Christmas Card 2015 - Copyright Asanda Madikane

Christmas Eve, is more exciting to me than Christmas day its self. The anticipation of Christmas morning is the tip of the iceberg then its all down hill melt down from then after. Have you heard of the christmas blues? Its called Boxing day, people. New Year is not AS exciting as Christmas day eve. The buzz before the days occurrence is so much more exciting. So much more mysterious, festive and magical. The await for celebration. I love it. Just thinking about it give me butterflies in my stomach. I have been singing all morning. Any Christmas song, all Christmas songs. Im just waiting for the neighbour to through a shoe at our door from all the noise. Once Christmas presents are exchanged, hugs, kisses and laughter are exchanged... it will all be over by Midnight. Christmas does not last forever. And thank goodness for that or else we would all be broke and fat from Christmas dinners and would have to resort to eating crackers all month just to stay alive.

"You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
Im telling you why
Santa Clause is coming to town. "

Its just one of those days when its freezing cold outside but the sun is shinning brightly in the sky. Inspired by the moving reflection of the glass table in the room and the flowers near by. I created a piece that very different from the others. A lot of mood and story, almost a fine art piece in some way.

I guess it best expressed how we feel sometimes. Full of light on the outside and so much dark in the inside, or just as much light with in and fighter on the outside.

The weekend is the  perfect time and space for me to reflect on new ideas and get busy with other projects. This is not usually the case. Some weekends I am shooting family portraits or children portraits in their day in a life. I enjoy these mini session as it gives me the opportunity to meet new people and get myself dirty and on the floor photographying children. This is what I am currently doing to keep my photography business running. It is not the focus of The Sublimer nor my Photography portfolio as it does not fit my overall brand. My aim and continuous focus is to work with brands, sponsored projects and other creatives. I love creating stories and it is always fantastic to work with other skilled individuals in order to create beautiful pictures.

It has been rewarding starting this blog and taking fashion pictures. It gives me the ultimate space to learn and grow on my photography while getting to meet and work with awesome people.  It is my best calling card when approaching new business and a great ice breaker amongst fellow bloggers. Finding the balance between life and work is still a challenge. I am a mother of two kids and thank goodness I have a husband. Much respect to the women who do it alone. I would be in shambles and exhausted to the bone if he was not around to help me raise our ninjas. Family is a huge part of my life here in Belgium but I want my work to be important as well. Time is a rare commodity and sleep is a phantom experience I seldom get to fully enjoy. But here I am trying to build an idea and a dream for myself and for my family. So how do I balance my life, work and sleep? Poorly, I must say. Nothing being a parent, an entrepreneur and a wife is predictable. I get my life in balance by scheduling and planning my work ahead of time. In this case, if everything starts to fall to pieces the work is not affected.

Here are some 6 Tips to Holding my Work Life in Balance

1. Set out my priorities
Take the time to decide what need to be done now and what can be done later with out wasting even more time planning. This should be a quick reflective task and sincerely does not require everyone to come to the meeting room to discuss what are the priorities. Action is required.

2. Scheduling my work in advance (i.e blogging, marketing, photoshoots)
Once its done, its done. I can focus on other things and disasters with out stressing that my whole world is going to fall down like dominos. It puts your mind at ease that most things have been accomplished. Therefore you have the privilege  (cause its really a privilege) to refresh and think of new ways to do things better and more efficiently. Focusing on other aspects of my business such as networking, marketing and collaborating.

3. Focusing on one thing at a time
As a mother, wife and a business women. I already have the condition to think that I can do it all. When truly I don't want to do it all, all the time. Multi-tasking is exhausting and nothing that can be done effectively right now... is ever done so. So cut out the noise and do one thing at a time.

4. Respecting my downtime ( no phones after 8pm, no social media, no emails)
Its tough. If I don't respect finishing my priorities and doing things one at a time. I am left playing catch up into my evenings. Its definitely a work in progress but when I do leave that mobile phone in the other room before dinner time, and not stress about it. I know tomorrow is going to start off on a good step.

5. Go to bed before 11pm (beware of the Netflix fever)
Get some sleep. Tomorrow starts early. So get some sleep.

6. Drink lots of water during the day (dehydration can make you tired, grumpy and not sleep well)
Water and I, are good friends. Keeps me happy, skinner and rejuvenates my skin while I sleep at night. Why should we part in anyway. Keep your glass container with a refreshing lemon to refresh and detox or a fresh cucumber for healthy skin. Either way you will be winning just with a the occasional glass of water instead of the coffee addiction.

They may seem like really simple things to do. But simple is the best way to effectively know that the tasks will be best done well.

Good Reads Online

Richard Branson: Answering Your Questions on Work-Life Balance

Zen habits: Finding the Elusive Work- Life Balance

Fall is in full swing and winter is not shy away. Yippee, hooray, The festive season is upon us.  From Halloween, St Nicholas and Christmas. It is the season for sharing. We have two busy moths ahead of us and I don't think our bank accounts can handle it. I am so excited that with the coming of the end of year, it has graced us with so much creativity and new ways to enjoy life's pure splendours. As I continue to build and grow The Sublimer. I hope it becomes the fashion and portraits inspiration destination. So keep tuned for our shopping list craze, to great ideas for gifts and beauty tips to keep you looking radiant and pretty all winter long.

The Sublimer is a place intended to show case my photography work as well as serve as a creative space to look and feel good in front and behind the camera. I love fashion portraits so its my duty to share tips and tricks on how to look after your beautiful face and skin and how to make you own unique features shine. This will not only help you keep up to date on latest beauty care that fits your type but also how to get to love the real you from inside out. Im not a model or qualify in height or beauty in anyway, but I realised confidence is all you need, and its starts by looking after yourself.

Great fashion inspiration can not be with out human touch. I will continue to share stories about amazing people and brands that I work with. As they serve to inspire how we look and feel behind and in front of the camera.  We will journey together to the back doors of arteliers and get the inside scoops from the individuals who create them.

The world is so big and yet so small. Everything is accessible through information and exploration that it can be overwhelming sometimes. I am so happy I finally have a place where I can decompose what I love, learned and share in one place. It has been such a wonderful place to outlet my experience and share my skills and knowledge with others. I will be sharing upcoming projects and interests each week and the crazy things I have achieved and learned from starting this blog. I am not just a photographer, or a mom or a media marketer. I am a business women and I can't wait to sharing best practices for creatives to market themselves in this over saturated environment.

I am destined to fall in love with winter this season, because I have so much to share with you all.  Like my go- to outfits this season and my selection of winter jackets. I  wouldn't know what to do with out my jackets every winter. Over the years I have collected well structured  jackets from Johannesburg to Bruxelles. They all have their own personality and style that I wear according to my look and mood and... natures intensions to freeze us all. Enjoy this first series of Winter Jacket  2015.

They say, all suitable things are worth waiting for. You can actually wait all your life for genuine love, of destiny to finally take form or for that amazing deal to pop out from no where. Well, I have never been known to have much patience.

I am a women on the move, on the foot path to adventure and packed with positive outlook, dutch-confidence and grace. [tweet this]

And I am tired of waiting. So here I am again, combining my authentic love to storytelling in a visual arts and my formidable desire to create my own brand. Why do I say again? I have always been a performer then secondary an entrepreneur. I love the boundless world of the make-believe and the possibilities of being whom ever, whatever, when ever you like. Life is not limited to me by this lifetime, my mind is too busy to be cooped up to my head. My desire to build a business is a family legacy my parents instilled in me. And why do I say again, is because moving from South Africa to Belgium has taught me one thing.

Never give-up on yourself. The world will turn you down, you friends will turn on you, there are enough people giving up, don't be one of them. [tweet this].

I worked 8 years in the film and television industry in South Africa with all the major companies such as SABC, Mnet.Dstv , Saatchi and Saatchi  and Clearwater. Feel free to snoop around my LinkedIn profile. In an industry dominated by males. I was a small packaged dynamite that worked hard to get to actually work as a director and content producer in the industry. I really didn't have time for people giving me sass. I was always focused on the end goal and it all paid off. I had a great career , met awesome people and still keep in contact with many of the industry players but it wasn't all that I wanted. I wanted something of my own. So, to cut a long an beautiful story (that you will probably read about ) I initiated a move to Belgium with my boyfriend (who is now my husband) to attack the visual industry with my experience and my positive Go-for-it attitude. And found myself in a whole new country, where open opinions where not for the free and a New York mentality was probably a north sea away in London. That didn't stop me. I took advantage of the exceptional privilege to live and work in a new country and studied for my Masters in Business at Leuven University.

 It was exhilarating. I then launched two projects and tested the market in many forms and it has been an incredible ride. Then I stopped running around like a crazy person and began to infuse my filming experience into photography. Visual creations sometimes requires a team of creatives, and its always wonderful to work on ideas as a collective. The vision is so much stronger and detailed as you get to work with specialist in each field. I enjoy working with others. But it takes time, and being ambitious and a mother. I don't have time to wait for everyone to get together to pull off an ideas. So I picked up the camera and ... my gosh, I can write, direct, act,model, shoot and edit a whole editorial on my own.   A whole dynamic opened up to me.

I am a wife and a mother of two ninjas and I am additionally a creative and entrepreneur. I am blessed to have a tremendous life here in Belgium with good friends and family. Children can cause great awakenings in a human being. Your own children are like mirrors to your soul, you fears and your desires. And if the fears don't push you to existence, they will eat the spirit of your children and you soul. My ultimate love that I have for my ninjas and the guy who warms our bed, make me so happy that I occasionally overflowed with joy at the thought of them. I have an immense support of my husband and family, that it was time for me to get back to doing what I love. With that power I have decided to launch The Sublimer. A place I no longer had to wait for permission to create, or wait to tell my story, or wait for someone to assign me work with fantastic high end boutiques, brands and business individuals. Here, I am creating my own opportunities and my own destiny and I want to inspire you to do the same.

The Sublimer, is a magazine style blog to showcase my works, ideas, aspirations and the inspirational creatives that make this world a little more magical, strong and beautiful. It's my platform to publish my work, to share my stories and to shamelessly promote myself (Thank you +Shameless Maya ) and inspire my visual fashion blogging (Thank you +Kristina Bazan and +The Glamourai ) and photographing women (Thank you +Ellen Von Unwerth, +Sue Bryce ,and share the spoils of the mother earth.

So here is to the Sublime, the Extravagant and the Divine.

Here is The Sublimer.

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself, right now, right down here on Earth. - Bradley Whitford