In a big way, this is what self-portraiture is all about for me. It is building that relationship about how I see myself and allowing myself the opportunity to show up in front of the camera and tell my story as part of re-building that self-love.
Come join in for Be Your Own Beloved for other tips and activities to help you see yourself with kindness! Class starts soon!
We hadn’t been all together in a year and a half.
Then we got one week, all together.
Last night after an 8 hour train ride I arrived back home from my holiday week in Portland, Oregon with all of my immediate family and my fabulous nephew and brother in law.
I spent much of the week with either a camera on my iphone in front of me. I wanted to capture this all so we could have images to get us through til our next visit and to tell the story of this one.
Some of my favourite moments of this last week (and a half…I got a few days with my folks and my brother here in Vancouver) were:
~My nephew’s dancing skills. Not only can he rock out with this impressive clapping-and-running-at-the-same-time but he gets us all to join in (whether we are in public or not). He calls us all into the dance party one by one and before we know it we are all dancing to Rhianna in a restaurant. He’s charming like that.
~Christmas day. It was so good. A yummy breakfast all together and then the opening of presents. A family walk in Mount Tabor (despite the rain) and an incredible dinner with many of the dishes I grew up eating each xmas at my great-grandparents farm. We all pitched in with cooking which meant it wasn’t all on one person, which felt important. We ended the day with desert and a walk at Peacock Lane.
~Simplicity. I love that my family doesn’t go wild at christmas with presents. We have a family draw and get one person to buy for at a reasonable price limit. Gifts rock, but the best gift really was being together.
~Christmas Eve books. This is by far my favourite part of Christmas. I think the tradition of getting a xmas eve book started so my parents wouldn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn christmas day as we would then have books to keep us busy until at least 7am! Now having a bit of fiction to devour feels like a big part of the holidays to me. This year one of my books was The Hunger Games
which I completely devoured on the train yesterday and just finished this morning. I love a good series and I will confess that part of my day will be buying the next book in the trilogy
.
~Getting time with each of my family. My brother lives on the other end of the country and I hadn’t seen him in a year and a half. Skype rocks for keeping in touch but there is really nothing like getting a whole week together. I get more time with my sister, brother in law and nephew and see my folks a couple times a year. I’m making plans to go back east to Ontario this year and see more family. My life here in Vancouver is great in so many ways but it is hard living so far away from family.
How was your holidays? Your celebrations? What was your favourite moment of the last week?
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A new session of You are Your Own Muse and Wading In are starting in the new year. I’m so excited about these upcoming sessions.
I’m always trying to improve the courses and figure out ways to keep people engaged throughout the course. In the last few sessions I’ve added weekly emails to start of the week, share what is ahead and get you excited to check out the classroom. We also now have weekly check-ins in flickr group to allow space for the participants to share how the experience is going for them.
I’m excited for this upcoming session of YAYOM I have a new idea that I hope will work well for the participants. Normally, I give participants the course PDF at the end of class but this past session I just re-designed the PDF and added a number of workpages and spaces to jot notes. For this upcoming session I am going to provide each week’s PDF at the end of the week so particpants can also explore the course as though it were a workbook.
As well, last session I added some brand new interviews from Tif Fussell (dottie angel), Susan Tuttle and Andrea Scher and I’ll be adding some other new ones to this upcoming session as well!
My plan for 2012 for these courses is to offer them twice, this upcoming session as well as a fall session. Last year I offered it twice but this year I’ve decided to run just two sessions of both courses.
I’m still not quite ready to launch the new project (which has nothing at all to do with self-portriature but it is most definitely about photography) as I want to get the majority of the content done before I announce it, but I’m working hard on it so be prepared to find out soon. I will share that the ideas behind the approach to what I’m creating it is the way that we learn. I love the format of e-courses and the way they allow people to access learning that they might not otherwise be able to find, but I know that for some of us reading information on a computer isn’t always the best way to absorb information. This new project comes from an approach that invites to experience its content rather than just read it. That is all I’ll say right now…more soon!
If you are wanting to take YAYOM or Wading In and have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me via the connect form on the website or by emailing vivienne.mcmaster@gmail.com and know that like the door of the restuarant where I stopped to take the above photo says.
You’re welcome here.
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I just came across this video and am totally swooning and in awe of this woman, Ilona Royce Smithkin, is my new hero. Seriously, her vibrant 90 year old confidence, proclamation of herself as an artist and her colourful style….amazing.
She is featured regularly on the blog Advanced Style and my first reaction when I see some of these incredible woman and their styles is “that is totally who I wan’t to be when I’m older” and then I realize that what they are sharing about style/art/creativity/confidence is really incredible advice for me right here, right now.
Okay, prepare to be inspired.
Last summer I was lucky enough to collaborate on a really lovely e-course called Emerge, hosted by Live it to the Full. Jenna McGuiggan, Liz Lamoreux and I gathered up some amazing tools, prompts and sharing to create Emerge and had an amazing community of folks join us for the course.
When we pondered running it again, it felt like beginning in the first few days of the new year was just the right time to invite more folks to come Emerge into a new year with us. We’ll be inviting you along to join in on some mindfulness, photography and writing prompts with us. We’ll explore the ebb and flow of happiness, the unique power of telling your story, and the beautiful, yet precarious, process of learning to trust yourself.
As Jenna says:
“This course is all about honoring your authentic self and tapping into your creativity to help you make it through life’s many (big and small) ups and downs.
We designed this course to be full of beauty, truth, and inspiration – all wrapped up in bite-sized stories and prompts that won’t feel overwhelming. Emerge is a gentle way to kick off your creative year, and it’s also a nice to get to know Viv, Liz, and me. Each of us offer our own creative courses besides working together on Emerge. If you’ve been curious about any of us or have considered taking one of our courses, Emerge is an affordable way (just $49) to “meet” all three of us at once.
We hope you’ll be inspired during Emerge and want to continue exploring your creative side.”
That’s why we’re offering everyone who registers for Emerge a little bonus: three 15% discounts: one for a course from each teacher in 2012.
This means you get one 15% discount for any of my photography courses (such as You Are Your Own Muse), one 15% discount for any of Liz’s upcoming courses (such as Create Space), and one 15% discount for any of Jenna’s writing courses (such as Alchemy: The Art & Craft of Writing).
(We did the math, and this means you have the potential to save more than the actual price of Emerge! Sweet, right?)
Such a fabulous deal!
Emerge starts January 2, and registration is now open. We’ll send you details on redeeming your bonus discounts once class starts. For now, all you need to do is sign-up and you’ll be all set.
We loved creating this course together and sharing it with so many amazing women last summer. We’re looking forward to sharing it (and much more) in 2012!