For several years, I have been carting around with me, a rather large suitcase full of photos that were taken of me, my family and the endless trips overseas that I have taken. One trip that I went on to Europe, I did not have a digital camera, but a conventional camera, and I shot over sixteen rolls of film. These photos were then developed and for some reason or another, I never did get to catalogue them or even mark them. So, I have decided that I must do it, and soon. I was astute enough, I think to write a notebook and keep it with the photos all numbered in the packets, so that I could distinguish them again one day.

My daughter helped me sort them out, and we did have a jolly time throwing out the blurred photos, the photos that just did not come out right, and also have a section of photos for reprinting, as she cannot do without some of them herself.

The question that I ask myself is this.....do I want to cart around this suitcase full of albums, or should I just scan them, catalogue them and put them all on disk and get rid of all the hard copies. That way, I would save a lot of room. Or should I keep them all, get some nicer albums for them and continue to shove them into whatever space I can find for them.

Different parts of my life are well documented, whilst others are not. I am at a loss as to why there are gaps. Perhaps it is just because we get too busy to document our lives with visual records at different times. But we have the memories, be they good or not so good.

Over the past few years, all my photos were taken by digital camera, and then stored on disks, so I am thinking that I should really change to having them all with the space saving devices. It certainly would cut down on the clutter.

I have even found in my hard copies of photos, a lot of documenting of earlier felting days and other events when I was first learning about the art. People in these photos I remember and I have not seen for years, and looking at them brings back happy thoughts of the times and fellowship that we all shared at the Retreats attended, and even of smaller demonstrations and shows.

Previously I was a full time worker, but now I have secured a much easier and less demanding part time job, which will keep me happy because it will allow me the time that I need to persue all the many other interests in my daily life. I can now attack my Feltmaking once more, with a fervour that I have not been able to when working and travelling to that workplace for the total of a twelve hour stint per day. When coupled with time out to relax and time for sleeping, plus all the other necessary demands on time, one did not have much time at all for the passion. But all that has changed now, and it can now be attained once more.

Moving on!

As the title suggests, moving on has been a priority in my life of late.

First of all, with the economic downturn in the country, it has meant that my late employer had to make some cut backs, and unfortunately, myself and several others bore the brunt of it. Retrenchment is such an ugly word. But it has bought about changes in my life that are not all bad.

For years I have hated living in the metropolitan area, and even though it was in the southern suburbs of Perth, it was still too busy, too noisy, and very limiting for me. Certain concessions had to be considered and although I would have liked to have had a lot more time to think about it, a decision was made, and I am now relocated back to my old home town of Busselton, where there are a lot of advantages to be enjoyed.

Theadvantage is that I get to enjoy the clean air and a lot of physical pleasures that an outside life without all the smog and pollution that a city provides, can offer me.....such as riding my pushbike everywhere (especially when it is not raining and cold), walking downtown every day without fear of being mugged, and in general, enjoying the beautiful coastline that Busselton has to offer.

The third advantage is that I get to see my family more, because they also live down here, apart from my parents, that is, and that in itself is the only disadvantage. But due to the wonders of modern technology, I can keep in touch very regularly.

I have the advantage of being able to get to and indulge my passion for feltmaking. Just as soon as I sort out the studio, and find the necessary items that I will require to do just that. I left that project for the last on the agenda, because of the fact that I wanted to take my time over it and get the studio in an order that I would be happy with.

So to that end, I say to the world, and myself....."Bring it on".

Into Autumn already

Now that we are in March, the weather is starting to cool on some of the days. Still hot though, but not as hot as last month. I think that Summer will still go out with a bang and let us know again before March finishes, that it was hot.

I vowed and declared that I was going to get some feltmaking done over the five days that I had off last week, but the garden was also singing its sweet "come hither" song to me, and I was seduced by it. Ended up spending all the spare time out in it and not getting any felt made. I moved pots around, as the maintenance man of the units had previously been in to repaint all the gutterings, fascias and doors and downpipes, so had to get them all out of the way. And also put them back and give the yard a big clean up, fertilise and whatever cutting back that it needed. Not a lot of weeds, as I keep it mulched and that takes care of that little problem.

Last month, I went to a class to learn a bit about Machine embroidery on my felt, as I would like to embellish it with that as well. I had previously purchased a new Toyota sewing machine. Well......the machine played up quite a lot, making a lot of horrible noises and ended up not being able to use it. I took it into the repair shop for a service and a bit of a look at it, and I got it back during the 5 days off work. Still haven't been able to find the time to have a play with it, but I must confess, I did go and buy another machine cause I could not wait to try out what I had learned. I got a Bernette this time, and so far, so good. Still got a lot of practice to put in before I go and try to do something on my good pieces of felt. I hope that my work roster will allow for that to happen.

With a lot of the economic downturn affecting all businesses, ours is not left out, and we find that we have a lot of redundencies in our company. I have been assured that my job is secure, but I think that is only because some people are leaving also due to finding other employment here and there, and we are expected to take up the slack. Won't give us a pay rise though.

Looking forward to April, when I just may have to take a few days off work, as a very lovely friend will be home from working overseas, be it only just for a short while. I want to be able to take advantage of that time to spend a lot of it together, as it will be another long stretch for him to be away again after that.

This year, my sympathies lie with three of my dear felting friends, who have all lost their husbands in late January. Dawn lost Laurie to the dreaded big C after he had a long ongoing battle. Carol lost Allan to a heart attack suddenly, and Meg also lost Jules to a Coronary. My thoughts are still with them all, and hope they adjust to life quickly without their mates.

Am heading into a couple of days off work, so may even get some felt making done this time. Hope so anyway.

Bye for now

Happy feltmaking everyone

Julie

During the last week of January, the school summer holidays, I took my grandson Joseph to Rottnest Island, which is just off the Coast of Western Australia from Fremantle. We had 3 days over there, and enjoyed it thoroughly. We went bike riding around the island, on hired pushbikes. Snorkelling in the lovely waters, and a lot of walking, eating, sightseeing and swimming, with a little bit of sleeping in between. Very hot over there, but first couple of days were overcast and a little windy. But we managed to not let that spoil the time. I think he loved it over there. I would like very much to go back.

Long time between posts

It has been a long time since the last time I posted anything on this blog.....been busy at work and other things.

Summer is here and it has come with a vengeance. We are experiencing a little bit of a heat wave here and I find that with no air conditioning in the house, it gets a little stuffy and I am unable to do any feltmaking without a constant drip of perspiration from the brow. Breezes outside make it impossible to take the work out to the shade house on the back lawn, so I just have to grit my teeth and do no felting in the mean time.

I did however finish off the wall hanging that I made for my neice Sarah, who was getting married in November. She has not said however, if she liked it, so I guess I will just have to wait until she mentions it.

Even though I went to New Zealand in October, I am getting those dreaded itchy feet again. I will have to curb my spending and save once more for another trip. I would have liked to put my name down to go to the Denmark Felting Conference in June/or is it July of this year, but so far, upon me looking that one up, all the places had been taken. As I am located here in Austalia, and because I have to work, and therefore apply for leave, I cannot just take pot luck and put my name of a waiting list in the hope that it may come up with a vacancy for me. It would be lovely to spend some of the summer in Europe this year.

So, to console myself, I will be taking a few days off work this month, and taking a week over at Rottnest Island with my Grandson Joseph. We plan to do a lot of snorkelling, bike riding and exploring of the island. I will take a lot of photos and post them the next time I write.

Christmas this year was delightful.....a big change from previous times. When I was a child living in the countrside, we as a family used to take a packed up picnic lunch of all the goodies that we were deprived of during the year, and head out bush.....and enjoyed the scenery when we ate our cold christmas dinner. This year, it was kind of similar. We packed up a picnic lunch into the eskys, along with the cold drinks and ice, took swimming bathers with us, cameras and fold up chairs, and headed down to Canebrake, which is a nice spot not far from Chapman Hill, south east of Busselton, Western Australia. There were a fair swag of us that went, including my two teen aged grandchildren and three children of a friend of my daughters, along with parents, inlaws, etc. We ate plenty of dust on the way out there, as the sealed road ended before out trip out there did. Food was delicious, company was great and the scenery was exceptional. Kids all got to swim in the lagoon there, as it was quite a warm pleasant day, and they all had fun also. We marvelled at the plants that were out in flower, the marron in the lagoon, and the current of the water that was in the lagoon. The photos are taken of the day.

I was lucky to have had the 3 days off over Chrissy, so was able to make the drive down to Busselton with my parents in tow. Since then I worked over the new year's break, so that made up for the time I had off.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy, Prosperous and Adventurous New Year. May all your resolutions be fullfilled and that the ensueing year is one of contentment to you all.

Cheers

Julie