kayaland-journal
K A Y A L A N D
find more of my poetry on IG: @kayaland_studio
107 posts
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
Last Seen Blogs
tylerlee
Untitled
gabrieltfw-blog
Sem título
golden-hourglass
Golden-Hourglass Commissions
askaziraphaleandcrowley
It would be funny if we both got it wrong
Text
19.04.2019
It’s been a while since I’ve shared my ramblings on here😇 Here’s a post from my 2019 journal that somehow seems as relevant as ever in my life today!
**********************************************
Friday 19th April 2019
Where do you get all your inspiration from?
Number 1.
Has got to be athletes. You've got to be inspired watching the World Cup or watching the Olympics and seeing someone win that gold medal after preparing for the last 4+ years. You're cheering them on like it's your own win.
Number 2.
Artists are always inspiring. Lately LSD (Labrinth, Sia, Diplo) have been inspiring me with their amazing visuals for this latest album. They have their own aesthetic, their own style and their just vibing on their own wavelength. And watching someone create beautiful art without caring what's trending' or mainstream or selling, is very inspiring.
Number 3.
Your own growth.
Sometimes you don't realize how much you've grown until you read your past journals. These days I think to myself "Wow! 15-year-old me would be so proud of the woman I am today." I never thought I'd get to this point of being confident, sure of myself, understanding that I am still and always will be a work-in-progress but content with putting in the work that needs to be done. My moral compass is still working, I'm still dreaming, still laughing, still enjoying (or rather riding) the waves of life, still hopeful, still journaling, still curious, still drawn to adventure, still listening, still learning, still kind and empathetic, still reading and writing. I'm still me. Granted, I still worry about the future, but not as much as I used to. I'm learning to catch myself and be like "Hey, there's no need to do that. No good will come from it"
I'm learning to go through life moment by moment, step by step. I'm still learning (and struggling) to forgive, but I've noticed that I hold grudges less and I don't let other people's criticisms and comments put me down that much. In fact, I listen and try to see what they mean and how I can improve myself if there's logic behind their words. Then I rarely get phased by other people's bad energy. If someone is rude to me, I'm able to keep my composure and respond kindly (and even mean it!).
Again I say, I'm a work in progress. I'm constantly falling off the bandwagon but then I'm constantly jumping back on and with greater insight, wisdom and knowledge. I'm learning from both my mistakes and my accomplishments. I'm learning to celebrate small wins the same way I celebrate big wins. I'm learning to worry less about things that are out of my control, and I'm learning to have the courage to take charge of those that are within my control.
I'm learning to believe in a Higher Power and to trust that this Higher Power is in charge, that there's a greater plan, and even if there's no greater end game, then there's this journey I am on right now. And this journey is mine, and was always meant to be mine, therefore I can embrace it with all its turns and twists and just try my best to enjoy the ride.
I am learning to be in touch with my personal mantra: Love and Gratitude.
I'm learning so much about myself, and I'm loving who I am right now :)
P.S. I'm also learning that there's absolutely no shame in recognizing and voicing your own accomplishments. Be your biggest cheerleader and be unapologetic about it. Call yourself beautiful and smart and kind. Don't be afraid to manifest these things!
@KAYALAND_STUDIO (IG)
#musings#journal#diary#excerpts#journalblr#blog#thougts#life lessons#lesson#love letters#gratitude#writerblr#writers on tumblr#poetsandwriters#manifesting#growth#self care#self love#inspiration#artists on tumblr
0 notes
Text
About ‘Redwood’
I remember watching an episode of Braxton Family Values where Toni Braxton, one of my favourite artists ever, was feeling insecure about her music and thinking of retirement because she felt she wasn’t performing at the level she wanted for herself. Her sister Tamar had to come to see her so she could (very animatedly) remind her WHO she is and WHAT she has accomplished. “You are Toni de-Braxton!” And Toni lit up again.
We all need a Tamar.
Sometimes we forget our own power and our strength. We lose hope, we start to despair, life beats us down to a dust and all we need is that one person to tell you - “I believe in you”, “You’re going to be okay”, “You can do this”, “Keep going”, “You’re going to make it”, “You’re stronger than you think”.
And that’s the symbolic meaning behind this poem. Using one of the mightiest species of trees to show that even the greatest amongst us can lose confidence.
Courage is therefore not a parade, it is voice and hands shaking but diving anyway.
10 notes
·
View notes
Photo
lush illusions
instagram - twitter - website
15K notes
·
View notes
Photo
Nairobi Metro Fantasy Map
When I posted my Kenya Railways map earlier today, I said that I was tempted to make a fantasy map for a Nairobi metro system. And I ended up cranking one out way more quickly than I expected to!
I’ve never actually been to Nairobi (and given the state of LGBT rights in Kenya I might not ever be able to go), so I don’t claim to have a good understanding of the city’s geography—so this is mostly just me doing my best with a mixture of Google Maps and Apple Maps to try to estimate commute patterns from the street grid.
With that being said, let’s get into the routes. I’m envisioning this system as light rail—where some segments use the existing commuter rail right-of-way, some segments run in streets or medians, and there are a few tunnels. The colors of the Purple and Blue Lines were chosen arbitrarily, while the colors of the other three were chosen to make the flag of Kenya in the central trunk line.
The Blue Line begins in Ruaka and follows Limuru Road to Two Rivers Mall and the Northern Bypass from there to Runda, before following United Nations Ave and tunneling under the Sigiria Forest to Westlands. From there, the route follows the Uhuru Highway all the way to Imara Daima, joining the Red Line along existing commuter rail tracks to Syokimau and continuing into a tunnel to the airport.
The Purple Line begins in Mihango and follows the Eastern Bypass to Ruai and Kangundo Road from there to New Njiru Town, where it turns onto Komarock-Mwiki Road until the Kassarani West station at Thika Road, which it follows all the way to the Globe Roundabout. A quick jog along University Way takes it to join the Blue Line until Bunyala Road.
The Black Line begins in Gitaru and follows the Uhuru Highway all the way to West Parklands, before taking Ojijo Road and Parklands Road to reach the Globe Roundabout. From there, it follows Tom Mboya Street to Central, where it joins the current commuter rail mainline and continues to Embakasi Village.
The Red Line begins in Wangige and follows Highway C63 through Kikuyu, joining the existing commuter rail line just past the hospital. The route continues along the existing right-of-way through Central, and uses the same new tunnel as the Blue Line to get to the airport.
The Green Line begins at Galleria Mall and follows Highway C63 to Langata East before tunneling to the existing commuter rail line at Mbagathi. From there, it follows the existing right-of-way all the way to Ruiru.
If anyone familiar with Nairobi wants to weigh in on the route choices, please let me know! Although I will specify up front that I’m fully aware that the funds to build this system do not exist—but that’s the fun of crayon maps in the first place. Assuming the funds do exist, where should the routes go? That is the question.
55 notes
·
View notes
Text
Indigo
This lovely poem took an entire day to conceptualize.
The intention was to capture how quickly life can change in your favour, even within a matter of days in some circumstances. Figuratively, “blues” represents melancholy and “reds” represents hardships and heartbreak. More literally, the colour indigo is created by blending blue and red, with blue being slightly dominant.
Then there’s the last part of the poem - “Our kind”. “That which created our kind.” I think that human beings tend to act as the “Optimus prime” of creation. We often forget that we share this planet with other living organisms - plants, animals and oceania - and our destructive behaviour to the environment that we live in has put both our and their existence in danger of extinction.
So this poem borders along the themes of optimism, spirituality and climate consciousness.
Hope you like it.
X
#cop26#climate change#musings#journal#poem#art#art journal#indigo#blues#poetry#optimism#spirituality#mentalheathawareness
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
حوش دار كنزة، جزيرة جربة، تونس 🇹🇳💛✨
Housh Dar Kenza, Djerba Island, Tunisia 🇹🇳💛✨
498 notes
·
View notes
Photo
The last few months I only took photos a couple of times due to family circumstances, but the last three weeks I finally had time again to frequently go out and walk with my beloved four-legged friends. It is absolutely wonderful to be among them again and it seems they don’t mind it either.
Here they wait patiently for me to give them posing directions. Isn’t that something?
261 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Yesterday someone asked me if I do a lot of retouching and editing. The short answer is yes.
A while back I made these before and after gifs, just for fun. I didn’t post them because I thought that maybe people would think I’m a fraud and a fake and that they would question the ‘realness’ of my photos from now on. Or maybe this post would remove the ‘magic’ of my work for some people, if it had any to begin with.
But to hell with ‘what others might think’. I love editing almost as much as I love going out and take photos. I am not as good a photographer as I would like to be, so I am happy that I can do a lot afterward to make up for my mistakes. Or mistakes made by cows and nature.
I am not a photojournalist, so it doesn’t matter if what I post isn’t exactly as it was in reality. It’s only the end result that counts for me, not how I achieved it.
The reasons I edit a lot are 1. To get better compositions 2. To remove things that distract from the main subject (mainly cows in the background who refused to cooperate) (and often things made by humans like buildings and fences) 3. To get the most out of the source material, because, why wouldn’t I? 4. To show what I thought I saw, or what I meant to show when I made the photo 5. Because I like it.
A few years back I did a lot more excessive editing than I do nowadays. I don’t know why. Maybe I got lazy. Or did I become a better photographer? No, I don’t think so, because I am not as happy with my end results as I was back then. Which could be because I edit less. Or because my standards got higher. I don’t know. Probably the latter.
The photos shown are some of my more extreme edits, and a couple of subtle (?) ones. And all are more than two years old.
For those interested: I use DxO Optics Pro to make .tiff’s from RAW’s, DxO Viewpoint to straighten horizon’s, PTGui Pro to glue multiple photos from the same scene together to get bigger photos, Topaz Sharpen AI when critical sharpness is lacking, Pixelmator classic for everything retouching related, Apple Photos for cropping, Luminar 2018 for colour and light editing, Tonality for B&W modifications, Lightroom for adding VSCO filters (which I always mix afterwards in Pixelmator) (and after that I mix it with the version I had before I used Lightroom), and then Luminar or Tonality again for small final adjustments.
So, yeah.
Pity my gifs always look so grainy and have ugly gradients. I use PhotoScape X to make gifs. Does anyone know a way to get clean gifs?
All the photos were originally posted on Klaasfoto, but the theme I use for that blog doesn’t support gifs.
Bye.
253 notes
·
View notes