The FilmLife Festival Screening Night

Lastnight I went along to the Screening Night for the FilmLife Project at Footscray Community Arts Centre. It was my first big social outing since my transplant (very exciting)!

'The FilmLife Project provides an opportunity for new and budding filmmakers to submit a three minute film around organ and tissue donation, specifically to help raise awareness around ‘knowing your loved ones wishes’ in conjunction with DonateLife Week 2013'

This year Sydney and Melbourne both had screening nights, and we watched the short films in unison between each city.

With Carly Findlay (Blog Judge) and Dr Sally Cockburn (Film Judge and Melbourne Screening MC)

Once again this year, there was also a FilmLife Blogging Competition. I was supposed to be on the judging panel, but I suggested that I may need a backup just in case I received a call....

I must have had a sixth sense, because that call came, and thank goodness, Carly stepped in for me on the Blog judging panel.

Carly and Tash

The short films were brilliant. It was great to be able to find out more about the process of making them from the filmmakers themselves, and the facilitators who ran the workshops.

The Melbourne crew with the Sydney crew on screen

The winning film was Somebody That I'll Never Know produced by Brooke Huuskes.




You can watch all of the films here - and you can vote for your favourite to win the peoples choice award. Each film is less than than three minutes long.

 
The winning blog was One Life by Alysha Hermann.

The full list of blogs:

Patricia Scheetz – Wishing for one more chance 
Rosemary Hughes – Yellow Eyes
Alysha Hermann - One Life
Alison Austin – Donate Life
Lauren Sherritt – Make Your Wish Count
Deb Robertson – Make Your Wish Count (a chat about something that is difficult to talk about)
Beth Green – Seeing Organ and Tissue Donation in a different light
Paul Mclean – The Twilight Zone
Gary from Being Gawee – DonateLife Week
Julie Green – Organ Donation and the Dog: Starting the Conversation
Amanda Smyth – A letter to my babies about organ donation
Stacey McKee - Suddenly I see


 The winning filmmaker Brooke Huuskes will be on Dr Sally Cockburn's radio program on 3AW at 6.30 tonight, so listen in!

Life Flashes - FMS Day 3 Heart

Heart by Melbourne Epicure

Can I just say one word - WOW!

Yesterday's photo a day challenge on Instagram was amazing.

We had over 170 people post a photo of a heart and hashtag it with #LifeFlashes to promote organ and tissue donation awareness and DonateLife Week 2013.

I'm in the process of obtaining individual permission to use each photo in a large mosaic for the Life Flashes Exhibition. So far, I have 138 photos that I can use which is absolutely fantastic.

Once everything is completed, I'll be instagramming and blogging the photo mosaics so that everyone gets to see the beautiful finished product!

There are also some beautiful photos that have been submitted in the Facebook competition so far. The top ten will be printed onto large canvasses and displayed in the exhibition. Please go and check out the entries, and even enter your own photo!

All the details for the FB comp are right here (and you don't need to be on FB to enter, as you just email your entry to Louisa, our HLTTV Membership Officer)


If you're interested in learning a little about what it's like to be on the transplant list, then ABC2 is screening the BBC documentary Love On The Transplant List Saturday night at 8.30 PM.

 

A huge thankyou to Carly for putting me in touch with Chantelle from Fat Mum Slim and a giant thankyou to each and every person who submitted a heart. It means the world!

The Happiest Place In The World

Gosh the blogosphere is an amazing place.

Despite the fact that we only ever hear negative stories about blogging in the general everyday media, I have to say that the crafty blogosphere is one of the happiest places on earth. Maybe it's even our very own adult version of Disneyland?

May I present proof....

Specimen Number One:

This surprise package of loveliness arrived in my mailbox last week from Virtually Sally. Beautiful fabrics and thread (in my fave colours), crocheted coasters (gorgeous), a little granny square notebook to carry with me so I can record all of my brilliant crafty ideas on the run, and....

..... Rusty

He quickly made himself at home on the bookshelf.

Specimen Number Two:

B-Fab bought me this amazing Bacon Cookbook. It has every recipe you can ever think of that uses bacon... even desserts.

It's Baconpalooza brilliance!

Specimen Number Three:

Iona and I met up with Carly and her friend Jo at Finders Keepers on Friday night, and she'd bought me a pressie.

You can't really tell from my photo but it's the size of a matchbox.

I can't believe that she found something so teeny and tiny and beautiful with my name on it. She also didn't know that I'm a huge fan of Sweet William.

This is now living on my special treasures shelf.

So thankyou dear blogospherians.... you always make my days happier!

Belle of the Ball

After a few sneaky peeks on instagram, and my creative space, I can't believe that it's taken me this long to do the big reveal.

Carly asked me to keep it a secret until after the ball...

I've totally fallen in love with diamante trim. I'd like to hand stitch it onto all my garments from now on....and the merino was a dream to sew with (fabric and trim both from Clegs)

Carly had very particular needs for this garment.

It needed to be warm (hence the merino), the underside had to be soft against her delicate skin (we chose a soft cotton flannelette), and it had to be hands free and easy to take on and off at the ball depending upon the temperature.

I was a bit scared cutting into the $80 per metre fabric so I made a couple of calico mock ups first just to check the fitment etc.

Here's the finished outfit just before the ball. Carly bought her dress at Macy's in NY. It's totally gorgeous!

I love this photo of Carly, Layne and Carly's mum at the ball

And..... there was much excitement about INXS at my place again last week.

Before Carly headed to Sydney, I gave her one of my INXS DVD's to take to the ball just in case Kirk happened to be there (thinking I could get his signature).

Well, Carly told Layne about me being such a huge fan, so she took the DVD and gave it to Kirk and they ALL SIGNED IT!!! (well except for Garry Gary Beers but that's OK).

I didn't know any of this until it landed in my letterbox last Wednesday. Second best surprise ever!!! (because the Kirk phonecall was first). Phew!

The night that Kirk Pengilly called

 Photo from 1991

So anyway, I don't quite even know where to begin with this story!

Lastnight, I was sitting on a stool at my kitchen bench having a cuppa with my dad when the home phone rang. Nobody has my home phone number (except the Alfred), and so the only calls I ever receive are from those pesky telemarketers who ignore the Do Not Call Register.

Dad looked at me wondering why I wasn't answering, and so of course I told him it was just another telemarketer that would hang up when they got the answering machine message.

Except, this time, the phone didn't hang up, and the person who was calling started talking.

I quickly picked up the phone and answered, and the voice at the end said 'Hi this is Kirk Pengilly'. Oh my goodness, I could've fallen off my stool with shock!

I may have gushed about how I was a massive fan, and that INXS Kick was the first album that I ever bought and that I still had my LP collection... and by that point I was probably blubbering and I don't quite know what else I said.

Surprise!

If you want a real blast from the past, I devoted an entire post to INXS was back in 2008... (and yes I still have my ticket stubs and my concert tee from 1991).

Carly and Kirk

I have to thank my amazing friend Carly for taking time out from her wonderful night at the Layne Beachley Aim For The Stars Foundation Ball to organise something so special just for me. I was hoping that she might be able to get a signature if it wasn't to embarrassing to ask. I never would have dreamed that she could surprise me with a phonecall!

I woke up thismorning and it all seemed totally surreal and I wondered if it was just a dream..... but thank goodness for the answering machine. How am I ever going to be able to delete those few recorded words?

The World Travel Gallery

One of the things that I love the most about making stuff is seeing where in this whole wide world of ours these creations end up.

I see them occasionally pop up on blogs or on instagram, but I thought it might be fun to share them in this space here too.

I now have a World Travel Gallery page up the top.

This is the custom Teatowel Tote Bag that I made for Carly, hanging out in Central Park, New York - July 2012

If you have a photo of something that I've made in an exotic (or not so exotic) location, I'd love to be able to add it to the gallery. Just email me the details and a copy of the photo.

I wonder how many countries we could add?

Sunday in the City

Carly arrived back from her overseas adventure last week, so we decided to meet up yesterday for lunch and a long catch up session!

 After getting lost in the 'burbs (it's a long story), we finally found our destination - Jackson Cafe and Gallery in Rathdowne St.

Have you ever tried to take a photo of a lit chandelier with an iPhone? The chandelier is beautiful... my photo, not so much.

The lovely accessories and homewares are by Red Phoenix Emporium.

Lunch was absolutely delicious...

.... and we shared this very yummy chocolate brownie for dessert

 

 Upstairs there's an beautiful three room gallery space

It's definitely a lovely spot to visit!

From WS to NY via London

I'm always very excited when I get a custom request for something special, and then I'm blown away by some of the places my creations end up.

This was a groovy West Suburban Melbourne teatowel... but now it's the perfect shopping tote.

In less than two weeks, it's heading to London and then to the BlogHer 2012 Conference in New York.

Carly loves to shop so I made sure to re-inforce those handles, and double top stitch the lining.

I had a bit of a lining dilemma last week, but in a quick trip to Spotty I found this print, which not only matched perfectly, but it's a great weight too (something similar to drill).

I'm giving it to her today so fingers crossed she's happy!


PS - if you would like to make yourself a super simple unlined teatowel tote, I have a downloadable pdf tutorial .

Sunday Snippets... via Instagram

Lunching with the ladies and a sneaky peek of a gorgeous gift

Toe scratching with Mr Limpy Houdini Dog

 Road Tripping with my Eldest Nephew

Country Op Shopping with little Sis and a visit to a new cafe in Ballarat

New postcards in the mail

Still counting

A new cloth dolly in the works

Homemade Mocktails with Carly....

.... finished off with Maggie Beer Ice Cream and Vanilla Mudcake.

Divine!

Playing Sunday Snippets with Tinniegirl

On a Wing and a Prayer

I'm kicking myself for forgetting the before photo on this project.

Can you guess what it was originally?

Here's a clue... a leftover wing (metaphorically speaking).

Carly found this very pretty 'what was formerly know as a floral shirt' at a secondhand shop and asked if I could transform it into a skirt.

Always up for a challenge, I took it on.

My original intention was to use Nikki's A-Line Skirt Pattern, but there wasn't enough fabric in the shirt, so I just went freestyle (that's where the prayer came in), based on Carly's measurements.

She wanted little heart shaped pockets, which have actually worked quite well. They're stitched up to the top side of each heart, and are quite functional.

The final step was to add a lining..... and voila - one finished Wing and a Prayer Shirt Skirt!