Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

  15 December Christmas Countdown #25envelopes - ‘Home for Christmas ‘ This morning, when I saw this Christmas issue stam,, a child’s drawing of the Nativity, I recalled the first line of the carol ‘Away in a manger, no crib for a bed ...’ and how we all love to be home for Christmas. M y thoughts today are on this envelope - a stitched collage of a path leading home ... I hope you all find comfort in your home this Christmas. Please also spare a thought for the homeless in your community during this festive season..... Children and their families shouldn’t be homeless. Domestic and Family Violence (DFV) is a leading cause of homelessness. Someone accesses a homelessness service due to DFV every 7 minutes. 2   Every Australian should have a safe home this Christmas.

For all of us, being close to home is not an option currently. There are many positive ways to think of being close to home -  one, of course, is to find inspiration and make art . Recently, probably in the last few years, the sights and sounds in my neighbourhood have provided me with enough material for a lifetime of art making.... and I don't live in a magical place, just a simple ordinary  residential suburb in a regional city in NSW,  near some dedicated bushland, walking tracks, a village shopping centre and a hospital.  On daily walks in the neighbourhood, I have picked up sticks from the ground to make hundreds of "stick" dolls,  fallen leaves to dye and print cloth and paper, flowers and other plant bits  for  various artworks.  I am very grateful to have so much to work from so close to home and as I complete my second #the100day project - 100 small wearable art pins, I have tried to find a new way each day of express...

"Have a Heart" is a happy theme for Tag Tuesday's fortnightly challenge  - already some brilliant tags have been posted here . Hope you will go and have a look, My offering is a very simple tag, - a cut out house from a piece of painted paper ( paper used to take the excess paint off a brayer), a cut out bit of scenery from a magazine, and of course, a cut out heart shape.  The background is an old book page, with a little bit of coloured pencil shading. Then I traced around the outlines with black felt tipped pen. The time taken to make a tag like this is between 15-30 minutes, depending on if you can find the bits and pieces you need quickly or not! " Home is where the heart is" - a reminder to "have a heart " - be kind to someone today!

It is now the trend to choose a word to motivate and inspire, rather than making New Year resolutions. Strange, I know ... but I have chosen "TEA" as my word. Later in the year, my exhibition will be based on tea, so most of my creative activities this year will involve tea. Lots of  tea drinking is the most likely activity , So each Thursday ( most Thursdays) , I will post something  "tea" related. Here is my first for the year... An art tag made with a used tea bag paper , with some purchased images and stitching, created for the theme Homes/Shelter. I have added the words " A home is not a  mere transient shelter; its essence lies in the personalities of the people who live in it... H.L. Mencken )

With the Easter weekend over, I can calmly reflect on what a great weekend it was. It's been a long time since I cooked hot cross buns from scratch, but when I went to the bakery last Thursday night, they had sold out! I was a little "hot" under the collar and cross, because I hadn't planned to spend Good Friday morning baking! However,  I  checked the internet for an "easy" recipe  . The recipe in the CWA cookbook seemed a bit complicated, but I am sure it would have produced good results, too! I am sharing the recipe link  because although Easter is over, without the cross, these buns would be a delicious treat at other times of the year.   I have never been good at baking with yeast but all seemed to go smoothly even if the process seemed a little tedious, waiting for the dough to double in size and then do that all over again. However, in the end I  was happy with the results. Both batches tasted great, and the family ate them without complaints! ...

Charles James and Florence Beatrice Simmons  My husband’s grandparents were both English politicians.  Jim’s grandfather, Charles James Simmons represented various constituencies in the Birmingham area, and his grandmother  Florence Beatrice Simmons was an alderman in Birmingham City Council  in the 1940’s to 1950’s.( they were known as Jim and Beatrice). Their individual stories take more than a blog entry to cover – in fact, Jim’s (Charles James)  autobiography, The Soap Box Evangelist , tells his story while  he was a member of the  House of Commons  and a conscientious objector in khaki during World War 1. So, this blog post focuses on the fascinating story of their house at 20 Slack Lane ( corner of Slack Lane and College Road , Handsworth)  which we visited recently. 20 Slack Lane ( corner of Slack Lane and College Road, Handsworth, Birmingham    Known as the Handsworth Town Hall , the former  home of the...

Home again after ten days in North Queensland, so amidst unpacking, sorting, and washing , I took a few photos this morning of our garden and what a difference ten days makes . Blossoms everywhere and although our garden has been neglected while we've been away, it looks great! In the next post,  I will have photos from the mixed media art course I did in Townsville. Watch this space please.