• About
  • Projects
  • Articles
  • Contact

julielivingstone

~ It isn't always about getting what you want. Sometimes it's about wanting what you've got.

julielivingstone

Tag Archives: writing

Random Thoughts and Other Stuff

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

competition, Fremantle, garden, photography, weather, writing

I know I’ve been really slack at posting when I come back to the WordPress site and none of it is familiar! OK, that’s not entirely true, some of it looks the same, but other bits seem totally different. When did that happen? Obviously I haven’t been paying enough attention.

More attention than the person who sent me one email recently though. To be fair, the email wasn’t directed just at me, it was a bulk mailing from a list I subscribe to. Touting a webinar on ‘better blogging’ or something like that. They lost me in the first sentence though, which read “Weather you blog for family and friends, or to promote your business…”. Their spelling mistake, not mine! Seriously, if you are going to promote yourself as advising people on how to write, please spell check more effectively than that!

OK, rant over. What else has been happening? I sent my entries off to the Sydney Royal, and I know that this year they arrived in time, because I tracked them on Australia Post. The show starts in two days, so I guess the judging is happening about now, but I’m not sure when the results come out. I’m not expecting anything great, just pleased with myself that this year I got the entries there in time. I hope at least to get to know the judges’ comments, that was one of the most instructive bits about entering some things in the Perth Royal Show a couple of years ago.

I’ve been busy working on a couple of other things, and also decorating my bedroom, as well as trying to keep the garden tidy. We had rain (the first for many weeks) about 10 days ago, and the weather is getting cooler and more pleasant, so that I can raise some enthusiasm about gardening again. I ordered some spring bulbs, so I shall have those to plant in a week or two. I have promised myself I’m going to try to look after them this year, so that hopefully they will flower for more than one year, instead of just vanishing after the first season. I ordered Dutch irises, anemones, ranunculus (ranunculi?), hyacinths, freesias, bluebells, and a few other things I’d never heard of before, but which looked good in the photo! Optimism springs eternally – I guess that’s pretty much the point about optimism, it’s always there.

Also spent a weekend in Fremantle recently, and took this photo, which I quite like. Although, it’s probably hard to take an ugly photo of boats, they’re generally attractive things.

Boats in Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour

Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour

There was also an exhibition of sculptures on Bather’s Beach, I think I liked this one the best.

Sculpture on Bather's Beach Fremantle, Portable Self Support Machine by Claire Bailey

Portable Self Support Machine by Claire Bailey

I’ve often thought it would be nice to have something like that in the garden – what do you think?

 

Advertisement

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Seeking the Essence of Erewhon

19 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

lack of ideas, magazine, project, writing

I’m in danger of having a long break between posts again! Mostly due to lack of inspiration, and time. I have been busy on a couple of projects, but can’t write about them yet. One I have sent away for (fingers tightly crossed) inclusion in a magazine, although I haven’t heard anything so I’m not over optimistic about that. Two more things I am going to enter in competition, so no details about them either. Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be able to blog about them, even if there is no success!

I’ve also been devoid of inspiration for next month’s writing group. The topic is about place – more precisely I think the question is ‘can we exist outside of place?’. For a start, I don’t even really know what that means. I tend to take things very literally, so my first instinctive answer is no. By existing, we take up space, so we have to have a place to exist in. I suspect that is not what the question means however.

My second, slightly more thought out reply, is ‘yes, of course’. If you mean, do we continue to exist when moved from the place we are born, then obviously we do. Millions of migrants all over the world are proof of that, myself included. Is this some metaphysical question – if you uproot me from the place of my birth am I the same person? Again, I don’t know. My feeling is that all our experiences combine to make us the person we are (people we are?), and place is just one small part of that.

I’m really not very good at abstract concepts.  This topic was introduced with a reference to the novel ‘Erewhon’ by Samuel Butler, which I had not read. I found it on Project Gutenberg, but I have only read about a third of it so far. It’s interesting, but I’m reading it as an adventure story, wanting to know what happens next, without much thought as to the satirical or philosophical nature of the work. I guess in any case I should hold off thinking too much about the message of the book until I have finished it.

I really didn’t have any idea of where I was going with this post when I started writing. (OK, you can say that I still don’t!) And none of this rambling has brought me any closer to writing anything for the group. I’d really like to challenge myself and write something a bit more imaginative or less factual and down to earth than I usually do, but at this stage the ideas just aren’t there. I have three weeks. And I also have to finish the projects for the competition. Will it help to continue reading Erewhon?

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Perseverance, or not failing to keep trying

05 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

blogging, writing

Back again after another long hiatus in my blogging career. However, I’m looking at the positive. I think it’s like giving up smoking, or being on a diet, just because you fail doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try again, and maybe each failure increases the chance of success next time.

For those who don’t have any idea what I’m talking about, I mean my efforts to blog regularly. I have tried in the past, but generally not managed more than one or two posts per month, and there have been longish periods with no posts at all. I am going to try again.

Last Saturday was writing group, which is something else I haven’t been paying enough attention to lately. The topic we had been given was refugees, but I wasn’t brave enough to write about that. Others did, and there were some very interesting pieces, including the information (which I think is correct) that Afghanistan has been the top refugee producing country in the world for each of the last 32 years. Makes one wonder why?

Anyway, I am not going into that now. I didn’t write anything until almost the last minute, which I often do, and then struggled to find something to write about. Until I browsed through the folder on my computer and found a piece I had started some time previously when I went to a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. I was able to polish it up a bit, and took that along. It went down OK, and I’m posting it on this blog under articles, but I wonder what I could do with it. Not much, I fear. I’d quite like to be somebody who has a weekly column in a newspaper or magazine, writing about incidents in everyday life, but for reasons as discussed above, I’m not sure that would work very well! I guess having to write something to send in every week would focus the mind somewhat!

Who has any good tips for blogging/writing regularly?

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Two very different projects

20 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

design, fabric, project, sewing, writing

Two projects currently on the go. Actually there are more, but these two are centre front!

First, the automatic gate opener. I bought this some time ago, and started installing it, and it’s still not finished. The first part of the job was to re-hang the gate so that it would open and close smoothly, or, as the instruction manual had it, ‘oscillate fluently’. Having done that, best part of a day’s work, we then had to wire up and instal the solar panel, battery and motor. The instruction manual, which was so eloquent when it came to describing the movement of the gate, was sadly slightly obtruse over the details of the wiring. Like many things, I’m sure it would have been OK if I knew what I was doing, but since I didn’t ….

However, I have since been emailing the technical support guys, and I think I know what I have to do. Just have to find time to do it, in daylight. At least we got the battery connected to the solar panel, so it should have been charging over the last few days, although it doesn’t seem as if the battery is fully charged yet.

The second project I am on firmer ground with. A friend of my daughter’s just had a (very premature) baby, and I wanted to make a small gift. I found a cute fish here and downloaded the pattern. It’s pretty simple, and I probably could have drawn it myself, but I needed something straightforward. I dug around in the stash to find some suitable scraps of colourful fabric, and I’m halfway there. Will post photos when it’s finished. It might be something that I can get into and get finished within a couple of days, unlike most of the other things I take on.

i got a reply from an online journal that I had submitted an article to this morning, and got excited when I saw the subject and sender in my email inbox. Short lived excitement though, ‘thank you for the opportunity to read the piece, it is not for us’, or words to that effect. I can’t remember now how many submissions I have out there, but I’m sure I should be doing more, there can’t be many left that I haven’t heard about. How many at one time is a good number, I wonder?

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Still here!

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ATASDA, Christmas, Red Hat, writing, zine

Still here, but not posting much. No particular reason, except that the spring weather has me outside and working in the garden rather than indoors on the computer. This time of year is a busy time in the garden here in Western Australia, with grass to cut, and other general tidying up before the hot weather really hits. Summer is the time when the garden is really almost dormant, as it is in the winter in cold climates, with most plants just surviving the heat and the dry. Some are exceptions, and flourish, but apart from watering and the occasional dead heading I usually leave the garden to its own devices during summer. Watering gets done early in the morning or in the evening, and I go indoors during the heat of the day and sew or write or whatever else takes my fancy. On days when I am not at work that is.

My busy weekend was just that, and I will take photos of the kanzashi I made and post. Since then I’ve also found another tutorial, which I will try (if I can just remember where I found it!), and have said that I will show how to do them at one of our Red Hat meetings next year. Must practice a bit in the meantime.

Last weekend went with the other Red Hatters to the garden of one our our members, which she had opened as a fund raiser. Lovely garden, we’ve been there before, and lovely morning tea too. As usual came home and compared my garden unfavourably, but I will get there one of these days! I bought a couple of plants, one of which I don’t know the name of, and nor did anybody else. Also bought a bag from another Red Hatter which she had made. She had used as fabric all the selvedges cut from her quilting fabric, and it was very effective. Will get the camera out later this week and take pictures of that too.

At writing group one of the members had been to a workshop on ‘zines’ and showed us the results. I had no idea what they were, and Googled a bit, and here they are, the Perth Zine Collective.  I liked the way the paper was folded to make a tiny book out of one page, but whether all zines are like that or not I have no idea, I suspect not. Anyway, I had the idea of making a few to give to other members of the group instead of Christmas cards at our next meeitng, which will be at the beginning of December. I need to dig through my card making supplies to come up with some paper and other suitable decorations.

I also need to make a card to take for ATASDA meeting, and a gift for Red Hat Christmas function, so along with the skirts I still intend to do I shan’t have to look far for something to keep me busy.

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Prospect of a busy and fulfilling weekend

02 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ATASDA, food, Japanese sewing, kanzashi, pate, Pattern Magic, weekend, writing

This weekend is going to be busy. Writing group tomorrow morning, for which I eventually submitted a very quickly written piece on blogging for the over 50s. Needs a lot more work, which I didn’t have time for, but I might do the work some time and try and find somewhere to submit it. See what comments and feedback from the group first.

Then in the afternoon I am going to a new group, new to me that is, I imagine the others have been going for some time. Having joined ATASDA I am going to a meeting of the West Australian branch. The topic for the afternoon is Kanzashi, which is a Japanese way of making hair ornaments. These particular ones are made of folded fabric to resemble flowers, and I bought some fat quarters in red and purple, thinking that it would be good to have a decoration for a hat or lapel when going to Red Hat functions. I’m looking forward to meeting the other members and having a productive afternoon.

The whole Japanese thing led me to thinking again about the Pattern Magic books, which are Japanese books of clothing designs and instructions on drafting paper patterns. At least I think that’s what they are, I haven’t actually read any of them. I’ve been wondering about buying them, either one or all, but I found two are available through the WA library, so I might try and borrow them first to see if I really would use them. I did once buy a Japanese pattern book, because I’ve always liked the look of their clothes, but the ones in the book I bought were very basic, whereas it’s really the little details I like. Obviously I got the wrong book there.

In the evening going to dinner at a friend’s place, for which I am taking the first course, so have decided to make two different pates. There will only be 4 of us so not too arduous. I plan one smoked salmon one, and the other I found a recipe for is lentil and goat’s cheese. It sounds a bit unusual to say the least, but the recipe book did say it was very tasty, well I guess they’d hardly say it tastes dreadful would they? Have to pick up a few ingredients on my way home from work, and make the pates tonight since there won’t be any time tomorrow. Also have to pack up my sewing stuff to take, and read all the other submissions for the writing group, so I can at least make some informed comments about them. I’m looking forward to the weekend!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Creative writing and flash fiction and story ideas

29 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

contest, flash fiction, story, writing

I bought a second hand book on creative writing in the op shop this week, and it has a number of exercises to work through. The first is to write a short story about the view from a window, in first person, and restricting yourself to just the view from the window. I thought about it for a bit, and came up with a germ of an idea. Now when I was browsing the net at work I found a contest for flash fiction, and have decided to write the idea up to less than 350 words, the limit, and put it in the contest. The serendipity is a bit too good to ignore. The idea isn’t enough for a longer story, at least I don’t think so, but 350 words should be OK. Obviously they have to be well crafted and honed.

Start here!

I don’t know why I’m here. I know where I am, in hospital, but I don’t know why. Nor do I know how long I’ve been here for, at first I was unconscious, but it’s been at least a week since I woke up.

They don’t know I’m awake, the nurses and doctors. I can’t move to tell them. They come and go through the day, taking my temperature and pulse, adjusting knobs and dials on the machines around me. There is a drip stand next to the bed, feeding fluid into my arm, which they check regularly and change when it is empty.

I lie here, looking through the window in the wall opposite the bed. There is not what you would call a view to look at. Just a piece of brick wall, about 10 feet away from the window. Nothing ever goes between the wall and the window, so I’m guessing it’s not a ground floor window, or even a first floor one. On sunny days a shadow moves across the wall during the day, it must be the shadow of the building I am in. I watch the wall all day. I’m often awake before daylight, and I see the first golden tinge of sunshine on the bricks. The sun is still low in the sky, and the angle of the light emphasises the texture of the wall, throwing shadows into the lines of mortar between the bricks. It’s the same in the evening from the opposite direction. When there is no sun the wall seems flat . some days I can tell that there are clouds moving across the sky, as shadows come and go over the wall. Yesterday there was no sun, and several times it rained. I watched as it started, seeing the first dark flecks appear on the brickwork as drops of water hit, more and more until the whole wall was glistening and dark blood red. Then as suddenly the rain stopped, and slowly the wall changed colour again as it dried, until it was pale as usual.

for some reason I can’t help studying the wall. Granted it’s all I have to look at, I can’t move my head enough to look around the rest of the room. There is a loose piece of mortar in the bottom left hand corner which really bugs me. The bricks are laid in a slightly unusual pattern called Monk bond. That thought comes to me from I know not where, and suddenly reality hits me.

I know why I’m here. I’m a steeplejack.

This needs a lot of work I’m sure. In my head this is the 1950s or 1960s, I don’t think they have steeplejacks these days. Need to be more descriptive to make the era obvious. I’m not sure I’m a story writer at all, let alone flash fiction or short stories. Obviously for short stories or flash fiction every word has to count.I decided to not put this in the contest I read about, too much of  a rush apart from any other considerations.  I might finish this sometime and get some feedback from the group, but I think for this month I’m probably going to write an article, although it will have to be quick now. Also I promised to look at the options for putting an anthology together, printing and binding etc. Haven’t done that yet, so need to get my skates on with that too!

This is a photo of a Geraldton wax currently flowering in my garden. This particular bush is quite old and leggy, but is flowering particularly well this year.

Geraldton Wax flower
Geraldton Wax, not sure of the exact species

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Embroidered eroded limestone

17 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

art, blogging, embroidery, Fremantle, writing

Well, here I am again, having missed at least a month. Pressure of work is my only excuse, but I’m determined not to give up. I really want to continue with the creative stuff, whether it is writing or art or sewing or whatever.

I have been busy, but I have decided I will spend at least half an hour each day doing something creative, and post on here once a week at least. That’s surely not too much to expect. Maybe I’ve tried to have everything too good in the past, which takes time, quick and dirty might be the answer.

I have put three entries in the Creative Craft section of the Perth Royal Show, which considering there was only six weeks to go when I did it is a big ask. Now there is only just over 4 weeks to go, and my first piece is well started but nowhere near finished. It’s machine embroidery, they all are, a wall hanging/picture inspired by some limestone rocks in Fremantle and the erosion patterns on them. I took some photos on a recent visit like this:

It’s going reasonably well so far, but has a way to go. Then I have to do two more pieces, I have an idea for one but nothing so far for the third and final one.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Returning – again!

04 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

creativity, Kalgoorlie, photgraphs, writing

I know I’ve done this before. I haven’t posted in weeks, and now I decide to get back on track and into focus again.

I finished the commonplace book for TAFE, to a very gratifying response. I’m not sure about doing another unit next semester, I’d like to, but not sure I have the time. At the moment I can’t get any body to respond to my request for information about what units are available, but that’s another story. For now I’ve decided to focus on writing again, as it might be a bit less time consuming. Writing group is on this Saturday, I missed last month.

This month’s challenge was to write a piece inspired by a photograph. Whilst in Kalgoorlie last weekend I saw an exhibition of photographs by an early Goldfields photographer, which was very interesting, and chose to write about one of the pictures in the exhibition. It was a bunch of men standing around in a swimming bath, naked. Early 1900s. I still wonder why? I’ve posted the piece in my articles section.

The photographer’s name was John Joseph Dwyer, and many of the photographs are included in a book called An Everyday Transience.

I’ve also got a book called Write Now, aimed at inspiring creativity in writing, and I intend to work through it and all the exercises in an attempt to improve my writing.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Mid-semester review – the point at which I start re-thinking my design

04 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Art Deco, design, drawing, embroidery, Margaret Preston, time management, writing

Mid semester review went OK at TAFE yesterday. Most of the other students have drawings, but not much idea of how they are going to fit a story, or put the book together when it’s done. I, on the other hand, have a very good idea of what I want it to look like, I just have to make it happen. Although, I am now wavering a bit on the style of the thing. For each of the subject title pages I was going to do a drawing, pencil with maybe a watercolour wash. Now I’m leaning more towards a woodcut Margaret Preston type of thing, like these but I’m not sure I can do it. I wasn’t going to do a woodcut as such anyway, but a drawing in that style, but they are very simplified, and I think that takes more ability than I currently have. I really want to have that Art Deco look though, which a pencil and watercolour drawing doesn’t necessarily have. I have two weeks, (mid-semester break apparently now only 2 weeks instead of 3, which means the whole thing is a week shorter) to work on getting the style right. I also have to figure out the cover, which was going to be fabric with a painted design. Peter said he’d like to see some needlework or textile work, and then when I went to the library I got a book out about painting and decorating textiles, so I’ve gone from having a clear idea to starting again. The design I have drawn is too small to applique, I could do canvas work or surface embroidery, which would be more authentic? Needs yet more research, I’m leaning towards canvas work. There is also the issue of wearability, I don’t want it to look tatty after only a short time, although in point of fact it’s not likely to get any wear at all. I’m also thinking again about the format, A4 does not leave much space for content, after allowing a bit down the side for the binding, perhaps I should go with the ready made scrapbook covers in Spotlight which are square. They had some with a cutout in the middle, I could always put a piece of embroidery in there, I think there was a clear plastic bit which would protect it.

This is a problem which I have had before when trying to be creative, getting to a point where I feel I have done the best I can, and then just trusting to that, instead of re-thinking numerous times. In this instance there is a time limitation, I have to leave myself enough time to actually do the work at the end. I have a feeling the critical point is coming soon.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts

Blogroll

  • Learn WordPress.com
  • Live to Write – Write to Live

Back Pages

  • July 2018 (1)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • June 2017 (2)
  • March 2017 (1)
  • October 2016 (1)
  • September 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (2)
  • March 2016 (2)
  • February 2016 (2)
  • January 2016 (3)
  • August 2015 (1)
  • March 2015 (2)
  • February 2015 (1)
  • January 2015 (3)
  • December 2014 (2)
  • November 2014 (4)
  • April 2014 (2)
  • November 2013 (2)
  • October 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (1)
  • June 2013 (2)
  • March 2013 (1)
  • February 2013 (2)
  • January 2013 (2)
  • December 2012 (3)
  • November 2012 (3)
  • October 2012 (4)
  • September 2012 (4)
  • August 2012 (1)
  • July 2012 (1)
  • May 2012 (1)
  • April 2012 (4)
  • March 2012 (2)
  • February 2012 (3)
  • January 2012 (3)
  • December 2011 (3)
  • November 2011 (5)
  • October 2011 (4)
  • September 2011 (2)

My Tags

Anthony Trollope Art Deco article ASG asymmetrical ATASDA Australian Sewing Guild blog blogging book books challenge Christmas clothes clouds colour commonplace book competition content craft creativity design dogs drawing electric embroidery fabric fashion illustration fence freelance Fremantle garden horses ideas inspiration in every issue Jeeves Koos van den Akker labrador language learning machine embroidery magazine Margaret Preston Mozilla novels op-shop origin of phrases pattern PG Wodehouse photography phrases project property quilting reading reconstructed recycled Roald Dahl sayings ScribeFire seo sewing skirt Threads magazine transfer dyes Tris Hussey TS14Plus upcycled water weather Wooster Wordpress words workshop writing

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • julielivingstone
    • Join 36 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • julielivingstone
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: