My Creative Everyday

Source:  @margotrobbieofficial on Instagram Pink mania is upon us with the release of the new Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie.  The colour pink has a remarkable history. There's loads of fun facts, ranging from its origins to psychology, nature, science and consumerism. Take a peak at the colour pink.  Origins Of The Colour Pink Before the early 1600s, pink, was simply referred to as a shade of red. The colour pink came into existence in the English language when a specific rose tint was created for Madame de Pompadour by the renown Sèvres porcelain company. Madame de Pompadour was a mistress of Louis XV who famously loved pink clothes. She was one of the most powerful women in 18th-century France.    Originally, ‘to pink,’ which dates back to the fourteenth century, was used as a verb and means ‘to decorate with a perforated or punching pattern.’  A Pink Peony - Hay On Wye Flowers The colour pink was named after the flowers, pinks, which have frilled ...

  This tip will save you money if you want to buy fresh flowers or plants at Columbia Road Flower Market.  Go at the end of the day!  There are bargains as sellers pack up. If you're happy to buy something that might end up in the bin and it hasn't been someone else's first choice, then it's worth it.  I love buying long stem roses or lillies.  The sellers are friendly and it's a market that's definitely worth visiting.  Watch the YouTube video I uploaded this week which I've included at the top of this post. I'm enjoying being creative on different platforms.  Please subscribe to my channel too. It has lots of videos about nature, London and fun facts.  Have a great time at Columbia Road flower market and share your tips in the comments of this blog or through any of my social media.  -------------------------------- E.M. Blake is the author of 'Dilly Dally Sally' and 'This Silly Bench.' She's also on Twitter and lots of other social...

@mycreativeeveryday on TikTok Yesterday I posted about What is the fuss over ChatGPT, the AI Chatbot? I encountered an error message and gave up, but today I thought I would give it another go. I discovered how to create new streams of chats and how to look at my archive of questions. I still encountered the error message and had problems, but I managed to work around it and not get stuck.  This second attempt to understand how ChatGPT can be a useful tool was definitely more fruitful. This morning I entered maybe two dozen questions on different topics. I felt that the most helpful were those around TikTok, which I am trying to learn more about this year.  So far I have more than 200 followers on TikTok and recently I have started posting a few times a week. In fact, I posted a new video this morning which you can check out here . It is a series of three photographs of white swans on the London Thames River foreshore. The cool thing about experimenting with TikTok is that it ...

Did you know?  Black swans are native to Australia. They weigh up to 9kg (19lbs).  Their wingspan is between 1.6m (5ft) & 2m (6ft). Black swans live up to 40 years. They fly 18 mph (28 kph), reaching speeds of 50 mph (80 kph), needing at least 40m of unobstructed waterways for take-off & landing.  Their divorce rate is 6%. Since the 1st century CE, “black swan” and “rare bird” became common phrases in several European languages, describing something that defied belief, as Europeans assumed, based on their observations, all swans were white. The first recorded European sighting of black swans is probably 1636, by Dutch mariner Antonie Caen.  Black swans were introduced as an exotic ornamental species in Japan, China, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Black swans never established large populations in the wild after being brought to Europe, possibly because black animals were considered bad omens, in league with witches & devils, thus they were oft...

London 2022 – a year in review by Ellie M Blake I created this video on YouTube about the year 2022. One of my goals was to develop my creativity skills in design, visual media, editing and production. I'm still much more comfortable with words, but I can see that I am making progress in my knowledge and experience in photography. So this is a recap of 2022 ... I came upon some pet dwarf rabbits early in the New Year in King Edward Memorial Park in Wapping. The winter felt extra cold. Thankfully, the daffodils arrived, heralding Spring. The birds were singing and the ducklings were swimming. The lambs wandered and grazed in the fields at Mudchute Farm. The Mile End baby geese on Regent’s canal were a comical bunch, restless and playful. Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum Jubilee military flypass was a wonderful sight, while lying in the grass in London Fields in Hackney. The summer was long with some exceptionally hot days in the high 30s, which demanded excessive consumption of ice...

I have always loved butterflies. They are so colourful, and the way they move is so different to other flying creatures.As part of my photo-a-day project, I was delighted to discover how many different species of butterfly visit our garden. Recently, a citrus swallowtail butterfly flitted through our garden. The first thing I learned about these butterflies, before I could even identify one for the first time, is that they don’t… sit… still. As butterflies go, they are some of the hardest to photograph because of that. But on that day, a member of this illusive species flitted around for long enough that I could get some good photos. I tracked the butterfly from branch to branch, focusing as fast as I could and snapping photos hoping some would be useable. It was exhilarating. I was in the zone. When the butterfly decided to fly away, and I could finally relax again, I realised just how far I have come since March 2020. In the past 12 months alone, I have taken about 11,000 photographs...

It was a Friday. If you didn’t know any better, you might think it was just a normal Friday. As usual I was at home, with my timetable carefully organised so I never had to teach on Fridays. Tilly and Scotty, our two Schnauzers, were playing in the garden. Scotty was on the lookout for anybody he could bark at, while Tilly was lounging in the shade. The golden dewdrops (the purple flowers in the photo) were still in bloom. It was only the end of March afterall, and the days are still warm here in South Africa that time of the year. But that was the day when everything changed. It was 27 March 2020 – the first day of the level 5 lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. We were restricted to our homes except for essential shopping. And nobody yet knew how bad the pandemic would get or how long it would last. Suddenly the garden was our whole world as far as physical exploration went. On that first day of lockdown, when I took the photo of our two sweet Schnauzers, I knew I had to sha...

2022 has been ridiculously busy which has been overwhelming and I felt I needed a new way to manage my time. In fact, I posted about it on Instagram and ended up asking how others coped in my first poll, one of the cool features the social media platform provides. My IG friends were so helpful, offering support, empathy and kindness.  I took on new projects this year, which involved a change in my schedule. My evenings were swallowed up by this big black vortex and my days became longer.  I'm grateful for all of the new opportunities and the chance to learn more. However, I've realised consistently pushing myself beyond 150% is a horrendous habit. I want to be happy and find a healthy balance. Family and friends are important. They help me keep my head above water.  Nature and creativity nourish me too. They played a part in formulating a new system for myself, as well as reframing my mind in a positive and productive way. I'll share more about this in my blog and social...

It began a few weekends ago when I baked bread. I had this sense of accomplishment that I had learnt something new. The process of preparing the dough, resting it and letting it cool required patience. Most of all, it made me slow down, forget about my worries and I could look forward to eating fresh bread.   The great thing about bread is that there are so many delicious ways of enjoying it. I haven't had french toast in years and did a semi-healthy version topped with greek yoghurt, warm banana and  roasted pineapple. I confess that I did drizzle some maple syrup on top too.  These days can feel overwhelming because of all the uncertainty in the world. Monday to Friday can seem hectic, like the frenzy of seagulls when they are being fed. There is something about a Sunday which demands we be there for ourselves, to nourish, recharge and listen to what we really want. It is a day to indulge a little and enjoy the little things in life, like maple syrup.  Meditat...