Back to the real world!

Hi everyone! 

I may have thought that my blogging break would only be until I moved into my new house and had the internet reconnected but I completely under-estimated just what was involved in the move.  So a quick update - Zach and I "camped" in the house for the first month until Joseph and the furniture arrived.  I started work straight away as my employer was incredibly helpful and gave me an immediate transfer. (I have since started another job but again with the same department - I have been incredibly lucky and I am so happy!)

I think the reason I didn't blog once we got the internet organised was that I wasn't doing any arting or crafting and that really is the focus of this blog.  Anyway once the 120 cartons of "stuff" and the furniture arrived, unpacking was the priority!  I had forgotten just how exhausting that process can be and of course I want everything to look lovely straight away (which is an impossibility when you have way too much "stuff"). 

When I still had the 40+ cartons of art and craft stuff to unpack it was time to go to the Creative Soul Retreat over in Melbourne - something that was planned a year ago when a move to Perth wasn't even on the radar.  While the actual retreat was four days I had booked for a fortnight away so that I could have some time with one of my sisters who lives there and then with Joseph who arrived midway.

The Retreat was wonderful and just the rejuvenation I needed - I am really looking forward to get back into some creative stuff now.  I did a couple of workshops with Jan Harris (who stood in for Judy Wise as she has health issues that forced her to withdraw) and a couple with Laurie Mika.  They were all terrific but I absolutely adored working with the polymer clay and can't wait to do more mosaic style pieces a la Laurie.  Melbourne was fantastic fun- Joseph and I had our first holiday alone for about a decade and we are already planning the next one!  Shopping, eating, looking and walking - did we cover some territory!

After getting back from Melbourne I had a final week of my holidays to finish the unpacking and to get the house looking reasonable and it was fun (although at times I wondered whether I was just walking around in circles moving stuff!).  I have set up a craft room this time from scratch - in the past I have used all the bits and pieces of furniture that were excess to other rooms/needs.  I am now a walking talking IKEA advertisement in fact - I love their white bookcases, tables and drawers and I have used them exclusively (it is a very small room so it didn't need a lot).  Big thanks to my son Zach for having the patience to put all the units together (my role was limited pretty much to the "needs two persons" pieces).  I recovered the window pelmet one night and had to compromise when I found that I had misplaced (lost) my sewing machine power cord somehow in the move - thank goodness for fusible webbing! So glad that there is a Janome shop  close-by now - nice not to have to think about long distance purchases, postage etc. I'll take some pictures soon to share but in the meantime I just keep having a peek in there to make sure it is real!  Can't wait to actually get creative in there...this is a photo of my new desk area a few weeks ago (I have already made some changes of course!).

My sewing room, on the other hand, is a bit of a disaster and I am planning to really change my layout and storage there as soon as higher priority items are attended to (like a range hood and new oven, a new dining table, new blinds ... etc etc). 

So this post is not without some arty content here is the mosaic personal shrine (still without the middle "shrine" bit) that I made in one of Laurie Mika's Creative Soul Retreat workshops and a very blurry picture of one of the personal reliquaries that I made in the other workshop I took with Laurie.  This one was for my sister Marrijane in Melbourne.  So much fun!  I've bought a toaster oven (I didn't even look for a secondhand one when I found out how reasonable new ones are these days!) so expect to see more clay/mosaic work soon.

I'll be back soon (promise)!