Christmas card designs

Nov 7, 2020Nov 2, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 3 Comments

redbubble christmas card

It’s been a strange old year this year, and in the UK we’ve just moved into another lockdown of sorts. At times it feels like this situation will never end, and that we’ll never quite get back to normal. I’m finding it a bit difficult to think about what Christmas will look like this year and haven’t got much planned at all.

I’m not normally very good at sending cards at Christmas, as I prefer to try to see people, but I don’t think that will be happening this year. One of the things that I am going to try to do this year is actually send those Christmas cards to people I may not be able to meet in person.

A few years ago I made a couple of funny Christmas card designs and uploaded them to my shop on Redbubble. They are available on cards and other products and I’m still quite pleased with them and feel like they hold up ok.

If you are that way inclined, I would be thrilled if you would take a quick look at the Christmas designs I have here, at Redbubble.

Thank you for reading. I also make art and films. You can see my films at my YouTube channel here. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Finding (or not finding) my flow: art in the time of parenting

Sep 26, 2020Sep 25, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 6 Comments

Hello Magpies!

I am sorry that I missed last week’s post. My brain feels like a sack of porridge at the moment.

I have been thinking a bit about creativity and the stop start nature of artistic work when you are also a parent of a young child. While it took me a while to adjust to having a young son, I feel as though I have got to a place where I am fitting in art, writing or film making every day at the moment. Baby Magpie’s naps have got slightly more predictable, and I’ve also found some time some evenings to do stuff.

So the logistics are beginning to work themselves out, and I am pleased with myself for that. But for me there is a second element to creative work that is really important, and that I’m having a bit less success with. I can have a plan, and follow the plan. I can do 200 words a day for example, but are they good words?

I struggle to find my flow when I am squeezing in work into twenty minute chunks here and there. Flow is a psychological concept, described by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, that describes that really enjoyable mental state where everything is working together, your focus is aligned with what you are doing, and time passes by unmarked. If you are interested in reading more, I think this book is good.

I find that it is in this state that my best ideas for my art come to me, and I find it hard to completely enter that state when I also have one eye, or one ear on the baby. Has anyone else experienced this? if you have, and have tips on how to manage this pleased let me know in the comments below.

Thank you for reading. I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Edits, doodles and my Patreon

Aug 8, 2020Jul 14, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 1 Comment

Over the last few weeks I have begun to edit my novel on a hard copy print out. I’ve have found that I particularly enjoy doodling on the margins of the ‘book’ which I hadn’t necessarily expected. Other writers out there – is this something you like to do too? Eagle eyed followers of this blog will have noticed that in my signature I’ve added a link to a Patreon page. It’s actually been there for some time, but I never did a proper ‘launch’ for this as I struggled for quite a while to work out what kind of ‘extra’ I could offer anyone who followed me as a Patreon as opposed to what I have here on the blog. Now I think I have something to offer.

I have not quite worked out yet if I’m going to publish independently, or if I’m going to try to get an agent and sell the book commercially. I have been doing a lot of research about different types of publishing, and actually feel like there is a lot to recommend independent publishing. I produce art work and have been working on a film as an independent creative, so in some ways it feels like bring the novels under an independent ‘portfolio’ fits well for me.

However I do feel like there could be a lot to learn by going down the traditional publishing route. I particular I feel like I could really benefit from working with a developmental editor, but I don’t have a budget for that at the moment.

For the time being I think I’m going to offer anyone who wants to follow or support me on Patreon a glimpse of my working edits and doodles. If I end up going the independent route then I will also give advanced views of things like the art work and cover design. This would be along with other, behind the scenes stuff from my creative work. So if you would like to follow me over atPatreon here, I would really appreciate that, and I now have something a bit different to offer.

I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Trying to be a new parent and creative at the same time: Write everyday?

May 2, 2020Apr 30, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 5 Comments

IMG_20200302_041051151 It’s been almost 9 weeks since I had my baby and I’ve been beginning to get back thinking about how to be a creative person, at the same time as being a new parent. It’s been quite a learning curve, but I think that he’s beginning to settle into a routine, which means I’m beginning to be able to predict when I will have a little bit of time to engage with my creativity.

For anyone who has followed my blog over the years, you’ll know that I’ve always had several projects on the go, including writing a novel, making art (some of which is available here), and trying to finish a documentary, as well as a day job. The big, important thing I have learned since having my baby is that I am only likely to have a little bit of time in any given day, so I need to choose wisely how I use it. Most of my projects involve getting out camera kit or bits of paper or other stuff which will a) take half of the short amount of time I have to set up, and b) will be abandoned half way through my trying to do what ever it is I am trying to do to get tripped over or sat on by cats.

At the moment I’ve chosen to focus on my writing because that’s the one project I have that I can pick up and put down easily. At home I have two computers, one which is a mac that has all my film making software and word on, and a chrome book which is really designed for using a range of apps and the internet. At the moment I have a draft of my novel on the go in google docs, which means that I can work on it from either computer. I’m finding this really helps. I almost always have the chrome book to hand to add in a few sentences to a page. I turn on the mac for moments when I know I will have a bit longer to do a more concentrated bit of work.

I’ve also been listening to a podcast called The Bestseller Experiment (check out the website here), which has been going for several years now. I started right at the beginning and find it’s a good thing to listen to when I’m in the bath in the evening. The podcast is full of interviews with people who have written best selling books, and has lots of interesting insights. One of the big messages they have, which has come out of interviews with lots of authors, is to write everyday, even if it’s only 200 words. I am trying that out at the moment, which is a different approach for me, as before I was saving my creative work for times when I knew I would have a big block of time (half of which I inevitably spent procrastinating).

I am finding the write every day approach is helping a lot, as it forces me to keep continuity on a single project. I’m finding I’m having a lot more ideas as I work this way, and am making a lot more progress than I did with the big blocks of time approach, so this is a win I think. I expected parenthood to be teaching me all sorts of new things. I was concerned that I would lose the creative part of my life to being a mum, so it’s really nice that some of those things are about how to be more creative.

Thoughts on Radical Kindness: Why writers and artists should practice it (Part 3)

Mar 14, 2020Mar 14, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / Leave a comment

[This is part 3 of a series of blogs about kindness. Please see parts 1 and 2 here]

When I began writing these posts I kind of thought this would have been one of my ‘here are my random thoughts on this’ kind of posts and that would be it. However life rarely turns out as you expect. I have been thinking a bit about my own journey as a person, and as an artist and writer, and what I’m about really through these posts.

I actually wanted to write and make art when I was a teenager, but I also wanted to ‘help people’ and somehow got it into my head that being an artist/writer would mean that I wouldn’t be doing that (I have seriously revised my view on this now!). Instead I went off to university to study medicine, thinking that doctors ‘helped’ people so that was what I should do. While I really loved learning about the science, and believe that having the opportunity to study human anatomy through full body dissection was one of the great privileges of my life, it turned out that the practice of medicine was not for me. I left after four years to do a PhD in psychology, during which I studied things like advertising, persuasion and the impact that stories can have on us. I still wanted to write and make art, but some how I wasn’t ready, because I hadn’t really found my subject.

Later I did research into mental health and genetics, and I left a long term relationship because my then partner would not even talk about having children (hence I am quite late to the baby party). After this I had a bit of a break down really, although I would not have called it that at the time. I was depressed, very anxious, and drinking lots. I was in a bad way, and (cliche alert) I became attached to a number of men who were not attached to me.

I continued to work in mental health but the kind of work I did changed so that I was doing research with colleagues who also had mental health issues. We talked a lot, and I listened a lot, and in the middle of all of that, I found I was ready to make things and write things. I am now writing a novel in which people have experienced trauma and who live with those things. It’s also a fantasy novel, so I am trying to weave in strands of myth and magic, which makes things a bit complicated, but and I think I finally found my subject. I think this is the many splendid forms of being human and all the emotional consequences of that.

So why do I think that artists and writers in particular should practice radical kindness? I think that, beyond just being a good person, there are a number of reasons. I think to create art, or convincing characters that really speak to people, it can really help to understand people. It can really help to understand the rich and varied emotional lives many people live. To understand people, you need to connect with people on an honest level. To connect with people, it really, really helps if you are kind. People will tell you things about themselves, and help you, incrementally, to better understand all the different ways of being human, if you are kind.

A thing I’ve been listening to, and you should listen to too: Scroobius Pip and Distraction Pieces Podcast

Feb 22, 2020Feb 19, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / Leave a comment

So while I’ve been getting steadily more and more pregnant I’ve been finding it a bit difficult to do things. However, that has meant that I have had a lot more time on my hands to sit in the bath and listen to podcasts. I came across the Distraction Pieces Podcast almost by accident as I saw that Neil Gaiman was doing an interview with the host, Scroobius Pip and I thought I would have a listen.

I’d actually been aware of Scroobius Pip for quite some time after a friend put me onto his spoken word poetry and music a number of years ago (which you should also check out). I have seen him perform live and he was great. It was also at one of his gigs where I came across Kate Tempest and her amazing work so I have many reasons to like what he does.

I started off by listening to his interview with Neil Gaiman and have been hooked ever since. He has an extensive back catalogue to get through, which I will look forwards to during those late night feeding sessions. If you want to know why you should give him a go I think that for me the thing I really, really love about his podcasts and that is that he is so human. He has interviewed a whole bunch of very interesting creative types, and when he meets someone who excites him for interview, you can tell them that he is really excited. When he thinks something is important he speaks with real passion about that. He also has a stammer, and I really love that this is sometimes present in his interviews, and that he will talk about that openly rather than avoid the subject. I have found the interviews that I have listened to so far really thought provoking, and often inspiring. If you have not heard of him yet you are in for a treat.

If you take a look at his back catalogue and don’t know where to start I would particularly recommend an episode from late 2019 called #293 Stammer Special, with Natalie, Owen and George. For some reason I can’t directly link to the episode but I do recommend that you take the time to look for it.

He has a website here for all of his collected stuff.

If you are into Patreon, which I am, you can support him here.

2019: Thinking about Now or Never Times (Part one)

Jan 5, 2020Feb 17, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 6 Comments

IMG_20190904_151847005

Lots of people over the last few days have done a kind of ’round up’ of 2019 in which they talk about highlights and low lights. I didn’t actually blog for the majority of 2019, taking an unplanned break due to personal circumstances which I will explain. For that reason I don’t really have a blogging round up to do, but I do have some thoughts about 2019 I’d like to share.

What I did in 2019

In early 2019 I moved house and started my first round of IFV. Those of you who were (probably quite disappointed by now) followers of this blog will know that I had struggled with treatment for infertility for over a year before this. To be honest I did not expect it to work for me, but I was entering the final few years of my 4th decade and was very aware that it was a ‘now or never time’ for something like IVF to work, so we went for it. In May this year we became pregnant on our first go, and we have stayed pregnant. I am now seven months pregnant, my belly is large and I can feel my baby squirming about inside me through out the day, which is pretty amazing. Having managed to get pregnant, my partner and I decided to move closer to my sister, who has also had a baby this year. So we bought a house and moved again just before Christmas. It has been an eventful year.

What I actually did in 2019, instead of blogging

Since becoming pregnant I have experienced quite severe tiredness. I thought that it would be something like anxiety that got me, but actually I have been in a good place, mental health wise, for most of the year. I was also worried that something would go wrong with the pregnancy, but so far we have been very lucky. However, I have been incredibly tired throughout the whole of my pregnancy, and the IVF beforehand. So tired t that most of the year has passed in a daze. I have managed to keep up the day job, and have taken very little time off sick. However I have struggle to keep up the kind of thinking, and creative stuff I was doing, often losing many extra hours a week to napping. I have managed to write quite a chunk of my novel here and there, but it will need significant re-writes at some point. I have also been watching a lot of crime dramas in a kind of mindless daze.

It has left me feeling rather rubbish, because, apart from the amazing feeling of him moving about inside me, I cannot claim to have enjoyed this much wanted pregnancy that a team of scientists and clinicians helped me and my partner to create. I have a number of friends who have not found IFV successful for them, and so I feel very guilty about actually complaining, but let’s say I have not felt myself. Last year I was swimming 5KM swims, and at times this year I have barely made it up the stairs. I’ve not really been able to help my partner much with the logistics of moving house, again, although I was able to unpack a lot of boxes when they arrived. I don’t know if this level tiredness is normal, but I have to say if it is then frankly I don’t know how women with large families do this over and over again. Still, not long to go now, and hopefully it will all be worth it.

So that’s mostly what I’ve been doing this year: lying about, watching telly, or sleeping.

I also make art. You can things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.