Calm Before the Storm................

Today is the last day of school before the Easter Holidays for my kids, and the house has that eerie silence hanging over it, in anticipation of the impending noise that will follow at 3pm. No doubt the first week will fly by as the kids settle into the holidays and enjoy the break from school but normally by the middle of the second week it begins to drag and all they want to do is go back to school. Actually for my youngest she'll want to go back to school as soon as Easter is finished and will probably end up finding homework like tasks to do around the house instead from writing stories, to practising her handwriting, counting anything she can and reading as many books as she get me to sit still for! The of course there is the fight over who gets to go on the computer and for how long.... thankfully these arguements are pretty easily solved with a roster and clock, but it does usually mean that I don't get to do as much stufff as I need too! No that its a bad thing, I do have a list of things needing to be sewn for the kids for the winter season including trousers and pj's plus the things I want to make for myself. I also can make time to try out a few different knitting patterns and techniques and see if there is anything new that I can add to my For Sale list. I would love to experiment with knitted dress's so maybe I'll find the time to do that!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Break and those whose kids then have 2 weeks off school, fingers crossed the weather stays nice!

Somedays it's all uphill....

Somedays writing my blog can seem real easy, and It just flows on to the page, so to speak, with ease and other days I sit down to type and my mind just draws a blank.... even though I might have lots to say, I just can't find the right words to express it! Fortunately today doesn't appear to be one those days, well not so far anyway.

At the moment I have been playing round with crotchet, now that I seem to have mastered some of the basic techniques. I'm not ready to make anything big in crotchet, even though I've seen some really old school patterns for little dress's and tops in crotchet, I'm content at the moment to play around with making flower type shapes in different types of yarns and colours..... especially now that I've got the right sized hooks for most of the yarns I have, it does make the process so much easier! Of course now I'm getting quite a collection of flower type things and so need to find some funky ways to use them other than turning them into brooches and attaching to elastic headbands. So far I'm thinking of attaching them to some square beanies that I made ages ago and also to knitted headbands I had previously made.....and so far it looks really good. Just need to put some batteries in the camera again and take some pictures of them!Maybe I'll put one of my creations in the prize pack for next months competition.

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The kids are busy counting down to the holidays in our house, though they seem to be looking forward more to the idea of Easter and chocolate rather than 2 weeks off school....... my youngest would much rather be at school and now doubt will continue by herself doing maths and reading at home! My eldest will probably spend the first few days wanting schoolwork given to him too and then he'll realise that he can now spend more time on the computer playing his RPG games (he can wish), while my middle child will either just want to watch tv or go to the beach..... well we might go to the beach to build sandcastles but its definetly getting to cold to go swimming, not that it would stop her!

I suppose that means Easter Bunny should get organised and go buy some Easter Eggs.... lol on two more days to do it in before the go on holiday...... hmmm might need to go to the shops on Wedensday! At least the prices wil be cheaper just hope they haven't run out of all the good ones!

New listings....... well almost!

I was going to wait until April to list a few new things on Little Kiwis Nest but of course the holidays start in April, so I might just list a couple of things before the hoidays start and before the arguements over who is using the computer begin!

So keep your eye out for this Pretty Pink Aysmmetric Poncho, suitable for ages 2 -5 years and is so soft and fluffy, it will make any little girl feel like a princess!

While you are keeping your eyes peeled for my new listings, don't forget to checkout the winter ranges at the other Little Kiwis Nest stores. You can also sign up to the newsletter as well, so that you are always kept up to date with all the latest news!

After the holidays I will look at running another competition, just need to sort out the hows and the prizes! I will post the details on my blog once I have it sorted.

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In previous posts I have talked about my not so little side project and now I think I have it under control (for the meantime anyway) so now I can share it with you all!

This year I intended to write a book about Parenting Kids with Disabilities/Special Needs/Health Issues in New Zealand. Sort of like a handbook, with a combination of useful information and shared experiences of other parents, whom may have kids with severe disability to parents whose kids have dyslexia or Aspergers and everything in between. In the course of researching the market for such a book, I found that parents in this situation all had issues in common, but also wanted information on wide range of topics, and without creating a book that was huge, I had to make some pretty big decisions. So now I have made those decisons and here is my final plan!

This year I am going to:

1. Write my book and
2. Write a Blogzine dealing with many of the questions and information wanted by Parents.

and so Hands Up! is born. Its still very much in the early stages, with a few kinks with they layout to sort out..... but I just couldn't wait to share it with everyone!

Time to Myself....

Its quite a foriegn concept to me really and thats even with the kids all at school now! I usually spend most of days tied up with Little Lizzies or helping at school in some shape or form and then of course I have my new idea, which I'm almost ready to share! So quite often I forget to just put my feet up and enjoy some ME time. Lately ME time has just been about snatching a couple of hrs to read a good book, the latest one being "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night". It was a fantastic read and a real insight into the mind of a Child/Teen with Aspergers..... and as my eldest has Aspergers, many of the behaviours were very familiar to me! It is definetly well worth the read! So thats one down in the pile of books waiting for me too find that precious ME time and read them.

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The Little Lizzies Fan Page has hit the 200 fan milestone! SO big thanks to all those who have taken the time to join us and espcially to those who leave such wonderful comments! I just might have to run another competition so keep your eyes peeled!

Gala Day is over...time to rest

Gala Day went well with lots of postive comments from parents about my stuff and quite a few of the headbands being sold and also a couple of the cheaper knitted stuff. Then again I wans't really expecting there to be a mad rush on my stuff, but next time maybe there will be! To my delight one parent came up to me yesterday wanting a couple more headbands and then later another decided that she would buy the dress she liked...... yeah! So all in all I would say that it was pretty successful, though there is always room for improvement and for that would be how everything is displayed and making sure my clothes rack doesn't continually collapse,.... really isn't much fun having to pick it up all the time, might have to super glue the base together! I also need to find a better way to display my shrugs as they look like scarfs when they are sitting on the stall and need to think of a better way to keep signs on the stand...ok it was windy on Saturday so my signage probably would of worked fine if they didn't keep blowing down!

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The weather is definetly a bit more like autumn in the mornings now and what better weather for wearing a poncho on the walk to school! So don't forget to checkout what I have available at the moment on Little Kiwis Nest as I will be changing my stock listings in April so get in quick before they are gone!

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Gala Day approaches...... 3 days to go!

Gala Day is looming and though I didn't get everything finished that I wanted to, I still have quite a good selection of things. So hopefully things go really well in the weekend! As I have said previously many of things I have made are things I wouldn't normally make, like the change mat and burp cloths on the left... but I was alreaady making baby stuff for a friend and needed to use up the left over fabric. They were quite fun to make, especially once I remembered that my machine has a walking foot, so then the fabric was trying to go slide in two different directions!

My kids are also looking forward to the Gala Day, with all of them offering to help on the stall though I can imagine that the lure of watching the pig racing, the peting zoo and now the addition of Pony rides, working with mum will not be so exciting. Actually my eldest wanted to help me price everything, except his idea of pricing was revolving around the notion that the higher the price the more money you make.....lol unfortuantely he failed to take into account that if the price is too high people wont buy, but at least his head was in the right place. There will be plenty of bargains to be got with many of my accessories such as headbands and brooches starting at $2 so there will be something there for everyone to buy! So if you are in the area or know people in the area, tell them to come check it out at the Mt Maunganui School Gala Day on Saturday!

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Once Gala Day is finished I'll have some more time to work on my little side project and then once I've got the idea firm in my head I will be able to share it with you all. I can tell you that it is very exciting... well to me it is!

Craft Days, Glue Guns and Burnt Fingers...

With the Gala Day looming I have been busy making lots of things I wouldn't normally do such as headbands, hair ties and hairclips all with the aid of my trusty glue gun. While things usually go swimming I have on several occasions burnt my fingers and the not the normal ouch that hurt type, but the type that causes blisters... the real ouchy ones! Sometimes I wonder how I even manage to do it (but then again I am also very good at trying to sew my fingers to thjings with the sewing machine too). regardless though I have continued and have slowly used up bits of elastic that was no good for clothes, random bits of crotchet, lace and other bits and bobs, not that my craft box has gotten any emptier. I even felt sorry for the boys so went out and got feathers and glued them to the elastic bands as well. Some have turned out better than others, but then somedays thats the nature of craft work.

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I have loaded pictures of new Ponchos on to the Facebook fanpage.... make sure you go and check them out. My little diva had lots of fun posing for the pictures.... though I would have prefered if she stood still and smiled nicely. Make sure you go and check them out and let me know what you think. They will be available for sale during April on Little Kiwi's Nest so keep your eyes open for them.

Back and blogging again

Having realised that it had been awhile since my last blog...... last year to be exact.... I thought I had better get myself back into the habit again.

Things have been very busy since my last post...... firstly the xmas holidays which the kids and spent a lot of time at the beach and if I wasn't at the beach I was making and sorting things for the School Gala Day. Once the kids went back to school things settled down a bit at home, bu then there was still meetings for the Gala Day to attend, getting the kids settled into school and before you know it March is here and the end of term is looming ...... time sure does fly.

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The school Gala Day is going to be lots of fun with the main attraction being the Pig Races, and they aren't just running down a straight track either, they actually have their own obstacle course to go through including jumps and tunnels. I'm sure the Parents are going to enjoy this just as much as the kids are! Of course there is the usually face painting, bouncy castles and all the fun white elephant stalls ......and me! Yip I have my own stall this year, a mixture of things made specifically for the Gala Day as well as my knitwear. So if you are in the Bay of Plenty area and like to go for a drive with the kids then head to Mount Maunganui Primary School on March 13 for our Gala Day. Begins at 9am with the first race at 9.30am!

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But of course that is not the only thing I have been working on... I also have a new project that am working on. It was suppose to be just a smallish side project but the more a sought out peoples opinions the more it has snowballed into something bigger. So now I'm working out just which direction I want to go in. So stay tuned....

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Finially of course I have actually been making more ponchos that I will list for sale shortly. I plan to rotate small numbers of stock so has to keep things new and fresh but without feeling the need to be constantly knitting. This is to allow for the time the new project is going to need put into it. I can say that the stuff I have knitted at the moment is very girly with lots of pinks, but there is also boyish colours with blues and browns and all gorgeously soft to touch!