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1. three years ago, around the same time as now, i wrote a manifesto and shared it here. it’s one of my most visited posts of all time. i wanted to give it a design refresh and add some new thoughts to it, so i enlisted the help of a wonderful designer – jo from the darling tree. she has made my words into something i think is much more beautiful to look at.
2. so now, i offer this to you again for free. and this will always be free, and downloadable indefinitely (probably until i make a new iteration of it sometime in the future).
   print it out, share it, tweet about it, pin it, whatever you like…. anywhere you like…
   just please don’t edit it, remove my website link, sell it, or in any way try to pass it on as your own.
   in other words, please be kind.
3. if you would like to help me pay for free ⁽¹⁾, you can head on over to my shop and pay for your download for just £2 ⁽²⁾.

» download the A4 size | download the Letter size

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manifesto text

live your wild & beautiful truth
dream, create, inspire
claim your space, you belong here
sleep under the stars
explore the edges
breathe
be willing to try
listen to your own ancient wisdom – it will lead you to amazing places
grow things
practise kindness
be your own first choice
work, play, rest
keep it simple
respect the environment
DO
allow yourself to be guided by curiosity & delight
smile at strangers
be present
it’s okay to say no
begin again
ask for what you need
make stuff
trust the process
tell YOUR story
always be giving

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1. this term borrowed from the DO lectures
2. you are under no obligation to do this and i’m not keeping score.
   consider it an experiment in giving – if i get loads of money from it, i’ll find some great causes to always be giving to.

+ pimms by the river halfway home by bike on friday night + ‘eating the pantry’ – making the bara brith recipe from  a cook’s year in a welsh farmhouse cookery book on saturday morning used up all the dried fruit & self-raising flour + pancakes with banana & maple syrup for breakfast + a hen party saturday afternoon/evening, that began with a burlesque class (way more fun than i imagined it would be) + sunday morning lie in + a trip to the charity shop to drop off a donation + my jeans count currently being 1, i embarked on a futile hunt for a pair of pre-loved jeans whilst i’m waiting for my pair from hiut denim to arrive + then to the farmers market + and the library + trying a recipe from the intolerant gourmet cookery book that was in my library haul, i think i have found the perfect aubergine recipe + a simple salad of shaved fennel & thinly sliced radishes wins my heart + the mr. making bbq chicken wings so spicy i had tears rolling down my face as i ate + the hangover pt. ii + spaces in-between where there was rest

[weekending with amanda]

• If you don’t care to watch the video (or you can’t see it in your reader) you can view the images in a DO lectures set on flickr
• Read about my experiences in my love letter to DO

Father turned 80 three years ago and we were home for his birthday.

We took him and my mother jet-boating up the whanganui river because it’s something we knew he’d like. Father wasn’t able to walk to the bridge to nowhere, so we left him in a shelter back down the track. When we returned, he was chatting to some tourists, telling them about some of the history of the place.

His body might be ageing, but his mind is sharp and his stories are always worth listening to.

I want the light in my eyes to be shining – as much as it does in his – when I am in my 80′s.

[photo friday]

1. Maybe you achieved something less tangible, and that is just as valid of an achievement, whether you broadcast it or not. … Make your own definition of success, and leave that to only you.
   ‘How I learned to stop companring myself to others, and love my own ideas’ by Meredith Fineman for Fast Company

2. I end up in Crazytown every time I see something posted via a Social Media channel and think “oh, I do that {insert thing here} too… maybe I should be sharing it as well”. Even though whatever that thing is, some ancient & wise part of me had already concluded that {insert thing here} was something that I didn’t really need to share with anyone as it’s a part of my daily practise that is sacred and it doesn’t matter if no-one but me knows I do it.
3. Visit I can read on tumblr for a whole list of beautiful quotes and sayings. Something might speak to you to remind you of the preciousness of YOUR amazing life (it worked for me).

I’ve been a big fan of vsco since a lunch date with Penny & Xanthe a while back when they were raving about it. Thanks to them, I’ve now got (and regularly use) the vsco Film emulators for Lightroom. Pretty much any photograph I have posted here recently that wasn’t made with a film camera, has had one of their filters applied. I used the original vsco cam for iPhone and upgraded as soon as the new one was announced.

I was wandering back through the vsco journal archives over the weekend and watched Sara K Byrne’s tutorial on creating double exposures (even if you’re not interested in HOW to do these yourself go check that link, her images are amazing).

Since I don’t have any of the digital SLR’s that are capable of in-camera doubles, I thought I’d try to make some basic double exposures using my iPhone, the Blender app and the new vsco cam filters.

My first attempts are certainly not perfect – the Blender app is fairly rudimentary with a very basic UI that doesn’t allow me to choose where the second image is overlaid. I had to fiddle with these A LOT to get them how I wanted.

Once I had a double I finally liked, I opened it in the vsco cam app and chose a filter, then added some basic mods for exposure etc. to get the final results.

Have you ever tried any double exposures with your phone? I’d love to hear about your results.

self-portrait, yesterday

1. I am not affiliated with nedis or vsco
2. I could have opened these in photoshop on my computer and messed around with them a bit more, but I’ve deliberately left them as they were made with my phone.

+ up early on saturday to write morning pages as the sun rose + a new listing in my shop + a killer 70-minute rpm class at the gym + a whole day to myself to do as i please + choosing to stay home to make sourdough ciabatta rolls, lie in the sun, finish one book and start another + chick flicks & fresh bread as the day cooled down + a crappy night of interrupted sleep  + waking with my brain feeling like ashes & dust + caffeine & asprin + a late start to sunday morning + plans made, bag packed, a train to guildford + a country walk ending with a delicious pub lunch + an early night.

[weekending with amanda]

eventually he did. he suggests a bike ride, but my legs are pretty wobbly from yesterday’s workout, so i suggest a walk instead. i remember someone at work talking about a book they have that is all about walks not far from london that can be reached by train. since we don’t have a car, this sounds like a good plan. i don’t have the book, but the powers of google put me on to some ideas.

since it’s almost midday already, we pick one that’s not too far away – somehow it seems necessary to make this a low-hassle day, so we need to be able get there quickly without too much bother, or i fear we might change our minds and stay indoors. the route we choose looks about long enough so we feel like we’ve had a decent walk and seems about short enough that it’s likely that a country pub will still be serving lunch once we get there.

we walk across pewley down, then through meadows and woods, we play horse wandering along the long path between two hedges, and stroll down quiet country lanes. the superb lunch at the pub at the end was a wonderful finale.

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listed in my shop by request

I had completely forgotten about making this photograph – it’s one from our trip to cornwall for christmas last year. I love how the scan has revealed some of the character of the film the photo was made on.

Even now, looking at this image, I remember looking out our cottage window, feeling like each crash of the waves was bringing me closer to deep and nourishing rest.

[photo friday]