The journey continues...

This time last year, I was facing the prospect of starting the new year with a mix of fear and resignation. I knew there would be good times, but was preparing for the challenges. And there were challenges. Oh boy, were there challenges. Like push-starting a Combi to the Gulf of Carpentaria and back, anything is possible with determination and teamwork - and I have good people around me.

We got through.... and there were indeed good times.

That's me up there (shading my eyes) in the rather fetching vinyl A-line pinny. It was brown with a big ring on its centre-front brass zip. I wore it from when it was a dress to when it no longer fit as a top and I loved it to bits.

The year 2010 didn't pass without some pain and difficulty. Some unforseens.... Some lessons learned.

Photo of me, aged 4, sporting my souvenir of the journey to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

This year, I'm hoping for some more time to relax. Perhaps we'll even have a family holiday....?

Photo of my Dad, grandfather and aunt.

I need to swim more this year.

Ah, the things we do for love.... My Mum HATED the water, and you can see it in her stance (that's her in front of the slide) as she helped her kids enjoy the water.

My family went through the emotional mill in 2010 and we still have a lot of grief ahead of us. Hopefully, this year there will be less drama and upheaval. Less wrenching and more acceptance.

For me, the last year has brought about a greater sense of my place in the world, the cycles of life... the grand scheme of things... what we leave behind and how we use the now....

Photo of my Grandmother. (...Can any family members help me out here? ...Is that Dad as a baby?)

Edited to add: Baby is not Dad, but his first cousin. My grandmother's first niece.

I'm embarking on the journey of 2011 with plans and hopes for what I'd like to achieve, the acceptance that there'll be good times and bad and the keen awareness that it's the incidental everyday things I say and do that really matter the most. Those are the things that will endure beyond my time on this earth. It's how I can make a difference.

Photo of Mum and Dad setting off on their honeymoon.

I'm beside-myself excited/nervous/hopeful/scared/hugely-relieved as I anticipate the May-June release of my book. It's been a long time coming, and to me, will always represent what can happen - against the odds - with a bit of self-belief and the support of good people (that's YOU, folks!).

It won't be without a few tears, that I send my one-and-only baby girl off to school this year, but I'm preparing to be amazed and inspired by her growing intellect, creativity and individuality as she embarks on her life without me as the centre of her universe.

I'm excited by the prospect of using my new teaching space, formulating new workshops and designing new patterns. I'm thrilled to again have the opportunity to pass on a bit of what I know and to watch it flower in those of you who use it to enhance your own creative journey. For me, that's what it's all about. That's the stuff that feeds my soul.

Bring it on.

How to spend a stinking hot New Year's Eve... or not.

It was forty degrees* with a hot north-westerly wind.... the kind of weather that turns me into a cranky madwoman who draws blinds and fears the great outdoors (which is like a fan-forced oven).

It's the kind of weather that makes me cancel errands and appointments that were planned for the day, opting for water-based activities with the smallest person in the house.

*104 degrees farenheit, for my American friends.

We started with an overhaul of the hair-tie drawer in the bathroom (yes, she really DOES have a drawer full!).

Nothing like free rein with a pump pack of soft soap to engage the girls enthusiasm..... she washed them all. We brightened up buttons, washed and re-shaped yo-yo's, then quick-dried them in the outdoor oven (read: outside on the cement footpath).

We snipped off broken old elastics and then couldn't find a needle and thread to stitch on the new.... thus, inventing a job for another day...
On to felting...... and the wee one remembered that she'd seen slippers in a felting book, and was DETERMINED. TO. MAKE. SLIPPERS.

I insisted that my felting skills were not good enough for that, and that we'd need support materials and all sorts of things and skills that I don't have... blah, blah.

She insisted that she knew how to needle-felt slippers and set to it, determinedly..... I just watched ...like a hawke (the kind that reminds kids to keep their fingers out of the way of sharp, jabbing needles).
She refused all guidance as she snipped sole-shapes from felted wool fabric and started to shape fleece around one of them. It was at the point where it was actually wearable, that she accepted a bit of help to fine-tune the shaping.

There was lots of trying on, with me holding bits together and saying, "Ok... get that bit now..."
...and only one unfortunate collision of finger and needle (mine, thankfully, and only one needle instead of all 5).
(BTW.... that picture of Hoot in the background is a whole other story.... a blutack-and-paper collage... blutacked to the kitchen wall. I smile every time I pass it).

Eventually we had some (somewhat rustic) needle-felted slippers!

Ahem.... perfect for a forty-degree day.

We made nori rolls for dinner (the girl and I). Now I sit, listening to the distant thump of city fireworks, the loud crackles and pops of (illegal) local fireworks and the soft snores from the couch (man of the house started snoozing around an hour ago). I've watched the end of Braveheart, drunk wine, eaten ice-cream and done some knitting.

I've thought about how lucky I am to have mis-spent my youth on all sorts of wild-child New Year's Eve parties, adventures and misadventures....and to know that - without a doubt - if I had my choice of ways to spend this day, I wouldn't have it any other way than the way it was today.

I believe it's 2011. Happy New Year to you all!