Skype | The Contented Crafter

I caught myself this morning standing over a kitchen sink full of hot, bubbly water, clapping my hands with joy! Life is good dear friends – life is very sweet right now!

I had a wonderful week with my ED. We spent quite a lot of time in her kitchen playing with her new toy – a most fabulous Vitamix Blender – which is really the kitchen appliance version of the Bissell vacuum cleaner I purchased, do you remember that post?

Here’s my girl holding down the uber blender case it takes off:

That’s almond milk in there – two seconds previously it was almonds, now its milk! Well, it will be as soon as it is strained through the nut milk bag.

Here is the view from her kitchen window:

If you go outside onto the deck this is what you see:

Beautiful New Zealand Bush – Rain-Forest to some.

I used to live in the house next door and take full credit for these two finding themselves there the year after I left.

I don’t have a photo to show yet – but I have some Kombucha living in my hot water cupboard and getting ready to give me a pro-biotic blast of goodness and tastiness in another week! ED and I went to a morning workshop and learned how to make Kombucha and Water Kefir. We came away with little jars, one bearing a Kombucha SCOBY and the other kefir grains. I don’t want to make water kefir – I want to make Milk Kefir which I can use as a replacement for, or addendum to, my organic yoghurt making practises……I left the water kefir grains with ED and she is happily percolating those.

I am still searching for milk kefir grains if you are reading this post and live close by – please let me know. Don’t try to send me any if you are overseas. Fran already tried that and the customs people snaffooed them and wouldn’t give them back!

Ooooh look – I made that – it’s a memo holder and lives on ED’s fridge, bearing a message from her sister:

Here is ED and SiL enjoying the Belgian Beer while waiting for the Mussels to arrive and keeping me amused with a photo shoot- if you were paying attention in the previous post you may remember what this was all about

And here is ED about to have a pre dinner snack

They won’t thank me for these – but I do it for your eddification and enjoyment dear readers!

Here is something for Linne and anybody else who enjoys a touch of Middle Earth

This is what you see now when you fly into Wellington Airport – Wellington being Hobbit Central with Weta Workshop just down the road from the airport and Sir Peter himself calling it home – Wellington, not the airport, silly! We all went to see the first Lord of the Rings here at the made over [by the wealth of Peter* before he was Sir] Embassy Theatre – where incidentally I saw my very first grown up movie a hundred years ago called ‘Exodus’ and fell madly in love with Sal Mineo. Hands up any one who remembers him……….. Any one?

All New Zealanders used to refer to ‘Peter’ and we all knew immediately which Peter was meant. Now we all reverently and rightfully refer to Him as ‘Sir Peter’.

Another bit of personal family history will, a couple of years later, see ED and SiL walking alongside some glittering movie stars on the Red Carpet to that same theatre for the World Premiere of a book that ED had on her publishing list which Peter, before he was Sir, made into another film called ‘The Lovely Bones’.

But I digress!

I am happily and slowly recreating my lounge. I got a bargain in curtain fabric off Trademe – scoring almost 9 metres for a paltry $29 featuring [fasten your set-belt Boomdee] gorgeous aqua flowers on a cream background.

I mentioned to some clients that I would be hanging up my shingle come September when the big birthday number was reached that would allow the government to take care of me in the style to which I am slowly downgrading my living standard to accustom myself to … This was maybe a foolish thing to do for they have suddenly decided that they must now do the work they have been putting off doing for years and my normally tranquil existence is being booked out from under me. I am blaming my clients for the slow eventuation of my give-away which now looks like being held over til after Easter.

But please do keep an eye out for the chance to win your very own Contented Crafter Organiser!

I took part in a Skyped International Tea-Party with some other Blogger friends at the behest of the aforementioned Boomdee. We all wore hats and gloves and brought a poem and told a story that hadn’t been told on our blogs – which was a great deal of fun despite us all talking at once and hardly anybody seeing any one – and me not seeing any thing at all! There was a small glitch in that we didn’t know we all had to have the latest version of Skype and at least one friend had to have a premium account ………. but we know now and are ready for the next available date!

Any how, there I sat in my hat and aqua fingerless gloves completely in the dark viewing wise – I didn’t mind so much, but poor Orlando had his hat on and was on his best behaviour sitting up beside the computer ready to say hello to all the other fur-friends – and not a one to be seen. He still hasn’t got over it!

Here’s me in my hat, cracking up over something Laurie had just said

Boomdee and I have decided to have a play with Google Hangout and see if that works any better for us – blogging may take on a whole new dimension folks. We’ll all just get together and have a chat instead of all this tedious writing and uploading of photos……….. What do you think?

Here are links to the posts from the other bloggers who took part

The delightful Ms Dani at TeddyandTotty based in Victoria, Australia

The delightful Ms Alys at GardeningNirvana based in California, USA

The delightful instigator of the whole affair Ms Boomdee from Alberta, Canada

The delightful biker chick, explorer and photographer Ms LB from Virginia, USA

And the lovely Ms Julia of Defeat Despair, who hasn’t posted about this yet.

And me.

This morning after the little happy dance at the kitchen sink which is where this all started I received some lovely Happy Mail

Apologies for the quality – it has become dark and threatening rain whilst writing this post!

This delightful collection comes courtesy of Patricia Awapara, a most delightful and talented artist and blogger friend from Miami Florida, US of A! We did a swap and once again I feel I got the better part of the bargain! I love the original of the boat painting and Pati kindly made a copy for me. That was all I was expecting and would have been thrilled to receive. But – I also received a small original! The flower vase is an original Patricia Awapara 🙂 And a postcard and a tiny print of the so cute half avocado……. Aren’t they gorgeous?

Have a wander over to her blog and marvel at her colourful and vibrant art works. I just love what she does!

My courtyard garden turned blazing red while I was away. I waited too long to take a photo and the weather turned – this one is from last year when Sidd could still be seen through the flaming Boston Ivy. This year he is a bit more elusive.

Here is my indoor Sidd – residing peaceably on my table awaiting his new home when the makeover is finished – though I quite like having him here too

Well dear friends, that has more or less partly caught you up with why there is still no art appearing on a blog which purports to be all about my arty and crafty adventures – so I shall fall back onto an oldie but a goodie

LIFE IS ART

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did! 🙂

I’ve just emerged after an hiatus from the daily routine – my girls and I had six days together, just being, sharing, playing, eating and drinking…………. we do this from time to time. It’s our chance to just be together – we like being together for no particular purpose, just catching up. One of us lives a thousand Kilometres away. We Skype regularly, and one or other may travel to visit, but most of all I value the times when we are just the three of us together with nothing to do and nowhere to be. Often one or other of us is going through something at these times and so our time together can focus on the need. This time no-one was in crisis or need of support – which left us with hours of talking time unfocused and meandering!

So we decided I would lead them through a Vision Board exercise.

In my old life I ran workshops which included a process which culminates in the production of a vision board – it is the process which is important and exciting and the picture that goes home with the participant is unique and personal.

The process is not usually about material things, rather it is about the new aspects of the soul which are longing for expression.

The requirements are organised – paper and pens; scissors, paste, large base paper, roughly about 80 x 80 cm and a large assortment of magazines of all kinds collected randomly over a period of time. [And I mean random, the more random the better.]

With a glass of wine to hand we began the process, I began by talking about letting go of expectations and thoughts of material goods – such as winning Lotto, or the bigger, better car, house or job. The girls noted down what they wanted to gain from the process – thoughts like ‘clarity’ ‘a way forward’ and ‘hope’ were expressed. Next they noted down their thoughts on various questions I put to them – favourite time of year and why – people who had touched their lives and how – miracles that had happened in their lives – things they are grateful for and things they like about themselves. All these things were discussed and shared and we moved gently into a more contemplative state.

In this mood of inner quietness the girls began to look through some randomly chosen magazines. This process can be quite challenging, as now there is no control – the process must be followed so the subconscious can reveal its desires. Magazines are flipped through quite quickly, just looking at pictures and moving on. When time is up each participant may take no more than two pictures from each magazine. This too must be done quickly. When time is again completed, the magazines may be again be quickly perused to find a few words that speak to the person. When time is up, it’s up and this part of the exercise is complete.

Now the rustle and rip of papers from magazines dies away and an intense silence settles over the room as the creators cut out their pictures and pile them up. When all cutting out is finished, the pictures are laid out on the large sheet of paper along with any words that were also chosen. Now it is really quiet with long periods of stillness as they look over their creations and refine them.

I love this part of the process – it is intense – now for the first time they are seeing their wishes laid out before them in visible form – often it is a complete surprise for workshop participants, but these two are a bit more in touch with their inner worlds. Still they are quietly pleased with what they are seeing – the best of them revealed!

Next we shared, looking at one work and offering thoughts and questions about what we were seeing. As we know each other so well we can go deeply and help each other uncover the code hidden within the choices of pictures and lay-outs.

To anyone else the finished boards mean nothing – to the creator just looking at the picture reawakens the feelings associated with the process and reminds them of the way forward and focuses their intentions on what they want in their lives. It’s a living process!

All I can say as an ending is that both were extremely pleased with their visions – pleased, proud and happy! Which is a strong indicator that the process had worked for them and a new path way revealed and validated.

D’s Board – colourful, sensual, soulful and spiritual. A validation of all the work she has done over the last two years in discovering herself and being true to her own moral compass.

J’s vision board: a picture of her improving health and self-esteem. Water features a lot [which symbolises the unconscious]. Trees represent strength to her and the pathway at the top leads straight and true into the unseen future – lined with symbols of strength.

NB:- George Clooney seems to feature often on vision boards – in this role he represents the Ideal Everyman – fun, sexy, self deprecating, educated, worldly and 100% on the side of Every Woman! Cor!! We probably all want one like that…..