festivities

1. Breakfast of croissants, jam and cheese, such decadence. 2. Bucket loads of toasted muesli being made. 3. A perfectly coloured rolling pin. 4. Eggplant pickle. 5 Poe's gift for Phil. 6. The stick tree 7. Teepee Bags (with everything you need to make your own mini teepee) and little bags for the little ones, filled with treasures. 8. & 9. Printed and embroidered linen hangings for our loves. 10. A Christmas Eve Birthday celebration. 11. Phil (Grandpa) got the honours of unwrapping the first gift. 12. His very own fiddle, there has been lots of busy, busy, stop, stops in our home since. 13. Plaits and a croquembouche perfect ingredients for a wonderful day. 14. A table laden with food and excitement. 15. 16. & 17. Nina sharing the light from her beautiful German Pyramid. 18. Our favourite thing about the last few days was sharing it with my dad, he is always so open and generous with his spirit and love, brimming with love and support and is an absolute delight to have around. My mum is in Malaysia with her sister, it was definitely different, not having her around, but it was so special having my dad all to ourselves. 

musical interlude

In the tradition of some dear old friends, I have been getting together my list of favourite songs from 2013, not necessarily from 2013 (although the majority are), just those enjoyed this past year. I love this process; thinking back over the year, remembering, associating tunes and times, planning how the songs all work together. Hope you find some new music loves. I am particularly partial to the last two tunes, very fun party tunes, I dare to to try and not dance around the lounge room to those two numbers.
All of Me - Sarah Blasko
Lying to You - Keaton Heston
All about to Change - Patrick James
Longyearbyen - Packwood
Another Story - The Head and the Heart
San Fransisco - Foxygen
Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings - Father John Misty
Well Respected Man- The Kinks
Devil by Her Side- Potato Potato
Buffalo Tales- Amsterdam
Master Hunter-Laura Marling
Tropical Oceans - DD Dumbo
Sun Song- Laura Veirs
Southern Sun- Boy and Bear
Myth - Beach House
The Breach - Dustin Tebbutt
Tennis Court- Lorde
Shake - The Head and the Heart
You Can't be Told - Valerie June
Birmingham- Shovels & Rope
You Didn't Have to Go - Caleb Klauder & Reeb Williams
Come All You Virginia Gals - Foghorn Stringband
Kemba's Got the Cabbage Moth Blues - Shovels & Rope
Better Days - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes
Penitentiary Blues- Vic Manuel
Come to My Party - Black Joe Lewis
Is This How You Feel - The Preatures

Yesterday on the solstice, we burnt some sage, cleansed our home and put out an intention of love and lightness, beginning the process of letting the year go and starting to look forward to the year ahead.
This is short and sweet as I head into a day of last minute sewing and relish/muesli/biscotti and pickle making. Hope you all have a delightful festive season in the close embraces of those you love dearly, cherishing the friendship of loved ones and sitting and being in the moment. Oh and eating lots of delicious goodness.

hello

It feels like an age has passed since I last frequented this space, sorry for the neglect but I have largely been sewing and crafting, albeit with a smattering of delightful interludes. Christmas crafting has involved spots, sticks, bags, pots, ink, tin and a plan of baking/pickling at the very last moment. True none of the aforementioned has actually been finished but the ideas are all there and have pretty much been started, kind of.
You see, I had to leave the Christmas crafting sitting forlornly in a corner as I whipped out the embroidered tablecloths for the markets, last weekend was the Artisans (which was amazing) and this weekend we have the Community markets and then with barely a sigh of relief I will then dig out the Christmas craftiness and get onto it. Well, that's the plan anyway. Unfortunately none of the making will appear online as quite frankly I need all I have for the markets, but next year will be a different story.
I do love to craft at Christmas, heck at anytime really, it just makes me so happy to create little things with intent, with love in my heart and an idea at the tip of my fingers. I focus on each person and send them lots of love as I make. I love this time of year for that reason, to purely bestow handmade goodness onto special ones and if my hand making doesn't quite cut it for everyone, I love supporting other peoples handmade goodness, especially friends and crafty folk around town, yippee.

It is true that I also love to partake in the relaxing, the eating, the reflecting and the time spent with those special ones I keep going on about. To celebrate with those dear to us and to give thanks to the beautiful lives that we share together (and to throw in extra squeezes to those dear ones who have helped us through the crap that life inevitably throws at us). Yes this time of the year can be a nightmare for people, yes it does lead people to consumerism, guilt, jealousy, greed family arguments, over eating, over drinking but it's all how you look at it and how you chose to celebrate, or not celebrate, as may be the case.
Not to go on but as we reflect and think of our luck, our family does like to think about those not as lucky, this obviously happens throughout the year but this time of the year it just seems even more important. Here are just a few special charities who would love some help around now and beautifully some donations even double as a sneaky gift (of which I am sure you are all well aware) such as Oxfam cards (if you do feel the need to consume at Christmas, pop into an Oxfam shop for some delightful fair trade treasures), Kiva (a great place to create wonderful opportunities in impoverished areas), The Redfern Foundation (helping Aboriginal people in Inner Sydney to build skills and strength to create a positive infrastructure within their community, promoting social, educational and employment equity) Australian Conservation Foundation (protecting our environment by creating and infighting change)  One Health Organisation (lobbying for a holistic approach to world wellness) , The Big Issue (providing jobs and independence to homeless people) or just look around for local not for profit  or even someone in your neighbourhood that might need some assistance (a meal cooked, children minded) there are so many people who would love, who need assistance in a plethora of ways. Do you have favourite things to do for others at this time of the year?

Here a few pictures of some happenings of late, despite the images to the contrary we have been quite low key, enjoying kids running around and playing, the relentless hum of the sewing machine and the delight that Scott has finished his big contract and is able to relax and have fun with us all. 

Celebrating beautiful Peppa's birthday; drumming in the garden; loving the wildness of our garden - going crazy after so much rain, hail and sun; celebrating a beautiful new friend's 30th with a delicious picnic by the river, marvelling at their handmade goodness and another crafty home on the property; welcoming the new members of our family, our beautiful bees and always delighting at our beautiful pixie Poe,who wore this on his last day of school for the year. 

Mullum Music Festival

What, another festival!? Yes, it seems that every time we turn around we bump into one festival or another. But I can safely say that this festival is one worth bumping into. The Mullum Music Festival is now up there with Dorrigo as one of my favourite festivals. The festival is run in the town of Mullumbimby (on the mid North Coast) and all the venues run along one street. Which means there is a gentle yet constant flow of people going to one venue or another, either walking, cycling or catching the Magic Bus venue to venue. I loved this idea, because it is part of the town, seemingly making the festival richer with all the energy of the town right there. 

One of my most favourite moments was walking hand in hand with Scott on the balmy Friday evening passing fellow festival goers as we headed to a venue. There was delight and excitement in the air, bunting and lights all around, perfect little food stall and a magnificent array of music to sample, it was a wondrous feeling, a special treat made all the more as my Aunt, who lives in Mullum, generously and willingly offered to look after Poe and Ilo for not one but two of the festival nights, yes, I lapped up every second of adult time with my lovely one.

The Mid North  (and Ilo) played at this festival, making it their first non-Bluegrass festival and my gosh they were so well received, there was the occasional whoop, a few hollers, apparently a few tears and lots of applause, I felt very proud of them, they were fantastic. 

Some festival highlights included the fabulous and oh so lovely Perch Creek Family Jugband (our love for them is well documented, an amazing band and such beautiful people), The Pitt Family Circus (more love), Potato Potato (a high school group that are fresh, tight and play ultra catchy tunes), Robert Ellis, Marlon Williams (oh my, his voice is like smooth caramel), the Magic Bus oh and the parade on the Sunday. 

The Magic Bus, is a double decker, 70's style bus, complete with disco music and disco dancers, you can just imagine how much fun the kids (ahem and adults) had. 

The relaxed nature of the festival was unmistakeable, it was easy, entertaining and full of smiley folk,grateful for the opportunity to be part of this special event. Poe and Ilo wandered hand in hand with us, engaged in all the music, eyes wide with all the sights, growing big grins on the bus and sweated in the heat, even at their most tired they wanted more, just one more glimpse, one more experience. 

We will definitely be going back.