I've been at Devoted and Disgruntled today - it's an annual Open Space, asking the question "What are we going to do about theatre and the performing arts?" This is the thirteenth annual edition. I went two years ago in Birmingham and over the period inbetween have been along to several smaller "satellite" events.
As it's Open Space, people bring the things that are most important to them. One regular is Regina who brings her Dreams and a Heart to the group. She brings recycled fabrics, pre-cut and partly sewn doll shapes, red heart fabric, and the dreams - stuffing from recycled pillows - so they've been in contact with people's dreams. Yeah.
And we sit in a circle and push the dreams into the doll until they are almost full and then add the little dot of read for the heart. Then we sew up the gap and do a little meditation to release the doll into Regina's loving hands.
My doll you can see above surprised me by having quite a well-defined waist, unlike it's maker...
It's quite beautiful in it's own right, but it's also a great way of easing into the day and getting to know others in the circle, talking while making, eyes mostly on the work.