50 things that lifted my spirits in 2020
Well, what a year that was. Who could have predicted what 2020 was to have in store for us. It’s been tough and unsettling but thankfully there have been things to help get us though, to help switch our minds off and bring smiles to our faces.
The art galleries and cinemas may have been closed and holidays cancelled but I have seen some of the best TV shows and read some wonderful books this year. Here are 50 things that helped get me though 2020:
TV
1. Race Across the World - Series 2 - What a show and a nail-biting final episode
2. The Great British Bake Off - Just what was needed in 2020
3. Love Life - Anna Kendrick stars in this fun comedy/drama
4. I May Destroy You - Named best TV show for 2020 by The Guardian - utterly gripping
5. Normal People - Immediately watched it twice and then read the book
6. I'm a Celebrity…Get me Out of Here! - Jordan North, what a ray of sunshine
7. Mrs Fletcher - Actress Kathryn Hahn at her best
8. The Morning Show - Excellent Apple+ original series
9. The Undoing - Edge of your seat stuff
10. I Hate Suzie - Billie Piper is exceptional in this comedy/drama
11. Tiger King - Gripping, binge-worthy series
12. This Country - Sad to say farewell to this show which I loved from the start
Films
13. Leftover Women - Fascinating documentary about women looking for marriage in China
14. Portrait of a Lady on Fire - Beautiful love story
15. Audrey - The private life and career of Audrey Hepburn
16. Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind - Personal portrait of the West Side Story star made by her daughter
For Kids
17. Make and Wonder - Art subscription box focusing on a different artist each month
18. Osmo - Interactive learning game that keeps our 4-year-old amused for hours
19. Snoopy - Apple TV+ - Who can’t resist Snoopy and Charlie Brown?
20. USB disco light - Tiny, pocket-money-priced USB disco light by Tinc
21. Telltails - clip on animal tails - the gift that keeps giving and is a dressing-up box essential
22. Draw with Rob and Let’s Draw Together with Wendy Mac - Not sure where we would be without Rob and Wendy’s incredible tutorials, a highlight of 2020 and the first lockdown
Getting creative
23. Vision Board Reimagined by Bold Tuesday - Such a clever idea and a must for 2021 (see picture above)
24. Austin Kleon's weekly email - I always look forward to the suggestions in Austin’s weekly email
25. Kuretake pens - THE pens to use for drawing
26. Collage - I started 18 months ago and haven’t looked back. Collage keeps me sane and brings me joy - simple as that
27. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert - A must-read book on creativity
Books
28. Queenie by Candice Party-Williams - One of my favourites of 2020
29. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - Yes, it is as good as they say
30. Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner - Fascinating insight into an extraordinary life
31. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid - Whizzed through this long listed Booker novel
32. Feel better in 5 by Rangan Chatterjee - An essential manual for life. Dr Chatterjee is full of wisdom and great advice
33. Demi Moore - Inside Out - Thoroughly enjoyed going behind the scenes and hearing more about Moore’s life. A great autobiography
34. Quite - Claudia Winkleman - Opens with a glorious chapter in favour of daytime naps; I’m in
35. Untamed - Glennon Doyle - A highly rated book and deserves all the praise
Audiobooks
36. My Wild and Sleepless Nights by Clover Stroud - Great motherhood memoir read by the author
37. Gotta Get Theroux This by Louis Theroux - This book and Louis’ hilarious impressions got me through the first lockdown and kept me sane!
38. Clothes… and other things that matter by Alexandra Shulman - Musings on life and clothes by the former UK Vogue editor
39. The Chiffon Trenches by Andre Leon Talley - Behind the scenes of the fashion industry by this front row expert
40. Life in pieces by Dawn O’Porter - Life during lockdown interspersed with memories growing up in Guernsey. Brilliant
Podcasts
41. Feel better, live more by Rangan Chatterjee - In-depth interviews with experts in the field of health and wellbeing. I loved hearing more from Dr Pippa Grange on tackling fear and Dr Tara Swart
42. Table Manners by Jessie Ware and mum Lennie - Relaxed, cheerful dinnertime chats, my favourites this year have been with Emily Maitlis and Cat Deeley
43. How to Fail by Elizabeth Day - My top episode for 2020 was with Daisy Edgar Jones
44. Fearne Cotton - Happy Place - Kelly Jones from the Stereophonics and Daisy May Cooper’s episodes top my list
45. Walking the dog - Journalist Emily Dean interviews celebrities as they walk their dogs, uplifting.
Miscellaneous
46. Oil diffuser with Aesop oil - A bedroom staple, walking in and smelling each evening is instantly relaxing
47. Yellow Bobbin Bicycle - Bought during lockdown, first time on a bicycle for 25 years! Bonus is the kid’s size fits a petite adult (me)
48. Headspace, Calm and Moshi apps - I am still learning the fine art of meditation. These are helping enormously
49. Furry Birkenstock slippers - The only footwear I wear these days!
50. Zoom/Facetime/Google Duo - For keeping connected to family, for pirate-themed birthday parties, live pilates classes, even a collage party live from New York. Until we hug our loved ones, this will be the next best thing.
Wishing you a very happy 2021 x
Keep calm and collage on
There’s no doubt these last few weeks have been confusing and worrying.
I veer from feeling relatively calm about Coronavirus to scrolling through too much news or social media and going into an anxious spin (usually right before bed).
It’s now more than ever that hobbies and creativity can really help calm our minds.
When I started collage it was for fun and it still very much is.
But in the past few weeks I have realised just how important it is to me and my mental health. It provides an outlet and focus away from what’s happening in the news.
For a long time I was inquisitive about collage but never quite knew how to get started. Do I use scissors or a craft knife? What’s the best glue? How do I get materials?
After sitting on the fence for a while and thinking about creating my first collage by hand, I pulled together some materials and gave it a shot.
If you are just starting out and looking to start making collages, here are a few tips:
First things first, you will need:
old magazines or books you are happy to cut up
Small scissors
Glue (Prit Stick it similar)
Card - I use A4
1. Collect your materials - Start cutting out any images of people, objects, animals etc you find interesting or that intrigue you. Rip out pages with interesting backgrounds.
If you don’t have magazines to hand but you do have a printer, take a look through some of these open access image libraries with images that are out of copyright - here’s a handy list -https://www.apollo-magazine.com/open-access-image-libraries-a-handy-list/
Print off any that you find interesting and add to your collection.
2 - Getting started - Lay out your backgrounds on one side and then your objects/people/animals on another. Start playing around and see what works together. You could pick a theme and challenge yourself to create a collage with that subject in mind. Start to create and place your collage on a piece of card or in a scrapbook and when happy with how it looks, glue it in place.
3. Photographing your work - if you have decided you’d like to upload your handcut collage to Instagram, getting a good photograph is key. I photograph my collages right beside the window using my phone and use a bit of white card to reflect the light. I then use the Snapseed app to crop the picture and make any small tweaks perhaps to the brightness or contrast before saving to my phone.
4 - Sharing your work - when I first started , I decided to create 12 collages before setting up my Instagram account and posting them. I discovered other handcut collage artists through hashtags and an incredible supportive positive collage community. By far the best thing I have done is to take part in weekly themed challenges - take a look at @gluetogether @pariscollagecollective and @februllage. From here you will start to see hashtags people are using and you can start to follow both your favourite accounts and hashtags.
5. Further reading - There are a few art and collage books that I have really drawn on for inspiration (below)
Show your Work! and Keep Going! by Austin Kleon
Check out a few of my favourite Instagram collage accounts -
What’s great about collage is that there’s no right or wrong, you can just have fun. It takes your mind off things. It allows some escapism and we could all do with a little bit of that right now.
Currently... tuning into, reading & watching
I've read, listened to and watched some brilliant things over the past few weeks and I wanted to share them with you.
1. The podcast Don't Keep Your Day Job is a new discovery for me and its really inspiring, particularly this episode with the photographer Elisabeth Caren.
2. I'm a huge fan of Austin Kleon who talks a lot about creativity and productivity. This talk is called 'How to Keep Going' and is packed full of great advice.
3. I finished the book Endurance by Scott Kelly a week ago - it charts the astronaut's year in space and is completely fascinating. I'm now reading The Lido by Libby Page - it's hooked me from the start and a bonus is that it has short chapters (don't judge me). It's out in just over a week.
4. My standout film so far this year is Call Me By Your Name. It's a moving, sizzling, romantic drama with a beautiful soundtrack and superb acting. Not to be missed.
5. The impressive exhibition by the photographer Andreas Gurksy at the Southbank Centre is in its last few weeks. You can read more about it here.
6. For a website that will make your heart melt, check out Folded Wisdom. Artist and father Bob Guest would wake up early before his young children and write and draw them little notes that would be tucked in their lunchboxes. Many of them were kept and can be seen on this website.
7. The Oscar winning UK-made short film The Silent Child is currently on BBC iPlayer. It's an incredible 20 minute movie with an important message about the importance of sign language being taught in schools. Don't miss it.
8. If ever there was an excuse to unplug and get outside, this 3 minute movie is it. A perfect reminder to look up in the world (literally).
I'm always on the lookout for new podcasts, movies to watch and books to read. I'd love to hear any of your suggestions!
Learning to Scrapbook
I remember when I was about 11 years-old - it was September, a brand new term at school. Sharpened pencils, a new shiny pencil case and maybe even a pristine set of new colouring pencils, too good to be removed from their box.
A friend had returned from a Summer holiday adventure and was neatly arranging her keepsakes from her trip in a scrapbook.
Photographs, tickets, notes, all mixed with pretty pastel coloured card and intricate designs printed on delicate paper.
I was mesmerised and watched wide-eyed as she glued, coloured and weaved together her findings in a book bound together with ribbon.
The truth is for a long time, and particularly at school, art was never my thing. Painting and drawing I loved but I was simply not good enough (or encouraged) to take art as a subject at GCSE.
It's only now, in my thirties, that I'm exploring new crafts and having fun trying new skills. There's no pressure to pass exams, just to learn and have fun.
I came across Project Craft at Paperchase by chance when looking for a new diary on their website.
I discovered the flagship store in London's Tottenham Court Road offers a range of craft classes, just a few hours long and enough to dip your toe in to see if you warm to it.
I chose the Scrapbooking class for a very reasonable £20 (including all supplies). There's also Card Making, Creative Journaling, Origami Flowers, Paper Cactus making and more.
Cameron, a friendly and enthusiastic art student (who also works part-time at Paperchase) was my teacher for the afternoon and encouraged me to choose a theme for my scrapbook - I chose travel.
I had brought along pictures, tickets and cuttings from a previous (poor) scrapbooking attempt and he helped me weave all the materials together into a double-page spread using coloured card, designer paper, washi tape and coloured string (for the bunting). He also showed me how to create pockets to store tickets and small mementos.
This was a brilliant introduction to Scrapbooking. My main reason for booking the class was so that for future travels I can involve our two girls and we can continue to create the scrapbook together.
In the two hours I also learnt:
How to be more confident using a cutting mat and knife
That it's much better to use double sided tape than Pritt Stick (curls at the edges)
How to be creative with washi tape (I always just used it like sellotape before - hello washi tape bunting!)