The Life of Granny [stripe blanket]

Shortly after Millas birth I went on creative rampage. Perhaps thats something about a woman? The need to create something with my hands? Anyway, on a cold and rainy day I was picked up by a dear friend and taken to spotlight where I purchased all of this wonderfully coloured arcylic yarn.

I would love to be able to afford to make a wollen blanket, unfortunately that time has not yet come. No matter.

I used the granny stripe pattern from Attic 24, she write superb patterns and I had previously had success with her Ripple pattern too.

Over summer Granny went by the way side and this is where her woeful tale begins. She was forgotten about and put inside her red bag where she stayed for months. She collected a little dust so was stored away in our smelly spew cupboard (thats another story), and eventually was transferred to the spare bedroom wardrobe where she was forgotten about.

Granny layed about for quite some time, dreaming of her moment to be resurrected.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, her creator (thats me) felt a little chilly one night and decided it was time to complete her, only to discover she had no more yarn!

"Thats right!" she (I) exclaimed, realising why Granny was put aside in the first place. It wasn't because she was so long and boring, it was because she needed more rows!

Creator went to spotlight the next day, armed with colour codes she kept from the original yarn labels and sadly discovered only ONE of the colours was still on the shelf! The rest of the colours had been deemed "last season" and had all been sold off.

Granny wept. She was unfinished. With no other creative ideas, Creator purchased that last ball of yarn and whipped up a border for Granny. It was the least she could do.

Grannys life didn't work out the way it had originally been intended, but she still functions perfectly and lives a very full life covering her owners laps. 

Don't tell her, but Granny is the width of a queen bed, but isn't quite enough length ways :(

READ MORE:
Other creative endeavours
Progress made on Granny
My ripple blanket

What do you think of Granny? Have you ever had that 'need' to create after the birth of your baby?

Sisterhood - Zariahs Journey

Hello Sisters,

In February I put out a call of help for a little girl named Zariah. She had travelled all the way to Christchurch, New Zealand with her (pregnant) Mum and Dad to receive treatment for Leukaemia.

Mum and Dad were having to sleep in the ward with her while she was being treated because the Earthquakes in Christchurch had severely limited the hospitals facilities.

We heard about this opportunity from the blog, Hazel Loves Design. And we decided to help. How could we not?

We gathered our resources together and sent Zariah and her family picture books, felts, colouring in pencils and books, decorations for her room, batches of home baking, delicious drink sachets, chocolate and more chocolate, and $200 for the family to spend on whatever they wanted (we suggested a date, but understand that bills still need to be payed!).

We dropped the parcels off at their door, seeking no recognition or thanks, and we sat back knowing that our jobs had been done.

For one moment, smiles, because of us. Isn't that the greatest reward?

Thankfully their little family were able to be moved into a Ronald McDonald home, a great space for families to stay close to the hospital while their loved ones are being looked after.

Unfortunately I was not able to get any photos of the gifts you sent Zariah and her family but I want to THANK YOU for hearing the call of a little family in New Zealand and most of all for responding. If you sent a gift, prayed a special prayer or thought a special thought, this small victory is for you.

I am happy to tell you that this little family is back home and thriving. Zariah is still continuing her treatment and is slowly losing her hair and has returned to Kindy. The Mama is due to give birth in July.

Love you.

READ MORE:
How to belong to The Sisterhood
The Sisterhood responding to a mother of three and a house fire

Heart Stopping Moments - The Waiting Game

As soon as I hit "publish" my heart skips a beat.

For something I was so excited about, so sure of, suddenly I am in panic mode.

"What if no one understands?" "What if I was too excited and didn't think realistically?" "What if people just don't care?" "What if I'm not well know enough for this to reach the right people"

Self doubt creeps in and I question my very motives.

This is what happens whenever I release a new Sisterhood initiative: These ideas, they just come to me, they are sparked from life and circumstances and I think of a solution. "The Sisterhood could be involved!" I tell myself. I immediately set about organising myself so you can know about this grand idea.

Excitement builds and now you are in the know! 

A few emails trickle in, people get a little bit excited, others I don't hear from and that surprises me.

I start to panic.

I pray, "God, is this going to flop? Was this really you!?" and He tells me to be still, just like he does every other moment of the day.

"I've got this" I hear him say, almost as if He is rolling His great big - God like eyes at me.

So I am still, and I play the waiting game.

This is by far the hardest part of pulling off anything within The Sisterhood. Waiting. For you. To hopefully respond. As I navigate emails, give out my address, suggest ideas to people, try to decipher who I will actually receive anything from. This is the messy part. All those emails. All that time. All those ideas. All those people.

People (including myself) sure are messy. But you know, the mess is worth it, because what we are able to achieve when we pull together and give the little that we have is life-pacting*.

And I think life was made to be together. Not struggling doing it alone but pure community. Sharing, loving, being. That community alone is worth all of the heart stopping messy moments.

Truely really, I love every moment.

Be still my beating heart.


Pssst- FYI - the gifts have already started pouring in. Its amazing.

*Life-pacting. Just a little term I make up. Impacting lives. You can use it too.


READ MORE:
How to belong to The Sisterhood
Why and who we are sending a LOVE BOMB to
How The Sisterhood responded to a Mum of three and a house fire

How To Find Out The Size Of Your Blog Header

The header on your personal website is one of the first things your viewers will see, so it needs to represent you well and give the viewer an instant download as to what they can expect, along with being visually appealing.

All around the blog world I see headers that are off to the left, or are super duper huge like they have just uploaded a whole photo. This is so frustrating for me because I know it is such a simple fix. I see these little fixes all around the place and I want to email the website owner and offer my help, but can see how that would seem rude.

If you're thinking "that's exactly whats happening on my blog right now" then this is for you, so keep reading, I might just be able to help you!

Your header is off center and massive because it's the wrong size for the space where your header should be. 


You need to make a header that is a specific size for your website.


Here's how you find out the size your header needs to be

• To find out the size of the space open up google chrome (its free to download, and in my opinion the best browser you can use right now) (You can also open Firefox and it will do almost the same thing)
• Right click on your blogs tab line - This will open up a little drop down menu, click "inspect element"("Get info" in Firefox)

• This Inspect Element button will open up a new area in the lower half of your chrome browser. Here, it will bring up all of the HTML that you are viewing on your page, and highlighted, it will show you the area that you just clicked on. It might look a little scary.
• If you happen to move your mouse and lose the info, on the top side of your page hover your mouse over the area you want to view (your tabs (because this is the width of your page))
• Alternatively, you can use the up and down button on your keypad to scroll through the lines of code. With each line you scroll down, on the top half of your page a new section will be highlighted. Keep scrolling until your tabs are highlighted, like below.

• Can you see 1040x30 px? These are the pixels. The length of my header needs to be 1040 pixels.
• As for the width (or the height) thats up to you. My current one is 300 pixels. 400 pixels is nice too. 
• So, my headers dimensions are 1040x300pixels

Next week on the Basic Blog Design series, I'll be showing you how to create a header using your specific dimensions, so write them down and stick them to the fridge, and we'll revisit those pixels.

If you would like to play along but you are already confused, please email me, sophieslim@moo2.co.nz , I'd love to help :)

READ MORE:
Must Know Side Bar Tips

How did you figure out the size of your header? And where do you do the designing your blog elements? Leave a comment and let me know!