Stars by Laly Bigeard...

Eight moons ago, on a crisp winter evening, we made a little fire in our backyard to sit with the full moon. We ate our dinner around the fire and then made s'mores - one of Laly's favourite treats. She wrote love letters to the moon on the concrete patio with some of the fallen charcoal. While we were sitting around the fire, she began humming her song Stars, to the moon. We hadn't yet booked a time to record it in the studio but it was essentially ready for the big wide world.

While she was humming the song and dancing around the fire with her charcoal stick, inspiration came to me for her music video. I said, "Let's get some sparklers and you can dance in the moonlight while singing your song, I think this could be the video!" With a beaming smile she ran and got some sparklers, put on her dark blue jumpsuit and off we went into the night. Would we step on something slimy? Possibly, but she did not care! I filmed her with my phone while she danced to the song in her head, the vision of the music video coming to me as I filmed. I had Coldplay's Yellow in my mind as inspiration - remember the one continuous shot of Chris Martin walking in the rain on the beach as dawn broke?

We did 4 takes, and that was that! I wanted it to be as organic and playful as possible, just like her song. I had no idea if it would work but the moment was captured, and that's all that mattered for me at that moment. We giggled and laughed and it was the most wonderful memory-making time together, mother and daughter. I told her it might not be great, and it's on the phone so the quality isn't the best but she didn't care, she felt the buzz of it and knew it would become whatever it would become.

After we recorded the song in the recording studio in August, I started thinking again about how I could turn that footage into a music video. I wasn't confident about my editing skills at first - it's been over 20 years since I sat at a film editing suite at university, and technology has advanced so much since then. I decided to ask around for a video editor, and I did end up paying someone to put it together for me but I wasn't quite happy with the end result because I realised I already had a strong vision for it and needed to create it myself. So this past month while I had the time, I decided to give it a try myself. It was fun to learn a new software, expanding my photography skills into the moving world. And I am really happy with the result, it's the closest to what I envisioned that beautiful night, and even with the limited quality of the phone, not to mention it being shot at night, with no other equipment, I am really pleased with it.

It is now on you tube! I have a separate channel for Laly but it's on my account so she can't access it herself, and comments have to be modified by me before they are public so that she's as protected as possible but still able to share her creativity with the world.

I really hope you like it too, feel free to share it with your friends and family and online if you feel moved to. She's already working on her next song and it's a heart melter.

With love,

Pia xx

All Natural Playdough (original post from 2014)

Looks like it’s been 6 years since I’ve made playdough! This recipe is from my original blog, and Laly asked me the other day if we could make some, which we will do this week. I remember the colours being so vibrant, so I’m looking forward to trying this out again.

I thought I’d repost it here so it’s easy to find.

Here is the original post…

February 4, 2014 (Laly was almost 2 years young):

So I've been having a bit of fun making all natural play dough lately. This batch of coloured fun is my third or so experiment and I'm rather happy with it. Though I've got some ideas for the next batch which I'll share with you in case you'd like to try.

Since I want to use only natural colour, I've adapted this recipe from best recipes, minimizing quantities and introducing soaking selected ingredients to create coloured water. Here is my adapted recipe:

1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 tablespoon (or so) of cooking oil (i've been using sunflower)
1/4-1/2 cup of cold, coloured water

To make the coloured water, soak a handful of your chosen ingredient (spinach for green, beetroot for deep purple, mixed frozen berries for rose/light purple) in a ramekin or glass container of 1/2cup water, preferably overnight. Strain the liquid and pop it in the fridge for a little while to make it cold, or add an ice cube.

In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt together well. At this stage if you are making yellow, add a good sprinkling of tumeric powder. Then add the cooking oil and 1/4cup of coloured water. Mix then knead until well combined. Add more water if needed to get the right consistency.

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I then put each ball of play dough into clear, recycled plastic containers and leave them in the back of the fridge. To allow them to soften slightly, I take them out about 1/2 hour before we are ready to play with them  (yes, WE - Laly and I both love playing with play dough - yesterday I made a fantastic collection of funny looking dinosaurs which Laly promptly invited all to a tiny tea party). This batch was a little crumbly when I took them out, so I just added splashes of water and kneaded them a bit more and they were perfect. Adding flour and water makes playing with it all the more fun for Laly, so I don't mind if I don't get the consistency spot on when I make them. And yes, the colours do come off ever so slightly when you play with them, but barely - and honestly, who cares? It washes off with a dab of a cloth.

The other thing I'd like to say is that I soaked beetroot skins in some water overnight, hence the gorgeous intense colour. However I didn't soak the spinach or the mixed berries but next time I will to get more intense colour, though if you like it subtle, soak for less.

My last batch of yellow and rose lasted many months - basically until the colours get all smooshed together and the ball diminishes to a tiny size, as happens when little hands get hold of it.

I hope you'll give this a try. I can't wait to try out more ingredients for more colours!  Any suggestions?

xx

It's All Up From Here, Season 4: empowering women, empowering families...

Season Four is in full swing on the podcast, I can’t quite believe it, we are already up to episode 5! We have gone deep on lots of fantastic topics already like finding your purpose; the importance of self-belief; healing through connection…unless you’re dealing with a narcissist (funny but not funny! we’ve both had quite some dealings with it this year!); and feeling lonely. It’s such an incredible season of conversation, there is so much more to come. As usual Shona & I are raw, unscripted and honest. Here is a little snippet from the first episode of Season Four so you know what’s happening this season…

Shona: “Season Four has a new tag line!  This season we are getting to the core. Our tag line was ‘helping bring the joy back to families’. First, it was ‘helping bring the joy back to parenting’, now it’s still about the joy, but we’ve decided that our new tagline is ‘empowering women, empowering families’. Really what we’ve been talking about all this time is supporting women to a point where they can be more whole; emotionally healthy; be themselves; and feel inspired & empowered which then in turn they pass on to their children, their families and their partners and friends.”

Pia: “As women we birth the next generation, and we need to be empowered to support that, that sense of thriving and learning – if we don’t give it to ourselves, we can’t offer it to anybody else. So it’s the core of what we are doing – bringing out that female energy and empowering it, for everyone’s sake. Some of the topics are going to be: intuition; a journey with self belief – a deeper exploration from self-acceptance which we spoke about last season, and also what external validation has to do with it; creativity; feeling not good enough and unworthy – we are going to work a little deeper with that because again we end up reacting from that place without realising it, without being conscious of it; and we will be talking deeper about intimate relationships….”

If you are interested in living intuitively and are eagerly awaiting my next book then I encourage you to take a moment to listen in as every topic we open up in discussion this season is part of the book, The Alchemy of Intuition. So by listening in on the podcast, you’re getting a glimpse of my creative thought process in conversation with Shona as I write the book.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been listening, sharing, reviewing and messaging us about each episode, we are so thrilled you love it and are looking forward to a live event early next year! Details to come soon.

Pia xx

Season 2 Ends - It's All Up From Here! podcast update...

Laly exploring in Lane Cove National Park, during the full moon, 2018

Wow Season 2 of It’s All Up From Here flew! The last episode was uploaded a couple of weeks ago, and features Shona’s beautiful parents Al & Sheryl, chatting openly about some of the things they learnt as parents and what wisdom they gained along the journey. It’s a sweet episode, a lovely way to end the season. I loved listening to the recordings of their interviews and I admit, I did feel a little emotional to know I can’t interview my mum too. I wonder if she were here, would she let me, if I asked her? I wonder what she would say? Those were the thoughts going through my mind. And as far as my Dad goes, I wouldn’t even dream of asking him, so that also made me a little melancholy. None of which takes away from the openness of Shona’s parents though, in this last episode, so if you haven’t had a listen yet, please do.

A run down of our most popular listens so far: Season One’s most listened to episode was “Setting Boundaries”. And Season Two’s has remained strong with “How to Know When To End A Relationship, Part One”.

It’s so interesting that these episodes have been the most popular - it shows that there are some major shifts going on in our society, shifts that I know are so crucial to our growth and evolution. It’s exciting, but I understand how challenging these times can be when we are in major life shifts. Both Shona & I have been through a lot these past 2 years, and we’ve been as open as possible on the podcast, with respect to the people we love in our lives, I’m sure there is more to come as we each process these changes and find the jewel lessons in these experiences.

The break between Season 2 and Season 3 will be extended as Shona has just embarked on a 6 week adventure to America and England - a trip with great significance, which she will be sharing some of the details with us upon her return. I’m super excited for her - for those who have been listening to us on the podcast, you’ll know why this trip is such a big deal, but there is much more to be revealed, all in time!

Both Shona & I are pumped for the next season - we’ve already recorded a few of the episodes so they will be ready to share as soon as she returns. We will be covering some big topics, creating space and shedding light on things that are so often taboo in families. Often we don’t realise what we don’t talk about with family members until someone else shares their story with us, and that’s our intention - because both us know how powerful it is to shed light on dark areas in our lives. So get ready for season 3!

If you’d like to catch up on episodes in the meantime, you can head here, to my podcast page. I upload all episodes there, and you’ll also find the occassional show notes, with resources to explore certain topics further. We’d love you to put a review in on itunes! It will help others to find the podcast too, thank you! And if there are episodes that resonate with you and you’d love others to listen (but you don’t feel confident to bring up the topic yourself), let them know about the podcast so they can listen in - it’s a great way to open discussion on things you otherwise feel timid to bring up yourself.

Any topics you would love discussed? Don’t hesitate to email me or Shona or let me know in a comment below. See you soon for Season 3!

With love,

Pia