Coming Soon in 2011

Hello everyone,

Welcome back to the Monday Project! We hope everyone has had a fun and safe holiday season.

We're happy to announce that soon we'll be re-launching the Monday Project. But we're moving! You can find us here now.

Also, we have a new helper, Mr Sketchy.

We're currently in the process of setting up the new blog and preparing a years worth of themes to help inspire the creative impulses of anyone who wishes to join in. We've also set up a Monday Project twitter feed. You'll find all our thoughts that are less than 170 characters under Monday_Project.

We're going to be launching the first theme for 2011 at the start of February. Posting over at the new site will be a little scarce until then while we finish polishing things off over there, but we hope you stick around.

See you soon. Happy creating.

~ Soph, Kate and Mr Sketchy

I know we haven't posted responses (more on that soon) but for now

This is Manisha from Nepal, who I have recently sponsored to attend school for this year. I realise this is not really monday project news, but I feel it is important news none the less!

My sister Amanda has recently travelled to Nepal, and upon her return to Australia has started a website and a charity that will support a Nepalese orphanage she spent most of her time at.

The website is newly launched (you can check it out here) and is currently seeking sponsors for the children to be able to attend the school this year. Amanda has done a fantastic job of raising enough money for 9 of the 12 kids, and with only 3 kids remaining any spare dollars you throw towards this great cause would be greatly appreciated! It makes me terribly sad to think of the 3 kids not yet sponsored who will not be attending, so please, take a look.

You can also check out Amanda's story and her plans for her imminent return to Nepal at the blog.

(also posted here)

I didn’t mean to go silent. I guess it’s just that for someone who’s only sporadically employed, I’m really very busy.

I’ve been quiet here because I’ve started my yoga teacher training, and it’s forced so much introspection that I’m not quite sure I’ll come out the other end of it with my head intact. I won’t say much about it now, mainly because I don’t think I’ll do the teachings much justice at the moment. But I will say that the philosophy behind yoga practice has moved me slightly — that is, I feel like I’m looking at the world from a standing point a few metres to the right of where I was before.

The other reason, though, that I haven’t been here much is more writerly. I’ve been writing and writing and writing. I’m still working on the food writing that had me posting up recipes and pictures of what I was cooking a month or so ago, so I thought I’d give you another food picture. I went grocery shopping today, and here’s what I’m going to eat for the rest of this week (with the addition of some staples like pasta). Yum!

Other than that essay (well, it’s quickly turning into multiple essays), I’ve got a few other writing-related projects on the go at the moment. It’s really very exciting to have the time to give to these things I love doing. I’m very poor, but I don’t mind in the slightest!

Hopefully more on some of the other projects sometime soon; and maybe one day something about what I’m learning at yoga teacher training. But for now, I’m off to make some more bread.

PS. This month’s Monday Project is due in a week — if you’re playing along, send your response through to Kate and I sometime before Monday 29 March is over.

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Cross posted at avocadoandlemon.

advice to writers - or any creative really...

I saw this over on swissmiss and thought it was worth sharing. Even though it's titled advice for writers I think its applies to anyone really, and its definitly something I can relate to.

Even if it keeps you up all night,
wash down the walls and scrub the floor
of your study before composing a syllable.

Clean the place as if the Pope were on his way.
Spotlessness is the niece of inspiration.

The more you clean, the more brilliant
your writing will be, so do not hesitate to take
to the open fields to scour the undersides
of rocks or swab in the dark forest
upper branches, nests full of eggs.

When you find your way back home
and stow the sponges and brushes under the sink,
you will behold in the light of dawn
the immaculate altar of your desk,
a clean surface in the middle of a clean world.

From a small vase, sparkling blue, lift
a yellow pencil, the sharpest of the bouquet,
and cover pages with tiny sentences
like long rows of devoted ants
that followed you in from the woods.

By Billy Collins via swissmiss via bobulate

Quote

“It’s not your expertise that counts [as a writer]; it’s the quality of your wondering.”
- Mark Tredinnick, The Little Red Writing Book

Made my day.

Reading inspiration

This last weekend I’ve been in Canberra for my brother’s 21st (it was a dress-up party; I may put up some pictures when I get them from Mum — I did my usual trick of forgetting to take any). To get to Canberra from Sydney, there’s a three and a half hour bus trip each way, which I often look forward to. I love staring out the window, musing over things in my life, making plans or just playing make-believe. I also often use the time to catch up on my podcast listening.

I subscribe to a few, but hardly ever listen to them. I’ve probably got about fifty episodes of the Book Show left to listen to, for example.

So on the trip back yesterday I got through a couple of them. In one episode Ramona Koval was talking to Sarah Waters, who is known for her novels set in the Victorian era, usually with some kind of lesbian storyline. They were speaking about her then-new (the episode was six months old) book, The Little Stranger. I’ve not read the book, but its gothic nature appealed to me and I suddenly remembered the books I devoured as a teenager: Frankenstein, The Turn of the Screw, Northanger Abbey, Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

I loved gothic literature. As Waters mentioned in the interview, the supernatural is a wonderful space to explore anxieties and uncertainties, dysfunction and, possibly, mental illness. Of course, these are things I am obsessed with in my own fiction, albeit in a more realist way.

But as a teen I wrote creepy little gothic stories, which were probably really very bad. Unexpectedly empty houses with all the lights on, stormy nights, taps turning on by themselves, steep hills to walk up in the dark, footsteps coming from nowhere. All these things appeared in my stories. And they were fun!

I feel a return to the gothic coming on, at least in my reading. Now if I could just find my copy of The Woman in White…

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Cross-posted at avocadoandlemon.

Dinner

Okay, in an effort to be more active here, I'm going to try to post here, and on avocadoandlemon at the same time. Sometimes these will be simple cross-posts, but I will try to make them unique as much as possible.

Today, however, I'm going to post a slightly modified version of what I've got over there at the moment.

Last night I was really looking forward to a night in, and it ended up being a lovely one. All my housemates were away for the weekend, or out for the night, so it was just me and Astro the monkey-cat. I put on a podcast and my apron and cooked away.

Tomato, lentil and vegetable soup seemed like the perfect dinner on a rainy Saturday night. I made this from a recipe out of my favourite cook book, and added a few things here and there. I love it when I modify a recipe and it works!

The only way this could have been better was with some home-made bread. One of my favourite bloggers, Claire, tentatively tried this recipe and had great results, so I’ve been inspired to give it a go myself tonight…

I’ll probably be writing a whole lot more about my cooking adventures on here for the next little while, because I’m researching a food essay I’m writing. If anyone’s interested, I can start posting up recipes for these things I’m making.

Oh! Please check out the latest theme here. Which reminds me, I really should send out the email that’s supposed to accompany new themes…

(PS. I have no idea why I included the peeler in that shot. It’s not like it was all that important in cooking this… let’s hope my food-photography improves.)

Still alive and kicking!

So, here we are.... back again... can't get rid of us that easily! Sorry to have been away so long but alas we have returned!

Both Soph and I have had some big exciting changes in our lives over the last couple of months which have kept us pretty busy - we've both cut back or left our jobs, we've both travelled overseas for awhile, and we are both starting some new study this year!

It will be an interesting and exciting year for both of us, but we are both excited and ready to get back into The Monday Project type projects, and see what interesting and different responses everyone can come up with.

Also this year we are thinking we would love to get some people playing along to come up with some ideas for monthly themes, so let us know if you are interested!

The first project for the year is going to be finishing on the 29th of March, so all photo's, stories, sketches, jewellery, drawings, songs, and interpretative dances will be due in then! As always, submissions can be emailed through to us at themondayproject85@gmail.com for us to put up, or just post it on your link and let us know so we can link back to it!

The theme is..... (drumroll) ........

"She looked at the pile of books and wondered how she would ever fit them inside her head."

image by life spirit1

In a name

In some reading completely unrelated to last month's theme, I came across this article on onomastics. It's funny to think that the way in which we organise people names now is not how it's always been, and it's not even how it is in all the cultures that exist on this planet right now. Maiden names, at least in the way we think about them, are mostly a Western society concern.

I remember writing an essay for uni a few years ago (well, okay, probably five years ago) for a subject called something like 'Mass Media in Asia' and getting very confused about how to correctly site a Chinese academic. Which of the names on the page was his family name, and which was his given name? I know that in a lot of Asian countries the order in which those names appear is different, and I was concerned about committing some kind of citation faux pas, especially because my tutor was Chinese. I probably should have been more concerned about getting the essay written, really, but that's another story.

I ended up emailing the tutor to ask. He was helpful and kind in his response -- but he probably thought it was hilarious.

I'm not sure I have a point here, but I have a feeling that this theme will continue to run around in my head, and I might find myself reading more about anthroponomy than is probably healthy.

PS. We'll set a new theme soon, I promise.

Today I was sent this link to a talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love. It is about nurturing creativity and the idea that we all "have" genius. It is worth taking a look, or you can check it out here

Another response to this month's theme

The Sultan of Sai Ying Pun has played along as well this month with a wonderful photo essay. I really want to travel to HK now!

a simple solution

Here is another submission by Tania Ritchie. Click on the image to enlarge, I love her idea!
Image by Tania Ritchie.

Marrying left your maiden name disused

My response for this month didn't actually get to the production stage, but this theme has been my favorite so far. It has really got me thinking about maiden names - to change or not to change!!

My idea is a locket (surprise) that has a little domed gold piece inside that could come out, perhaps with some text on it or some symbols that symbolize a previous maiden name.

My idea is that even though maiden names may become disused, it doesn't make them any less precious, or important. A previous name is still a special thing that symbolises past experiences and memories and it is the name that has gotten you to a certain point in your life. I wanted to explore the idea that maiden names are still important and something to be treasured, and disused doesn't have to mean insignificant and forgettable.

I am disappointed that I didn't get around to making my piece this month, I have been very busy finishing off another big project which I will be sharing soon!

Ahem...

Seriously, every month I tell myself I'm going to be good. This month I will get my post up on time, I swear. And every month that fails to happen. Sigh.

Anyway, no real excuse this month. I've been working on this story for a while now and I'm at the point where it's actually driving me insane. But it will continue to do so unless I finish it, and so I must continue to toil away.

Wish me luck!

Thanks to Pseudo Rhys and Megan Blom for playing along this month. And good luck to Hybrid J who is taking part in NaNoWriMo. If I were a braver writer I would do so too.

Rain, rain

Wouldn't it be nice to stay at home dozing, reading, writing?

A poem

This morning I came across this poem by Philip Larkin, titled Maiden Name. I wonder whether this is where your teacher got the idea from, Sophie? I quite liked it so I thought I'd share it.

Marrying left your maiden name disused.
Its five light sounds no longer mean your face,
Your voice, and all your variants of grace;
For since you were so thankfully confused
By law with someone else, you cannot be
Semantically the same as that young beauty:
It was of her that these two words were used.

Now it's a phrase applicable to no one,
Lying just where you left it, scattered through
Old lists, old programmes, a school prize or two
Packets of letters tied with tartan ribbon -
Then is it scentless, weightless, strengthless, wholly
Untruthful? Try whispering it slowly.
No, it means you. Or, since you're past and gone,

It means what we feel now about you then:
How beautiful you were, and near, and young,
So vivid, you might still be there among
Those first few days, unfingermarked again.
So your old name shelters our faithfulness,
Instead of losing shape and meaning less
With your depreciating luggage laden.

 -- Philip Larkin

these are the thoughts that i think...

So. I've been busy pondering lately. As I have talked about on here before, not a day goes by that I don't dream of being a crazy and free-spirited artist, creating and making whatever it is that my heart so desires that day, without worrying about money or whether anyone would want to buy it. I find that part of the process (the selling part) is such a creative killer. I find it really hard to just play and experiment when my mind is already reeling ahead to the customer and the marketing part. I find it really tough to get out of that mindset of "will this work?", as oppose to just going with it and seeing what happens.

I really wish for a day where I can just wake up and create and do as I please and know that abundance and success will follow. (And I don't mean riches and fame... I could really care less about that, I just mean being able to eat and put and roof over my head).

Do you think that it is possible to achieve this? I don't think I think it's impossible. My question is this: Is the reason that most people seem to tell me that you can't actually live like that is because you can't? Or do most people not live like that because they think they can't?

I don't know if I'm even making any sense hahaha I'll stop rambling now... Please share your thoughts and try to help me make sense of my thoughts...

beautiful image from here

New theme: Marrying left your maiden name disused.

So we're slightly more on it with the new theme this month. This one came from a writing exercise I was given in class (I didn't actually get around to doing it, so I don't have any kind of head start!).

"Marrying left your maiden name disused."

I have absolutely no idea where to even start with this one, but then I guess that's the fun of it.

Happy creating!

PS. I tried really hard to find a picture that somehow related to this post. It was nigh on impossible! So there's a challenge to all you visual people.

"... and there followed a moment's silence": a response

They sat by the phone together, he and she, brother and sister. Waiting. They did not look at the phone with their eyes, but their bodies tried to turn towards it. She pulled at her handkerchief, he bit his lip. The branches of the bare tree outside scratched at the window glass.

When the phone did finally ring its sound filled the room and silenced the tree. The siblings held their breath, locked in a silent argument with one another. ‘You answer it.’ ‘No, you.’ ‘I did it last time.’ ‘You did not.’ ‘Did too.’ ‘Did not.’

He answered it.

“Yes. Thank you. No thank you. No. They didn’t want us to. Yes. The crematorium. Thank you. Goodbye.”

The phone clunked as he put it down. Silence, for a moment.

“So,” she said, and dabbed at her eyes, which were not wet.

“Yes,” he replied. “We should organise the funeral.”

“We’ve already done that. They’ve already done that.”

The tree was scratching again at the window.

“What should we do then?” he said.

She pulled at her handkerchief.

“Stella?”

“Let’s eat out.” She was up, quickly, striding towards the door that led to the next room. “They would want us to celebrate, finally. I’ll wear that red lipstick with that green dress; you can wear that tie Mum always loved.”

He raised his eyebrows at his sister; he’d owned the tie more than ten years ago.

"Oh. Well, not that one then.” She removed her hand from the door knob. “What then, Stuart?”

He stood up. “Sit down Stella. We need to absorb this.”

“You’re not sitting down.”

“No. I’m not.”

The tree scratched louder. The siblings blinked at each other from opposite sides of the room. She felt she should cry, but could not. She had been sure she would be able to. He could not believe his sister was not crying; she always did. She had cried when their parents had first told them what they were going to do. (“Weak eyes,” their father had said kindly. “Just like your mother.” Their mother glowered at him briefly, through eyes filled with tears.)

Stuart had wanted to be strong for Stella, to support her while she cried, but she appeared perfectly able to support herself for now, and he felt himself close to tears instead.

“I could wear a different tie.”

“Oh Stuart.” She took a step towards him.

“Don’t. I’m hungry. Let’s go to dinner.”

---

There's more to this story, but I'm still working on it, and hope to have it published at some point, so I'm sort of keeping it to myself at the moment. I might share a little more of it later on. Any feedback on this part would be greatly appreciated though.

In other news, I've been updating avocadoandlemon a little more frequently lately, since I became an iPhone dork and downloaded an app that lets me do it on the fly. I'll try to co-post here, but I might forget sometimes...

So, by way of a catch up: look here, and here, and here.

Also, check out the sidebar for a few other responses to this month's project -- thanks for playing along everyone!

Yes, I know

I would just like to point out that I realise I'm late (again!) but I do actually have something written, and I have been away from a computer...

I will post my response tomorrow. Far too tired now. I really should have been organised last week when I sent this story off to my class and set it up then to autopost today. Like how I made sure I had homecooked meals in the freezer for this week, knowing I'd be away for the weekend.

There is a limit to my organisation, okay?