Thoughtful Friday no. 124

The journey to happiness involves finding the courage to go down into ourselves 

and take responsibility for what’s there: all of it.  

 Richard Rohr

A delighted Fluff-a-tier!

I had such a fun day recently at the Fluff-a-torium learning how to wet felt a picture and then add some needle punching for added effect.  I haven't done any wet felting for a while and it was great to get back into the swing, to choose from all the deliciously coloured wool tops and to come up with a design from nowhere and give it a go.  I chose to do a picture which included my 'word for the year' which is delight.  As you can see it became quite a flower affair!  Gill is a great teacher and provided great music for us to 'felt' by like The Gaton Project and the Kings of Convenience amongst many others.  Such a happy day. Thank you so much Gill!

Thoughtful Friday no. 123

."........When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. When it is over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument. I don't want to end up simply having visited this world." From the Poem "When Death Comes" by Mary Oliver

The Dabbler

Once upon a time there was a dabbler who liked to dabble in all sorts of crafty techniques and artistic endeavours.  One day, amidst many of her daily emails, there was something which caught her eye! It combined lots of things that she truly loved just at that moment - paper, canvas, paint, text, fun embellishments and a new thing - beeswax!  So she just had to give it a try - just have a little dabble in it to see how it felt and what she might come up with.  So some lovely people received these as gifts at Christmas

And one lovely lady had this for her birthday recently

Then a little dabbling with wrapping paper and ribbon sent the packages on their way

There'll be more dabbling for sure and maybe more dabbling with wax and canvas too!  

Thoughtful Friday no. 122

"The highest reward for a person's toil is 

not what they get for it, 

but what they become by it"

John Ruskin

GPPS Street Challenge No. 47 It's a Wrap!

Another great challenge from Michelle Ward over at the GPP Street Team, this time all about using some of the wrapping and ribbons we used at Christmas to make a journal page.  So here is mine.  I started out by gessoing the pages as the paper in this journal is quite thin.  Then I added some gold acrylic paint which I love.  I really wanted to do something with doors opening so cut my different sheets of paper up into door shapes and added ribbon for handles.  I tend to use tissue wrap for gifts at Christmas and then add showy ribbon in red or gold.  Inside the doors I wrote about each daughter who came home for Christmas - three from overseas so it is fun to record a little of what was going on for us this year.

The second page has a little wrapped parcel at the top (I did many parcels with white tissue paper and this red glittery ribbon) and a fun cellophane poinsettia bag (cut for the purposes of the journal) which I used to put homebaked oat and spice cookies for the postman, the milkman and the vegetable delivery guy plus anyone else who I thought might like them!!!!  

Inside the bag I put two tags similar to those I used for some parcels and then on the back I made some notes of the recipes I used this year for my turkey and vegetables etc., and I added some other shop bought parcels I used too.  It will be a fun memory - thank you Michelle as always for these prompts.  I especially need the deadline too!!!

Thoughtful Friday no. 121

"May the colors of your soul rise greatly within you 

and the light which weaves your soul to greatness 

will continue to shine and make a clearer way for others."

Mary Anne Radmacher

Thoughtful Friday no. 120

"What is necessary first for visionary power is an undaunted appetite for liveliness - to be among the active elements of the world and love what they do to you, to love 'to work and to be wrought upon'; to be 'alive to all that is enjoyed and all that is endured'; to have the loneliness and the courage to take in not only joy but dismay and fear and pain as modes of being without bolting for comfort or obscuring them with social chatter."

Alec King, "Wordsworth and the Artist's Vision"

Best Shot Monday - everything x four!

When you have four children, or in my case, four daughters, you soon learn the importance of fairness in the family so rather than buying one of anything you end up buying four, ideally four slightly different things so there is a measure of individuality.  So it is with making things for the girls and this Christmas I decided it was time to make the recipe files I had been talking about for the last few years and they had been asking for for the last few years!!  It wasn't just one recipe file though it had to be four and they had to be different (but in some ways the same!!).  And so the above were created just before Christmas using ordinary black binders with two binder rings inside and fabric and batting to make it tactile and cosy to the touch with a few little embellishments and the trademark different names they tend to call me.  All in all, I was pleased with them and the beauty of ring binders is they can be added to (the recipes are all in punched pockets) when new family recipes are created.  Of course if you are in Dubai or Paris then you probably don't want them much at the moment but they will always be here for when you do!!  I miss you all, you wonderful young women!

Thoughtful Friday no. 119

"Courage doesn't always roar"

Mary Anne Radmacher

Thoughtful Friday no. 118

”Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow;

 it empties today of its strength.”

Corrie Ten Boom