My Life Lately
Hello Lovely.
Happy Solstice! I know I’m weeks late with this, but honestly, I didn’t feel like a whole lot has happened since I last updated you. At the same time, though, A LOT has happened, and here we are.
My last update was in the spring, and as the weather has been getting better, I’ve been trying my best to be out more. Not sure I’m succeeding as it feels like I’m always home in front of a computer (yay remote day jobs!), but I’ve been making an effort to get out to more green spaces. For my birthday in April, a few friends and I went to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens for the day. It was definitely a very gray morning, but it cleared up quite nicely towards the late afternoon. The primary objective was to see some cherry blossoms, and while a few were in bloom, the trees in the Cherry Esplanade were not. But the magnolias were in full bloom and lovely as ever!
I’ve still been journaling—more so now, I think, than ever. I’m still finding my stride in the creative “artsy” part of it, but I’ve loved collecting ephemera and sticking all the things into my little A6 journal. This latest one I’ve been sharing is actually complete now, so I expect a full flip through of it is coming soon.
I’ve been spending a lot of time at Recess Grove, this cool art cafe in Brooklyn. I actually hosted my very first journal-making workshop there last month! It was a nice time, even if the turnout wasn’t what I expected, but I’m hoping to host another sometime in the fall. But I’ve been hanging out there in my free time, drawing and getting things into my journal. They host an open house on Saturdays for the summer called Recess Groove, and I’ve been attending a few of them just to have some fun me time away from home. It’s nice and I love it.
This little journal I’ve kept for spring turned out super chunky! I absolutely love it and I’m glad it’s full because it was becoming a bit difficult to write in towards the end. My last couple of pages though are filled with artwork I’ve been creating while taking James Luke Burke’s final Virtual Voyage class. I’ve been having a lot of fun with it and not stressing out too much by keeping a journal solely for the class. It’s been nice to create on loose paper then fussy cut my completed drawings and stick them into my little journal. I feel like I need to be doing more of that moving forward.
On the Solstice, I went on a date to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, and it was a beautiful day. I took my mirrorless camera with me and a 25mm “toy” lens and had a lot of fun just snapping away, taking all the shots. I love all of the colors of the gardens! I know when architecting a garden, there’s rhyme and reason for everything. I especially love the clusters of flowers whose color just creates the most stunning color palette. I was completely in awe! Absolutely loved all of the colors!
I also loved being away from the city. I don’t think I’ve ever been in an open field before where all you heard was birdsong and insect buzzing! And wild bunnies! So many wild bunnies running around, hopping in and out of the tall grass! No cars, no ambient city noise, no people. It was absolute heaven. I honestly feel like I need to go on more excursions to the countryside more often. It was so nurturing and much needed.
Other than that, life is life-ing. I’ve been in a weird space as of late, where I feel that things are changing, and I don’t exactly know where I stand. It’s almost like a second quarter life crisis. I’ve been feeling a bit wobbly lately, and I don’t quite yet have a heading. It’s a weird space. I’m definitely sensitive to the old crumbling away and the uncertainty of the new coming. I feel the shift. And I don’t exactly know what I should do. I know I will have to make a decision of sorts, but it’s not time yet. It’s a weird space and I don’t even know if I’m explaining it correctly. But from the space, I’ve been feeling really inspired to resurrect my YouTube channel—well not really resurrect, but give a bit more life to again.
So I’ve been filming some videos and have a little backlog of them that I need to edit, which is my least favorite part of the process. But I’m excited to share in this way again. Right now, expect a few journal flip-throughs, but my goal is to start creating journal with me videos again. Wish me luck.
xx Tiffany