Tag: nurture

Slow Living Project: Nurture Photo Selections

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Well, it’s officially a cliche here, but yes, another month of the Slow Living Project has gone by, and another set of inspiring images has been collected — this time under the theme ‘Nurture‘ using the hashtag #slowliving_nurture.

This past month, Melanie and I wanted to focus our slow living on nurturing, whether it’s nurturing ourselves or others, or nurturing a love, passion or interest.

We asked: How do you take time to slow down and nurture health, creativity, connection and all of life’s important things? Thank you for sharing your moments of beauty, nurturing, and connection. We were very inspired, and, as usual I had a very hard time choosing a small selection to share with you, so please visit the hashtag to enjoy all that was contributed this month.

There are always many beautiful photos in the galleries, but I’m always particularly drawn to ones that have really explored the theme, and often this comes by way of the caption. Personally, I was inspired by those of you sharing images of nurturing children’s love for adventure, travel, exploration and nature, but nurtured in an open-ended way, nothing forced, nothing  rushed, allowing children to guide themselves. I also loved, and have a fondness for, nurturing family and sibling bonds. And, of course, there’s the very basic nurturing of life, that we don’t always pay enough attention to. With these thoughts in mind here are some of my favourites.

Nurturing a love for nature and adventure, collecting memories, treasures and wishes

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Photo by @slooower

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Photo by @mytinytribe

Nurturing life

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Photo by @ambertia

Nurturing souls, bonds and creativity

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Photo by @lilimuguette

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Photo by @keishua_

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Photo by @lightlovers

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Photo by @devine_tribe

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Photo by @celinabailey

Melanie’s selections can be found over on her blog www.geoffreyandgrace.com.

Congratulations to those who were selected for the blog, and thank you very much to everyone who added their special moments to the hashtag gallery. No matter how many entries we see in the gallery each month we are overwhelmed and inspired by how you explore the theme, both through photography and your words.

As with all our monthly themes, there’s no reason to stop using the hashtag on your images, you never know who or what it might inspire in someone else. I noticed the other day that #slowliving_create is close to 4000 photos under the hashtag. Let’s keep the slow living momentum going! Slowly, though 😉

As a reminder, in December we started using the hashtag #slowliving_ for all our images in the project. Feel free to use it yourself, especially for any photos you love but don’t feel quite fit the theme of the month.

The theme for June is ‘reflect’ using the hashtag #slowliving_reflect. Building on our month focused on nurturing, and moreover our many months of focusing on slow living, we wanted to take some time to reflect on our journeys. We would love to learn from your reflections on slow living and how you take time to reflect on life. All reflections big and small are welcome. Use the hashtag #slowliving_reflect on your Instagram photos to be part of the gallery.

And…please feel free to join in even if you have never participated before.

As usual, Melanie and I will curate a collection of our favourites at the end of the month to share on Instagram, our blogs, and on our Pinterest board ‘Slow Living Moments’. And by the way, our Pinterest board is a great place to get a quick glance at all the selections to date and to get a good dose of visual inspiration.

You can see previous month’s themes and selections on my blog for: ‘explore’ here,‘create’ here and here, ‘bloom and harvest’ here and here, ‘raise’ here, ‘gather’ here, ‘renew’ here, ‘love’ here. 

Thank you to everyone who shares photos and inspires us to live slowly, wholeheartedly, with gratitude. Best wishes for a beautiful and reflective month! xo, Danielle

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You might also like my post:

Interview with a Minimalist: Celia (zero waste city dweller)

The Stop and Start of Minimalism

Born Wild: An Interview with Inspiring Mother Morgan Brechler

How to Make All Natural Temporary Tattoos from Dried Flowers

1o Ways to Live a Greener, More Sustainable Lifestyle

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In the News: Project Calm, Mindfulness through Making

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GIC_08_calmcoveruk

A few months ago I was approached to contribute to a new magazine titled Project Calm, a mindful magazine for creative types. Project Calm is all about “mindfulness through making”. It was an honour to be asked to contribute as mindful creativity is to close to my heart and soul. It’s also serendipitous that the magazine was launched during the Slow Living month focused on nurturing, given the magazine aims to help busy folk slow down and nurture themselves through craft, encouraging us all to channel our energies into creating mindful beauty.

Bringing mindfulness to craft and creativity is so important (which I wrote a little about here, in relation to picking flowers and making flower crowns), both in terms of the personal, spiritual and mental health benefits of mindfulness, but also the environmental benefits of being mindful about how and what we create. I am always inclined to create from natural materials as much as possible, so that our projects have no waste from packaging and is fully compostable (for example, Ro’s halloween Mother Nature costume, made from real leaves, or our holiday Botanical Advent).

For this first issue of Project Calm, I contributed my Real Flower Temporary Tattoos tutorial. It is so exciting to see my work in print!

GIC_08_p8-9_naturenews_72dpiCopies are almost sold out, so if you’d like one order soon. They are available for purchase here.

Here’s a little sample of what you’ll find in the issue among the four sections covering Home, Nature, Travel and Mind & Body:

  • Paper-based crafts to make, colour & create
  • Positive features to inspire and enrich
  • Case studies and profiles of successful creatives
  • Travel, retreats and courses to try
  • Papercutting template on card
  • Paper animal kits
  • Poster with floral illustrations

Or, you can take a look at the preview here…

 

Thank you to my friend Erin, the florist, who collected discarded petals and flowers for my tattoo project. And, thank you to Kate for connecting my work to the folks at Project Calm.

Let’s be friends! Please come find me in other places: