Nuturing Creativity

I'm always amazed at what comes back when I put it out there.

From lusting after a certain expensive designer labeled dressing gown then finding a better one in an Op-shop, to trying to figure out the meaning of (my) life when Elizabeth Gilbert pops up - YAY for blogging!

Her insightful interpretation of the creative mind & its processes is (in my opinion) definately worth the 20mins. it takes to listen.

A sustainable weekend

Reb rang to remind me that the Sustainability Fiesta was on this weekend so Stella and I headed over to Sth Freo for a look.

So glad we did!
I'm not a fan of wandering around markets for the sake of something to do - they're soooooo boring! This one wasn't - it was all about community and what can be achieved when people rally for the common good. In this case sustainability was the catch cry.

It wasn't all talk either as the whole street was participating in a variety of events from the kid 'singing' his neck massages for $1.50 to residents selling their pre-loved treasure, along with the bloke selling his wifes range of organic skin care to a bevy of locals preparing organic hotdogs & homemade lemonade. There were those set up under the side walk trees talking about sustainability on a small scale, with a lady showing off her personal worm farm & another the life cycle of chickens, to a forum under the marquee discussing how to change the world! All presented in a friendly hands on sort of way.
The sense of community was made all the more evident by the generosity of the Hulbert Street residents who opened their homes, studios & gardens for all to wander through!

Stella had visited the Sustainable House last week on a school excursion so was bursting to show me through - they should hire her as a guide!We were excited to get home to start planting our vege garden. So far we've planted strawberries, lettuces, TOMATOES, cucumbers and flowers, which with this rain & the promise of spring will be flourishing in no time.
It's not finished however I've used up all the usable garden-bed-making-trash around the yard and with the cost of 2 trailer loads of soil & mulch the rest will have to wait.

The most important part of the whole vege garden building process was always going to be moving the red gate that leads into the chicken pen. I'm not going to give you a blow by blow run down on how I managed it all I will say is that a power drill is better than an electric one!

All in all a very rewarding weekend.

Now I've go a shit load of sewing to get on with!

Spring!

My house smells like spring!

Thanks Michelle x

What am I going to do next weekend?!

It's been a full-on couple of weeks, what with Stellas visit to hospital, a made-to-measure outfit made in a week, one workshop finishing & another starting, Dan flying East for 10days, me flying down south to lunch , keeping abreast of the Teens in their LTS workshop and making myself a special little something to wear.

So it was lovely to arrive home from the FAC on Saturday to see Rebeccas smiling face.
She'd come to camp with us for a couple of nights as the book she illustrated has just been published and the Mundarring Art Centre asked her to conduct a talk & workshop on Sunday in conjunction with an exhibition & the books release.

It so happened that it was the same Sunday that Melanie had offered to take me to The Loose Box in Mundarring for lunch, to belatedly celebrate my birthday.
So while Reb painted & talked, Mel and I ate & talked - and took photos of every dish we were served!

We experienced our first degustation restaurant and LOVED it!
The food was beautiful to look at and tasted devine, the portions were perfect, the service impeccable and the wonderful company made the 3 hours fly by.

So now what am I going to do next weekend - build the vege garden!

Who said they keep you young!

We called into Emergency on the way home from the movies as I was extremely concerned about her breathing - very shallow and laboured. Thankfully the Triage nurse was as concerned as she whisked her in for Obs straight away.
Her temp was up and her oxygen levels down. First they diagnosed her with Pneumonia however it was decided soon after a chest x-ray to treat the symptoms as Asthma. She and Dan overnighted and will be home this afternoon.
This is her first Asthma attack. Most likely brought on by the virus she had a couple of weeks ago and exaserbated by a bout of Hayfever, brought on by cleaning her room and pollen in the air with the change of season.

I blame her school!
Because she loves her teacher and the school soooooo much she never wants a day off so has not been confiding some of her symptoms.
As she's lying on her 'death-bed' she slipped the oxygen mask down and asked if you can get Pneumonia from loosing blood - because she's been falling over a lot lately. Which she has, her kness and hands are scabby bruised lumps. Before I could answer she said "Oh - maybe I have been falling over because of the Pneumonia. I've been feeling weak and tired a lot lately and have been having headaches most afternoons".

They make you laugh and they make you cry.....which is actually very aging!

A random act

Out of the blue my friend asked if I'd like to fly south

to visit a winery

with a group of women I'd never met before

to share their company over lunch

before flying the 400klm home -

I said yes!

I'm not a huge fan of food photos especially when the food looks disgusting having said that I'm shamelessly going to share a couple of my foody shots 'cause I really want to show & tell that I ate Truffles (the dark stuff in my soup) and comment that I don't know what all the fuss is about

and have a look at the tea bag! I was so impressed that I borrowed one of the girls 'used' tea bags so I could keep mine intact - it was a really nice cuppa too!

I'd show you the main (fish) & dessert (apple & rhubarb crumble w/- custard) shots but they're not very attractive.

The food, the company, the flight, the weather, the fact that my friend picked now to ask was all perfect!

Worth it

I have removed the last 2 posts because they've served their purpose - thankyou to those that left comments.

Hi Jody,
I just read your blog. For what it is worth, I think your workshops are fantastic - and I have done a few if that is any indication! I am so inspired by your creativity and ability to make things work together in a way I and others never would have thought. I hope you continue to share your skills with us for many years to come.
Kind regards,
Jo

...and this is why I do what I do
and the reason I'll always do what I do
in the way in which I do it.