"We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Marianne Williamson

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Woven ribbon headband

When I dreamed of having a little girl, I imagined that her hair would always be beautifully pulled back in braids or pigtails or plaits with ribbons and clips etc. (Mind you, I also imagined that she would have dark hair like me- what the heck happened there?!!) I loved styling hair and had practised lots on my dolls, sister and cousin growing up.

In the real world, more often than not, my daughter's hair looks something like this:


Or even this:


Occasionally, if she is in an easy-going mood, I can sit her in front of 'Peppa Pig' and quickly get a couple of braids in. There is only a small window of opportunity!

Over the past couple of years, I've come to realise that it's probably not such a bad thing that she hates having her hair done and is only really interested in how long it's going to take and how much it's going to hurt rather than what she looks like in the mirror. After all, I'm sure there will be plenty of time when she is (not even) a teenager when she will worry about her looks. Why help her start that now? I would love her to learn that what she looks like is soooo not a measure of her worth and even though the world will tell her that it's important to be 'pretty' or look a certain way to fit in, I want her to know that it's hugely more worthwhile to be kind, generous, faithful, wise, happy, creative, healthy, fun, honest, respectful, forgiving, thankful, STRONG. That's what I pray for my girl.

So hard though. How do you navigate this with your daughters? I would love to hear your ideas. My husband and I are deliberate in our efforts to make more comments about our daughter's character than her looks. Of course, we tell her she's beautiful, but we also tell her she's smart and funny etc. Trying hard to keep a good balance. And then there's the example I set. Does Gabby see me worrying too much about my hair, weight, make-up and clothes? YES, probably! Must work on that!

Alas, my little girl is about to start big school. With this, comes certain requirements for hairstyles. So my priorities are:
1. Avoid nits (Man am I dreading the first time this happens! She will not tolerate nit treatment well!)
2. Quick and easy to do in the mornings
3. Accessories in school colours
4. Hair out of eyes
5. Neat and tidy
6. Stays in all day

Gabby's hair is very fine, but she has a LOT of it. Even when I try to do her hair really neatly, she gets all those little wispy bits coming out the front and sides. I have found headbands useful for this so thought I'd try my hand at making a woven ribbon headband or two after seeing a couple of girls at school wearing similar things. They weren't too tricky once I got the hang of it. There seems to be a gazillion tutorials on the internet for these little babies. I used THIS ONE.

Here they are in school colours:






I would definitely recommend giving these a go. There are endless possibilities with colour combinations which can totally change the look of the pattern.

Be sure to send me a pic if you give this a go. I would love to see them!

Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Lounge room progress

I am really excited to show you what we have done with our lounge room. It isn't quite finished yet, but it will be a while until we eradicate the red carpet and replace it with something more neutral.

So here we go:

This is what we saw when we first walked in the door of what was to be our new house. The previous owners had already moved out so it was empty. Look at that red carpet and those fancy lights! Not my cup of tea, but what a GREAT space! I could see the potential.


And then we added our own old furniture. So it looked like this:


And this:


Over the last few months, we have:
Painted the room
Replaced the lights
Added new artworks
Replaced the sofa
Replaced the buffet
Added a coffee table
Changed/ added various decorative items such as cushions, vases, frames

And now it looks like this:


And this:


We are very happy with it so far. Here are some details:



 There is no TV in this room. We read, play games and chat in here. Such a relaxing space. Love it!

I hope you have enjoyed checking out our work in progress. Be sure to come back when the red carpet disappears. Thanks for visiting!

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Christmas dresses and photos

I nearly forgot about these two dresses I made for Gabby to wear at Christmas.

This first one was made using 'Kumari Garden Holiday' fabric by Dena Designs. I bought it from the US on Etsy. I have made this pattern before- SEE HERE. I love it because it is so simple- just made from  different size rectangles and she loves it because it has an exciting amount of 'twirl' happening.


This next one was made for Gabby's Preschool concert where the theme was 'White Christmas'. Gabby chose the fabric from Spotlight as it was super sparkly. I traced around the bodice of a dress she already owns and then just made a gathered, two layered rectangle for the skirt and sewed it to the bodice.



Each year, I like to take a Christmas photo of the kids and use it for our family Christmas card. This year, I decided to buy a bunch of Christmas coloured helium balloons and take the kids the National Park near our house for some photo fun. We got heaps of good shots- here's just a couple of my faves:



Check out these from the previous 4 years. Look how much my baby has grown!

2012
2011
2010
2009- Gabby's 1st Christmas

 So that's Christmas for another year. I hope you all had a happy one with time spent reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by. xxx






Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Stairs and front door reno.

I know, I know! It's been months and months since I have had the time to blog anything. We have been working hard on our home improvements and I have a had very little time for craftiness. Here is a quick summary of some projects we have completed in the last few months:

When we moved into our house nearly 2 years ago, this is what our front door looked like:

I was sad to see the bird door knocker and cat flap go.....NOT!!!


That's much better!


And then there were these stairs inside. Don't you just love the strip of red carpet? These were so annoying to clean and looked disgusting too.





So after a bad day at work one day, I decided to rip up that darn carpet! And this is what I found underneath!



So we got sanding, sanding, sanding.


 Varnishing and painting, varnishing and painting. Such a huge job!


And then we began to paint the walls to get rid of that lemony creamy colour. We chose a Dulux colour called Grey Pebble and started the enormous task of painting the whole interior of the house. One job just leads to another in this house!

 

It's looking much better now. And here is a Christmas picture of our freshly painted loungeroom. Decor in this room is my work in progress. Just saving up for some $$$$ for some new carpet (goodbye red, hello charcoal!) Can't wait to show you our before and after shots when this room is complete.


As you can see, we have been super busy- just no time to blog. I have some exciting artworks for the loungeroom that I have been working on. Hope to be able to share soon.

Wishing you all a happy, peaceful and blessed 2014! Thanks for stopping by!