Silver threads and golden needles and pearl like pins...

  Sewing and mending and altering.   That's what we're spending the school holidays doing.   I'm determined that The Diva inherit the stitching skills handed down to me by my Mother and Grandmother and that she know how to hem, design, dart and mend like a pro.   She's more interested in making patterns with the pins at the moment but some embroidered French style lingerie is in the works and she's having a ball with that.   There's more to passing on these skills, that just the sharing of knowledge.   It's the soft words, and the hand over hand working, and the praise or the giggles when things don't go quite the way they're supposed to. It's the well censored cursing when the bobbin tangles....I believe finickety-shindigger was the last one we came up with. It's the choosing of threads for embroidery or gathering of lace for trim. It's the making of bangles from buttons and the scrounging for enough of the right size and colour to do so.   My memories of my Mother and Grandmother are all caught up in these Heirloom skills. The sewing and the growing and cooking and cake making and fashioning fondant roses and designing embroidery samplers.   I want that for my daughter too.   ...Mimi...

What's really important?

  I asked my daughter to tell me the favourite part of her day today.   She said:   When you woke me up with a kiss on the forehead. When we sang along together in the car. When that butterfly came and sat on the handrail on the back stairs right next to us. When we watched The Munsters together. When we made that skirt that was too big, fit me better. When you helped me clean my room.   She didn't say:   When you bought me something. When we went shopping. When we spent money.   You don't need money to raise a family.   You need love, patience and the willingness to give them your time, not things.   ...Mimi...    

Each day is a little life....Blue skies....

  I adore this time of year.   It's Spring here and the warmer change in the air has seen us peeling off the coats we scurry out the door in at seven a.m., to bathe our lily white limbs in the sunshine at midday.   There's a hint of promise in the air too. What is it about the early flowering Jasmine, the warm breeze, and the blue skies that imbues us all with such hope?   Hope that the coming warmer days will see happy times, that the not too distant Festive season will see us gathered together, feasting and enjoying one anothers company. Hope that good fortune will continue to smile upon our family. Hope that the burdens of those we love will ease and prosperity will come their way.   There's a new life waiting in the wings as my son and his wife welcome a new daughter in a few months, and a significant anniversary to celebrate.   Life is good.     ...Mimi...