Here are the hits of the week:

1.  The crafty ladies of Al-Lani’s Angels (they don’t know they are called that- only one of them reads the blog, so I’m claiming the naming rights) who made this motherlode of softies for the Mirabel Foundation. What a bunch of sweethearts they are!! And thanks again to Alisa from Plump for the donation of material. A very kind gesture, which saved me a fortune.

Here’s a small sample of what they made. They have multiplied now, but I won’t post a pic until I have them all in my hot little hands.

…And here’s the one I’m making… Isn’t he, umm, special?
And no, he is NOT a cat. He’s a rabbit people.

2.  Meetings with my goal buddy every Wednesday. We are having such fun dreaming up new ideas and playing with our goals. If you haven’t read the book Life in Half a Second, may I suggest you do, and then join in on the video challenge. It’s so much fun. Who knew? Who even am I?

3.  Seeing how excited the kids were this week preparing for their Christmas Concert. It was called The Christ (x) Factor. Same songs, new format. Sounds like television really. There was even a special appearance by a dude who came third in the real X Factor back when Kyle was on the show. He crooned us a cool Christmas carol. The kids went nuts. (And maybe some of the Mums)  I was too busy rocking in the corner because the canteen had run out of wine.

4.  Getting all the Chrissy shopping done and sent. Thanks to Liquorland, Clare Hammond, Sprinkles and Green B. I couldn’t have done it without you. And talking of Liquorland, do you ever save those shop-a-dockets with the two for one grog deals? I don’t usually, but this week I got the Savvy. It was totally drinkable. I said TWO FOR ONE people. Hop to it.

Not bad for a sundowner on a hot night

5.  Playing hooky with the kids today. It was a late night last night on account of all singing and dancing, and it’s raining today, so I’ve called it: Jammie Day. I have to go downstairs to work for some of it, but mostly today will be about lazing around, writing letters to Santa and reading books I think. The calm before the storm. School holidays start next week, and I for one cannot wait, so today we are having a preview.

Happy weekend to you all. Have fun putting up the tree on Sunday.

Join in and share the love: what are your hits of the week?

.

*Not a sponsored post. When o when is some grog or shoe shop going to contact me for sponsorship???

..From The Ashers

You might recall that I talked about getting a group of people together in what is commonly called a ‘Stitch and Bitch’ session, to make some little soft toys for the Mirabel Foundation this Christmas. Well, ours was called a ‘Sew and Glow’ session by me, the self appointed CEO of bossing everyone around. Lani was a big help (in fact she did most of the work), so I wanted to call our group Al-Lani’s Angels, but someone thought that sounded more like a brothel (which would have been more fun: people, craaaaft??? how do you do it?), so nix to that, and Sew and Glow were are.

I provided the wine and the nibbles and various bits and pieces. I even got to play my own tunes, which was cool- it’s not often that people will sit quietly for any longer than three tracks, listening to the music I inflict on them. (Perhaps I have found my true calling: DJ Shadowcat could become DJ Stitchcat.)

I did not, however, provide any actual expertise.

The ladies cut and stitched and chatted (if they could over my most excellent music selections) and sewed, whilst I poured glasses of wine and tried to look inconspicuous on account of not having a sewing machine, or any intention of doing any of the actual work.

After a time, I thought I was going to end up pretty inebriated if I didn’t do something, so I decided to make up my own thing.

Because that is always a good idea.

Everyone else had patterns and pins and plans.

I (the one with no actual skills) decided I would just make something up on the fly. I will show you it shortly.

But first I will tell you how it all went down this morning.

The Evil Geniuses were keen to see the fruits of our labour (and I use the term “our” very loosely), so I laid all of the toys out for their perusal. They picked up one and then another, admiring their eyes and their softness, affirming their relative cuteness, naming them, and indicating which ones were their favourites.

They did not say anything about mine.

I let them check everything out, and then asked them which one they thought I made. To my shock (feigned) they guessed immediately. I then asked them if mine was their very MOST favourite. Evil Genius One looked at me in horror, eyes wide with the FEAR, wondering if he should lie, or simply forfeit his promised Friday Lunch-Order immediately. “Ummm, well, I don’t really want to say, because it’s not like sewing is your MAIN thing, I mean, you seem to be good at lots of other things…”  Evil Genius Two just looked me in the eye and said, “Nup. I don’t like it. It’s small and flat and has wonky eyes, and it’s not even finished, even though you were gone for ages. I like the cat. Or the other cat. Or the twin cats. Or the owl, bunny, babushka, boy babushka, even the taggy, better than that…thing. It’s weird looking.”

Okay then. Brats.

Santa is listening you know.

And I just ate your cupcakes when you weren’t looking, sweethearts, so there.

Softies by the professionals

Softie, thing, by me. Everyone is beautiful..
Aren’t they?

…From The Ashers

Okay everyone, check this out: Mirabel is a cool charity that provides support for kids and families affected by parental substance abuse. So every year, they run a bit of a drive to collect cute handmade toys for those cool little kids to cuddle.

I know, I know, at this time of the year it can feel like everyone has their hand out asking for either your time or your money to help out someone who doesn’t have as much as you. And I know it’s difficult to know who to help, hell, sometimes the problems seem so big and so widespread that you can feel like you might be swamped by it all, so it’s easier to just bury your head under a sea of shiny plastic crap.

So I’ve found you a solution: Sewing for Softies.

Gorgeous Pip of Meet Me at Mikes has all the details on her blog right here.

Pesonally, I can’t sew for shit.

I once asked my family for a sewing machine for Christmas, so they pissed themselves all the way to the shops and got me one. For some inexplicable reason it came with a complimentary fondue machine, which incidentally has had quite a run. Here is a pic of my machine:

It makes a nice shelf, no?

It has ugg boots on top of it, which, quite frankly get more use all the way up here on the Sunny Coast.

So being a bit challenged in the manual arts, I have appointed myself CEO of Operations and Snacks, and have managed to get a whole lot of lovely fabric donated by Alisa from Plump, (a ripper of a local lady who is in the business of all things cushions you can see her stuff here or at the Eumundi Markets every Wednesday and Saturday), I’ve set up a venue for a sewing-bee and am in the process of recruiting a small army of sewing-ladies to do the actual work.

Easy.

Perhaps you might consider doing the same in your town? Maybe you have some crafty friends that you can bribe with the promise of sweet treats and crisp glass of bubbles for their troubles? And if you live on the Sunny Coast and would like to be involved in our night, then message me and I’ll send you the details.

Let’s see if we can make some little kids smile big toothy grins, with gifts made with love, this Christmas.

…From The Ashers