Happy Halloween ...

We are still in go slow made over here at camp Finki, whilst my middle does the good job of healing and reconstructing muscle tissue that will once again allow me to bend over enough to pick up things off the floor.

Oh how I have taken my stomach muscles for granted. Oh how much do I now appreciate all that they did for me...goodness. One even braces said stomach muscles to apply strength to opening a bottle of drink. Who knew?

However, slow and steady wins the race. I'll be back kicking goals and opening jars free willy in no time.
Just have to keep reigns on my busy little brain...

It wants to do so much and the body just aint running at the same speed. So it's camp frustration on the crafty front. Zero advancement in making stuff, but soon..

Sometimes life forces us to slow down and we just have to comply. So instead camp Finki have been...

Helping little one dress up for Halloween at kinda...

and making scary green cupcakes too.

End of year concert for big girl, who has done an awesome job of mastering the clarinet.

Harvested the rest of our winter crop and planted all our summer. 

(which was more about me overseeing and planning whilst family did the labor) ...lovely family xoxo
We look forward to tomatoes, capsicum, cucumber and more all from our little suburban patch.

I managed to get through my pile of magazines, which was a tower really, waiting over a year to be looked at ... and I had the luxury of Mum being down from Queensland for a week to help with kid wrangling and all other WAHM duties. A true blessing that was.

So happy Halloween to you all, whether you be trick or treating or just hanging out enjoying this lovely bout of weather we are having.
Jay xx

Pop up shop ...

Tomorrow only ... 

there will be a special pop up shop in the Polly Pratt studio at Olive Grove Studios.

If you're in the neighborhood do pop by,

 there will be lots of handmade loveliness on offer.

The odds were in my favour...

So it looks like the odds of 98/2 were in my favour. 

I made it out of the oppie o.k. 

Ended up having an overnight stay and feeling quite battered right now,

but ....

image via here

Thank so much for all your wishes, craftiness will resume a.s.a.p

More importantly, I look forward to feeling well again soon.

Who needed a gall bladder anyway?

Jay x

Before I go, I'd like to say ...

I'm feeling rather melodramatic about impending doom by way of a small operation I'll be heading off to have tomorrow... merely a day procedure, I won't even be staying in hospital overnight.
But there is something about reading the fact there is a 2% chance of death, that freaks the bejeebers out of me.

I'm an optimist 98% of the time and a pessimist the other 2%, so my pessimistic 2% mixed with the death rate of 2% has my little brain working overtime.

From the pessimist in me ... if perchance the advice that 'death is possible if complications occur' happens to be referring to me, I'd like to say ...

Image:  via here

The optimist in me now says... 

see you on Friday, albeit a little bruised and battered and probably feeling sorry for myself.

Jay x

Dreaming with no barriers ...

I saw this image and couldn't help but feel that it hit the nail on the head for how I am feeling of late.

 image via: here

I still have dreams, big ones... 

I still believe we live in a world where anything is possible... anything.

I still have a heart that is full and giving and accepting.

But, I'm struggling with people who seem to want to stifle my dreams,

my beliefs and my way of being.

When that happens, I feel so dead inside. 

Like everything I knew and loved was wrong.

I fought hard for my dreams to become a reality and I work hard on them everyday

 so they continue to be an inspiration and a reason to get out of bed. 

So whilst I do ponder for a little while the negativity projected my way, 

thinking maybe I need to change or slow down or not have so many aspirations,  

I also remember that I am well and truly entitled to my dreams, 

I am well and truly allowed to believe that anything is possible. 

That I can explore, create, grow and soar... because that is what I was made to do!

So you know what, the reality isn't that I miss the kid who used to dream with no barriers, 

the reality is that I miss the kid who didn't let others stop her from dreaming with no barriers. 

My wish for you today and every day, 

is that you know your dreams are worthwhile 

and that you know you don't need permission from anyone...to follow them.

Jay x

A window has opened ...

Our new baby...

No I'm not preggers.

I'm speaking of the creative baby that has been in the making for the last month. 

Our new little range to grace the shelves at Olive Grove studios.

Lost in Melbourne.  

We focused on only 3 designs to get it off the ground and happening,

 but look forward to building it into something even more ab fab.

 Check out the rest of our goodies on our Lost in Melbourne Facebook page.

Jay x