Taken today, 26 Nov 2011. A walk along the sand with a friend

             ..remember why you have chosen to live life differently and bring purity & love to a troubled world.

a collection of greats

Chair Please

    Wandering around Domayne at Christmas Time. Heaven
    My good friend Joey admiring the options.

Chair please 

Brisbane's New Farm Park at spring time. White Bush Roses. My day of exploring. More images to come.

We need to act now

Beautiful friends,

We write this to you today with a real sense of urgency… As you probably know, in Somalia almost 3.7 million people are now in crisis!

The Red Cross has said that 1 in 10 children in parts of Somalia are at risk of starving to death!

12 million people across East Africa are in need of humanitarian assistance. The famine in Somalia is the first famine to happen this century, and It is likely that tens of thousands men, women and children have already died from the severity of this drought. This is the 21st century, how are letting this happen? The innocent men, women and children of this country were not designed to have a life of poverty, famine and distress but a life of hope and freedom from such injustice. These precious children of God deserve better.

Hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have no home and no idea of when their next meal are fleeing to neighboring countries in search of food. Refugee camps around East Africa are four times over capacity.

So, What can we do to help this situation?

Immediate assistance in food distribution, water, hygiene and sanitation, emergency health and protection are needed to ease the devastating effects of this crisis. The International Red Cross have set up a donation page on their website. Every little bit can help these people survive this crisis and we feel that as the ministry of HOPE is all about helping other people everywhere, that we MUST do all we can do TODAY. Please donate today.

If we are not able to intervene immediately, tens of thousands more Somalis may die.

Thank you for your generosity and hearts of compassion…

Love, Darlene Zschech 

Photo  - Kevin Carter

Ply wood pieces

 Although this unique plywood chair W_01 was created by Portuguese company Branca, it seems to flirt with a little Nordic style, don’t you find? Curved, minimal and friendly, adorned with some heavy furs and nestled by a fireplace is where it seems to belong. The shell shape of this chair is meant to envelop you, allows for a natural curvature and to be filled with your favorite pillows and blankets. The chair is made of cut and bent plywood, beautifully curved, soft and strong and very unique.

Before even making your way to the kitchen, you could start your day with a cup-o-something right in your bathroom - if you had this basin Cup by Artceram. Definitely an amusing basin, one that evokes a smile and for those with a sense of humor, willing to get asked a lot of questions. The design qualities of this piece are not unusual however - white and clean and modern and sleek, but it is the idea that makes it unique and atypical. Visit Artceram for more information.

 oh yeahh.

 This free standing tree house by Ravnikar Potokar Arhitekturni is indeed a design that stands all on its own.

This raised house plan sits high up on stilts, so the occupants can still enjoy those coveted tree-house views. This simple structure is made of spruce plywood protected by colorless, natural-finish nano-varnish, and topped with a weather-proof cardboard-clad roof. This cool freestanding treehouse is meant to inspire kids and their play with its innovative, different design, making a nice private book nook or a cool club house. For more Slovenian architecture visit Ravnikar Potokar Arhitekturni.
via Architizer

I'm surrounded by possessions, clothes, technology, resources, unlimited entertainment, all of the perks of the western world, all of the friends in my contact list only a text away... and sometimes i sit at home in my room and I'm still not happy. Do you ever get that?


It's in those times that I sit on my bed and remember love.

Nude

This is a little tribute to some cool nude art

Bring on Christmas ..

It's a stormy night, mid November here in Brisbane and I'm tripping that Christmas is only weeks away. I've been in denial about it coming around so quickly this year (prematurely as I see it) and have found myself actually developing an attitude toward the shop assistant setting up the Christmas tree in the department stores. 

I remember as a kid listening to adults complain about the years flying past in the blink of an eye and being boggled at the thought. All I could see was the clock in my classroom taking forever to get to 3pm. And that was 3pm!? Thats so early in the day for us now and most days 3pm comes and goes long before we even have a chance to look at the time! I'd give anything to have the day go that slow again. 

As my teenage years rolled on and I left school, I can still remember the first time I caught myself starting to think like an adult. It was when I'd realised how many years it had been since I had been doing my own laundry, bill paying & grocery shopping.  I thought.."Whoa.. I'm actually getting older?" It would have been about three years into my university degree, meaning I'd been three-variety-filled years away from my parent's home that I hadn't even stopped to think that life had actually changed.. dramatically. An era was well and truly over. 

After that first realisation the thoughts kept rolling on in. I could't escape them! I thought about how the reality was that I would never ever be able to live those childhood years again. Never be able to go back to being looked after by my parents and will never be able to re-live the stress free days of only worrying about how to wear my hair and completing the five hundred word assignments.  Even looking back at my uni years I realised that they were days of bliss. I now had to find work, save for a home, get married, have children, and ..grow old. 

I can tell now, five years on from that first shuddering realisation, that we humans are never fully released from our pasts. I reckon we will always grieve for the times we've had, the friendship circles we were in, the experiences we created and the way we looked and felt in our 'prime'. Every photo seems to leave a stabbing feeling in the chest upon viewing -knowing we can never go back. Every familiar song and smell is so ruthless to bring up a lifetime of emotions and memories, and in an instant, leave you short for air thinking "How did I get here? Where is everyone now I wonder?" 

It seems when you are young, life's all about enduring the current season and longing for the next. When you are older, you will still endure the current season yet wish the good ol' days could be relived. We all know that time changes a lot of things and once it is gone there is never any going back. Time holds every person captive and I actually think that more you try and hold on to time the faster it goes. 

My aim as a young 25year old, is to try and not always long for a change in my current circumstance, but to realise that very soon a lot will change and I will be wishing this part of my life never actually passed. Or just for a little while I could just go back. You really do never appreciate many things until they are gone. And gone for good. 

I have a loving family around me, great friends, great employment opportunities and enough space in my future not to try and hurry it all along. Even still, I don't want to be stressed about how life roles on either. There are elements of the future that scare me that I will eventually have to face. But for now I want to put my feet up on a sunny afternoon, hot tea in hand, and take time to watch the trees and think happily about the time i've been given thus far and feel peaceful about many moments to come. 

My tip- Surround yourself with music, scenery, books and people that force you to stop and see the world around you in that moment in all it's beautiful fullness. 

So bring on Christmas I say!

sarah 

A poem from Dallas..

Dallas Clayton -- he writes children's poems & books http://dallasclayton.com/tagged/poetry/chrono
I'm going to feature one of his poem's here and there because they are brilliant and timly

room

alex hayden cococozy white bedroom attic a frame eaves fireplace - so inspired by this room.

garden love

ish and chi - follow them on blogspot. 

Ish&Chi

Beautiful Tea Party arrangement by http://ishandchi.blogspot.com/2010/09/garden-tea-party.html - Ish&Chi. Love their work.

such good lyrics

And after the storm,

I run and run as the rains come

And I look up, I look up,

on my knees and out of luck,

I look up.

Night has always pushed up day

You must know life to see decay

But I won't rot, I won't rot

Not this mind and not this heart,

I won't rot.

And I took you by the hand

And we stood tall,

And remembered our own land,

What we lived for.

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.

And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.

Get over your hill and see what you find there,

With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

And now I cling to what I knew

I saw exactly what was true

But oh no more.

That's why I hold,

That's why I hold with all I have.

That's why I hold.

I will die alone and be left there.

Well I guess I'll just go home,

Oh God knows where.

Because death is just so full and mine so small.

Well I'm scared of what's behind and what's before.

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.

And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.

Get over your hill and see what you find there,

With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.

And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.

Get over your hill and see what you find there,

With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

 After The Storm

Mumford And Sons

22

My Trip to Cambodia. June,July 2011

MODERN DAY SLAVERY

i saw a DOCUMENTARY tonight on modern day slavery and prostitution. it is so real and is hurting millions of little children and women all over the world. their hearts matter and the pain they feel is deep and is real to them and happening now. please have a read of this passage below.  

MODERN DAY SLAVERY

WHAT IS MODERN DAY SLAVERY

Slavery, the barbaric practice of holding people against their will and forcing them to work for little or no money, is an ancient epidemic that is still a problem today. Many people are shocked to learn that, despite a rise in awareness, slavery is worse today than at any other point in history, and it is still on the rise. Even more shocking is that modern slavery is not just practiced in developing or war-torn countries; slaves are found in major cities and towns in the developed world as well, including America.

While there are many reasons people are enslaved today, most commonly the reasons are economic. Globalization has flung wide the doors of economic opportunity, but at a great cost to the millions of impoverished people around the globe in developing countries. While the slavery has been officially banned by many countries, modern slavery continues unofficially beneath other monikers such as child soldiers, debt bondage, and forced marriage. To make matters worse, many expressions of modern slavery use legal processes as a ruse for bondage, such as adoption and legal prostitution. Modern slave traders find ways to exploit a vulnerable people group.

It is important to understand that modern day slavery stems from a variety of other injustices that, taken together, leave multitudes vulnerable to slavery. Poverty, war, and natural disasters all contribute to a conditions that leave literally millions of people susceptible to being enslaved. It takes very little for someone in these situations to find themselves suddenly abducted and bound to a life of slavery, even though they are aware of the dangers. Once enslaved, there is little hope of escape, even in America. Captors are usually extremely powerful, thoroughly intimidating, and capable of brainwashing their captives into a state of “willed” submission, often by frequent beatings and rapes. Crime networks easily cross international borders and bribe local police forces to form an inescapable and nearly invisible operation. While it is difficult to accurately pinpoint the number of people enslaved to day, experts believe that the number is greater than any other time in human history, and likely exceeds 30 million people.

WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Human trafficking is the industry that generates commerce by transporting actual people. While this practice does have legal expressions, mostly it is a term used by advocacy groups to describe the nefarious practice of abduction and bondage that goes hand in hand with Modern-day Slavery. There are tens of billions of dollars generated each year by the illegal transport and sale of human beings, making it is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. And since this industry thrives by exploiting impoverished people, and is exacerbated by the growing appetite worldwide for human slaves under a variety of names, this problem is fundamentally understood as an economic problem.

While the point of origin of slaves is as diverse as the cities of the world, the grisly practice of abduction is generally uniform. Trafficking victims are usually persons displaced (like refugees), run aways, or the most impoverished people in a region. In some places, the captors are large crime rings, but, more typically, trafficking is conducted by small, specialized venders. Prisoners are lured into slavery with false promises of a better life—be it fame as an actor, or economic opportunities abroad—only to be trafficked to another city or even another country. Captors immediately confiscate passports and any identification of their victims which renders them powerless to escape the country of their final destination. In addition, being trafficked to a foreign country creates a language barrier that helps to discourage escape.

What is important to grasp is that while some countries are better known as destinations, and others are merely transit countries, nearly every country in the earth participates in Human Trafficking as an abduction point as well as a destination, including the United States and other similarly developed countries. Immigrant labor, adoption, and even legalized prostitution many times create a ruse of legal activity that can hide illegal trafficking. While most countries have developed anti-trafficking laws, poor law enforcement and corrupt police forces offer few obstacles to traffickers. Once abducted, victims find themselves forced into a lifestyle of prostitution, child soldiers, forced labor, or some other form of slavery that is impossible to escape.

-An excerpt from Exodus Cry website below: 

http://exoduscry.com/about/modern-day-slavery/

Little Garden Set

Loving this little garden table set. 

That sun looks so inviting and I just wanna poor a nice cup of tea from that pot! Fresh flowers, a few scones and and good chat would not go down too badly at all at this little garden table set. 

From where I'd rather be .. :)

Don't Ask What The World Needs.


Rather ask.. What makes you come Alive? 
Then go and do it!


Because.


What The World Needs 


is people who have come alive




Howard Thurman


American Theologian, Clergyman and Activist. 1900-1981

..this is a photo of bridge i had passed whilst driving with my family from Austria to Switzerland in 2007.

seasons come and go.. but an era can take a lifetime to let go of.
Does anyone else find it hard to keep up with time changing everything so quickly? 

Remember Love

This photo was taken of me during a photo shoot from Deezigner Images - http://deezignerimages.com/

Life is to be Lived. And Loved. Remember Love and Celebrate with me!!