Dreaming of Dior

Hi R
A 'Dior' reply from my friend Veronica, who reminds me of you and is a kindred spirit.  She has a interior style business in Mosman and her last blog is also about inspiration.
http://stantoninteriorstyle.blogspot.com/    Here is an extract from her blog.

Back to winter now - I've just been to Orange, New South Wales where the cold and wind were biting (lots of layers kept us warm!).  In the little heritage town of Millthorpe near Orange a colourfully decorated chair and cushions by a sunny window immediately made me feel toasty, and brought to mind autumn leaves in the following photo taken in autumn in Bowral, NSW.

  

Veronica:-
"I love the Dior fashions, past and present. Did you know that an Australian woman (Charlotte Smith) has written a book about inheriting a wonderful collection of beautiful clothes from other eras from her godmother. It's called Dreaming of Dior and should still be in the bookshops.


My first cousin, Hamish Bowles, works for Vogue USA and has a museum collection of dresses from glamorous women.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=  

Thanks Veronica - I love the way Hamish has expressed the creative spirit so concisely.
Clara
                           

clara@babyboomerconnections.com.au www.babyboomerconnections.com.au

So pleased that the shuttles are flying again



So pleased that the shuttles are flying again

Hi R
Ooohhh  - feeling very nostalgic -  back 30 years to the days of the Niddy Noddy, where I learnt to weave in your studio / weaving store in Waukasha.  We had such wonderful creative times, weaving 'joy and happy memories', before we were 'liberated.'  You were a great teacher, very dedicated to the process of weaving.  As you say in your post  "I had forgotten how much I enjoy the whole process; winding the shuttles, listening to the rhythmical sound of the harnesses and watching the fabric grows row by row, inch by inch."



The Niddy Noddy


















This poem was given to me by my dear friend, Jane. I have carried it my wallet for many years resulting in the card being soft and fluffy around the edges.

The Weaver

My life is but-a weaving
Between my Lord and me.

I cannot choose the colours
He worketh steadily

Oftimes he weaveth sorrow,
And I in foolish pride
Forget he sees the upper,
And I the underside.
Not ‘til the loom is silent
and the shuttles cease to fly,

Shall God unroll the canvas

and explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful

In the Weaver's skillful  hand,

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern He has planned.

Anon.

Sadly, life got in the way of my weaving.  Maybe I can enjoy weaving vicariously through our blogs. Just at the time when I will have time, there is nowhere to put the loom, which is in pieces, with the frame under the house.  I need to put it back together and am working on G but it will take a miracle.
Clara
Click on 'comment' at bottom of page to have your say or email clara@babyboomerconnections.com.au www.babyboomerconnections.com.au

In the Loom of Life

Hi C
In these difficult times with so much unrest, destruction and sadness I find myself more than ever drawn to the comfort of creating. I hadn't worked at my loom for several years, but something was drawing me to it again. I admit I was afraid that the years of neglect would somehow have taken its toll, and I would not be able to weave. But with a little bit of loving care, some drops of oil, and a quick refresher from weaving 101, I was back at it. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the whole process; winding the shuttles, listening to the rhythmical sound of the harnesses and watching the fabric grows row by row, inch by inch. I'm weaving with hand dyed wool yarns in a simple twill pattern. My plan is fabric for a coat, but who knows. At this stage it doesn't really matter. Just the fact that I am weaving again makes me happy. From where I sit, I can see everything much more clearly. In the loom of life may you weave joy and happy memories.




R

Day 365!!! - A year of investment in creativity provides inspiration and friendship

Hi R
The picture says it all!  Thanks for the inspiration your work has given me throughout the year. Also for the wonderful exchange of ideas.  Long live the grannies!
Love Clara
The Vests of My Life...February 8, 2011

Day 365...some of the vests!


Click on 'comment' at bottom of page to have your say or email clara@babyboomerconnections.com.au www.babyboomerconnections.com.au

Grannies - Spending time with grandchildren is our gift

R wrote in response to my food blog on avocados - While my creativity has blossomed in the textile arts with my project blog, all other aspects in my life have, alas, become a bit mundane, especially my meal planning.
There just isn't enough time in the day anymore to be a great cook, an avid exerciser, an entrepreneur and a granny. I'm concentrating on the grannie part as that is the most important part.

My meals lately have consisted of take out from the local market with some salads thrown in. Thank goodness it's a great market and has lots of healthy food to offer. October looks to be a calmer month and with your visit, I am looking forward to lots of creative time, in the studio, in the kitchen and all over our town. It will be great fun.


Clara -  My visit to Wisconsin to catch up after 30 years is very special - our base was combining young children with creativity, being entrepreneurial, exercising, while offering healthy food and lifestyle.  Now being a good granny, and still combining the above, is I believe, exactly where you need to be, and you are fortunate to be close enough to have a regular cuddle.    

Allocating time is still the issue:  with modern grannies, mothers and working women - or in fact anyone who chooses to do all you say.  R, there never was enough time to do all of that, no matter your age and stage!  Germaine didn't raise a family, then have the joy of grandchildren - in fact, after all her protestations on women wasting time in kitchens looking after men and families, has herself become a little bit foodie. 

Women, as you know, have always had to juggle family interests with other aspects of a fulfilling life;  having been a single parent, I know this well: our mothers, with the advent of modern appliances and post wartime values,  were only on the brink of being able to combine other interests, let alone a career, while nuturing a family. 

Which is why a great motto  'Carpe diem',  Live the Day,  expresses how your creativity has  'Blossomed' in the textile arts, at the same time  embracing the importance of being a great granny.  If we don't grab the moment, it will be gone - bonding happens early and is for a lifetime.  Also it happens through contact not bloodline.
Also, at the same time, this is our time too, and if we don't grab it and express ourselves now, then when ?

Meanwhile, throwing together a selected takeaway, combining it with fabulous quick salads, is a perfect answer.  I adore warm

Where have the years gone?

salads for instance which is just what you are describing. 
So much to catch up over a glass of wine.

Other simple healthy solutions and methods are available from http://fitinyourjeanscuisine.blogspot.com/


Click on 'comment' at bottom of page to have your say or email clara@babyboomerconnections.com.au
 http://www.babyboomerconnections.com.au/ with foodie archive

I adore scarves. So who was Isadora?

Hi R / wonderful, creative, individual  women out there / and the men who love and put up with us..........

It was time to start a new file within my blogger file, which I called 'Women to Admire'.  The impetus for this particular blog, was wanting to record how much I adore scarves, hence the question "Who was Isadora?" 
 hence .....
Having read more about her, I doubt I would slot her into that category.  Perhaps -  Amazing Women / Women who danced / Women who moved ahead of the pack etc. 

 Personally I  admire her for her amazing spirit, and as with other feminist women, she blazed our trail.  "What trail?" our daughters may ask.  Another day, another blog, but believe me, "Baby, we have come a long way." 

The famous poet and writer Carl Sandburg in his poem, Isadora Duncan: wrote:

"The wind? I am the wind.
The sea and the moon? I am the sea and the moon.
Tears, pain, love, bird-flights? I am all of them. I dance what I am.
Sin, prayer, flight, the light that never was on land or sea?
 I dance what I am."      Isadora Duncan

ps - I had a personal 'Isadora moment'.  With my burnt orange scarf around my neck, having bought G his delicious salad at Cafe Balmoral, an unsuspecting male stood on the end of my trailing scarf.  Suddenly, I felt an alarming tightening around my neck. 

What is the ending to this story?
Clara

Clar

Then - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Isadora Duncan
Born - 1877 San Francisco, California, U.S.   Nice, France Field -  Dance and choreography
Died - 1927 (aged 50)

Movement -  Modern dance
Isadora Duncan  was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and then only later in her life. She performed to acclaim throughout Europe.

Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves was the cause of her death in a freak automobile accident in Nice, France. Duncan's large silk scarf, while still draped around her neck, became entangled around one of the vehicle's open-spoked wheels and rear axle, breaking her neck.
She was a pioneer of 20th-century American dance, often credited with moving dance away from strict formal structures and toward more free-flowing forms of personal expression. She wore Grecian-style gowns, often performed barefoot, and startled audiences by employing such everyday human movements as skipping and running.

An Unconventional Life
 In 1913, both children, with their nurse, drowned in an accident on the Seine River. They were returning home after a lunch with Isadora and Paris Singer.

In 1922, she married Sergei Yesenin, a Russian poet who was eighteen years her junior. Yesenin was also an alcoholic whose drunken rages brought Isadora negative publicity. Within a year, he returned to Russia where he suffered a mental breakdown and was institutionalized. Upon his release, he died under mysterious circumstances on December 28, 1925. Isadora was a bisexual and had lesbian relationships with the poet Mercedes de Acosta and the writer Natalie Barney.


Read more http://contemporarydance.suite101.com/article.cfm/isadora_duncan#ixzz0wqptGK9c






Click on 'comment' at bottom of page to have your say or email clara@babyboomerconnections.com.au
 http://www.babyboomerconnections.com.au/