by marie-nicole

At 51 I’m living the most aligned chapter of my life — and I’m only just getting started. 🌿

Days like this one look like a holiday. They’re not.

They’re what it looks like when rest and restoration stop being the reward at the end of the to-do list — and become part of the weekly practice itself.

A coastal bush walk in boots being broken in for a 4-day mountain hike. A seaside lunch under coastal trees. A swim. Sun drying. Journalling. Reading. Then collecting the dogs and shooting detail images of handcrafted vests on a driftwood beach — because creativity and vitality don’t live in separate boxes.

This is work/life integration. This is the experiment.

Our bodies in our 50s aren’t declining. They’re finally speaking loudly enough to be heard. And when you learn to listen? That’s when it gets really interesting.

I’ve never felt more vibrant or capable. And I know — with absolute certainty — that the most igniting chapter is still unfolding.

🎬 There’s more to this story on YouTube — including what midnight yoga sessions with a crying baby built over 20 years, and why I’m absolutely not surprised by my strength at 51. Link in bio.
What does rest look like when it’s actually working FOR you, not just recovering you? 👇

51AndThriving AlignedLiving HandcraftedLife SoulAlignedLife CreativeLife

There is a quality you feel in certain people before you’ve consciously formed a thought about why.

A groundedness. A settledness. Something your nervous system recognises as safe before your mind has caught up.

What you’re feeling is the result of work done in private. Work that never makes it to a highlight reel. Work that happens in caves, in journals, in early morning kitchens with both hands wrapped around a ceremonial cup — with no audience, no applause, and no proof it’s even happening.

This Field Notes is about that work. Mine, and that of a treasured friend and fellow traveller whose cave altar images open this video and carry its visual story.✨

A journey I have embarked on recently, quietly behind closed doors, is one called ‘The Songwriters Journey’ while journalling in response to one of the activities this phrase came through that I’d like to share with you as it speaks to this beautifully.

“The darkest moment’s what cracked me open to reveal the ember within, that then got air. It became clear that I was the one who needed to fan that flame, fuel the fire and allow myself to shine.”

The work nobody sees is the work that changes everything.

What would it look like to turn that same devotion — the devotion you give so freely to others — back toward yourself? 🌟

✨ Full story in the video — link in bio & stories.

Don’t overlook the essence of what you bring into your everyday living experience. 🌿

The objects you wear, use, and surround yourself with carry an energy and a frequency — and that frequency is quietly shaping your personal ecosystem whether you’re aware of it or not.

For me, choosing to wear predominantly natural fibres has created a coherence in how I move through my days. An ease. A quality of presence I can feel in my body and see reflected in how I engage with the world around me.

Days — not hours — go into the creation of these vests. And what follows is years of enjoyment, of stories, of character earned through living.

What draws people to reach out and touch them when they encounter them out in the world? I believe it’s wildness. A remembering. These pieces carry something that most of our built environments quietly strip away — a connection to nature that the body recognises before the mind does.

These vests aren’t made to be saved for special occasions. They’re made to be lived in. Worn on ordinary Tuesdays and extraordinary adventures alike. Each one develops its own character through use — infused with the life of the person wearing it.

Which leaves me wondering — and maybe leaves you wondering too:

Do the items you choose to wear and use throughout your days align with the experience you wish to have in life? 🌿

✨ Full story in the video — link in bio & stories.

Nothing to Prove 🍑✨

Close-up shot of my butt on a rocky, driftwood-lined beach. Two dogs, a full camera bag and a tote that weighed more than my dignity — all navigated down a steep, root-covered path just to get there. And not a single flinch when I saw the angle.

That’s the whole story, honestly.

I spent most of my life hyperaware of how my body looked — whether it measured up, whether it was enough. And somewhere between starting strength training earlier this year (not to shrink, but to build) and navigating that descent with two leads, a full bag and zero regrets — something quietly shifted.

51 years old. Finally too busy noticing how capable I feel to care about how I look doing it.

Strength isn’t just physical. Sometimes it’s the moment you realise you didn’t even flinch. 🥁🪶

Save this if you needed the reminder today.

SelfAcceptance MagneticByDesign

Every piece begins long before I pick up a blade or a pattern.

It begins in the choosing.

And the choosing — I’ve come to understand — is everything.

When I move through a supplier’s range I’m not shopping. I’m *listening.* To size, colour, the appearance of the skin. But also to something beneath all of that. A quality you can feel before you can name it.

I can tell if an animal lived a happy, healthy, vibrant life by the quality of its fleece. The sheen in it. The life still present in it. That’s not a concept — it’s something my body knows before my mind catches up.

The same intelligence that tells me when something is misaligned. When trust is warranted or when it isn’t. When danger is present before I can see it.

I trust that. Completely.

And once the hides come home — we’re not done yet. What you see here is the smudging process. Returning the energy of the piece to neutral before anything new is set into it.

Because what goes into the making is present in the made thing.

Synthetics create a barrier between you and your environment. Natural fibres create a ‘connectedness’ to it. 🌱

Once you feel that distinction in your own body — you can’t unfeel it.

🌿 What the Hide Remembers — full video in bio link & stories.