Hello and welcome back to my website. June is here and summer is well on its way (hurray!) so I thought it was time for another life update.
Wedding Season has officially begun and that means me and all the other harpists I know are gearing up for a summer of Pachelbel’s Canon in D, several renditions of A Thousand Years by Christina Perry and maybe even some Ed Sheeran thrown in there. For me, my next free Saturday is August 18th, I’m not sure how it happened but my Saturdays are completely booked up until then. I’m already taking bookings for 2019 and even 2020 so if you are planning your wedding please do get in touch and we’ll have a chat about what you would like for your special day.
My private teaching is really building up at the moment too and I seem to have had an influx of new students recently, which is so lovely. Hello if any of you are reading this. The more I teach the more I love it so if you fancy trying out piano or harp lessons and you live in or nearby Manchester please get in touch. In a rather geeky way I also love teaching music theory so I often teach that alongside our instrumental studies.
Moving away from music now, so much is going on at the moment. If you know or have spoken to me before, you’ll probably know that I absolutely adore greyhounds and would love one as a pet one day. That day may not be anytime soon however, as my cat would definitely freak out and I live in rented accommodation. So, in order to get my contact hours with greyhounds I’ve started volunteering to walk to greyhounds at a local shelter. I had a lovely time and fell hopelessly in love with all the dogs (obviously) so I really look forward to adding that to my weekly schedule.
This urge to walk dogs that aren’t mine came from reading Rebecca Campbell’s ‘Light is the new black’. Some of the book was a bit ‘out there’ for me but the parts about answering your soul’s calling really resonated with me. Of course music is my life and how I make my living, but there is so much more out there that I’m passionate about and it’s time to start jumping into these passions with both feet, finding what lights me up and doing that. I owe it to myself to live as authentically as I can. When I was little I always wanted to be a vet because I was just obsessed with animals, So to take action and indulge my passion for animals while actually doing a good thing is something of a no-brainer.
Going back to the topic of books for a second, I highly, highly recommend Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Big Magic’ – she delves deep into the subject of creativity. Listening to it on audible was so powerful and I feel like parts of it could have been written just for me. Grab a copy and give it a read (or a listen), let me know what you think. Perhaps I should start a book club? I just love devouring non-fiction, especially when it pertains to being our best selves. On my bed-side table currently are The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and the Calm book by Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew.
Some of you may have noticed that I’m not on Facebook anymore, I really am loving life without it and honestly haven’t missed it at all. I am still on twitter and instagram though so feel free to pop over there and say hello. My Facebook harpist page is still active but I hardly check it and have made my partner Tim the one and only admin. My thoughts on life without Facebook could (and probably will be) a whole blog post on its own, but I feel so much better now I’m not in the habit of scrolling through endless nonsense content, and love that I have to ask what people have been up to rather than already knowing through Facebook. Creepy.
Right, that’s definitely enough for now. Do leave me a comment and say hi, and if you’ve read any of the books I’ve mentioned let me know what you thought of them. Also, tell me what lights you up, what does your soul call you to do?
Let’s chat soon,
Angelina x