Queer Beanie 2011

"It was a dark and stormy night" as we all hurried into the warmth and light of The Carrington's Library where the fire was burning bright. The room was warm and the tables covered with clever and creative beanies waiting to be judged in the 2011 Queer Beanie competition.

The Queer Beanie competition is run in conjunction with the Blue Mountains PinkFest and the long standing Winter Magic festival.

 

The entries and winners in this years Queer Beanie 2011 competition were once again, fabulous, creative, innovative and outright queer! Images and a video of the evening can be found below.

We had knitted, felted, quilted, macrame and crocheted entries from beginners through to skilled and long term crafters and all of them are amazing!

We also had a prize winning hat on display, made by milliner Christine Yarker. The hat to the right was a winner of bentArt 2011.

Our wonderful sponsors were there to hand out prizes and to judge the competition, Angela Lougheed of Spirit of Health and Wellbeing, Angela Zadro-Jones of Jasper Cat Designs, Lorna McKenzie of Offbeat Ceremonies and The Tailor's Apprentice and Mark Jarvis of The Carrington, who provided our warm and comfortable venue.

We had an unexpected celebrity, Simon Marnie of ABC Radio 702. Simon got right into the spirit of things and invited me for an interview next morning in his live coverage of the Winter Magic Festival.

and the winners are ....

Queer ~ Intermediate ~ Tracey C ~ Valfreyja

Reduce Reuse Recycle ~ Advanced ~ Angela Z-D ~ Bruce

Reduce Reuse Recycle ~ Beginner ~ Amy B ~ Macrame Dream

Classic ~ Intermediate ~ Kathleen M ~ Carousel

Queer ~ Advanced ~Lorna M ~ Queer Bouquet

Queer ~ Beginner ~ Julie B ~ Three Sisters

Classic ~ Advanced ~ Lynn B ~ Cherry Goosebumps

Classic ~ Judges Prize ~ Susan R ~ Family Beanie

Winter Magic 2011 ~ celebrating the winter solstice

Winter Magic is the Blue Mountains winter solstice celebration, we celebrate the middle of winter with a festival of dress-up, drumming, food, parade, bands and many more events. Its wonderfully Pagan and a delightful way to celebrate the turning of the Wheel of the Year.

The 2011 celebration was no exception, the weather was perfect, winter sunshine poured down, the wind was minimal and the enthusiasm was high, here are my some of my photos from the day.

Adventure weddings

You bushwalk, rock climb, canyon, canoe, explore caves, or cycle tour as often as you can, you love the wilderness and want to celebrate your wedding vows away from the “Madding Crowd” incorporating your favourite activity.

I am a bush walker, cyclist and sustainability campaigner who would love to work with you to create a ceremony that rejoices in your particular way of living lightly on the earth. Marking your marriage is important and you need someone who is as passionate about the outdoors as you, I bring my passion and knowledge of wilderness and celebration to your ceremony.

I am willing and able to walk into wilderness areas with you to celebrate your marriage vows. I am happy to indulge in activities I haven’t done before and will do anything that is legal, safe and at the same ability as your guests.

If you have guests that can’t get to the wilderness with us, Offbeat Ceremonies can create two ceremonies to cater for everyone’s abilities.

Making your commitment valid - the Quaker wedding certificate tradition

How can your same-sex commitment ceremony have an element of legality, when in Australia we can't get married by law? 

I use a tradition that comes from the Quakers, using a wedding certificate to validate your ceremony.

Quakers were considered an outlaw religion in the 17th century, the State did not recognise their marriages as legal because they weren't sanctified in the Church of England. If a spouse died, the State claimed the estate and the spouse and children were left destitute. 

To ensure that the state would recognise the Quaker wedding ceremony and all its spousal and inheritance rights, a Quaker tradition arose where everyone at the ceremony signed the marriage certificate as witness to the act. If the state disputed the inheritance at the death of a spouse, this wedding certificate was used as proof of their commitment, with so many witnesses to the wedding ceremony and the couple’s commitment to each other; it was hard for the state to dispute their marriage.

The Quaker wedding certificate tradition can be used today by same sex couples, or couples who do not want to engage with the state for their vows. The Quaker wedding certificate is a way to formalise your commitment and include your guests in your ceremony and while it has no status in law, it does show your commitment and can be used as such if required.

Offbeat Ceremonies can provide you with access to a Blue Mountains artist who will create a beautiful and personalised wedding certificate to use at your ceremony.

Handfasting

The term is derived from the verb to handfast, used in Middle to Early Modern English for the making of a contract of marriage. The term is originally from Old Norse hand-festa "to strike a bargain by joining hands”. (1)

Today a Handfasting can be used to signify an engagement, betrothal, or commitment to a life partner. Laws being what they are today, a Handfasting is an excellent way for a gay or lesbian couple to make their commitment known. Additionally a Handfasting can be added to any wedding ceremony, regardless of religion, as "tying the knot" is a universal wedding theme. In fact, Handfasting is the original ‘tying the knot’.

The Fasting of hands symbolises your coming together: I, or a person you choose, wrap your joined hands with special ribbons, forming a circle of infinity and lasting love and tying you together.

The Handfasting is a ceremonial statement of a feeling, which binds two people together. It is not a marriage that binds, but the Love, respect and enjoyment which two people share, the Betrothed invite all their family and friends to show their public statement that they are in love, and wish to commit to each other openly. And for all the guests to witness this statement that they have found the fun, pleasure and opportunities of their lives enhanced by being together. They wish to spend the rest of their lives growing together, helping each other develop their potential and gathering shared moments and memories by learning about life in general with each other, together they are sharing with their guests and witnesses their love for each other.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handfasting

A Mother's Day ceremony

How often has your mother's day gift been a new dressing gown, slippers, some perfume or perhaps a dinner out somewhere?

Life is full of situations where we wished we had said how we felt, this Mother’s Day can provide you with a timely opportunity to actually say them to your mum.

Let this Mother’s Day be the time you tell your mum how much she means to you.

Giving a Mother’s Day ceremony as a gift will be more meaningful than a lunch out, new slippers, or yet another thing that your mother has. A Mother's Day ceremony is a gift of your thoughts and feelings about her. These gifts are timeless and your appreciation can never be said too often. Your mother’s greatest gift to you was life, and a ceremony acknowledges and thanks her for this gift. This special day is good because it can be uncomfortable to say those things just out of the blue, but during a Mother’s Day ceremony you can say them with the help and support of others.

It is a something she will always remember, far longer than the lunch or slippers.

It can be a gift from the whole family and close friends and relatives can attend. The ceremony gives everyone a chance to think about their mother and grandmother; what they have learnt from them, the the gifts of life skills and wisdom their mother's and grandmother's passed onto them.

A Mothers Day ceremony is a way of celebrating that special bond that exists between mother and child - a love that really isn’t like anything else.

What would a ceremony entail? It could contain speeches of love, music, ceremony, performances by grandchildren, giving of symbolic gifts, stories of shared history, remembering those not with you, absent grandmother’s and other family matriarchs.

Contact me to find out more.

Equal Marriage Rites

I’ve been with my partner for 15 years, we can’t be legally married because we’re not heterosexual.

To be an Authorised Civil Marriage Celebrant in Australia, I must prove that I am an upstanding member of my community by a rigorous process of referee checks, yet I can’t marry.

My wedding clients hate these words “Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of a man and a woman”, but by law I must say them.

I believe we should change these words to ‘Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of a consenting adult couple’ and I urge the Federal government to make it legal for me to marry.

On Saturday 19th March 2011, I celebrated a civil wedding ceremony as it should be celebrated, a ceremony where a same-sex couple can also be married. I did this as part of the Rally for Equal Marriage Rites that were held all over Australia, here's the video....

You can find the transcript of the ceremony on the Offbeat Ceremonies website.