Latest posts from Sylvia's Studio
This is the second installment of my series called Hitting the Digital Brakes. The first post was On the Joys of Imperfection I didn't grow up with computers, phones, tablets and such. The tech I grew up with record players and my portable radio, camera's and my record player. The first computer came into my life in my twenties, when I started to work for an organisation and became their IT…
Dear Creative Soul, This has been floating in my mind for a very long time (inspired by something someone else said, I think?) Those who can create art, create art, those who don’t create art, try to put it into convenient boxes. I think this is why, to me, one of the first rules of creating art is breaking out of those convenient boxes. Blade Runner is one of the awesome examples of the exciting…
Hey you. Yes, you. You're a writer, right? Bet your hard disk is filled with awesome stories you've written. I also bet you've got some skeletons hidden in a dusty closeted corner of your hard disk. Files that contain bad writing! You know, the horrors that should never see daylight again. Writing you may have worked on for weeks and discarded for being utterly unworkable, writing you may have…
I first posted this in 2020. Nothing has changed, really. --- My spirituality has been a meandering path, from growing up in a Christian household and leaving the church at 12 to where I'm now. I did a lot of searching to find what I already knew as a child. Here are the stories that led me to this realisation. Story 1, circa 1971 Somewhere in the house is a picture that was taken during that…
I found an old blog post about my reading habits, and decided to update it for my current habits plus some funny things related to me and reading. What are yours? I mix up physical books, audiobooks and e-books and I always have several books in progress. Some I read in the morning, some I listen to while working on simple tasks on my laptop or while working around the house, others I read in…
I wrote this twelve years ago. I was looking for something to repost today, my birthday, to reflect my overwhelming gratitude for being alive. This fits. I needed this, and maybe you did too. I have adjusted my examples to reflect my life in the past years. This is such a powerful exercise to break through fear. Whenever you're stuck creatively, or need to break through some of your fears, open…
Years ago, I started using Duolingo to learn French. I made it two or three years daily, until they completely changed the app and I left because I hated the changes. I downloaded it a couple months ago because I wanted to learn again, and found... ugh, it's just horrible now, how do people even use it still? So I searched for new methods, preferrably with the least bells and whistles as possible.…
My heart just shattered into minute pieces, each crafted in a perfectly similar shape. The shape of his face. He smiled at me just now, passing through the engine room as he inspected the ship. A fleeting smile of a man in a hurry, and it was the best thing he could give me. For half a second he was mine. And then he moved away from me. I followed him through the ship with my sensors, until I…
This is a repost of something I wrote on Tumblr in 2011 :) --- I have always been an avid reader, even more so as a child. I became a member of the library in our village when I just learned how to read. It was magical. When I was 10/11 years old I’d read through all the books in the kid section, including those meant for older children. I was ready to branch out. I stood on the corner that…
This is a letter I wrote years ago in response to a challenge. For it you had to write something to a quality you wished you had more of. I've rewritten it to reflect who I am today. What would your letter be to? Dear courage, I thought I’d write a letter to you instead of diving into my life to find stories that will put me in your light. That is so hard to do as I don’t see myself as a very…
I'm editing blog posts to add to my digital garden, and just found these doodles in a post from 2014. Why did I ever stop making them? They are so joyful! Here is the story about them: back then, I was on bed rest for a while because I fell and hurt my knee, and I used that time to be insanely creative. One of the things I played together was a series of doodles I titled "Lessons from my Bear". I…
For the past couple of years I've seen the concept several times: punch needling. I didn't think much of it, I preferred to crochet and knit, and I didn't need another hobby. Then I saw a cute coaster kit the other day, and I had to get it. The advantage was that the kit came with all the materials, including a punch needle. I fell in love with punch needling the moment I figured it out, and each…
My balance is still fried since abdominal surgery. I know I need the challenge, but I need that challenge in a quiet solo setting, not in the middle of a youtube class. I need to work towards doing the downward dog again. I do that by doing yoga respecting my body. This is where I went wrong in the past. I felt I had to do it all, or do nothing. This made me never try again after a while, thinking…
Dear Creative Soul, Do you know what keeps you from creating what calls out to you? Is it a lack of talent? No, you can create all you can dream of, and more. Is it lack of training? No, you can create all that you can think of. Is it lack of confidence? Ha! We are getting closer! Is it fear? Of course it is. Making your art ---in whatever shape or form it comes--- is always a struggle between…
This is the start of a new series on my blog that I tentatively call "hitting the digital brakes". If I come up with a better title, I'll change this header and the hashtag This is a picture I took on the road home today, with a Kodak Charmera. The Charmera is a tiny keychain camera that I bring with me when I use a small handbag. I love my tiny camera. There's no logic to the love for it, the…