Weekends Collected

*| a distillation of days

Month: May, 2012

May 27, 2012

conservatory curtains

I’ve always had a job that was a Monday to Friday, 9-5 affair – so combined with an education based on the same timetable, I’ve been ‘looking forward to the weekend’ for my whole remembered life!

The weekends become beacons to steer you through each year. Sometimes they’ll be big momentous ones, or low-key, pottering around ones – both are amazing and would be sorely missed if taken away.

Last weekend was a quiet, family-based – we visited my in-laws who are so, so lovely. Their home is full of treasures old and new, including my husband’s old childhood teddy!

This Polaroid shot of their conservatory curtains is one of my best-selling prints, ever. They find it hard to believe that something so everyday to them is hung, in pride of place in homes across the globe.


Angie Muldowney is crazy about photography. Based on the south coast of England; when she’s not out with her camera she can be found writing, drinking coffee or procrastinating.
http://www.angiemuldowney.co.uk

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May 27, 2012

reids place

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May 27, 2012

church on sunday

What I have collected at Church on Sunday while taking time out from the noise of life.

The centurion in the Bible was what we would call the ordinary man in the street. Why did Jesus commend him as having great faith? He understood authority. He knew that the shield of faith to protect him came from a principle of submission to authority. The devil works in those who are disobedient. What to do with the disobedient? Trust God to train them in another mans house. Joseph was trained in another mans house along with Abraham, Joshua and Jesus. As we submit to authority we shield ourselves with faith. (Read the story for yourself in Matthew 8:5-13)


Vivian Schwartfeger is husband to Kerry and father to Jordan, Isabelle and Abigail. His passions include the Bible, photography and spending time talking with friends and family.

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May 26, 2012

saturday morning

Slow and relaxed – contrast confines the week before to recede to the past
Time to be still
Revealing subtle beauty – ’til now obscured by focus beyond the present
Savour the lightness
No eyes, no social norms, only now


Damon Maria lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Toying with artistic pursuits in a desperate attempt to keep the rational and rigid at bay.

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May 25, 2012

ushering in summer

this was the weekend that ushered in summer. a ferry ride, salt air in our hair, everything familiar, everything new. standing on the beach with my toes digging in the sand, i was flooded with memories from childhood summers spent on this island. my kids hollering and splashing all around me and i was lost in reverie, busy remembering days spent at the beach in the company of cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles, the bonfires, and the iced cold watermelon, sticky juices dribbling down my chin into my swimsuit, the salt drying on my skin.

we played in the sand and the surf, collected shells. we modeled seaweed hair and buried each other in sand. i walked along the beach holding memories close, breathing in the salt air, the sound of my kids’ laughter carried on the wind and wondered, what will they remember from this weekend?


amanda is a wife and mama to five littles. she lives in a tumble-down cottage in the deep south where kudzu and mosquitoes run amok. she is a daydreamer, list maker, writer, and coffee lover.

blog: www.thehabitofbeing.com/journal
twitter: @HabitOfBeing

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May 20, 2012

time for me

A wife, mother, sister, daughter-in-law, aunty, boss, colleague, employer, chief cheerleader at my children’s sporting events, housekeeper and other titles I’m sure I have missed, but you can fill in the gaps with your own. Such is the high tech, high speed world we live in and the continual juggling to fulfil so many roles.

The hopes we had of having more leisure time as computers became the norm in our daily lives, seems such a deluded pipe dream now. However there are many women who have taken a stand and said enough, my life has got to change!

Some came to this realisation not by choice but because they were burnt out and their bodies said no more.
Others have been told they have cancer and suddenly their priorities changed.
Many have the desire to have some ‘me’ time, but the timing hasn’t been quite right, or so they think.

Don’t wait for a calamity for change to be forced on you. Decide how you want/deserve to live your life.

If you knew when the end of your life would be here on earth, what would you do differently?

I am fortunate to have a really great friend who told me enough! Because I have become so accustomed to juggling all the titles I hold I couldn’t see a way to get off the treadmill.

I hope you have a friend as I do who can persuade you to stop and have some fun, because life is too short to live constantly in the fast lane.


Sandy Sharp. Auckland, New Zealand

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May 20, 2012

southern hemisphere


Long autumn shadows
drawn out across the lawn
Winter’s claws dragging us
towards cold and damp
Yet warmth still belongs here
the complement of dark shapes


Damon Maria lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Toying with artistic pursuits in a desperate attempt to keep the rational and rigid at bay

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May 13, 2012

sunday 13 may

As I settle here to write about my weekend, what I notice is this: My long hair is lank and whiffy with oil and vinegar after treating myself for nits.

This not the sort of thing I would normally bring to the notice of the world. This mundane, less than attractive, my-life-is-not-magazine-worthy-detail is what I notice.

Nits. I can’t stand them. Where I live nits are rife. People resort to putting poison on their children’s heads to kill them. (Nits or the children? I am not sure what that poison kills).

But the reason I have nits is that my girls still love to curl up with me, head to head, on the couch, in bed. I have them because their friends from school cuddle me when I arrive to do art or storytelling with them. I have them because I am held with love by nitty kids. Those crawly little bloodsuckers are a side effect of love.

I don’t want to sound like Polly-Anna – I feel revolted by the livestock on my head. Nits aren’t on my list of “things that will be happening in my life that will let me know I am magnificent”.

But nits have come because I am loved, and so those revolting little itch makers are messengers of the true magnificence of my life.


Jane Cunningham is a storyteller, mother, slattern and artist. She lovingly retells your story at www.reframingyourstory.com, has an artgallery/blog/learningsite at www.seedsofthenuminous.com and is here on facebook and @faerian on twitter

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May 12, 2012

saturday night

saturday night, by andrea jenkins

saturday night= hoodies and sweaters over pajamas, the pull of the super moon. we are a people who love super sized things. the shuffling down to the street corner, the looking, the waiting, the cursing of clouds. the super moon finally rising, bathing us in super moonlight.

the shuffling back to the house, the arguing over which movie to watch, to microwave popcorn or not to microwave popcorn, the crowding that happens on the big green couch, the tangle of blankets and legs, lights off, all lights off, the glow and flicker of the television screen, the glow of the super moon outside.

these are the kinds of things I want to remember.


Andrea Jenkins is: one part photographer, one part writer, one part teacher, one part (modern) dancer, one hundred parts mama. kidding about that last part. well, not really. She lives in portland, oregon with her spectacularly bearded husband and two extraordinary children in a small house filled with too many collections and probably too many legos.

find her: writing as hula seventy, contributing over at poppytalk and/or shutter sisters and on the pages of UPPERCASE magazine, where she’s a regular/core contributor.
other places: flickr, twitter, pinterest, instagram.
purchase: prints of her work for sale in le etsy shop.

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May 6, 2012
artisan

a half hour walk from home, in search of a decent espresso, leads us to artisan coffee in putney.

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