Love That Swells Your Heart

I'm (hopefully!!) in Melbourne with The Atlas - man of my life.

My boys are in the capable care of family members that love them.
Flip snuggled in to me before I left and said, 'I might miss you mama.' (and he cried)

Little Bounce snuggled in close.

These are the boys that have changed my life forever. The man who asked me to marry him who has loved me and walked beside me for nearly 13 years.

The 2 boys we have been given - gorgeous, sweet, loving, stunning little people that make me laugh every.day.

This is the love that swells my heart.

This is what I am grateful for every moment of my life.
I love them.

Make My Week #42 and October Giveaway

Okay so remember I promised a giveaway every month this year? - you forgot? Well, never fear I absolutely did not!

Anyway first things first is this weeks creation - a while ago I saw this gorgeous embroidery on pinterest and so last week I sprung from there and made myself a rather much larger version with smaller houses.... weird huh?
Here is the original:

Source: flickr.com via Miriam on Pinterest

Here is mine:

I just freestyled it - looked at the picture once and then went for it with no clear plan. I am very pleased with the results though.

I love this. And if you look very closely you'll see there are some little lighted windows along the street.
This was inspired from these bible verses - (I also happen to like the song this little light of mine more than most).
¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

However since I've made it I also am reminded of the following lines
'I seen the little light' from Catherine Mansfield's short story The Dolls House
and also 'some windows are lighted but mostly they're dark' from Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr Seuss.

I'd like to try one on black fabric with white stitching next. Does anyone else have a thing for houses? I love little houses. The fabric in my header appealed for that very reason.

Anyway on to the giveaway....this month you get to choose between the cameo ring, the cameo brooch or a wee pencil brooch. All made by me and I'll either send you the original or make a new one for you.

Leave me a comment and let me know which you would pick. Or just leave a nice comment about my wee houses and say if you're not entering - I won't be offended.

Open internationally - let's share the love people. Closing at the end of the month or when I tire of reminding people to enter. (I'm a little unpredictable like that!!)

because I might be flying away to a romantic rendezvous with The Atlas today I won't be responding to comments until next week but don't let that stop you ....

Joining in with a team of inspiring makers at Our Creative Spaces - button on the right.

For other stuff I've made recently
Other stuff I'd like to make on pinterest.

Wardrobe Wednesday - There are Gaps

Every Wednesday, Every Wardrobe Welcome.

Thanks so much for coming to play today. Last week I was honored to receive an award from Sarah (Sarah Hulbert Style) a very stylish player from WW. If you want to see my response and answers to her style and blogging questions the post is here.

This week I have been wearing a special new dress. A while ago I won a voucher from Sailor Spy (a wonderful local designer and prior host to WW). There is a lot of gorgeous picks on Nin's website and I kept changing my mind about what to choose but in the end I sat myself down and had a wee chat about going for a gap.

Thing is my wardrobe is filled with patterns and bright colours - this is well and good. I like to wear these things. However, I also like bold accessories and patterned tights and although some pattern on pattern (thanks for your encouragement last week) is okay there is a line between okay and circus clown and I don't want to be on the wrong side.

A simple, stylish, single-coloured dress is a gap in my wardrobe. (As is a decent pair of jeans but that's a whole other thing!!) I'm so glad I picked this dress. It fits me well and I have had heaps of compliments both times I've worn in (including the designer's sister in law!!) It gives me room to play with making other parts of my outfit a feature and it's also the kind of dress you can wear when you feel like wearing trackies but you need to look like you care. Ever have those days??? Once a month? Hmm me too!

Do you have specific gaps in your wardrobe?
Do you go for the same things over and over again?
And just for research sake:
How many pairs of jeans do you own? How many of them do you wear?
(do visit tomorrow for my October Giveaway - it's an accessory!)

Outfits:
Dress Sailor Spy (find one here) also see the same dress worn by 2 other beautiful women here and here
Belt also Sailor Spy
Tights - The Warehouse - I went there to buy a pair I saw on Holly in WW a week or so ago and found these ones too!
Shoes - boots I got gifted and chopped the top off and folded the lining out to make them more flattering to my legs
Necklace - trade aid - fair trade store.

So what is Wardrobe Wednesday?

• It's a chance to take some time once a week to peel off the polar fleece trackies (I have a pair too!!) and put on something that gives you a chance to have a 'play' in your wardrobe, to make yourself feel worth dressing up for.
•  It's a time to celebrate and hopefully to embrace your body however you find it - post baby, young or old your body is lovely and functional and precious and I want this place to be a place for you to see other women (ordinary, beautiful women) who don't live in designer homes on designer budgets with designer bodies.

How to play?

1. Link in your specific blog post not just your general blog

2. Link to a post about clothes - that's what we're here for

3. Please add a link back here so other people can come over and see people's clothing posts too - the old fashioned way or grab a button

4. Be encouraging and visit people - leave a comment now and again too everyone loves to get encouragement

Here's the button copy and paste away

<center> <a href=" http://createhopeinspire.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/Wardrobe%20Wednesday"><img border="0" src="http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o516/CreateHopeInspire/WWbutton.jpg" width="160" height="160"/></a></center> Thanks so much for taking time to link up and comment and visit others. It means so much to me to have your company and I always get a thrill to see your comments when I visit your posts.

B.M.W.B # 42 Practical Generosity

As a parent I think a bit about what kind of boys I hope my sons will be when they are adults.
At the moment the main words I think about are - strength, compassion, gentleness and generosity. The thing is though these things are kind of hard to measure so I am trying to get them to practice these things now at their own age level.

We have just finished putting together our Operation Christmas Child boxes which we have done together for the last 2 years. I love the way you can watch videos of children receiving their gifts, read stories that make you realise your impact and how the boys can pick stuff they would love to get.

This weekend we also shared a stall at a local crafty market. Jamie (another chch blogger) and her daughter generously said we could have half their table. So during the week we made treat-y foods and Flip spent time studying the Gifts For Life catalogue, because I promised them for every thing they made at the market they could choose gifts from the brochure to buy. I love that they were happy and excited about that. It didn't occur to them that they should be making money for themselves.

The market itself didn't offer the best weather (check out the little faces above!) - by 10am this is what we were like to shelter from the rain and the wind was blowing all our little signs around. Some other lovely stall-holders bought some bits from the boys which they loved.

We came home cold and wet but happy we had just stocked up the firewood!! Then Ma and Aunty N came round and we made them a stall and they bought some more things as well. (I think they were especially keen given the sweet nature of the stall holders and the slow sales they had had!!)

Then in the afternoon on a trip to see friends we also packed up a bag of cupcakes and gave them away - because all generous behaviour is good.

Do you think much about the kind of adults you are hoping to raise?
What characteristics do you most hope for?

This year I am making more of a conscious effort to have quality moments with my boys. B.M.W.B (becoming the mama I want to be)  is my way of recording and hopefully inspiring other mama’s too. 

Simple. Achievable. Intentional: becoming the mama I want to be.

We Recommend for Under 5s

This week I thought I'd talk about a great little game called Two by Two. It's an orchard game and I have to say they do seem to produce fantastic games. I'm sure many of you would be familiar with the supermarket game? (You turn a card over and check it against your shopping list and if there is a match you put it in your trolley. Another great one for under and over 5s).

This game is a 'memory' style game. You have to find pairs of animals and post them into the ark.

If you are us you also sing, 'the [rhinos] went in 2 by 2, hoorah, hoorah' twice as they make their way to the ark.

The thing I like about this game is because you 'post' your pairs as soon as you have them it is all about celebrating the finding and posting and there is no real winner at the end. This makes it a sweet game to play with little ones because they can all sing and if you are feeling especially benevolent you can give them your pairs to post if they aren't having much joy finding their own.

We've lost some animals along the way but we don't mind odd partnerships in our game.

Next bonus is that it is small and compact to store - not necessary I realise but for me something I appreciate. And at the end of the game it is all packed up and you put the ark in the box. Sweet!

I have been doing some posts about games we enjoy in case you need inspiration. These aren't sponsored.

Lessons From the Kitchen

I think God has set up the world so that the ordinary and natural things around us teach us too.
This week I have been making gingerbread with my boys. This batch was about using the same cutter because we needed them to be the same.

 And yet - same cutter, same mixture, same person.... each one slightly different and isn't that how it should be?
I think it's easy to look at ourselves (our cookie if you will) and see the imperfections - the slightly too large head, the cracks, the too prominent or too soft features, a bit broken off here, a leg that is a little longer than the other.... instead of celebrating this we imagine that every other cookie in the batch is somehow perfect, without defect, cooked through perfectly.

I actually think what we are invited to is an abundant and warm 'embrace of our self'. Recognising that the imperfections we see are part of what make us who we are. Sure, we walk with a limp, our bodies are too soft or too angular but we are in fact all of the same mixture.
Each one of us lovingly crafted and pleasing to the Creator's eye who hasn't decided to have a world of uniformed, sameness - a Creator who revels in the differentness of the same. 

Same ingredients - dust and spirit

Different talents

Different brokenness

All delicious

As the boys' new favourite t-shirts say, "Same, Same...but Different"

and the Award Goes to....

** warning this post is pretty much all me, me, me and photos of me***  Turn away now if you find yourself inclined!

Some time ago lovely Laura of Hootnz awarded me with a bloggers award. Laura is a crafter and country-home maker extraordinaire. She is also a very friendly reader. (Think of a blogging award as sort of like a chain-letter of love without the nasty threats if you don't pass it on! :o)

The Liebester Blog Award is for showing off bloggers with 200 or less followers and giving your readers an insight to other great blogs.

Then on Wednesday one of the lovely ladies who link up uber Stylist Sarah awarded me with a sunshine blogger award. Sarah is a stunning woman who is a stylist and wears her wardrobe so well. Stylish T to T (top to toe!) This award is for bloggers for their amazing style, their engaging writing, or their inspiring attitude… or all three!

You have to answer 10 questions about yourself (talk about myself? - why yes I'd love to!!) and then pass it on.

Here are Sarah's questions for me:

1.      Why did you originally start your blog? - to complete 100 creative challenges with a friend. Then I discovered I liked it so much I simply kept on going.

2.      Why do you continue to blog? What inspires you to keep going? For me first and foremost my blog allows me to record that there is more than 'playing mum' going on in my life. I find it hard to quantify 'what I do all day?' questions. Clearly my house is not tidier or cleaner than other people's. What do I do? This blog is me answering that questions with the answers to that question that matter to me.(which is why cleaning doesn't feature!) The great satisfaction of looking back over each year recorded in such a way keeps me going, and so does the thought that you'll know if I don't do what I said I would.... call it internet accountability.

3.      What is the most treasured item in your closet? How/why did you acquire it? How can I pick one thing? I guess my wedding dress is a biggie. Most of my most favourite wardrobe items are handmade - endless pleasure, made for me, to suit my style.

4.      What is your signature style piece? I have a bright orange coat I made from furnishing fabric that is probably a 'signature piece' and another coat I made from hand dyed old blankets with needle felting and appliqué - they both get a lot of comments when I wear them.

5.      What movie/TV shows do you find most inspires your style? I haven't watched it but I think Mad Men style is pretty awesome. 

6.      Got any great pics of your sense of style as a kiddo? - Sadly no pics but my mama was always distressed by my obsession with mixing pieces (think woolen tights, summer skirt and miss-matched something else!), I also refused to wear pants for a long time (because they cut me in half) even on the farm. I always remember I didn't want expensive or labels I just wanted lots of clothes and to be always mixing them up differently. I am still someone who craves a huge amount of variety in my wardrobe and my life.

7.      “I can’t believe I ever wore…” a waistcoat and leggings with fuzzy animal print.

8.      Fill in the blank: “My biggest personal style hurdle is my large shoulders and big bust. I jump this hurdle by trying to no add too much volume to the top of my body.”

9.      What era of style do you most identify with and why? 1950s all the way. The shapes, the fabrics, the dressing up for life and swanning about in a pinny the baking. It suits my body shape best. What's not to love?

10.  What is the best advice you would give to a newbie blogger? 1. Know why you blog. 2. be friendly. 3. Write with your own voice and embrace who you are - the world needs you, not a copy of someone else.

I would like to pass the award on to some amazing Christchurch bloggers - there are a lot of us and they are all amazing bloggers but I have limited myself to these -   I would like to nominate (and 3 words I would use to describe them)

Naomi - all round creative, beautiful, related!

Deb - generous in bucket-loads, makes amazing quilts, incredibly insightful

Sophie - refreshing, generous,creative

Max - thrifty, creative, doll-house DIYer

Juliet - talented, quilter, always up for a challenge

Nin - designer, generous, maker

Becky - inspiring mama, creative, interesting

they may or may not choose to participate but here are 10 questions I'd love them to answer.

1. Why the title for your blog?

2. What piece of clothing works the hardest in your wardrobe?

3. If you had to choose only 3 pieces of clothing to wear for the next month (underwear excluded) what pieces would you choose?

4. Which blog do you find consistently inspires you? (could be your faith, your craft, design, clothing, or just general attitude)

5. On a menu what can you never resist?

6. If you could choose 3 words to describe yourself what would they be?

7. What colour can you never go past?

8. City Apartment, Country Mansion, Beach House, Wild Wilderness - which would you choose for a holiday?

9. Best piece of advice you have ever been given

10. Collections - did you have one as a child? Do you have one now?

Please visit their blogs and pop in on Laura and Sarah too you won't regret it. 

(unless you are supposed to be cooking dinner or watching your child do a dangerous move on the trampoline in which case I take no responsibility for burnt pizza or injured children!)