and hard drive (don't you think that as soon as you name a folder on a hard drive it brings something to life?). That feels good.


There is so much rich imagery to draw from - in nature, in music, in the creative process, in our very bodies - and this has led me to set aside January as rhythm setting month. This is already a shift in me - not trying to have everything done and set now, but knowing that all things have their time and that space for formation is allowed!

So, tonight, I am about to sit with good old fashioned pen and paper (in my trusty ideas book) and ponder - what processes do I need to give time for, daily, weekly, monthly...in order to create well-being in areas of my personal & and family life? This is way beyond scheduling and time management. It is about connecting to a deep need for rhythm and an innate way of living in tandem with the cyclical nature of being human. More soon...

Arty party party party!

We came, we gathered, we made...

Sally Dunnett from Smart Glass UK teaching us how to make beautiful fused glass creations...

My glass creation (several layer of stacked glass, including gorgeous dichroic) ready to go in the kiln

A few more creations prior to fusing...

Next, in the pub, making jewelry under the tuition of the lovely Louise from Lou Lou Workshop

...and gorgeous vintage fabric brooches taught to us by the wonderful Gillian from Fabric Nation

Claire having fun with needle and thread!

 ...we laughed, we ate, we drank

Lucy showing off her charm bracelet

...we celebrated,  and lastly, we danced!

What better 40th bash could a girl want?

Some of the arty party gang who made in into the picture!

And me...happy at being surrounded by such wonderful girlfriends and of course blokey mates who came in the evening (and those that danced into the night!). I am left  grinning at how many of them said it was the best day they had had in ages...cos they had not used their hands to create for way too long. "Wow...I can't believe I made this" and "Please can you have 40th birthday parties all the time?" being two favourite quotes. I have been wearing my brooch and bracelet all day and am looking forward to seeing my glass creation once it has cooked in the kiln!

Thank you to everyone for making it such a memorable launch into my next decade - I started as I mean to go on, with friendship and creativity at the heart.