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

I'm feeling rather stiff and sore today

Yesterday was Australia day

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so my husband (DJ) and I decided to take a motorbike ride

Not his bike but one like it source 

out to Denmark, a town close to were we live, have coffee come home and then go to the beach for the rest of the day. The forecast was for 29 a perfect day to laze around. Well that was the plan. This is what happened.
When we were about 17kms outside Denmark  DJ suddenly pulled over to the side of the road and pulled of his helmet a bee had flown in through a 2cm gap between the visor and the helmet and stung him on the temple.


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DJ is allergic to bees but doesn't always have much of a reaction, it usually depends on the type of bee, so we decided to push on to Denmark and go to the hospital. As we were going I noticed that he started getting itchy, not a good sign but he kept going. I tried to talk to him but he couldn't hear me. Anyway just as we came into Denmark there is a sharp corner (it is circled in red)

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I wasn't aware but by this time the reaction was really kicking in (his erratic riding should have alerted me) any way he came around the corner too fast and couldn't react fast enough so we veered on to the wrong side of the road and hit the gravel and lost it , we were about 2mins from the hospital.

The result; the adrenaline from the crash kicked in and stopped the reaction to the bee sting but DJ was very disorientated and his left side was all grazed. With in seconds of the accident there were lots of people helping out. It has reinforced my faith in humanity. The ambulance was called and my husband was soon stabilised. we were then taken to the Denmark hospital where we both received attention for our scraps and cuts. I needed 4 stitches in my left knee and a few metres of fixomull , the best bandage in the world, on my grazes.

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My parents then took me home. DJ on the other hand needed to be transferred to Albany hospital as he had fallen very hard on his side and also had chest pain.

At the moment he is still in hospital because he didn't want me to have to try to help him as he was in quiet a bit of pain and couldn't really move, but he was given the all clear as far as broken bones etc.

I am rather stiff this morning although not as bad as I thought it would be. I waiting to hear from David but I think he will come home this morning.

I am very thankful to my heavenly Father who spared our lives and also protected us from major injury to us or someone else.

I am also very grateful to my parents who came out to pick me up and give me a much needed hug and to my boys S & J who have done everything for me, my BIL Graham for looking after P & D for an extra night and also for our friends Joe, John and Patrick who have organised to pick up the motorbike today. A big thanks goes out to all our friends who have been praying for us and doing all they can to help.

A big thank you also goes to Kim from Denmark windows and his partner who talked to DJ when I couldn't, who held my hand when I got scared and also organised for the safe storage of the bike, and also to all the others who I don't know the names of who helped out by directing traffic helping DJ and I and dispensing looks of hugs, you were all amazing.

If you have come this far on the page thank you for sharing this story with me and thank you for letting me unload.

Bye for now

Sandra

A trip to Red Cross and two more dresses

While I was in town today I stopped past the Red Cross op shop and picked up a bag full of children's tops for $3 I also found two really good quilt covers that I will cut up to make dresses. I also found a beautiful pillow case that I had to make into a dress and I also found some bandannas to use for the skirt of a t-shirt dress.
So here's two more dresses I made today

The white boarder complete with cute butterfly where already on the pillow case, so I didn't add any extra trims.

For this dress I used a small t-shirt and then cut a circle in two bandannas and sewed them all together. I used a tutorial from Girly things.

For the button I used the piece of fabric I cut from the centre of the bandanna. I sewed a tacking stitch all the way around the edge about .5cm in and then gathered it as tight as I could. I then sewed a button over the gathering to hide it and then sewed the whole lot on to the dress.

I think I had better do some folding now L

Hooroo for now

Dress a Girl Around the World

A few weeks ago I come across “Dress a Girl Around the World”. A charity which provides dresses for girls who normally wouldn’t have a dress.

I fell in love with the whole concept and committed to making some dresses once my boys had gone back to school, mid next week.

Well yesterday while I was in town having some Mum time and doing the grocery shopping I stopped in to our local Spotlight and Textile Traders to have a look for some material to make some dresses. This is what I come home with

I picked material from the reduced stand priced from $3.50 for 1.5m $3 per metre $5 per metre , for a couple of really nice fabrics, and $2 for some fat quarters which are perfect for making little dresses. I also bought a heap of bias binding as Textile Traders has buy 2 get 1 free.

Well as I was making dinner I could hear this little voice calling from the bags “make me, make me”. Well who am I to resist the call from the stash. So last night I made my first pillow case dress

I love it. It was so easy to make I think it took me 1.5 hrs which included trips inside to get my iron and other things I had forgotten. I know the next one will go a lot quicker as I now know what to do.

After finishing this dress I come inside and had a look at some of the other dresses that have been donated on the Dress a Girl around the World - Dress a Girl- Sydney & Australia blog and saw some really cute T-shirt dresses.

Well who I was I to resist the challenge of making one or two of these. So this morning I rummaged around in my basket of t-shirts to go with crochet projects and found a t-shirt and a tank top and come up with these

The tank top dress has a straight skirt I hope it’s not too tight. The t-shirt dress has a balloon skirt out of these two this one is my favourite and the easier one as there is no hem to sew.

I have decided that every time I go to my fabric store to buy something for myself I am going to but enough material to make at least one dress. And every time I go to my op shop I will look for neat t-shirts and shirts that I can make into dresses. This way it won’t be very expensive and I can remind myself of all the blessing which I receive.

On a different note I was thinking about the other work that I have been doing, for a while now I have been thinking of having a craft store at our local bring and buy but I didn’t won’t to do this till I had enough stock. So today I decided that I that I would make a list of what I would like to have made before I hold my first stall. Then as I make things I can cross it of my list and if I am not sure which project to do next I can choose one from my list. If anybody has any suggestions they would be much appreciated.

Well I think I had better go to town and finalise my sons enrolment in year 11 (I’m sure we have to pass an op shop or three along the wayJ)

Liebster Blog

The other day (17th Jan) while I was reading Pam's latest post on Threading My Way I received a HUGE surprise she had given me a Liebster Award. So I checked out my blog and sure enough there it was. 

What is a Liebster Award you ask, here is what Pam writes;
"It's fellow bloggers helping fellow bloggers get a jump start on their blogs. It also encourages friendships to develop and I really like that (so do i Pam) 
The award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers, to promote and encourage new friendships among the blog community. Liebster is German and means dearest, beloved, favourite."


Part of this award is to pass it on to others. Here are the rules

1. Post the award on your blog
2. Show thanks to the blogger who gave you the ward by linking back to the.
3. Reveal your 5 picks for the award and let them know
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogsphere... other bloggers.
5. Finally the best rule of all, have fun and spread the love!

Here are the 5 blogs I will be giving the Liebster Award to

• ChiWei from One Dog Woof I feel in love with her Crochet and braid T-shirt scarf.
• Stephanie from Clay Baboons who in her own words "(tells) stories about stuff, illustrated with mediocre clay figurines" It is a blast.
• Sharelle, Henrietta, Bec and Emma from The Handmade Rainbow who are 4 mums who like to share their craft achievements
• Ruth, from The Shape of String who designs and makes her own Quilts  and dyes her own fabric
• Elaine from Library Displays who shares her idea's for promoting books in school libraries this is a great resource for librarians or any one who wont's to encourage children to read.

So head on over say Hi to the guys and girls, because we all love feed back.
Thank you Pam for passing on this ward to me. Don't forget to head on over to Pam's blog Threading my Way
Hope you a ll have a wonderful day.
Bear hugs to All

Beach, bag & bracelets

I finished another candy wrapper bag this week. This time I decided to try and make it with a square/flat base. After having a search on the internet I found this web site which had some really good info Nannybird Crafts. I then went ahead and cut up some more landscope magazines and took them to the beach. At the moment the one little peep is doing swimming lessons so I HAVE to sit at the beach ALL day long (lessons only take 35mins). The weather has been really great so we have lazed around at the beach almost all day.So after folding, joining and answering questions I come up with this

For something different I made two rows with pieces that only had writing on them. The difference is really amazing.

This is how the base finished up.

Because the base was larger I didn't want to do the normal zip closure as this would pull the bag in tight at the top and reduce the size of the bag inside. So I come up with this idea

I sewed some material to the edges of the zip to make it the width of the opening and some extra to sew it to the bag. I still have to tighten the stitches on the end of the zip but for the rest it worked really well.

I first tried to make a liner for this bag but it didn't work so I settled for this.

I am really happy with how this turned out. I made a few mistakes along the way which was really good because now i also know what not to do.

I also spent a day and a half making candy wrapper bracelets with lots of girls at the beach. My SIL took some photos so I'll get some copies and share with you the fun we had. In the mean time here are some of the bracelets I made

Till next time

Have a great day