Tag: Entertainment

Art, artists, Craftsy, creativity, Fashion, Mothers Day, Women in Business

Feeling Crafty this Mothers’ Day?

Pamela Sutton-Legaud CFRE

 

Free weekend of craft videos

There is a great site I like to visit where I can see creative experts in action, Craftsy.com.  I dream of the day I will turn into a committed crafter instead of an art procrastinator. This Mothers’ Day Craftsy.com is doing a free Watchathon weekend where you can watch all their crafting videos for FREE! Love it.  I may not leave my computer long enough this weekend to put any of it into action (that’s not procrastination you see, I’m studying).  Want to join in? Here’s the link.

I’d love to be one of those people who can just get on with a great creative project and voila: days, weeks or months later they have a finished result. A great dress, a soufflé, a coastal water colour or a beautifully beaded bag… this is, unfortunately, not me.

I may not have time to knit that amazing scarf, jumper… you name it, I promised myself I’d make my mother in time for THIS Mothers’ Day but I’ll be ready for next year. Maybe even start a great quilting project to make in time for Xmas?  So what are you waiting for, get crafty here!  I’m right behind you 🙂

artists, Australia, Melbourne, Music Stores, Uncategorized, Writers

Want to revitalise your creative juices? Visit your local music store

Pamela Sutton-Legaud CFRE

What do you mean… what music store? I know, so many of them have vanished, eaten up by the e-monster that is that online fruit store but if you can find one (and I’ll let you in on the secret of a few of my favourites as a gift for your kind attention) then you are in for a treat.

Today, I walked around my absolute favourite and came away buzzing with creative ideas. Is it the fact that they have reintroduced actual LPs? With cover art? Joy! Is it the rows of beautiful art books that have recently appeared? Double happiness! Or perhaps it’s the calmness of the music playing and the almost mystical potential of rows and rows of fabulous and enticing CDs? All of this was experienced by me spending 1o minutes (which should have been spent rushing to my parking meter) in a joyful, tactile, friendly, sense-enhancing environment. But for my need not to have a parking ticket (so I have more cash to spend on music) I would have spent more time testing the knowledge of the store manager about whether, really, there is a definitive Ella Fitzgerald collection.

Yes! I know as soon as I buy the CD I’ll upload it and probably never look at the cover again. Yes, I also know that beautiful art book that I covet and think will make a great gift will stay – after purchase – on my own book shelf because, really, let’s face it, no-one else will really appreciate it as much as I do.

As I departed the store with the tips of my toes a few centimetres above the pavement, into the glorious sunshine of a Melbourne late-spring afternoon (before the cool change: Melburnians, you know of what I speak) I fancied I had discovered something new, a place to recharge my batteries and my creative notions.  In fact, it was a trip to the past and also a sign of things to come when we remember WE LIKE SHOPPING IN REAL STORES! So. Just in case you do in fact still have a music store (or for that matter a book store) in your part of town, protect it. Love it. Visit it. And buy things. You wont regret it. 🙂

A few of my favourite music stores:

Thomas Music Store, 31 Bourke Street Melbourne 3000 Ph: (03) 9650 9111 (Actually, this is my No.1 favourite)

Basement Discs, 24 Block Place, Melbourne VIC 3000 Ph: (03) 9654 1110 (Love this underground cave of a store!)

Polyester Records, 387 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy  (03) 9419 5137

Go on … be a slave to the rhythm.