I had such a touching weekend. Firstly my Saturday was spent at the funeral of a friend's mother. Although I did not know her, her son has always been a dear friend to me and I needed to hug him even if I failed completely on having any voice to say anything let alone anything helpful. It was lovely hearing about his mother's life - she sounded quite the organiser and character.
Afterwards (checks Rosies site to see if she's written about it) oh she has. For some odd and strange reason known only to the Universe, Rosie and I didn't get to see each other on Saturday, but were rewarded with a delightful afternoon at my house yesterday.
Really really nice Sunday afternoon.
I seem to have lost my blogging feng shui. I'm so happy at the moment with a lot of things in my life and most of my best blogging (could we think of a different word please? I really really do hate that one) is fueled by pain and anger and frustration.
Thanks to Sarah at One Before dot org for the headsup on Driver's Seat (I always remember that wrong) Front Seat's blogging segment last night. I've been a Russell Brown fan ever since he MC'd TUANZ a year or so back (it was cool just to be nominated). He was looking rather wind-swept-and-interesting last night. Yeh, I mostly didn't listen to the show as I was pretty well captivated by his rusticness. I taped it so on second viewing I might have something more constructive to say rather than "yooo hooo Russell over _here_!"
Read MoreFQ TOPIC: Endings
FQ1: What's your favorite ending to a movie or play?
donnie darko / american beauty
FQ2: What's your favorite ending to a song or musical?
FQ3: What's your favorite ending to a book or graphic novel?
FQ Memorial: What would be your favorite ending to your life?
ending: I used to want to be found dead in my shack by the beach after neighbours hadn't noticed that strange annoying old lady for a few weeks. I didnt even mind if my cats at me much.
alternate ending:but now, my favourite ending would be more about buying time - time to tell the people i love the impact they've had on my life, and leaving them with some idea of the tremendous appreciation I have for their gift of friendship and love.
Read MoreAltered States
We lost something along the way. Forgot to feed the creative spirit that made us so good at our jobs. Made us good at being ourselves. It's taking a long time to rekindle that part of us that ended up being battered and abused and run dry but I can feel it returning - can you?
Today I found this wonderful thing in my letterbox. Precisely sized to fit the upperslot, waiting for me to return from my walk and bring it inside, unpeel it from it's brown paper covering and marvel at another great idea. Impressed too by Rosie's optimism of including me on such a project when I have been less than reliable on such schemes in the past.
In case you're unaware, there is a movement afoot - well it's been underfoot for some time now. Segmented from the global return to craft, the art of altering books is where it's at, folks. And like most things: knitting, scrapbooking, rubberstamping (yes I can hear you groaning) the craft becomes commercial and every tom-dick-and-harriet buy the kits and make generic souless copies while riding the bandwagon. How many community centres are running scrapbooking classes now, selling templates and cookiecutter pages to .. no wait.. i'm being too harsh. Not everyone knows what to do and not everyone wants to do it on their own. I've been chastised for this attitude in the past - I find running with some ideas easier than some people and not everyone feels that way and needs help not my craft-snobbery.
And it's with great pleasure that I accept Rosie's generous invitation to join with her in altering a book. This hits on both our pleasure points: books, sticking, cutting, thinking and best of all - posting. Thanks Rosie - you are beyond original: being an alpha creative even though you draw bees.
There is art in craft. In the idea, in the process, in the end.
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