Divinely Crafty

There must have been some huge celestial event, or some other type of shift in the universe recently. I cannot figure out what else may have caused me to list some of the goodies I have made over the past several months in my etsy shop. I suppose I like seeing them sitting nicely on my cool green Ikea shelves. It does make for good conversation when someone comes around for a visit to chat about my fabulous hobby. Eeesh. Ouch. I will admit I am not the most self promoting of artists, but I really do think of my work as my art. Not that I have anything against hobbiests, I do have bonafied hobbies of my own. Like amassing the ultimate pashmina collection and parenting. (okay, yes, I kid on that last one.) But my fiber work is my art. My work. It might sound like a corny sales pitch from Ye Olde New Age Shoppe, but I truly do put energy and intention into each piece I make. Even the little ones. Each item I make marks the moment in time that they were created in and while engaged in my creative process I always find new sparkles to explore in life. Nonetheless, there does seem to have been some sort of warm wind that has blown across the frosty tundra that was my motivation to actually offer my goods for sale. Even if they do look really cool on my shelf.

Tags: creative expression, etsy, yarn

bags bags bags

Originally uploaded by Divinely Crafty.

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures of my recent felt work to my flickr. I am loving working with fibre and have several projects in the works. There has been a huge creative surge bubbling up in me. It is bringing with it major self-awareness and enormous shifts.

Its intense and right on schedule. When I left Oregon 2 years ago, my good friend Spicy-T said to me “See you in three years.” I have this pattern of leaving for 3 years and then returing to Portland for 3 years and leaving for 3 years… and so on. And in perfect synchronicity things are getting stirred up. I come at it from a place so intensely different than I have in times past. I don’t see this bringing me back to Oregon. But if there is one thing I have learned it is that I can never say never.

Tags: felt and fiber

Okay, perhaps not so much a bad blogger as I am a casual one. Yes, that’s it. Casual yet consistent. It follows suit that I would be a casual blogger since that is how I am keeping a written journal. The difference being that in a written journal the dust bunnies under my bed don’t keep me on task by asking where I have been or what I have been up to. My loyal readers do, however, and so by demand from my adoring fans I am submitting this update. My deepest gratitude to those of you who have written to me inquiring as to my well being.
Since I last posted….

We got notice that we had to move out of our house while I was in the US in March. Blech. I hate moving. Thankfully we were able to sort that all out and as of Monday we are now in a new home. I like the new house better actually, which is good because it makes up for the hideous stress of moving. Better layout of the space (even though it is actually less square meters than the old place) and a phenomenally better garden space. Photos to follow soon. Hard wood wide plank floors vs. carpet, 2 fireplaces (1 in the sitting room, 1 in the dining room – typical old English house. Both fireplaces have outlets upstairs that will heat up there as well. Very cool.) The house is on the same footpath that the old house was, but up a higher embankment so now people strolling and riding down the path can’t see up into my bedroom. (My apologies to my loyal perv fans who had become accustomed to my nightly changing of clothes. Perhaps the old lady who is moving into our old house will take up where I left off.) And instead of the cows in the field behind us we have horses. That one’s a wash. I think I will miss the cows sweet moo’ing. Of course it wasn’t so sweet at 3am so maybe it is for the better.

So…we moved.

I have been working on my felt for the exhibit/sale that is in a couple weeks. I have nowhere near as much done as I would like to so the next week or so is going to be one helluva felting marathon around here. I will post pictures when its all done. What I have done so far is really great and I am eager to show you all, but it will have to wait. Hopefully there will be some more awesome pieces to add to what I have now.

Another biggie. Maybe even the biggest for me personally. I finished up my certification work for my Birthing From Within mentoring. Its now off for review and hopefully approval, and then I can proudly call myself a certified mentor. This is huge for me. Huge. In so many ways. I spent the last 2 weeks of April glued to my computer compiling 4 years of study and practice into a neat little package. Very intense. I feel such an immense sense of accomplisment having done this. It opens so much for on so many levels. More on this to come, you can be certain of that!

Last week we went to Spain to see some property we had been considering to purchase. Unfortunately we did not find it to be what we have in mind for our long term plans, but it was a very informative and productive trip. Again…more on this later, including photos. Sorry to repeat that line, but I told you this would be a lame update.

Not to be shadowed by any of the many other things that have been keeping me away from the ol’ blog–sphere…the work of everyday life as a mum of 3, and wife. A full time job in itself. The kids are all growing so fast and leading quite busy lives of their own. Dylan is finishing her GCSEs so it is exam stress time for her. She has really rallied herself and is doing wonderful work. I am so proud of her. Kiah gave a stunning vocal performance at school a couple weeks ago. That girl has some chops! Watch out for her name in lights! Anja is a busy social butterfly. At age 6 that girl has a fuller social calender than I ever have. And she is growing like a weed. I swear she wakes up taller every day. Insane.

So thats it from here. It will probably be another couple weeks before I get much more of an update on here. But you never know. At least you know that I have not actually fallen off the face of the earth… just have been busy living on it.

ciao for now!

Tags: blogging, children, family life, home

I have started a bit of an experiment.

For my certification in Birthing From Within I need to do some recordings of me at various points of a course. I have done a couple of them on video a couple of years ago (yes, it is taking me a long time on this journey!) but getting the final two bits has been quite a block for me. I have conjured up technology gremlins twice when I was setting out to record them. And for reasons of unknown and ulitmately inconsequential reason or circumstance the recording failed. I grumbled and felt deflated, but also relieved because I was less than pleased with how what I had wanted to record unfolded. I was able to quietly breathe knowing that I would not have to relive an uncomfortable moment. (a good thing to consider when looking at putting recording equipment into the birth space, eh?) Self sabotage? Possibly. Opportunity to learn about myself and dive into my feelings of being ‘on show’. A love-hate relationship within myself for sure.

So equipped with a new Digital Voice Recorder I have begun a look, or more accurately, a listen into some of my thoughts as they find their way out of my mind via my voice. I am planning on including some of these recordings with my certification work, and just beginning to see vision of making parts available to a larger audience. No clue under what format or circumstance I would do so, or what its purpose might be. Just a whisper I heard that intirgued me. Its a secret desire of mine to have a podcast. ( shhh… don’t tell anyone.)

It has been fun to listen to it thus far. I am less tensed by hearing my own voice than I thought I would be. At one point Axel unexpectedly came to the kitchen door (when I was meant to be alone in the house) and scared the beejeezus out of me. It was interesting to record my being startled and then how I spoke in a candid moment to him immediately afterwards. There was a tenderness and vulnerability in my voice that I didn’t know was there. My mind chose the words I said in order to save face after being scared. My voice sounded like that of a child when I replayed that moment. Wondering if the ears I hear it with in the new moment are hearing it differently than Axel did when I spoke.

This is going to be fun.

Tags: birth, self inquiry