patchwork

Klukas

Do you have those days - when the patchwork has too many grey spaces, the colours clash and finding the right pattern, or any meaning in the fabric - is just so hard?

Some things need shelving! And folding is one of those things I've got worked out.

Hope the colours are working out for you today.

contemplative

FREDERIQUE K

ideas born

It's happening isn't it?

Unborn Ideas - Catrin Welz-Stein

I'm slowly - but quite surely, beginning to abandon my blog.

I've had my needs met -

Used her for all she's worth....

I grasped for her in the beginning - begging for space and a voice and 5 moments every other day that would allow my other voice to sing out - the one that doesn't have dishwater hands or stoop to scrub the glue-like substance of weatbix from the floor - 

the space that encouraged me to express my love for motherhood and the bits that challenged me -

a space that reminded me that I see things in feeling - 

and feel in colour - 

a space to record thoughts and moments, not let them float up - away.

Now there is a reversal -

and expressing ideas are a weekly requirement. Now they flow out in rapid succession to be analysed and evaluated, challenged and questioned. Now expression is being assessed. 

It's filling me up and spinning me with stimulation.

I have no time for her anymore, this blog of mine - though I love her still.

I wonder if she'll continue to bother with me.

senses shared

read: Alice Pung's Unpolished Gem for Uni - and with pleasure.

taste: All the wonderful meals that are being cooked for me - tasting so much better now that the kitchen is his place not mine.
see: Kescha's magnificent creations - oh to have pink wool hair and a love heart nose!
hear: 

because i can't get enough of Florence + the Machine at the moment.
smell: Patchouli and soap
touch: The spines of books in the library - light finger-tipped and searching.
think: On knitting as the days start to cool but don't quite know where to start - it all looks so good!
feel: The reaching out into the world and finding so much there.

Senses Shared

putting the call out

sounds that unite....

where are you now?

because sometimes words ellude.....

shared senses and a deep love for MONA

I enjoy visiting bohemian twilight and wandering through Monica's shared senses -
I love how a very clear and full picture can be internally painted via a few thoughtful words and a tune.
Monica invites visitors to join in and share in the senses tour..

 mona

wim delvoye

see: MONA - Museum of Old and New Art - in Hobart, Tasmania. There will be many posts to come about my experiences within that brilliant and extraordinary place.

hear: 

- an old album on the new record player.

read: Indelible Ink - by Fiona McGregor. A slow start for me but the the writing drew me in eventually with its fine and sometimes cruel insight into the dynamics of family. First book for the newly formed book club.


taste: Coffee. Always Coffee


touch: Small hands. Soft skin.


think: On a big change


feel: Revived and renewed after experiencing a deeply thoughtful gift from my partner - 3 whole days away in Tasmania, to delve into the stunning gifts of mona.

{shared senses}

it's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to

via

I pinned this on to one of my pinterest boards via every day dreamer yesterday - and given the number of times it's been repinned, it must be ringing true for many...

I came across this wonderful free beanie pattern on Ravelry a while back (if you want to give it a go - it doesn't hurt to add a few extra rows...). 

What I particularly love about this pattern, apart from being a quick knit and keeping heads warm, is this note that the creator of the pattern added at the end:

"feel free to distribute it, copy it, profit from it, learn from it, discard it, and/or share it. Pah! on copyrights that keep loved ones warm!"

 There is so much value in influence and the ideas shared by others (enhanced so much these days by the generosity of the blogosphere) - it is in everything we smell, hear, touch, read, feel, make, taste, share... - and we bring them all back to the place we stand and offer a different take on them.
A unique take because don't we all stand within a different space - even if it is just ever-so-slightly?

Celebrating thievery. What do you think?

Treasure

I am Gathering. 

finding. sourcing. collecting. making..... thinking on

Small Things. 

Just a few - but enough - to make up a parcel to send to an as-yet unknown address. 

To a person I have never met, 

nor spoken to, 

nor know anything about.

It is a very wonderful thing!

It's a give and receive project in celebration of the festive season. 

For me it is also a celebration of the delights of Slow Mail - of the handwritten - of the journey over the seas that patterns a parcel not only with what it contains and the thoughts of its creator - but in the time it takes and the places it has moved through. 

In this one idea - many more are conjured. 

Thoughts on the process and feeling of giving to a stranger. Thoughts on connecting. 

We do connect very differently with the the handwritten envelope, don't we? - than the typed one - than the sounding of an sms - the number on the email inbox.

That pen mark speaks volumes. It warms.

Do you agree?

Visit Wandering the North Pole to find out more.

Images here, here, here and here

heart-space

“They sang the words in unison, yet somehow created a web of sounds with their voices. It was like hearing a piece of fabric woven with all the colors of a rainbow. I did not know that such beauty could be formed by the human mouth. I had never heard harmony before.” 
― Anita Diamant, The Red Tent

Images: here, here, here and here

why i adore the night

This week I have been so fortunate to have the opportunity to contribute to Hila's 'why i adore the night' project. Hila's blog le projet d'amour is a regular source of inspiration to me - her discussion and aesthetic is rich and beautiful.
If you get the opportunity please visit "why i adore the night' and experience how others have expressed their experience and relationship with Night!
Read more here about Hila's inspiration and idea to explore the subject - beginning from her reading of Jeanette Winterson's article of the same name in The Guardian in 2009.

image source: via

for lachy

Image source via

you are not alone

Are you familiar with PostSecret?

An ongoing global community project, it draws people together in the sharing of their secrets.

It un-lonlies them - us - all.

Millions of people have sent one man their secrets anonymously on the back of homemade postcards. He publishes them in books, exhibits them, blogs them and has created an archive of them to be visited by the millions (over 485 million and climbing).

Reading people's secrets should feel voyeuristic - but it doesn't. 

It feels like relief.

Relief for those who have unburdened their heaviness, shared shame and desire and longing, shared quirks and kindness and loss, shared where they haven't before and by doing so given so much to themselves and to those who read them.

A PostSecret book weighs heavy with it's sadness and so light with it's offering: 

You Are Not Alone it sings.

You are not alone in your loneliness, in your craving, in your shame, cruelty, fear, selfishness, distrust, compassion, strangeness..... in your humanity.

And reading here shows that the secrets of a stranger can create change in the life of another.

Reading here - about the beginnings of PostSecret - I was struck by this:

'first find the value in a thoughtful question'

There is so much value isn't there? And perhaps there needs to be more learning in this - so that we are not just comforted in the community of a shared secret but by those who sit in the same room with us.

Has someone asked you a thoughtful question recently?

Reminder

I have framed a drawing I did a while back.

Not because it's especially good.... But to act as a reminder.

A reminder that drawing - for me - is relaxing, meditative.... enjoyable.

At certain - particularly! -  busy times of life, these things get overlooked. Why we don't prioritise the things that are good for us is a reoccurring question.

We have two notebooks here, one for each of the girls, to record their observations and the wonderful quirkiness of their experimentation with language. One is completely blank as the youngest is still talking in a very unique and magical language Completely Of Her Own (oh what awaits those pages....)!
The notebook that belongs to our eldest has some beauties..

"the moon is awake and he's at my house!"
"strawberries..... don't eat strawberries!"

But then - this:

"Mama! I can't hear you, you're very busy cleaning!"

Oh.... Dear!

So - this framing has a few reminders stamped on it should I choose to see them. 

Drawing is pleasurable - Yes. Take time to do more of it - Yes.

And - if she and she and I all sit beside each other and draw together - well.... that speaks for itself.

.....just after I wipe the cereal from the table, change a nappy, wipe a nose, resolve a conflict, interpret, negotiate, feed.

It will happen - I'm-Sure-Of-It!

How about you? Anything 'written' on your wall? What does it say?

More Creative Spaces here.

Shake

Speak

Bombing for peace is like.....

Via