Kiama's Charm - no 1

I left the first mark/decoration on the 18th of June in Florence - Oregon at  the car park of the supermarket Fred Meyer.

You see the trolley bay? Well there it is.

On the right of the bottom bar of the rail

Kiama loved Florence - Italy. She went there on a school trip and decided to use one of her sketches to create a site specific mural for the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings Langley in Hertfordshire, UK.

It will now be preserved and got a memorial plaque next to it.

Florence in Oregon is of course nothing like the one in Italy, but because of the name association and memories of a budding artist I decided that it would be a OK place for the first mark on my tribute trail to Kiama.

The greatest gift is the present

Hi and welcome to my blog, especially if you came here after finding an unusual arty/crafty thing somewhere in the state of Washington, Oregon, or California.

I am on a road trip there with my husband and my best friend, Mary, who lives in washington, from the 17th until the 28th of June 2013.
I am a textile artist and live in Hertfordshire in the UK and i decided to leave some kind of mark behind whilst cruising through a part of America.
The idea was stimulated by the memories of my daughter Kiama Petit.

Kiama suddenly died last year on the 11th of May, within 10 days of falling ill from what was later discovered to be the 'forgotten' disease of Lemierre Syndrome.
She was an art student  in her final year at Norwich Univetsity College of the Arts, who awarded her with a post-humus first class honours degree for her work.
Kiama was interested in Participatory Art  and liked to get people involved in community enhancing projects.
One of these projects was Paper girl Norwich which involved a group of cyclists distributing 365 free art works given to her by 52 artists for the public of Norwich.
In another project she would write postive messages and secretely stuck them onto parked  bicycles to brighten up the day of the unsuspected owner.

She loved to do random acts of kindness and  enjoyed the element of surprise.

She lived her unexpected short life to the full and treasured every moment inviting and inspiring people to do the same.
We discovered she had written a Bucket List, which was printed out as a poster from which 1000 copies were  given away by the university  during the graduation show.
Feel free to download a copy here.

Kiama was 22 years old when she died, so I decided to leave 22 craft decorations behind during our trip in honour of her spirit.
Kiama never visited the USA but she had all intention to travel different parts of the world so we are also leaving some of her ashes on American soil with the wish that her spirit may touch who ever feels the connection.

If you came to this blog because you found 1 of the 22 decorations I would love it if you would leave me a comment, mentioning the number, written on the scroll and I promise I will get back to you.

Feeling The Blues

I had such good intentions to write at least once a week, but......there you go.
Life wasn't easy in the last 2 months, especially leading up to the first anniversary of Kiama's death. I was feeling the blues, like the  forget-me-nots in our garden.

The mind can be so powerful as I was reliving everything what happend last year. I also had some health issues to deal with, as I was diagnosed with Diabetes 2 and had and still have all kinds of doctors and hospital appointments. Luckily I don't need any medication or insuline, just diet and exercise. Although I do go to a yoga class once a week I should be doing a lot more exercise. Being a housewife without the cleaning work-ethos of my Dutch female ancestors, as I prefer doing my textiles instead, doesn't help the situation.
So I have been doing lots of walks over the last couple months. I got a friend who likes taking me out on walks because of the way we both look at nature - full of wonder and inspiration and with art and creation in mind.
I also get to discover a lot more of our  beautiful local country side.

Bluebell woods near Abbots Langley

Blue sheep near Potten End

I start feeling mentally and emotionally a lot better now. I went onto a meditation retreat for a week, as I really needed to take some time out being on the inside of myself - seeing things from a different, more neutral perspective.



Everything changes, so here I am in a different environment with new experiences and exciting adventures.
John and I flew to Seattle last Thursday to spend 3 weeks with our friend, there. Today we are picking up a motor home to start a road trip to Yosemite.