Jikana Damaru

Seen in St Kilda

I took these shots during a recent weekend stay in St Kilda - enjoy!

I am sorry I missed my post yesterday - life got very busy and I had to head out to a meeting for the wonderful charity I am one of the founding members of. So I thought now would be a good opportunity to blog about this wonderful cause that I am so passionate about.

As some of you will know from reading past posts our first daugther, Laura was stillborn. She arrived on the 11th March 2003 - she would be 6 if she was still here with us. The grief and disbelief that consumed my husband and I following this tragic day was hard to comprehend. Thankfully we were to meet some wonderful people who helped us through this rough time and it is through the amazing support network that I met a group of equally passionate mums who decided that we needed to do more to prevent the tragedy of stillbirth happening to others.

In 2005 we launched The Stillbirth Foundation.

Stillbirth is when a baby dies whilst inside its mother and can occur at anytime from 20 weeks until immediately before birth.

1 in every 140 babies born in Australia is stillborn

In Australia, each year, 2000 babies are stillborn and this number has remained steady for over ten years. It is disturbing that, in an age of enormous technical and medical advances, the death rate of stillborn babies is not declining nor well understood. The Stillbirth Foundation has been established to encourage and fund research to ensure that the stillbirth rate begins to decline.

On the 25th July we will be holding our 4th annual Little Feet Taking Big Steps Ball at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney. We had great success last year in raising much needed funds for research and hope that this years event is a huge success as well.

I would love you to visit our website to learn more about this wonderful cause - www.stillbirthfoundation.org.au

This week is such a big week for our family with the impending arrival of our fourth child this Friday (unless it makes a sudden appearance before my booked ceasar). I am excited but also so very anxious as I know too much about what can happen, so it with fingers and a positive outlook that I pray that Friday will be full of joy and I will be able to post about new bundle of joy to you all next week.

Bird hooks

My enchanted bird coat hanger hooks were a Christmas gift and I had been saving them until we decorated our cloakroom to put them in there. In the meantime, we finished decorating our bedroom and the wall opposite the bed seemed like the perfect place for them instead.

To get the look see my Polyvore set below:

Bird hooks by Torie Jayne featuring Monsoon accessories

Enchanted bird coat hanger hooks close-up

Enchanted bird coat hanger hooks from Dot Com Gift Shop

Bangle, bracelet and sequin cape on coat hanger hooks

Animal print bangle from Accessorize
Enamel bracelet, vintage find
Sequin cape, vintage find

Bird necklace from French Connection
Beaded necklace from Accessorize

~ Clever idea ~

I love this fabulous idea of hiding the printer in the drawer - neat and no visible cords and means there is more space on your desk! Will put this on the wish list for the new study.

Looking For Your Feedback And/Or Posts

As mentioned in the header to the blog, I would love people to share stories, or quotes or anything that inspires them - it might be a web address or even another blog (I'm not going to get upset by that).

So if you would like me to post here on your behalf, just email it to me and let me know if you want to tell the world your name, or keep it anonymous - I don't mind either way, but I would love this to be more than my thoughts - after all maybe only I find them inspirational.

Or maybe you just want to tell me "I dreaming" (quote from the Aussie movie 'The Castle' - now that will give you a laugh, well it will if you are an Aussie).

Be assured that I won't be discouraged if I don't get any response for there is more that I want to share but I want to make sure you all know that I would love you to be part of this blog journey as well.

Bunting

I recently helped to organize a tea party for my friend who is getting married in a few weeks. To decorate outside we made bunting to match the outdoor tableware that we were using. I designed and printed out different triangle patterned pieces, cut around the edges, punched holes in the top corners, and threaded them onto rick rack tape. Voila! Matching bunting.

Please feel free to use the bunting patterns below for personal projects. Just click on the pics below for a larger version ready for printing.

Inner Strength & Endurance

It is a little over a week since I wrote my Giving Thanks post. As I look out of my study window this morning, my climbing rose is lush and green, shading my study window from the sun. Even those branches that I thought had no hope of recovering from my neglect are now sprouting green leaves. Two honeyeaters are busily feeding off the various insects and sipping water droplets of the leaves left from the last shower.

I know that this is a plant and not a person, but this plant did not give up, I had - I thought it was dead. But it found inner strength to thrive.

So perhaps there is another lesson this rose can teach us - even when others have given up on you, you can find your inner strength and show them what you are made of. Don't let others take away your hope.

As Christopher Reeve said after his accident

"Once you choose hope, anything is possible".

If you are feeling down and hopeless, I hope this may help, please believe that there is always hope, there is always a way forward - you just need to find your inner strength and choose to thrive.