We have moved.

Little Lizzies blog has now been moved to wordpress. So please come check it out..... plus you can see a sneak peek of the photo shoot we had in the weekend!

Look forward to seeing you visit us at our new location!

School Holidays....... are ticking along.

Its the halfwaypoint of the school holidays and things are still cruising along.... which is good! So far there has only been one little mishap, with my youngest getting her finger jammed in a door, which still looks very sore :( But she seems to have gotten over it now!

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The cool mornings of Autumn are definitely here, so don't forget to checkout the ponchos I have up for sale at Little Kiwis Nest at the moment!

This weekend is very exciting, as Little Lizzies is having its very first professional Photo Shoot, with the lovely Meg from Photography by Meg, its pretty exciting..... now just need to finalise whereabouts we want to take the pictures.!

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I am also looking at moving my blog from blogger to wordpress..... as I set my side project up at wordpress an I've found it to be more verstaile. So keep an eye out for my new look blog!

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!

And the winner is.........

..................Hip Little One! Congratulations, it was a really hard job to choose a winner so I ended up just drawing a name out of a hat! Please contact me with your details and what size you would like!

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Yesterday we went down and watched the local Santa Parade and had lots of fun. Of course it was even more exciting because our school had a float in the parade, and while my kids weren't on the float, as a member of our Parent Support Group I had a hand in getting it ready.....so I think I was more excited about it going past than the kids were....!

Its not long now until school is finished for the year.......1 week tomorrow and then the kids will be madly counting down until xmas day! So the mad rush is now on to get the shopping finished and to get parcels posted!!

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From the 1 Jan 2010 till 1 March 2010 Little Lizzies store at Little Kiwis Nest, will be taking a holiday. This will give me time over the holidays to spend with my kids and then to help with the organising of the School Gala Day. Also I hope to build up a bit more stock as well as adding some new things!! So aty tuned to our blog and Facebook page for sneak peeks at all the new developments!

Competiton Reminder!

Don't forget to get your entries in for our Xmas Competiton (see previous post fo details) it ends tomorow NZT and winner will be announced on the Saturday! I am loving the entries that I have had so far so I hope to see more enteries!

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The xmas tree is now up in ou house and have only got to spray the fake snow on the windows so the house looks very festive. The kids ae getting all excited and with school finishing for the summer holidays in just over a week chaos will ensue. Until then it is very busy, with christmas shopping to be finished, school productions to watch, the school's xmas in the park and of course finishing off preperations for the school float in the local Santa Parade! Of course it is all exciting and loads of fun!

Competiton.......as promised!

Well the Novemeber 23 is here and as promised a new Competiton! With the Xmas season approaching I thought I would make it Xmas themed........

Prize Package

Size 2 or Size 4 Xmas Dress

Asymmetrical Poncho

.......and a few more goodies that I find!

Ok so now that you know the goodies up for grabs, here is what I want you to do..... All you need to do is to tell me what you like about Xmas, by putting a comment under this blog...........!

All Entries need to be in by the 4th of December (NZT)

Making Xmas Pressies.......

This year to save some money I have been making presents for family, as well as hunting out those fantastic bargains! So far I have made magnets for hanging up art pictures and hair ties.....I'll also look at making necklaces, bracelets and brooches as well! Many of theses have proved to be so simple to make and cost effective too that I'm going to put them forward as fundraising ideas for the school Gala Day next year........ or I"ll sell them myself on the day.

I've often made xmas presents for my nieces, putting together braclets and necklaces are easy to do, but I have also made them skirts, headbands and of course shrugs..... my nephews in the past have been a little bit more awkward, but I have a few ideas this year, just got too see if it works first!

What do you make for xmas?

6 weeks till xmas......(insert screaming)

Its only 6 weeks till xmas everyone informs, and I'm so not ready for it. Its not that I've got heaps of shopping to do still (which I do), its more that I'm not ready for 2010 to come yet! 2010 means my sone will be turning 10 and in his last year at primary school which means that its only two more years and he'll be at High School, so not ready for it, its bad enough that at 9.5 he's almost as tall as me and no doubt at some point next year he will be as tall as if not taller than me.......oh well at least he's easy to buy presents for, books, books, science stuff, books, geeky stuff and yet more books lol.

My 7 yr old will be Yr 3 next year and will be make or break time for her acedemically as the jump from junior school to middle school is hard enough most kids but when you've got an intellectual disability it makes things so much harder, not that you will hear her complain she has lots of freinds so she doesn't worry about anything else! She is also very easy to buy for...... funky t-shirts and anything to do with horses and she is happy!

My 5 yr old well she is proving harder to buy for this year....... so I'll need to really get my thinking cap on, what do you get a fashion diva, brainiac and all round drama queen (ok she's no worse than many 5yr olds but still!!) oh and has to be cheap cheap! So far I've got cheap bracelets and hair ties......and she has plenty of dressup stuff....... must keep thinking!!

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Due to changes in facebooks guidelines to do with the running of competitions, I will no longer run my competitions directly from my facebook page but instead will run them through my blog both directly from blogger and from the NetworkedBlogs app through facebook (for those who don't want to sign up to blogger!

Next competition will be on the 23 Novemeber (NZT)

Details to come!!

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For those who have entered the Great Fashion Hunt

Little Kiwis Nest's day is the 24th November!

Reindeer and Elves

Well thats what my girls are in the junior school production, one is an elf and one is a reindeer and lucky me gets to organise their costumes.......thankfully though its nothing complicated just pants and t-shirts just not the colours the have in their drawers so now I am trying to find how much brown coloured material I have hidden in my stash to make them out of! Of course thay are getting very excited about it all, wandering around the house singing all the songs until the rest of us go a bit batty.......oh well only 2 weeks till the first performance.

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Xmas will be soon be upon us and I have got lots of xmas dress's already cut out waiting to be made, in the hope that people might want to feel a bit more xmas spirit this year...... and what is more cute than kids running around on xmas day in xmas themed outfits! I was even thinking about making a few pairs of shorts with some of the left over pieces as well and if I get time maybe even a waistcoat or two!

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Next competiton will begin on the 23 November so stay tuned for more details!

Busy Busy Busy!

Term 4 has well and truley started at school and as expected its turning out to be very busy and thats just with school stuff! My eldest has got School Camp and the girls have got the Junior School Production to get ready for (and I'm getting tired of the songs already! lol). On top of this our Fundraising Committee is preparing for the end of year Xmas in the Park - school celebration and also the planning of the School Gala Day which is set to be the March 6 2010. So I'm now up to 2 meetings a week. Not that I complain too much I dio enjoy it, our group is very sociable and we have a good giggle while we are doing it all!

On the Business front I have been busy making birthday presents, some new knitted items including bolero type shrugs and vests - which just need to be sewn up and photographed, and also I have been making another gift as Fairy Godmother -this time for my sons Teacher Aide. In addition to this I have also been listing Xmas Dress' for sale, so far in size 4 and size 1 with many more waiting to get to the sewing machine. I have also been doing a custom order for a friend for a NB and a size 3 xmas dress which are almost completed!

I am not doing any competitions this month, but are offering Custom Ordered Xmas Dress'/Waistcoats etc for Facebook Fans Only and I'm happy to post overseas.......so get in quick as I only have a limited supply of fabric at the moment (though I don't mind an excuse to visit spotlight to find more!!)

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If anyone local to Mt Maunganui would be interested in having a stall or contributing to our Gala Day in another way please feel free to contact me. At this stage I'm just after interest so that I can put it forward as an Idea at the meeting next Wed. Our school has a very big junior school and many of these kids are the eldest in the family rather than the youngest, plus we seem to be having a bit of a baby boom too!

Holidays are over...Schools Back

Time for some 'ME' time again! Only problem now is that of course the next lot of school holidays looming on the horizon are the Xmas ones......I suppose I had better start thinking about Xmas shopping etc! Keep your eyes peeled for our Xmas themed range of knitwear...lots of reds and whites of course!

This term is another busy one for us with Junior School production; Christmas in the Feild at School and of course the Xmas work functions....which this year we should really go to - usually we can't make it because its hard to find babysitters, but not this year! I've recently been busy making birthday presents for both of my daughters friends, with two more parties this weekend to go to and one of them is fancy dress, so I have also been busy making a Fairy Costume as well....so far so good, its just about finished!

We have finally joined the twitter craze....the fact that I could link it to the facebook page was a bonus! Come follow us @LittleLizzies

School Holidays.......

...and of course its raining and blowing up a gale outside! I've already had to rush outside and rescue the seedlings that were on the deck, fingerscrossed they will survive their ordeal. The weekend though had been lovely, I even got more plants planted in the vege garden - peas, butter beans and pumpkin seeds.

This last week has been busy with organising/planning what to make for presents for the parties that the girls have been invited to. One is going to a 5yr old party and the other is going to a 7yr old party. The later party is also fancy dress, so a fairy costume must also be orgainised (sewn)! So far I've finished a top for the 5yr old birthday girl........ just need to make some accessories to go with it and I have started on a top (of sorts) for the 7yr old!

Well had better get back to the knitting and also keeping the kids from going to nutty on this very wet start to the holidays......please please let there be sun at some stage over the holidays!!



Oh and before I forget...I made my first sale through Little Kiwis Nest on Thursday night and will be posting a capelet across to a fellow Kiwi, based in........FRANCE!!!! Heehee it is so very exciting!

A Beautiful Day

I intended to take photos this weekend, and so I did but instead of my clothing/knitwear, I ended up taking pictures on our walk around Mt Mauao instead. The Fashio Diva decided that it the wind was too cold to stand outside earlier in the afternoon on Sunday for photos (and it rained on the Saturday), but by late afternoon the wind had died down, but of course now the kids wanted to head down to the Mt because it was low tide, so they could find starfish and hermit crabs in the rockpools!

It really was a beautiful day, with lots of yachts out on the harbour. The kids had a ball walking around the shoreline, clambering over rocks and then back up on to the main track, looking out for all the lambs on the Mt itself! Really is beginning to feel like summer....now just to get the lovely warm water for swimming!

Don't forget the Launch Competition finishes this Friday (NZT)! Make sure you tell all your frineds about it!

Had better get back to work.......I can hear the knitting needles calling me to come sit out on the deck in the sun and knit!

I will also be putting up some xmas dress' up on http://www.littlekiwisnest.co.nz/ soon, just got to make a few more different ones, in both bigger and smaller sizes! So keep your eyes open for that.