colourliving

a tribute to ottavio missoni 1921-2013

Everyone who knows me and many of you who have followed my blog for the past 15 months will know my admiration and love for the missoni brand.

I’ve just heard that ottavio missoni, the founder of the brand, has passed away today.

Tragedy had struck his family earlier this year, when his eldest son vittorio missoni, 58, disappeared with his wife. They had been flying in a small plane during a vacation to a venezuelan island. No doubt, this immense loss must have weighed heavy on ottavio’s heart.

Last year was special for me in so many ways. One of my highlights was to see rosita missoni, ottavio’s wife and co-founder of the missoni brand, in conversation with michelle ogundehin (editor in chief of elle decoration uk) and be able to tell her what great influence missoni has been on me. Look how radiant rosita looked. This was in september 2012. I cannot even imagine how she must be feeling having lost her son back in january and her beloved husband today!

As homage to the missoni family and to pay my respects, i hope you don’t mind that i’m now going to re-publish my post, written in february 2012. Here it is:

When I was 15 years old, i spent a weekend with my father in switzerland. On a shopping trip he took me to a missoni boutique and bought me a blazer, cardigan and scarf. I immediately fell in love with their knitwear designs. There is no doubt in my mind that this first encounter, over 30 years ago, has greatly influenced my use and views on colour, patterns and generally the way i look at fashion, interiors and design. It certainly left an everlasting imprint on me.

This is the cardigan i bought over 30 years ago. I last wore it about a week ago. It hasn’t dated right?

Breathtaking patterns and imagery on knitwear.

Does this look like a scarf bought in the early 80′s? Could be the latest season’s design?

The story of rosita and ottavio (tai) missoni began at the 1948 london olympics. Ottavio, a member of the italian olympic team, designed the uniforms for his team mates that year. Rosita, who was born into an italian family of shawl and embroidered fabric producers saw him run the 400m hurdle race. They fell in love and started the missoni dynasty in 1953, the same year they got married.

Their humble beginnings consisted of a small workshop where they created art; the only possible way to describe their early knitwear designs. Taking much of their inspiration from folk art, the missonis were primarily known for their innovative use of knits and patterns. Most recognisable among these is the missoni zigzag but the label also plays with stripes, geometrics and abstract florals. Missoni uses a myriad of colours in their fabrics but avoids any jarring notes by using similar tones. The company is also known for its intelligent use of a variety of different fabrics such as rayon, silk, cotton and wool and for its innovative knitting techniques.

The missonis used great imagination for their creations, separating them apart from the old-fashioned ways of traditional hand knitted items and the often blandness of machine knitted products. Their biggest asset is their supremacy of design, mixing traditional italian skills with modern technology. Missoni still has its own factory in italy where they create their signature knits. It takes around 2-3 hours to make one meter of fabric which can contain over 20 different colours in each design.

Missoni does not rely on fashion trends but instead uses their natural talent for italian flair and style. They have been quoted saying: ‘our philosophy since we went into business has been that a piece of clothing should be like a work of art. It should not be bought for a special occasion or because it’s in fashion, but because a woman likes it…..and feels she could wear it forever.’

In 1997, after over 40 years, rosita missoni stepped down as head of the knitwear line. Being a family run business, the three children of the founders have taken reign of the business. Angela missoni is creative director of the woman’s wear collection. Luca missoni is responsible for the design of the menswear collection. Recently, margherita missoni, angela’s daughter, has joined the business and is hailed as angela’s next successor.

In 2003, the missoni phenomenon celebrated 50 years in business with a catwalk event at the v&a in london, as part of their fashion in motion series. I was lucky to have obtained a ticket for this much sought after event. They were showing their key pieces for each year since their inception in 1953. Honestly, not one outfit had dated and all would be fashionable today. Total magic and utter genius!

In 2004 rosita missoni, not one for retirement, launched the missoni homeware collection which has been a massive hit. In 2009 rosita oversaw the opening of the first hotel missoni, in edinburgh. I was ecstatic that this coincided with my trip to the edingburgh festival and so celebrated my birthday in missoni heaven.  A second hotel, in kuwait, is due to open in March, and she has three more luxury boutique hotels—in oman, brazil and turkey—in the planning. Not bad for a 79 year old lady!

I love going to art galleries and exhibitions. Sometimes i am left speechless and one such time was when visiting the incredible: workshop missoni – daring to be different at the estorick collection of modern italian art back in 2009. Curated by luca missoni, rather than focusing on finished products, the exhibition took the viewer ‘behind the scenes’ of missoni, exploring the technical working processes involved in the production of their fabrics and clothing and revealing their underlying sources of inspiration – including the fine arts.

Here are some pages from my own copy, but you can still buy it from here

In late 2011 missoni collaborated with target. It was, on one hand, a huge success and equally a total internet-crash fiasco.

I want to leave you with snippets of my own home project. Here below, in my living room, i’ve used the missoni fabric range: neuchatel. When it came to doing the bathroom i wanted to paint stripes, so decided to take a sample of the missoni fabric and ask the nice people of oliver paint in portobello to hand mix me the colours. They did an incredible job but unfortunately they are no longer in business.

Meanwhile, I spent a few days on the computer working out colour dimensions, proportions and how it would work best in that space.

This is a section of the finished bathroom. Who has spotted the missoni bath mat?

My dream came true when on 27 january 2012 i was in the audience in the v&a auditorium, as part of the peroni collaborazioni talks, listening to angela missoni in conversation with renowned fashion journalist gianluca long. Angela allowed a rare insight into what it’s like working for such an iconic family firm. The talk addressed her forecast for the future of italian fashion and her thoughts on the new designers and fashion houses that might shape that future.

My highlight was to be able to go up to angela afterwards and tell her of my longstanding love affair with missoni and thank her for the continued inspiration. Grazie mille!

22 Comments

the joy of the boby trolley

As a creative, working form home, i’m forever trying to find ways to tame my ‘creative chaos’. Part of me needs to have stuff on view for inspiration and yet i crave order too. it’s a never ending struggle.

To help me, i’m always looking for interesting storage ideas that will simultaneously act as a beautiful piece of furniture. There is nothing more satisfying to me than exhibiting much loved products but also give them a sense of order.

I was very excited to see a fantastic magazine rack my friend igor shared with us. Igor, after much deliberation, i’ve settled for the black one and it will live in my bedroom:-)

Today, let me introduce you to the iconic boby trolley. Boby, designed by joe colombo in 1970, is a trolley storage unit which has made its mark on history, mainly due to its outstanding versatility. Designed to guarantee customised storage capacity, the structure and drawers are made from injection-moulded ABS plastic, while the casters are made of polypropylene. The manufacturing process is still very much in use and you can order your own boby trolley here. This iconic design is part of the permanent collection of the museum of modern art in new york and “triennale” in milan.

About a month ago i read of a unique sale of interesting vintage items by a mum and daughter. It was on a corner of redchurch street in shoreditch and it just sounded different and a little quirky. I made sure i went to the pre-view of the sale and as soon as i walked in i knew it was not in vein. I immediately spotted the gorgeous red boby trolley and i could feel my heartbeat racing out of excitement. I was delighted to discover it was still available and at the snippet price of £60 there was nothing really to reflect. It was mine. I knew, by speaking to the mother, that she had loved and cared for it over the 30 years or so in her possession and that’s part of the excitement of buying vintage, wouldn’t you agree?

I thought i would show you what i use my boby trolley for and hope you enjoy this little tour:-)

Here it is in full bloom!

The famous signature engraved inside the bottom shelf.

Let’s start with the back. How ingenius to have a space for long tubes and the likes. Although i have in-build architectural plan chests, there’s never a clever way to store longer and thicker items. The tubes you see are limited edition monocle prints that, after 4 years, still need framing!

From left: moleskine notebook with a customised cover made for me (no longer available). Caran d’ache 849. Mulberry A5 organiser. Graf von Faber-Castell classic pencil pernambuco wood.

From left: Waterman fountain pen, lady agatha (no longer available, look at auctions). A range of kaweco fountain pens and pencil. Koh -i-noor mechanical pencil.

Awww, my beloved mr p one man tape dispenser.

I’ve blogged about my paper clips before. See here.

Faber-castell pitt artist pens. Faber-castell pitt artist pen big brush.

Artefacts cards. Bussiness cards by moo.com

Wallpaper city guides. The berlin design guide.

Inside the top draw you’ll find my mt tapes and some feathers and craft materials.

In the second draw i have some of my card collection. Favourites are christian lacroix  (bought in liberty) and numerous cards by alison sye.

Hope there’s been something of interest for you. Liking the monday sunshine. See you thursday!

By the way, i’ve just entered the Home Love contest at Fashion For Home and submitted the first photo here to indicate a place or corner of my home that i love! Well, you all now know that Boby is a very welcome new addition to my home office. Why not enter yourselves? You have until 18th April! 

27 Comments

my first blogging anniversary – books giveaway

Happy new year everyone! Wow! Here we are. 2012, an epic year for the uk, is firmly behind us and it’s time for a new start.

There will no doubts be more posts on beginnings and new year resolutions, but for today i simply wanted to check in, say hello and let you know that today is officially my 1st blogging anniversary. It was exactly 1 year ago that i sat down and decided to commit to this thing we call blogging. Most of you know i blog twice a week, every monday and thursday. This will continue throughout 2013.

I thought long and hard about what to do for my blogging anniversary. I wanted to thank everyone for all your encouragement, all the comments you left and the massive support i have felt throughout 2012.

Christmas is over and i’m sure many of you have received wonderful presents. For me, one of the best presents I buy for myself are books. In the spirit of new beginnings and life-long learning i thought it would be fun to give away books to one lucky reader. Here below you’ll find a selection of the books i bought in 2012. I made this the reading list!

These are the rules: One winner will receive 3 books of their choice. Please leave a comment and tell me which 3 books you would like. Don’t worry, i’m not going to send the winner my own copies. New books will be dispatched:) If you wish you can also say why you’ve chosen those 3 titles. The giveaway will stay open until sunday 13th 2013 at 6pm GMT. The winner will be chosen by random.org

Books from the top:

1.   how to think more about sex – alain de botton (not shown in photograph)
2.   how to find fulfilling work – roman krznaric
3.   how to stay sane – philippa perry
4.   how to thrive in the digital age – tom chatfield
5.   how to change the world – john-paul flintoff
6.   how to worry less about money – john amstrong
7.   tout sweet – karen wheeler
8.   the $100 startup – chris guillebeau
9.   the start-up of you – reid hoffman and ben casnocha
10. the wonderbox – roman krznaric
11. imagine – jonah lehrer (will try to obtain paperback in early feb)
12. the burning house – foster huntington
13. one drawing a day – veronica lawlor
14. webs of influence - nathalie nahai
15. the fire starter sessions – danielle laporte
16. farm anatomy - julia rothman
17. the idea hunter - andy boynton, bill fischer
18. le road trip – vivian swift
19. junk genius - juliette goggin and stacy sirk
20. made by yourself - peter fehrentz (note, this is in german)
21. one – living as one and loving it - victoria alexander
22. mark hearld’s workbook

Right, i made you work a little for this as you’ve had to look up titles of the ones you don’t know:) anyway, i hope it was fun. All that remains is to wish you the very best of luck and a happy new year. May this year be filled with everything your hearts desire! Oh yes, and here’s to blogging!!!

Since this is a short week and many of us are easying ourselves back into work, I’ll keep this post up till monday!

We have a winner. Yay!

Congratulations to geraldine of littlebigbell. The books will be with you in a couple of weeks!

24 Comments

in conversation with roman krznaric

Today i’m honoured to introduce you to a man i’ve been stalking for just over four years. The good news is that he knows about this and doesn’t feel threatened in any form or shape;)

I first met roman in 2008, at a talk held by the school of life. Interested in his views on how to find fulfilling work and his other passion, empathy, i immediately felt i connected with a kindred spirit. I’ve been following roman’s work ever since. For those of you who don’t know roman, in essence, he is a cultural thinker and writer on the art of living.

Over the summer, i emailed him asking whether he’d be up to appear on my blog. Graciously, he accepted so we spent an hour or so together where he allowed me to delve into his past and into his mind. I thoroughly enjoyed it, albeit a little nervous of doing him justice here!

Some of you might remember my post on brené brown. She was being interviewed by roman so i thought it appropriate to turn the tables and be ‘in conversation with roman krznaric’. Take a look here for roman’s write up of that same interview.

I had some questions prepared, but decided to keep it organic and see where it took us.

I’m interested in how you got to do what you do today. Can we explore the notion of role models while you were growing up? I think I had role models in retrospect. I look back, particularly at my grandparents on my mothers side, who were unusual people. They were bohemian intellectuals, living on the bushy southern outskirts of sydney. My grandmother was a member of the communist party, a vegetarian, and a nudist. You must remember this was in the 1930′s, she was very unusual. It was post world war I and there was an explosion of bohemian living. She was very experimental with the way that she lived. A romanian jew, she fled across to china in the early 1920s, begged her way down to shanghai and eventually arrived in australia.

As a child, of course, she was just my grandmother. But if I think about it, she was breaking lots of social taboos and definitely thinking about the art of living. She was true to her beliefs, and completely lived by them. She was definitely a big role model to me and i have a picture of her in my hallway. When i have to make a big decision i often find myself thinking: what would my grandmother naomi have done…. she died when i was 9 years old.

When did you first realise that your grandmother was a role model for you? When did you first make the link between your thinking and the possible connection to your grandmothers thinking? Probably in my 20′s. I was a late developer, in terms of maturity, about self-reflection around my own life. In my mid 20′s i had this inkling she was an interesting and unusual person and i decided to do some research about her. I went into the australian national archives and dug out all these interesting radio programs she had made. She was one of these lone women voices on australian radio and used to give little lectures on the radio on her favourite subjects like the life of tolstoy, anatole france and on political issues.

Listening to you now, you seem so like her…. I don’t know whether i am or not. I just wish i could have known her better. I dug out some autobiographical stuff she started writing and you start constructing a person out of these fragments and start seeing parts of yourself in those. She is a constructed being from my imagination.

How was she to you? Was she a normal grandmother? Did she bake cookies for you? No, she wasn’t like that. She didn’t bake cookies. She was vibrant, loud, strong, intellectual. She used to stand on the australian equivilant of speakers corner and make political speeches. Her husband, my grandfather Leo, was much more part of my life. He died 5 years ago at the age of 91. He was a constant inspiration to me. He tried to be an independent intellectual, not part of any institution. He left school when he was 16. He was a writer, poet, journalist and spent 30 years writing one book about an obscure subject…the building of the australian overland telegraph line in 1871. He wrote this as an historical fiction. I admired that staying power and that independence of mind. He was politically radical on the left but was also a devotee of sufism. He juggled everything.

Wow! I suppose having such strong role models did influence your path? I can see now that with this kind of background it’s probably no surprise i turned out this way, however, it really depends what you pick up on. I actually grew up in a very middle class family in the suburbs of sydney and I could have, I guess, drawn on that stability, security and conformity about my life.. but in a sense i jumped back a generation!

Did you feel comfortable and part of your family structure? Yes, i did. My mother died when i was 10 and so I was left with my father. My stepmother, who came along a couple years later, became a great inspiration to me. She was a high school history teacher and she inspired me with the love of the past, social history and thinking about those who have been forgotten by history. Again, one realises these things in retrospect. I’ve just written a book about history, what history can teach us about how to live. I did not choose to write about philosophy or psychology or religion and what they can teach us about how to live, i chose history. Why? Why did i write this book? One of the reasons, the deep reason, is because of my stepmothers influence. The other influence was one of my high school history teachers when i went to a british international high school in hong kong in my last four years of secondary school. I had a wonderful history teacher.

Tell me about your education and your subsequent working life. My father had a job in hong kong so we went there from australia when I was 14. I came to england at 18 to study at oxford. After my studies i worked as a financial journalist and i also worked as a tele sales operative. Then i went to live in spain for a year. When i came back I did my masters in latin american studies, followed by a phd in political sociology.  For a short time i worked as an academic, lecturing in politics and sociology. I have quite an academic soul. I like sitting in libraries and thinking. But I found academia limiting and i wanted to be able to escape somewhere i could write about different philosophies, psychology, religion, whatever i fancied. Maybe write about memoir and play around with film.

I decided to leave academia and started working with this historian called theodore zeldin who wrote an intimate history of humanity. I discovered he ran this little foundation called the oxford muse, which was invented to create conversations between strangers across social divides, get beyond the labels and discover the uniqueness of each individual. I was project director and worked with him for about three and a half years. Empathy and work were very connected in every project we did. I liked that because i was already interested in empathy. It was there i started running conversation meals where people would sit down with menus with conversations topics on them like: ‘what have you learned about the different varieties of love in your life so far?’ We’d get jews talking to muslims, the rich talking to the poor, older people to younger people. Also, what theodore was interested in was how work can be re-invented. How can you create a new kind of conversation in the workplace to bring out and make use of people’s potentials and uniqueness? For example, we went and did some work in neals yard remedies and there were all these people working in the warehouse that were fantastic film makers. No one in management knew that, so we tried to create conversation meals to bridge that gap in order to promote mutual empathy.

Do you think there are fundamental flaws with our schools and universities? Yes, i think that every school and university should teach the art of living. That’s why we need to re-invent universities.

So you left the oxford muse to pursue your interest in how to find fulfilling work and in empathy. What happened next? There seems to be a real hunger for re-thinking what life is all about. The dissatisfaction with high consumption – the idea that consumerism is going to be the path to the good life is changing drastically. The idea for setting up the school of life started in around 2007 and i was invited to design the school of life’s original work course. Once i started teaching the course, it was interesting to see what inspires people and what doesn’t, what works and what doesn’t. A lot has been tweaked in the various classes at the school of life, but the core message has never changed, which is to provide good ideas for everyday living from a range of disciplines, from philosophy to psychology, sociology to the visual arts. It’s been just over four years since its launch. Around 50,000 people have been through the doors. 

On the subject of empathy, how can we create a better world?
In the 70′s, the american journalist tom wolfe talked about the ‘me’ decade. Everything was about ‘me’ and ‘i’ became the most fascinating thing in the world. We lost something about communities, social connections and empathy and so i think we’re moving into an age where we need to recover that and move from introspection to outrospection, where we discover ourselves by stepping outside ourselves and the boundaries of our own egos, and becoming interested in the lives of other people. Empathy is the ultimate artform for the age of outrospection. That’s the best way to do it – empathically – changing the world one relationship at a time.

Do you believe then that empathy can be taught? I absolutely think it can be taught. Current research shows that in part we are wired for empathy. Our brains are wired for social cooperation. We have the capacity to step in someone else’s shoes and understand their feelings. That emotional connection emerges in early childhood and research shows that if you don’t get a lot of this in the first few years, you’ll find it very difficult to expand your empathy in later life. That said, things can happen during our lives that can shift us and that can shift our views. There are two basic ways to expand empathy, through experience and conversations. A lot of people have empathic leaps through conversations. They may have had assumptions about someone, maybe about their educational background and it turns out that their assumptions are totally wrong and now they realise that this someone is very different from their initial assumptions. When you start appreciating someone’s uniqueness instead of just seeing them as a label like ‘religious fundamentalist’ or ‘single mother’, you are being empathic.

In my own life, i was once having a conversation with a man who was a paranoid schezoprenic, with a history of violence. I was talking to him and i thought we were very different people and had nothing in common. Then the subject of philosophy came up and it turned out that this man, in his 50′s, had studied philosophy in oxford in the early 70′s. He was a guy who lived for years and years on the streets, picking up cigarette butts and jabbering to himself. We ended up developing a friendship based on our mutual interest in philosophy – something i would never have expected. Those kind of moments where the way i labelled him was torn apart through our conversation, are the kind of moments that can shift us. Of course, empathy is taught in schools. There is a very famous empathy teaching program in canada called: the roots of empathy. So it is something that can be taught, that we can learn!

Take a look here at roman’s wonderful essay (in pdf format): empathy and the art of living. In fact, check out all his essays.

You’ve just published not one but two books in the same year. What an amazing year you are having! You must be over the moon? Yes, the first one, the wonderbox, is an attempt to re-invent the self-help genre or the genre of how to live by drawing on the untapped resource of history, rather than on philosophy or psychology. What can three millennia of history tell us about better living?

How to find fulfilling work is one of six books in the school of life’s new practical philosophy series, edited by alain de botton. The desire for fulfilling work is one of the great aspirations of our age and the book aims to reveal how one might make it a reality.

In terms of being over the moon, sure, on one hand i’m delighted with them. On the flip side, i’ve spent a lot of time this year giving talks, going on tours and doing interviews. What i’ve lost and what i haven’t had is regular writing time, you know sitting down at my desk from 9 in the morning and writing until 3 in the afternoon. When i don’t have that, I really feel not myself as it’s such a big part of me. I’m in the middle of writing something new. It’s a kind of prequel to a new book, an essay about how self-help and the happiness industry have gone in a terrible direction and how we can bring them back. It’s helping me think about this new book i’m writing, entitled: the six habits of highly empathic people. This makes me happy, for want of a better word!

When you and i first met you talked about your wish to set up an empathy museum. I know the format has slightly changed since then. What are your plans for it now? Yes, back then it was a physical museum that would have been set up like any museum. Now i’m thinking it may initially start as an online project with downloadable exhibits. The idea is to create a downloadable kit so one can put on events in communities, organisations and schools, a bit like the conversation meals i described earlier on. This would encourage a much more interactive way of creating a museum. It hopefully then will become a museum created by people and communities.

Roman, i cannot thank you enough for your generosity and inspiration. I can’t wait to read your new book and will now resume my role as your stalker. See you soon:) For those of you who would like to join me in stalking roman, here’s where you’ll find him next.

I will keep this post up here for a week and see you all back here next thursday. Tara. 

18 Comments

brené brown on vulnerability

Gosh, i’m a little overexcited right now. I’ve just returned from an incredibly inspirational talk with brené brown and am buzzing. Breathe tina, breathe! Some people might not know what you’re talking about!

Ok, let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

In the summer of 2010 i was sent a ted talk given by brené brown entitled: the power of vulnerability, which became a viral hit (to date it’s been watched over 6 million times). Having been a ted talk fan for 5 years, i heard many inspirational talks but this one really hit the spot for me. I was smitten and regularly listen to it as a reminder to stay vulnerable and aware! Brené brown is a research professor at the university of houston graduate college of social work. She has spent the past decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Her ted talk has become one of my top 3 favourites and for those who haven’t heard it, i urge you to spend 20 minutes absorbing some real gems. Make a cuppa, put up the volume and be amazed. You won’t be disappointed. Here goes:

So, you might understand my excitement when i read that brené brown was coming to london to give a talk via the school of life (SOL). As someone, who doesn’t really book tickets ahead but relies on somehow getting in:) i made the wise decision to book immediately. Well, tonight we were told that all tickets had gone within 48 hours, a first for the SOL. We were also told that brené hasn’t been to the uk since 1983. Here to talk about her recently published book: daring greatly, brené, the acclaimed expert in human emotions was in conversation with empathy campaigner roman krznaric. Not trying to confuse, but i’m a huge fan of roman too, have interviewed him over the summer and will post it here in a week or two so stay tuned:)

The talk was held at conway hall, a beautiful space that hosts a wide variety of lectures, classes, performances, community and social events. It is renowned as a hub for free speech and independent thought.

While waiting for the talk to start, we all queued up either to buy a book, have a coffee or stand in line in order to get a good seat.

Then eventually the doors opened and we could enter.

And then the moment finally arrived and you could hear the crowd go mad! Meet brené and roman.

Now i’m not a journalist and found it quite difficult to take pictures, listen and make notes so i can bring this to you hot off the press. I will try and relay some of the crucial points that were made but all in all i can tell you that brené is an incredible storyteller. She’s funny and had us in fits quite a few times. (Her opening line was that she decided not to use ‘awesome’ or ‘dude’ for we are fancy people!) She is personable, charming, slightly neurotic (by her own admission), highly intelligent and a wonderful vulnerable woman and role model. I could have listened to her all night!

Vulnerability and shame were the main topics.

Vulnerability equals risk, uncertainty and emotional exposure. To be brave is to be vulnerable. To be alive equals uncertainty. To be alive is to take risks.
Vulnerability is trust, intimacy and connection.
The 3 myths of vulnerability: that it’s considered a weakness, that we can opt out of it, that you need to let it all hang out.

How do you practice the art of vulnerability?

Wake up and set intentions. Look at your value systems and get clear on them.
When we armour ourself against vulnerability we try and protect ourselves from hurt, grief and shame. We, therefore, deprive ourselves of love and joy and trust. When we do experience joy, we can’t cope and find ways to scare or hurt ourselves.
Wholesome people, who are joyful, practice gratitude, instead of scaring or hurting themselves. You can’t get to joy without experiencing shame.
It’s not an option not ‘to do’ vulnerability. If you’re not doing vulnerability, it’s doing you!

Limits to vulnerability in the workplace

Share only with those that can bear our stories.
If vulnerability is not present in the workplace, we can forget about innovation, creativity and engagement. Vulnerability is the birth place of innovation, creativity, and change.
The biggest obstacle to being vulnerable at work is the fear of being laughed at or belittled when coming up with new ideas.

Deep-seated inability of being vulnerable due to survival of childhood trauma or military trauma will need long-term professional help.
In the US army there are more suicides than soldiers killed in afghanistan and iraq combined.

Shame

Shame is an unspoken epidemic, the secret behind many forms of broken behaviour.
3 facts about shame: we all know it (primal human experience), the only people that don’t feel it are pathologically incapable of connecting or empathising, if you don’t care about it, you have it in bounds and leaps.

Difference between shame and guilt. Shame = i am bad, i am a mistake! Guilt = i did something bad, i made a mistake! There is a huge difference and knowing and understanding this difference is crucial!
Shame can lead to addiction, depression, eating disorder, violence, agression, bullying, and suicide.
The fastest demographic in eating disorders are amongst men and adolescence boys.
Narcissism is the most shame bound personality disorder.

Roman’s dream is to open various empathy museums. He asked brené, if budget would not be an obstacle, what would she do or put into the ‘daring greatly’ museum?

It took all of a split of a second before brené re-named it the epic failure museum, where there would be stories of triumphs and stories of failure. A place where you’re not alone, where you’ll be amongst like-minded people. You get to the light by walking through the dark.

I think you get the picture, for everything else, do listen to the ted talks and read the book. I’ve included another ted talk brené gave earlier on this year on shame here below.

Maybe now you can understand my excitement of (by now) last night. It was an honour to be in brené’s presence and i hope you get to see her talk one day!

22 Comments

arabeschi di latte

On thursday i told you there is a follow up to my london design festival review and today i’m really excited to share with you my other favourite experience of the festival.

I’m in love with products like all of you but sometimes experiences just trump it all, would you agree? One such unique experience for me is when i have the pleasure to encounter a project run by arabeschi di latte. Founded by francesca sarti in 2001, arabeschi di latte is a collective of italian women designers with a passion for conviviality and known as italian’s most copious food thinkers.

Simply referring to them as food designers would be limitative; in their recreational workshops, events and installations, food is mainly a tool for narrating something wider. Arabeschi di latte is based on the idea of creating a “daily sense of happiness” that is pursued through various strategies of participation and interaction that respond to basic and pleasurable needs in our social life. Food becomes an experience!’

I went to one of my favourite of their collaborations back in 2010 entitled: bramble café, which i’ve never forgotten. In fact, take a look at their archive of projects. Such creative energy! Well, with clients like wallpaper magazine and kenzo, i’m not surprised!

This year was no exception. I found out quite quickly that arabeschi di latte were in town for the design festival but with 2 different projects. First off i visited the wonderful new space of 4 cromwell place which was a new venue. In it was an eclectic gathering of experimental designers, thinkers and makers who distil the richness from the everyday. These designers work in different media and materials (from flour and water to code and software) and collaborate across continents. I liked what i saw but was keen to visit arabeschi di latte’s wundertute tea house. Wundertute (german for lucky dip) is a project by arabeschi di latte & DesignMarketo, celebrating arabeschi di latte’s 10 year anniversary. DesignMarketo were invited to browse through arabeschi di latte’s archives in florence (before they moved to milan) and created a surprise shop experience for them as their 1o year’s celebration. Genius! As part of that offline project, they created a tea house experience where you could consume some of their ‘surprise food across cultures’ and try and win one of the surprise wundertuten.

Can you see there is one missing? Well, after tea and some food and paying £3, you were given some dices. All you had to choose was a number, say it out loud and have three goes. My number was ’7′ and on my first roll there it was, a 7, can you believe it? I think Christina and Sylvia were more excited than me as i never gamble or win anything and my face looked a bit shocked, but secretly happy:)

My very own wundertute, back at home and waiting to be uncovered!

There you have it. I now own a little piece of the arabeschi di latte magic! No doubt, i will use some of this in my own work and styling for photographs but fancy some of their more elaborate objects as per their online shop. Divided into 3 sets: series a (the research), series b (the tools), series c (the products) they all are part of objects collected over the past 10 years.

Moving on, i rushed to their second collaboration at the design festival. The back room was a product launch for faye toogood‘s new collection ‘batch’ where arabeschi di latte provided a pop-up café entitled: the m25 luncheon, a modernist ploughman’s lunch with all ingredients sourced from within the m25.

Faye’s studio space is out of this world, as are some of the products and the pop-up café, well, yes, you guessed it. Heaven! To top it all, francesca, the founder of arabeschi di latte, was present just before jetting back to italy that evening. 

You chose one of the menus and it came with a drink and a granola bar. My chosen drink was ‘burn water’, it was truly delicious. They burned some old bread, dropped it into a vessel of water and let that soak… hey presto, the water took on the burned taste. Don’t you love these big vessels and utilitarian cups? 

For me arabeschi di latte are incredibly creative and clever. I’m always surprised and elated when attending one of their collaborations and this one must have been top of my list for the design festival. Unfortunately i missed the week long series of events, amongst them a salmon-smoking workshop and a talk by francesca on how she started her business.

Here are some photos of the stunning workshop and products.

Francesca told me that the robes were specially created for this event by faye’s sister. What came through very strongly is the celebration of traditional crafts and production techniques and a refreshing sense of utilitarianism. I loved it all!

This concludes my review for the 10th london design festival. I had a blast, met fantastic people, saw some incredible design and have come away full of inspiration. That’s why i love autumn and especially september. It has the air of limitless possibilities.

How are you guys doing? Feeling inspired? Are you nesting or getting ready for spring? See you thursday!

Oh, yes, I had the pleasure of guest blooging over on deepa’s currystrumpet blog. Theme: let’s do brunch!

26 Comments

what is creative living?

Happy friday everyone.

I’ve been playing around with something that is very close to my heart and the essence of a lot of my work and what i blog about. I’m fascinated with the idea of creating our own life. I often like to refer to it as: design your own life.

So, i’m really interested what all of you think! I’d love it if you would tell me ‘what creative living’ means to you personally. It can be one sentence, it can be a whole page. I will appreciate every single comment. Thank you!

Have a good weekend and i shall see you all next week. I’ve got rather nice posts lined up.

20 Comments

six months blogging birthday

Today is a special day.

Today is 1st june.

Let me tell you a little story. Back in september 2011 i was sitting at home feeling the need to make some changes. I had just started my journey with colourliving and was feeling restless and in need of inspiration. That very same moment a tweet appeared on tweetdeck by decor8 announcing last entries for blogging your way commencing 1st october. i had just met holly becker at her book signing of decorate at anthropologie here in london so had a vague idea of who she was. But blogging? How do you do this? I’d never really read many blogs before.

Good at knowing how to help myself when in a rut, i blindly signed up and remember thinking i’ll figure out what it’s all about in a few days when the course actually starts.

It started. I listened. I learned. I participated. I took risks. I stayed open hearted. I was humbled. I was inspired. I was fulfilled. I made friends. I now have a new found family and to top it all, i started serious blogging on 1st january 2012, yes, exactly 6 months ago today.

I’ve loved every minute (including the late nights) and my little blog would be nothing without all of you, my readers, and new found friends.

Thanks to holly, i feel creatively inspired, i’ve made new friends, i host the london bloggers group where we’ve already had 5 meet ups since byw and I’ve been to my first bloggers conference, the hive in berlin, where i met even more fantastic bloggers.

I am truly humbled and greatful. Holly, you started off just blogging but who knew you would literally change people’s lives? You changed mine.

How to celebrate? Have you heard of a virtual party? Of course you have! Yes, people, i will celebrate online with the start of byw2.0. What better way i ask you? So, here is to many more blogging birthdays, many more courses, conferences, friendships and humbling moments! See a lot of you in class!

Ooops, it has been pointed out to me that it’s actually only 5 months since 1st january. Oh well, who’s counting when you’re having fun. I will leave this post in the sentiment it was written:)

25 Comments

something about ‘me’

Today i’m participating in a blogger’s cocktail party, organised by my friend theresa. There is a whole bunch of us who will blog about the same topic just for today. The choice was between something we feared or to share something about us. Both topics serve to allow the reader to go ‘behind the scenes’ and get to know the person behind the blog a little better. I chose the latter and if you want to see the rest of the participating blogs, hop over here.

I’ve chosen to talk about the fear of failure vs the fear of success.

For the past 20 years i’ve believed in the notion of having a vocation versus just having a job. I’ve strived to find work that i love, that i’m aligned with and that supports my value system. It didn’t start out like this. In the beginning it was all about making money, fitting in with the social fabric and feeding my ego. Slowly, i started questioning my motifs and realised that i have the power to say no to jobs i didn’t think fitted the bill. It has been an uphill struggle and i can assure you it will continue to be a challenge.

I’ve always believed that i have a fear of failure. Full stop! In the past few years it has transpired that i actually also have a fear of success. Do you know this poem by Marianne Williamson from her book A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles?

‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

That’s right, we are powerful beyond measure and i’m starting to really get it!

You didn’t think it would stop here, did you? Well, then we have the meaning of success. What does success mean to you? I can only share here what it means to me. It means waking up every day and liking what i see in the mirror (metaphorically speaking:) to be true to who i want to be, to live in authenticity and to serve humankind. Yes, you read correctly, i see my working life as serving humankind. I believe that we can all create our own life. As the saying goes: Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. In my very small way i try to help people create their own life. For me, quality of life starts at home, hence why i’m passionate about home finding for my clients. I want to give them the best chance of waking up in a home that will facilitate them having the best day they can have.

I’ve also learned that i cannot grow if i don’t fail. I used to be paralysed with fear when it came to trying out new work things but am happy to report that these days i take it much more in my stride and will test, discard or change things as and when required without getting that feeling of being a failure.

I hope my learning never stops and that i’ll carry on the journey that has so far given me tremendous pleasure and enriched my life. Hey, let’s face it, getting to the destination is so last season. It’s all in the journey, a bit like, err, life itself.

Have a great weekend people and please share your thoughts on this. Does it make sense to you? How do you feel about your work?

Here’s to all my fellow cocktail party bloggers. You rock!

38 Comments

a little teaser

Happy friday everyone. It’s been a long week and the weather has been challenging. It’s friday, it’s sunny right now (at least for a moment). I have had a great few weeks and look forward to the next few weeks and what they have in store for me.

For a while now, i’ve been wanting to tell you the story of how the colourliving website was created. It was definitely a labour of love for me and i had lots of fun on the way. You have to wait for a few days while i prepare the post.

Meanwhile i wanted to say a huge thank you to all my readers, to all of those who take time out and leave such encouraging and wonderful comments. It means the world to me and i love every single one. I know how lucky i am to have a bunch of bloggers who are diverse, interesting and engage with every post and many of you i can call friends.  You all rock and i’m feeling very emotional as i write this. I hope you can tell how very greatful i am and how i look forward to bring you interesting and inspiring content.

I leave you with one of my favourite poems and wish you all a happy and fantastic weekend. xx

Do you have a favourite poem?

 

27 Comments