would you join me in lighting a candle for a sweet little boy who passed away today?
and hold love and light in your hearts for my dear friend vicky and her family...
i have no other words. just love. sending waves of love and picturing oceans of more love being sent their way.
(a fund has been set up for their family, should you wish to contribute)
xo
while in charleston, faith and i *christened* her new studio with a prayer flag workshop. i believe a happy life must involve flags for every (and any) occasion - one might say i have a slight flag/garland/banner obsession (and one might be right) - they are cheerful, can be made out of anything (i've tried) and for any reason...find me a reason not to make flags, go on - i dare ya!
we began our creative day with a nature mandala and a circle to share and choose an intention for ourselves...honoring this time to come together and create ! it was such a lovely group of women and we bonded right away - i love the connections that can form between a group of women and the energy and excitement in making happy things!
with baskets of colourful and inspiring fabrics and materials, some fun mixed media techniques, imagination, sharing and soulful intentions each woman in the group created individual flags to be strung together in a colourful and joyful way. happy to have been there to share in these creations and witness the smiles of the proud flag bearers!
xo
oh hello gorgeous sunshine !
green beautiful trees !
bright happy colours of spring everywhere !
warmthhhhhhh....yes yes yes this was a lovely inspiring week on our trip down to south carolina. nothing makes me happier than being with my family, barefoot in the sunshine. and being with creative friends makes it even juicier! faith is a dear friend and real live she-lives-and-breathes-it artist. a warm, generous one at that. we bounced oodles of ideas and inspiration off each other and i loved all the creative energy swirling around. it felt so good ! our kids had a marvellous time together and we loved their beautiful city of charleston. inspiration everywhere we looked...and some nostaligia being in the deep green and vast blue, reminded me of *home* in many ways :)(faith with her number one fan making nature mandalas)
i've been so inspired by faith's nature mandalas for a long time (she posts them regularly on her instagram @faithevanssills #faithsmandalas) and enjoyed watching her create them and having a go myself while we were in bali together. i've been making the time for myself to do this each week - just a few minutes on a monday - and looking forward to the simple practice of slowing and creating something from nature. much needed soul-stuff!
while at the beach on our last evening together we gathered washed up sticks and shells and flowers the girls had brought to create together...if i were a bird i'd decorate my nest just like this i think :)i'm holding onto as much of the loveliness and inspiration from this week as i can, to tide me over until our next beach art fun on the cape later this month. still some space if you are thinking of joining us!
xo
oh yeh ! nothing brings you together like a family road trip!
setting off at 5pm so the kids would fall asleep a few hours later, we hit the highways and drove caravan style with some friends all night arriving in south carolina at lunchtime the next day. hard core!
upon arrival we discovered we had brought the miserable weather with us - hmmpf - grey and rainy but oh well it was still the beach and many many degrees warmer than what we had left behind. we camped at huntington state park and oh did i mention we brought our new puppy with us...meet veda ! our rescue pup and ivy's dream of all dreams come true :) she is incredibly sweet and is going to be b i g...she has bernese mountain dog and newfoundland in her (we think), and stops everyone in their tracks with her cuteness !
our easter was rainy and involved moving camp sites from a flooded spot to somewhere a bit drier...despite the parents feeling on edge and prior plans unravelling, the kids had the most magical time romping together in the sand, woods (sighting the 'easter' bunny, for real) and hooning through puddles on their bikes. family, friends and togetherness. what matters :)
and then the sun came out for us the next day and stayed all week...
oh and we saw alligators. EEEEEEK !!!!!
(see them? 2 little buggars in this photo)when you're a kid is there anything better than camping with your friends?
so many fun memories made - i'm glad we didn't woos out of this trip ! after a few days of beach camping we headed further down to charleston, sc to stay with friends and have some more adventures - of which i will blog about tomorrow.
happy may! mayyyyybe i will blog more this month...
i've been posting about this over at my facebook page (a more reliable source for updates on what i am doing creatively than here), but realised i haven't yet shared on my blog !
faith, liz and i have banded together to create a weekend retreat in a seaside cottage on cape cod ma - i am so mindful of the power of a circle of women gathering and sharing and having the space to open up creatively and am excited to help facilitate this weekend.
we are offering 5 classes over the weekend ~ faith will be teaching painting and dreamcatchers, liz will be teaching jewellery making and i'm offering nuno-felting and mixed media prayer flags. we are packing a whole lotta making good stuff into one weekend !
a local friend rebecca who twirls and hoop dances with fire is coming to bedazzle us with her magic skills and guide us in getting our hoop dance on !
there will be good healthy food, walks and laughter on the beach, yoga for those who wish, bonfire medicine, nature mandala making and good connections with new friends.
full details and registration here
i'm fully aware of how complicated it can be for mamas to 'get away' and do something for themselves, and that spending money on ourselves doesn't always come easy. we have made this weekend as affordable as possible ~ please be in touch if cost is prohibitive and perhaps we can create a way ? i'm hopeful that in the future as i create more gatherings and retreats that a scholaship fund will available for those who are needing such a recharge but finances can't support. stay tuned ! xo
i haven't really been selling online for the past few years - i'm not very good at the juggling/balancing thing with mama duties, craft fairs and to be honest taking banjo as a toddler to the post office was more than i could handle for a while. and, i just didn't want to sell on etsy anymore.
i've plodded away taking email skirt and flag orders now and then along with a few instagram sales (#shopembers if you want to follow for updates on sales), but have recently opened up a square market shop and am liking it so far.
limited tiger maxi skirts are now featuring !
rrrrrrraaaaa !
xo
the ingall's family weren't kidding about the 'long hard winter' ! it's been a particularly rough one for us aussies - not having grown up in a climate anything like this ! the locals are all complaining...we are just kinda dazed and confused (frozen?) - winter is winter here, despite my mini escapes to warmer places (bali and az), i've found it a challenge to stay um, positive ! amidst a whole lot of sickness spells in our family along with animal loss.
sadly, with all the love and joy that comes from owning animals we have witnessed some intense loss. this winter our dear mama goat died of cancer. it was difficult to take, especially after nursing her back to health in the house (yes, a goat living in my house for 10 days), worrying, rejoicing over her recovery and then a few months later she suddenly became ill again and passed away. only a month later some neighbourhood dogs ran into our field and killed all of our chickens and our poor sweet blind goat, right in front of my children. it was devastating.
we have spent a lot of time huddling by the fire feeling the heartache. and sure enough with time passing we don't feel quite so heavy. the weather has finally warmed up a wee bit and spending time outside breathing in the spring air and hearing the sweet birds is definitely healing. little shoots are starting to pop up. and there are conversations about planting things and getting a rescue pup and then there was the trip to the feed store that resulted in us walking out with 4 adorable little chicks. they are chirping away beside me as i type.
i am grateful for new life. and for the promise of sunshine...and barefeet. s p r i n g...
xo
as you may or may not have gathered from my occasional ramblings and photographs on this blog, i love to travel. l o v e ittttt. and so in order to get places i dream up ways to fund my trips - usually offering workshops or sales (which also make me very happy, especially when collaborating with friends to do so - i love bouncing off juicy creative souls), which is what i did last weekend to visit my good friend liz. i took my littlest person with me (we are usually a package deal) who slotted right in with liz's 3 boys and all their boy stuff. it felt so good and cozy to be with an old friend. let it all hang out. which i had to actually as i got quite sick while i was there. i made it through our workshops (just - one class did involve some mime when i was unable to converse using words - lucky i have that drama degree under my belt after all hey), and then collapsed allowing liz (true friend that she is) to take care of me. she loaded me up with pills, supplements, oils and who knows what else and let me rest while adding a 5th child to her family !
on our last day we got a babysitter for the morning and i finally left her house for the first time - with a basket of art supplies and smoothies we sat blissfully in the sunshine of a local park making art. OH IT FELT GOOD! totally nourished my soul. i love being around creative people. and being barefoot. and seeing grass and feeling warm.
grateful for the chance to feel grounded within myself by being with a good friend, getting some one-on-one with my little boy, being aware of the beauty that is in this world. i never really noticed how beautiful the desert was before. its good to notice :)
ol mate liz and i go wayyyy back - too far back to do any silly blog linking to showcase our friendship - our hilarious memories and shenannigans are plenty, and we've done some good travel together too. back in our *scrapbooking heyday* we wrote articles for magazines & taught classes together and made spontaneous 4 hour road trips between our homes in CA & AZ just so we could make stuff together.
sadly the spontaneous road trip days are long gone, not to mention there used to only be one child between us and now there are 7...but we have schemed up a few good ways to see each other over the years - and at the end of this month banjo and i will hop on a plane to visit liz and her gang for a few days...and we are excited to be offering two joint workshops while i am there - one for kids and one for um, 'grownups' (just realising we may not qualify for that title...especially if you saw us in her studio late at night...)
may i introduce my proudest sewing accomplishment of last year (if not *ever*) - ivy's crazy colourful clothes quilt!
made up of patches upon patches from her baby and childhood clothing it is cozy and familiar and delicious - and for my sentimental girl it is her most loved possession ! i began the undertaking of this mammoth (to me) project a few days before christmas 2012, with delirious confidence that i could finish it for the big day. making the top was a success by december 24 (to make it managable, i cut an old bedsheet into quarters and worked on each piece, covering it with random sized patches of the clothes, topstitching them in zig zag or straight. once each piece was covered i attached the 4 back together and went over the seams to cover them in more patches. more patches!) - then at 4am christmas day i was a weepy mess with a tangle of quilt top, wadding and poorly sewn on back that i had to rip off. i wrapped the top and gave it to her anyway (she was delighted!) with the promise to finish it *soon*...because i enjoy a challenge (apparently) i happened to think that hand quilting might look really cool. hand quilting DOES look really cool! but may not be the best craft for someone as impatient as me. it took forever...and ever and ever...
i tacked a wool blanket to the back and then over the next, um, 18 months would stitch a spiral here and there through the layers. i am not the fastest at hand stitching. and i get bored of repetitive work, oops !
in the end ivy took matters into her own hands...and finally it was ready for the binding! oh it is just the happiest most ivy-ish quilt - and most likely wherever my girl goes, i will find her quilt with her. there are pockets for little friends or secret love notes (or candy!) to be tucked into. we remember and love every.single.piece.of.clothing in there. many that her little sister also wore. and there is a shirt of daddy's and a top of mumma's in there too. it is her comfort blankie!
i am honored that it means so much to her.
and c'mon, is there anything better to snuggle in a wheelbarrow for an outdoor movie with, than a quilt with all your favourite old cheerful clothes on it (and maybe some chocolate hiding in a pocket?)...
