Knit and Sew

Last week I roped in a few of my lovely colleagues to spend the day volunteering with me at Save the Children.

We worked our little fingers to the bone, as we stitched knitted squares into blankets. I had also knitted a few squares to donate to the cause and while I didn't have enough for a whole blanket, they got included with some other dontated squares to make up a blanket.

The finished blankets will be sent to India, Cambodia and Laos to help children keep warm in the hope of preventing pneumonia; one of the biggest killers in children under five in the developing world.

Volunteering is one of those things that I've always wanted to do more of, but to be honest I've never prioritised it or really worked at making it happen and that's about to change... as of now. I want to find a regular avenue to volunteer and to give service to the local or global community. I believe that having a more active service role in my life will help me to 'feel right' (one of my recently crafted personal commandments). Being involved in the Born to Knit campaign has been right up my alley; a fantastic combination of my craft and my interest in volunteering.

Now to get knitting for next years Save the Children campaign!

Reading... Retro style!

If like me you follow this lovely blog, you might be currently reading a particular children's classic, 'James and the Giant Peach'.

Some of you might be wondering, why would you want to read a kids book. Well I say, why not! If you were an avid reader as a little one (as I was) you'll remember long afternoons spent cuddled up with your favorite book and falling asleep at night time with your book flopping across your little face as you literally couldn't keep your eyes open any more! Many a night my Dad had to come into my room, put away my book and switch off my light for me, as I had fallen asleep mid sentence! I confess that I still do that sometimes now... just one more page... Zzzz.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. I'm reading 'James and the Giant Peach' as part of the Meet Me at Mike's Retro Readers book club, and I'm remembering just how ace kids books are and in particular how fantastic Roald Dahl is. James wasn't my childhood favorite though, this honor would have to go to 'Matilda' or the 'BFG' and don't get me started on Enid Blyton... The hours I spent reading her novels are too many to count!

So if you loved reading as a little tike jump on board and get reading with me, retro style!

Check your letterbox!

I posted a few weeks ago about letters, or more specifically, hand written letters and how much pleasure you can receive from sending and receiving letters.

I'm pleased to report that I have since written five letters to friends and family. I've also received one letter back! I was so thrilled to open this beautiful letter, where one of my dear friends explained how my post had reminded her how much she used to love writing and receiving letters.  After reading her awesome letter, of course I sat down and wrote her back! I think this might mean that we're pen-pals now!

The last time I had a pen-pal was in Primary school. I think that the girls name was Caroline and she was from the U.K. I have no memory of how we came to be pen-pals, but it must have been arranged through my school. We wrote each other a number of letters back and forth and I remember that I used those funny blue aerogrammes, how retro! Imagine telling my future children about that one day! Mummy used to have to write a letter on funny blue paper which folded up into an envelope, as this was the best way to write to someone in another country. I'm sure I'll be asked why I didn't just Skype, email or Facebook them. How much communication has changed in the few years between my childhood and adulthood.

I still have more letters to write and I still want to encourage you to write a letter to someone special in your life. Don't worry if you don't have pretty paper (although you can pick some of that up at Kikki K!), just grab a page out of your notebook and write a special hello to that special person.

The only catch is having to trot down to the post office for stamps!