The theme of the 2005 Advent Calendar was 'Journey of the Heart'.

A group of courageous travellers packed at a moments notice and headed off for a three month trek along the Soul Food Silk Road.

They discovered a road that twisted and wound endlessly. They met the Amazon Queen, a Hermit, a Mystic, Gypsy Travellers, Fortune Tellers, a Bath-house Madame, the Sacred Warrior Knight, the Mistress of the Wardrobe and many other interesting characters.

The 2005 Advent Calendar preserves the journey of these travellers and provides everyone else with the opportunity to pull out their visual journals and participate in many of the activities that travellers undertook.

Each day a bright light appeared on the calendar, opening a new link.By December 25 the heavens above the Silk Road were aglow.

This year the calendar provided visitors with the opportunity to join bloggers in order to complete activities and interact with the Silk Road travellers.

Enjoy!
Heather Blakey
Webmistress of the Soul Food Cafe

Alluvial Mine Open

An Alluvial Mine has been discovered within the grounds of Soul Food and it is opening for sturdy miners who know that to find real creative gold you have to be prepared to dig deeply.

What does Crevice Mining and the Balfour Memorial Mining Method have to do with finding Eldorado? The serious word miner will learn a lot about extracting words from these methods.

Check the Alluvial Mine Newsheet for updates and follow Mining progress.

Whimsical Activity Calendar

Soul Food is proud to launch what has become an annual feature. The December 2004 Advent Calendar, like the December 2003 Calendar is full of projects that have been test run during 2004 in Melbourne schools, and features the work of artists from around the world.

Make sure to let all you friends know that they must visit Soul Food on a daily basis during December in order to experience the joy of opening up a new link on the Calendar.

Keep the Fun in the fun-da-mentals

It may be a daily grind for artists and writers alike but do make it a habit to keep the fun in the fun-da-mentals.

The BBC Writing Tools are a lot of fun. A personal favourite here is The Word Cut Up Tool.

Mirecle33 Creativity Patch

I nearly choked with envy and spluttered my coffee all over my keyboard when Chris Dunmire from the Creativity Portal showed me her brand new Mirecle33 Creativity Patch. These creativity patches are for those who claim not to have a creative bone in their body. Now why didn't I think of this first?

Actually, this whole new collection of Dunmire tidbits has my mouth watering. If Chris keeps producing things like this I am going to have to head north and physically blow her out of her pond. Too clever!

Moonlight Water Garden

Sit and rest awhile... run your fingers through the cool enchanted waters.. of the Moonlight Water Garden.

simple. you'll see oneword at the top of the following page. you have sixty seconds to write about it. Alternatively go to the Soul Food Oracle or WordThink and use the word that emerges.

POETC, from the makers of oneword gives you sixty seconds to write a line of poetry, adding to the previous person's line

Write a message on the fridge and then use the message to begin a story. Alternatively buy or make some magnetic ransom notes and let your imagination run wild.

The daily jigsaw puzzle is one way of avoiding thinking too much. After a work-out here you should will have cleared the cob webs of the mind and be ready to do something creative.

The Collage Machine is just one of the fun features in Art Zone that enable you to make collages and squander time online.

Build a city and people it with characters.

When this artist began doing doll-makeovers she became passionate about them. She says that her love of fantasy is her main inspiration and that she experiences pure joy in transforming a doll into her personal vision. Give names and voices to some of these fantasy dolls and include them in a piece of fiction. Check out the links to other dolls. There are enough people here to populate a city.

Willa Cline's tea leaf reading has long been one of my favourite destinations on the web. Let her reading begin your daily writing. Click the teacup.

If you want to mess around and express your altar ego then go directly to one of the following sites. Play dress-up with the French Toast Girl or alternatively you can visit the Mini Mizer and picture yourself or your characters in plastic. This is a lot of fun and may well distract you from your writing. Then again, it might be just what you need to get started.

Mike Browne claimed that he was bored at work, inside his cubicle and so he decided to put his scanner to good use. He began scanning his lunches. Mike's interest, and possibly his mind, have been lost, but the web site remains, floating in cyber space. When operational Mike scanned his lunch, drink and all and posted it on the site. He gave commentaries, assuring people that his bag of "Chocolate covered caramel and macadamia nuts" were not what they appeared to be, which was a "bag of dog crap". More information than I needed but hey, he made me laugh! Why not examine his clever site and keep a diary record of some of your own lunches. You could create a hiss-tory snake and explore how your eating habits have changed. Better still, harass Mike! He clearly has nothing better to do and I am sure he could offer some fun story lines..

You have my permission to write but take a permission card, compliments of Keri Smith, anyway. Make sure that you read about how these cards came into being. And! While visiting Smith make sure to check out her fun things to do.

Within the Sacred Mountains is a Sandpainting done by Winnie Cross. Try your hand at Sandpainting, give your painting a title and then create a piece of fantasy fiction or poetry

HANGMAN Play Hangman and write a story using the word that has been used.

Take a break! Sit choosing non fat chocolates and revisit your childhood. But be cautioned! These hand filled chocolates are totally addictive and may change lives.

You want more? Check out these sites!

Tera's Wish provides a variety of exercises, challenges, topics and ideas to get your creative juices flowing
The Creativity Portal encourages the exploration and expression of creativity through arts, crafts, music, and writing. They point you to hundreds of resources with free instruction, articles, tutorials, and projects all designed to help you learn and inspire your creativity.
Life Journal This journal program is an essential if you want to journal on your PC. It has fun features to promote writing.
Daily Zen check out the delightful meditation hall and send a card to a friend
Fence Post Oracle: seek advice from the oracle
IvySea have a Brain Cafeteria with lots of stimulating articles.
Lost Soul Companion the Lost Soul Companion project is fascinating but of particular interest is Susan Brackney's Bemused Column at the Creativity Portal.
Name Generator is a wonderful little tool to help you name your characters. The tools provided will trigger your imagination
Pop into Women Folk and explore your creativity. This site looks at moodling, journalling and a host of other creative activities.
Online Magnetic Poetry is fun. Here is another good magnetic poetry program. Use one of these kits to write a poem or story.
Play dress-up with the French Toast Girl and check out her wardrobe. Dress French Toast Girl and then write short pieces in which she features. Alternatively slip into the Mini Mizer and create some plastic characters. Use them to write adventure stories.
Mind-mapping always helps to nourish the seed of an idea and promote word growth. I get students to trace their hands and put an idea on each finger. Then they circle one finger and put five points in the palm of their hand. With five points they have enough information to write an essay. This is fail-proof.
Explore this traditional Advent Calendar.
Make characters using this flash tool and write them into being. But be wary! Writers suffering from procrastination may just find that this play thing provides yet another excuse not to actually get words on the page.
Two questions I always pose to a new English class are Why Bother? and Who Cares? If you do not have a reason to bother and no one cares then their really is not much point writing. Go to Nervousness.org and discover some reasons to bother and people who care. Alternatively slip into 1000 Journals and participate in this program or, simply make an object for a friend.
To begin your writing you can meditate upon a pack of tarot cards or use any number of divinity tools here on the web.