A Toast

Credit card background, gel medium transfers for the Buildings. Hand tinted image on left. Collaged elements.

A toast:

To new friends made, and more to come. To sharing and caring; laughter and healthy tears. To art growth, may the journey continue. To those who share their wisdom so generously and their hearts so openly. To health of head, heart and body and of the soul. To the furry friends who brighten each day and to those who care for them.

To 2007 with its promise of new journeys and respect for the old.

Blessings to you all.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read "Is there a shadow?", and to leave comments, I so appreciate your encouragement and feedback. A huge part of my journey this year has been the friendships made, and developed, through blogging.

Amazing, Amazing Gift.

One of the Western Australian groups I belong to held a Secret Santa. Nikki, the Paper Pixie, sent me a large parcel just over a week ago and I held off opening it until Christmas night. I am totally blown away by her generosity. See the beautiful bag she had packed so full I could not fit everything back in for a photo. Look at all those meters of lace and buttons. The molded shapes, the pens, so many things all of them just beautiful in themselves - and definitely to be used.
Chrissy, the Christmas doll, is fabulous. Lots of fun to play with and great to look at.

Can you imagine my joy as I sat with a cup of tea opening gift after gift from this bag? Thank you again Nikki.

Happy Christmas

Wishing all my blog friends a Happy Christmas, as we celebrate Jesus' birthday. My prayer is that each of you stays safe, physically and emotionally and that you might enjoy gatherings of family and friends throughout the season.

I didn't put my tree up this year, relying instead on Christmas cards and candles to decorate my living areas, so I was delighted as Maggie and I walked this week, to find this tree a few blocks from home. The native Christmas tree had begun to bloom just in time, and today I took the camera to take a photo just for you. Even looking at the tree now, my inner smile is as wide as the Nullabor - I feel like it bloomed just for Maggie and I.

Can you see the bees buzzing happily in the photo below? Yes, the little black dots! Can you feel the warmth of the summer sun as you look at my blue sky?

The Western Australian Christmas tree (Nuytsia floribunda) is known for its bright yellow flowers around Christmas time (summer). It can grow to 10m tall. It is a member of the mistletoe family.

I could not resist including a photo of Maggie snuffling through the dry grass.

Solstice, Summer and Daylight

Knowing the longest day of the year has been and gone I battle to shut the door on melancholy. Silly really, it is the twenty third day of a 93 day summer - and yet just the knowledge that the solstice has been is enough to shake me. How I love these long hot days and warm evenings.
And then ... As I type ... I recall - this is our (Western Australians) first ever daylight savings' summer - have we beaten the solstice? I smile - all summer we will have an extra hour.

I visited Sombra's blog tonight and delighted in his pictures of the snow - take the time to have a look - they are beautiful. However, to my Aussie friends - Happy Summer, may it be long.

OkOk, the farmers daughter has to add a rider: Unless you are in a drought area - then may it rain each and every night.

I am a part of a 13 member round robin, creating an ATC every two weeks, to the participants chosen theme. These two (can you guess?); Fairies and Celtic had baffled me. Tonight whimsy met my muse and these ATC's emerged.

Charms Ahoy

I am both hosting and participating in charm swaps at the moment. These two designs are, I think, my final choices - they better be, I have nine and ten of each. I do find myself playing with wire more and more.

The cat charm uses the head of a Krafty Lady cat mold and is framed in some bracelet blanks. The vision charms are pinata alcohol inks on scrabble tiles.

I do love Christmas cards ...

I am a big fan of Christmas cards. I enjoy making and sending them, I enjoy writing newsy notes on the insides and enclosing the odd photo. A card from me is never a random selection - but a deliberate decision.

I love that I can dash to the mail box each morning and there will be a handful of cards. I so look forward to hearing everyone's news, admiring the pictures - hand-made and bought and then choosing just the right spot to display the card.

This year I have received two cards that told of sadness and breakdown in long term relationship, and one about terminal illness. My joy-o-meter was really flagging.

Today's mail, however, bought the stunning card made by the ever so talented Sulea . Those birdies are hand drawn and collaged. I also received a card from my beautiful 86 year old Nana, who lives in England. She enclosed the document below - the telegram my Dad sent about four hours after I was born. I love chatting on the phone to Nana, but her cards are so precious - and each time she will enclose an old photo or hankie, something she knows I will treasure. She also always takes time to tell of her love for me. Thank you for my Nana. My only surviving grandparent.

All shopped out ..

I finished my Christmas shopping today and in doing so began to see the donut not the hole, and the glass half full not half empty.

This morning I started by pulling everything I had purchased throughout the year from the "Christmas drawer". Wow! I had at least half of the presents I wanted to give right there. I should have been so pleased.

I confess I set off to make my final purchases full of doom and gloom. I was convinced I would blow the budget, buy too little, or too much, forget something .... You get the picture? I normally love Christmas shopping but have struggled to get into the spirit of the season, let alone get my head around appropriate gifts for loved ones.

What-do-you-know? I had a wonderful time! Everything I went for was on special, I found car parks easily, everyone was friendly and I am happy with all my choices. I saved so much on some books I really wanted for friends that I treated myself to lunch - which was a great chance to look at my lists and check I was on track. Tonight I delighted in wrapping gifts for my family and very close friends - and I feel that joyous peace sneaking up on me.

After all my saving I decided to pop into my local second hand store for some holiday reading. I got the bag of washers and the hinges for $1.50 - I think the owner thought he was ripping me off, but I was so pleased. There are hundreds of washers there! And, some of those hinges have 4 different colours of paint showing through. I did buy books as well, a whole bag for $5.