, 

 For my eldest son Chris. A beach hoop for his beach home on Hope Island, QLD Australia :)
I found so much inspiration for this hoop. I thought of how he loved the south Gold Coast, but was actually living on the northern part at the time of making this. My granddaughters too, and how they loved picking up shells & sticks on the beach for 'Nanny from the bush' this helped to put me in a place of seaside dreaming :)
I added 3 white doves which I hope portray some sort of sea bird breed. Also I added 3 mini glass bottles for the girls with signs to the beach on them or notes or messages in them & one has disappeared off it I noticed on my last visit. Turns out my middle granddaughter loved it so much she had to have it in her hand :)
Life's good today & every day #inlove with the beach!

During the long months of recovery post accident (March 2015), I was at first unable to do anything other than read or listen. I couldn't hold up a magazine I couldn't speak when I first woke up from the coma...I had a tracheostomy in place so voice box was inactive I was being fed liquid nutrients & was hooked up to 6 or 7 tubes to keep me alive. The ventilator hoses were very very frightening & the trachy was overwhelming the whole lot I'd liken to being underwater & unable to breathe just not coping & in the most frightening situations I had ever encountered. But somehow one gets through.
I've decided to WRITE. Write it all down now I am this far away from the day I basically lost my life. I want to write it down as therapy for my life from here on out....I want to write it down it is cathartic to my recovery & it is a revelation to put it mildly.

"Beach"

But right now I want to share some of the things I've achieved in my creative life...my craft...one of the things that brings me great joy that I feared I wouldn't be able nor care to do & how I was scared things would change after the coma & all the rest...that maybe things would change & I'd no longer want to do the things I used to.....or maybe not actually even 'like' those things anymore. This on it's own was frightening....

"Wedding Dream Catchers"

"Nanna's Blue Flower"

"Blue Rainbow Lights"

"Rainbow Lights"

"Baby Boy Chicken"

"Teal Dragonfly"

"Pink Twitter"

"Purple Twitters"

"Beach Gull"

"Bird Of Paradise"

"Baby Boy Photo Frame Web"

"Baby Girl Dolly Blue Bird"

"Byron Bay"

These hoops are just some of the crafts I've completed SINCE the accident. I found I was still #inlove with my craft.....so thankful for mercies!

I fell to the ground 3m off my top step last March on the 13th.
I broke 12 ribs on my left side one of them punctured my lung & severed an abdominal artery on the way through. My back broke in several places. I was placed in a coma & needed life support & a blood transfusion. I lost 46% of my body's blood supply just bleeding out slowly over an 11 hour period before it was detected in hospital. Once it was found, there were problems with getting blood to me because I have a rare blood type, and then a surgeon needed to perform a thoractomy to go in & try to repair the damage & stop the bleeding, didn't seem to be available anywhere. Finally, an airlift to Brisbane where a surgeon was who could perform the operation.....was out of the question because I wouldn't have survived the hour & a half flight.
A surgeon was located from somewhere or other who could get to me & fix me up. WoW sorry that all just came out & I'm hitting POST before I change my mind & delete it :(
Now 12 months down the track I am still in recovery. My bones have healed to the near on best of my body's ability....just some fibrous tissue still being laid down between a vertabrae & my spinal column. The former has been pushed back to within mms so my body is doing the best it can to block the tiny gap left. My lung is better but not back to full capacity after months of limited activity. But it is getting there. I've regained mostly full use of my neck & arms which were paralysed for a bit. My head is all over the shop but I cope knowing I am one of the lucky one's. I will add more to this as it comes up because I have many people to thank & I don't seem to be able to thank them enough for helping me through this drama....x. 

Thankyou my girls xxxxxxxxxx

Thoractomy and drain and lung slip stitch scars

Tracheostomy scar

In recovery at Mia's ~ 3 mths post accident

With Nate ~ 2 mths post accident

Reece and Mel's wedding...with Edward ~ 5 mths post accident

  

Quietly enjoying Melbourne Cup day ~ 8 mths post accident

'Xmas Joy' Windcatchers 1, 2 & 3......

I made 'Xmas Joy' No. 1 back in December 2009. It took pride of place over my dining room table for the Christmas season. Last Christmas, I gave this Windcatcher to my daughter-in-law as part of her Christmas present, but when the season came around again this year, I found that I really missed it.

I decided to make another one to take its place...but it will never hang over my table & will now be enjoyed by another lady in the Northern Territory who loved my photo of it, then purchased it!  I named that one 'Xmas Joy' No. 2.

I have now just sold another one to a lady in Victoria. She has hung it in her living room :)  I named it 'Xmas Joy' No. 3, no surprises there, & am ready to post another one named 'Xmas Joy' No. 4...you get the drift :)  Obviously they have become pretty popular!  I have another two different creations in my Christmas range of Windcatchers that both sold out in the last couple of weeks...they are

named 'Xmas Tree' & 'Xmas Wreath'.  

All 5 Christmas Windcatchers can be viewed & ordered via my Facebook page....Bush & Beach Lifestyle....see link below.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bush-Beach-Lifestyle/121127691303154

Branching out.....

Lately I have been going through some old papers, while following the "Paper Flow" challenge http://www.paperflow.com.au/ and have come across many craft ideas I have found via magazines & books over the years.  Inspiration can come from anywhere;  blogs, online craft sites etc, but especially by simply looking around at nature.

I have made a pact with myself to branch out into new crafting methods, but the one thing in common will always be nature.  The natural world is far and away above all else on this planet.  I hope more people become aware of that fact, and do something to help make it stay that way.

Take a look at these pics, a definite 'thumbs up' from nature...how cute!!!

~Finding Inspiration~

I returned from a short holiday in the Terranora Heights & Crystal Creek areas last week, both of which are on the New South Wales/Queensland border of Australia.  And both are very beautiful places.  My hopes (and plans) are to move back down there before my granddaughters get much older.  I am missing out on so much fun watching them grow up and seeing them change every day.  They are my inspiration for a better world.

Other than my son & his family, I also have a sister & niece living in the area as well as my nephew & his missus.  It is an area where my parents settled into retirement before they died, and where I spent a year during a period of soul-searching working out what my next move would be.  I have mainly good memories of the Tweed Coast area, although it is a place that allowed me to be in touch with my family as well as the place that helped me discover how to move on with my life.  My brother lives about 3 hours away from Tweed and I live 5 hours away in the opposite direction so Tweed Heads has become a meeting ground for us to catch up (other than Facebook)!!

My parents ashes are scattered in the Tweed River, as they both saw the area as a place to rest & see their days out.  R.I.P. Mum & Dad .

My best friend of 21 years lives in the Crystal Creek area, which is only a few minutes drive away from Tweed.  She also has her daughter & grandson with her.  Her eldest daughter & granddaughter live next door as well, so I catch up with them all when I visit & I love the fact she has her family all around her in such a beautiful place.  Good for the soul.  

Tweed Coast & its hinterland are very close to the most prominent tourist mecca in Australia.  Located just below Queensland's Gold Coast, on the east coast of Australia, it is just far enough away to avoid the rat race, but close enough for convenience.  However in my opinion, the main advantage of living there involves the amazing views, climate & closeness of the mountains & the sea.  It is an absolute paradise.

Inspiration is endless.  Creative people flock there to settle on the outskirts, or right in the cities & towns where there are art & craft galleries, cultural diversity, culinary delights to satisfy all tastes & the endless, magnificent views.  Along the coast on beachfronts, sunrise & sunset viewing, blue skies, mountainous horizons, panoramic views of the coastal areas from mountain lookouts, tree-lined country roads, & acres of palm tree, tea, cane, nut & fruit tree plantations are beautiful vistas to name a few.  In under 30 minutes you can travel from skyscrapers in Surfers' Paradise, through suburbia to mountainous hinterland.  There is so much more this place has to offer, and it is somewhere I am looking forward to returning to in the very near future.

The visit before last, I collected some sparkly crystallised rocks from Crystal Creek, beautiful wind & wave worn driftwood from the beach along with shells, stones, sea glass;  anything I can get my hands on (legally) to remind me of this beautiful place.  I will be using a lot of these items donated by nature to create some lovely windcatchers that will sparkle & dance around my home for my viewing pleasure.  

But keep an eye out for photos in my next BLOG, you won't be disappointed, and I will likely put them up for sale on my eBay, Etsy & Artfire sites.

~please come back again to  LOVE.OCEAN.EARTH,  for lover's of all things natural  (: 

My son is now 12 years in REMISSION!! And he has just become a HOME OWNER!!!

He finally took the plunge and purchased a HOME on the southern Gold Coast, Queensland AUSTRALIA!!!

Now he has a NEW home where he can hang the OLD windcatcher I made for him back in 1999  :)

 

I am so proud of both he & his missus! Now they have a beautiful modern home for themselves & their two young daughters! It has an awesome swimming pool, great views, reserve at rear, & lots of privacy. They have three bedrooms, a study, media room, family room, lounge area, groovy kitchen & a large closed in party room out the back! They have sheds, garage & carport & a small plantation of agaves which would be enough to provide a small garden nursery lol. It is such a good buy for their first home but they are NOT going to be satisfied with that. My son has a 5 year plan to trade up to a family home he will settle into until he trades up enough to have the home he really has his eye on. Now there's a plan no one told me about!!

Their eldest girl was not too keen on leaving their previous home, which was a 2 bedroom villa, spacious rooms but not very functional for a growing family. She was on holidays with Poppy & I when I asked her what she thought about moving into her kool new home. "I don't want anybody else to live in my house." Awwwww, she sounded really upset. She was absolutely adamant no one was to live in her old home. It took a while but she has settled in with her lil' sister now and they have been swimming all through Christmas & the holidays in their big new pool and are having so much fun in their new home! They are eating well & sleeping better, they get so much exercise & freedom to move around in their nice back yard, and they each have their own rooms now which is so good for them. In their old home they shared a room and had NO yard to play in due to lack of fences and lack of space.

My daughter-in-law has all this room to fill up and she is more relaxed & settled. She can actually hang pictures on the wall, and watch her girls enjoy some space & enjoy the outdoors safely. My son is happier in his job, and is opening up more after years of stress making his way in the world. He really deserves to sit back and take stock now, and relax into his new life in a home they have both earnt through years of work.

It makes Nanny smile inside & out to see my son & his family doing so well. Big mortgage, but so much happier!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!! You are AMAZING!