"Suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character,

and character produces hope"

I am involved in an "Inspiration Swap" where we are to make an item using a supplied, inspiring word. This time the word is endurance or endure. I like the sound of that word! At the Creative Soul Retreat I did one class with Stephanie Lee called The Chain Gang. We learnt to make bezels and also 3 different forms of chain. Unfortunately my bezel hasn't appeared since I got back from Melbourne but here is a pic of my chain. As you can see I really liked making the round ones with the 'globs' which you could either hammer flat or leave as globs!

On the last day of The Creative Soul Retreat I did DJ Pettit's collage class and I thoroughly enjoyed it and also the fact that I was sitting next to Lucy, with whom I hadn't had the chance to talk to. I think we chatted more than we worked at some stages - we discussed all sorts of things including France and our hopes of visiting there next year - and then after awhile she just disappeared into thin air! But I know she was one of the helpers in setting the retreat up so she would have been away doing things... and not the fact that I had bored her silly!!

I showed cherub #2 this pic that I made in DJ's class - (it is a different technique to what you may have seen on some of the Face Painting Classes). I haven't finished it yet as I can't get the lid off my Indian Ink and I want to decorate the base board a bit more. Cherub told me "Mum you should be really proud of yourself, it is good enough to go into The Louvre"!!!! I don't care if it isn't as good as it should be, the praise and admiration I got from him is enough for me..........at what age do they stop liking what their mother's make????

It really is a small world.........

I had a few surprises at the Creative Soul Retreat. Sue and I were chatting and I discovered that she came from Albany so I asked her if she knew my cousin Miriam, who lived there until a couple of years ago. Not only did she know her but she taught with her - small world. This is Sue with her gorgeous journal that she worked on...and she continued working on it 'til about 10pm until it was finished. Sue also bought this wonderful journal that DJ had made.

You really need to see each page of it to see how lovely it is.

Another surprise was at the Meet and Greet on the Friday evening. I saw this woman with a walking stick and thought she looked familiar and then realised it was Rhonda who used to sell on The Chocolate Crow Trader. Three years ago she picked us up from the train station at Belgrave and took us to Olinda for the day, which we thoroughly enjoyed, but unfortunately we had lost contact since then. I ended up sitting next to Rhonda in 2 classes on the weekend so it was nice to have a chance to catch up.

Surprise no. 3 was meeting Jan. Jan lives at the top of the Peninsula where I live - approx 1 1/2 hours away - so we had travelled all the way to Melbourne to discover that we actually live that close and enjoy the same making and creating!

And to finish this post off - this was NO surprise! Kirsty did DJ's face painting class and not only finished the painting but did another one during the class - in her own style but utilising some of the techniques she had learnt from DJ.

The fastest week there has ever been.....

8 days since I last posted and now it is a week since I flew to Melbourne to attend the Creative Soul Retreat. "Time flies when you are having fun"and that is exactly what has happened. The Retreat was all that we had hoped and been promised, and then some. The skills and techniques we all learnt were terrific and we also formed some wonderful friendships.

I was determined to buy myself a special 'piece' at the Friday night market so I was very happy to snaffle an original work of DJ Pettit's, entitled "A Quiet Place".
There were a few other things that I bought too that I will show in other posts. The Friday night was quite hot and we were all feeling a bit uncomfortable with the heat. Fortunately the cool change came along on Saturday - with rain and some thunder - so that was a welcome relief. The first project I did was DJ's journal class. Here I am at the end of the day - with a bit of a shine on the forehead, nose and chin, just to prove I had been working hard!!! Didn't quite get to the putting together stage (some girls finished) as I was wanting to come home and add some bits and pieces and use my sewing machine. After each day's classes has finished - Kirsty and I made sure that we had nice nibbles and drinks to share. Being supportive of the South Australian food industry, we took some Maggie Beer pate with us (nothing to do with the fact that we love her pate!!!), cheeses and biscuits.

And we bought some Wild Hibiscus flowers in syrup to add to the drinks - a touch of yum!

The sunrise seen from our venue.

I'll share more next time........

One Last Post

before I head off to Melbourne tomorrow. The little houses for the swap are all wrapped and ready to go.
And here is my stash of goodies that I am taking (Pattie you might spot some of the things that you have sent me) .There are still a few waiting at the other end - butane torch, solder, paints etc. I hope to be able to show you the finished projects in about a week.
Back to the packing and deciding what clothes to take! Be good.............

Change of Plans

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you would know that I am off to Melbourne on Friday to attend the Creative Soul Retreat, along with my friend Kirsty. So what are the changes?
Marion has changed her mind and has decided to fly over to Melbourne on Sunday (after she has finished creating a wedding cake for a Saturday wedding) and is going to stay with a friend of hers - and do fun things with her and her little boy. On Monday night we will meet up and stay in the city.
I had booked accommodation awhile ago but wasn't totally happy with it so today I found an alternative and so changed the booking. Kirsty and I were going to fly home on Tuesday but we have changed our flights to the Wednesday to enable us to have a full day of shopping.
Well......it's a woman's perogative to change her mind isn't it? And when you put 3 women together, that gives you scope for a lot of changes!

Change is inevitable -

except from a vending machine.

~Robert C. Gallagher

Two lovely photos

I know Marion will love this photo when she sees it. What wonderful presentation for a special or not so special morning or afternoon tea. The cupcake liners are made so simply too......
Tammy Mitchell used scrapbooking quality paper, cut around a normal cupcake liner to get the correct size, then used her pinking shears to cut the edges and pleated them accordian style. There are so many lovely printed papers available now, so you could just imagine all the pretty cupcake liners that should be adorning our tables soon!! This is what I was happy to see this morning on DJ Pettit's blog this morning. She has finished the class sample for the collage class I will be doing with her in Melbourne in 3 weeks time. I can see layer upon layer of fabrics, papers etc. Should be lots of fun and I hope mine will look something like that!

Hello there!

Look what appeared at my door step this morning! Marion has had a creative spurt and she produced this doll over the weekend - "Izzy".

We're pretty happy that this has happened (and it does happen frequently) - so anyone who lives in our area, please make an appointment if you want to visit Marion as she is busy making things at present and we don't want to interrupt the creative flow...LOL
And my effort this weekend was to finish off the 50 little houses that I need to take to the Creative Soul Retreat - we come home with others made by all the other retreat attendees so that we can have our own "Soul Village".

Love their faces! The X at the top signifies my delegate number - 10.

Wish I could think of a meaningful quote about houses, homes, windows, faces peering out etc to include with it. If there is a poet out there in blogland reading this I am happy to receive any ideas - otherwise I am sure something will spring to mind in the middle of the night....

In 189 days time.....

I will be attending this event in Melbourne. It is pretty exciting and I wish it was sooner. I am looking forward to learning lots from the international instructors.

For quite some time now I have been envious of the girls in USA with all the wonderful art retreats, weekends etc that they have on offer - and even more so the girls that go to Tuscany or other lovely places. Sometimes when I see a new one on offer, I jump onto a website to see how much it would cost to fly there. It is always out of my reach.

But now I am going to have the chance - maybe not in France or Italy or USA but in Melbourne. I could always pretend that I was in another country!!!!

I have 2 classes lined up with DJ Pettit and a jewellery making one with Stephanie Lee. We have a few months (well 189 days to be exact) to find all our supplies and get organised. Kirsty is coming with me, and at this stage I think we are the only South Aussies attending. She is doing different classes to me so at night (we are staying at the venue) we will be able to compare notes on what we have learnt during the day.

How excitement!

Christina

(Thankyou Gina for explaining how to do hyperlinks - it worked!!!)