"Suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character,

and character produces hope"

I am involved in an "Inspiration Swap" where we are to make an item using a supplied, inspiring word. This time the word is endurance or endure. I like the sound of that word! At the Creative Soul Retreat I did one class with Stephanie Lee called The Chain Gang. We learnt to make bezels and also 3 different forms of chain. Unfortunately my bezel hasn't appeared since I got back from Melbourne but here is a pic of my chain. As you can see I really liked making the round ones with the 'globs' which you could either hammer flat or leave as globs!

On the last day of The Creative Soul Retreat I did DJ Pettit's collage class and I thoroughly enjoyed it and also the fact that I was sitting next to Lucy, with whom I hadn't had the chance to talk to. I think we chatted more than we worked at some stages - we discussed all sorts of things including France and our hopes of visiting there next year - and then after awhile she just disappeared into thin air! But I know she was one of the helpers in setting the retreat up so she would have been away doing things... and not the fact that I had bored her silly!!

I showed cherub #2 this pic that I made in DJ's class - (it is a different technique to what you may have seen on some of the Face Painting Classes). I haven't finished it yet as I can't get the lid off my Indian Ink and I want to decorate the base board a bit more. Cherub told me "Mum you should be really proud of yourself, it is good enough to go into The Louvre"!!!! I don't care if it isn't as good as it should be, the praise and admiration I got from him is enough for me..........at what age do they stop liking what their mother's make????

I've been found!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas....... I have been lost in France since Christmas Day! Well not really, but my friend Leanne gave me this lovely book for Christmas. It is such an inspiring story about a family from Melbourne moving to France to live and the business that they started. There are quite a few recipes sprinkled through the book too, to make it even more appealing. The description of the fresh produce markets and the various other markets, just makes you want to fly over there straight away.

Thud! Feet are back on the firm Aussie soil again now.

Will be back tomorrow with more pics and chat.