Heartfelt Dolls
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    • Igniting creativity with Heartfelt dolls
    • Heartfelt doll-making: a healing experience
    • Heartfelt Dolls: the memory keepers
    • Heartfelt Dolls on life and death
    • Heartfelt Dolls: aesthetic meditation
    • Heartfelt Dolls: using textile crafts in contemporary art
    • Heartfelt Dolls: seeking a definition
    • Heartfelt Dolls: A Political Voice?
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  • Dolls
    • Heartfelt Dolls: companions for the journey
    • The Quotidian Doll: an introduction >
      • The Quotidian Doll Blog: introducing a Heartfelt-doll-a-day
    • Diaspora: the 101 dolls project
    • Heartfelt Dolls willing to leave home (for sale) >
      • Matariki
      • Through A Glass Darkly
      • Stitch Yourself a Boyfriend
      • Pink Walkers
      • Steampunk Dolls
      • Selfies
      • The Heroine's Journey
      • An English Country Garden
      • Hobo Chic
      • The Fisherman
      • I Shall Wear Purple
      • Enraged Woman Riding a Black and White Dog Writing Wrongs
      • Salute to the Sun
      • Old Woman in a Shoe
      • Soul Sisters
      • The Smiles Project
      • BFF
      • Blue Belles
      • Shades of Gray
      • Angels with attitude
      • Angels of gold
      • Angels
      • 'Ladies a plate'
      • Cosy up with a bit of skirt
      • Ice Palace
      • Troupe de verde
      • Animal Antics
      • Male dolls
      • Carnivale: stiltwalking dolls
      • Calendar Girls
      • Dammit dolls
      • Oh Cliche
      • Heartfelt Graffiti
      • Double Trouble
      • Lilliputians
      • Kiwi Icons
      • Faeries
    • Heartfelt Fundraisers >
      • Volunteer Fire Fighters
      • Memory keepers
      • Shades of Gray >
        • Shades of Gray Duets
        • Shades of Gray Men
      • Calendar Girls
      • Pink Walkers
      • Bandanna Chic
      • Selfies
    • Heartfelt Companions: sharing my journey with you >
      • One-of-a-kind heartfelt dolls >
        • Julie Has Flown North For The Summer
        • Hot Flash!
        • Whoops!
        • Medusa
        • The Bag Lady
        • Purple people eater
        • Social Climber
        • Place
        • Fertility Fairy
        • Smile
        • Blue Baths Belle
        • An Artist's Book
        • Pink Lady
        • Beloved
      • Heartfelt dolls in a series >
        • The Rainbow Connection
        • What's in a cup?
        • The Apple
        • Hi-Cut Internet Dolls
        • Godde Dolls
        • Shrines
        • The Rites of Autumn
        • Bibliophile
        • Seeing the world through different eyes
        • Akuba: encouraging change
        • It takes a village
        • Umbrella and Umbrage
        • A cautionary tale ...
    • Heartfelt Process, Heartfelt Transformation >
      • Matron Saints
      • Creative Guardians
      • The Nest
      • Freeing the caged heart: the poets and the dollmaker
      • The Unemployment Blues
      • The Bare Necessities
      • The Heroine's Journey
      • The Alchemy of Change
      • Sticks and stones
      • Stitch yourself a boyfriend
      • Inner Child
      • Salute to the Sun
      • Bindings
      • Euphrosyne: reclaiming joy >
        • Freeing the caged heart: poetry to lift your spirits
        • The Smiles Project
        • Dancing Feet
        • Irrepressible
        • Greening: a lenten journey
        • Wild Women Like to Dance
        • I Am Woman
        • Harakeke flowers
        • Circle of friends, vessel of hope
        • Dance
        • Spirit seekers, spirit guides
      • The Great Divide: one woman's experience of divorce >
        • Numb
        • Bound
        • Burlap and lace
        • Naked
        • Reclaim
        • Bitch
        • The Devil on my back
        • Burdened
        • God alone is enough
        • Simple heart
        • Broken dreams
        • Will the real me please stand up?
        • The Classifieds
        • Sing-a-song
        • Dark nights >
          • You are dying ...
          • Beast of burden
          • Wounded healer, broken heart
          • A moment of conversion
          • Unbuilding
          • Peace
          • Transform me
          • A clean heart
          • Unwrapped
          • Doormat
          • The weight of expectation
          • Promise
          • A new me
          • The fabric of my life
          • Struggle
          • Hanging
        • Dance me To The End of Love
      • Black Dog: one woman's experience with depression >
        • The Anti-depressants
        • Some days
        • What I wish you knew about depression
    • Heartfeltfelt Emotion >
      • Gold Angels: coping with tragedy
      • Emotions: a challenge
      • Lamentation
      • Heartfelt Anger >
        • Anger Management with Dammit Dolls
        • Dammit!
    • Heartfelt Celebration! >
      • I Shall Wear Purple!
      • Birthday dolls
      • Birthday cards
      • Julie's 21st
      • Celebrate my femininity!
      • Troupe de verde
    • Heartfelt Graffiti
    • Heartfelt Care >
      • Ageing >
        • I Shall Wear Purple
        • The Seven Ages Of Woman
      • For the children
      • Living with dementia
      • Say 'NO' to family violence >
        • You don't have to take it like I did
        • Are you the one?
      • Heartfelt Conservation >
        • Seduced By The Wild
        • Feathers Over Hamurana
        • Birds
      • Living with cancer
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        • Hello Dollies: an article
        • Pink Walkers
        • Primal scream
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        • Paradox
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        • I Love you, Mum
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        • Hair Today
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        • Deconstruct Reconstruct
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        • Nana and Gran
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        • Colour blind
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        • Unzipped
        • Lord, to whom shall we go?
        • Knitting Nellie
        • The nay-sayers
        • Vessels of hope
        • Dancing Woman Labyrinth
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    • Time Capsule series
  • Heartfelt Creativity
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      • Girl Reclining on a Sofa
      • Cotton-soft boas
      • Wild Women Like to Hang About
    • Heartfelt Stitch >
      • Mother's Little Helper
      • Needlewomen
      • Old Woman in a Shoe
      • Delight in a cup
      • Heartfelt Companion
    • Heartfelt Wrapping >
      • Colour Blind
      • Spirit dolls
      • Bound
      • Aspects of Self
      • Wrapping as an art form
      • Wild Women Like To Dance
    • Heartfelt vestis >
      • What a wonderful world!
      • A thanksgiving vest
      • Dalmatics
      • In Praise
    • Labyrinth >
      • Shell labyrinth
      • Breast Labyrinth
      • Labyrinth scroll
      • Stitched labyrinth
      • Dancing Woman Labyrinth
      • Hopi labyrinth
      • Bead labyrinth
      • Journey
    • ANZAC: a tribute >
      • ANZAC Quilt
      • Rawene Boys
      • ANZAC jacket
  • Heartfelt prayer
    • Heartfelt crocheted rosaries
    • Heartfelt Retreat >
      • An Advent Retreat in Daily Life
      • Our daily medicine: a 28 day reflection on living and dying
      • Hidden in Plain View: a retreat in daily life
      • 24 hours: a retreat reflecting on the passion of Jesus
      • Stations of the light
    • Heartfelt waiting: reflections on the season of Advent >
      • Matron Saints of Un-named Women
      • Advent is a vessel
      • Advent is a pilgrimage
      • Advent remembers we are all related.
      • Advent is creative
      • Advent is a ritualised experience
      • Advent is expectant
      • Advent names God
      • Advent is a door
      • Advent: a sacred space
    • Stations of the Cross >
      • Christchurch Stations of the Cross
      • 24 Hours
      • Stations with haiku
      • John Badcock "Stations of the Cross"
    • Heartfelt Season: reflecting on the season of Lent >
      • A Lenten Walk
      • Lenten Prayer Flags
    • Heartfelt Hallelujah: reflections on the season of Easter >
      • Voices on the Via Lucis
    • Prayers from the Ark >
      • The Mouse
      • The Spider
      • The Dog
      • The Elephant
      • The Lizard
      • The Lamb
      • The Peacock
      • The Giraffe
      • The Toad
      • The Parrot
      • The Mother Hen
      • The Goldfish
      • The Cat
      • The Lion
    • Heartfelt Belief
    • Heartfelt Reflection >
      • These Parables Blow Me Apart!
      • A Single Thread
      • Every moment is gift
      • Harvest Wheat
      • Stepping out in faith
      • Harvest Heart
      • Dream catcher
      • The Sewing Basket
    • Sacred Story >
      • The Road to Emmaus
      • The Loaves and the Fishes
    • Listening To Winter
    • Genesis
    • Heartfelt Writing >
      • Joy on a String
      • Changing Landscapes
      • Rites of Passage
      • Sowing and Reaping
      • Hidden In Plain View
      • An Emmaus Journey
      • God and Dog
      • Dear Julie
      • An Intentional Walk
      • The Widow's Might
      • Does God Exist?
      • The Sewing Basket
      • Advent: A Sacred Space
      • A Secular Liturgy
      • Your Call
      • Dance me To The End Of Love
  • "100 day" projects
  • Prayer flag project
    • Blessings on the wind: a year of blessings >
      • April blessings
      • March blessings
      • February blessings
      • January blessings
      • December blessings
      • November blessings
      • October blessings
      • September blessings
      • August blessings
      • July blessings
      • June blessings
      • May Blessings
      • April Blessings
      • March Blessings
    • Prayer flag blog
  • Gratitude Flowers

Trail

31/5/2012

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We each have a trail to follow.
Perhaps it has another name -
songline
destiny
calling
vocation
sealed orders
journey
pilgrimage
life.

Even if we do nothing consciously or with vision,
we have followed a trail
from conception through transition to death.

"in this falling rain
where are you off to
snail?
Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

May we each be filled with grace and blessing as we follow our trail,
through ease and pain,
through plateau and obstacle,
in peace and in turbulence.
Picture
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Potential

30/5/2012

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"Kei roto i a koe to ake mana.
Whaia te iti kahurangi,
ki te tuohu koe,
me he maunga teitei."
NZ Maori

Within each of us lies a seed of potential.
Set your sights high
and never take a lesser path.

May we look deep within ourselves to find the path that we must walk.
This may not be a busy path but a way of consci
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POTENTIAL
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Wind beneath my wings

29/5/2012

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"You are the wind beneath my wings" ... a line from a favourite song.
I often feel lifted ... held ... raised up.
I give thanks for all those who are the 'wind beneath my wings':
soul friends
those who wave cheerily as they pass by
those strangers who go the extra mile
those who hold me in prayer
those who embrace me
those who encourage, enable and empower me.

May we take time today to feel the sweet caress of the' wind beneath our wings':
those special people or places or moments that lift us up and allow us to soar.
Picture
WIND BENEATH MY WINGS
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Apron strings

28/5/2012

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"My mother told me many stories",

wrote Arshile Gorky

"while I pressed my face into her long apron
with my eyes closed ...
Her stories and the embroidery on her apron
got confused in my mind with my eyes closed.
All my life her stories and her embroidery
keep unravelling pictures in my memory.
If I sit before a blank white canvas - "

The oral tradition of passing on family stories and histories and whakapapa is important, perhaps even crucial, to our identity as human beings living in a specific time and place.
They give clues, invitations, invocations, to help us become all we are called to be.

May we all be richly blessed by the stories which have formed us.
May we honour these stories and pass them on to the next generation.
They are our cultural DNA.
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APRON STRINGS
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and ...

27/5/2012

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and ...
a word full of possibility
                  of hope
                  of connections
                  of promise
                  of recollection
                  of excitement.

"And the world
works on my behalf
catching me in its arm
when I go too far."
David Whyte in "The House of Belonging"

Let's pause today ... and ...
Picture
and ...
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Order

26/5/2012

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Anna Branch wrote:

"Order is a lovely thing,
on disarray it lays its wings,
teaching simplicity to sing."

I see order all around.
Not hierarchical, tyrannical, authoritarian order that seeks to control and impose.
But the creative order that seeks to nourish and nurture,
living symbiotically not as a parasite,
enabling each living creature to reach its fulness of life.
A creative order that honours and respects every stage of life,
and seeks to honour the inherent dignity of each created being.
A creative order that treats with greater care
the anawim and dispossessed.

May we pause to consider order in our own lives,
and rejoice in the simplicity it brings to our daily living.

Picture
ORDER
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Carpet

25/5/2012

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There is a wonderful story of Sir Walter Raleigh laying down his cloak over a puddle for the English Queen. And in Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, followers lay their cloaks and palms across the pathway, celebrating his arrival.
But every day, throughout the seasonal year, my way is carpeted with a splendid array of materials.
During Autumn, the ground is carpeted with crackling, vibrant, playful leaves of deciduaous trees.
In the forest, pine needles soften each foot fall.
During Spring, blossom floats like confetti, celebrating new life.
And when the camellia is in bloom, flowers drop and form an ever-widening circle, radiating with colour and joy.
Let us notice and contemplate the carpets beneath our feet, and be grateful for nature's exuberant interior decoration!
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CARPET
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Walk

24/5/2012

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A blessing for my daughter who sets off on a world adventure today:

"Although the road is never ending
take a step and keep walking,
do not look fearfully into the distance.
On this path let the heart be your guide
for the body is hesitant and full of fear."
Rumi

May all who follow their heart be richly blessed.
Picture
WALK
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A blessing before I stitch

23/5/2012

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A blessing before I stitch

Caress this thread, O breath of life.

Let me meditate    stitch by stitch,
                              in and out
                              up and down
seeing always with the inner eye.

Give me freedom to unbuild when necessary.
Give me courage to deconstruct that which no longer works.
May I be aware, with a grateful heart,
that some things are held together for only a short time.

May the warp and weft reflect the movements of an integrated heart.

Let me  understand the patterns and the foundations,
ready to explore the permutations and adapatations in my work.

Guide these fingers, O weaver of dreams, to express the joy of knowing you. 

May all your endeavours be blessed today.
Picture
ETUI detail A small case for holding sewing materials
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Laugh

22/5/2012

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When you realise
how perfect everything is,
you will tilt your head back
and laugh at the sky

Let a laugh escape today.
Picture
LAUGH graphic by Julie Voss
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