"The Craft Group" plus...

Got lots of time at home? Make the most of it! I have been home for 3 days... I am not in lockdown, just being careful. I still have to work at school for 2 days a week while it is open. Sadly The Craft Group has been cancelled. BUT, even though there are many sad terrible things going on at the moment, I am thankful for the gift of Time. And I plan to use it well. So far I have turned our loungeroom into a bedroom for our 28 year old who has moved back home for a while (the spare bedroom is our new office - which I am not parting with!) I also ... without paying a cent, have made a music and art room! I'll share how I did it with you one day! I have also caught up with a whole basket of ironing! I have hundreds of projects I could do at home. But it's not just about keeping busy. Looking after our mental health is very, very important at this time. It is important to have a routine, which I am going to struggle with (I am, unfortunately, rather spontaneous and ea...

Lady bugs... or ladybirds are good for your garden. These are good because they are super cute! Elly gets old golf balls from the golf course and cleans them up, undercoats them and paints them into fun creatures for the garden. Then she sells them to raise money to help her daughter-in-law pay for some of her diabetes equipment. This fits in so well with our theme this year! 2019 - RENEW Old golf balls renewed into fun critters for the garden  which create cash for important medical equipment.  So good.

In the past... I have been to Europe. I have been to Canada. I have seen some of Australia. But... I have never really had the desire to go to any Asian destination for more than a stop over. Then, our daughter decided she wanted to live and teach in Southern Asia. So... after 9 months of her moving there, my husband and I went for 3 weeks to visit her in the Himalayas. What a fascinating experience! We are back. She is still there.   I am very thankful for modern forms of communication. There are so many stories to tell but seeing as you are all my craft friends, I will share some crafty photos... There was folk art on every single building. A newly built apartment block was being built near our daughters place. We loved watching the men perched on the bamboo scaffolding painting all the amazing designs for weeks on end.  We went to a paper making factory.  We watched women weaving scarves. We saw hand woven yak w...

This lovely, unassuming lady used her creativity to give Bratz Dolls a makeover.  She and her husband can't believe the way this has gone viral on the internet. It is just such a refreshing thing to see! Enjoy.

What a morning we had yesterday! At The Craft Group we hosted our annual "Cancer Council Morning Tea" as part of the big Australian wide fundraising project, the Biggest Morning Tea . We did some Craft, then we had some announcements. Then Pam introduced her ex neighbour who is fighting a pretty big battle at the moment with Cancer. Bec was coming home from hospital yesterday and is really not well.  We couldn't ask her to come and speak but we still were encouraged by her. We watched a You Tube clip made by her church. It is just Bec talking and sharing where she sees "Home" to be. It's only 5 minutes long and is really worth watching... Click HERE to watch it. Then we read out an email Bec sent to me the other day. She said how much Psalm 139 meant to her lately. (I've added it below). If you are reading this Bec.... thanks for sharing your Hope with us. It was very touching and helps put life into perspective. It is really all about ...

OK, it's January and things are about to speed up again as the wheels of 2012 start spinning! I hope you had a nice few weeks after the busy Christmas time. I don't know where to start in my house at the moment so... I am going to do a 15 day declutter challenge which I found on a blog by Glynnis Whitwer . She says about her challenge: " You probably know I’ve written a book called “ I Used to Be So Organized .”  The basis of any type of organizing is purging unnecessary items.  After all, why spend any time organizing stuff that shouldn’t be there in the first place?  So I decided perhaps it would be best to focus on eliminating clutter.  So beginning January 9th, I’ll be hosting a 15-day Clutter-Free Challenge on my blog.  Each Monday through Friday for three weeks, I’ll offer tips on how to clear out the extra stuff in our lives. If you’d like to lighten the clutter in your thoughts, schedule and home, please sign up today to receive my posts.  ...

I hope you had a lovely day yesterday!  My family went to Church in the morning and then went to my Mum and Dad's for lunch and and a laid back few hours which was nice. The night before, we all gathered with my side of the family and had a lovely get together at my sisters house. All 20 of us. We arrived home at 11pm I think, and had a lovely time. So Christmas day was a bit milder with only 9 of us! Then we went home to pick up my Christmas pudding icecream and hot Caramel sauce which I had made (I'll share it with you for next year!) Then we went off for another lovely family gathering with Mark's side of the family for the evening. I think there were 28 of us there. The family and food were really something to be thankful for all this weekend! In case you are wondering what you are supposed to do on "Boxing Day", I did some research for you which I found here on 'fact monster' . Just in case someone asks you about Boxing Day, you are ...

OK, so "flashmobs" are becoming a bit too common and that has taken the 'wow' out of them a bit (especially when my local grocery store did one as an advertising stunt with 'staff' suddenly burst into song! That was weird). Anyway, I just came across another one which was done in Copenhagen in May this year. It combines my love of spontaneity, music and Europe. Enjoy... and have a great weekend!

I found this photographic project on the 'net. Fascinating. Quoting from   My Modern Met... "How much do you and members of your family really look alike? Quebec, Canada-based graphic designer and photographer Ulric Collette has created a shockingly cool project where he's exploring the genetic similarities between different members of the same family. By splitting their faces in half and then melding them together, he creates interesting new people that are sometimes quite normal looking and other times far from it. He calls this series   Genetic Portraits ." Here is a sample: The left side of the face is the mother and the right side is the daughter. Click  here  or here  to see more blended family portraits. Some are very interesting.  I guess I find this fascinating because I am always intrigued by the way God designed us and the process of reproduction. So much genetic information being held in 2 small cells which combine and grow into anoth...

I so wish I thought of this idea myself, it is brilliant and the sort of thing I would start (but would I finish?) Lea from   Leafcutter Designs  prepared balls of wool which matched the different colours of the sky. She had 6 different shades as you can see in the photo below. Each day she would look outside to see what colour the sky was that day.  She would then do just two row of knitting each day, matching the colour of the sky with the ball of wool she chose. Each day has 2 rows of garter stitch completed.   Here is the pattern  if you want to do this yourself!  Check out her  video here  where she explains things more fully and shows how she manages all her balls of wool. Instead of one ball of wool, she has done 2 smaller balls so she can do a mix, for example on a blue sky day with some white clouds, she knits the blue and white yarns together that day. I love this. She calls it 'conceptual knitting'. At the end of th...