on christmas is coming...........

.....Christmas is coming and the geese are getting plump,
The shops are filling fast with presents destined for the dump.
If everybody tried to to sew and make their gifts themselves,
Then how would we employ those bored and lonely little elves?

No I don't mean that. I've always encouraged (pushed, railroaded, forced my kids to make rather than buy any offerings for others. It worked when they were little, and was totally rejected as entered the self-ful era of teenagegerhood and now they are adults..... I see the philosophy of "real value" creeping inadvertently into their thinking.
Hmmm. all that mothering not wasted after all......?
So here I am making more wee ones .

on being humbled by the creativity of others.........

A week teaching at the Australian Sewing Guild Convention has humbled me.
Total beginners, open minds, wild enthusiastic artistic endeavors.
And I thought the sewing guild turned collars and stitched interfacing......
This is what my students produced.



and these.......



and these........



and these.....

.....on trees + rain = green

....on holiday.
New Zealand, land of the long white cloud.

Poetic way of saying that its always raining. Yes. lots of rain.
Guess that's why the trees are all green....
not the leaves, they're gone to leaf heaven for the winter.
Its the trees and the trunks and the roots and the branches.
Green. Lovely



























except for this one......

.....aahhh.....the little details.

...ever noticed how when things are bleakest, the tiniest beam of light, the eeniest little reflection, the smallest pleasure seems magnified?
Ive always liked winter best. The sunshine is lovlier. The colours are gentler. The details are clearer.
Just back from Jenny's farm where the people are sparser. The air is fresher.
So here is the trip up
.