Garden update

Our garden is growing!

We've had a fair bit of rain in Sydney in the last little while and our little vegies are coming up nicely. It's a pleasure to look at each morning as I leave for work; and even more lovely to potter in when I'm looking for herbs to cook with in the evening.

I'll post some pictures of the produce when it's harvestable.

Pie Chart

After a very relaxing (if somewhat wetter than I would have liked from a week at the beach) holiday where I could focus on a very short list of things, I have returned home only to discover that my brain has almost immediately returned to its previous state. My mind is a pie chart.

Sometimes I feel like all the sections of the pie somehow add up to more than a whole pie. I feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of things on my mental Creative To Do list (not to mention other To Do lists).

But the time away cleared my head enough for me to realise that maybe I can't keep my To Do lists in my head. I have to write them down.

I'm vaguely pedantic about how things are organised in my life, so I will probably have multiple To Do lists, all with different headings. I will probably pigeon hole my life in order to write simpler lists. I will probably have a List Book.

My List Book will probably include an Ultimate To Do List, like the one that Miss Maybel keeps. But it will also have a Boring Jobs To Do List, and a Places To Visit List. Oh the list-possibilities!

Most importantly, though, it will have a Creative Projects List, where I can write my story ideas, along with any sewing, painting, sound recording or cooking things I would like to do.

I think I'm turning into my father. I too am becoming a List Maniac.

Thanks Dad.

PS. Please excuse my terrible pie chart image -- it's a bad photo of a bad drawing done one-handed while on the phone to one of my brothers. But I'm sure you get the idea.

PPS. The deadline for the current project is this coming Monday, 2 March. Can't wait to see a few submissions!

a sad story

First submission for storybook is in! I'll be putting up the link again with mine and Sophie's and anyone elses at the month but I couldn't resist sharing this one already. Its beautiful and sad. Head over to Miss Maybel to check it out.

A new day begins.

Today has been a great day. A brand new day.

It was the first day of the rest of my life. Or however the saying goes. Recently I decided it was time I went part-time. I've cut my working days back to three, and now I have much more time to be playing and experimenting, and getting back to why I wanted to make jewellery in the first place. I'd found that doing it all day everyday, making what everyone else tells me to really drained me of any creative need. And it was time I did something about it.

So.... today was the first day! And it was lovely! Just a small sleep in (9am - but come on it was my first day....) and then I got to work. Cleared out the garage and got my work space back into some kind of working order, and then went to it! I've got lots of great ideas, and finally I feel like I have some time to explore them all.

I'm very excited about my future once again, and it's a very nice feeling.

image by visuellegedanken

you are remarkable

So this evening I was browsing here and found this.

In short, this is the idea:

"let’s create miniature pieces of art & love & wisdom & send them to strangers from all over. sometimes someone needs to hear from a complete stranger miles & miles away that they are special, or loved, or appreciated"

You can nominate people that you think are special and are needing to be told so, and they will be sent something in the post. Alternatively, you can volunteer your time to send some love out to those who need to hear it. This is brilliant!

You are remarkable is such a beautiful blog, and this is just one more of the amazing things they have going on over there, along with interviews, lists and photos. I love the idea of spreading love and happiness in small unexpected ways. I've only just begun reading it (as of about half an hour ago), there is so many things to read and do, but I need to post it up here straight away, so everyone could hurry on over and get involved!

image from you are remarkable

fruits

A few cross-sections of fruits I've been drawing some inpsiration from lately...

pomegranate

apples

annatto

orange

kiwi fruit

How beautiful are they? Things we see all the time but rarely stop to take a closer look....

Holidays!

I'll be away on holidays all next week, on the beach, with no internet connection and very little mobile phone service. I can't wait! I'm in desperate need of some sustained relaxation.

See you when I get back.

Gonzo

Last night I went to see Gonzo, the documentary about Hunter S. Thompson. The man had a chaotic life of drugs, drink, fame and words. But those words, those words.

It reminded me how much power words can have; how they can unite people, alienate people, reveal people for who they are.

If only I could put some words together on a page in a way that had that much power. Something to aspire to.

market treasure...

I love love LOVE markets. I do admit I like the idea of them more than the doing - I start with good intentions but then when I get there and there is so many people and piles of trash often it is far too overwhelming for me. But this weekend I ventured out to the market of all markets - Camberwell Market. Its so exciting when you bother to have a proper search and come up with some good finds.

On Sunday I was searching for old postcards for a project/idea that I'm currently working on. I found some great ones. I especially love the ones with the letters on the back. One that I found from 1908 says:

Dear Kathleen,
Tell Mother that Aunty Alice was over to see us on Sunday and stayed to tea. I hope you have not got the measles. Tell Dad not to get them or else I will be frightened to come up.
With Love, Gret.

I love the old stories and wondering whatever happened to those people! One of them actually has a Melbourne address and name, I would love to track her family down. What an exciting mystery.

Also I found some 1940's black and white photo's from Egypt. I wonder where these people are! To be honest, the environment and the people and their clothes don't look too different from how I would imagine it to be now. I wonder about that.....

Ten Minutes Earlier

Last year, I started getting up at 6am to write each morning. I wasn't too hard on myself – if I’d had a late night for any reason, or if I was particularly tired that morning, I’d allow myself the extra sleep – but most mornings I was getting up. And it was great. I was writing more, and I got to enjoy that quiet time of morning before everyone starts leaving their houses and the streets become noisy.

I like early mornings (even if I’m not exactly a morning person).

But then I went overseas for two weeks in November, and everything fell apart. I wrote while I was over there, but I certainly didn’t get up at 6am every day. Sometimes it was four, sometimes it was ten. And so when I finally made it back to Australia (I was caught up in the airport closure in Thailand) I couldn’t make myself get out of bed.

Then came December; my birthday, Christmas parties, Christmas itself, and all the excesses that those things bring with them. My early mornings were lost.

Lately, I have managed to get up at 6.30am, giving myself twenty minutes to write before I have to start getting ready for work. Today, I managed to get up at 6.20am.

And this is my aim: ten minutes earlier each day.

Monthly project: Storybook

So, after a rather lengthy break, we’re back with another monthly project. Sorry we’ve been as disorganised as we have – somehow life got in the way.

This month’s project will be on the theme Storybook.

As usual, responses will be due in a month, on Monday 2 March.

Remember, responses (or a link to your response on your own site) should be sent to themondayproject85@gmail.com. We’ll post them up shortly after the deadline. If you’d like to include a short explanation of how you came to create what you did, that would be wonderful!

We’re excited about starting the monthly projects again; we hope you are too.

Looking forward to seeing some of your responses!

Getting my hands dirty

I've been thinking about gardening all evening, and I've realised that a large part of what I enjoy about it is really getting my hands (well, actually, all of me) dirty in the process. It makes me feel like I'm really doing something, really getting involved.

Lately I've been in a bit of a writing slump (I'm hesitant to say "writers' block"... that phrase scares me a little). I've been writing, but I haven't been happy with any of it. It's not terrible, I'm just not excited about it.

This afternoon I went to a writers' meeting and was talking to another writer (and friend of mine) there about it. Through our conversation I realised that the other things I do creatively have a huge effect on the quality of my writing.

So my plan is to get my hands dirty more often. Sometimes it might be in the garden, sometimes it might be splashing colour (probably poorly) on a canvas. I might even attempt to do some sewing again. And I'll keep my dirty fingers crossed that my writing will improve.

I'm in love!

...actually I'm obessed and out of control.... today I've been shopping on etsy. I just cannot resist! I've been needing some things to brighten up our bare walls. I've just snapped up:

Live what you love poster to go by my front door and

Bicycle built for two print to go above my bed. Mmmm yay!! Is it just me or does shopping on etsy, or online in general make it seem like its all for free? Okay, yes, perhaps I have a problem....

Our Garden

Yesterday, my housemates and I spent most of the afternoon in our front garden, turning the soil and planting a new crop of warm-season vegetables. By the end of it we were all hot, sweaty and covered in a fine dust-like layer of dirt and cow manure. We probably stank. We were exhausted. We were a little sunburnt. But boy we were proud!

We’re looking forward to a crop of mint, pumpkins, Lebanese cucumbers, snow peas, and butter beans; and we’re hoping that this lot of coriander will take better than the last one.

I love our little garden. And yesterday I realised why people say gardening is good for the soul. It’s hard work – and it’s dirty work! – but there is something incredibly satisfying in planting something and helping it grow. Not to mention that we’re trying really hard to have an organic garden, and we’re using the castings and liquid fertiliser from our worm farm (the worms are all named Barry, in case you’re interested – I have a strangely close relationship with this bunch of slimey things). And you can't help but feel good about yourself if you know you're avoiding using chemicals on your food crops.

In my opinion, watering your own garden in the early evening is perhaps one of the most relaxing things you can do. Yesterday we also bought a mini water tank (100 litres), in which we will put the clean water we catch from the shower while it’s heating up. So yesterday evening, with the aforementioned stink settling into our skin, we stood out in the garden watering and admiring our handiwork. The smiles on our faces couldn't have been bigger.

So, now that I’ve babbled for long enough about how much I love our garden and how hard we’re trying to minimise our negative impact on our surroundings, I’ll get to the point. About once a month I’m going to try to post a picture of some of our produce. Above is a picture of some carrots we harvested yesterday.

I'm amazed that I can help bring something like this to life, and it inspires me to try my hand at other creative pursuits as well. I hope our little garden might help inspire you too.

Watch out for the new monthly project tomorrow.