Getting Creative

I had a busy day getting creative the other day.

It all started back in April when I started work at a place with a dead strict dress code - like elbows are sexy or something. Basically, I have to have sleeves to elbow length or longer at work so I'd had this bright idea of buying a load of cheap, basic long-sleeved white T-shirts and tie dying them in different colours so I'd have loads of tops that'd go with practically any skirt I owned and would be ok for work. It worked brilliantly, and saved me a lot of money - it's really really hard to find tops that are sneeus/tzeniut (modest) enough for work - even if they've got long sleeves, many styles have low necks - plus I hate blouses and shirts with collars and fussy bows, and that means most of the things in the shops that would otherwise be ok for work. Everything seems to be so damn fussy at the moment with bows and frills and stuff.

My tie-dyed T-shirts were a big hit with colleagues and kids. Such a big hit in fact, that after exams and things were over at the end of the summer term, we had a tie dye day where the class I'd been working with all brought in an old T-shirt, pillowcase or other item of their choice (anything except their dad's Shabbos shirt, the kids were told!). The kids had great fun, did something creative and messy and got something out of it that they could take home and use.


My daughter wanted to have a go too - she wanted a tie-dye T-shirt of her own. So, once she'd decided what colours she wanted - she wanted a T-shirt in her house colour (red) for PE and a purple one. She wanted a pattern of concentric circles on the front of the red one, and a star inside a circle on the purple one.

I can do tie-dye circles and stripes - vertical, horizontal and diagonal, and combinations of these no problem. I can't do stars. So, I dug out my Easy Batik kit and painted a star pattern on the purple one. Followed the instructions, but it didn't come out. Maybe I didn't leave it to dry long enough. So, after it was dry, I had a think, and decided to have a go at fabric painting. I'd never done this before, so wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I wanted to give my Phoebe the T-shirt she wanted. It worked really well. It needed several coats of white on the purple background, but the blue spiral inside the star was fab, and I highlighted the spiral with darker blue and silver. Once it was dry, I fixed it by ironing (honestly, that's the first time in months that iron's been used!)


I did a few things for myself while I had the dyes out - I did a vest, a T-shirt and another jumper I'll be able to wear for work, plus a pair of knickers that I'd not realised were in the washing machine when I rinsed out the first two items (purple and red) They came out partly tinged in light pink and red, so I tie dyed a couple of circles and dunked them in the deep pink dye bath. they do look rather cool.

I've now got to work out a design for my beloved - he wants the Tree of Life. Nothing simple. So I'm working on the design for that at the moment

Watch this space for photos of the finished things.

A Grand Pagan Day Out

Yesterday I was at Pagancon in Preston. I got a lift there with my friend Linda. Also travelling with us was Chris, another friend of Linda who was doing a stall at Pagancon, selling handcrafted wands and staves.

Pagancon is a fabulous Pagan day out with brilliant stalls, talks and workshops. For the full rundown and review, you can have a look at The Radcliffe Moot blog.

It was really good to catch up with old friends, I hadn't seen Ken and Sandy for a few years. It was good to see Thorskegga and Sandra - I only ever seem to see them at Pagancon . Thorskegga does Heathenfest as well, but that's down in Peterborough and it's too far to travel.

I came home with some lovely things - fabulous pink hairfalls which I bought from the Shared Earth stall, a lovely belt and purse from Roo the Leathercarver, a beautiful moonstone pendant and the tarot deck I've been searching for for years. Clive Barrett who designed the Norse Tarot was there at the conference selling pewter god and goddess statues and jewellery, and he had one last copy of the Norse Tarot left - no book or box, but I don't think I really need those. I got Seán a present, too - a couple of second hand books from Ken and Sandy's stall, including Gifts of Unknown Things by Lyall Watson. I also treated myself to a wand, made by Chris from wood (I think it's pine) collected on Midsummer Night at a lovely valley in northern Sweden.

I could have spent three times as much if I'd had the money, it was really difficult to limit myself. I would have loved a bigger leather pouch - one big enough to put purse, phone and keys in. That'd be dead handy for work and shopping in summer when you don't want to take a coat, and the only reason for taking one is so you've got pockets to put those things in. I'm not a fan of handbags: they're either too small and you can't get all your stuff in them, which means you need a rucksack as well; or they're big enough but very heavy so you're unbalanced carrying it around, which leads to back problems.

They do lovely food for us at the rugby club, too. they have a fab breakfast menu of cholesterol butties - bacon, sos and egg barms. Then for lunch, they do chips and baked potatoes with a choice of accompaniments - tuna mayo, veg chilli, mushroom stroganoff or cheese. And the bar has some really good beers too.

I only did one workshop this year - Linda's shamanic journeying which was way too short because other things had overrun and hadn't left very much time before the main speaker was due to start her talk. It was still good. I hadn't expected to be able to get that deep into a trance state in such a short time, but so I did, which meant that returning to normal consciousness took longer too. Fortunately, there was leftover food on the buffet which was very helpful for grounding. Mmmm, cold chips and sausage rolls!

I'm already looking forward to next year, which is provisionally booked for 4th July 2009. I'll have to work harder at saving up, as next year's Pagancon will be before my birthday, so I won't have any birthday money to spend!