A Writer's Desk...

My writing desk is finally all unpacked and enjoying its new home by a delightful little window. The perfect spot to enjoy the morning sunshine. I just love my new writing spot and am especially excited I found the perfect place to put my Eiffel Tower print, which is actually a fabulous piece of Cavallini and Co. wrapping paper.

Hope you enjoy a lovely start to the week. I'm off to finish making the house look lovely for my favourite guests (my parents) who are arriving this afternoon.

PS. If you haven't already, be sure to enter my summer giveaway for your chance to win a one of kind brooch. Just pop over here and leave me a comment.

Much Love
xxx

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Her Ink Collection.. My 2010 Project

Natalie Goldberg wrote in her book 'Writing Down the Bones' that her rule was to fill a notebook a month. I was first given this book just before I begin my writing degree in 2002. Ever since I have tried to find the perfect notebook to fill and dreamed of having enough beautiful words to write everyday. Finally in 2010, using one Moleskine Cahier notebook each month, I will stain my hands with ink, write my heart out and fill 12 notebooks by the last day of the year.

Her Ink Collection is my new little blog I have created especially for this 2010 project. It is a wee space where I will be sharing some of the ramblings of my notebooks and photography inspired by my writing. I will also be posting about inspiring authors, artists, creators and bloggers who are participating in 2010 projects.

My collection of words begins..

I would love you to pop over and say hi. I have been writing for the last ten years and I often found it quite a beautiful but at times lonely adventure, so I thought this might little blog might be the perfect way to keep me writing my heart out.

Of course I will still be posting over here in my little Library nook and have some lovely surprises in store over the coming month. Happy Tuesday!

Much Love
xxx

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Of Poetry and Magic..

And so I spent a day unlike any other, listening to some of Australia's most celebrated and inspiring poets and authors in the most intimate of settings as a part of the Writers' Festival. Writers like Peter Steele, Alexis Wright, Sophie Cunningham and Robert Gray, read their work and spoke about about their worlds and influences. I am left a sense of adventure and excitement, totally drawn into their every word, fascinated how just one stanza can say so much.

So I take a moment to catch my breath, giddy with beautiful poetry and prose as I get ready for the festivities this evening of the wonderful Festival dinner, which I am sure will be filled with wonderful food from Stefano's and fascinating conversation.

I will be back tomorrow with a Sunday Shopping List as well as my adventures at Rose Harvest. I have been planning a trip to my favourite antiques shop for many weeks and I'm delighted that I will be finally going tomorrow and can't wait to see what treasures lie waiting for me to discover. I hope your weekend has been filled with beauty and wonderful conversation.

Much love and writing dreams
xxx

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Poetic Moments..

What an amazing start to the week! Our Poetic Licence event was held last night as part of the Mildura Writers' Festival and it was just an amazing night. With the beautiful Art Vault as our venue we performed to a packed crowd and enjoyed the wonderful company of friends, family and other local writers, musicians and artists.

image courtesy of The Art Vault
Our fabulous venue The Art Vault

Of all the ways I express myself creatively I find writing to be the most intimate and challenging but on nights when you are able to share your work with lovely people it is indeed very rewarding. The piece I read was titled 'The Tale of a Tumbleweed' a story about a the world of Shakespeare and Company, my favourite little bookshop in Paris.

Here is a little exert from my piece...

Perhaps she was a soul collecting dust,
A book only to be read once,
For all her secrets were given away in the first chapter.
She would wear a green coat lined with old brass buttons and her grey eyes would consume anyone who stole her glance.
A fragile creature placed on the highest shelf,
Never a prizewinner but somehow never bundled for a garage sale either.
She was a rare beauty who by night would wake to find herself longing for metaphors and ampersands.
Those who knew her called her Dinah, for down the rabbit hole with Alice was where she longed to be.
And she would tell stories of the places she had been and the people who had captured a moment between her covers.

Also I was so overwhelmed and excited by the press we received for the event I forgot to actually post the article from the newspaper in my blog on Sunday. So here it is... (with another photo of my cheesy grin!)

So now that our event is over for another few months, I finally landed back down to earth today after what has been an amazing few weeks. I has been lovely to just relax for a moment and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the Writers' Festival over the weekend, including the very exciting festival dinner on Saturday night.

In other news, it seems I just can't keep myself or my brooches out of the paper at the moment. The beautiful Liesa from Handmade Heaven had a fabulous editorial today in a local Queensland paper about her gorgeous shop and she was so sweet in featuring on of my brooches in photo.

Liesa is doing so many wonderful things at the moment with her shop and the Handmade Expo, so if you are in or near Ipswich you must pop in and see her.

Well I'm off to defrost my the fire and contemplate what to cook for dinner before embarking on exam marking with a little sewing in between. Hope you have had a wonderful Wednesday and I will see you tomorrow with my little 'birthday' creative space.

PS. Just a little note to let you know that my Etsy shop is currently set on vacation mode. With so many wonderful things happening at the moment, I have just been a little overwhelmed and will spend the next few weeks reorganising, making wholesale orders and creating some exciting new pieces for my own shop. I will be reopening at the beginning of August and will be having a big giveaway to celebrate so stay tuned!

Much love and poetic moments
xxx

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Surrounded by inspiration...

After a few hectic weeks it was lovely to spend the day at home today, catching up on blogs, drinking tea and writing the day away. I also had a bit of fun this morning posing in a photo for the local newspaper about the up and coming event Poetic Justice Publishing is holding as part of the Mildura Writers' Festival. More about that a little later...

Today was all about surrounding myself with all my favourite things and just taking a moment to be inspired, watch the world go by, listen the the beautiful sounds of hot tea being poured into china and ink seeping into crisp clean paper. My desk holds all my treasures and today the smell of lavender and dreams of Paris were my inspiration.

With my journal, a pot of tea, fresh lavender from my garden and a beautiful stash of magazines I spend the afternoon, writing and dreaming.

I am currently writing a piece to perform for our Poetic Licence event as a part of the Mildura Writers' Festival. As I weave between memories and dreams, I am writing about the world of Shakespeare and Co. the beautiful little bookstore on the banks of the Siene.

Inspriration - The beautiful Peppermint Magazine and a lovely new notebook I found at GoMA.

Tea and Lavender...

As the sun sets early on this lovely overcast day I'm off to settle in for the evening to begin a few new artworks to display at the Writers' festival and work on an exciting little idea that has been brewing within my journal. Wishing you a delightful Friday!

Much love and inspiration
xxx

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Journals and Big Ideas..

I'm constantly fascinated by the evolution of ideas and dreamings. They are little moments in your subconscious and sometimes like tiny butterflies they manage to break free of their shell and take flight. I have often considered investing in a sturdy butterfly net in order to catch some of my crazier daydreams. If we are really lucky some days we might just catch one of those lovely little ideas upon a page and snap the book shut, hoping it will not escape. This is when you needs a very trusty journal by your side at all times.

I was so excited to return home to a lovely package waiting for me. The fabulous Megan from The Byron Life create totally gorgeous recycled notebook for beautiful preloved golden books. When I saw the perfect one for me in her Etsy shop Mellimoomoo I just had to have it. Now it has taken pride of place on my desk ready to be filled with wonderful fluttering ideas.

My gorgeous new Alice in Wonderland journal..

I've had an idea fluttering around just out of my reach for a long time now, something that has been right in front of me and I have never realised. Finally during a writing workshop last month I was able to catch it on paper just by chance and ever since I have been spellbound with this little exploding day dream, finally a concept for a strange little novel, not quite for children, perhaps for those wishing they still were.

I have always written for adults and never thought of searching through all my inspiration to find that everything I adore to write about is really aimed children and the 'always young at heart'. So I've spent the the weekend getting all my ideas roughly down on paper and for the first time I've begun to collaborate these with all my favourite inspirational characters, settings and narratives.

Setting inspiration - Count Olaf's house

Character and Setting inspiration - my favourite heroines..

I've realised through this process just how much my childhood reading has influenced my own story telling, the places, people and adventures. I would love my protagonist to be a little bit of Alice, Dorothy, Mary Lennox and Sara Crew and I've only just begun to consider all the books and films I love.

So now I am beginning the planning and writing process, much to my absolute delight. All the possibilities begin to collide and my page becomes a melting pot of the strange, the wonderful and the crazy.

Planning in process - a strange little time line and scribbled pages.

As my tale grows and I make sense of all my scribble I will let you in on the secrets and adventures that find their way onto my page. Right now all I know is, it's about a girl, a very big house, an even bigger imagination and one tiny key.

Now that the kettle is boiled I'm off to brew a pot of tea and get a few hours creating in before I settle down to mark English essays. Wishing you an inspiring Tuesday.

Much love and wild imaginings
xxx

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Writing, sewing and loving Sunday..

At last a cool change has come to Mildura after ten days straight of over 40 degree temperatures. I've spent the day enjoying the cool change, sewing some new brooches and pendants for my little shop and enjoying the afternoon at our monthly Poetic Justice Publishing writing workshop. We had to cancel it yesterday after it got up to 47 degrees so it was lovely to be able to catch up today and prepare for the local Big Screen Film Festival that we are a part of next month. Words and images always seem to flow freely on a Sunday and we are embracing the themes of Baz Lurmann's Australia and creating poetry and prose that resonates old world Australia.

A writer's stash

Notes and inspiration..

An afternoon with the Remington..

I briefly braved the heat yesterday to take a quick trip find some new fabrics and ribbon. I came home with a lovely little collection and have been busy making a new collection of brooches and working on a few special pendants too. I had anticipated getting a little more achieved over the weekend but the heat slowed me down quite a bit, so I'm looking forward to more creating in my spare moments during the week. Here a just a few of my creations which you can find in my Etsy shop now.

Lovely new fabric and ribbon..

'For the Soul' Terrarium Pendant

I heart Glue and Scissors (the perfect pair)

I heart Sketchbooks
I heart Philosophy..

I've also got a special little offer on in my shop at the moment, if your purchase is my 50th (I'm at 48 at the moment) you will receive a little extra gift with your order. Keep an eye out for more cute and crazy brooches during the week.

Well I'm off to cook dinner with my lovely hubby and get ready for another evening of the ever fun and frivolous 'So you think you can dance'. Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend.

PS. My heart goes out to all the families affected by the horrific bush fires in Victoria. We are so blessed to have not been affected up here in the north west corner, I just hope that the cool change will help to ease the fires and brings some relief to the people of Victoria.

Much love and Sunday dreams
xxx

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