CCseasonal | Cristina Colli

Mar

February

CCseasonal / photography / visual storytelling / 0 Comment / March 2, 2016

February just flashed by, despite having an extra day…looking back at my planner, I actually managed to work on quite a few projects, have interesting discussions with lovely people, and fine tune a couple of ideas – not too bad for such a short month!

The icing on the cake was finding a florist in a village close by who sells a nice variety of flowers by the stem. I love buying flowers by the stem, rather than in bunches, because it gives me more flexibility in the choice of colours, textures, and shapes for my floral flat lays. So last Saturday I spent at least half an hour choosing my palette for the week, and came back home with a huge grin and a spring in my step – what can I say, I’m easy to please ;)

With the winter being so unusually mild, February showed many signs of the coming spring, from the pretty blossoms that I haven’t managed to get hold of yet, to the many cheerful spring bulbs starting to bloom in the sunniest spots of gardens and flower beds.

I found some gorgeous double tulips, and fell in love with their unruly grace:

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I even managed to find some mimosa! It’s the first time in 4 years, and the scent reminds me so much of spring in Italy.

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The image below sums up all the flowers that I played with in February, including a snowdrop and primrose from my garden – such sweet pretty seasonal colours!

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Speaking of seasons, I just scrolled through the #CCseasonal gallery on Instagram, and it was such a pleasure! So many beautiful images, thank you all for joining in and sharing your photos inspired by February.

My favourite four photos all capture the first signs of spring so well:

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TL – @lingyeungb
TR – @thatcornishbird
BL – @lunaa80
BR – @koko_secretrainbowpath

The amazing beauty of a magnolia tree in full bloom against a pretty London house…the simple joy of some grape hyacints and primroses in a jug…the first cherry blossoms of the seasons….and some more magnolia blooms in a row, just because you cannot have too many magnolia flowers…or too much pink ;)

If you’d like to take part this month, simply use #CCseasonal to tag your still life images inspired by March, and I’ll share four favourites on 1st April. Here’s a link to the #CCseasonal gallery, so many gorgeous photos! Have a lovely March :)

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Feb

January

CCseasonal / photography / styling / 4 Comments / February 1, 2016

January was a month of stormy weather, with just a handful of crisp, frosty mornings. It’s been grey, wet, windy, and unusually mild. I dislike this kind of weather, especially because it just doesn’t feel like winter…but on the up side, lots of spring flowers are already available at the florist’s, so I suppose that’s a silver lining ;) Going through my iPhone camera roll, I realised that this month I mostly worked with tulips and anemones.

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I also had fun creating some dramatic, moody images – after all, the (lack of) light was ideal for this kind of photography.

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January was a month spent teaching one-to-one workshops, working on a few collaborative projects, and hatching up plans for a couple of online courses. I finally finished and launched my ebook The heart of Instagram, and also made a couple of video demos of my floral flat-lay in the making (coming soon on the blog!). I made sure to have some slow days too, just for reading, journalling, spending quality time with my husband, and generally taking it easy.

I’ve noticed that when I take time off to do something not work related, I actually become more productive. Walking in the woods at the weekend is my favourite way to unwind, but the weather has been so wet that the tracks of our local wood turned into a mix of huge puddles and mud. So I turned to my small garden instead, and spent some time pruning roses, potting bulbs, and tidying up the flower beds.

The seemingly “idle” hour spent in the garden turned out to be the perfect way to nourish and ground myself.

Immersing myself in these simple activities stops the whirlwind of thoughts cluttering my mind, making me anxious and scattered. After a little while, the mind slows down, creativity flows again, ideas percolate and mature, and I feel more focused…January has thought me that pottering around in the garden is a wonderful way to reconnect with my self, and I want this pottering to become a practice for the whole year.

Now it’s time to talk about the #CCseasonal Instagram hashtag project. I have decided to share four favourite images each month, both on Instagram and here on the blog. The four favourites for the month of January are all gorgeous, and they capture different moods of the month:

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TL – @tesslovesflowers
TR – @thedizzybee
BL – @idreaminflowers
BR – @toile_blanche

Thank you to everyone who joined in! If you’d like to take part this month, simply use #CCseasonal to tag your still life images inspired by February, and I’ll share four favourites on 1st March. Here’s a link to all the current images in the #CCseasonal gallery, they’re all so beautiful…have a lovely February,

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Once or, occasionally, twice a month I send out a Creative Note to my readers, with my thoughts on the creative process, inspiring links, and course news.

If you’re on Instagram and would like to follow me there, my account is @c_colli