Sun in Gemini. Moon in Libra. First Quarter Waxing moon
It was only when I stopped thinking about where I wanted to be and focused on where I was currently that I realised the street in front of me was filled with the most beautiful deciduous trees that because of the beautiful windy rainy weather, that had blessed us on this wonderful Friday, where blowing all about on the street. I had never seen anything like it! I was watching all the trees lining the street and all their leaves flitting off and floating haphazardly all over the place, the rain tumbling, the beautiful amber, golden, orange, yellow, traditional autumn colours of these leaves floating and dancing in the breeze they were so beautiful I was inspired to write a poem about them but alas I cant remember it! 
In that moment of stopping and becoming aware, my impatience was completely dissolved by the magik of the dancing Autumn leaves. What could have been a wasted moment of frustration and impatience was transformed by being present with what was actually going on.
A couple of weeks ago in the month of May we were blessed with a few days of rain!
On one such rainy day I headed out on an Artist Date to a Craft Fair that had made its way to the city. On the way to this artist date there was heaps of traffic on the road heading into the city and at first this was viewed by me and I am sure most of the other drivers with frustration and impatience and this is when the magik began..
It was only when I stopped thinking about where I wanted to be and focused on where I was currently that I realised the street in front of me was filled with the most beautiful deciduous trees that because of the beautiful windy rainy weather, that had blessed us on this wonderful Friday, where blowing all about on the street. I had never seen anything like it! I was watching all the trees lining the street and all their leaves flitting off and floating haphazardly all over the place, the rain tumbling, the beautiful amber, golden, orange, yellow, traditional autumn colours of these leaves floating and dancing in the breeze they were so beautiful I was inspired to write a poem about them but alas I cant remember it! 
In that moment of stopping and becoming aware, my impatience was completely dissolved by the magik of the dancing Autumn leaves. What could have been a wasted moment of frustration and impatience was transformed by being present with what was actually going on.I love that.. lessons learnt from nature! Thank you! Thank you!
It's the beauty of this moment right now clearly displayed for me with those amazing leaves, they were a blessing. The beautiful smell in the air so refreshing, normally the middle of the city smells like a smoggy yuck but the rain had really cleansed it and filled it with a freshness and vitality.
When I do finally get to the convention centre it takes me about half an hour to actually get into the craft fair because I had to find an ATM, then the ATM wasn't working, so I had to go into the bus station, it was beautiful to walk outside in this amazing cool, fresh air instead of hiding away from the rain inside as is so often the done thing! A lot of time to do things differently and appreciate and transform. Not being frustrated but finding the gift in the situations that arose.. a really precious lesson.
By the time I got inside the craft fair, half an hour had passed, I also realised that I after I payed for the expensive ticket to get in I would have enough money for half an hour extra parking and not a thing else. At this point I was tempted to abandon ship and not bother with the craft fair, but I persisted, I had come this far. So I thought 'I have got half an hour, I can do this, I will dash around see it all.' Really it turned out that 30 minutes was plenty, I got out in 25 minutes and I am actually really happy that I only had that small amount of time to spend in there because it was pretty disappointing...
I'm going to start by explaining what it is I love about Craft and Art so I can make sense of what I don't like.
The thing that inspires me most about art and craft is the handmade nature of the practise, that you're creating something, that you're taking different materials and putting them together, it's an alchemy, your creative expression, it's a beautiful, precious thing.
I feel your honouring your creative spirit that I feel lives inside of every body it's a way to get away from this mass produced, commercial, conventional life that we live in. Everything is made by machines, wrapped in plastic, boxed for convenience and shipped from some factory on the other side of the world, sold in a stupidmarket. Craft and art is a way to break free of all of that stuff, for life to become homemade and handmade and filled with love and really this craft fair was the complete opposite of that.
I feel your honouring your creative spirit that I feel lives inside of every body it's a way to get away from this mass produced, commercial, conventional life that we live in. Everything is made by machines, wrapped in plastic, boxed for convenience and shipped from some factory on the other side of the world, sold in a stupidmarket. Craft and art is a way to break free of all of that stuff, for life to become homemade and handmade and filled with love and really this craft fair was the complete opposite of that.
It is like they have turned this handmade, homemade thing into a commodity, it was just another big stupidmarket filled with plastic, commercialised, consumerism shit really. (please pardon my expletive) Everything was so mass produced i became a bit 'blah' about it all.
I think it was a good thing for me to go in there and see it and to have those feelings come up of repulsion so I could understand what it was that i loved so much.
I just really blitzed past all those places that were massed produced and there were a few I came across that held some essence of what I was looking for.
One of them for example, was a WA artist Louise Snook and of course a WA artist is not run by a shop trying to make our craft into a commodity, it was by an artist, teaching, sharing, showcasing her screen prints and kits she had put together for people and she was running classes. That stall had a really good energy about it and I believe that was because it linked into the creative spirit. Check out www.louisesnook.com to learn more about what this WA artist has to offer!
I just really blitzed past all those places that were massed produced and there were a few I came across that held some essence of what I was looking for.
One of them for example, was a WA artist Louise Snook and of course a WA artist is not run by a shop trying to make our craft into a commodity, it was by an artist, teaching, sharing, showcasing her screen prints and kits she had put together for people and she was running classes. That stall had a really good energy about it and I believe that was because it linked into the creative spirit. Check out www.louisesnook.com to learn more about what this WA artist has to offer!
Then another stall I loved was run by a lady who looked like she had been showering in a rainbow! It was absolutely delightful, beautiful, outrageous colours. Love it, love it! And her stall had some really beautiful textures, dyes, and fibres.
Annah Stretton and she was a New Zealand artist who made dresses that were kind of like a collage of fabrics that you could wear in a multitude of ways for all different body shapes and sizes, so you could wear this one garment in about 10 different ways. Obviously you would need an instruction manual and they were kind enough to print one! This is very cool, they were priced at about $400 a dress but i guess that can be justified by saying that you are really buying 10 dresses in one but alas too much for my $5 parking money budget! I did fill out a lil competition thingy though so we'll see maybe I'll win one - by golly that would be awesome to own one of her beautiful creations! Check out www.frockingchameleon.co.nz if you would like a fancy frock of your own!
Another stall that I loved that I spent a lot of time in last year, was run by another artist named Prudence Mapstone who knits and crochets using the most vividly coloured natural fibres even some fair trade fibres and collages them all together to make clothing and comfort items. She calls the process free form knitting or scrumbles i think from memory and the results are truly awesome! I bought one of her books last year and still looking through it inspires me no end! Go visit www.knotjustknitting.com for some super knitted love!
Yes these artists had items to buy but it was homemade, handmade, thoughtful, creative, not mass produced and devoid of spirit.
Hot Possum was another stall that used to be a shop in Perth that sold the most vividly bright beautiful coloured fabrics with awesome prints for craft and fashion. The shop had room for sewing classes. and the best fabric range as far as i am concerned no smidge of boring beige in sight! I'm not sure of its manufacturing whereabouts where the fabric is sourced from and the labour conditions but it was beautiful.
FeltWEST had a small stall which was of course great to see them with all their colour and gorgeous woolen fibres. A group for felt makers in Western Australia, love it go check them out!
Home made, hand made woolly love! www.feltwest.org.au for membership details, they run some super workshops and have a great community spirit, when I am available to head along I always love it!
I believe every thing needs to be handmade with love, maybe that's what I'm getting at?
That the state of the world we are living in is so toxic and in desperate need of health and i think keys lie in the life of the hand made. A back to basics approach, simplicity, making do, creativity, playfulness. Stress and diseases brought about from stress are wrecking havoc and I feel craftiness is so gosh darn relaxing, a homemade simple life may be just what we and the world needs!
Something to ponder while i continue my current craft adventure... all will be revealed soon!
Blessed Be
xx
I believe every thing needs to be handmade with love, maybe that's what I'm getting at?
That the state of the world we are living in is so toxic and in desperate need of health and i think keys lie in the life of the hand made. A back to basics approach, simplicity, making do, creativity, playfulness. Stress and diseases brought about from stress are wrecking havoc and I feel craftiness is so gosh darn relaxing, a homemade simple life may be just what we and the world needs!
Something to ponder while i continue my current craft adventure... all will be revealed soon!
Blessed Be
xx
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