Creating around the world feature...

Happy Wednesday!

Sorry about my grumpy post yesterday - I just reread it and I think I will make a mental note not to blog when I'm in a big grump at whatever it is I have just unsuccessfully tried to sew! LOL...

I should clarify why I was so grumpy I suppose - I sewed one side of the zip (the part that separates) so crookedly that when I turned the pouch it didn't want to turn properly and there was a huge big crooked pucker. Part of the outer must have shifted and got caught underneath or something. So in typical lazy-Kat style I tried to cover up my mistake rather than use my dreaded unpicker (especially as I'd already trimmed my zip!). And it didn't go well! I would have broken my needle if my machine safety lock hadn't come on and as it was it was badly bent. So I was mostly grumpy at myself for being so lazy.

I'm still too lazy to unpick it, but now that I've used red texta (felt tip pen) to colour in my white cotton on the red tab (shhhhhh - don't tell anyone I'm THAT sneaky!) it looks a bit better heh heh... The lengths I will go to to avoid unpicking - honestly!

Lets just say that it was a big learning curve and I know what not to do next time!...

Anyway I just wanted to let you know that I was featured today over at the lovely Jill's blog "Creating my way to success" 

If you'd like to read my interview you can do so by heading on over there (and please show Jill some love while you are there :) )

Tuesday Tidbits...

**  Is it really Tuesday again today?! I'm struggling to remember where the weekend & Monday went this week!

**  Neil goes back away to work tomorrow...

**  But the good news is that he is only going until Sunday - probably the shortest stint EVER Woo hoo!!

**  I lost my sewing Mojo at the end of last week.

**  It just got up and left one day...

**  Last night I decided to get back on the horse & do some, but I still feel like I'm a little off my game!...

**  I started with my September bee blocks for my new bee - "Sew Aussie".

I was SO extremely nervous to make these & I'm still SO extremely nervous to find out if Jules likes them or not. (It is the first time I've ever made bee blocks with someone else's fabric before, they are also not colours I usually use (or have any of if I stuffed up), and we also didn't have an exact visual on what she was wanting, and I'm a visual person.) Anyway no going back now so I really hope she does like them eek...

**  Since I may have slightly over committed for the next month (are you surprised to hear this... no, I didn't think so!) I decided to try and get a few things checked off straight away. So I made my first mug rug & "goodie" for the Goodie swap I told you about yesterday...

Little zipper pouch & my first ever mug rug...

**  I'm not a lover of binding at the best of times, let alone when I'm not in the mood to sew & it's something itty bitty & fiddly, so I followed this tutorial by Linda which provides a really cool way to do it without the need for binding. It worked really well and saved a lot of binding grief!
This is the back...

**  Unfortunately I decided to try doing my pouch without zipper tabs this time because my zip was a bit long for the pouch size I wanted.

**  Bad idea! It looks so horrible in comparison to one with tabs and I could just cry. (Because I sewed one zip end crooked)

**  In my wisdom I decided to sew a handle on to hide the yucky bit at the end of the zipper.


**  Enter my needle hitting one of the metal bits of the zipper in the process & the safety lock of my machine coming on.

**  It therefore did not sew on well and probably looks worse than it did to begin with. I almost cried again!...

**  Next time I will just google how to shorten a zip or make the pouch a bit bigger!

**  The pouch has it's own merits though so I'm going to suck it up and send it.

**  I think.

**  The best time to decide that is not today and in a few days when I have made peace with the stoopid pouch lol...

** Hopefully my mojo will come back soon - I really have a lot to do in the next few weeks and I also really wish to enjoy doing it!!

Happy Tuesday.

As usual I am linking up today with Fabric Tuesday

A New Trick to Share...

Hello!
I'm so pleased to report that the Flutter house all slept very well last night and all Flutters big & small seem to be in good health this morning! :) :) :)

Anyway I just learned a cool new trick which I just had to share with you all...

Want to know how to disable right click on your blog so that people can't save your photos? 

Since I don't bother watermarking my photos, am not very good at linking them from Flickr and I post loads of photos of my family I was only too happy to learn this trick! It's so easy too that I wish I knew about it a year ago!!
To find out click over to Design it Chic (thanks Jennifer for introducing me to your blog where I found about that cool site by the way ;) ) and follow their instructions.
Lots of other great tutorials about Blogger there as well. I just need to have a chance to look through them.

I know that people can still take & use my photos even once I've done this, but at least it adds another step to the process & makes it more difficult for them to do so.

I am off to continue stalking my new partners for the mug rug Goodie Swap over at Fluffy Sheep Quilting. Here is my mosaic that I made for inspiration for my partners...

And no, that wasn't a typo. I really did say partners. I did not realise until afterwards that we were making for 2 people in this swap. Oops. Oh well. It'll be fun. My partners look great, so I'm excited. Never made a mug rug before either (apparently like an over sized coaster), so it will be a fun challenge.

And...

... I also joined another swap.

What's that I hear you say - ANOTHER swap Kat? Really!?
Yes really...
I think we've established that I'm hopelessly addicted to swapping now. Although I have to say that I did put a 1 swap at a time rule in place which I have clearly already broken. Especially since the first one involves 2 partners. Eeeek!

This one is a Doll Quilt Swap using the recent fabric range Picnic & Fairground by Denise Schmidt. There is still a couple of days to join this swap if you're interested. You can read all about it here... sign ups finish on the 1st September. It is a very small swap & should be a lot of fun. It will be the first time I've participated in a swap where we are all using the same fabric range. I must admit I'm very curious to see how diverse the end creations will be. That's part of the reason I signed up. I knew it would stretch my creativity...

So off to "stalk"... looks like I've got some more work to do...

Re-living a nightmare?

I spent the majority of this weekend in my pyjama's...
... I wish I could say that it was because I was happily sewing in them, as I often indulgently do, but unfortunately this time it was because I spent the majority of the weekend in bed nursing a very sick Abbie....
... she spent most of the weekend with a temperature of nearly 40 degrees Celsius, which would not budge despite paracetamol & sponging, and for the tail end of her sickness was refusing to eat or drink. That meant by this morning she was showing signs of being dehydrated and causing Neil & I some serious cause for concern! Anyway to cut a long story short, just as I was contemplating taking her back to the doctor, this time for dehydration, we finally managed to convince her to accept a bottle & everything turned around after that. By bed time tonight she was showing considerable signs of recovery.  
Phew!

Smiling away this afternoon, well on the mend. A little wobbly on her feet but almost back to her old cheeky self!

... But the weird thing was, for that day and a half she was really sick, every time I looked down at that little baby in my arms, I just couldn't shake the feeling that I had been living this before! Only, the images of that same baby in my head involved a hospital bed. It was not my anxiety talking either, but I just felt like it had previously happened!
All so strange!

Then I suddenly realized why... 

... The similarities between my girls have always been striking! Abbie is in many ways a clone of her elder sister in looks and I do sometimes get flashbacks of Hannah as a baby when I look at her. But this was so strong a flashback it was uncomfortable. Firstly I realized that 2 years ago, on this exact weekend, Hannah was admitted to hospital for 4 days and was very sick. Seeing Abbie so ill for the first time in her life really bought out the similarities between her and Hannah to the max, let alone the timing! But second to that, by some totally cruel coincidence I realized that I had dressed Abbie in exactly the same clothes that Hannah was wearing when she was admitted to hospital.

The baby from my memory... a sick Hannah.
{Only Abbie doesn't take a dummy...}

 
So. not. funny. to. relive!

Have you ever been through this with 2 children/people close to you who look similar? It really threw me for a while!

Sometimes I swear that the only way I can tell them apart in my memory is because Abbie is usually covered in cuts & bruises from all her adventuring... (they may be so alike in looks but they are chalk and cheese when it comes to personality!)
At least it's something I suppose! lol...

Anyway hopefully by the morning it will all be a distant memory & Abbie will be back to full health!

Hope your weekend was a little less traumatic & a lot more crafty!

{at least my hug tank is full - Abbie really gives good hugs! :) }

Favourite Things Friday...

Yay for Friday!
7.40pm and I'm already in bed tonight. Clearly not asleep yet... but in bed none the less! Such is the sintilating social life of a tired at-home-mum...

** Just a warning before I begin - this is a lovey dovey post, so if that's not your thing you have been forewarned off....

My favourite thing this Friday - the thing I'm loving most is my gorgeous husband...

This is one of my all time favourite photos of us - taken in 2004 on a holiday touring the South Island of New Zealand...

Obviously he is an unmentioned favourite thing every week... but this week I'm especially proud of him!...

Neil works extremely hard for our family. He looks after "his girls" with so much commitment, loyalty and care that I am in awe of him. He does not have an easy job, having to leave us for weeks at a time to go into the barren Western Australian (HOT!) desert...

... an uninviting working environment in most respects, let alone the distance from us! He works long, hard hours and I know he misses us all like crazy, but he does it without complaint, just continuing to focus on the end goal that is finishing his apprenticeship and becoming a qualified Electrician. He also strives to do it to the best of his ability - which as it turns out is a pretty darn good ability!

Recently he came home with a package tucked under his arm. A package in the form of a certificate...

... For the second year in a row he won apprentice of the year for his whole electrical college!! I jest with him that he's a smarty pants and he's taking up all the room on the mantel, but really I couldn't be more proud!

His work ethic is starting to really pay off in the eyes of his employer too. As of this month Neil has been hand picked for a very small crew to go on a trial job. It's a very small job for now, but if the trial is successful then his company will win a multi million dollar contract as a result. So it's a huge huge honour for him to have been hand selected for such an elite crew!
Also if they win this contract it will mean big changes for his career... highly likely a decent promotion as soon as he finishes his apprenticeship (already fast tracked to finish 1 year early in January!), a huge pay increase, and a 2 week away 1 week home roster! That will be the first time his company have offered such a short away roster and it will sure as heck be better than the 4 week away 1 week home roster he has been pulling!!!!!!

His apprentice manager even mentioned last week that he should be setting his sights on the role of a Project Manager. Project Managers work from the Perth office (home every night!) & are like the big big dogs. How awesome would that be!

I should probably also mention that he works for a massively large company. They probably have staff numbering in the 1000s and would have at least 30+ apprentices. So the fact that Neil is getting so much recognition for "only" an apprentice is really quite saying something!...

Can you tell I'm proud! I'm so proud that his hard work is finally paying off and that he also is really enjoying his career path!!

Well done hun! You deserve it!
You are the most awesome husband & father that "your girls" could wish for and we love you lots and lots!!

Happy Friday everyone!
Check out Quilting in my Pyjama's & Paisley Jade for more Favourite Things and loveable posts...

"The Uglies" have swapped...

Last month I had a little bit of a destash of some of my "ugly" fabric...
It wasn't all ugly, but it was fabric that I had way too much of for the amount that I could see myself ever using. Aka the stuff that I bought in a crazy sale when I'd first started sewing - and before I'd learned the wisdom to only buy fabric I love, not just fabric because it's cheap! {I'm pretty sure many of us have learned that lesson the hard way :) }

Anyway it turned out that my friend Susan was coincidentally doing the same thing to her fabric stash. After blowing her out of the water in a little "who has the most ugly fabric" competition {I won- hands down by the way!} we decided to do a little trade...


This is what I sent Susan:

Hope you don't mind my "borrowed" photo Susan ;)

Pretty bright & garish... but Susan likes colour!

This is what Susan sent me...

This swap makes it so clear that one person's "ugly" is another persons treasure because Susan feels like she got the better end of the swap & so do I! There is even one fabric in her ugly lot (the blue floral lace print in the top right) which is just beautiful and I totally can't wait to make it into a purse!! The rest will be good blenders etc... when I need a few lighter prints for things.

I had no problem getting rid of the rest of my uglies. Some went to friends locally and I also sent some to another blog friend Jenni. She agreed to send me some fabric that she had surplus in return, although I had no idea what she was sending me until it arrived. When it turned up I squealed & then totally felt like I'd ripped her off by sending her my unwanted fabric (she did know what I was sending her though) but getting sent these in return...

3 Kokka fat quarters & a dolls face which I've been wanting to buy for ages and ages! As I opened the package a very excited Hannah yelled at me "LOOK MUM - it's pink "fagrouc" and a DOLLY!" {For some reason Hannah can't say Fabric... she says it Fagrouc. It's very strange for a kid that otherwise talks perfectly!} So we were very excited and I'm sure will find a good use for them as soon as time allows. (It will likely be one of their Christmas presents at this rate LOL...)
Another good example that what one person has no use for (Jenni has 2 boys) can be another person's treasure!

Swapping uglies gave me a bit of a taste for swapping I think (or receiving pretty mail did anyway!) and since then I've somehow fallen into a bunch of other swaps. None of them I particularly sought out - they just all seemed to happen...

So this is some of my recent pretty swap mail:

These gorgeous feature prints are all the way from Denmark. Sent to me by Dorte who I met through the Pretty {little} Purse swap on Flickr. I made a comment of how much I loved the car print on one of her photos so she Flickr mailed me to see if I wanted to do a swap. Aren't they all gorgeous! I have already used fussy cuts of them several times - so you might recognize them from some of my recent projects ;)

2 swaps from Leona in the USA:

Leona is a bee friend from my bee Sew & Bee-Happy. She approached me and asked me if I'd like to do a trade after she saw my photo in Flickr that I'd listed for Dorte to choose her swap fabric from. Leona has a fabric stash to die for so she didn't need to ask me twice! LOL... (even though I was left wondering how come I'd not known that people even did swaps for so long and then suddenly within a week of knowing about them I was already involved in 3!!!)

Many of these fabrics are out of print and hard to get. She was also exceptionally generous and even though of my girls - sending me a whole bunch of beautiful eye-spy squares for my girls eye-spy quilt. There is 1 for each letter of the alphabet. How generous & thoughtful!

I am also in the process of another private swap with Jamie Lee in the USA. Jamie Lee is one of my "support crew". We got talking a while ago about the price of fabric over here and she offered to send me some from the USA. I suggested instead that we do a swap. So far this is what I sent her this week:

The left packet is blurred out because I want it to be a surprise for her...

I'll let you know what I receive when the time comes :)

So thank you so much everyone for such great swaps!!! 

I have also started to finally receive all my parcels that I ordered off Etsy last month so it really has been a month for receiving exciting mail! Love it!!

Long live the snail mail I say!!!

Have you ever participated in a swap before? They are such a good way to make friends and (apart from the postage) are a really fun, affordable way to get new fabric...

WIP Wednesday...

Well, considering that it's been 2 weeks since I posted, I haven't done that much towards my Work in Progresses (WIP)...
Lots of other sewing - yes!
Work on my lurkers... no!

But I'm not bothered. After my big push to get a couple of big lurkers finished last time I knew that I'd be focusing on other things for a while...

Anyway - here is the current state of play:

1. Colourful Wonky Log Cabin Blocks...
I am now renaming this "The Cheeky Quilt..." (If you are not sure why then read here...) So in many ways I have made great progress on this in the last 2 weeks. I have made 2 blocks towards it:

Tutorial for these here if you are interested...

And I already received my first contributions towards it today... 3 blocks from Kelly:

Thank you so much Kelly!! (Kelly had me as a partner in the first round of Make Mine Modern Swap that I participated & she recently won a giveaway from my blog so it's pretty special to have these blocks donated by her because we've been blog friends a long time now!)

I have also seen photos of a couple of other blocks that people have made for me (which are all SO cool by the way) and have heard of some others that have been mailed, but I will post photos of those when they all arrive.

So good progress is happening on this project at least (thanks to my good old cheekiness "Kiwi ingenuity" ;) )

2. Scrappy Wonky House Blocks, Quilt for my lounge... & 4. Improv squares...

No progress on any of these. Although I did find a possible purpose for the Improv squares. I'll let you know about that in a few days once I've ironed out the details though.

***

This is kind of what I've been doing instead of my WIPs over the last 2 weeks:

So I have been extremely busy sewing stuff despite the progress I've made on my long term lurkers.
At least I didn't start any more big projects!! (Yet ;) )

This week's stats:
New projects - 0
Completed projects - 0
Currently in progress -  4
Currently waiting to be started - endless!!!

And PS - my Spring Sewing & Quilting Class Schedule is now up!! If you are in Perth and interested in learning to sew/quilt then go to the Sewing & Quilting Class page at the top for more information. And don't forget to contact me to book in ASAP - there are only 3 places available per class...

Pop over to Lee's to see other WIPs...

Tuesday Tidbits...

**  I just spilled diet coke all over my sewing desk. GAH! That will teach me to "drink & drive"...

**  Luckily no harm was done, just a few wet rulers...

**  On a positive side I have just finalized another pattern to teach in my classes.

I give you, the easy-peasy, lined shopping/library bag...

**  Ok so it clearly needs a better name - but you get the idea :) - it will be a perfect beginner project...

**  Here is another colour version of it...

**  A simple to make bag with so many possibilities!

**  If you remember I've already made patterns to teach for these two lined pouches...

**  So I just need to make a cushion cover & a journal cover & that should be enough projects for now...

**  I know I had hoped to have my class schedule up by Sunday. - I'm a little behind because we are waiting to know Neil's next work roster & dates for being home. So hopefully in the next couple of days... (it's always such a waiting game with his work *sigh!)

**  I have an Uncle coming over to visit & stay with my other Uncle today, so we are all going out together as a family to enjoy some of this yummy mexican food...

Yummo!

**  I am tired today...

**  Because Hannah is going through the "getting out of bed to come into our bed for a cuddle" phase...

**  It is a first for her - she's always hated sleeping with anyone in the past - even when she's sick!!

**  Last night she visited at 2.30 am, and again at 3.30am. So I warned her that if she got up again I would have to shut her door (we have high door handles so she can't open them)...

**  At 4.30am when she came in again I took her back to bed & followed through with my threat...

**  Cue Hannah getting hysterical & waking up Abbie!

**  One of the downsides of them sharing a room doh!

**  Gave Abbie a bottle, left the door open with "one last warning" knowing that Hannah wouldn't test me again (she's good like that...), finally got back to sleep and Neil's alarm went off at 5.30am waking me up again AGAIN...

**  Since I worked until 11.15pm last night I'm surprised I'm at all coherent today - I'm so out of practice at this being awake all night malarkey!!

**  As my sister-in-law would say... "Lucky their cute!!"

And cute they are...

**  See all those scabs all over Abbie's face though? - Those are because she seems to be on a death wish this week.

**  It is no wonder I have anxiety issues!...

**  So far this week she has dived head first off a stool onto tiles, cracked her head open from tripping & hitting her head on a brick retaining wall, and I have had to confiscate nearly all of her toys, because she continually carries them around & uses them to climb onto the high furniture - e.g. the tv cabinet!

**  Mostly the toys with wheels - e.g. the baby prams...

**  You can imagine that a 1 year old, standing on a 4 wheeled object, to climb onto a hard wooden furniture, is a bit of a recipe for disaster!!

**  At least she is keeping me fit - who needs the gym when you have a child who is all brawn & no brains to run after!! LOL...

**  Speaking of which, I can hear her awake. Time to go!

**  Linking up today with Fabric Tuesday. Go join in the fun :)

A trial...

It probably looks like I've had it all together in the last couple of weeks from all my recent seemingly productive, seemingly upbeat posts.
The blog world is good like that - it can gloss over the real issues if you want it to...

So let me keep it a little more real for you...
(some of you who have got to know me quite well have probably guessed this anyway!)

All my sewing and busy-ness in the last two weeks?!... - some could call it really good distraction techniques, procrastination or avoidance of what has really been going on in my brain!...
My way of coping!

You see, last Monday I ran out of my prescription for these little pink pills...

My doctors words when he gave me the prescription were... "I'll give you 3 months prescription at this stage, but if you feel really good in 2 months then you may give it a try off them and just stop taking them..."
me... "Would I not have to wean myself off them or anything?"...
him... "No, because you are only going to be on them for such a short time you can just stop taking them... you don't even need to come back in and see me, unless you want to or need to discuss it further..."

... It had actually only been about 6 weeks of being on them. But I have been feeling REALLY really good...
And really productive...
And patient....
And kind....
And creative...
And like the sun shone out of my family's (- read children's) little tooshies...

... in other words - somewhat close to my "normal" self...

Still with normal amounts of "wobbles", but generally able to function at a reasonable level without collapsing into a dithering mess of panic & self doubt! (or go off the deep end in a split second at my family about nothing!)

So in my own wisdom (note to self ** listen to friends next time & go back to the doctor before making rash decisions just because you can't find your prescription & are too lazy to go to the doctor!!)  I decided to try stopping taking them & save myself $36 per month. I mean - that's $36 dollars more I'd have to spend on fabric therapy right?! ;)

Day 1... still felt like the sun shone out of my children's tooshies...
Day 2... small bouts of dizziness. Small bouts of self doubt starting to creep in. Patience a little shorter than it had been on them. - Woke up at 3am and couldn't turn brain off...
...uh oh - not good signs...
Day 3... out came a mumma something resembling this...

image found here...

Short tempered is probably an understatement! Grumpy with life itself! Couldn't sleep! Did not eat properly! ...Thinking that what came out of my children's tooshies was definitely.NOT.sunshine... Trying to muscle through and make the best of things... but starting to feel it all slipping away again.
I bravely decided to give it more time, but...

Days 4, 5, 6 & 7 all the way through to Day 14: Much the same horrible dragon mumma & wife!

... in other words I have been feeling like I'm falling back into the routine of what was - during "the bleak period."

***

I was anticipating that my mindset would change back a little off the drugs...
I was anticipating that it may be rocky coming off them so soon...
I was anticipating that it would take a while (to go through withdrawal) before things settled down again...

... But after two weeks of things slipping completely back to how they were (while Neil is still here none the less!), I am thinking that perhaps it was too soon. Perhaps they were really doing something after all! Perhaps... just perhaps, it wasn't a miraculous coincidence that I was feeling so much better so soon after taking them after all - and perhaps they just really agreed with me and were actually doing their job...

I have resisted this medication business every step of the way! I do not like resorting to drugs. As much as I like to think to myself that I do not bow to stigma - I still do. A bit....
In the small dark dusty corner of my brain, the stigma still existed: "...It's fine for other people to need drugs, but somehow subconsciously I'll admit that I held myself to a different standard & expected more of myself. That I would just be able to get through it. That it would just be a lot easier for things to return to pre-depression/anxiety days of ease... that I needed to just harden up"...

And that makes me really angry with myself and society at large for portraying Mental Health issues as "a weakness" and something to be embarrassed about! Mental health is really serious! We should be able to be honest about these things and support each other through them - not feel embarrassed & suffer in silence.

Therefore I am now ready to admit that they have their place for this season in my life. I know I admitted that I was on them before - that is one thing. But admitting that I'm going to need to stay on them now (to myself more than anything), for this season, is quite a big deal for me...

So in short, I rocked up to the pharmacy this afternoon, fresh from my doctors office, to refill my prescription. With any luck, in a few more days, I'll be back to relative emotional stability!

At least now I know what they do!!

There you go - sometimes things aren't what they seem...

That is all...

Ode to my Nana....

I am blessed to have such a special Nana {my Mum's mum} in my life...

Nana Dawn

Mother to 12 + partners, Grandmother to nearly 30, Great-Grandmother to 7 + a few on the way...
... when you go to my Nana for parenting or life advice, you know to pay attention & take note, because she is a woman who knows what she's talking about!!!

4 generations of our family...
Nana, my Mum, Me (& Abbie in my tummy) & Hannah-Elise

 
But despite the high numbers of our large family, one of the things that is extra amazing and special about my Nana, is that she never makes you feel like a number! Nana makes you feel unique and just as special to her as she is to us...

Our very large family is extremely close, despite there being so many of us and the fact we are spread out over such a large distance.
We know each other...
We love each other...
We laugh together...
We support each other...
We rally together...

Whether it be Christmas, weddings, births, or the unfortunate event of a funeral, we rally together as a family and show tremendous support to each other. Many a person has said to me in amazement that they can't believe how committed and close to each other we are as a family, especially given that we are such a huge one!! (I think invites to my wedding for my family members alone were about 75+)
I sure know and am blessed to have each and every member of my extended family!!

That is a credit to my Nana!
She is the glue that holds the family together.
She has done an amazing job bringing up her family & I aspire to be like her!

Her love an devotion to her family is so clearly summed up by this little photo series of her feeding Hannah....

***

Another thing I love about my Nana is her creativity/craftiness...
In my early childhood years my Nana had a love for pottery. She was very clever at it. I can remember even as a young child my fascination with her kiln & her latest "fires..." I still have a couple of the ones she gave me as a gift. I can't remember for which birthday now - possibly my 10th birthday I think...

When my Nana decided that it was time to stop "pottering" with her pottery (haha) my parents inherited the kiln. Unfortunately though we never got it wired in, so I never had a chance to use it myself. What a shame - that would have been so fun!

All the while I was growing up I can remember Nana with knitting needles in her hands. She has knitted I'm sure for each & every one of us on multiple occasions, so I'd hate to even hazard a guess at how many garments she has knitted to keep her family warm!

Here are but a few of the special things that she has knitted for my family:

Hannah wearing a dress that Nana knitted me as a toddler

Me wearing my favourite jersey as a child...
Maybe Nana was being prophetic because this actually has Koala bears on LOL...

Holding a 1 day old Hannah who is kitted out in one of the many outfits Nana knitted for our cold NZ winter...

A very cozy warm sleeping bag. My brothers had one of these when I was growing up - now my girls do too :)

Knitting not just for new babies - but also for Hannah's dolls too - how cute!!

***

Another thing that I just find so remarkable about my Nana is that she is not afraid to embrace technology!... For a woman in her 80s my Nana is a technology whiz kid!...

  **  She can find her way around her "mysky" (cable tv & recorder) in a flash whilst I pick it up and wonder which end of the remote control is which because it has so many foreign buttons!...
  **  She uses internet banking...
  **  She emails us all funny jokes to keep us entertained (although I have to admit that she has one wicked dirty sense of humour and some of said jokes could probably get someone fired if sent to their work email address LOL....)
  **  We love to Skype each other...
  **   She has been known to read my blog!...
  **  A couple of times when I was planning a visit I told my Nana that I would ring her when I was leaving so she knew when to expect me - she told me "don't worry about doing that because I will probably be down in the garden - just send me a text..."!!

And on that note my Nana has an amazing green thumb.
Sadly I have not inherited even one ounce of that talent and my thumbs are completely brown. How rude! She keeps a fabulous garden right through from an abundant vege garden, to a shade house containing the most incredibly beautiful begonias, to a thriving rose & flower garden. She keeps very fit maintaining nearly all of it (with the exception of the occasional lawn mower man) herself.
Unfortunately I do not have any photos to share...

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Nana & her husband, my Grandad, were married for over 40 years -

Dawn & Ramsey - my Nana & Grandad...

... until he passed away when I was about 14. I'm sure at times they had their many differences & looking back on it now as an adult I can't imagine my Grandfather especially always being an easy man to live with!... (not that he wasn't an awesome man too - and especially an awesome Grandad - but I reckon he would have had his moments as a husband that's all...) but I love & admire how they stayed committed to each other for all those years, and they are both a shining example to me in my marriage to Neil!!

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So that is a little information in honour of my Nana.
I am SO truly blessed to have such a wonderful example of a matriarch in my family! and I just thought I'd document a little bit of that blessing and share it with you today...

One of my biggest sadness's about leaving NZ is that my girls are missing out on growing a relationship with my Nana, and growing their own fond memories, like I have... lucky we both love to embrace technology so much hey! :)

I love you Nan!!