Tribute to Kathreen Ricketson

It was with great shock and sadness that I learned about the tragic death of Kathreen and her husband Rob last week.

When I started blogging four years ago, she was one of my main inspirations. I first 'met' her and her blog Whipup via the Craft blog, which I had been following for some time. She was creative, fun, helpful and prolific.  Her blog was always jampacked with creative ideas and inspiration. She loved to share and to teach. Her kids magazine Action Pack is testament to her - and her family's - dedication to creating a happy, healthy and wholesome environment for their kids to grow in and learn.

When we decided to travel to Australia in April 2012, I wanted an Australian craft blogger to do a guest posts for me while I was away. Kathreen was the obvious choice. Her post on why she loves Australia can be viewed here. Soon after our visit, our lives changed and we relocated from Dubai to Adelaide, Australia. We became Aussies too. We kept in e-mail and blog contact and when I learned that their roadtrip would take them through Adelaide, I was delighted to have the opportunity to finally meet her.

We met on a Tuesday afternoon in late January, at the Adelaide Central Market, where we had coffee and chatted for an hour of two. We talked about blogs, quilting, travelling and motherhood. I met Rob and the two kids. I went home that afternoon and told my husband that if we lived closer, I think our two families could become good friends. We like all the same things: camping, outdoors, travel, creativity and sharing it all with our children.

I followed their trip on her blog and made mental notes of all the great places they were exploring, adding them to my list of Places We Still Have To See.

Her last post written at Coral Bay starts like this: We are bush camping at a station on Ningaloo reef, Western Australia. A dream come true — is that totally corn ball?

Although this story has one of the saddest endings I ever experienced, and my heart breaks for the children, I am comforted by the fact that they were living their dream. They had several months where they could devote themselves to their children and create family memories that can never be taken from them.

When I think of Kathreen, this is what comes to mind:

Inspired crafter

Prolific writer

Devoted mother

Dear Kathreen, 
it was a priviledge to know you.

* A fund has been established to help support the children. Find the details here.

*Photos taken by Kathreen, cropped and edited by me

Guest Post from Australia

Seeing that we are off wandering around Australia, I thought it would be good idea to ask one of my favourite Aussie bloggers to do a guest post about... Australia.

I asked her to share with us how being Australian and/or living in Australia has influenced her creative thinking and design process.

She told me " I am not influenced by being Australian, I just AM Australian!" 

 So, without further ado, here she is:  

Kathreen Ricketson is a mother, maker and blogger. She blogs at Whipup.net and lives in Australia with her husband Rob and two children. Kathreen has published six books (two on quilting and four on crafting with kids).

I am happy to be here to today guest posting about my country Australia and how the light and colour inspires me in my creativity and craft. Before settling down with children and work and mortgage I was lucky enough to have travelled to many different countries. I love to experience different cultures, foods, traditions and landscapes, but I think what I love most about traveling is experiencing peoples different sense of design and colour, from how they paint their houses, decorate their markets to their clothing and fabric designs. Every country and culture has a different way with colour that is influenced by their surroundings. 

In Australia we have the most wonderful light, blue skies, purple sunsets, yellow beaches, and red desert sands. The colours we are drawn to for our houses tend to be earth reds and browns, ochre yellows and eucalyptus greens and greys. But we also like to let the startlingly vivid colours of our flowers and birds shine amongst the earthy tones of our country. But we also like to let the startlingly vivid colours of our flowers and birds shine amongst the earthy tones of our country. 

My family and I love to go camping and recently we traveled inland to desert country to experience the amazing sunsets and red earth of our country. I have prepared some colour palettes based on images I took on our trip. Enjoy!  

Thank you Kathreen!