Ebony dress

My niece has a twin sister who also has a daughter so that meant I would haaaave to make another little dress, oh the hardships :) It is so hard to make cute little girl clothes..... NOT. After looking at my boys dark clothes it is so nice to make something pink and pretty. 

I had a look on the internet for a pattern to use and found LOTS of adorable dresses. 

I decided on this dress

Granny yoke baby dress

I had some pink and purple yarn which I had bought for another project, but had decided against, which was perfect for this dress. It was Moda Vera "Gelato"which is a 50/50 Acrylic and cotton blend.  So Sunday afternoon I started this dress

My eldest son went for his licence on Monday morning so I took along my granny squares finished of the last of them (did I say that I started this dress Sunday afternoon?) and sewed in the ends while I waited and prayed that he would pass (YES he did :))

The skirt took longer than I thought but it was great to do while watching Agatha Christie's Poirot, I love  David Suchet as Poirot. By Friday evening I was ready to put it all together. So less than a week after starting here it is

Ta da

 I decide to make a little dress to go under the crochet dress  as it is an open pattern and it is winter here. My first plan was to make one in cream but after trying cream behind it I decided it needed a stronger colour. It took me awhile and just as I was about to give up this lovely bright green jumped out at me.

 I also added a trim of cream lace which just pokes out from the bottom of the dress when worn.

I had a little chuckle when I made this dress as I used the same pattern that I used for my sons shirts years ago. It is from the Kwik-Sew's "Sewing for baby" book. 

I wanted to give it to my niece before Sunday so that her daughter could wear it to church if she wanted what I didn't realise was that it was Ebony's birthday on Saturday so it was perfect timing.

On Sunday after the morning service the twins come up to show me the girls in their dresses. They were both very cute. Alycia loves here dress and had to give me lots of hugs. There is just one problem and that is that the neck slips down, but I think this can be fixed by maybe tying/buttoning the top of the neck together like this

Not sure what I'm going to do now but I will need to organise a project as I think I may be spending a bit of time sitting quiet as my Asthma is playing up with all the cold and very damp weather we are having at the moment.

Till next time 

(((((hugs)))))

Sandra

Alycia dress

I know I have been quiet for a long time but the crochet needle has been very busy. To day i would like to share a dress i finished yesterday for a very special little girl. I got this pattern from a book I found in the local book store while looking for an Asterix book for my son's birthday, i know the comics and the sewing books are not even on the same side of the store:).

Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench

I saw this book and feel in love. So home it came with me. I really wanted to make some of the outfits in this book but as I have grown boys I couldn't make anything for them and i have enough outfits in my present basket. So i decided i would ask my niece if she would like a dress for her daughter. Well the long and the short of it is that she has been having trouble finding nice modest cute dresses for her daughter so would love one. That was last week Sunday. I knew exactly the dress I would make this one. It is called toddler dress which I think is a very boring name but an absolutely gorgeous pattern.

So one Monday morning i went to our local spotlight to get some suitable yarn because of course i don't have any suitable yarn in my stash

By Saturday evening it was finished

TA DA.............!!!!

Front

Bodice detail

Skirt detail

Back

I am so happy with how it turned out. There was a few mistakes in the pattern, which really annoys me, if I'm going to pay for a pattern I expect it to be correct but i figures it out and all is good. I lined to skirt with a very simple skirt which i sewed in just to make it warmer and it also picks out the pattern.

I have some more items I have finished but I need to take some photos. So one day when i have some time I'll take some photos and share with you all.

Lots of Love

Sandra

Unexpected visitors

I had the most amazing morning. I was busy doing soccer registrations and washing when I had a knock on the door. It was somebody going around door to door inviting people to a Good Friday worship service, nothing unusual about that but after saying good bye I went to get the washing when I heard a strange bang coming from the car they were in at first I thought it was someone closing the door but when I had a look they were all getting out the car. It turns out that the radiator hose on their car had split under pressure. So there they were stuck on my driveway with no way of going.

After they had made arrangements to be picked up I invited them in for a coffee, while they waited for their help to arrive.
It was really good fun we chatted and laughed for about 30mins or so.
It was a welcome break from loooooooots of paper work and washing.
What a wonderful way to spend half an hour.
I hope something fantastic happens in your day today

Long weekends and top class dinning

Hello All
Well that was a long unexpected break. It took me a looooooooooot longer to get over the accident than I thought it would, but I’m all good again.  Then when I thought I was better I succumbed to another round of thrush.  icky! So I decide that this time I would go on a cleansing diet. So away went the yeast, dairy and sugar. What a journey that was/is, there is sugar in everything and yeast and dairy in just about everything else. The first week was rather hard as I suffered from sugar cravings and also toxin overload as the yeast died of. But I got through that and am starting to feel more energetic and am losing weight YES so far 4kgs.

Life hasn’t been all bad on the long weekend in March (Labour day in West Australia) we packed up the camper and headed down to one of our favourite camping spots, Torbay Inlet. It is bush camping with no facilities but we are self-sufficient so that’s not a problem.

Our campsite for the weekend

The boys on the inlet

Paul with Maddy

The weather was fantastic.
One evening after dinner I went for a paddle down the inlet I just managed to get a couple of photos as the sun set. They are a bit blurry because I didn't have a tripod.

My trusty companion, Whenever someone went on the kayak Ebonee HAD to come along

Not a very flattering shot but this is where Ebonee loves to stand

A couple of mornings I got up early about 6.30 had a bite to eat and then went for a paddle. It is so calm and peaceful it's really hard to turn around and go back to camp

Part of the remains of the flood gates

This is the large "lake"part of the inlet. I paddled around there the first time I went out but I forgot my camera

As you go up the inlet on the right is part of the rain water drainage system for the potato farms. I paddled up this for about half an hour.

Maddy managed to take Ebony's place up front but Ebony didn't mind. but it did lead to a few little swims.

The reflections in the water were amazing

We are hoping to go back again during the April school holidays

I also have been spending some more time down at Mutton bird beach which is the beach were then inlet opens on to. Last Wednesday I decide to take the dogs to the beach. So after doing the house work I packed my lunch and headed down to the beach.

The view from my table

My lunch companions

My dinning table

I have been doing some crochet but haven't taken any photos so I'll save that for another day.

Lots of love to all

A Beautiful Heart

A Beautiful Heart

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town 

proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley.
A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect.
There was not a mark or a flaw in it.
Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen.
The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.

Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said,
"Why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine."
The crowd and the young man looked at the old man's heart.
It was beating strongly ... but it was full of scars ...
it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in ...
but they didn't fit quite right and there were several jagged edges.
In fact ... in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.
The people stared ... how can he say his heart is more beautiful... they thought?

The young man looked at the old man's heart ... and saw its state and laughed.  

"You must be joking," he said. "Compare your heart with mine ...
mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears."
"Yes" ... said the old man ... "yours is perfect looking but ...
I would never trade with you.
You see ... every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love ... 
I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them ... 
and often they give me a piece of their heart
which fits into the empty place in my heart... 
but because the pieces aren't exact ...
I have some rough edges ... which I cherish ... 
because they remind me of the love we shared.

Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away ...
and the other person hasn't returned a piece of his heart to me.
These are the empty gouges ... giving love is taking a chance.
Although these gouges are painful ...
they stay open ... reminding me of the love I have for these people too ...
and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting.
So now do you see what true beauty is?"

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks.
He walked up to the old man ... reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart...
and ripped a piece out. 
He offered it to the old man with trembling hands.
The old man took his offering ... placed it in his heart...
and then took a piece from his old scarred heart ...
and placed it in the wound in the young man's heart.
It fit ... but not perfectly ... as there were some jagged edges.
The young man looked at his heart...
not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever ...
since love from the old man's heart flowed into his. 

They embraced and walked away side by side.

Author unknown

May you have a blessed week

Hi All

It's been over a week since I last blogged. I haven't really felt like it to be honest. After the accident I thought I'd be back on my feet and back to normal in a couple of days, but it has taken over a week. Finally today I am beginning to feel positive and ready to start getting back to my normal tasks. All week I've been tired, teary eyed and VERY touchy. Maybe that's all normal, I wouldn't know, but I'm sick of it. My knee is still sore (the stitches came out today Yay!) and it does make walking a bit difficult and I only managed one church service yesterday, why are church pews soooooooooo uncomfortable ??!! Anyway it was back to work today and hopefully normal routine. Well that's enough whinging, on to some positives, after all every cloud has a silver lining.

To help keep myself sane this past week I made some more dresses for Dress a girl around the world, all up I now have 14 dresses made. Here's the dresses I've made in the past week or so

I also found some cute dresses in the op shop that I will also pass on.
These are the dresses I made before

I also did a bit of knitting on a pom pom baby blanket I am making.

Not sure how I'm going to tuck in the ends but I'm sure I'll think of something. I haven't felt much like crocheting, that maybe because I don't have a project on the go that I could just pick up and carry on with and my head has been filled with cotton wool so thinking wasn't my strong point this past week.

A x-ray of my head this week hehe (at least it's not empty)

I also wanted to share this amazing picture

It comes from a recent post on The Ark in Space. This website has the most amazing pictures and information on all sorts of animals. Why not head on over and see the rest of the Flamingo pictures and lots of other amazing pictures of God's creation.

Well I think it's time for a cuppa and the beddy-bys for me.
Hooroy for now
Sandra