in brief

It's late and I have a busy weekend ahead, however I wanted to make a quick note here.

I want to make a creative project that is mine, from top to bottom. Creating creative pieces that come together as part of a creative whole, kind of like a babushka doll. A mini example is when I write a blog post, work out the layout including photographs, that I myself took.

I want to do something much bigger though.

I have a few ideas whirling around I'll jot down before I go to bed, but they aren't for this blog yet.

I finished writing a big creativity/journalism/Internet assignment today, had work tonight and just watched The September Issue, which was timely as I am shooting a documentary this weekend as part of a group project.

It's going to be really full on on Sunday, and I'll probably have to start scripting tomorrow in fact, because there is a huge amount to do for even a 3-5 minute magazine style interview piece.

I'm going to be the only member of the group on camera, as I'm interviewing, so I have to sort out everything I'm doing for that because I don't want to stuff up. I used to be quite camera shy, and still am to a degree, but I figure I'd better suck it up and use the practice, if I'm going to be a journalist, possibly working in television. So now, with a bit of mental prodding, I try and take opportunities given to me.

Up until today I had decided I wanted to work in news or investigative journalism, but after watching The September Issue, something more creative is also very appealing. Yet also very hard to achieve, I am aware. If I was going to work for a magazine though, I'd want to start in features and move into fashion, and then try and become a creative director or fashion editor, and then finally the editor. More big picture.

I'm also the group project manager or production manager or something of this film assignment, so I have a huge wad of blank paperwork beside me that I'm doing in the morning. Despite it being a lot of work, I'm really excited to put something together.

First though, I need an angle...

I also need to make a few various source books, I'd like hardcopies though, so far I've only got collections stored on my computer. But more on that later.

Finally, I really need to take some more photos because I am sick to death of the Paddington ones, even though I haven't put them all up yet.

I also want to finish Dorian Gray, reread a few things, read some more new things and watch a lot more movies. Despite my lecturer telling us that studying film would ruin it for us, I think I enjoy films more now. Probably because now I want to make my own, so other films are this fascinating source of ideas.

Oh, and a note on The September Issue and Anna Wintour; she clearly does an excellent job, and gets things to happen in a world of "creatives" which is no mean feat. It isn't easy to please the public, work with the business side of things and simultaneously the creative side of things and still come out on top. I don't think she was even that cold towards people, simply quiet but firm, and businesslike. She seemed friendly enough, and could obviously talk to people. Never believe hype.

Ok, I really need to go write down these ideas, goodnight.

the substation

I've completed one third of the photo wall, which is good, I might do another third of it tonight. I don't think I have enough photos to fill all four quarters of the wall along the length of my bed, so instead I will fill the top two quarters ( my wall space is divided by beading, they're old walls), and then the last section will be the top quarter above my bed, so the pictures wrap around the top half of my wall.

I can't keep off dust jacket attic at the moment, for pictures for my wall or for general inspiration.

I also actually did some of my assignment today, more so researching than writing ( this process should have taken place WEEKS ago, but better late than never). It's very interesting.

moments after i took this photo, a man popped out of this human sized cat door. I guess such large doors would be annoying to open.

I've also decided that as I have to expand my culinary repertoire beyond cakes and sweets (sad, but true) I'm going to make some more dinners. I'm making a list of recipes I'm going to try when I have the house to myself for a week. Dinner recipes hardly ever capture my attention or imagination, but tonight I have found that apart from the occasional dinner classic, such as chunky chicken and vegetable pie, I'm more interested in making more exotic and sometimes spicy food.

This will be interesting, as the farthest I've ever gotten with spicy food is Nandos Peri Peri chips and Peri sauce.

So far on the dinner list, i have:

creamy chicken korma

nepalese meatball curry

coconut fish curry

vegetarian paella

chicken and pumpkin curry

It's strange how taste develops.

resistance is futile

Once again, I should be studying. However, I think it is stupid to focus on drumming things in when I have all this energy wanting to pour ideas, questions, sound and images out.

I think you have to roll with things sometimes, or at least at first. I could do these sorts of things all day, so I have to stop and study at some point, but I think I should get a little bit out first.

{music}
Music is interesting. The concept of an album, is very interesting. Songs are very interesting.

I wouldn't make an album or anything, I'm just thinking about the idea of albums and songs being very interesting.

I know next to nothing about music, and largely abused my four years of childhood piano lessons, but I've been playing a lot more music lately.

I was playing The Scientist this afternoon, and afterwards I just kept playing the piano. Not a particular song, and as I'm kind of musically illiterate, there weren't notes that I was intentionally playing. I just hit the keys I thought I should hit, and tried to listen as I was playing and transfer my thoughts into how they would sound if they were played in notes.

I can't remember how to play any of it, but I set up GarageBand on my mac, and just hit record, and then kept playing as I thought and recollected.

I focused on the background rather than the bright orange flower, I'm not sure why. I spose the blurrier it is, the more it could represent something else, like the sun

The piece, if you can call it that, is very disconnected, there are lots of little mistakes and it has no particular constant theme or tune. It's quite long, it goes for about 500 measures, not sure how that converts into time. I just played what I felt like playing as I thought about events of the past twelve months, and the people involved.

Even for someone with scarce musical knowledge or trained skills, I felt so good afterwards. It was a really good form of self expression, especially as no one ever has to hear it. Playing music as I thought about things I was happy about, made me feel really happy to be able to put it into music. Likewise, frustrating or troubling things seemed to have more closure once I'd played them out.

Despite being of little value to anyone else, I think it would be interesting, perhaps for later reflection, if I played every couple of days or so. Kind of like a musical journal.

Hah. The musical journal of the musically illiterate.

{Art}

I was also keeping a creativity journal that I would contribute to every day, but unfortunately it is lost amongst the rubble on my desk. It has 365 pages, so it is meant to record a year of something, but I've missed so many days now, I think it can be a years worth of ideas, spread out over longer than that.

A little while ago, I decided I was going to paint the two vertical panels on the back of my bedroom door, but couldn't come up with something I wanted to paint. I didn't want to paint a scene or a portrait, because it was too specific, but I wanted to do something more than general painted colours and shapes.

Myles had the brilliant idea of doing a mosaic, and I think I'll do just that. However, I think I'll do the mosaic on the front panels of my door. I'll make it as colourful as possible, and paint the rest of my door a fresh white to make the colours pop. I'll need to head to the hardware store on the holidays to find 2 pieces of wood to fit the panels, so I can mosaic out on the deck, and then stick the mosaic onto the panels. It's also less permanent that way.

simply because this picture has a lamppost, it reminds me of Narnia

Part one of the wall project is the simplest, but should be effective. I found a photo in a magazine of a girl standing with a polaroid camera in front of a wall covered in photos. On the largest space of wall, beside my bed, I'm going to cover the wall in the photos I got printed by Kodak, and have this larger A4 sized photograph slightly left of the middle.

I'll take a photo once I'm done.

I'm also very close to finishing collecting photos for my wall. Some images will go on my wall, others will go in an inspiration journal. Some photos give me ideas for stories or characters, so I like to keep them for a later date.

I'm a bit like a magpie in that way, that I'll sort through vast amounts of images, just to find something that inspires me, and I'll collect all these sorts of things somewhere for later reference.

{writing}

I'm going to write a story one day, hopefully soon. That's all I've got to say on that for now.

Myles and I spent a while in this little bookshop the other day, and now I have the reading bug once again. The Picture of Dorian Gray is fantastic, I love the various often quoted Oscar Wilde musings throughout the book. I like it when it doesn't just have to focus on the plot, but has these little bite sized pieces to think about that relates to today.

There are so many books I want to read it's ridiculous. I'll have to write out a permanent reading list so I don't forget.

{film}

We've changed our idea for our film assignment, now we are doing our friend's band with his brothers.

I'm about to watch the Coco Chanel Movie, should be good.

trigger happy

{morning}
today i did about a third of my planned Paddington photo walk, and 0% of my creative industries essay.I got a fair way, sticking to one side of the road, but then got super hungry and went to Old Faithful for lunch ( aka Nandos). The service was really good, they weren't technically open when I arrived, but the man was very nice and let me in.

I'm trying to learn to love spicy food, so I ate my Peri Peri Chips ( my favourite chips in the world) with Medium Peri Peri Sauce. I thought I was doing quite well, till I read the label:

"a mildly spicy sauce for Nando's virgins and the not-so-brave"

Not so brave?! Here I was thinking I was braver than brave, but no, apparently I am still a wimp.

I always like eating at Nandos, not only because I have to work just to support my Perri Perri addiction, but because it always feels so warm, and less like a standard fast food restaurant (ie.Maccas)

I then went to deposit $35 in change to the bank. Embarrassingly, the bag split while I was standing in the queue and coins went everywhere.

I'm glad it's in my account though, because despite seriously considering paying for clothes in change, I decided against it, so the change bag has been working on furthering my scoliosisever since.

Just looked in my account...can't see the new money in there. Shit, i hope i gave them the right account number...surely they'd check it was your name though on the account they deposited into? I think I threw out the receipt for a change. Dammit.

Anyway, here are the rest of my photos from today. I've noticed there are a lot of stairs in the area. I'll put the stair pics up later, there are too many to put up at once.

this moth/butterfly looked almost like a brown leaf when it was sitting still, but when it flew it revealed the bright orange side of its wings

Okay, that's enough Paddington photos for today. I'm a bit too lazy to upload them all now, so I'll just disperse them through my next posts.

It was on the bus on the way back that I remembered why I had planned to walk back; on the other side of the road was Trammies corner, and at the corner of Wilden St and Latrobe terrace there is another great lookout point, with a mosaic couch. I'm there pretty often though, so it's not the end of the world.

I found this really cool book in Biome, but I can't remember what it was called, only that it was $35 and had a khaki cover with a tiny gold title.

{afternoon}

I made pear & chocolate galettes this afternoon. I didn't have milk chocolate, so on half I substituted with Nutella, which worked well, and on the other half, white chocolate. I soon discovered white choc doesn't melt so well, and it caramelised...which actually tasted really good, so I went with that.

The white chocolate ones look an absolute mess in the photo of them straight out of the oven, but that sauce thats leaked everywhere is a mix of white chocolate and pear. Nice work, oven. It was sooo goood.

I was going to do my assignment, but instead I played piano. I can't say it was a total waste of time because I can now play The Scientist and am learning Good Riddance by Greenday :)

{evening}

I met up with the lovely Myles, who gave me a folder full of great photos he had printed from the internet for my Room Project! He picked really great photos too, so I'm going to put them all up :)

For dinner Mum was putting Lavash wraps into texan patty pans and filling them with mince, and so I used the offcuts of the Lavash wraps to cut into dorito-sized chips, and baked them in the oven with grated cheese melted on top. Yummy :)

The sunset tonight was really amazing; the photos don't do it justice. It looked like the sky was on fire and the purples were really pretty.

This is a massive post, but I won't do one tomorrow, as I've decided monday is my free to be creative and not do uni work day ( "isn't that ever day for you?" I hear you say. Shutup, i do work occasionally).

There was something else I was going to say, but I forgot, so i'm going to go drool over the lonely planet website now.

for you

so that myles, georgia and rebecca's eyes no longer bleed when trying to read my blog. bye bye pretty orange font, hello olive :)

mishmash

{yesterday}

Yesterday was amazing (:

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a camera, so I missed out an approximately ten thousand photo opportunities, which I am totally kicking myself over.

After some shopping in the city, I met Myles (my boyfriend) and we went to GoMA, and saw the New Zealand Project. My favourites were the giant blow up rabbits, and a series of photographs that spanned almost two walls. The super dark rooms with films were practically a health and safety hazard (which I loved, because normally that sort of thing wouldn't be allowed), and would have made some good photos. The rest of it was okay, but I liked the most recent Asia Pacific Triennial exhibition way more.

This is one of the rabbits from the exhibition, I'm not sure where it was taken, I just found it on the internet.

Photo Credit: http://qag.qld.gov.au

We also went up to the String Room, which in a few months I'll go back to, and definitely get some photos of, because it's awesome. That was really nice :)

For lunch we went to The Pancake Manor on Charlotte Street, and again I wish I had a camera there, because it's in a big old church, which I like because it's so different. The chocolate pancakes were amaaazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Photo Credit: http://yourrestaurants.com.au

{cooking}

I absolutely failed at making dinner, which was spaghetti with pasta sauce. There was nothing wrong with it, but it was pretty boring.

Coincidentally, today at work the owners' family came in for a function. They are Italian, and brought along trays and trays of their own home made cakes and other dishes as well as eating from the restaurant. All the food looked divine, and really made me want to cook more.

The photo below is of an Italian sweetshop, but with the amount of food today, I may as well have been looking at a sweetshop. So tempted to eat some at work, but I resisted.

Photo Credit: http://image32.webshots.com

I can actually cook main meals ( neither Myles nor my sister, Georgia, believe this), I just normally make desserts. However, I don't cook main meals or savoury food often, so I'm going to get into that a bit more.

When I'm in the right mood, I really like cooking, because it can feel a bit creative, depending on what you're making. Actually, cooking is creative, because the root of the word is "create"...which you are doing when you cook.

{photos}

I'll head up to Paddington tomorrow though morning if it's a sunny day, and take some photos. When I was on the bus into the city yesterday, driving through Paddington and up to Caxton St, there are so many buildings that would make great pictures. I'm not a photographer, but I want to give it a go anyway. Besides, if I can take mildly pleasing photos of Brisbane, hopefully by the time I travel, I'll be able to take photos worth looking at afterwards.

When I was twelve, we went to New Zealand, and upon seeing the amazing scenery we took photos. However, straight on, unoriginal photos of rolling hills aren't very interesting to look at afterwards, and as memory fades the boring photographs aren't doing the countryside justice. Which, is a bit of a waste really.

This means in the posts to come I should have some of my own photos for a change, whether that be of Paddington, days out with Myles, any food I make ( that looks good) or my Room Project.

{film}

I've thought of an idea for my film project (doco/interview), we're going to interview travellers about their experiences with Australia, and any other odd travel experiences. Won't say too much more till it's confirmed with the others. Should be interesting though.

It's not groundbreaking, but I really hate trying to think of good ideas under pressure. This will do though. I'd really like to make some small films outside of uni though. Not sure what of.

Photo Credit: http://www.istockphoto.com

{music}

I've been learning Coldplay's The Scientist on piano tonight, and found a great website at www.theperfectscores.com, which has a heap of free sheet music. I've also saved Good Riddance by Greenday ( listed as Time of Your Life) and some others. Finding guitar tabs for these would also be great.

Photo Credit: http://www2.sd45.bc.ca

fairy toast

Not to be confused with fairy bread, Fairy Toast is what I call sugar&cinnamon on toast. It's never going to be a health food, but I like to promote it's single health benefit, that cinnamon is good for the metabolism. Thus, it's almost a health food.

Ahem.

Moving along before you dwell on my shamelessly patchy logic any longer...

Photo Credit: The Lily Land Chronicles

I am still in love with The Cool Hunter, particularly the Food Section.

I actually had a dream last night I visited some of the places I was looking at on the site yesterday afternoon. My favourite is of a french patisserie, that is possibly the coolest patisserie on earth. Not even kidding. I present, Le Patisserie des Reves...

Photo Credit: The Cool Hunter

It's meant to look like a patisserie laboratory. Each dish is displayed in the centre of the shop, where customers can choose which they'd like, to then be prepared fresh from the kitchen.

Look under Food, Bars and Offices for some really cool photos. My other unlikely favourite is this first-class butcher shop.

Victor Churchill, Sydney.

Photo Credit: The Cool Hunter

Who would have thought a butcher shop could have looked so good?

The wall project has grown to encompass all the walls in my room, and in fact my room itself. I kind of had a lot of photos printed at the kodak booth, since they were 38c each, so i need a fair bit of wall.

This brings me to something that I started writing about the other day, www.theselby.com. Toby Selby basically goes around takes photos of creative people in their creative spaces (formerly known as homes). I was writing about what great inspiration this would be, and that when I eventually move out, I'm going to be looking to the people of The Selby for inspiration. In particular, I like the homes from Brooklyn and from Paris, so I was thinking of aiming for a Brooklyn-Parisian lovechild of an interior.

But um, probably nowhere near as cool.

Then, as it so happened, my Wall Project blossomed into a Room Project, so I'm going to decorate my room with the aforementioned Brooklyn-Parisian hybrid. Or, at least take inspiration from there.

As much as IKEA, second hand stores and my own handiwork will allow.

I'm thinking mostly Parisian inspired, apart from the desk space, which will hopefully take more hints from Brooklyn.

I've also decided to redecorate the living room, which looks more Mexican-Renaissance Europe-Art Deco at the moment (ie. absolute mishmash). That will probably change, although I think because of the basic pieces and wall paint, it will probably have that same vein.

Photo Credits: The Selby

What I really like about the Brooklyn homes is that they are warm, a little rustic, and a cultural melting pot. Despite an abstract, mismatched or even almost cluttered appearance, the interiors are also sleek, often with white walls ( or occasionally yellow or electric blue), opening up the small space..to be brought to life by an array of colourful pieces.

I was a bit disappointed with the peaches geldof + co photos, as it was more of the people, than the actual interiors. Who I ...don't really care about, so it wasn't much use.

If I am in need of some extra decoration in either the living room or my bedroom (more likely my room, as the living room has plenty already) I'm thinking of finding some uniquely shaped second hand vases or bottles and painting over them in coordinating opaque colours. It's handy, because the different shapes make an interesting decoration, plus you can choose the colours to tie in with whatever colour scheme you've gone for.

Anyway, this was a post from two days ago that I had to finish off, so that I can move on for my post for today, so I'll wrap up here, with a San Fran pic.

Photo Credit: Leah