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I've been playing with my embroidery machine and some felt I had lying around and it resulted into this:

I quite like it. It makes me think of Christmas.

However, He-who-shall-not-be-named (does this make me sound like a Harry Potter addict?) didn't think much of it, so please feel free to give me YOUR opinion about it.

It initially started out as something I wanted to make for Nie (see my post below about the Nielson family). I chose a red robin since there is a legend about how this little bird got his name: When Jesus was wearing his crown with the thorns, a little bird came and tried to remove some of the thorns. While the little bird was doing so, some blood dripped onto his chest and it remained there forever. I know this is just a myth, since red robins don't live in that part of the world, but it's the symbolism that got to me. To me this little bird is a symbol that says: every little bit helps. And all over the world people are joining hands to remove some thorns by helping out the Nielson family.

I'm still not sure whether I should turn it into a brooch, a Christmas tree decoration or a gift tag that can be attached to the ribbon when you package a gift. Maybe I'll use it on a new (messenger style) bag. I need a new bag.

While you were sleeping

Spreading some

It is very likely that you have already heard about the plane crash Stephanie (Nie) and her husband Christian were in leaving them with burns on 80% and 30% of their bodies respectively. If you haven't, you can read what happened the them on her sister's site: http://cjanerun.com/ and get an update on their current status. Their children are being cared for by loving family members.

I had not heard of the Nielsons before this week, but my thoughts have been with them ever since.

The Nielson Family

Both Nie and Christian are being kept in a coma but while they are sleeping and their bodies slowly recover people all over the world are joining hands and are trying to raise money to help pay for the medical bills as well as their household management.

This family believes strongly in the power of prayer, so please include them in yours. Raising money to help cover the costs of their recovery is not the only concern of their family. Even though the healing of their bodies will take months, it will take even longer for them to come to terms with what has happened to them and to accept their new life. They are currently missing out on their four children growing up, but through blogging their family is keeping a record of all that is happening for them to read later.

Thursday August 28 has been declared Nie Nie day by Design Mom. She will be hosting a silent auction and she will donate the money to the Nielson Family Fund. You can read all about it here.

As for myself, I've signed up to donate some items for the Etsy auction hosted by One More Moore which will take place on 23 & 24 September. Items from different donators will be sold in an Etsy shop created especially for the Nie Nie Benefit Sale. So if you can, please spread the word about this auction or even better: visit the Nie Nie Benefit Sale yourself and buy an item!

There were two things that struck me when I started reading some of Nie's posts (she's been blogging for a looooong time, I wish I had found her sooner), the first thing being the way she writes about her beloved Mr. Nielson. This couple simply is in complete adoration of each other.

The other thing was that there were so many pictures of Nie herself on her blog. She truly is a beautiful woman both inside and out.

I tend to keep from putting pictures of myself on my blog, but from now on, you may see a glimpse of me here and there. After all, this blog is meant to be read by my children one day, so they can read little anecdotes about themselves but also learn more about me. And what good is that if there's hardly a picture of myself on this blog?

Sending up a pink balloon...

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I have three blogs marked as "Beautiful Blogs".

One of them is Sheye Rosemeyer, a Beauty Full blog that you are probably all very familiar with.
In fact, Sheye's blog and her daughter Ava are the reason that I have made so many wonderful blogging friends as I found most of them (or they found me) through comments left on Sheye's blog. One of those new found friends is Jules from Clinka's Apples. I saw her blog today and she posted the most beautiful poem for Sheye. It brought tears to my eyes.

In February of this year I wrote a poem for Sheye myself and I would like to follow Jules in her tribute to Ava by sharing it with you today.

Once upon a time
In a land far, far away,
There lived a beautiful princess
But one day she went away.

She now plays amongst the clouds
And has butterflies for friends
She wears 7-layered skirts
To her little hearts’ content.

She has 7 pairs of spotties
Catches fairies all day long
Swims with mermaids, chases rainbows
Yet, why does this feel so wrong?

Why are tears so freely flowing?
Why are there balloons up in the sky?
Why do we all say: “if only…
we could reach you there, so high”?

Because we have come to know you,
And we realise each day
That your family’s hearts are broken
Because you could no longer stay.

Here on earth there are so many
Who will try with all their might
To turn back the hands of time
Even if it were just for tonight

To allow your dearest mummy,
Daddy, brothers and sister too
To have another day with Ava
Superprincess, we all miss you…

May the tears that flow today be the water for Ava’s outdoor shower …

The Superprincess should have celebrated her 5th birthday yesterday. My own daughter turned 5 this year and I cannot even begin to imagine life without her. Happy Birthday Ava.

If you have not been to Sheye's blog before, go visit. You'll be emotionally overwhelmed.

(Illustration courtesy of Belle & Boo)

Blushing

When I was searching for pictures of Anna Popplewell (aka Susan Pevensie) for my Narnia movie post, I came across the following words describing Anna: "wonderfully prone to blushing".

Well, that would be a thing she and I have in common, but I would not describe it as a "wonderful" feature. I can usually tell when I'm blushing which makes it even worse. I go from a slight shade of pink to a dark shade of red in no time. And since my skin is as pale as Snow White's I can't hide it (not even behind my freckles).

Of course blushing occurs when you really don't need it. Why can't it happen when you're behind the computer all by yourself watching these adds for some irresistible lingerie with the appropriate name Blush?

Nope, no blushing.

No, it mostly happens when I'm speaking in public or when I'm being introduced to somebody. If that 'somebody' is cute I'm even more prone to blushing. And the sentence "There's no need to blush" has, to my knowledge, never diminished the blushing. On the contrary.

So there is no powder-blush in my make-up bag. Never had it, and my guess is, I'll never need it.

Mi Casa

If we ever win the lottery, there'd be plenty of things we'd do. It doesn't even have to be Euromillions. Just a nice amount with the regular Lotto would be fine ;)

First of all, we wouldn't tell anybody. Not that we wouldn't give any of it away, we'd just rather spice up some random accounts without telling people who it came from.

Then I would probably quit my job so I could be there for the kids (and I'd have time to work on some of those creative ideas I have floating around in my head).

There would be NO money spent on diamonds or pearls, a Porshe or a pony for the kids but I would have a little shopping spree to re-fashion our wardrobes and we'd plan a few trips to far away places.

And then we'd visit this site and have a good look around.



The both of us have really fallen in love with these houses (there are picture galleries on the website and you can take a peek inside some of the houses), but they are not within our reach.

Nevertheless, we are quite happy with our current house. It's small but homy and if I have to clean it it sure seems big enough! We're aiming to recreate the above 'feel' for our kitchen extension, so at least we'll have a little bit of "Mi Casa" in our home.

And in the meantime, we'll just keep playing the Lotto. A girl's gotta dream...

My kind of movie

I promised my son that we would go see Prince Caspian together since he had such a good report card at the end of the schoolyear and we finally got to see it last weekend. My daughter had to attend a birthday party and since she's too young to see the movie anyway it was the perfect opportunity for some one-on-one time with my son. And a bucket of popcorn ;)

Personally I love these movies. I really wanted to see it and I'll definitely watch it again when it comes out on DVD, so I can watch it in the original version. I read some of the books when I was young and then again when the first movie came out. I'll have to keep my eye out for the others since there are apparently seven and I've only found the first three at the library.

I wouldn't mind switching places with Susan in the movie. I adore her costumes. Hey, I even look a little like her (at least I used to, when I was younger and still able to wear my lenses).

And of course I wouldn't mind being courted by a young handsome prince ;)

Apples, Pears & some cute Bears

For those of you who are interested in Etsy: I was able to grab my second Treasury today. It basically gives you the chance to show off some items you like from other shops.

Here's the link if you want to see it up close. It expires on Saturday.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=21895

You can leave me a comment there as well if you like.