little gifts of kindness...

In light of the word I chose to represent this year... BE
I've decided to be a little kinder to other people and when i saw this wee calendar for 75% off I couldn't resist buying it! We all need a little reminder every now and then to be a little kinder and more compassionate to ourselves and others. In fact I'm a strong believer that what you give out comes back to you. If you want to experience kindness from others, begin giving it... :)

I just love the first couple of pages I read...

Thursday, January 15th

On Thursday, the day I bought this calendar, I spent the day with Lianne, shopping and we did manage to fit a little "cake" in there too! :)

Friday, January 16th

This one really spoke to me about, of all things, marriage. Marriage can't work without acceptance and acceptance is choosing to love others even when they "piss you off" or aren't what you expected. It's choosing to say "yes, but I love you anyway". :) Mr Sew-Funky I do love you anyway! Inspite or despite your foibles...

Favourite things Friday...

I'm really getting into the swing of writing about my favourite things, but I wonder what will happen when I come to the end... Is there an end to my favourite things?

Today's favourite thing is brought to you by the letter H...

Christmas Hamper... :)

I just love the basket and the food and the Lindauer (not in photo, in fridge getting ready to be drunk!) The basket is huge! I think I'll use it to collect vegetables from the garden Mr Sew-Funky is about to plant out the front... :)

new skirts...

Yesterday, I made three new skirts in between catching up with my good friend Lianne and watching Revolutionary Road. :)

I used the fantastic pattern that comes with the book 49 Sensational Skirts, that nz floss posted me last year! :)


Skirt #1Skirt #2

skirt #3
Added at 9pm, Thursday night...

I like all of them... Skirt #1 was made from an old curtain I picked up from Bo Jumbles, the lining from some fabric I got from my good friend Becca. Skirt #2 was made from a lovely old linen tablecloth I picked up in Christchurch last year (I just couldn't leave it in the shop!) and some really good quality sheeting for the lining. Skirt #3 is made from striped denim and quilting cotton all purchased from Bo Jumbles. So all of them were bargains! :)

What I love about these skirts is that they can be worn many different ways. The opening can be at the back or the front or even to the side! :) Today I wore Skirt #3 and apart from a near undressing at Spotlight when I knelt down to look at fabric - it is fantastic, easy to wear skirt! I even got comments about it!!

It's on yer back...

Another pressie for a special girl who's turning 6 tomorrow! Happy Birthday Jaymee girl!!!


And look at the neat wee kitten I was given today!

Sophia

It's a wrap...

Hehehe!, well actually it's a crayon wrap! :)

Avert your eyes, Rebekah and Jodz, or you'll ruin the surprise!

Today is the first day that we are kidless! Well, they left yesterday, and today's the first full day away from them. Can you tell I'm missing them already? Well, kinda, at least it's given me some wonderful time to get creative!

I wrote my first review on Filmguide late last night after watching Australia - go check it out and tell me what you all think! The first part of the review was written by Mr Sew-Funky and the second part, by me! A kind of "he say's, she say's" review!

Back to the original reason for this post - the crayon wrap!

I don't know if you've ever been stuck with lot's of broken crayons before, but with three budding artists in the family, I am. So what to do with the useless little bits... Well, you can make new ones, rainbow ones if you like... And so before I even made the crayon wrap prototype I wanted to make some wee crayons by recycling the old. :)

Here's how;

You need something to melt them in, I chose an old gem iron, but you can make them in muffin pans too!

You need some old worn out crayons, my girls have plenty! :) Don't worry if they look awful, they won't look bad for long!

Put baking paper in the gem iron (so they won't stay in there after melting!). Break up the crayons and put them in. I chose similar colours, but you can mix the crayons up for a rainbow effect!

Put them in the oven at 180 degrees Celcius for about 15 minutes. Look at them melt, this is after around 5 minutes.

They're ready to take out when they look like this! Leave them to set in the gem iron. :)

This is what they looked like when I took them out of the iron, all ready to put into the new crayon wrap!

Tah Dah! All ready to use by little hands!

And here are the gorgeous little wraps that I made for Miss Jodz Stuff and for my cute little nephew Mo!

Do you notice I used the fabric I bought the other day? :D

This is what they look like when they're open. They have a little flap that covers the crayons. :)

Seriously cute, don't you think?

jeans refashioned into shorts... #2

Once again, I forgot to photograph the jeans before I cut into them, but the first couple of pictures show kinda what they looked like before.

And, the fifth and sixth photographs show the results a pair of scissors and a few stitches can make to an old pair of capri jeans...

a story about a mouse...

I almost wet myself laughing at the latest post on Old School Acres... Go take a read, but only if you're not naturally squeamish, eating lunch, or shudder at the thought of mice. If you belong to any of those categories don't click on the link or just move quickly along to a sweeter kinder blog.

This story begins with a mouse.