Who Knew!

Wow.. I had no idea it had been soooo long since I last blogged. There's been so much going on in my life that I guess the ole blog got a little left behind!

I've been tatting, scrapbooking, crocheting.. all the usual. I wont bore anyone with photos ofall I have done in the last 6mths. Jessi is about to turn 5, my great grandfather had a heart attack and a pacemaker put in right before xmas (he was sent home xmas day from hospital) and is finally coming home from Perth, I have a bf now, I've read a few books, changed the house around. Just so many things :)

I managed to take a simply stunning photo of Jessi on Dec 20th, so I will share. Everyone loves to look at cute kids! I cropped out the toilet block and everything when I scrapped it of course ;)


One book I read I want to tell you about. Had I read the blurb I'm not sure I would ever have bought it. It was in a discount book order thingy at the local supermarket for about $10. The pic on the cover of 3 little blonde girls appealed to me so I grabbed the order form and wrote my details (of course buy Jessi books too!). When I read the blurb some weeks later I said to my bf that I'm not sure I would like the book, but for some reason I was still drawn to reading it. And I did. And it had such an impact on me, to the point I researched the authors online and was tempted to email them about their story. I decided that was probably going a bit too far!! The book is called "Not Without My Sister" by Celeste, Kristina (Jones) and Juliana (Buhring). They were born into a cult or religious sect or whatever other "politically correct/incorrect" term you may have called the Children of God. Now known as The Family International this cult still operates. In researching the authors I read a blog by an Australian man who had been "flirty-fished" by a group of Family girls in Sydney just last year. The lives these little girls lived were horrific. Dragged all over the world and often being raised by people who weren't their parents or in a communal environment they suffered abuse of every kind. No child deserves this no matter the reasoning behind it. These ladies, Celeste, Kristina and Juliana are fighting for the rights of children like them all over the world. Kudos to you! If you ever have the chance to read this book, do. I couldn't put it down. My life seems so "normal" and "fair" after having read what these ladies lived through. I was mortified that these things really happen, and reading it in such a way saw me in tears and constantly commenting to my bf about how dumbfounded I was about it all. A real wake up call! I'm not in anyway religious by choice, and I don't hold anyones religion or beliefs against them, but I tell ya what, abusing children I cannot accept. Abusing anyone in any unjust way really. And if your "religion" tells you it's right.. I mean, where are the common sense and morals? So, with an open and unbiased mind I recommend this book. Be warned, it can be a little graphic. Juliana, Celeste and Kristina.. if you ever happen by my humble little blog I admire your strength and will power. May your work with RISE International help many and bring you peace.

I recently started compiling a http://www.myqh.com/ webpage. I had run across a couple when hunting for crochet patterns and they were just so well organised and helpful that I thought I might make my own. So far I've used their process for copying all your links from your browser and they all need sorting. But where as in the past I was saving just a homepage or index I am now going to go through and organise more clearly. Mainly with the tatting stuff I will be trying to add in every pattern I come across as a reference point for people. www.crochetpatterncentral .com and http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/ are already such comprehensive guides to those artforms and Rachel does such an amazing job of keeping them up to date I could never hope to equal her. Tatting will be my thing :) I do have the Tatting Index in my bookmarks and use it often, so I am really kinda taking inspiration from there. I have more tatting bookmarks than I do anything else so it will be great to think "hmm.. I want to tat a 3D rose" and know right where to look. If no one else ever uses my lists I certainly wont be offended!! But that said.. if you're interested take a look

http://www.myhq.com/public/m/i/michelles_angel/

It's a slow process as I have to add each thing just one at a time and pull up all those webpages in the process. That's kinda a good thing too cos it means no broken links. For now.. Not sure how well I will go in keeping it that way!! *lol* OOOOHH!!... I better remember to add my own dragonfly tatting pattern, huh?!! Foolish me.

Enough babbling from me, I have a myhq page to work on. Take care and I should be back. I hope. Maybe....