Made this picture today with Dan’s play dough 🙂
Play Dough
Author: Grace Kishino
British artist living in Tokyo, trying to increase happiness in the world through art.
The Unseen
While walking along Hastings beachfront with my nephew, I asked him “How do you know if the past and future exist if you can’t see them? Where are they?” and he replied “Don’t be such an idiot, Grace!! just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there!”
D’ye see, after allowing a little space for the light to spread, nothing resting?
Day into night, and through night into day the remote, Unseen
Eventually to be visited:
After being chased, through night, through darkness, successful in the end, the wind and sea allies;
Touching the heart
worked anew.
Made this poem using an exercise in a journal/ notebook called “THE STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST JOURNAL” by Austin Kleon. I love it! It seems to inspire and release creativity 🙂
#stealjournal
Sunshine!
Feeling this in the literal sense at least! It’s beautiful weather today 🙂
Today is our second day of Dan being off school due to the coronavirus outbreak – going to try to start each day with Sun Salutations!
Why not start your day with something that makes you feel good?
15min Yoga Sequence
Yoga can make you happy and healthy!
Here’s a quick and simple yoga sequence you can hopefully fit in however busy your day. If you only have a few minutes just do one sun salutation and add on a few of the other poses if you have time!
Warm your body up with sun salutations!
Stretch out your legs and body with a lunge – remember to do it on both sides! Keep your back straight and hands down on your front knee if it’s uncomfortable to reach up.
Stretch your sides from top to bottom! Repeat on both sides and bring your feet slightly closer together if it’s difficult with them wide apart.
Twist away tension! While doing this twist, on each inhale extend your spine upwards, on each exhale try to gently deepen the twist. If it feels better, hold your bent knee with your hand rather than levering with the elbow. Do on both sides.
Wake up and open the front of your body with a back bend! If you can’t reach your feet, you can try using a strap or just lift and reach back your hands and feet off the floor – remember to keep breathing while holding the pose.
Stretch your back out and relax in a seated forward bend, you can use a strap or bend your knees if needed.
Open your hips and stretch your lower back. If you can’t reach around your leg, try using a strap or rest your arms on the floor and just use your legs. Breath into any tight places!
Relax and restore – try to take 5-10mins for this if you can!
Kirigami
Kirigami means cutting paper in Japanese (kiri = cut, gami = paper).
It’s a fun and easy activity to do with children and you use them for decoration or glue them on to paper or card, etc.
You can also use the cut out pieces for something!
Sometimes I like to make one where the kirigami is based on, for example, my whole life and each cut represents an event or relationship. Then the folded part represents your life in time and the opened pattern represents your life in eternity. Other ideas to try are things like just one day, a relationship or an idea!
Fix with Sticks!
Mending some broken rails in our cupboard with some sticks and Dan’s penknife he got for Christmas. It has a saw and sander as well!
Also made this hairbrush holder with a hot chocolate pot and some coloured masking tape.
Origami Paper Lantern
I made this lantern for Dan’s room with some origami paper, masking tape, pipe cleaners and ribbon.
The bulb is one that doesn’t get hot so it is safe!
Dark Angels
Things that seem so bad now can sometimes seem like gifts looking back.
Like these angels – from this angle they look dark, but if the photo was taken from the other side, they would be light.
The Most Important Thing
When I was walking with Dan to school the other day, we were talking about him cycling home on his own and I said, “Be careful, keep looking around for cars and people – Observation – that’s the most important thing!”
Dan said, “No it’s not!” I said, “Yes it is – what’s more important than observation?”
He replied, “Love!”
Perfect
While staying with my family in the UK this summer, I was rather taken with this translation of the Upanishads by Shree Purohit Swami and W. B. Yeats which I found on my stepdad’s book shelf. Especially the first few lines:
That is perfect. This is perfect. Perfect comes from perfect. Take perfect from perfect, the remainder is perfect.
May peace and peace and peace be everywhere.
Sometimes I find it hard to see perfection in everything, but never hard to see in my son Dan!
What do you see as perfect?
