Making a dream come true ....

Just this morning I heard this powerful quote of 

Margaret Mead's words again :

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.

Every day we are offered the opportunity to make small changes

and to make the world a better place, both for ourselves and for others.

I have been following  Rebecca of

Recuerda mi Corazon

for many moons now.  To me, her blog personifies the words of Margaret Mead.

Once again, Rebecca has joined hands with others

to help change the world of a village.

She offers us the opportunity to help make the dreams

of the women of las rancheritas come true!!

And she offers a beautiful gift as a 'reward' to the

first lucky ticket drawn.

The act of giving and sharing in the realization of another's hopes and

dreams are such a bountiful reward in itself!!

But there is more!

Please go to http://corazon.typepad.com/recuerda_mi_corazon/2012/06/for-the-women-of-las-rancheritas.html and read all the details about how

you can buy a ticket for the small amount of $10 and

play a part in making this dream come true.

(and you can participate from anywhere in the world!)

Please grab the button in my sidebar and share on your blog, so that

many others may find their way there and be a part of this

event.

blessings

Down Memory Lane

Over at Inspiration Avenue the challenge this week is School's Out!  Here in South Africa it is soon our winter school holiday which is a month long.  So school will be out for us as well.

The one thing that school taught me is that when I organise the practicalities of my life, it frees me up to do the things that I love, such as writing and painting, to name a few.  So for Lou Anne's challenge I made a daily organiser, a  filofax type diary and notebook.  I love nostalgic and retro themed papers and items.  When I was in Sub A and Sub B (that was the old schooling system here - now it is Grade One and Two) we had Sus en Daan readers.

I took a hardboard filofax folder, painted it, sandpapered, applied some gel medium and decoupaged the covers.

Then I created dividers.  Some were bought and pre-cut and punched to fit;  others I created as I went along.

Some days I feel quite daunted by the overwhelming practicalities of living a modern life :  it is lifting to school, after school activities, food shopping, making lists upon lists of things 'to do' and then still finding time for my Soul and Spirit and all the creativity!!

So early on I decided on this motto :  Create your own sense of self let that your be your measure!  Look at the sweet mathematical instruments I used here!  I love this as I was never any good at maths!

Food shopping!

School notes

and some tongue in cheek pages

Now if I could only put some batteries into the organiser and send her on her way to take care of the details!!

Pay a visit to Inspiration Avenue and see our weekly fun challenge - it helps to keep things in perspective!

love

Art with Heart

I have been away for two months! and I cannot wait to get stuck into the smell of oil paint and damar varnish!  I have missed blogging and I have missed my studio, but then I was also busy with some wonderfully exciting things and many more to come!  So it is a juggling act, as always!  I am torn between unpacking and just locking myself into my studio!  And to add insult to injury, my internet line is down and then my hard drive crashed!! so my creativity is finding new ways of expressing itself as I cobbled together my daughter's laptop (while she is at school!) and finding someone else's 3G card and then finding an elusive charger - you get the picture??

I am hosting the challenge over at Inspiration Avenue this week and I chose Art with Heart.  I have many many ideas for my own entry and I will be doing my best to make it happen.  Inspiration Avenue have had such beautiful and heart-felt challenges while I have been away!  It is truly a bright light out there in blogging world.  Please take the time and have a look and maybe join in at http://inspiration-avenue-team.blogspot.com

love
Hettienne

Being away

Hello Everyone

I am taking a short break, but I will be back on 14 May with another exciting challenge on Inspiration Avenue. I will be putting my thinking cap on and hope to have a really inspirational challenge for both you and myself!

I have been adding some wonderful new boxes to my assemblage storybox collection and will share those with you!   I will then also re-open my shop with many new assemblages dedicated to Blessed Mary and the Sacred Heart.

See you then

love and blessings

Hettienne

The Widow of Noirmoutier

This is my creation for my own challenge on Inspiration Avenue this week.  I adore dolls and all their symbolism and I challenged everyone to create something with dolls and I bet the entries will be as unique and diverse as the artists themselves!  Please visit Inspiration Avenue here and play along!

This doll is a widow doll from the island of Noirmoutier, just off the coast of France.  The island has whitewashed fisherman's houses with blackened wooden windows and shingle roofs.  I tried to capture the feel of the island in her little handmade cottage.

The main form of employment on the island used to be deep sea fishing. It is said that there are up to four generations of widows living on this island, at any given time.  They are all widows of fishermen lost at sea!  The widows of Noirmoutier are recognised by their black clothing.

You will see that this widow carries the keys of La Chaitelaine, the housekeeper.  She is a devoted follower of the Blessed Mother and Her Son and in her right hand she has a tiny chaplet.

She has a beautiful altar made from shells, a tiny cupboard with an iron, a copper kettle and some books, as well as her trusty black coal stove and red enamel pots.

You will also see that she has a widow's 'set' consisting of a widow's Bible and rosary.

Happy creating

Hettienne

My Heart remains unruined

O Immaculate Heart of My Mother,

give me shelter in the beautiful chambers of your heart.

Keep me strong, fierce, loving and able in this world.

Remind me daily, that despite my imperfections,

my heart remains,

completely unruined.

an extract from Untie the Strong Woman by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

with love

Hettienne

Inspiration Avenue : Prima Vera

Change, the Eternal Spring

For this week's amazing challenge by PritiLisa at Inspiration Avenue, I created a Soul Collage card.  Lisa asked for an allegory, so if you are interested in my process of arriving at this card and its allegory, you can read further down.

I have named this card, Change, the Eternal Spring.  It speaks to me of the eternal river of life that feeds the Soul and the Self.  Life has a tendency to turn us into stone, like the Gorgon sister Medusa.  Our hair (our ego and thought processes) becomes an entangled mess and we become fearful of change.  Change is indeed a death of the known and a re-birth into the unknown.  Therefore, like Persephone, we have to either enter the Underworld willingly by ingesting the seeds of the pomegranate, or we will be taken by force by Hades.   Once we have surrendered to the darkness of the Underworld and  died to the old, can we be born to the new :  to a new way of thinking, acting and feeling.  Once we have faced our deepest fears in the Underworld, can we be re-born as the Spring Queen with a new wisdom.  Once we have surrendered to the cycles of our psyche and soul, can we celebrate the rebirth of compassionate love for ourselves and our own life journey.

More about this card

With true artistic freedom, I combined the Greek and Roman myths, some Jungian philosophy and the great Christian divine epic of struggle, death and resurrection into new life, all into one SoulCollage card that speaks to me of the allegory of my own journey with light and dark.

Central to the card is Venus, the Goddess of Love, she who is Soul and Anima and Divine Feminine.  She is the one that is hidden in the allegory of life;  the one that speak to me through the Nine Muses and through the ordinary sacredness of life.

On the left hand side is Persephone, the Greek maiden who was abducted by Hades, the Lord of the Underworld.  Whilst down there she ate 6 seeds of the pomegranate which meant that she had to stay there for six months of the year!!  When she emerges from the Underworld, she returns as Kore, the Queen of the Underworld. 

Hades, as the Lord of the Underworld, represent our shadow, that which we do not want to face nor accept. This may be sickness, or loss, or longing, or regret.

Underneath her is Medusa, a very famous Gorgon.   Her story tells of her long hair which turned into snakes.  According to some philosophies, hair represent the ego, the identity that we create and maintain to the outside world and to ourselves.  Medusa represents 'taking a long hard look in the mirror of the subconscious self and to face the inner demons or snakes that frighten one into withdrawal and isolation (amongst others).

Underneath all of these is the image of the broken body of Jesus the Christ, taken down from the cross, with the women who stood vigil -  the Pieta, also by Botticelli.

And on the very far right is the crowning of the Blessed Mother as the Queen of Heaven.  The new life and Divine Love as a nurturing, giving and compassionate inner giving, understanding that the Spring Within is an eternal Well of sweet life-giving water.

If you enjoy SoulCollage, or would like to learn more, please join me every week at http://pathofdivinelove.blogspot.com in a SoulCollage meme.  For more information you can click on this link 

love

Hettienne