Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

It just seems too early to think about a diary for 2010, but this week, I ran out of room in the back of my 2009 diary with dates already booked in for next year. I have made a couple of felted diary covers this week in preparation. I am not sure why I have been attracted to red the last couple of weeks... colour biorhythms? In my colour bible, it says " ...wear red when you need a pick-me-up, or when you are tired or lethargic or need to encourage physical exercise and a competitive spirit. Red will help with positive progress and success, and to put your plans into action..." Putting plans into action is certainly on the agenda this week.  A couple of Rotarian friends and I had an idea about two months ago and we weren't sure how or what would eventuate, but it seems to have come together. We heard about how a city council had destroyed belongings of homeless people, and thought we should do something about  supporting the homeless in our own city.  Co...

What a weekend of activity....family and Christmas sale gatherings. Yesterday the new socksillies gathered for a Christmas photo before getting ready for my annual charity Handmade Treasures Christmas sale. For those who have not seen socksillies before, they are my silly soft sculptures made from a sock or two socks. The photo shows them looking very festive. LamboArt friends, Bobbi and Jane also came over to bring their handmade treasures to go on sale on 28 November. They will be in USA then, so gathering and sorting their work had to be done early this year. On Saturday, it was the annual gathering of the “Yan” family at Budgewoi – a central meeting place. It was great to see cousins and their families again. Jim used it as an opportunity to gather more information for his family history documents (now two huge folders and about 600 people on the family tree). The children particularly had lots of fun – love those orange peel smiles!

Here is Dylan who has the responsibility of drawing the name of the winner of the Pink Giveaway from last week . The names were printed on paper. folded and put into a  Thomas the Tank Engine box.  The print you can see on one piece of paper is just because we used recyced paper -no cheating. Just take one piece of paper, Dylan. And the winner is... Show us the name, please Turn it over so we can see it, please ... And the winner is Berrylicious Buttons - congratulations  Sorry to everyone else who entered and thanks, Dylan.  A great blog to visit this week:  Visit http://magpiescollectables.blogspot.com for another fantastic giveaway and to see some beautiful beaded art.

Today, 26 October, is Pink Ribbon Day. We started the morning at the community centre with my Rotary club, the Rotary Club of Wallsend-Maryland, and cooked pink pancakes and bacon and eggs (their natural colour) at a fundraising breakfast for Breast Cancer Research. I also bought a couple of items of pink merchandise to support the cause. The pink ribbon and pen are part of this week’s blog giveaway. It’s a pink parcel – a pink fabric bag, made from a Laurel Burch print, a beautiful flower made by my mum, one of our Rotary club’s angels of hope and the pen and ribbon. There may be some other little pink surprises which I may add during the week. All you have to do to win this prize is leave a comment, either about Pink Ribbon Day or one of the photos in this blog post. I will put all the names in a container and draw one next Monday, 2 November, 9am Australian Eastern Summer Time. The photos are of things I’ve finished this week. The beaded doll was started ages ago, before I we...

One day last week, I woke up early, and decided to play with some polymer clay . I had been intrigued for some time with stacker beads ( ovenfried beads ) and so tried to make some. I did eventually after many attempts, and was happy I had managed to get the technique right. Then, of course, I looked at the mess of reject clay I had from all of the failed attempts, so thought I should on the spot use the clay rather than store it, so I made lots more beads. So now I have lots of other beads just for two stacker beads. Some of my Dolly friends said they thought the beads made out of reject clay were just as good anyway. Besides clay play, it’s been a big week. My Rotary Club, the Rotary Club of Wallsend-Maryland, District 9670, held its annual community awards last Tuesday. Six people in the community were recognised for their service to the local community. My husband , Jim, was also presented with a “fun” award for services beyond the fall of duty , referring to his accident in ...

For some strange reason, I have been making quite a few things in pink in the last couple of weeks. This week I finshed a little felt face brooch and a polymer and silver necklace - all very girly and pink!  Perhaps my new granddchild due in December will be a girl? The little brooch is made from a piece of handmade felt which I made while doing a demonstration at a workshop , and the spikey bits came later, again from a felting experiement. I put them together with one of the little faces I use for my Feltfollies, and here is a different look brooch.  The necklace heart pendant was designed to fit one of the little silver pieces I made when I was first learning to work with silver clay ( Precious Metal Clay - PMC). Then, I used to have bits of clay left from projects because of poor planning, and to practise, I used to make buttons or pieces I could use on dolls. This one didn't get that far and found its way onto a polymer clay shape. Thinking Pink in...

With the October long weekend holiday and daylight saving adjustment, I have been working in a mind "fog" today, and kept wondering what I would write about in this blog this week... it was so obvious. Last Friday I had the great privilege of attending a workshop conducted by visiting US master artist in Precious Metal Clay, Hadar Jacobson. Please see why I have been so excited about attending this workshop - please check out   Hadar's website . The workshop covered many new techniques for me and challenged the way I have previously thought about approaching, executing and finishing a silver project. I learnt new finishing techniques using a handheld rotary tool  and yesterday bought some new attachments for my dremel . My husband, Jim was really surprised when I got up early yesterday excited about going shopping at the local hardware store!  I made a small pair of hollow form earrings. In retrospect, I chose rather uninspiring shapes, ...