Sentimental Sunday - The Dress

Over the last week DS and I have been going through my old toys. In those are a bunch of dolls clothes. Each of them hold some special memories, but this one in particular. You see it was made over twenty years ago. It was made just for my sister and I, and it was made by our Grandmother. According to my own mother its only ever been used as a dolls dress even though it is quite clearly sized for a child. I have so many memories of me as a child sitting near my Grandmother as she knit or crochet. Perhaps that is where I picked up my love of the craft from? I know this dress definitely gave me inspiration to try to make one in a similar style, length and size for my upcoming niece should one of the twins turn out to be a girl!

LEFT: Grandmother original RIGHT: My copy

Note. Original is white due to lighting on the day it came out looking less than fresh.
Pattern for the recent copy can be found at HeartFelt Angels

Baby Showers

The nappy cake is almost finished.

The invites just need a date and time.

And the wishing well...
is made entirely out of paddle pop sticks.

I keep expecting it to fall apart but so far so good. It has support beams inside so hopefully it will make it to the day. Otherwise we might end up using a tissue box lol! The basis for this is that we would like monetary donations rather than gifts as the host has everything so this way people can give however much they are comfortable with and no one will know the difference. Good eh...

I really do hope those sticks were non toxic though as my son chose to suck on one turning his entire mouth blue! Ack!

Sentimental Sunday - A box of clothes

At the bottom of my son's wardrobe lives a little box. Inside that box is an ever growing collection of clothes. Not all his clothes are created equal you see. Some hold a special meaning that I can't bare to part with them. So rather than passing them on to a new home, they live in the bottom of his wardrobe. Ready to be pulled out to reminiscence over at any given moment.

At the top, the little blue bonnet/hat, this is the hat that he was wearing when we took our first ever family photo. Him, the dog and myself all outside on a hot summers day. The hat next to it was the Santa hat he wore for our first Christmas card. (It was actually an ornamental hat ;) ).

Either side below those are two bibs. Cross Stitched for him by his Aunty. In between those are the 'puppy' booties that she brought home from work for him. He wore those constantly.

On the left hand side is his favourite pair of overalls. These particular ones don't stay done up, no matter how hard you try, the crotch always, always comes undone! On top of that is my first ever Ebay purchase, when he was still growing inside. It's a Pooh Bear jumpsuit... it no longer does up but I love it all the same... He was wearing it the day he was kicked out of day care (again...). And at the very front of those is a little t-shirt and shorts set, sent all the way from America to us from our friends. I remember getting it in the mail and how surprised I was. I put it on him as soon as I could as he was almost growing out of it when he was born! lol, the joy that is a big baby!

In the middle are just a small selection of jumpers, shirts, body suits. The one on the bottom of the pile was given to us from my boss and his wife when they were passing down clothes. It says "mutha sucker" I loved it! I would constantly put it on DS for when he went to his father... he never commented though...

At the top of this pile are two shirts, one red, one navy. These in particular hold an even more special place in my heart. These two shirts were worn alternately underneath a pavlik harness for six weeks. I didn't actually keep the harness as I returned it to the hospital so that someone else might be able to use it as their second harness. That way you can have one new harness and a second, one on and one in the wash. :D

Lastly on the right hand side are two hand knitted jumpers and a bonnet. All knitted by myself. The green jumper and hat was never actually worn by DS but rather his cousin. Who in turn returned it to us so that we might be able to use it, unfortunately DS was born far to big for it to be used, but it will forever hold a special place in my heart...

Getting Crafty

How does anything possibly get done in this mess?! And this is a good day lol.

Underneath I have a blue sewing case of paints and paint brushes, a pink sewing case of cross stitch, a red spotlight bag of various crochet and knitting ready to go projects… all in various stages of completion. Either side of the desk is two bedside tables full of scrapbooking pieces, and on top of those and on top of the desk is more scrapbooking…stuff. The tiny little section of blue at the front is my work space lol!

This isn’t even everything, you can’t see the built-in robe still with scrapbooking papers, or the tall boy behind the camera packed full of more folk art paint, sealers, brushes, knitting wool and various pieces of arty farty fluff… or the HUGE pile of quilting materials currently strewn about on my floor in the last minute rush to make a taggy ball for my sisters friend.

Nor can you see the crochet bucket that lies beside my bed with various blankets, bags and scarves all in various stages of completion…

Plus there is another box of quilting materials that live on my back verandah never quite having made it inside from the move almost 3 years ago!!

And honestly… for me this is organised chaos! =O

Sentimental Sunday - The Flute

So for those who are listening, you are no doubt aware that I am doing the 365 day project. As something different I thought that I would carry some of it over to here as part of a Sentimental Sunday posting about different aspects to my life. Some will be about things of old and some will be about new things, all of them will hold a special place in my heart.

The Flute.

So I have been a flutist for over... well a while ;-) I started when I first entered high school. I was nothing special but I enjoyed it. I had lessons every week until I finished school. I even did my HSC music assessment on it. To this day I still cringe at those pieces but alas can mostly play one of them by heart. All be it a bit stumbly and clumsy but still, thats what you get for not practicing.

I got this flute for my 18th birthday, before that my parents rented one from the school. I was so excited, they gave me the choice between a laptop and a flute, I chose the flute because I would use it more (ah hindsight rofl). Still she holds a very special place in my heart.