Soul Arts

Jenny Crossley Was Here

Today I had the BEST time... life is good.. till monday morning at 9am (when I am due at my desk lol)

Jenny Crossley taught for Soul Arts today .. .ten of us made a Junk Bracelet... and what fun we all had... Jenny supplied a fabulous kit of junk goodies... and under her tution we all made our bracelets.. some of us.. (most of us) had never soldered before...

Despite our trepidation it wasnt that hard (eventually LOL... I seemed to be best at making little ball bearings to start with)... but with a bit of practice, and Jenny's friendly help it was fun!

Had to share with you this pic of JR.. he is the resident stud of Heavenscent (in Croydon, a scrapbooking, stamping shop that allowed us to use thier classroom).  JR is soooo cute... (he's an Australian Bulldog)...  stand by him for more than a few seconds without moving and he either slurps you with kisses or rolls over for a belly rub LOL

Saturday Travels

I am doing a Junk Bracelet class with Jenny Crossley this saturday .. (info on Soul Arts website) and because we need 'junk' Eva, Lucy and I decided on a junking road trip..

Eva was at my place by 7.30am, we collected Lucy at 8am from her house and headed up the Calder Hwy ... past Mount Macedon still shrouded in mist to Castlemaine.. Breakfast at a bakery in Kyeton, Lunch in Castlemaine, Afternoon tea in Bendigo and back home for dinner (was like a Berocca commercial! LOL)  Lucy picked up a bargain with some wooden spinning spools.. and Patrick made her day when he gave us some old motherboards...

Came home by the 'scenic' route as directed by Lucy... along roads, and past places I had never seen before.. really was a very nice drive... area was totally rock strewn dont know if it was a lava area zillions of years ago but it looked amazing.. rocks and boulders strewn everywere like a mini Devil's marbles... past an old decaying mansion on the outskirts of Romsey...in to Sunbury the back way...overall the stash wasnt anything to write home about (or to a blog LOL) but we had a lovely day...good food.. good company.   

Cold Days

Its been bitterly cold in Melbourne this past week... and we have finally had a good soaking of rain... (25mm overnight! which is a bit out of the box lately lol)

The jonquils and daffodils are blooming though which is a heartening glimpse that spring is approaching... (5 weeks and counting lol).  I am NOT a winter person... would perish in places like Tasmania or Canada... an large parts of Europe and USA I think too LOL... am a summer girl... give me sunshine, hot days, and long warm summer nights... PLEASE give them to me.. am over winter LOL

Lucy and I got together today and started putting the goblin together that we made last week at Shirley Dougans Polymer Retreat... considering the chatter we actually got a fair bit done vbg...

Creative Soul Retreat bookings are going great guns.... some classes are totally full with waiting lists and most of the others are heading towards capacity.....

Polymer Weekend

More pics from last weekend at Rowsley... my little man is still in peices but I am getting together with Lucy on Saturday and we are going to start putting him together.

First pic is the friday night with the girls working on their butterfly pins... and a very relaxed Shirley at the end of the table LOL.. was very dark and cold outside... we all had a short dash between the warm classroom and the warm main building.... only the smokers lingered out there... (gotta be tough to be a smoker lol)

Saturday morning and they are all working on their Goblins... was still cool outside but as you can see from the short sleeves of a few of us it was warm in the classroom

This is the little guy we were making.....standing on the table to inspire us vbg

Shirley and Alice (adding wrinkles to the head)

Jenny Crossley Workshop

On Saturday August 9th beginning at 9.30am we will be  host ing a workshop with the very talented Jenny Crossley.  Students will make a 'Junk' bracelet and learn soldering and jewellry technqiues.

Previous soldering experience is not necessary and the requirement list is reasonbly small.... I have been wanting to do this (get into soldering) for a while and Jenny is one of Australia's best in this field.

Class is $85 for day and will be held at the premises of HeavenScent in Dorset Road Croydon....would love to see you there.. .

To book please email me at classes@soularts.com.au

Home Again

Back home again after heading up the the wilds of Rowsley....  venue wasnt at 'spartan' as I imagined lol... it was warm INSIDE once the heaters were on... outside was very cold..... beds were comfy enough and food was ok.... nothing flash but no one starved or came down with botulism lol

Didnt do the butterfly pin on the Friday night...I just chilled and watched the others... Saturday we made the goblin and he turned out good.... he got a tad burnt in the oven though and has a 'brown' nose ...you can imagine the jokes about that mishap lol... (pic is before he was 'cooked').. he still looks ok though... just looks like he likes goblin wine a tad too much LOL.  Will put him together and dress him in the next couple of weeks.   

Had a lovely time while I was there.. caught up with Barb Thomas... Janet Street was there... and Michelle, Alice and Rebecca...  Funnily enough, Rebecca, Barb, Michelle and myself travelling seperately ALL have the same TomTom... which we all used to navigate there... and it sent every one of us down 'Dog Gully Trap Road' a FredFlinstone rubble type road cum goatrack that ran for miles before dropping off down this enormously steep downhill precipace that was still considered a 'road'. 

Lucy was about to get out of the car, take her bag and walk back to Melbourne if I continued but we did  'U' turn and headed back to Bacchus Marsh (after I managed to stop laughing at her hysterical raving and white face... true friend I am lol) where we followed Shirley's directions and got there dead easy along MADE roads... Michelle and Barb also did  U Turns.... Rebecca being of hardy stock actually kept going down the mighty dip and along the rubble road till she came to some closed gates and had to turn around there!  THANKS TOMTOM LOL

The countryside is terribly 'wild' looking reminds me of pics of the windswept english moors lol... the pics here are the way back home...on made roads.....

Arty Weekend

Tomorrow I wil pack the car, and head off up the highway to collect Lucy.... from there we head further up to Lady Northcote Park in Romsley (where on earth in that?  is it on the map?)  and NO I am not dyslexic and mean Romsey... I KNOW where that is.

In the hitherto unknown Romsley we will meet up with Barb Thomas and another 20 odd (yes I do mean ODD) souls for a weekend of Polymer Clay crafting... Friday night is a Butterfly broach... Saturday a Goblin creature and Sunday a shadow box of rainforest creatures .... apparently the bedrooms are cold and we have been advised to bring a "hottie"  watch me sister.. my portaable HEATER  is packed alongside the hottie!!  that.. and long warm jammies... fingerless gloves ... alcohol is permitted.. goodoo! in goes the 12 casks that were on special this week... (for warming purposes only vbg)

should be a lovely time... assuming my hands work ... (too many years of crafting means I have very arthritic fingers).. never mind.. will have the heater beside me at all times.. and if necessary will dull the pain with a few chardonnay's.....why signup when its going to be a cold weekend in the wilds of Romsley?  for a good time with friends ... I may get nothing done.. .but I will have a super fun time with Barb and Lucy.....

While I am there.. my 'plan' is to blog via the new iphone... so I can take pics and post them to the blog... if it doesnt work.. you wont need the internet to know.. you will hear my screams of frustration! LOL

Passage of Time

I am not known in my family for my maternal instincts of small noisy things that dont have four legs.... dont get me wrong.. I have two children of my own that are now adults (notice I dont say 'grown-ups') ...well probably do them a disservice here... they are working adults living independantly in their own homes... but boys are always 27 going on 10 and if you have sons you are probably  now high fiving me....

however I digress.... I seem to do that a lot as I get older *another heavy sigh*

However,  4 years ago.. I attended the first birthday party of Cody... the young bub in mums arms there.. his mother is my first born neice and as such I have a soft spot for her and we have always had a great relationship.. well, still do..past tense should be present tense there....SEE! I digressed again....*heavy sigh*...

as I said.. its been FOUR YEARS he is now five years old and quite a nice young lad.. for something that doesnt have four legs... however if he is now five.. it means I am also four years older.... where have they gone?  yes its all about me, try to keep up here... four years? gawd.. gone in a blink... Happy Birthday Cody!!

What a Saga!

July 11th arrived.... I was one of the heathen masses salivating over getting a new iphone... I had paid my deposit with Optus... and arrived at the optus store, reciept in hand at 6.30am on Friday morning... a small but respectable queue was in front of me...I was #17 in line...  manager came out at 6.45 and sorted us into deposits and hopefuls, told us they had 19 phones.......first lot of deposit holders went in.. each time one came out with a phone the next person went in.. by 8.30am I had my phone.... I then spent the next two days trying to get connected...

its a very long.. traumatic, frustrating and ear numbing saga (me that is on the end of the phone for hours to Optus and for my neice who took over when my ear atrophied after 2 hours being shunted from one 'customer service' operator to another) that I shant bore you with unless we have a couple of cold bottles of wine handy... (if you are friend come over and I will bore you with it.. vbg.. the wine is CHILLED) suffice to say I was off the air from 8.30am friday morning till 10am sunday morning....if I have the strength for it - my call tomorrow is to billing to get a credit on two days of no service...

That being said.. its all now working terrific... as for something that is so simple to use you DONT GET AN INSTRUCTION BOOK WITH IT.. I am still learning my way around it....think I need to join an iphone forum vbg

Went over to my friend Caro's for dinner last night... her other half was off to the football so we had a lovely, lubricated girls evening.... just Caro, me, and her two oompaloompa babies Ouzo and Jedda.  Both long haired German Shephards... Ouzie has recently had a knee reconstruction hence the shaved nether regions... why you ask would a 4 year old dog need a knee reconstructions... dunno.. could have something to do with him being HUGE and 53kg (and he is not overweight.. just a VERY BIG BOY)

luckily she has a huge couch cause he decided his place was right between us.. that way he was always guaranteed of a lap to put his head on LOL

 

Where was it?

BTW.... Elizabeth Harms correctly guessed the dingo was at Healesville Sanctury, so thats one point to her.... will put a new pic up in a couple of weeks.... and will make it a bit harder for you all LOL