Scraps Of Mind

Welcome to Scraps of Mind. I'm delighted to see you. Why not check out the site, and if you like what you see, subscribe to my RSS feed and get daily updates delivered to you. If you're not sure what the RSS thing is, then check out this 'RSS made easy' post. Thanks for visiting and I look forward to seeing more of you.

Saturday saw me head off on my annual pilgrimage to the Kilmore Celtic Festival. Allan (inducted into the pilgrimage last year) provided welcome company (not to mention the transport) and we headed off up the Hume Highway for a day of Celtic/Folk Music, Guinness (though I confess to a preference for wine) and Craft Market browsing.

Joined by my sister Elaine, who lives nearby, we threw ourselves into a day of all things Celtic inspired.In keeping with tradition, the weather for the Festival was horrible (cold and rainy). But hey, regulars wouldn’t know how to cope if it was anything else.

I always enjoy the Kilmore Festival. It’s a small intimate event where many of the acts return year after year. Kilmore is only 45 minutes from where I live so there isn’t the long drive home to face after the day is over. And it’s just a great atmosphere.

We managed to see seven acts during the course of the day. A number of old favourites and a couple of new acts; one of which, Dépêche Trois, was a real find and a band to keep an eye on. Sadly they didn’t have a CD but we’ll be on the watch for it when they do bring one out.

A couple of other favourites, Bhán Tré (a fantastic trio of women with a great repertoire of Celtic folk songs and a fabulous sound), and Bric-a-Brac (a band specialising in French/Breton folk music, led by Ced le Meledo who has such a fantastic accent that quite frankly he can sing anything he damn well pleases as far as I’m concerned).

Back to Elaine’s place for dinner rounded off a great day.

A bit over a month ago I posted an article called “Music…Ugh! What is it good for?” declaring that music has never played much of a role in my life. Since then, this is the third music related post I’ve written. Maybe I was wr… Perhaps I might have been wro… OK, perhaps I was misled, and music plays a greater part in my life than I thought.

7 Comments »

Picture this.

A beautiful crisp sunny afternoon at a little winery just outside of Kyneton. An open fireplace providing atmosphere (although not really able to provide meaningful heat to the large space). A continuous supply of mulled wine (providing the required meaningful heat). A delicious barbeque lunch followed by a French vanilla slice to die for.

Sounds great, eh? Now add the fun, excitement and ‘joy of living’ sound of La Voce Della Luna, the Italian Women’s Choir and you have a perfect afternoon!

Together with my friends Thatch and Jools, I was fortunate enough to enjoy this perfect afternoon at the Harmony Row Winery yesterday.

The Italian Women’s’ Choir is a wonderful ensemble of ladies who, under the direction of the brilliant and engaging Kavisha Massella, perform a repertoire of Italian Folk songs. Not speaking the language is absolutely no impediment to enjoying the performance just as much as the members of the Choir, who so clearly enjoy performing.

Kavisha, who is a well known singer/songwriter on the folk scene, treated us to a wonderful solo set in the second session and kept a lively connection with the audience as she translated the stories of the songs and added some insights into the background that inspired them.

By the second session the audience were singing along to songs they’d never heard before and in a language that most of us didn’t speak. And by the time they got to the Tarantella most of the audience were happy to get out of their seats, learn a new dance and have a go as the song whirled them faster and faster around. I did mention we were at a winery, didn’t I?

An afternoon to inspire you with a zest for life!

7 Comments »

I went to a Creative Memories party several years ago and made a scrapbook page tribute to my Mum which I still have and have always disliked.

I knew then that Scrapbooking was not for me!

Then in February 2005 a friend gave me a copy of Scrapbook Creations magazine and I was very impressed by the layouts displayed there. At the same time I rediscovered a bag containing memorabilia, photoCD and my journal from a 2002 trip to France (I’d written it on my PDA and printed it out). I was frustrated because I couldn’t enjoy all the ‘bits’ together, in a complete consolidated format. So I decided to try to scrapbook the trip. Two weeks of intensive, obsessive scrapbooking later I had my first album. I look at this album today and, although I would do it differently now, I’m still happy with the look of it and proud of my first album.

The following year took me on a scrapbooking journey of discovery. I started an ongoing project scrapping Seona’s life journey and made another large Trip Album for my holiday in France and Italy in May 2005. I learned about photo editing and started restoring my old family photos and began an album to capture some of the stories and memories that are slipping away from my family’s collective memory as the years pass.

Then I discovered digital scrapping. I love the layouts I can achieve with digital elements and the medium is so forgiving. I bless the Undo button.

My next path took me into the world of hand made cards, something I never thought I would be bothered doing. And today I am fascinated with mini-albums where I make the book as well as the page layouts.

My first year in the scrapbooking world has opened up so many different craft directions for me that my enthusiasm is constantly being fuelled. In the past I have always found that once the novelty of a project wore off, I found it very difficult to find the motivation to complete it. This is no longer the case. My Scrapbooking projects can vary in length from a couple of hours to a few weeks, and I find it easy to maintain my enthusiasm for the journey all the way to the end.

It would appear that Scrapbooking is for me, after all.

3 Comments »