A New Book...

Today I finally got my copy of 'the magic of Crazy Quilting' - J Marsha Michler. I have had it on order at A&R 's for ages... This Sunday is looking good as to being able to spend some time having a very 'deep and meaningful' with it. This is my first crazy quilting book - I am undecided whether to read it or set it up as a sacred shrine. Just joking!!!! In truth I am a little in awe. Looks like it will be a great reference book - lots of lovely pictures to look at. I look at it and dream...

Easter...

What can I say? The first three months of the year have just disappeared... Here we are at Easter... I guess because my life has been so hectic that I really haven't noticed Easter in the shops... Yes I have commented on the Easter eggs and hot cross buns that appeared so close after Christmas that it wasn't funny... I have always said that eventually Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny would arrive together one day and toss a coin to who would stay... As I have got older I have felt sad that these two events are so intertwined with the dollar... Although not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination I have been saddened by the lack of respect and the decline of the ritual aspect which seems to have all but been lost to some. I was gosmacked a couple of days when one of the young women I work with asked why everyone bought fish for Good Friday... Now, it might have been different had she been from a different cultural background but she wasn't. One of the other women voiced my own thoughts when she asked her where she had been bought up... Down on the coast of Victoria was the reply.

Good Friday was always a very quiet day and although I have never gone to church I have always felt that it was a day of quietness and reflection - perhaps this is a throw back from my childhood days. Having read sharonb's blog earlier it was reasurring to see that someone else felt the same. Like sharonb I intend to do something other than sit this afternoon - although Melbourne is turning on typical Easter weather - chilly, overcast with promised rain. I am sure that there must be people out there complaining that the shops aren't open today.

'They' - those who make up the 'questioning moral fibre' of our society often ask why we have a lessening of values both family and societal... Perhaps looking at holidays such as these might hold a few answers... Again I am not a religious person - however when the main thrust via the media seems to be sales, chocolate eggs and football matches it makes me wonder what life will hold for future generations... I will step off my soapbox now...

Stopping to catch my breath over the next few days - and perhaps looking to what I want to pursue over the next few months. Perhaps finishing off a few things might be a start. Although I have been 'cruising' through a few sites and 'looking'.

Crazy quilting still intrigues me - but I lament at my lack of embrodiery skills - a definite need for this craft... I think that my ideas are far greater than my skill base. I seem to lack the confidence to start and I think partly this is due to not having the interaction with other like minded people to keep me motivated and stimulated - that and the time facter. I some times feel as though I am moving in an alien environment - working in a position that doesn't interest me - but must be done to keep all the other aspects of my life functioning... I guess the basis of all this is the thought that time is running out and I haven't even begun to explore heaps of things... Hmmm....

Enough!!! I have four wonderful days to do what ever I like , well nearly!!!!!

Cirque Du Soleil...

Phew what a week... What with the wedding last weekend, the short week in Victoria, working all day yesterday then going out last night I feel like time has literally 'flown' past me... We are already half way through March and I feel like I haven't done anything when in actual fact I probably have done heaps...

Pete booked ticket to 'Cirque Du Soleil - Quidam' last year. He thought it might be something for me to look forward to after the wedding ... 'Coming down' - post wedding so to speak...

Wow!!! Probably an inadequate word to describe the performances we saw last night... Just when one thought they couldn't be 'thrilled' anymore - there was more... It was held in a 'big top' to create the circus atmosphere - but that was about the only correlation to what we expect of a circus as we know or remember it...

Having seen it at various times on the tv I thought I would know what to expect but tv certainly cannot do it justice. As with any live performance there is always something happening - they have a very 'active' floor or as in a lot of times a very 'active' mid ceiling... The timing is to perfection - no detail escapes tc make the whole experience memorable...

If I were to describe the night it was a combination of mime, dance, 'high wire' - without the tradional high wire - comedy, music and a story that weaves its way through bringing it all together... And of course there are costumes and 'props'... The artists are just breathtaking they use their bodies with expertise, and a combination of daring and risk which of course must be huge amounts of practice for them to be as skilled... The artists contorted, twisted, tumbled, leapt, 'fell' and were 'thrown' sequence after sequence... And again I will say 'Wow'....

Again this night 'knocked' on the door of my languishing imagination - and words, images and sounds flowed freely through... Pete bought the CD so I am looking forward to listening to it and allowing the experience to wash through me and transport me back into the world under the big top which is 'Cirque Du Soleil - Quidam'...

Next week Easter is on the doorstep....

Time To...

Get on with things... Now that the 'Big Event' has passed, it is time to return to normal life... I wonder where to start. I have got things spilling out of baskets - perhaps they are so sick of waiting they were coming to look for me. I would love to start something new - but I have so many bits and pieces started - enough said... Hopefully back to the stitching group next week...

I feel like my year has begun in earnest...

The Morning After...

Well it is all over... All those months of planning and stressing are behind us and we all bask in the afterglow of success...

The bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome, the location was just lovely... The day went well - there were some hitches- but they were overcome and we all moved on...

When they arrived walking through an avenue of trees holding hands I knew they had made the right choice about arriving together. They seemed so content and so contained within each other. I could see a very firm union there - no longer boyfriend and girlfriend - but a couple ready to make a serious committment to each other...

I know every mother thinks that their daughter looks like a princess on their wedding day and I am no exception. When I first saw her - just for a moment my heart and time stood still - I catapulted through time from the day she was born to present time. Here before me stood the woman she was destine to become. And with very mixed emotions - some of joy and some of grief - I loved her even more. I saw something else too - a little harder to put into words - perhaps the story of Demeter and how she 'gave' her daughter over to the underworld for a period of time each year - springs to mind. Perhaps that is not the best example - but best describes the sense of 'loss' I feel. Yet I know I haven't lost her - she has simply moved onto another part of her life... I find it hard to define what it is I feel - she has lived away from home for four years, so it is not like I miss her living with me...

Again I am at a loss for words... Perhaps she has been this way for a long time but it was only yesterday I saw it - a case of 'not seeing the wood for the trees' ... My 'little Mel' has turned into a 'grown up Mel' with the rest of her life in front of her... She and Dave together...

The Morning of...

Well, here we are... The morning of the 'big day'... The house is still - everyone is still asleep. But it will take only one thing to break it and then the day will have truely started... And I can only image it will be breath takingly hectic until the end...

How do I feel? A sense of sadness lingers. I can imagine that it was to do with the home videos we watched last night. Another wedding when everyone was fit and healthy and there was no hint as to what was to come...

I have the sense of being alone. The last few years have been tough, both literally and laterally. I think somewhere inside me I have 'shut down'. Yesterday was a good learning curve - I realised how much I have 'cut myself' off. Now what to do about it. I seem keep repeat the pattern... There is still that part of me that wants what I wanted 12 years ago - but for some reason I still haven't achieved it. I think the wedding has 'unearthed' these emotions and in some ways I feel 'raw' and definetely reflective... Only time will tell how I deal with them. I sense some major life decisions looming to be decided...

' My mel' well, she is probably curled up asleep next to 'her Dave' and as it should be. I think some people are a little shocked that she and Dave are going to arrive together for the ceremony. Less romantic they say, but in a way I see it as very romantic - if that is the word you want to use to describe it. Both of them are very practical, down to earth 'no frills' people, yet are totally besotted with each other. I guess the way they see it is that they are already a couple and what they are doing today is wanting to make a declaration of that union. Her father picked it up well - they compliment each other. I think that they shall do well - sure they will have their ups and downs but underneath I sense something that is solid and true.

It promises to be a beautiful, golden autumn Melbourne day. A perfect day for a wedding...

Five Days to the Wedding - Count Down...

Now five days to The Wedding... This time next week it will all be over... Melanie has just been on the phone - one of the guests has just pulled out - that means two less... Funnily enough this was the person who had trouble deciding whether they were coming or not - why can't people just be honest and say what they mean...

Between this and the new job I feel frazzled... My head feels like it is going to explode... But we press on to the Summit regardless...

My creative stuff has really fallen by the wayside along with my inclination... But I am looking forward to going to the stitching group once next week has gone...

I went to the Quilt Convention last week in Melbourne it was wondeful. Took in a couple of the free workshops - one on crazy patchwork... Hoping that the organisers found it successful enough to consider running it again.

I have thought about just making up some blocks with no particular theme in mind and just playing around with them... I have come to the conclusion however, that I need instruction and the most important factor, other people...