Sometimes, it doesn't take much....

*Warning - totally unrelated to textiles, craft, arts, not even remotely....:)*

A complete stranger (well not complete - but she was a stranger before today) said something today that has had the most amazing affect on me...

I should quickly backtrack so that you can understand...  I have spend the weekend at a workshop called "The Happiness Trap" run by Russ Harris and based on the book The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living   The workshop was amazing and very worthwhile, but what I wanted talk about happened through a connection I made with a person at the workshop. 

Throughout the weekend we were asked to do exercises and then share our responses with another person.  Some of the things that we were sharing/talking about were quite personal, and by the end of the day, the person I was working with had seen quite a few "snapshots" of me, my life, my feelings, my fears, and my dreams (and likewise me of hers). 

At the end of the day we were asked to simply thank the other person and share what we got out of the exercises.  To my amazement, this person, whom I'd only met that morning, told me something that brought me to tears... (sorry - should have warned you about the sappyness of this post).  She thanked me for sharing with her and told me that she thought that I had a lot to offer the world.  ...that she thought that I was a strong person and that she was inspired by my courage... 

Now I have been told this before by people who are close to me (I'm not big headed... read on - if you're still with me that is), but the weight of these comments, coming from somebody who I've only just met, and will never see again, is immense!!!  I've been struggling with the concept of "getting back into the game" and meeting new people and "dating" (such and ugly work that!) and whether I'll ever find my real true love (sorry - sappy again!) so the timing of this comment couldn't have been better.  It's not that I didn't believe my friends and family, it's that I figured they'd known me long enough to see it. 

I'm inspired by the fact that a relative stranger was able to see the person that I'd like to be, but that I didn't think that strangers or new friends could/would see... it gives me courage to think that if she can see a strong, lovable person, then perhaps it's possible for others to see it as well...  and whilst the situation was set up for us to share personal information, in actual fact, it's not all that different to a date or meeting new people scenario.

So to the wonderful person who was able to help me to feel fabulous and inspired and empowered in the space of only a couple of minutes... THANK-YOU!!!!!!

Delicious disaster....

Last night I made myself a huge pot of yummy carrot soup (with ginger and orange). Sounds good doesn't it... full of vitamin C, ginger and garlic and all that good stuff to fight off the flu that I feel coming on...

Well it would have been yummy - it smelled great and the initial taste test proved positive - except that as I was serving it up I noticed some odd black bits... pepper perhaps? 

No.... turns out as I'd blended it, the rubber seal from the stick blender I'd used had disintegrated and unbeknown to me had then been blended further into the soup!!!!

Disappointed, I rang Mum to tell her of my disaster, and do you know what she did????  She laughed!!!  and I just had to laugh too... 'cause it really was funny!!! 

So instead of yummy, healthy soup for dinner - what did I have?... a glass of wine and a big bowl of strawberry's, ice-cream and chocolate sauce, followed by more chocolate!  They say that every cloud has a silver lining... and so my disaster had a delicious end.... :)

Motivation...

It is foolish to tear one's hair in grief, 

...as though sorrow would be made less by baldness." 

(Cicero)

I was looking for a motivational quote this morning to push aside the doubts and negative thoughts that were creeping in (and do creep back from time to time).   There were lots of deep and meaningful ones but this one did exactly what I needed... it made me smile!!

I have lots to smile about at the moment...

1. Mum arrives tonight!!
2. I get the keys to my new flat on Thursday!!!!!
3. I have some wonderful friends who are going to help me move my stuff!!!!!!!!!
4. and the boss has given me Friday off to make he move happen.

I must keep everything in perspective and not dwell on the "what-ifs" or the "remember-whens"...   I need to remember that it's no longer about whether or not the decisions that I've made recently are right, it's about HOW I am going to make my choices WORK FOR ME!!!

My Creative Space...

This week my creative space is consumed by Birthdays and House Hunting...  Hopefully I can find time for something a little more creative when the weekend comes.

Make sure you head over to Kootooyoo for other great creative spaces.

It's My Birthday!!!!!!!

Yep... you read it right! Today is my birthday and I've had a busy day answering messages and posts on Facebook and working and haven't had time to post anything. Above is a pic of my little (but tall) brother and I at the footy on the weekend - his present to me along with the scarf I'm wearing before he headed back to Queensland, and below is my bestie and I on our day-out-in-Daylesford.

Tonight, in lui of going out and celebrating (because funds and fuel are low) we have organised a virtual party... The second State of Origin game is on tonight and so each of us are watching from our respective homes in our comfy-warm lounges with our favourite food and beverages...

• I'm going with Pad-Thai (Take-away of course!!) and bubbles - probably pink bubbly which is my favourite at present;
• Mum will no doubt have a wine - not sure what her food of choice will be;
• S is having beer and chocolate;
• B is probably going for Cappuccino and chips
• A is no doubt having vodka and peanuts - mid flight across Australia

Feel free to join us - but you'll need to share what you'll be having...

A Good Sign...

I am finding that driving the freeway past the suburb where I used to live (and where my husband and my dog still live) is quite a challenge...  Up until now I've had no need to travel to that side of the city - as I'm currently living and working on the opposite side.  However lately I have travelled the freeway passed my old suburb a few times, and each time I've had to fight myself NOT to turn off  - not always successfully I might add. 

Last night I found myself driving that same freeway again and again struggled...  After pulling over at the nearest service station and making a teary phone-home call where Mum listened and I reminded myself why I did this in the first place, I turned the music up loud and bravely drove past. 

and....

See that arrow in the picture?.... That's the arrow that I was faced with as came to the turn-off/exit to my old suburb... directing me AWAY from the exit!!  Talk about timing!!!!!!!!!

My creative space...

 

My creative space today is missing one ball of yarn...  I'm heading back to Wondoflex to buy one more ball of Noro Silk Garden to complete the twisty scarf that I have been making.  I have used almost 3 balls and it's going to need a bit more (maybe 1/2 a ball) to make it the perfect length.  I'm really loving this scarf now and wish that I had one for myself :)

Hopefully I can get my speed knitting fingers on and get this finished tonight as I have a handbag (the Baguette from Nikki) to make tomorrow night!  Good thing that it's cut out a interfaced read to sew, sew, SEW!!!!

Check out Kirsty's blog for more creative spaces...

**********

Today is a great day!!  Today marks the end of the ugliness of the separation-of-assets-battle with my husband.  Now I feel that I can get on with my life instead of being stuck going round in circles of trivial fights and angst... Today I've found a bridge and I'm crossing it!!!

Inspired!...

Today for the first time I have been inspired to do something creative...  I won't start it yet... the idea is still developing and I have a weekend of visiting ahead of me, but the ideas are flowing, the search for images is on and the sketches have started...

It came with the quote that I posted earlier in the week:

"The hardest thing in life is to learn which bridge to cross and which to burn" (David Russell)

I found it (on the internet of course!) when I was feeling pretty low.  I've been using quotes as a 'pick-me-up' or 'mantra'.  I re-wrote this quote onto a sticky-note (gotta love post-it-notes!) and it has been attached to my computer screen all week...and it really has helped to keep me focused on the "bigger picture".

This morning I made this rough journal entry using the quote - just as a reminder to myself of the quote...  and then I realised that this is my next project!!  Bridges...  There are heaps (and heaps) of bridge related quotes and sayings ... "build a bridge and get over it" and "it's water under the bridge" and "bridge the gap".  I don't intend to get too deep... it's simply that this quote has me thinking bridges and suddenly I can now see bridges 'working' in the type of images that I create.  It's one of those things where the image has meaning only to the creator...   I'm actually really excited about this one!

"If you don't like something, change it; 

If you can't change it, change the way you think about it." 

 (Mary Engelbreit)

"The hardest thing in life is to learn which bridge to cross and which to burn..."

(David Russell)

...and my theme song at the moment...

Tubthumping by Chumbawamba

  "I get knocked down, 

but I get up again,
You're never going to keep me down"

A Correction...

My littlest-big brother, who is probably the biggest-little brother when you're talking heights (confused yet?) disputed my comment in yesterday's post. As Lac pointed out, I'm only about 1/2 a foot shorter than them (oops... I exaggerated!... I'm not that short and they're not that tall...) and that he's happy to be my 'little' brother.

Here's a pic of Lac quite some years ago...
This picture actually has all 5 of us in it... Mum on the left, Dad upside-down beside her, Lac in the middle, me upside-down beside him and Zac on the far right. ...and Dad took the photo somehow....

I've been tagged!....

Jeana from Unbecoming Lily tagged me (some time ago - sorry) with the six random things meme and so here they are, six random things about me:

1. When I was in grade 5 I fell out of a tree and landed myself in hospital for several weeks with a torn kidney. I was a climber and we spent lots of time climbing the huge tree in our backyard, but one day I got a bit too game and ventured out onto a branch that was dead and fell onto Dad's neatly stacked woodpile.
2. I love peanut butter and honey on toast. I discovered it at Uni and almost lived on it for 12 months during my first year of Uni whilst living on campus. We would line up at the dining hall and be the first to get in so that we could get our meal and then grab a box of bread, a tub peanut butter and a tub of honey. We'd attempt the meal and if it wasn't something that we enjoyed, we head off to the toaster and make our 'alternative meal'.
3. my fingers are double jointed
4. I have two little brothers that are both almost 2 feet taller than me - they think that that gives them the right to be called 'big' brothers HAH!!
5. My middle name is Rae - I used to hate it when I was a kid because I constantly had to explain that "no it's not a boys name, it's spelt R-A-E the GIRLS WAY!!". Now I like it.
6. I am a real sweet tooth and love my desserts.

I don't like tagging anyone so if you'd like to do this meme, just post a comment here with a link to your blog.

Yesterday...

Yesterday... I got about 80% of the quilting done on Sue's Japanese Quilt. I have sore shoulders and a sore neck but it's a fair effort I think.

Yesterday... I put up the design wall so that I can display some pieces of work and get inspired. It's one of those big sticky sheets of ??... ummm... well it's kinda like a thin sheet of quilt wadding that's sticky on both sides - one side sticks to the wall and the other you stick up quilt bits and other stuff and it just stays... well mostly. I've already had a few kamakaze pieces leap off the wall onto the worktable - perhaps they're just telling me it's time I worked on them...

Yesterday... I joined Blogtoberfest. This is the brainchild of Big Cat of Big Cat's Emporium who thought it would be fun to celebrate the month of October with festivities and blogorific fun! I think it has grown well beyond what Big Cat imagined but there are some great blogs listed there - you should check them out.

Yesterday... I cooked a yummy dinner - Lamb backstrap fillo parcels. Sorry, it was too yum to take the time to photograph it. I discovered the recipe (actually I combined two recipes) a few weeks ago and have made it several times since. The original idea was to try some new recipes, but it seems that each time I make this pact with myself I find a recipe that I like and just keep going back to it. Oh well, I did find (or make up) a good one :)

Yesteday... I discovered that Bryan didn't know what I meant by "deadly treadly"... I was mortified that a fellow Aussie didn't know this 'ockerism' (Aussie slang). I'd told Bryan that "I was going to jump onto my deadly treadly and duck down to the shops", to which he replied... "huh?". A deadly treadly, for the uninitiated is, the term of endearment I use when referring to my bicycle. I could have said that "I'm going to ride my bicycle down to the shops" but what's the fun in that? It got me thinking about all of the other 'okerisms' (Aussie slang) and 'Lanham-isms' (Lanham family slang) that I use frequently but that's a post for another day.

Why Textile Arts? - Part 3: Uni and Beyond...

Whilst at Uni my house mate and I both took up Cross-stitch. Needless to say we weren't much interested in Wednesday night dances or Friday night drinking sessions. We'd save our $$ by compromising on our grocery shopping (making do with 2-minute noodles instead of proper meals) in order to make a trip to Toowoomba to buy a cross-stitch pattern each. The cross stitch that I'm finishing now is one that I bought after Uni at a craft fair that I went to T with.


My next textile-related passion would have to be the cloth dolls. I became interested in cloth dolls during my first “real full-time job” after Uni. I was living on my own in a new town without too much to do in my spare time (still not a big one for going out – even though there wasn't much of a night life in Blackwater). I think that I discovered dolls through a magazine – it was either Bears, Dolls and Collectables, or a special Cloth Doll edition of the same magazine. I started out by saying that I just wanted to do one to try it. That doll is now hanging on the wall at Mum's place, along with several others that followed, so no I didn't stop at one. From the simple doll that I started with, I then went on to sculpted faces, wired armature and separate fingers.




I think that by this stage I new that sewing and crafts were definitely my 'thing'. Spotlight and the local quilt shop were my favourite 'hang-outs' as was the craft section of the newpaper shop (still is, but now I just browse and dn't buy – not so much anyway!). During one job I had I worked at two different locations and had to travel and stay away for two to three days each. I would take my sewing machine and the latest doll with me to work on in the evenings at the motel I was staying at – now that's dedication.

At one stage whilst I was working for Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, I was relocated and stayed at a friends house at the beach for about 4 weeks whilst I found a place to live (all of my possessions were in storage). I needed to have something to do after work so I was working on an embroidery kit that I bought. This embroidery was raised embroidery and involved needle-lacing. This was where my love of stumpwork and raised embroidery started. During that same time I found a book called Hand Embroidered Country Scenes, by Sue Newhouse. Inspired by this book I created these two pieces...

This one is hanging in Mum's house (yes she has lots of my work)

And this one I gave to my friends as a thank-you for letting me stay.

This is the start of my real love of textiles and making threads and fabric do things that people wouldn't normally think possible. Over the next 12 months I continued with the cloth dolls and dabbled in embroidery. I joined a group at the local quilt shop where we'd sit and work on our own projects. As I was reading an issue of Textile Fibre Forum I saw an ad for Box Hill Tafe's Studio Stitch course and I decided that I really loved what I did with textiles and embroidery and wanted to take it further.


This was a big leap of faith for me. I took 12 months leave from my job, uprooted myself from the house that I'd established for myself and drove down to Melbourne with what I could fit into the car to attend a course on textiles and stitch. At the time I left Mackay, where I was living at the time, I had no place to stay and no idea what I was in for. I still to this day don't know how I had the guts to make such a decision. I still don't know how Mum stood back and let me do it. But I'm so glad that I did!


I have been in Victoria for almost 7 years now. I completed the Studio Stitch course in 2004, have participated in 3 exhibitions and have found the man that I'm going to marry (an added bonus). It's more than I could have wished for when I packed the car 7 years ago half expecting that I would be back on Mum's doorstep in 12 months time.

What happens next is anybody's guess but textiles are a part of my life and I will continue to explore and play!!!

Why Textiles Arts? - Part 2: Highschool

Part 2 of my exploration into the how I became into textiles... (the epic continues)

At highschool my two favourite subjects were Art and Home Economics. Of course I also chose some sensible subjects to give me options for University as I didn't really see how I could persue a career in art without being a 'struggling artist' and that didn't really appeal.

I loved Home Economics and whizzed through the sewing projects with ease – I had no problems with the sewing machines as they were Elna's just like Mum's. It was a similar story when we did knitting. My Nan had taught each of us to knit and we would sit beside her as shew flew through one jumper after the next and try to knit like she could. In Home Ec I ended up doing two projects because I finished the first one too quickly and had nothing to do in class (I was so keen I was knitting at home too).

I've always been interested in art and art materials. I used to dream of owning an arts supply shop so that I can be surrounded by all those wonderful paints and pencils and colour. A friend of the family gave me a box of watercolour pencils when I was in primary school and I remember treasuring them - sharpening them with a knife so that the colour lasted as long as possible.

Whilst I enjoyed art at school I do recall struggling with it as I had a teacher who was more interested in abstract art than realism as I was. Here is a sculpture that I did with wire and wax. It's modelled on my little brother – not so little anymore at 6 foot something – whilst he was laying on the floor watching television after school one day.

I recall two highschool assignments that now seem significant to my love of textiles. One was an art assignment where we chose and artist and had to critique their work. I chose Annemieke Mein. I don't know how I discovered her work but I do know that I've loved it ever since. I remember pouring over the book The Art of Annemieke Mein in awe and thinking how wonderful it would be to be able to create images such as those with a sewing machine - and now I create my own images with sewing machine. I now find it interesting that I was allowed to choose Annemieke as my artist considering that until recently, the Gippsland Art Gallery in Sale "The Sale Art Gallery has previously refused to show Ms Mein's work, claiming it was craft not art" (see here)

The other assignment that keeps coming back to me was for chemistry where we studied a chemical reaction and I chose Indigo dyeing - Indigoferra Tinctora. I don't remember anything of this assignment and had completely forgotten about it until last week when I was reading India Flint's book Ecocolour and the section on Indigo. I think it's interesting that now I'm interested in dyeing and back in highschool I chose to do an assignment on that subject. Dyeing hadn't really featured in my life since then, but the linnk is interesting nonetheless.

Next weekend, Part 3: Uni and beyond...

And because this post is a bit light on with pictures, here are a few more pictures showing Mum developing our art interests as kids.... Fingerpainting....

And finally, this is me hanging upside down at aged 4. It seems I was a little monkey when I was a kid. (absolutely no textile or art refernce here at all).

4 things...

I was tagged by Trish of Trishalan Designs with the 4 things meme (geez thanks!!!!!), so here goes - here's an insight intto me...

4 Jobs I've Had:-

• Training Coordinator - Administration: This is my current job and I love it;
• Administration at a few places - aged care, security company, training company;
• Trainer/Youth Worker for unemployed kids on a youth employment program - enjoyed this but a ot of hard work and in the end I didn't like the stress that it/I put on me
• Serving fuel at a service station (in the country where you actually got your fuel served and your windows cleaned for you) - my part time job when I was 15 (my younger brother was horrified that a girl would do this job! - Mum swiftly put him into place asking why he (at 13) thought the male anatomy (not the words she used) was necessary to serve fuel? - he never did come up with an answer!!)

4 Films I would watch over & over:- hmmmm...... (I'm sure I'll come up some really good ones later but here a some)

• Dead Poets Society -
• Dirty Dancing
• Ghost
• George of the jungle

4 Places I have lived:- only four!!...

• The Sunshine Coast - where I was born and lived with My Grandma for a bit while I was at Uni
• Clermont - where I grew up
• Gladstone - the harbour city
• East Melbourne - a great way for a non-city (I'm not a country kid!!) to experience the city - I loved it, but not forever

4 Favorite TV Shows:-

• Lost - but it kinda lost me in the second season when I wasn't able to watch everyday, and I think it's kinda gone on long enough now...
• House - gotta love House's sarcasim hiding a real human being (not that he'd ever admit it)
• Prisonbreak
• All Saints

4 Favorite Foods:- can I say chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and chocolate!!!

• Chocolate!!!!!!!! (chocolate anything!!)
• Roasted sweet potato;
• Smoked salmon with cream cheese, capers and a bit of rocket on little biscuits
• Lemon tart

4 Websites I visit everyday:-

• My blog to check the site stats - I love to see that people are reading and where they come from!
• My email - to check the mail from all the textile-y lists I'm on, and comments on my blog (selfish huh!!)
• Littlefish - the blog of a great Aussie quilter who does some fabulous work
• Fibermania - I love Mel's quilts but I love the way Mel shares so much. I've been loving her search for a new house lately.

4 Places I love to be:-

• tucked up in bed on a cold day with the electric blanket on high and a good book
• with my family (being my Mum, Dad and my brothers) - I love that the minute I get home (or where-ever we are) it feels like I never left. The laughs, the giggles, the lot of us talking and all vying for Mum and Dad's attention;
• At Eungella National Park, sitting on the viewing platform early evenings and early mornings watching for platypus
• In a textile workshop or trade show or even an online textile forum - full of like minded people buzzing with excitement about learning a new skill/technique and just creating!!!!!

4 Favorite Colors:-

• I looooove browns - can't you tell from the bag - chocolate browns (a link to food perhaps?) and rusty earthy browns
• greens - bushy greens reminiscent of Australian landscape (dusty greens, yellow greens) but all others as well (although I don't wear green!)
• Reds - not a colour that I would wear a few years ago, but I now really like deep rich reds.
• Aqua blues - the ones that give a real ocean feel
  

4 Names I love but wouldn't use for my children:- this is not something that I've really thought about yet.

I'm supposed to tag 4 more people but as most people I would tag have done this already, I'm leaving it up to you - if you're reading this consider yourself tagged!!