Things we made for Christmas .... ginger biscuits

I would like to share some of the crafty things I got up to over the holiday season. Although I know everything to do with Christmas will by now be done and dusted, I still think these are worth sharing. Especially since a lot of crafty blogs, inspired my own craft ideas!

As our holidays started, we decided to bake some ginger biscuits as small gifts for friends and family:

My little helper assisted with pressing out the cookie shapes and icing them afterwards, and we had such a good time doing it!

I folded these Origami Cups out of scrapbook paper from instructions I found here. The cookies were packed in tissue paper, inserted into the Origami Cups and tied up with a pretty ribbon. We bought some festive tags with tinkling bells on them (also miss Jessica's find) and attached them to the Origami Cups with a festive greeting on the back.

They where extremely well received and I was so proud to give them out. I will definately do these easy gift ideas again next christmas!

Twenty Ten!

A very Happy New Year to all of you ....

From all of us!!

May the year ahead exceed your expectations!

My new header is in honour of the journey that lays ahead of us as this New Year dawns. My hopes are for a year of peace, joy, love and happiness... something I have been craving more and more as my little girl becomes ever more aware of the world around her..  I am hoping to do all I can to show her a world that is beautiful amidst all the malice, where there is joy despite all the sorrow. A world where peace and love can sometimes be found in unexpected places....

A heady story...

Have you noticed? Well, have you?
Yes, that's right ... I have a header! A beautiful vintage Christmas card type header!
I am so happy about the way it looks. It is the one thing I have really struggled with since starting to blog, but after discovering "Feeling Stitchy's Craft Blog School", I found a way of uploading a header that I really like. Thank you so much floresita for this wonderful series of posts to help beginners like me make our blogs interesting too...

A little stitching...

I have been inspired by the beautiful embroidery you see everywhere on creative blogs. For the most beautifully, artistic embroidery do go over and vist Tiny Happy.

This was the first bit of embroidery I have done for ......... mmmmmm..... let me think? 20 years or so .. (the colours are not great, and I am sure a very young child could have done better, but there it is). Since those horrid days of Home Economics where you where forced to do ghastly patterns within a certain time limit. This embroidery was done of a picture of a snail that I drew for my 2 year old and then I just wanted to practice some other stitches so came up with the flower tendrils. I really like the green and yellow combination, but not much else!

I am so pleased with the renewed joy and calmness that I have found in making these pretty little stitches.

P.S. I am working on a little something for someone very special this Christmas, and it is really looking very beautiful. Will let you in as soon as it is safe to do so!

Pillow case dress ... version 2

I have done it! I made another Pillow case dress, and following these instructions more carefully, it came out so much better. It is fuller and prettier and a lot twirlier....

She likes it too!

I still didn't line it, as it is just too hot in these parts, but overall I am very happy with the outcome!

My very best friend is moving to Zanzibar this week (who wouldn't want to go there?), and so I made 3 of the exact same ones... One for Jessica and the other two for my best friends girls...

I can just see them on one of those shiny white beaches in these dresses, playing on the sand...

We will miss you dearly... and hope you are going to love every moment of this wonderful adventure!

Her Nursery School Christmas Party...

There was swimming (at 2 years old she is a real little fish in the water)

and more swimming...

There was jumping

a puppet show

Balloon bending

A nursery rhyme concert with little angels as the stars of the show

and...

a Christmas gift  of course....

We had such a fun day! Packed with busy babies and some awesome moments....

Hooray for Christmas time and the time we get to spend together!

What do you think???

So I have reverted back to the original template that I first started my blog with.

What do you think? I think I prefer that it is a bit more substantial than the minimalistic look that I had.

I would really like to hear your opinions?

Some sewing to share...

As part of the previous post (that I lost when trying to save), I wanted to share all the other bits of sewing I have done in the last while..
I made this sunny, green and yellow dress from this Butterick pattern:

I love the bright yellow, and it is such a light dress for the summer!

Then I also made my Sweet Little Girl a Pillowcase dress, using this tutorial from A Little Loveliness. Except, I did not read all the instructions, and in my haste to get it done, I did not cut the fabric wide enough, and so it lacks that beautiful fullness, that makes Melissa's dresses so gorgeous.

I used a pretty print, and it turned out a fresh sun dress...

(Can you tell it is Summer in South Africa?)

I have a few other things that I would like to share, but have to take some more pictures first....

To all of you on the other side of the world whom are just awaking to this day, I hope your Monday is fantastic!

Sewing Weekend Fun!

So I am terribly frustrated as I have just written a very long post and when I tried to upload it, I received an error message, and of course the entire post was lost!!

So in a nutshell....

I brought my sewing machine down from our bedroom to our dining room on the weekend so that I could do some social sewing whilst watching the kids play in the little baby pool we had put up on the grass...

My Granny let me scratch around in her stockpile on the weekend, and I found a huge amount of fabulous fabrics... some dating quite some years ago...

Jessica fell in love with two of the shiniest bits of fabric, and so I made her two very simple twirly skirts:

See the ghastly '70's shiny blue metallic one? Well, she loves that one so much she went to bed with it.. I kid you not!

A new (old) addition..

So this arrived on Saturday... and I am totally in love with it..

I have waited 3 weeks for this old cane back rocking chair that I bought online. Although the experience was not a pleasant one, I have at long last got my chair and it fits perfectly in this corner of the house. It rocks!!!

And... I am not the only one that loves to sit in it. I had to fight to get to sit in it any length of time as the smallest member of the family loves the swaying motion .. naturally.

Sweet weekends...

Our weekend was filled with sweetness.... from real sweetness in terms of delicious dessert decadence (will tell you some more a little later), to sweet cousins visiting and a seriously sweet Saturday spent with 4 generations of ladies (in the pic in the middle (right), there are 4 generations of eldest daughters)!

We spent a wonderful day at my mothers house, with my sister, gran and my mom's youngest sister. Mss J took to her cousins (whom she had never met) and they were absolute darlings! It was a day of splashing in the baby pool, lots of cuddles and love shared between family members....(as featured above between Miss J and my darling sister)...

Inspirations....

"The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real. It is by the real that we exist; it is by the ideal that we live"
(Victor Hugo French romantic Poet, Novelist & Dramatist)

Dreamy Dresses!

I am in Love with these gorgeous Pillowcase dresses that Melissa Lester and her Granny had put together... they make little girls look like angels and are simple to make! Her instructions are clear and conscise and easy to follow... even for someone with my sewing skills! I have already sewed a dress this week, although I didn't make it wide enough so it does not have as much volume as these. It has turn out to be more of a sundress than her beautiful flowing dresses...

I am however bent on making another one this weekend that I would love to turn out full and flowing like her girls' dresses ....

Have a little trip around Melissa's blog - A Little Loveliness, it really is choc-full of lovely ideas, recipes and some other inspirations. It is indeed a privilege to read her letters to her family whom she clearly holds very dear... we can all take a leaf out of her book...

All done!

TA-DA............. So there it is.......

I actually finished the dress last week already, but did not have a chance to get Little Miss into it to  take some snapshots! I am totally thrilled with the way it came out. Added a little head scarf for added cuteness. I just love the little heart applique with cute button...

It is really supposed to be a tunic that ends sort off mid thigh, but the pattern was only from 3 years up, so currently it is a twirly dress. I think she will probably get a lot of wear out of it! Great on it's own, with jeans, or a little top underneath!

I love it!

Serious about swimming....

Swimming has been the predominant theme in our house for the month of October so far.... The littlest (?) member of our household has been so excited about her pending swimming lessons (which started today). Of course, last night when I got home with the various bits that go with swimming lessons (e.g. the swimming cap and goggles) her excitement was completely uncontained... the cap and goggles was worn for dinner, bath, and to bed (only after much begging and bribery would she take it off).

So, with all this lovely swimming gear a gal is in need of somewhere to put it, and that is what I was doing last night.....

 

A little drawstring bag was created.....

Upon waking in the morning, Miss Jessica was delighted with the little bag that mommy made to keep her swimming bits in...

Not quite completed, as I would like to add some detail! Hopefully next week when it is time for her next swimming lesson, it will be a lot prettier!

Will keep you posted!