Magdalena Lutek

Magdalena's website Nishe.netFound via WayOfWomen

(source: thatkindofwoman)

What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me … is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.
It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

-- Ira Glass
(Source: mademoiselleaki)

Sunday Tune

Sunday Tune

The Golden Smith

David Neale

This is one more piece of advice I have for you: don’t get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you can’t do anything, don’t get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before it’s ready to come undone. You have to figure it’s going to be a long process and that you’ll work on things slowly, one at a time.

-- Haruki Murakam, Norwegian Wood

Pose of the week...

Urdhva Dhanurasana (Wheel or Upward Bow pose)

Urdhva Dhanurasana is arguably one of the most beautiful asanas, and done with care it feels beautiful too. In some ways, when practiced coming up from the floor, I don't really think of it as a backbend. You have to let go of the 'doing' in the back to achieve the shape and it is much more about the transmission of force through the skeleton then about trying to bend back.

The movement in this pose is delivered into the spine by pushing into the floor with the hands and feet. It is the ability to release the hips, spine and shoulders while you push into the floor that creates the back bend shape. Length in the iliopsoas is essential, the thoracic spine needs to be mobile and you need a freedom in the shoulders (length in the latisimus dorsi) to make this a comfortable shape. Ofcourse our areas of freedom vary, which will influence the way our version of the posture looks.

Practice: To begin it is a good idea to spend some time settling the body into the floor quietly and then try experimenting with Setu Bandha to assess how the back feels and get the right spacing between your feet to keep your hips and knees happy. 

Notice what happens as you push your feet into the floor and you lift of the ground vertebra by vertebra. If you don't interfere, the first thing you will notice is the pelvis rolls under a little and the belly deepens. This is because we are engaging the extension muscles of the hips and knees and relaxing the hip flexors, ideal for back bending! If you have managed to relax the muscles around the ribs and upper spine the more the belly will deepen. With the ribs a little wider, the diaphragm draws up a little and the belly follows...Uddiyana bandha without intention...these are the feelings you want to carry through to Urdvha Dhanurasana.

As you develop the hips will lift higher via the action of the hip extensors and the rest of the body needs to remain relaxed to reduce resistance to the back bend.  Once the hips feel fully open you can play with bringing the hands into the 'push down' position. The higher the hips, the less work the arms will have to do to push up.  It is a mistake at this stage to lift the ribs and engage the spinal extensors becuase the groin will close an the movement will then come from the lower back, which needs to be avoided...

Once in the full pose the work should be evenly distributed through the hips, spine and shoulders. It should feel nice and there should be not unnecessary pressure in the low back or neck spine.

As always you need to be completely aware of what your own body is capable of in this pose. Use the time between try's resting and assess how the back feels before continuing.

Sequencing: Poses like Bhujangasana, Dhanurasana and Salabhasana, Adho Mukha Svanasana, Pincha Mayurasana, Adho Mukha Vrkasana and are all great for preparing the back and shoulders, but you will also need to stretch the muscles and skin of the front thighs, ankles and feet. Try Virasana, Supta Virasana and a little low lunge/warrior sequence to warm up. To follow it is wise to twist, try Ardha Matsyendrasana, before taking a forward bend like Balasana or Paschimottanasana.  A pose like Malasana can also be beneficial afterwards if the lower back feels a little compressed.

Benefits: Stretches the entire front of the body, the ankles, thighs, groins, abdomen, chest and throat. Stretches the deep hip flexors, psoas muscles and gives a lovely energy boost! 

Cautions: Take care if you have high or low blood pressure and do not practice if you have serious neck or lower back injuries...also not so great if you have a migraine...

Found on Retronaut

Recipe

For days like this you need THE BEST HOT CHOCOLATE you'll ever have...

2 cans 13.5-fl-oz. pure coconut milk
2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 12-oz. bag chocolate chips (2 cups)

Place coconut milk and regular milk in sauce pan on medium high heat for 5 minutes or until steaming. Add vanilla and chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate melts. Enjoy!

(Tip: I use whole milk and full fat coconut milk to keep the hot chocolate rich)

(Recipe by Sharon of NYC Taught Me for Cup of Jo. Photos by Rachel for Cup of Jo.)

Found here

Kaya

Kaya, or mosquito netting, was a staple of life in old Japan: Japan’s hot, humid summers are a breeding ground for mosquitoes, so tents of woven hemp were a de rigueur fixture, even in humble or poor homes, all across Japan.

From here

Found here

Resolutions

Sod this, let's go for a wine

Author Emma Forrest calls for a 2013 free of pressure

The quest for perfect is over. Author Emma Forrest calls for a 2013 free of pressure, where real women reign…

One of my true heroes here in LA is Richard Simmons, who came to fame as an Eighties aerobics instructor but still teaches three times a week at his Beverly Hills gym. There is no other class in this city where people who are very elderly or overweight can exercise as part of a community, one where we have all signed up to have a 65-year-old Jewish man dressed in a kilt (or as Black Swan or Rainbow Brite) bark, as he blasts Gloria Gaynor: “You will NOT survive, I will follow you home!” I remember the first time I stirred his ire, with a half-hearted jumping jack: “Hell no!” he snapped, “I did not waste $40 of make-up for this shit!”

I mention Simmons to illustrate this point: at some pivotal moment in his life, Richard must have realised he was not like other people, that he was an eccentric and an outsider and that there are even doctors who might cast him on the spectrum of mental illness. Instead of trying to fix himself, he parlayed that madness into his fame and fortune and a life where he feels good and makes others feel good. New Year’s resolutions should always be avoided if you want to be your best self. They are like methadone – as damaging to the body and soul as the very thing you’re trying to quit.

click here to read on... 

Handmade Quilts

Few homewares are as precious as a handmade quilt. Warm, individual and deeply personal, they're easier to make than you think.

Photograph: Sophia Evans for the Guardian

Cassandra Ellis was contacted a few years ago by the widow of a man who had recently died. Would Ellis take her late husband's clothes to make quilts for their three children, she asked, to give them something precious to remember him by? So Ellis sat down with the kids, aged 11, nine and eight, to talk about what their dad meant to them and how they had spent their time together. Armed with stories and piles of his clothes, she went away and sewed three quilts, delivered to the grieving family on what would have been their father's 52nd birthday.

It's an emotional story, but one that reveals how a handmade quilt is more than a warm bedspread. It's a precious, deeply personal object, an heirloom and a teller of stories. Often filled with fabrics that have special meaning, from a cherished item of clothing to a hand-me-down tablecloth, quilts improve with age as fabrics soften and fade. Traditionally, they were a chance to sit with family and friends. Today, most of our downtime is spent online or in front of the TV...

click here to read the rest....

Both images by Hannah Schmuker

1. Eyjafjardarsysla, Iceland.
2. Nordur-Tingeyjarsysla, Iceland.

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans — because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone- because we have the impulse to explain who we are. Not just how tall we are, or thin… but who we are internally… perhaps even spiritually. There’s something, which impels us to show our inner-souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.

-- Maya Angelou on why we write. Also see Joan Didion and George Orwell on the same.

Found here

Found here and here

Oh Honey, why so blue?

(Photo: Vincent Kessler / Reuters)

Reuters — Bees at a cluster of apiaries in northeastern France have been producing honey in mysterious shades of blue and green, alarming their keepers who now believe residue from containers of M&M’s candy processed at a nearby biogas plant is the cause.

Read the complete story here.

It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days… Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me…So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling…

-- Aldous Huxley, Island

Notes

Perfect shape for sequence writing...
Tan Mavitan Triangle Notebook.

Yoga apple found here

Sunday Tune

Sunday Tune

Found here

Robert Rauschenberg
Scrape (Hoarfrost Editions), 1974
Offset Lithograph transferred to collage of paper bags and fabric.
Found via wenvrsleep