Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

  "Santa Claus" dotee dolls - Wilma Simmons   No, not me! I hope every year that I will be ready by 1 December, with no rushing about during the festive season... it doesn't happen..  However this year, I am happy to have met some Christmas deadlines... For my doll makers group, Gumnut Dollies, Newcastle I made some dotee dolls for  decorating the  charity Christmas Tree. What is a dotee doll, I hear you ask... here is an explanation from another earlier blog post , Dotee Divertissement.  Yesterday, I sold some of my  handmade Christmas decorations at the Hunter Art Bazaar - a Christmas market held in a beautiful park, Lambton Park , near my home.  I had been working on these and my crocheted birds while watching TV  during the year - the photo shows a variety of  stitched and beaded decorations.   I was also touched that I was asked to make some Christmas dolls with a multicultural look... I must admit this made me thin...

On a recent visit to my home town, Townsville in North Queensland, I was really happy and super impressed to discover an arty place I hadn't heard of before...Renegade Handmade.  I visited this delightful  "handmade"  gift shop on a Saturday morning. It was  23 July 2016 - a warm day for Winter. The arcade was abuzz with people indulging in coffee and snacks, shopping at the fresh food market  and browsing and  enjoying  the various trendy and bespoke shops in the arcade. This scene was hardly the Townsville of my childhood and I am embarrassed to admit  that it surprised me that the atmosphere was so cosmopolitan , contemporary and "with-it". I applaud Renegade Handmade for its vision for both the shop and the markets - to offer "opportunities for makers to mix with shoppers in an environment that is supportive and nurturing of handmade."   That nurturing support was obvious - the art was well displayed, presented with style and ...

 Happy Australia Day… to celebrate, I made a koala plushie. I bought a fabric panel of an owl and a koala at the Wallsend Community markets last month, so thought today was the right day to make this Aussie icon. Australia Day was a rather lazy day. . A morning walk and then we retreated quickly back inside to escape the heat. I put a small indoors thermometer outside to test it out – it gave up! Obviously over 40degrees! We only went outside because we had to. We celebrated Australia day tonight by cooking, taking and sharing a slow cooked lamb dinner with my friend and my sister-in-law, both patients in hospital. Much better we’re told than hospital food! Here's a special thought for Australia Day: "Close your eyes... and think of the land that gave you life and breath, and think of all the reasons you are glad to be there, with the people you know, with the people you love."  from The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith. This week has been a slow c...

I often wonder what most people remember about a holiday. In an earlier post, I said it was the 'people", but there seems to be a bit of consensus amongst friends that "food " is definitely up there. Certainly exotic foods add another dimension to the experiences. Yes, these bottles of wine were for sale, and they did contain snakes, scorpions, and other creatures often considered nasty. I did try some, but it wasn't amongst my souvenir purchases. There were of course, other delicious and more familiar food found in markets and from street vendors. - bananas, mangoes, tamarind, dragon fruit, corn, fresh greens and noodles .... and lots more ... anything and everything....   Shopping is not easy  a) when you're not sure of the language ;    b) when you live in a floating village ( Here a woman and her child stop at the local shop for dinner supplies) ; c) when you have a weak stomach for raw meat ( apologies to all my vegetarian friends) We ate wond...

Happy Easter to all my friends and family who celebrate this special religious event. Most associate eggs with Easter, so I thought this photo of quail, duck and chicken eggs for sale at the morning markets in Luang Prabang in Laos on Friday morning  was most appropriate. Jim ( my husband) and I arrived home yesterday from our amazing, wonderful, exciting, spiritual and inspiring trip to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. You may have guessed we enjoyed  all the different experiences and I will be blogging about some of the mjore interesting stories with photos over the next couple of weeks.   Whatever beliefs you have, there is no denying that one of the most spiritual and peaceful places in the world is Angkor Wat in Cambodia.  When I  reveiwed  my holiday photos and came across this one, I am reminded that " Easter tells us that life is to be interpreted not simply in terms of things but in terms of ideals." ~ Charles M. Crowe Ke...