How to make powder puffs and luxury body powder (gifts and for yourself!)

This is my third post that is an extension of my E book "How to make ALL of your Christmas presents". Week by week I'm trying to get through lots of projects to make upcoming Birthdays and Christmas just wonderful but within my budget.
This craft post is an answer to a lovely letter I had asking me how do I make the powders to go with the powder puffs I showed in the E book (and earlier in the blog as well).

Well, I love powder. And powder puffs. If you know someone loves powder as I do then this is a lovely gift to make.

Firstly the powder puffs. This started when I saw in a department store beautiful full luxurious Hollywood style powder puffs for over $50 each! They were GORGEOUS but wow! I also looked on Etsy and found equally stunning ones and in all kinds of pretty colours and was in love! But I thought I could make them and it turned out to be very easy.

Start by buying some beautiful fur material in your fabric store. I would not do this on line as the feel of it is important. So I go along feeling the ones in the colours I like! You want it to feel lovely and soft. This is usually sold as fabric to make soft toys. The sky is the limit. I considered doing leopard print ones or ruby red... but typically I ended up with soft pastels. I made them quite large, around the size of my hand if I spread my fingers out as far as I can.

Make them by tracing a circle on the non fluffy side a centimetre or so larger than the finished product will be. I traced around a small plate. Make as if you are making a little pillow, sew fluffy sides inside, leave a gap and turn inside out. Then by hand you will sew up the little gap. I decided they needed filling... you could use soft toy filler, I used quilt backing about 3 cm thick. This just makes them seem plump and luxurious. I cut these a little smaller than my fur circles and slid these in before I sewed them up. Once sewn up you need to make a bow for the top of each one. You could do contrasting or matching ribbons. The important thing is to have luxurious and lush looking ribbon and form a lovely bow then stitch this on going right through the whole powder puff. I found when I turned the powder puff around the right way I needed to release some of the fur caught in the stitches to re fluff it. I used a needle to gently free some fluff. Some spots I trimmed with scissors until I was happy with the shape and how they looked. Just fiddle around until it looks full and fluffy.

These look really pretty, soft, feminine and lovely on your dressing table.
I ended up making a heap as most were for gifts. 

As I said in the book, if you know something will suit a few of your family members or friends then it is quick and easy to make quite a few of one thing. Plus a spare or two for unexpected gifts. This just saves you time. And fabric like this is sold by a wide metre so you will get at least several from even the small amount you might buy. I think I bought 25 cms of white when I made these. These can be given as a gift on their own. You could spray them with perfume and wrap in cellophane or place in a gift box lined with tissue paper. I used cellophane bags and tied them up with a ribbon. Or you can go on and make up a box or container of power and give as a complete gift.

Now for the powder as Nanna Chel asked me how I make it. The first time I did this as a gift I had round boxes with lids. I lined each box with florists plastic wrap. Cellophane would do too. I filled them with my powder. Then I perfumed it then added the powder puff on top. (instructions for perfuming coming up...) I added the lid and tied them up with big bows. If you are going to do this it is easier to choose your containers first then make the powder puffs to fit than the other way around... I found out the hard way by making powder puffs and then having trouble getting boxes just the right size for them to sit on top inside with the powder!

This time I used glass containers I found in the op shop. This one was $2 and just right...

You could also use a tin or other suitable ceramic or glass container. For myself I use powder everyday so I use a crystal bowl (also from op shop) that I stuck to a stand which was a candle stick to make a pretty container... For instructions see my post on how to make your own Cake Stands.

For the powder itself... powder is inexpensive. It's the perfumed and specially packaged powder that is more costly but unscented powder is easy to buy in large containers for a few dollars. So buying something like that and scenting it myself is the easiest option. I choose a perfume I love and simply spray inside the container a few times, place the powder inside, re spray one or two sprays onto the powder (it will absorb) and also spray the powder puff once or twice. Then shut the lid and keep it closed. This works really well to scent the whole container of powder. You could do this using lavender oil or any floral oil. Because it is absorbent it holds the scent. If you know someone loves a certain scent then that is helpful. You know the samples you get at the department store of a tiny vial of perfume? These are enough to perfume a batch of powder. It doens't hurt to ask for these I have had luck many times!

You can also add shimmer or glitter. I have used shimmer powder that is sold as body shimmer and I have used very fine glitter. This is lovely for a little girl. The body shimmer is sold with powders and body products in many bigger beauty shops or even a natural coloured shimmer eyeshadow crushed up would work. You don't need much, just mix it in.

The next alternative is to use cornflour. it is natural, unscented... this will suit some people and it can also be scented.

Scented or plain powder has a lot of uses other than as body powder. Placed in a salt or pepper shaker or a sieve it can be used as bed powder. Fine hotels sprinkle the finest little bit of bed powder over your sheets. It perfumes them and feels heavenly and is considered a great luxury. It is too when you wish you changed the sheets and couldn't, this trick gives you fresh sheets for a night! If you have never experienced this then try it! You use the smallest amount and it feels gorgeous. A few times when I have been ill and dying to change the bed I have done this and it has made the bed feel fresh until I have been able to change it then next day.

Powder makes wonderful dry shampoo and can save you on a bad hair day.

Sprinkled over a mattress or carpet and rubbed in, powder can absorb odour and dampness and when vacuumed out it will have refreshed things that cannot be washed.

Placed inside sneakers or shoes it absorbs smells and dampness.

Rubbed into a grease mark it can absorb the oil and remove the mark.

This is a really inexpensive and luxury gift and really pretty and feminine. Now I am thinking I really want to look for powder blue and softest pink fur to make some more powder puffs and watch for more lovely containers for this. Powder adds a little bit of luxury to every day! 

I accept not everyone loves powder. My Nan did and I obviously do but it doesn't suit everyone. Thats ok, I have so many things lined up as gift ideas and plenty for men as well. I usually have to think harder on gifts for men. 

Thank you for all the letters about the trims and braids post! That one was so easy but effective and I got lovely mail responses! I really appreciate comments and mail. Thank you! Also for all the letters about the ebook and all the ideas it gave you. I love to hear the excitement of "I can do it!" especially from people who have felt that they are not very crafty.

This weekend I am starting on gift bags, cards, tags and decorations! If you could see my dining room table!  Using what I have in my collection of all kinds of left overs from craft projects over the last few years I am making all the cards and decorative things ready for December. I can't resist glitter so it will be everywhere! Doing this though, gets me in the mood for Christmas coming!

Have a lovely weekend! xxx

An easy project... adding a trim.

Following on from my ebook we are working on Christmas and gifts. I hope between the book, the time was have allowed and the ideas each week that I post, that this is the best and most economical Christmas ever!

Today I'm talking about trims and braids. This is a super easy craft or sewing project. As really you can take something ready made and by adding something to it make it into something special.

I have sewn braids on to tea towels to make them lovely for my friends kitchens. But braids and trims can add something to cushions, hand towels, table cloths, napkins, pillowcases... so many things!

One of my first sewing projects I ever made was cot sheets and I edged them with a braid with little ducks along them! It was so easy but looked so nice! Strictly straight line sewing!

Most of this work would be lovely for a young girl. With a little assistance they can create all kinds of presents and have a great time doing it (and learning!)

Like all projects you have to keep an eye on the costs. I have collected braids and trims and bought some from Spotlight. On a project like tea towels you can add trim just to the bottom edge. This will look beautiful and be enough. In a couple of cases where I have heaps of trim I have sewn right around the four sides.

I've found lots of trims in op shops. I always watch out! Many times they are old fashioned rick rack braid which is lovely. Also many cheap shops have laces and trims and I always go through them. I have also cut trims from bedspreads, lace from curtains etc that I have  bought in op shops and ended up with vast amounts for a couple of dollars.

My tea towels are being teamed up with crochet dish cloths in kitchen themed sets... all the things I make end up kind of going together and they work out as themed gifts... (usually!)

Again knowing your friends kitchen colours is the thing! Some of my friends are internet friends so I just have to ask! I have two friends who have red in their kitchens and I found red pom pom trim!

And a family member with yellow...

I have neutrals still to go, having trouble with that one!  

Other years I have also made my own tea towels using vintage materials. They are the best! But this year I am short of vintage materials as I made pillowcases with them!

The sky is the limit with this. A row of little trains across the top of a little boys sheet or a row of chickens on a baby towel. Or beautiful ribbon or lace around a pillowcase for a girlfriend or your Mum...  It is such easy sewing and can be stitched by hand, you do not have to have a sewing machine.

It is worth asking Mum and Nan and older people if they have braids in their sewing collections. Many times people keep all these things and no longer use them and are thrilled someone might make something with them!

Whenever I make gifts like these I make a supply for my own kitchen. Beautiful tea towels have so many uses. Covering a picnic, wrapping around scones, keeping food warm, lining a basket... as well as drying dishes!

And I make some extra sets for unexpected gifts. Some things are fairly basic and are going to come in handy at some point so a few extras are likely to be a money saver.

In my last post I mentioned save an old Christmas tree if you have one or see one for a beautiful craft I have coming up. Add to that save and collect any pine cones, interesting gum nuts or cones from other trees. Mostly we can pick these up for free. So watch out as they will give you free craft materials in a few weeks time!

The best Christmas ever starts now!

This week I released my first ever ebook, How to make ALL your Christmas Presents. (It is available on the blog and on the face book page).
Thank you for all the lovely comments and letters!

Over the next few weeks I am posting all kinds of ways to continue to save money at Christmas and have the best Christmas ever.

Yes, we are starting now! Because to make your own gifts, cards and treats it will happen if we get started with a realistic amount of time to do everything!

The ebook covered a series of ways to make your presents suitable for those you are giving to, that will be fabulous and inexpensive. Also how to present things to give them that wow factor. It also covered how to choose things that suit you and your own skills. You do not have to be crafty to make all your own presents!

The savings can be incredible. Of course it all depends on what you have been spending. Taking the pressure off financially and having money instead for the emergency fund, a family holiday or pay off debt is wonderful. And Christmas need not be "less".  In fact I feel I can make lots of spare gifts and give to more people than I might otherwise be able to afford to. It makes Christmas better!

My worst scenario used to be the last minute rush. You know, when you are desperate and have no time left, and you buy something way too expensive as you simply have to get something!  It's a terrible feeling! I've avoided this in the last few years just by starting early. This one change alone is a big saving if you have tended to do that.

So lets take the pressure off financially and work wise and do a little bit each week from now on in. I take the same approach to birthdays. In our family most of the birthdays are in December and January so everything happens at once!

A few weeks ago I posted the wash cloths and cleaning cloths I was making in a bobble stitch I had found on You Tube.  Since then I have used up the smaller amounts of cotton that were left over to make dish cloths. I have always seen them in pictures on other blogs and on Pinterest and thought how sweet they looked.  For these I have used Shell Stitch which I learned also on You Tube.

The thing is for anyone who can crochet if you can do chain and double crochet you can do these stitches. Both the bobble stitch and the shell stitch are made up purely of chain and double crochets, its just the order you do them in!

If you cannot crochet but would like to learn it is really easy. You can learn and be crocheting in a day. Ask someone to show you or use You Tube and set aside half an hour to get started. Learn how to chain and then how to so single and double stitches. It just takes a little practice and is really good fun!

I have found quite a bit of cotton in op shops and if I see it I get it! Otherwise my cotton comes from Bendigo Woollen Mills. They will send you out a colour chart and they also have big sales so that is when Mum and I get our cotton. It is beautiful quality.

In the e book I talked about choosing things to make that your recipient will love. I find men the hardest.
My uncle likes natural products, things without chemicals, natural cleaning products... stuff like that. He is also big on cleaning. So I made him wash cloths and dish cloths and added natural bamboo cleaning cloths and natural soap. I know he will really like that and yay I have a male present completed!

Knowing the colour schemes of friends and family is how I work out suitable colours for gifts. My daughter Chloe has pale blues in her kitchen...

And then I have the colour schemes of my sister in laws and my Mum and various friends. So I try and make something suitable for each of them. 

Mostly I make stacks of three and tie them up with a ribbon. Some will go with other items like tea towels with crochet edges and some will go into hampers I am making up with all kinds of kitchen things in them. It all adds up and these are really quick to do. And they are great for using up left over cottons as each one is only small and contrast edges use up another left over colour!

These are some of the things I am doing but the things you might work on can be entirely different, things suited to your skills and talents, and that was what the  ebook covered.

If you would like to join in on some of the projects as we lead up to Christmas and treat it as a challenge, watch out in op shops etc for an old Christmas tree. a couple of projects are going to use old Christmas trees. I bought a new tree in a box for $4 as the box was damaged. I found this in the January sales... and I have big plans for this $4 tree. Also in the lead up to last Christmas I saw several trees in boxes thrown out on the side of the road as well as in op shops. So grab one if you see one!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Today is lovely, sunny and I have a lovely day to look forward to! xxx

Planning for Christmas and my new E book!

I love Christmas and I love gift giving and all the celebrations that go with it. For many years I planned to make all my own Christmas presents and often made some, but I never really managed to make that many! Until the last two years when I finally did it! I made almost all my presents for Christmas and for Birthdays as well. I even has spares!

My friend Helen adores Christmas as much as any person I ever knew! She is probably planning her decorations as we speak. She makes it gorgeous and so special. But she has it right, she would not go into debt doing all this.

There is a lot of pressure on everyone financially and socially. Gifts can be part of that and people feel they need to participate in a level of gift giving that they know is going to leave them in debt come the New Year.

You know there really are ways around it. And ways to still give beautiful and thoughtful gifts for very little actual money.

One fo the keys is to start now. We all do the same thing... if it is the last minute we will buy and pay anything as there just is no time to do better! I have felt that sick feeling before.

I have written my first e book! I am really passionate that anyone can make all their gifts. And that if you have children they can be involved and they will love it. You do not have to be crafty. You do not have to be a good cook. There are ways for all of us whatever our talents might be.

Starting now (or earlier) there is time to make so many beautiful things. Part of that is snooping and knowing what the people you are going to give to like, need and love. 

The e book takes you through a process that has you making things that are easy for you and matching them to gifts suited to those you are giving to. They will be things you never even thought of but you will be so proud of!

My book is available on my blog front page or via my store on Facebook. I really hope it saves people so much money. That is the aim. We do not need to spend a fortune to have a beautiful Christmas. Think of the other things we could be doing with that money. Paying of debt, a family holiday, an emergency fund that could be a saviour in the future. Security is so much easier to live with than debt!

Over winter I've been working on projects to give and now coming up is some cooking I do. In October I always do fruit cakes. I do them then as by December they taste divine, as they "mature".  The week before Christmas I usually make coconut ice, shortbread and a few extra things. They are all I do near Christmas.

One trick is to make big quantities of these things for extra gifts. So I do a little production line.

Pretty packaging/presentation is part of things being "gift worthy" My coconut ice every year is something I would get complaints about if I didn't make it!

Last year we needed gifts for young girls. I made lolly kebabs which cost about $1 each. They were a great success...

I think lots about wrapping and packaging. I use lace from curtains (buy op shop lace curtains and wash them up and dye them) or tulle... as both are much much cheaper than ribbons and bows purchased from the store. Tulle cut into strips makes fabulous bows very cheaply.

If you want to save money this year make a little plan. Really you can save so much money and have the loveliest Christmas ever. Just a little planning is a saviour.

Christmas is also a hard time for many. It is a better time for us if we do something beautiful for someone that we don't even know or know from a distance enough to know this is a difficult time for them. Make a few extra things or a hamper and be ready. This will add joy to your Christmas in volumes.

This Christmas can be your best Christmas ever. The things that we loved as children are clues about what kids love and remember. I asked my girls last year what were the things they loved the most. Chloe said eating supper under the Christmas tree with the twinkly lights and her pillow was one of her favourite things. You see what I mean? Creating memories is really what it is about. She doesn't remember the gift that year but she remembers how much she loved that!

Today I am off to Spotlight for a few little things that allow me to keep working on gifts tonight. Ohhh I am so excited!
xxx

Using what you have.

I am really in luck that rustic and salvaged things are everywhere in home ware stores and magazines. The prices for some old things are just amazing. Like my old ladders I use for my tea towels and things would be so much in a store but I just wait until I find things and consider it the thrill of the hunt!

If you love the look of romantic old things use what you have first of all! If say, you have old watering cans, google or use Pinterest and search "decorating with watering cans" or just "old watering cans" and you will have a list of ideas. Old rakes are another that I keep seeing, oars, crates, baskets, gates... (ooh gates as a headboard for a bed are gorgeous!) and so on. Giving old things new life is just wonderful.

After Lucy's wedding I took a while to choose the photos I would like enlarged. So many to choose from! In the end I have chosen the ones that really mean the most to me, for various reasons, like the one of my Dad holding Lucy's head in his hands and kissing her...

In my wardrobe I had 5 large sturdy frames in a dark wood. I just painted these with ceiling white and this gave me a matching series. They are in a row in the hallway and look lovely!

They look great and so the cost of framing was $0!

I have admired photos framed in old window frames. And during the year I found window frames on the side of the road in front of a house being renovated (on our street!) They were filthy but just what I wanted and with that old fashioned think glass with little bubbles through it...

Well, I did need some help and Andy made backing boards to do this but I love them!

I added the old keys which I had saved somewhere along the line...

This all really fits in our home and I'm really happy. And the best bit is every time I walk along the hallway my heart is lifted seeing all these images of the most happy day.

This was a project I was dying to do and finding the windows was perfect timing. 

The very best up cycling projects though are using things that have been in the family. Our coffee table is so rustic... when I was little I remember Mum cutting the legs off an old table (turned legs too) to make a low table for us to play at. That today is our coffee table. I just love it! My dining room table was my Nana's dining room table and I love having that. They are interesting and have a story...

A beautiful blog with so many ideas like these that inspires me so much is Miss Gracie's House. Her family portraits are just divine as well. She uses old birdcages, gates, all kinds of "junk" and her home is so gorgeous!

Inspiration like this keeps me really from ever wanting to buy things from the shops. Collecting instead is so much fun.

I hope you might be inspired to use something you have lurking in the shed for a decorating project! 

xxx

Happiness and pets.

One of the antidotes to stress and worries of life is nature and animals. The beauty of nature just amazes me. I always think flowers and beautiful gardens are a glimpse of what heaven might be like. The stars, moon, rainbows... it is all incredible to me. And seeing these things and being somewhere where I can see the sea or watch the birds always has a wonderful effect on me. It is good therapy, it's calming and peaceful. We just need to be in the real world.

Pets kind of bring nature right up close! What sweetness they bring into our lives. Sweetness and trust.

Well, this is the story of our new pet! I had no intention of getting a new animal... but here we are with a new addition! 

My Mum has a house one street away from our house. She is on the farm and has this little place in the city which she uses quite a lot. Anyway I am often running over there to water the garden and one thing or another. Every time I walk over or back I pass a tiny house on the corner and a little bell rings. Like a dinner bell... and I always wonder WHO rings that bell and what does it mean?

Finally a couple of months ago I was talking to another lady who lives just next to this house. And I said "who rings that bell!?" She told me it is Ricky, he can hear peoples footsteps and he rings his bell. My mind exploded thinking what the heck who is this person!? 

Well, Ricky is a parrot. lol And it turns out the lady I am speaking to feeds him everyday and she takes me in to see who is ringing this mystery bell! 

Oh my goodness! You know I like birds and here is a beautiful friendly parrot saying hello to me.

And what a sad story. The lady feeds him as the old man who owned him died several years ago.  The mans wife then fed Ricky but she is now ill and elderly and has gone into a nursing home. No one lives there. Just Ricky.  The neighbour Pauline has kindly gone in and fed and watered him and talked to him, every day ever since. And before actually as the old lady no longer could even get outside to do these things. But in between Ricky is all on his own with no one to talk to and so he rings his bell whenever he hears footsteps....

I could cry.

Well, you know what happened next... I said I will take him, I love birds and he can come live with me. 

For the next three weeks I went over and fed and talked to him as he has been there for years... and he soon was friendly with me and eating from my hand. I took him different foods and soon found apples were his favourite and so far they still win! I note he eats up and down avoiding the peel and then when it's only peel left he throws it away. Like a kid.

Last weekend we finally moved him to our place. He didn't skip a beat. He seems so happy! He is just interested in everything we do. He can hear Andy's van coming up the back lane and the garage door open and he starts singing and ringing that bell!

He eats out of my hand and is just as good as gold.

He was just so lonely and this had gone one for several years. If I had known ... but I had no idea he was there.

The thing is the day I moved him I just decided to do it. It was time. It was daunting as I had to catch him... but it was easy in the end.

Once I got him home and he settled in and was eating etc I got a message that the old lady had just died. How strange is that? 

He is truly a wonderful addition and he is funny and sweet. I just love him!

He gets so much company now and I note I can hear Andy talking to him when I'm in the kitchen and he thinks I can't hear :)

But it is mutual he keeps me company and is so lovely to have around.

And he is a good dancer. Any music or rhythm and off he goes which the first time was just so funny I could hardly believe it. 

So this is one of those things that I think is just meant to be and you couldn't plan for it in a thousand years!

Have a wonderful weekend. xxx

Wonderful news for fans of Laine's Letters.

As most of you will know I have followed Laine'e Letters since my daughters were little and they are both in their later twenties now. 

When I had my first computer I found Laine's Letters and just like that I had stumbled onto the most perfect blog for a Christian woman to read. Well, for any woman to read as the words were pure encouragement.

Laine became my friend, my Bible study, my encourager and she gave me a lot of conviction that what I was doing at home, bringing up my children was the most important and valuable work. The world does not tell you this. In fact the world tells you to give your children to anyone that will take them (including strangers amazingly) and go do something worthwhile! While I never believed that, Laine gave me the teaching to never waver under any of those kind of pressures. You know, the girls now say to me their childhoods were like a fairytale. So happy and wonderful. It was all worth it!

A few years ago on a savings forum I "met" my friend Helen. She just seemed so similar to me and we loved the same things. As we got to know each other Helen said how when her boys were little she read a blog called Laine's Letters! Well, from that moment I knew Helen and I were in the same "club" and we both felt the same way. We knew what we were talking about, we had travelled the same path!

This happened again when I met Kaye through my blog. She was instantly a wonderful friend full of encouragement and had brought her three girls up loving Laine's Letters.

It is so easy to talk to these two friends as we all had Laine's influence on our lives.

Now I have spoken many times about the thingsI learned from Laine. But it was more than learning it was friendship and encouragement. You felt as if you were getting  a personal letter every time you read a Laine's Letter. Of course Laine had no idea how much we loved her.

Earlier this year my daughter got married. This got me thinking a lot about the things Laine used to say about older women needing to teach and help the younger women. I was really lucky when I had small children I had fantastic women to teach me and help me. I have posted about them too as they influenced me so much.

So I went to Laine's Letters to study up from a new perspective. And the website was not there anymore!  I really felt upset! I posted on face book did anyone know where were Laine's Letters? I got an answer that lead me to the Wayback Machine which is an internet archive and ended up finding archived copies of Laine's Letters and recipes. What a relief.

In March I posted two blog posts about finding the letters and provided links to them. After that I had so many letters and emails from ladies who had been looking for Laine! 

But then the unthinkable happened. This link stopped working at all. And I could find no solution. Sad day that was.

All along, when I first posted about Laine and when I started my blog (which is less than a year ago) I thought "I wonder if Laine is out there somewhere and she will ever see or hear how much I talk about her and how much I loved everything she wrote?" I mean the internet is like that, you don't know where your words will end up. As Laine didn't know how far her words had reached either.

Well, last week the unthinkable happened. I got an email from Laine.
It was so unthinkable I didn't believe it. I rang Helen and told her to pray and I forwarded the email to her. And she messaged me back "It IS Laine" lol 

The excitement between Helen, Kaye and me has been ridiculous. And what to say to Laine? I had to really think about it! I have always wanted to write to her and say thank you, thank you for all your words, help, guidance, friendship, advice...  but Laine would not have ever known here we were in Australia waiting for her next letter to be posted and running our family lives fuelled by the inspiration she gave us. My girls had a better upbringing because of her.

Well, I eventually got my act together to take advantage of being able to tell Laine this myself.

The exciting news is Laine is working on getting all her letters back online! By the end of the year she hopes to have a new website up and running. AND she hopes to be writing again! I am so excited I can hardly wait! 

I know many people reading this will be excited. Like me you are probably dying to hear "what happened next?" and because we have all grown up with Laine our children are grown, we have probably mostly moved to the next stage, Grand children even...  I said to Laine I brought up my children with her. I want to go through the next stage with her. Be a Grand Mother and be prepared to be a Titus 2 woman with her. To have her alongside me again as somehow along side her I did better!

Another aspect is that Laine helped my budget. Laine never wasted anything. She fed and looked after her family and stretched her budget. I remember her saying she had $3 left to buy a gift for someone. And finding a suitable gift for $3 she did as staying within her budget was more important than anything. I always remembered teachings like these. Always.

The way Laine treated her husband, made their bedroom private and romantic.... these things influenced me so much. I have never forgotten.

Now, if you are a young Mum and don't know about Laine when the website is up you can see all this for yourself. Her words have not dated they will help you as they did me.

Or if you are my age and never knew of Laine hopefully her words will help you with where you are at now. You will see....

There are so many amazing things here. It is amazing to me that Laine has read my blog!
It is such a big thing and so wonderful to hear from Laine and brings me so much happiness to know the letters will be available again and to look forward to more. I feel very grateful as really it's an answer to prayer to have the chance to thank Laine.

To top it off Laine is writing a guest post for Bluebirds! I can't even say that without a tear in my eye.

If you have a message for Laine please leave a comment as I will make sure she sees them. I don't think Laine realises how many of us she helped and inspired! In fact I'm sure she doesn't.

As soon as the new website is up and running I will post links. I can hardly wait!

And as if to celebrate Spring has arrived and flowers are coming out in my garden! What a beautiful start to Spring I have had! xxx