Hello October, Time for Hygge and all things Cozy

Goodbye September, Hello October!
I hope you’ll be productive, happy & give me plenty of time for cut & paste, embroidery, making postcards for the swap & for painting. And dear October month, send some autumnal sunshine my way, thanks. I mean rain is great but we don’t need it every day, huh?! Also, time to imagine and dream…

Indulge your imagination in every possible flight.
Jane Austen

I’m avoiding my usual “fear of darkness” quite well this autumn, at least so far (I sometimes worry that it’s going to be a horrible, cold period coming, but when winter comes I also remember how beautiful the snow and cold can be).

Hygge and all things cozy

This year I kind of long to try on my long sleeved shirts and go shop for a new pair of jeans, to drink tea and light some candles every evening. To take chilly walks along the canal and then come back home and snuggle in knitted sweaters and home quilted blankets.

Yum!

I think that’s what they call hygge in Denmark:

Hygge compasses a feeling of cozy contentment and well-being through enjoying the simple things in life. If you’ve ever enjoyed reading a book indoors on a rainy Sunday or a cup of hot cocoa on a snow day you’ve experienced hygge without even knowing it. Hygge is such an important part of being Danish that it is considered “a defining feature of our cultural identity and an integral part of the national DNA […]

This national obsession with all things cozy is credited as one of the reasons why Denmark is always at the top of the list of the world’s happiest countries, despite their infamously miserable winters. Now the rest of the world is beginning to catch on to this wonderful way of life.

Since writing my to-do-list one thing I have done is that I’ve started using my big girl camera more, taking photo walks and shooting a bit more at home. I love the photos, and will share some of them in the coming week. But for now, here’s some photos (above) that inspired me earlier this month, from Flickr, and a autumn collage in one of my Traveler’s Notebooks (below). If you want to see the inspiration mosaic big click here.

Hello October

October is almost a word I’ve forgotten. We just call it Inktober around here, a term and art challenge coined by Jake Parker. You create an ink drawing every day for the entire month, and challenge yourself to become better at “inking” and being consistent with it. My boyfriend is an artist, and he is doing the challenge. I was tempted to join last year, and kind of want to do it this year too, but I won’t. I’m not an illustrator that’s for sure (and I don’t want to be). I always imagine myself as full of ideas for drawing, but when I put pen to paper I just doodle the same flowers over and over, like a broken record on repeat… I’m so not an illustrator.

But it’s okay to indulge your imagination in every possible flight, and just dream up my illustrator career for now. I’ll stick to mail art, journaling and abstract painting, oh and photography and embroidery and yeah… I have enough to fill up the month I guess. How about you?

Are you doing the Inktober challenge, and if so, what are you drawing? Or do you have other creative plans too? In any case, Happy October/Inktober friends!