The letter C

Today's post is bought to you by the letter 'C'....

C is for Crumpets. The run up to Christmas is a heady time of excitement and expectation. I was very grateful to return to my warm and cosy home and I really enjoyed my moment of sitting in the place I wanted to be, enjoying the treat I'd made for myself and I thought " Thank you me. Thank you for the mug of tea and hot crumpets" I really needed those crumpets...and the cup of tea.

So C is also for Care ...Take Care of yourself during this time. And when you do really notice it, revel in it, give yourself a big old love and most of all don't feel guilty about it. 

C is also for Creativity. As always in the run up to Christmas it can all get a bit top secret as the desire to create is directed towards making things as an expression of love and friendship. But I can tell you that I'm busy stringing looms for this Saturday's Women's Circle in the Herd Thyme Tipi field.  Something I'm very much looking forward to, a day of meditation and weaving.  A little time out from the hustle and bustle to just play with sticks and wool, while in the company of others. Sharing stories and exchanging tips. We still have one place left so feel free to share with friends or family if you think they might be interested. 

Details here or feel free to send me a message for more information.

I really must crack on now with the life jobs...stringing looms and making pizza for a very special family guest.  I am well fortified by the crumpets and a bucket of tea and the little sit down (well done me).

I hope to post some pictures of our Weaving Your Story workshop some time before Christmas but you know how it is.... but I shall definitly be thinking about my website, Woollycraft Wonders and where it's going next, and of course that glorious alpaca yarn that is begging to be my next favourite garment...I'm really being good to me at the moment!!  

TTFN and all the very best Christmas Cheer to you all x

 

Got any Stuff?

I had a really good day at college yesterday. Lately we've been looking at the power of the object. I'm sure we all do it, imbue items with special meaning, power and memories. I'm sure it was my Pants of Confidence that got me through my teacher training interview!

So after looking at how I we all relate to eachother during my counselling training, now I am looking at how we all relate to our Stuff.

I have to admit, I'm a hoarder. I'm always looking at things and thinking 'that'll come in handy' or 'I can make something with that' (just the other day I found myself collecting the lids from tins - I saw them conected together hanging on a wall somewhere).

Hence I've been thinking about my Stuff

Does our stuff represent our homes, our memories, our selves?

Are we are stuff? If we are, what about the Stuff We Can't See. Old kiddy stuff in the attic, the boxes squished into the cupboard under the stairs. I wonder why I can't let go of this stuff? My relationship with my children won't change just because I recycled old school books.

I think part of the problem is we mix up the important stuff with the un-important. To sort through would take time, so we put in a box, shove it somewhere out the way for later.

If you think hard enough it could be a metaphor for something, couldn't it!?

Anyway here's my Art -

I feel a little uneasy about those unseen boxes but I'm not sure why. I feel that I have a bit too much stuff.

Of course its not going to help bringing home three Balwen fleeces from Wales last weekend. I almost had to leave a child behind just to get it into the car!

I think I need to think this through a bit more while I go and sort through some stuff and put some other stuff away.

Ta ta x

I made Art...

My current 'Undertaking of Learning' is a 15 week intro into Art Therapy. Its one day a week (on a Friday) and a really nice way to round off the week. I leave the house with a jaunty step, plugged into the Ipod (so I can't here the wails and shouts of a helpless Man trying to get two girls ready for school!) for the beautiful walk through the woods for the train to Bath (gosh sounds a bit Enid Blyton doesn't it!!)

I beleive that Life itself is a journey of self discovery but I have, over the last 5 years or so, been a bit more focused on my journey with 4 years of training to become a Theraputic Counsellor.

As I may have mentioned the counselling course did wonders for my own sense of wellbeing and how I felt about my place in the world. It also unleashed a massive creative urge. I felt the Art Therapy course would knit the two together nicely. (did you see what I did there!)

So yesterday I came home very excited with what I' had created.

Firstly we had a go with clay. I really like it. It's like wool but damper and more solid. I really want to have a go on a potters wheel now. I'm wondering if it'll be like spinning.

This is The Tree of Knowledge in the Corridors of Learning. I shan't go into the long explanation of what we were asked to do as I'm trying to supervise a big painty mess in another room! But what I got out of it was learning about not working towards an end point. With art I have always tried to visualise the end result and then work towards that, thats relatively easy to do with spinning and knitting, so when it comes to other forms such as drawing/painting I find it almost impossible and therefore demoralising. I can't do art (or so I thought). With the last couple of peices I have really tried not to think about what it will look like and let it evolve and I found I had created something with depth, layers and meaning (if only to me at least) .

I'm feeling very pleased with what I'm learning. It's a fantastic course and I would recommend it to anyone.

Finally, I can't decide when to get stuck into the Chocolate Raspberry spinning project. I have a couple of precious child free hours on the horizon, its either carding or the allomtment, and that will largely depend on the weather, ( I'm hoping for rain!!)