Category: Creativity

  • I’m a “true nerd” – how about you?

    I’m a “true nerd” – how about you?

    I’m a bit of a sucker for online tests, so when I came across one on The Spectacled Bean‘s blog, I had to have a go. [And if that name seems familiar – yes, I followed their lead once before on the “where should I live” personality test that I…

  • HELP! My name is “dying”

    HELP! My name is “dying”

    When I was pregnant with my first child, my husband and I started experimenting with names. We’d write them out, say them out loud, and place name-cards on the fridge of ones we liked… moving them up and down the line towards most to least favorite… and then remove them…

  • Brains in glass jars

    Brains in glass jars

    My eldest daughter is studying Posthumanism at school for a research project and it got me thinking… Do you remember those old sci-fi horror movies where a disembodied brain was floating in a giant tank of clear or cloudy liquid?  Or the various versions of Frankenstein’s monster and the stories…

  • “The neuroscience of mindfulness”

    “The neuroscience of mindfulness”

    A while ago I posted about “Mindfulness and its discontents”, a book I picked up from the university library.  In the same visit I also picked up another book, titled “The neuroscience of mindfulness” by Australian neuroscientist Stan Rodski (2019). The book starts straight out with why we need mindfulness;…

  • Insta-fatigue and resentment reels

    Insta-fatigue and resentment reels

    In the paper the other day was an article about the declining level of fulfilling engagement with social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok.  The author spoke of how Instagram began with a happy-snap, moved towards an emphasis on swoon-worthy enviable pictures, then a collection (or carrousel) of pictures,…

  • My bloomin’ orchids

    My bloomin’ orchids

    I love reading other blogs, and while I was out and about a while ago, I came across a post: Waiting for trees to bud is good because it is hard – Incense and Crayons. Towards the end of the post the author writes: “This practice of watching trees grow…

  • Bathroom bliss

    Bathroom bliss

    Bathrooms are one of the most notoriously expensive rooms in a house to renovate, but they can also be one of the most blissful rooms if they’re done right.  I’m not going to try to convince you to install a new bidet or advocate the joys of rain-showers or those…

  • Save enough winkles and you’ll soon have a wonkel

    Save enough winkles and you’ll soon have a wonkel

    About 1,000 years ago when I was working full-time in a full-on role as a project manager, I used to have a guilty obsession: “the breakfast of champions”. It was a takeaway coffee with a chocolate donut that I used to buy just before heading into my office cubicle. The…

  • Learning from cake mix

    Learning from cake mix

    My husband sent me a link to a psychology website a while back. I confess I was confused. The title was “A Creativity Lesson from Betty Crocker”. Ummmm… OK. Was this some sort of hint that I needed to get back into the kitchen more? Was he finally making the…