Weekends Collected

*| a distillation of days
March 9, 2013

hiatus

The early beginnings of 2013 have brought new pathways and priorities and I find that I can no longer actively promote Weekends Collected.

I am forever grateful to everyone who has contributed to this project – every single contribution has been incredible.

If you, or someone you know, would like to curate this project, please contact me – I would be happy to pass the administration details and running of this site over to someone else.

If you would like to read or share about your weekend activities via another site, I can highly recommend Weekendings with Amanda.

Every moment is a poem if you hold it right.
- Lauren Zuniga

Leonie

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February 23, 2013

slippers and hardwood floor

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it is saturday and i grab my camera
know i must take a photograph of
right now.

it is slippers and hardwood floor
and it is so much more.

it is fullness and contentment
it is temporary silence as the children play in the other room
and my husband cleans the workroom.

sunlight begins to move through windows
the day begins to take form.

and so i capture this moment
of silly mismatched slippers
and full heart.

i will return to this moment again and again
i will receive the next when it arrives.

i am here and i am ready
heart open.

michelle gd is a lover of life and a seeker of ways to capture the little moments of that life. she can be found at her blog and on instagram (@michelle_gd).

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February 16, 2013

the school of life

poem by leonie wise. copyrighted material

OUR BODIES SUN & SUPPLE, BIG BLUE ROOM NUISANCE. GAMES WERE MADE
CLIMB AND RUN AGAIN.
WE LIVED OUR LIVES WERE BROWNED BY THE SCRATCHED AND BLEEDING
START AT ONE END
WAIT FROM ENDLESS USE.
BARE IN
FELL THROUGH FROM THE HOLE,
WE COULD GO
LAUGHING SOMETIMES

Last Saturday my husband and I went to a one day intensive on Creativity, run by Michael Atavar at The School of Life.

It was a play-filled, hands-on workshop with an interesting and diverse group of people. Amongst other things, we were asked to write a short piece about a game we used to play as children. Later in the day, we were asked to deconstruct it, using craft knifes or by tearing the paper, then to reconstruct it in a random manner without any thought.

My resulting piece was astonishingly poetic. There was very little thought in how these pieces came together. A lot of them were upside-down when I selected them, so I had no idea of the words until they had glue on them and were stuck to the paper. I prefer this version of the writing to the original.

This one simple exercise flipped me upside down. I’ve never done this process before, though I know the cut-up technique has been around for a very long time and was used by William Burroughs to write Naked Lunch.

I will definitely be using it again when I feel creatively stuck.

—

Have you ever used this process?
How were your results?

leonie wise thinks if she had a superpower it might just be laughter. she is the curator of weekends collected and lives in london, uk with her husband (though she will always call new zealand home). she is rather fond of travelling, reading, pop-up restaurants and a decent cup of espresso.

leoniewise.com

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February 9, 2013

adventures

Where are we going?
Check the map!
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The Dark Half
Elf Princess
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The Holy Trinity
Lines of Time
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Trips End
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Andrew lives in Auckland, New Zealand. When not working with clients he can be found running around with his wife and 2 kids or behind a lens taking photos. He runs his business with his wife Kim helping business owners work less and live more, their blog can be found here: amazingbusiness.com/blog.

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February 2, 2013

sometimes silence

this week has worn me out. five hours of sleep a night and eighteen hour days are not as ideal as they used to be. three years ago I drank five to seven coffees a day and somehow not sleeping was not an issue. things have changed. instead of going out on friday, I stayed home. television, eating cereal out of the box, dimmed lights, missed calls and ignored messages. it felt good for once. to be home, I mean. the next morning ten hours of sleep did not seem to be enough. I knew the boy stayed out and was probably just sinking into his bed as I put the water to boil for my morning cup of java. it was a strange thought. I wondered whether things would stay like this forever.

but then I realized there was no forever.

we have our newspapers delivered on weekends only. there is a certain special joy of picking up at your front door. the fresh smell of print. sometimes the inside still warm. I found the pages that interest me, reading quietly. feeling the sun come up behind me. and then silence.

just silence. sometimes it’s okay.

sara tomovic. originally from the balkans, currently living in south east asia. discovering and documenting the differences of the west and east in hong kong; hoping to become a full-time writer one day.

blog: http://enjoythewait.org

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December 31, 2012

thank-you

Thank you Card, by Jon Ashcroft, on Flickr

Image Credit: Jon Ashcroft / Creative Commons

… to YOU for coming here and sharing in this collaboration, whether you have commented, or just visited.

My gratitude especially to every one of the contributors for making this site possible.

May the coming year be your best one yet.

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December 16, 2012

Dinner by Heston

Leonie and I work for ourselves, and as such, we don’t get a “work Christmas party”, so we make a point of going somewhere to celebrate the end of the year, especially if we have had a good one.

This year, we joined two foodie friends and went to Dinner by Heston. It’s a fusion of the modern cooking chemistry that Heston Blumenthal is famous for, with some very old recipes and combinations.

I’m a little squeamish around some of the ingredients – offal and sweetbreads especially – and I had to remind myself that if the menu says “veal sweetbreads”, I wasn’t going to be getting liver on a plate – it might be some flavour extracted from that, or as one ingredient complementing others.

I can’t say this is a typical weekend for us, but it was very enjoyable.

Here’s to another great year!

meat fruit at 'Dinner by Heston'

Meat fruit

savoury porridge with frogs legs at 'Dinner by Heston'

Savoury porridge with frogs legs

the table and the main courses at 'Dinner by Heston'

The table and main courses

Slow roasted pineapple and Tipsy pudding at 'Dinner by Heston'

Slow roasted pineapple and Tipsy pudding

Brown bread ice cream at 'Dinner by Heston'

Brown bread ice cream

Liquid nitrogen ice-cream made at the table at 'Dinner by Heston'

Liquid nitrogen ice-cream made at the table


Nic Wise lives in London, but his heart is on the west coast beaches of New Zealand. He can usually be found writing apps for his iPhone, or taking photos on Instagram.

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December 15, 2012

the renovated bag

Can’t help myself really…I have these visions of the way things could be and it gives me joy to make things with my hands. I suppose it comes from school holidays as a child spent mastering the art of knitting, crocheting or making Fimo crafts with friends visiting up the street.

Snooping through a second hand shop one day, I discovered an old doctors bag that whispered to me it would love to live again hugging all my collected treasures of art materials I am saving for a weekend I am inspired to create a masterpiece.

We had a thoughtful conversation back and forth about the idea and I finally relented having been reminded that I loved to give new life and direction to things that had lost their way.

You’ll love me – you’ll see …. It said to me.

So I believed and we left together, me protesting that I really wasn’t sure I could do it justice since I was so busy and it saying “you’ll see!”

We lived together a long time till one day a thought came to me that i had renovated a cushion on my couch and perhaps the same person could renovate my new (old) bag… No, not possible for me he said… another acquaintance ? who mentioned he had a colourising business that renovated leather in cars – I wondered if he might be able to bring new life to old? Yes! I’d love to give it a try he said and so off my bag went with a new friend… whispering in his ear!

Quite a conversation they must have had as when they arrived back my bag had been to the spa and look marvelously refreshed! An offer of left over material from a recently renovated couch was also made and accepted, I’m sure part of my bags doing whose old lining was beautiful but past a state of repair. So we collaborated and whispered together again about suitable reconstruction options.

Coming to an agreement to move his pockets to the ends my bag i was happy to get his internal makeover underway. But only if I would let him befriend my other kept but forgotten sewing companion – an elegant black tape edging.

So we set to work, my sewing machine friend and I to bring my bags desired vision to life…

What a brilliant collaboration….thanks for the vision, friend, we will go on and collaborate again one day.


Jude Woods lives on the Gold Coast of Australia with her husband, Warren.

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December 9, 2012

careless youth

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by the time I woke up, the sun was already low. I lingered in bed a little longer; quiet. warmth creeped in between the drapes and I noticed that the window was dirty. as I drank my first cup of coffee, darkness began to set down. Saturday nights out, filled with gin, cigarettes and loud music, always mean that I miss out on the next day. youth has made me careless. we didn’t care whether anybody saw us, either.


sara tomovic. originally from the balkans, currently living in south east asia. discovering and documenting the differences of the west and east in hong kong; hoping to become a full-time writer one day.

blog: http://enjoythewait.org

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December 8, 2012

socializing and hermitude

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On Saturdays I cheer my daughter on as she dances. I take photos for her to post on her Facebook, and discuss costumes with the other dance moms (we like this year’s better than last), and chit chat with craft fair booth owners, and try to make new friends. I am present like a Zen master to the stories, after I tell people what kind of work I do. I give out crisis hotline cards. I buy sweets to support causes. Sometimes I even share them.

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But at heart I’m a recluse and it’s Sundays I look forward to all week. I stay home in my p.j.s. and knit while watching DVDs of movies that never made it to my small town, like Cairo Time with Patricia Clarkson & Alexander Siddig. I set my iTunes to shuffle while I clean and get laundry caught up. I work on value studies homework for art class. I watch shadows move across the kitchen walls. I gradually feel less tired. I start to remember who I am underneath all the labels and job titles.

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And sometimes I venture out for magic hour.


Heather Cox is an artist, mother, and closet Ron Swanson groupie. She currently works with domestic violence survivors in southwestern Utah. She blogs at joyful wise and makes mandalas on instagram – @joyfulwise.

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