Paper

Just a pile of paper?*

Last year, I was lucky enough to catch The First Cut at Nottingham's Lakeside Art, an exhibition devoted to showcasing paper-based art. Beautiful paper cuts, sculptures large and small, a room transformed into a "Wonder Forest". Printer paper, newspaper, shopping bags and currency, books and card; the diversity of the exhibits was much greater than I had been expecting, especially considering the delicacy of their construction in some cases.

Rob Ryan was probably the only artist I had heard of beforehand

Beautiful Science

A wonderful exhibition, entitled Beautiful Science: Picturing Data, Inspiring Insight is currently on at the British Library in London, and shows how, useful, beautiful and elegant scientific data visualisation can be.

Over-thinking

When I started this blog, I had lots of ideas. My brain said "Oooooh! I could write about, this! Or that! Or maybe even a series of posts! How exciting!" So I began. In my first post I said this blog was going to be about sharing those things that get me excited.

So what happened?

I started thinking. And writing. (There's a lot of partially started posts kicking around in my drafts folder.) And thinking.

Then worrying.

Maybe I didn't have anything useful to say that hadn't been said before? Or I couldn't figure out how to formulate that perfect phrase to describe my excitement. Never mind - no-one would be interested anyway. So I kept putting it off. I prioritised other things. I didn't even toy with writing another post.

But then I felt disappointed that I hadn't written anything. It had taken only a few weeks for those inner doubts to come and sabotage what was meant to be a fun project. And I let them.

So, enough.

There may not be polished prose or unique musings, but I will be thinking (constructively!), making, doing, learning - and sharing - here again.

Squeak, squeak, buzz

When a box arrived at work, and I started grinning and clapping my hands together, I think my colleagues anticipated that the delivery was Christmas-related; a carefully picked gift, sparkly shoes for a Yuletide party, a festive jumper.

But no, the item bringing such a sparkle to my eye and joy to my heart was a mouse.

Not a toy for the cat, or food for a non-existent pet snake, or a computer peripheral, no, this was

Ikea Dombas Transformation

I wanted a wardrobe. A big wardrobe. Going from a large amount of built in wardrobe space, to none, was not a disaster, but after 4 months of waking up and seeing clothes racks flanking the window, enough was enough.

Charity shop stock was too variable (both in size and style), new pieces too expensive, so something plain, which we could jazz up became the aim. The best compromise between function (space), looks and price, was the Dombas from Ikea, and you have to admit, it's not much of a looker....

The Ikea Dombas

White Space

In common with roughly 25% of those resident in the UK, I live in a rented property and have done for roughly 6 years (11 if you count student accommodation too). Although I've lived in different types of properties - houses, flats, halls of residence - they have all had one common theme. White (or magnolia) walls.

White! Everywhere!

As much as I like clean lines, and light and airy spaces, I also like variety. I like patterns. I like colour.

Things

I get excited about things. 

Sometimes I get very excited about things.

It is usually quite easy to tell when I am excited about things as I start waving my hands around, jump up and down or start talking far too fast.

To begin with, this blog will be the digital equivalent of me with a big grin on my face, waving my hands around, bouncing up and down on the balls of my feet, sharing with you those things that get me excited:

Things I think about.
Things I make.
Things I do.
And possibly most importantly, things I learn.

I hope you'll get excited too.