Yellow Day

Our first attempt at Mrs. Fields style cookies!

Rhythm Food

Fudgy, chocolatey cookies are not easy to find here so we did the next best thing–we made it ourselves.🍪 They ended up more like Chewy Chips Ahoy (still so yummm). Koray says brown sugar in Turkey is made with beet molasses, which give a weaker flavor, so we got creative and added grape molasses.🙃

Yellow Day is about creativity, and it comes even in everyday things like adapting a cookie recipe.💛

Just in case you want to DIY Chewy Chips Ahoy, here’s the recipe (we added 1/3 cup grape molasses).

💛 What memories are you creating? 💛

Rhythm
Montalut Daily Rhythm

As a parent we take it upon ourselves to create memories for our children. Here’s our 5yo on her first bump car ride 🚗, celebrating our last weekend in her dad’s hometown before we moved to İstanbul. She loved it. And it was particularly more special because she did it with one of her favorite people, her Hala (aunt).

Birthing something new doesn’t always move us into the future. When we create an experience that lives on as a memory, we also birth into the past. Very interesting way to frame new memories.

💛 On Yellow Day, imagine one memory you want to have, and work your way forward from it. Begin with the past in mind, and live out that memory today.

💛 What do you make with your hands? 💛

Rhythm
Montalut Daily Rhythm

We live in bread country, where the assortment of daily bread is astounding.🥐🥖🥨🥯🫓🍞 That’s why it amazes me that @korayerimez still labors over homemade bread which takes at least 4 hours from start to finish.

I’m guessing the satisfaction is similar to painting with real paints, swooshing that brush and knife and getting messy (plus cleaning up)–they’re all a big part of it.🎨

💛 On Yellow Day, do something that gets your hands dirty and remember again what it’s like to create something handmade.

💛 What happens in a wildfire? 💛

Rhythm
Montalut Daily Rhythm

Çanakkale is burning 🔥🥺

A forest fire has been burning in Northwest Turkey very close to the city center. Nine villages have been evacuated; animals brought to safety.

We don’t have wildfires back in PH so I’m just starting to understand them–how they start, why they can’t be stopped, what happens to the land afterwards. In this case, they say a farmer may have started it by burning stubble or the straw that’s leftover after harvesting grains.🌾 Firefighters on the ground, 22 helicopters and 7 fighter jets deployed from above.

Here’s the Trojan horse, an unmistakable icon of the region. We stopped by Çanakkale on the drive back from İstanbul in June, and I distinctly remember loving all the yellows everywhere. Now I’m not sure what we’ll see on our next drive there.

💛 On Yellow Day we’re reminded that we exist in a context, with conditions beyond our control. A wildfire can spread at the drop of a hat. When we create, we also unleash something into the world–whether it inspires or ravages is sometimes not up to us.

💛 Do you piggyback? 💛

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Montalut Daily Rhythm

Collab, co-create, synergy. What’s behind these buzzwords?

I haven’t been able to pick up a brush to paint in a long time, so when our daughter asks for help to draw, I enjoy these mini collab pieces I get to do with her. What do you think of our Peppa Pig collab?🐽

💛 On Yellow Day, it’s good to remember that creating doesn’t always mean we start from zero. Sometimes we get to ride on the efforts, energies and ideas of others and it doesn’t make our effort any less creative. Adding the “co-” to any initiative can actually be a superpower, because the sharing of resources allows us to stretch and amplify so many things: co-working, co-living, co-creating, co-investing, co-organizing.🌟

Do you piggyback?🐖 Do you also let others piggyback on your projects? What do you think makes collabs or piggybacking a win-win setup?

💛 Summer heat is a gift? 💛

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Montalut Daily Rhythm

“Çok sicak” is the new “Hello” these days, with summer going strong, even hitting 53°C 🔥. So thankful we found a summer school for the little one, to keep her mind off the heat and still have outdoor playtime in the shade.

🌦 Life in four seasons takes getting used to, especially on days of extreme weather like today. The passing of time is more felt too, as opposed to the endless summers of the tropics. There’s a hurriedness in the background, like an everyday ticktocking.⏰️ It’s both a constraint, something that limits what can be done “while the sun is out”, and also a movement, something that pushes you forward, even when you’re not ready.

It’s definitely an interesting feeling, perhaps a great recipe for creating: you get excited with all the changes in nature–so many new things happening all around, if you pay attention!🌤 And you also get the pressure of deadlines–if you wait around, the moment will pass and you miss out.🌬

I’m thankful to experience this for the first time in the Mediterranean, where the culture prioritizes balance and taking one’s time.

💛 On Yellow Day mornings when the house is quiet and the birds 🐦 sing their songs, let’s remember to just take it all in and roll with the moment, especially when things get extreme. There’s a gift somewhere there, that’s allowing us to push and create.

💛 Do you build from scratch? 💛

Rhythm
Montalut Daily Rhythm

Our 5yo wanted a pizza day, and @korayerimez went all out 💯, making handmade dough and coming up with three kinds of pizza: flat bread, calzone, and thick crust 10″ pizza. Hats off to her babam for top class effort (and yes it was top class delicious!). If it were just me, I would’ve used store-bought pita bread or tortilla as dough, and let our daughter have pizza day by putting sauce and toppings.🍕

Of course it comes with the territory–Koray loves food and cooking, and he won’t cut corners food-wise for as long as he can help it.🔪 I wouldn’t cut corners with my paintings either–doing the necessary prep work and choosing the right materials is part of the creative process itself.🎨

💛 Some things to think about on Yellow Day: When does using ready-made things work? Does it satisfy the joy of creating? What is gained (or lost) in building from scratch?