Things are Looking Up!

Sun In Aries, Moon in Taurus


I have been told that to raise your head helps lift your spirits, notice how when you are worried or down thats where your head goes, try being mindful of how you hold yourself.

These whispy angels were captured by the husband who thoughtfully sent them along for me to share - thank you honey! Life is soooo wonderous from another perspective!


Looking up under the sacred Jacaranda tree in our garden reveals the left over bunting my mum made us for our handfasting - so bright and beautiful in the tree!














And the left over solar faery lights from the handfasting turn the tree into a faery party the moment the sun sets for the day!



While looking up into our magikal tree i also noticed a curious site! 
I had some shells around the bird bath as a water blessing for the birds and it seems our feathered friends have taken a shine to them as there is now a shell up the tree!


Love!


Lift your head and lift your spirits!


Blessed be!

Art Love and Compassion

Sun in Aries, Moon in Taurus


I made a Kuan Yin statue out of Paper-Clay earlier last year at work when i was getting back into ceramics, she is a goddess of compassion and the deity that looked over my Reiki initiations 9 years ago! I enjoyed looking at sculptures of her at a local vegan cafe and decided to make one of my own as opposed to buying her.


A magikal thing occurred while i painted her - i was overcome with an inner knowing, spirit came to me and  
i remembered i had been here before,
i remembered how much larger i was than my fear,
i remembered this is a journey, an experience.


I feel i have come here to do things, good things, big things, share things, magikal things - does everyone feel this way?
This sculpture is a gift to be compassionate, to remember the heart space when practicing my art, to be compassionate to myself and my creations.

Kuan Yin

I was recently inspired Always inspired really!) by a post on artist Neil Gaiman's blog about writers block, i have written it out for my studio and altered it to be relevant for art and i will share it with you here;

Turn off your inner critic. You do not listen to your inner police force. You ignore the little voices that tell you that it is all stupid and you keep going.

Your art works aren't suffering because you have no skills or the art is bad, its suffering because you aren't finishing things and sending them out there- sharing them.

So finish them, share them. Even if the art is lousy, you'll learn something from it that will be useful as an artist even if it is just 'don't do that again'.

You are always going to be dissatisfied with what you make. That's part of being human. In our heads, artworks are perfect, flawless, glittering, magikal. Then we start to make them, one unsatisfactory paint mark at a time. And each time our inner critic tells us that it's a rotten idea and we should abandon it.

If you're going to create ignore your inner critic, while your creating. Do whatever you can to finish. Know that anything can be fixed later.

Remember: You don't have to be brilliant when you start out. You just have to create. Every artwork you finish puts you closer to being an artist, and makes you a better artist.

Blaming 'Artist Block' is wonderful. it removes any responsibility from the person with the 'block'. It gives you something to blame and it sounds fancy.

But it's probably more honest to think of it as a combination of laziness, perfectionism and getting stuck. if your being lazy, don't be. If your going to be a perfectionist, don't be. And if your stuck, figure out where the art went off the rails or what you got wrong or where you need to go deeper, or what you need to make it work and then start making again.

I have been wanting to share my art with the world but not knowing how to keep at it and perhaps more to the point being afraid to put myself out there. I began thinking "Why can't i just be happy with my part-time art teaching position and part-time creating from home? Why do i need anymore?"

  

Earth Heart Art stall

A dear friend offered me a last minute stall at a recent Psychic and Holistic Fair and i said 'Yes!.' With only a few days to prepare for it i felt quite mad and excited and a wonderful calming voice kept repeating to me when i ever felt anxious or like backing out- "just go with it". And ever so calmly i did and  as Sunday came around i had a little collection of creations to share and I loved the experience of sharing my work with others so much, this is why i can't just be happy to create alone at home, that is only half of my creators world the other half is the sharing of my creations with the people around me. May they flow through me to enrich the lives of my community, may the love  i fill them with flow through to the people.

At this time of Mabon, of balance and of thanksgiving, i give greatest thanks for my lifes passion to create, to make, and the time and ability i have to do what i love and to share it with my community, i ask for the balance of time to create and share it with others and in return i will make sure all work is made with conscious sustainable materials, set in sacred space, an honouring to our mother earth and  i will share what i earn with environmental charities.

Blessed closed magpie wing,
paua shell and incence

What are you Thankful for? What can you do to make a difference? even small things can make a big difference!

Spirit Painting Mobile

Blessed be 

xxx

Dream catcher - willow, hemp, rose-quartz,
feathers, glass, shells - elemental balance.

Om Chime - Ceramic, silk and bells

Love Thy Neighbour!

Sun in Aquarius, Moon in Virgo


Hello Sweet Hearts!


Craftiness has been filling my days and i thought i would share some with you all!

Handmade Owl Family

I would firstly like to introduce you to 'The Owlphicks!' Lovingly hand made using vintage, recycled fabrics and buttons, handmade felt and pillow stuffing! 




















I have also leaped into the Japanese crochet world of Amigurami! 
Amigurami basically a small crocheted or knitted animal or object with anthropomorphic features made purely for cuteness!Love it!! So for my first Amigurami goodness i made Yoda!! I found this neat free pattern online at          happy together creates and i found it pretty darn easy!

While we are in the land of wool i also made this Owl Necklace in the style of the 70's Macrame ones (sorry i can't flip the image at this moment!)- Nothing says retro 70's kitsch much like a macrame owl!! - Here is an image of one i found on Etsy store Mother Midnight. My mum collected Owls when she was about my age and i remember a macrame one - it must have been hers and it reminds me of this wee one. Now i collect owls and would love a macrame one... maybe macrame is next on the Crafty To Do list!!


All these little crafty treasures have been made with 100% love for my neighbours for Christmas and the kids birthdays. I love handmade and i love my neighbours - There's nothing like popping next door for a cup of tea, saying hello over the rickety wooden fence and sharing a bunny. It is a funny age we live in where we are strangers living soooo darn close together. Lets encourage community spirit, stop and smile and say hello, you may just make a new friend. 


Peace Love Blessed Be

Celebrating your Creativity!

Sun In Aquarius,  moon in Gemini

I was up with the sparrows and walking along the beach last week with two beautiful friends and it was a breath of fresh air! I want this year to be filled with moments like that- good friends, oceans, health, love, living.
It feels like a good time to reflect on the year that has been today especially considering today is Lughnasadh a pagan Greater Sabbat where the bounty of life is celebrated and we acknowledge our achievements of the past year.
To celebrate my creativity and acknowledge my progress last year i made a monthly list that i posted in my art room where i wrote down the creative things i was doing, i wrote everything down, big and small from handmade cards to exhibit pieces, every thing counted and everything helped me realise just how much i was doing!

So creative beans in the spirit of Lughnasadh i ask you to get some paper preferably recycled! and you favourite coloured textas and scribbly implements and make yourself a creativity celebration poster and stick it somewhere you will look at often to help you celebrate your creative pursuits! Its amazing the snowball effect this will have - one small accomplishment celebrated majikaly makes space for more creativity to flow - give it a go and let me know how it works for you!

Aubergine Pizzas

Tonight as we look back over the year and give thanks for all we have, i have prepared a dinner of aubergine pizzas and apple and berry crumble with banana froghurt and my husband... yum!






Sabbat blessings everyone!

Apple and Berry Crumble with Banana Froghurt

A HOMEage to Love

Sun in Aquarius, moon in Aries


Hello Possums,


Yesterday was the last day of our Kurb Gallery exhibition 'curious object' that i was apart of with 10 other beautiful, talented women. Wowee!


I created six pieces for the exhibition all dedicated to my husband Ray, they were inspired by love and explorations into 'home'.
'Where I Lay My Hat That's My Home' was a vintage hatblock that i bought and altered from the lovely  CopperAndTin on Etsy and a talented wood working friend carved into it to create a space for a handfelted cat in a hat! The base of the hat block is from the base of our old couch, the inside of the hollow is from our cats pink blanket and the yellow ribbon around the top hat was a small piece left over from our wedding ribbons. The pink hat is from the 1970s and was sourced at my favourite vintage store MoMos. The piece was inspired by the love i have for my cat and the time we spend with him. My love and i made up a little poem one night about a cappy hat happy cat, it was very dorky and i am a big fan of celebrating silly! 

 'Home is Where The Heart Is'

 uses a Queen Anne bed side table that i had as a girl.


'There's No Place Like Home' includes a quote on the wall from an Australian illustrator Kate Knapp. There is a local flower shop near our home and they sell cards by her company 'Twigseeds', i love her use of colour and sweet drawings - they are so heartfelt and true. One quote I fell in love with was included in this piece - "two hearts knitted together with love can never be pulled apart" i have included it within the teapot, written on a small piece of envelope paper from the first letter Ray and I received addressed to Mr and Mrs Kilgariff! The wallpaper interior was from our home and miniature knitting filling the room - My love believes i'm going to fill the world with knitting and crochet!

       'Home Sweet Home' uses a salvaged letterbox from the tip that my love helped put back together for me, inside is a depiction of a picnic - one of our favourite pasttimes. The tree is made of twigs from our blessed Jacaranda tree in our backyard and there is mini bunting in honor of our wedding. 

 'ET Phone Home' is a handmade ceramic telephone. Inside is a miniature model of the tin string phones i would play with as a kid, the Peas label has been made also using the paper from our first envelop - Thank you Uncle Allan, sent all the way from Wyoming USA!

'Home is Whenever I'm With You' has been made using a coconut from the Maldives. My sweetheart proposed to me in the most romantic way i can think of and this piece is in honor of that most special  day. 
Ray and I were holidaying in the Maldives and we went to a deserted island for a picnic and some snorkeling - it was the most beautiful coral reef i have ever seen; like a finding Nemo wonderland, oh my it made my heart sing! While i was snorkeling Ray vanished.. i panic naturally as he is accident prone and has probably been eaten by something somewhere! Thankfully this is a love story so he pops up on the other side of the sandbank exclaiming he has found something! We go to have a look and he tells me how he has always loved me and always will and i look at the beach ahead of us and there is giant writing in the sand "what are you doing?" I cry, and walk all the way to the beginning of the writing in disbelief just incase it says 'Happy Picnic Day!' It instead makes my heart soar like a sea bird 'Marry Me Sarah!' - Note the cheeky man has not posed a question but an exclamation - with a coconut as the dot! I just plop into the sand in tears as he gets down on one knee and there nestled in that coconut is the most stunning ring that Ray designed himself wowee! And the rest is history!


In the making of these artworks i have learnt a lot about home, it is not a place to store our things as the dictionary states but a feeling in your heart.
So this is for you sweet husband, thank you for friendship and love stories and silliness and inspiration, love from your little faery at the bottom of the garden.


Blessed Be xxx

Gypsy daydreams!

Sun In Aquarius,  moon in pisces


Hello fellow travelers,


I would like to share with you some inspiration that has been filling my daydreams lately.






























Ahh the majik of a gypsy caravan!Oh how i dream of owning my very own. I want to set it up in the backyard as a daydream retreat space - heavenly!




The images make my heart sing - it feels like it will burst out of my chest. They also lead me to thoughts of wanting to redecorate my home, i would love to cultivate those inspiring gypsy interiors - to create a majikal, colourful haven - filled to the brim with altars and sacred spaces, gorgeous textiles, paintings and colour. I am still avoiding buying things from the shops as much as possible so these items are going to have to be homemade, fairtrade or secondhand, this will enhance the beautiful spirit of our home even more i believe. 


So if you find a gypsy caravan and want to pass it along to a loving home - please think of me :D - i promise i will be thrilled, joyous and oh so very grateful!!


Blessed be
xx

Mixed Bag

Sun in Aquarius, moon in capricorn

Darlington

A BIG Thank You to everyone who came and supported me at the Darlington Arts Festival last year– what a fun time! It was really wonderful to see the ‘CreativiTea’ piece in the gallery setting with all the other amazing felted creations.

I had a moment of complete overwhelm with the white walled space but it was softened by the.. well softness actually of the felt – not a harsh line in sight!

The Saturday ‘Artist In Motion’ workshop was a lot of fun, the weather was rainy and wild – my favourite – but not so much for the wool fibre blowing all about!

I really enjoyed sharing my love of felting with the friendly faces that popped by my space to check out all the wet soapy fun – so thank you friendly faces, it was fun and I’ll definitely be back next year!

Mixed media character

At work I have been working on a mixed media character for the better part of last year really, so much time has been spent figuring out how to construct her using a variety of materials.

 

I’ll keep you posted on her progress!

Kurb appeal!

January has not only been wedding time but exhibition time too eep!

Here are the beginning steps of my explorations – I began working with ideas of home, what home means – is it something we create or something we are drawn to? And songs, poems and words about home – and of course love – I have just gotten married!
I then created miniature scenes to do with love and home using handmade, recycled, meaningful material

I will share the first stages of the teapot..

And the fossiking for letterboxes

My neighbourhood has an exemplary display of letter box love – unfortunately the new houses haven’t got the character of the old ones – but this speaks volumes really!

Scrummaging at the tip I have found this old gem 

Rescued  broken letterbox!

Really does remind me of Dr Who! Whoever threw this marvel out – I thank you!

The exhibit titled 'curious object' opened last night in Northbridge. I'll post later in the week with how it all went! 
Keep dreaming and believing lovely people!

Handmade Eco handfasting

Sun in Aquarius, moon in capricorn

Salutations!


I would like to share with you our handfasting thoroughly enjoyed 2 weeks ago! My love and I went to great lengths to create a day that was as handmade and as environmentally friendly as possible which of course meant it was filled to the brim with love and a whole pile of help and support from friends and family!

Invitations were hand drawn by myself and then printed onto recycled paper and mounted on recycled card! Labour intensive but i have a speedy gonzalez scissor sister so they eventually were cut out in no time!


My beautiful, helpful friend successfully got me in a wedding dress shop - i nearly fled in sheer panic at first but got the hang of it after a while and actually tried a couple of frocks on and wait for it... i enjoyed myself! 
But buying a dress made in a factory in china really didn't sit well for me so i went home and did a bit of research for handmade wedding dresses - surely i could make my own i just needed some inspiration. I looked at crochet wedding dresses because well i just love crochet and i found this gorgeous number made by the bride herself on Gia Canali's Photography site here.

So that was it i was inspired! And this is what evolved after months of sewing, adjusting, brainstorming, stitching, dying and learning to crochet

I found the skirt fabric years ago on a verge at a garage sale 5metres for $5 - Love it, its a broderie anglaise and was originally white, the corset fabric was some left over cotton i had in my art room. I dyed them with Procion Dyes with the help of my neighbour I originally had turquoise with a majority of purple all over it in mind but it came out majority turquoise and it worked as little did i know but my love had chosen a turquoise shirt to wear - we matched! The pink tutu was from a fabulous vintage shop in the city called "Oh Henry" I love the shop - so many gorgeous frocks! The story goes that the skirt is from a Can-Can dancer from San Fransisco - love it and named it 'The Flamingo!' The crochet was a year long foray involving many lovely women contributing - thank you lovely ladies!

I bought my shoes from a fabulous company called TOMS. You can find there wonderful shoes and eye wear at www.toms.com. For every pair of shoes you buy they will buy a pair for children less fortunate - awesome, ethical, comfy, gorgeous - big love to Toms! I wore them to my sister in laws wedding in there original splendor and then painted them purple and covered them in glitter!

 More lovely ladies helped me make Raw Carrot Cup Cakes with Raw Cashew Cream Icing
I'll share the recipe for you - we made 150 and used 15 kilos of carrots so i think i'll modify the recipe to just 6 muffins for you all!


You will need 
Fruit/ Veg juicer
blender
silicone muffin holder


1 cup walnuts
1 cup dates
2 cups of carrot pulp - enjoy that juice
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1tbsp chia seeds
dash of cinnamon and nutmeg


Pulse the nuts in blender till mealy then pulse dry fruit till very chopped. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and then press firmly into silicone moulds.
refrigerate.             Pulse the cashews in the blender with
                         a little bit of water and oil till
Topping                  smooth add a dash of vanilla then check 
1 cup cashews            for smoothness, you may need to add
dash of vanilla          more water/oil but you don't want the                  
1/4 cup water            topping too runny. Spread onto the 
tablespoon coconut oil   muffins and pop in the fridge - hey 
                         presto!
          
We popped our carrot cakes into recyclable, compostable wrappers called If You Care - so.. if you care head to http://www.atomikgreen.com.au/products/IF-YOU-CARE-Patty-Pans.html


The cakes were housed on a stand made with love by my dad - Thanks dad and decorated with flowers by more lovely ladies! The cake topper was my version of Wallace and Lady Tottington with our cat! I love Stop Motion Animation and we watched the 'Curse of the Were Rabbit' early in our relationship and said that Ray was Wallace as he loves cheese and i was like Totti as i also would like a sanctuary for cute and fluffy animals! 

 The wonderful women in my life were asked to bring a flower and two friends arranged them into gorgeous rainbow bouquets so wonderful and after the weekend my love and I took them to my uncles burial spot in Denmark to honour his memory.


My new father in law with the help of 'the men' made us a Tipi for our wedding night from a recycled billboard canvas that i painted with the help of some creative family members - my new sister in laws decorated the inside for us as a surprise it was so beautiful i really wish we had more time to spend in there!

 
The sisters also helped with my hair and i got a foot massage - delux! A gorgeous friend did my makeup for me using only eco-organic products like Inica and Zuii - go check these products out online or your local health food store and invest in not only beauty but the welfare of animals and your health :D


We ate vegetarian food on compostable dishes and cutlery, decorations were handed down from our sisters wedding a few weeks before and painted in rainbows, pom-poms were made by family and friends, crochet rugs were collected from op-shops and laid on hay bales for seating and warmth - it was pretty cold! Solar powered fairy lights were gifted from my sister and solar powered garden lights were found at a local hardware store. Seventy meters of bunting to be strung about the place was made by my mum from fabric scraps and left over ribbons
We were blessed with live music from a local Denmark Blues band called Ramsnake and the talented tunes of Them Little Secrets - Please go and support these gorgeous girls on www.myspace.com/themlittlesecrets and
www.facebook.com/themlittlesecrets

they are sooo sublime! 



 

For our ceremony we chose to have a handfasting an old Celtic ceremony were two people have there hands tied in ribbons (like tying the knot!) to symbolise their union and then every year and a day thereafter the couple comes back together to rebind there hands and commit to another year and a day together, a renewal of vows and commitment - so real and meaningful! Two of our very special friends held this ceremony for us - bless you Simone and Paul thank you so much!

  
I researched sustainable and ethical jewelers to make Rays ring and i believe i found the only one in the whole of Australia! A very talented man named Benjamin Manning  - Utopian Creations from Studio Eco in South Australia - go check him out www.utopiancreations.com.au/studio . He sent me photos every few days of the progress of the ring - it was so wonderful to watch it evolve from a hunk of metal!


The photos i have shared with you here were taken by my dear friend and super talented photographer - you can find her work at www.wilddawnphotography.com.au
 
We are so blessed by very talented and generous friends and family. So many people contributed to making our day so very special and meaningful and handmade - Thank you so much everyone!           
We are delighted !!