What an uplifting conversation with @katepepler from @thetareshop! We are so excited about her new store opening in Downtown Dartmouth this fall!
Rage Becomes Her | Soraya Chemaly
This read brings light to the number of pressures women are under to present themselves in a certain way. Raising my own spitfire and knowing that she comes by some of those traits naturally, it was helpful to read and be reminded of the various societal and systemic gender pressures that women are forced to endure and it starts early. I wish this read gave me more to hold onto in regards to how to harness our anger as women practically, but it did a lot in validating where anger is from and how often it is manifested in women physically in pain etc due to a lifetime of repressing negative emotions.
Daisy Jones & The Six | Taylor Jenkins Reid
A fun summer read about a band and a singer who collaborate together during the 1980s. It has that rock band vibes and shows how much toxicity is in the industry of music-making that artists are surrounded by. A sweet atmospheric read.
Never Eat Alone | Keith Ferrazzi
Encouraging true collaborative professional relationships in a world where ‘self-made’ is celebrated and abused in it’s meaning.
Normal People | Sally Rooney
Just cracking this read open, but already into it. Helps to know that when I have finished it, there is a television series based on the novel waiting to be watched.
The Lions Den | Katherine St.John
Picked up while very high on drugs after a day in the E.R., waiting for more medication to help a kidney stone along. I very much thought I deserved a new book after that much pain. A summer mystery. Beach read at it’s finest. Rich people on yachts, a woman who doesn’t want to be there etc.
TV Shows & Films of Note*
Maudie | because it is literally the most moving film I have seen in a year. For Canadians, you can stream it on CBC Gem.
Trolls | Colourful. Fun for kids. Way too many OMGS for littles, ill-placed. (we edited them out)
Call it a pandemic, insightful colleagues, actively producing independent projects for almost a decade, or maybe just old fashioned perspective. The developments this year have helped me recognize that my work as a producer has weight and value.
At my core, I am a writer, but that has helped me develop my production skills through honing what it means to craft a story. Knowing that there is a bigger picture at play and wanting to see the creative ideas I have come to fruition.
The medium of producing has been becoming more apparent in my collaborations with others. I realize that the joy for me in making anything is behind the scenes of it all. Cultivating an atmosphere of creativity, collaboration and honouring the project holistically. To see a project in its whole self drives me in anything I do.
I am not sure where my active pursuit of professional producing will lead me, but what I do know already,
producing is not just about 'making it happen'; it's about honouring the whole process and working to make sure all of the moving parts are working to their best ability.
A bit on July.
Amy Grace sits down with Kaitlyn Adair and discusses how COVID has brought its challenges to the creative entrepreneur as well as its own blessings. Reevaluating and learning to appreciate relationships and home in a new way.
Instal Live <——-
While coping and recovering from Kidney stones I ended up having the laydown time to read. I inhaled these books and am so glad that with the return of the Halifax Public Libraries I am back to my normal reading routine.
You, Me, and the Sea | Meg Donohue
A beautiful take on what it means to come from a damaged home and find one’s own identity outside of it to return to make space better. I enjoyed the relational realism that was depicted in this story.
Where the Sidewalk Ends | Shel Silverstein
A fun read with our daughters. A few of Shel’s poems before bed often gave us a good laugh or a thoughtful pause.
Landline | Rainbow Rowell
Inhaled this read in 24 hours. Rainbow Rowell writes her stories in a way that allows the reader to relax, get curious and enjoy the ride. A story about what qualities are in a long-lasting relationship and what makes them survive.
Becoming | Michelle Obama
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Michelle’s account of her life thus far. Written beautifully and easy to follow her everyday woman’s journey from girlhood to becoming FLOTUS.
Little Fires Everywhere | Celeste Ng
A stunning read on motherhood written by Celeste Ng set in the 1990s in a traditional planned community of “Shake Heights” in Ohio. Character development is a steller, you can picture the community and the people who live there. A beautiful story.
my desk this summer it seems….
I am starting to see a pattern.
In life there are seasons of action, seasons of growth and seasons of waiting.
There are also seasons of constant inturruptions.
I would say that for me, 2020 thus far has been all of that and more.
Most recently, a season of waiting and constant interruptions.
A laptop needing up to two weeks of service, a trip to the E.R., recovering from Kidney stones, scheduling major life changes and appointments (all good changes), and least of all, a cat who most certainly wants to sleep on ones work chair at all hours of the day while one tries to make a borrowed laptop fill the void. (if you do creative work, you know that software, subscription services are all part of ones daily routine. Trying to make do without those programs is a bit of a slog. )
It can feel infuriating when you realize time is being wasted while you wait for things to resolve. A kidney stone to pass, pain to recede, paperwork to go through, a laptop to be fixed and yes, even a house tiger to admit defeat in who gets the chair as she ‘slomps’ away with a chirp of dissapointment.
It can also be an opportunity.
To enjoy life, to think more, and connect with both colleagues and friends alike in a new way.
Things I have enjoyed in the waiting:
Reading. Having the library open again has given me new reading enjoyment and movtivation.
Routine Skype calls | A colleague / good friend of mine started a bi weekly Monday chat routine and it has been huge in helping us suss out our creative energy, thoughts and plans for our projects.
Reordering my thoughts | Forced time away, even if scattered has a way of expanding the mind outside the box. Re-imagining what is, to what could be.
So while I am impatiently waiting for my own laptop, for our life changes to occur and in a time when so much seems to be ‘up in the air’, I will be working on my ability to enjoy the process of the waiting and find growth here. Be it in a hospital bed, at the beach, or simply… admitting defeat and letting the house tiger sleep peacefully while I drag the old borrowed laptop to the floor by the rotating fan.
Summer is a time of road trips, driving to the beach, and parties.
Although drives in our province can happen, we find ourselves in a season of planning and preparing. A huge part of that is having our child enter primary school. A huge stepping stone for her and us.
While creating a playlist I found joy in adding a few tracks that reflected summer like films while also adding tracks that felt reflective of a summer full of shifts, pandemic restrictions and hopes for the future.
*Standouts
In the Waiting | Kina Grannis
This track has given me a lot of hope, peace and reminder to stay present in the moment and day I am in.
Revival Anthem | Rend Collective
It’s no secret that I ADORE music from the British Isles. Rend Collective has a tone similar to Mumford and Sons while also highlighting their faith in creative ways. Seeing them play live last year was a highlight. Their energy is terrific. (It didn’t hurt that they said Nova Scotia of all the provinces in Canada reminded them of the same music energy / atmosphere they see in Ireland.)
La Vie En Rose | Lady Gaga
A Star is Born tore my heart in two. I found it beautifully done to the point of feeling the ache of it’s echo months later. Always loving this song, I found Lady Gaga (Stefanie) rendition of it reaches new heights.
Water | Kanye West
As polorizing as Kayne can be, I find his creativity fascinating. Over the years I have resonated with his work that highlights the desire to connect with a higher power.
I initially found peace in this song when this couple captured the physicality of the song.
Seasons | NEEDTOBREATHE
This song hit me in the gut and was an instant purchase. I think music connects us as humans and ultimately I would argue that it’s a way that we connect deeper with that which made us.
*always tacked on the playlist is a few tracks from the Outlander season / book I am re-reading / rewatching. Summer 2020 is Book 1 & Season 1.
What a refreshing and positive conversation with Halley Davies.
Halley is a camera assistant, videographer and creative. Through our conversation Halley shares how extended time off Brough on by COVID 19 has allowed her to explore her creativity through water colour, gardening and sharing her gardening tips through her new instagram account. While she awaits to see how things will be different going back to working on film sets next month.
INSTA LIVE LINK <—-
*due to an unfortunate Instagram glitch, part of the audio from the live chat was lost.
A bit of a vlog on the month of June.
Last month was the last week in John Yorke's Storytelling for Screenwriters Workshop through Media Xchange (and for me, also through Screen Nova Scotia). The week focused on characters and their development.
Takeaways
The most relatable and memorable characters are three-dimensional and, therefore, a true reflection of humanity's complexities.
Characters are innately as simple as they are complex.
Understanding the background and fundamentals of psychology can help us better understand why characters do what they do and what their next action may naturally be due to their coping mechanisms in both healthy and unhealthy ways.
Characters deserve to have us as writers, take the time to understand them better to deliver a holistic view of humanity.
Characters are and should be in constant movement towards a change, whatever that change may be.
What I am Revved Up About
A sincere desire to take the characters I develop, be them fictional or based on someone, (e.g. a current project on my paternal grandmother.) and give them the time and depth of understanding they deserve.
Often I focus on making sure I have the wholeness of a story down, but the gaps in the story or the parts that do not flow are resolved once the character themself are brought into the place they are going and need to be. It would seem that both character and story structure are equally as essential and feed each other.
A recognition that discussing characters with other writers and storytellers gives the insight and springboard I need to press on with the work.
At the end of this two-week journey, I feel more comfortable in story creation, inspired and left feeling connected to storytellers on a global scale. One does not have to live in the same country or time zone to share ideas, gain insight and find the gold in a character or the story itself.
creativity is a sacred ground.
it is where the fires of change and new ways begin.
creativity has rocked my world again and again.
Pulled me apart and then reordered me stronger.
Creativity is a burning ember.
A small light at the pit of who you are.
Light it up.
Fan the flame
Let it become a roaring furnace and see what comes of it.
We were made to burn.
To create is to be made new with everything you make.
cooking, decorating, writing, building, painting, gardening, singing, composing…
to make something out of seemingly nothing.
That is a value that you can’t put a price tag on.
Amy Grace sits down with Rebecca Thomas to discuss how she’s been doing during the pandemic, processing the world’s events and communicates her exhaustion with the historical and systemic oppression that First Nations people have faced for centuries and continue to face in Canada.
Link to Live <——-
May didn’t allow for much creativity and exploration in using the camera or documenting.
That being said, for the sake of the 1 year monthly project, May is here.
Albeit a bit late.
Conrads Beach, Nova Scotia. 2020
How is it that we are already at the midway point of 2020?
It's safe to say this year was not a year any of us would have expected.
Globally, a pandemic and call to action to address racism, specifically in regards to Black communities.
Nationally, the effects of a pandemic and wake up call to how we work and play.
Provincially, a mass shooting concluded to be our countries largest to date and the very strict lockdown and social distancing measures our government took. Their leadership leading us to have zero cases the past two and a half weeks and to open up to the Atlantic provinces after Canada Day to connect with our maritime families.
Personally, the loss of a grandfather, a delay and unknown time for a memorial service, work being shifted to pre-production and development instead of production and being on sets. Working from home, teaching preschool from home…
I could go on…
I started 2020, embracing the word "Bold'. I wanted to embrace the next right bold moves.
Shockingly despite the blows, this remains true. I may not be hopping on a plane like I thought I would be, or seeing Jeremy off to Israel for a work trip, but we have found that the bold moves can also be the quiet and unseen ones.
Applying for a learning opportunity, saying yes to new initiatives, developing new concepts and working on new collaborations with ongoing projects.
Recognizing a need for our family and stepping out in faith to ask for it. Unknowns all around but feeling strongly that it's the Bold right next step we need to take and patiently see where it takes us.
So far, 2020 has taught me that Boldness and making Bold moves are often not as loud as you think it would be.
It's not the roar the lioness makes, but the way she looks before she does it. Her roar is simply a signal of what is to come. A minor thing in comparison to the action she is about to take.
So, although I thought 2020 would be about me making a big noise in work and life, what I realize is that it's the intent behind the next bold right move that is what get's you places and sometimes the next bold right thing is not what you expected until you are right on top of it.
And then you pull back, look around and prepare to roar before leaping forward and digging into what comes next.
It’s been hard to fit in reading the past few months, but with the hopes of our public library re-opening eventually (a slow and very methodical opening) I am more motivated than ever to read through what has been lent to me or I have had on the book shelf.
Hunger | Roxane Gay
Roxane has a beautiful way of capturing the heart of things. In this book of essays, she articulates her struggle with weight and the psychological beginnings and affects it has had on her. She puts to words the ‘pandemic’ of obesity, is in actual fact, rarely ever about the ‘weight’ itself. For her, it is a deep-rooted trauma that is a thread in the tapestry of her life. Although I do not have her story nor relate to it, I appreciate her perspective and insight.
Lord John and the Hand of Devils | Diana Gabaldon
An extension of the Outlander character Lord John Grey and his adventures not included in the main series. The first two novellas in this book are less as enjoyable as the last. In essence, I am more interested to see what Lord John was up to, as it relates to his feelings and perspective in regards to anyone in the Fraser clan.
Spring | Melissa Harrison
Another beautiful collection of essays, poems and thoughts in regards to Spring.
2020 has been a continual shifting and adjusting to the changes type of year. We at Brilliansea have been doing our best to ride these waves and changes.
As we enter into the Summer, we have committed to continue our socially distanced 'insta live' interviews on a bi-weekly basis and continue to share the content of the variety of women that make up the Atlantic provinces and beyond.
Brilliansea continues to seek to be a platform that creates a community of celebration and insight into the inner workings of creative and entrepreneurial women. We are always looking to find new ways to highlight your voices and are continually reassessing how we can do that better and push ourselves to think outside the box.
For Claire and I, Brilliansea is where we find solidarity and connection to something deeper than 'the hustle'.
Less of a business, more of a community.
Although many of our 'communing' and in-person work has had to be on the back burner for the last past few months, the passion for bringing people together remains our true north.
We can’t wait to be in person again and are aiming to reconvene that portion of our work after the summer and as safety measures in our studio/situations allow.
Top Centre - Clockwise: Coffee Mug | Jaw Pottery, Rain Jacket | London Fog, Pre School work books | Amazon, Rainboots | Hunter, Quote squares | Birthday gift from Jasmine, Blue-light glasses | Amazon, Spring Anthology | Amazon, Rhythms of Renewal | Amazon, Bye Bye Under Eye | Sephora, Soy Candle - Rain | Saje, Pillow Cover | Indigo, Iridescent Wine goblet | Winners
Indigo Pillow Covers
I adore having seasonal decor but in a minimal sense. Getting my hands on these pillow covers allows me to change up the look without investing in more pillows.
Pre School Workbooks
These workbooks along with the Kiwi Crate Co. were a blessed addition to our lives during the worst of the pandemic. Learning helped tire our preschool/grade primary ready kid out and helped her feel more confident daily.
Quote Squares
Knowing I like slipping words in the corners of my home, Jasmine smartly sent me these for my 31st. Any words from Maya Angelou are sure to shake you a little.
Rain Gear
In Nova Scotia, not having rain gear is absolutely ridiculous. I finally got rain boots (my old ones had bit the dust almost two years ago & invested in a high quality rain jacket.
Rhythms of Renewal
Listening to the author of this book in a podcast interview by happenstance as the pandemic restrictions hit made me order the book. Couldn’t be more perfectly timed.
What a great conversation with Meghan MacPherson, Massage Therapist and Owner of Aura Massage. Claire Fraser and Meghan talk about reopening after Covid 19 closures and how Aura Massage Therapy and other businesses, particularly those in the Health Industry are adjusting and adapting to the new regulations.
Link to Live <——
Top Centre - Clockwise: Peach Skipping rope | Amazon, Denim Dress | Joe Fresh, Hair Bows | Gift from Auntie Nicole, Bracelet | Etsy, Pink T Shirt | Joe Fresh, Sweater Dress | H&M, Blue Jumper & Red/White T-Shirt | H&M, Polly Pockets & Tiny Toys | My 90’s childhood collection, Where the Sidewalk Ends | Birthday gift from Mimi & Yeye, Animal Upon Animal | Amazon, Readers | Gifts from Auntie Susan, Jean Shorts | Carters, Jeans | Old Navy, Pre School Math & Literacy | Amazon, Necklace & Bracelet | Birthday Gift from Auntie Nicole & Uncle Jude, Pink Shoes | Winners, Mermaid Pyjamas | Old Navy, Wild Flower Pyjamas | Old Navy, Sunglasses | H&M, Sneakers | Zara, Rainboots | H&M, Dress Shop | my 90’s childhood collection, Hedhghog Family | Chapters, Rain jacket | Old Navy, Socks | H&M
Having Zoë’s last semester of preschool cancelled, we had to shift gears at home and in our daughter’s overall daily life. This capsule is very indicative of the direction that the COVID 19 pandemic took us and her.
New to Her
Denim Dress
A birthday dress. She loves wearing dresses these days.
Rain Jacket
What kid wouldn’t want a see-through rain jacket? These were the thoughts I had running through my mind pre COVID world when I was in Old Navy late February. I am very glad I picked it up. It was a hit. She adores it
Pink Dress Shoes
On our last outing before the pandemic, Zoë strolled through winners and picked up this pair of shoes. Already more of a shopper than her mama and with a keen eye, I couldn’t deny her this pair. We said we would put them aside for her easter outfit. (little did we know easter events would all be in the house this year, either way, we brought them out for easter and she adores them.)
Still Going Strong
Pyjamas
Although a couple of sets of pyjamas wore out in the knee (inevitable) she still has plenty of pairs to keep her going and will probably fit still this coming autumn. I love the patterns Old Navy produces for kids.
H&M Rainboots
Ordered over a year ago these rainboots I purchased was a size too big for her at the time but has proven to be a smart choice as they fit perfectly and I assume they will for at least the duration of this year.
Readers
A gift from a great aunt awhile ago, these readers are becoming the method in which Zoë is gaining her reading skills. Seeing her understand the process of reading is such a thrill.
Time to Go
*not pictured here
Worn out socks & Pyjama Pants
This season plenty of worn-out socks and pyjama pants were tossed. Thankfully we still have plenty on hand and are in no great need to replace any.