A Baby Shower...

In my last post I wrote about some celebrations that I was part of in the previous week...and the day after my friend's 70th Birthday on the Friday, there was yet another occasion on the Saturday! 😊
It was DD2's baby shower, organized by of her two friends from school days.

The rain held off so we all sat around on the deck at DD2's place...

The girls had organized and arranged a lovely table of goodies...

Look at all those cute pink foods!

We all went inside for the opening up of the gifts...and what a big pile there was! It took my daughter quite a while to unwrap them all. The little girl arriving in late May has some beautiful clothes, toys etc, that's for sure!

And I nearly forgot to get a photo with the mum to be...but luckily remembered 😄.

I took along a basket of small gifts as the main gift was still on order. It arrived today (Wednesday) and is a crib cosy. Something that wasn't around when my girls were babies, but is apparently quite popular these days. DD2 had said she wanted one as she doesn't intend to buy a bassinet...just a cot. So the baby can go in the crib cosy which is placed in the cot. Also if parents want to put the baby in their bed, this is a safe way to do it, by putting the bub in the crib cosy. 

Two birthdays and a school reunion...

March has certainly been a busy month in terms of social occasions.
Firstly we had DH's school reunion for the Mitchelton High class of 1966. It was held at St Lucia Golf links...very salubrious. 

DH was surprised to see one of his teachers...he thought he would have long passed away 'as Mr D had been soooo old when he had taught them'! lol. I thought  DH might have mentioned this fact when Mr D came and spoke to us...but he didn't mention it at all!

The school captain from 1966 addressed the gathering...lots of memories there!

The food was quite delightful...a light supper, including fish and chips served in noodle boxes.

The evening even included singing the school song and chanting the school war cry.

In the following week, I was invited to a 90th birthday morning tea for Ailsa who is a founding member of an organisation known as Arafmi. Arafmi offers support to those who care for a family member with mental health issues. As well as this function celebrating Ailsa's 90th birthday, we were also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the organisation.

The venue was Riverside Receptions  ( formerly known as Riverside Ballroom) on the Brisbane River  at New Farm.

Quite a spread was provided...

Then the next day DH and I were invited to a 'drinks and nibblies' function to celebrate a friend's 70th. My friendship with Carmen began when I was her supervising teacher for her third year teaching prac. I was 23 and she was 27...a mature aged student.

When DH and I walked in it was a big surprise to Carmen as we had both been at the parish morning tea that day and I hadn't said a word about seeing her later...she kept bringing that up throughout the afternoon, lol!


 

Flannel Hearts...

Yesterday at our Sunday Stitchers monthly meet up I noticed one of the ladies was stitching heart shaped pieces of flannel...she had quite a bundle in the bag in front of her. After watching Tatyana stitching pairs of heart shapes together for a while, the busybody in me, just had to ask what these were for.

Apparently Brisbane's Mater Hospital put out a request for people to stitch these hearts for use in their Neonatal Critical Care Unit. Here is how it is explained on the website...

'The simple act of holding your baby whenever you want is something mums in Mater Mothers' Neonatal Critical Care Unit (NCCU) can’t always do. Soft fabric ‘Cuddle Hearts’, linking mum and baby, fill a gap when the two can’t be together.

The fabric hearts are simply two heart shaped pieces of material (soft cotton or flannelette) sewn together. One fabric heart is given to the mother and placed on her chest to pick up her scent, with the other heart placed close to the baby for the same reason. The hearts are then swapped so mother and baby are left with each other’s scented heart.  

The program has been introduced to help a mother’s milk come in when she is apart from her baby, while the scent of the mother also has a calming effect on the baby.'

 

Tatyana explained that 3 stitched hearts are used for each mum and baby...one to be with the baby, one to be with the mother and a spare one. The hearts are regularly swapped back and forth between the mum and baby.

What a wonderful and simple idea. I was so moved by Tatyana's explanation of why she was stitching that big pile of cut out flannel hearts.

Lent!

DH and I breakfasted on pancakes on Shrove Tuesday...yes, I remembered! Lol

And of course Lent started the next day. A friend wrote on Facebook, asking what she should ' give up for Lent'? I suggested she give up worrying...😉

Then I saw this meme! 

Regular readers would know my fondness for decluttering...so I'm doing my own version of this. I may not get to 40 bags but any bag that gets filled and leaves our home, is a bonus. Tally so far is 11. 

Wool on Sunday...

For a number of years I've been 'pinning things' on my Pinterest boards. probably about 3 years ago I pinned a pattern from the Deramores website with the idea that I could purchase the pattern if and when I needed it. It was the sweetest baby blanket.
Then last year with the arrival of little Anthea, I thought that it was time to purchase the pattern.

I went to the website and found that the pattern was out of stock. So I wrote to Deramores asking when it would be available. The answer came back that I should check the website in a week's time and if the pattern was still out of stock that would mean that they would no longer be stocking it. I found after the week was up that it was still out of stock. I thought that I could probably make the blankie from the picture but decided to use another pattern to make Anthea's blanket. ( which her mum loved!)

When someone pins something from one of my Pinterest boards, of course I get an email. I usually don't bother to check out what they have pinned but the other day I did. And it was the Deramores' baby blanket. I thought how disappointed people must be if they follow the link and find the pattern isn't available...and then I followed the link. And what a surprise...'out of stock' was NOT written anywhere on the pattern listing.
So I bought a copy...it's not digital and is being posted from the UK.
So here is this pattern that I fell in love with 3 or so years ago.

In other yarn related 'stuff', I have 2 WiPs at the moment...both gifts, and occasionally I have been joining donated squares into blankets for K4BN.

Linking up this post with Rainbow Hare's Wool on Sunday. Janine has finished some beautiful projects in this last month!

 

February's Morning Tea...

I've written a few posts about our parish morning teas. It's a great way for people to gather, catch up over  a cuppa and have lots of laughs usually too. Many organisations have capitalised on people's love of morning teas and use the idea for fundraising.  We all know of the Biggest Morning tea concept which raises much needed funds for cancer; and who could forget all those 'pink foods'!

Anglicare, which is the welfare arm of the Anglican Church encourages parishes to host what is called a Heart Morning Tea to help raise funds for the services that they provide. So our February morning tea became a bit special. What a great excuse to load up a table with goodies, fill the teapots and put out the china plates! 

And what a great excuse to invite some extra guests to help with the fundraising. So the Red Hat ladies from the nearby group joined us!

My friend Patricia worked away in the kitchen...

Our lovely priest Father Bruce also helped out on the tea/coffee counter...

Two Anglicare staff joined us and Jan gave a talk on  Anglicare services...ahem...she focussed on Aged Care...but I'm sure they didn't mean me! lol

Caroline was the other staff member, representing the nursing staff. Originally the nursing service was called St Luke's but is now under the Anglicare banner. St Luke's staff cared for my mum all those years ago.

We had a lovely morning and those Red Hat ladies are real characters I can tell you! We've told them they are welcome back any time!! And we raised $200 for Anglicare.
 ( Aussie readers...Jan recommended that all Aussies of a certain age (60 ish?) register with the government website My Aged Care, so that if circumstances change suddenly and you need services, you are already in the system. ( at a stressful time this could be a godsend and save time accessing services) After DH's medical dramas of late, we will register. You can register before 65 but eligibility for services is from 65. )