Been Inspired!

So, what has been inspiring me lately?

• I have been reading 'The Ministry of Motherhood'. It is a great book - one where you want to go back and read it again before you even finish! It is all about something I think we can often forget in the running of the day to day activities. I guess it is about looking beyond ourselves and our current circumstances to see the greater accomplishments that are being made piece by piece, day to day!

• I have loved teaching Sunday School this year! I will finish up the end of this term, but hopefully still go in and help out for the first few weeks of next term. There is just so much that can be done - I just find it fun to create that familiar routine for the little ones, and then be as creative as 1 hour allows us to be!

• Reading 'Fasting' by Jentezen Franklin. A great book! I am teaching a short lesson at our youth prayer and fasting camp, which I really am looking forward to! I was thinking, I don't think I really fasted much as a younger teenager! It wasn't until a little later that I started this discipline. Jentzen Franklin talks about the '3-fold cord' that is not easily broken. He explains how prayer, fasting and giving is like a 3 fold cord. Lots of little nuggets in this book!

• Then I received this book in the post!

I have been doing a bit of sewing over the past month come to think of it! This book is just giving me the extra bit of inspiration I need at the moment. I like what Anna Maria Horner says in her introduction:

'Every family has a story. Each time we've welcomed a new baby, the story of our own family has a new beginning. Our children have brought more than their own chapter to our story, but they have, in fact, rewritten the rest of us. The whole family, together and individually, is remade into something it wasn't before - something we wouldn't have ever guessed or expected.

I have always felt compelled during my pregnancies to make items for the new one. Similar to the quintessential image of an expectant mother working away with her knitting needles on a pair of baby booties. I set out to stack fabrics and ideas in high piles that I can work through as my belly grows. Perhaps it' just the typical nesting that all mothers go through, or maybe its nervous energy. Whatever the explanation, answering the desire to create as I await a new baby seems to be my own way of nurturing.'

So, here are a few things that have come about from being a little more inspired lately......

A jacket for Lachlan - from an Oliver + S pattern. I am very happy with how it turned out. I wasn't sure about the chosen fabric - the grey didn't really go with the brown toggles....and the lining is a little different. Altogether though, it came out well. The only thing I may change when I make another one is that you can see the lining on the sides of the pocket. There was nothing in the instructions about turning the fabric in, so I am not sure if you are actually meant to see it.

These little bootees are from this website. They were pretty easy to make, although the elastic pulls the sides in a little - again I don't know if it is meant to be like that or I have made a mistake :)

And a few more backpacks! I think I may still have 2 cut up to sew :)

And here is the model for the Oliver + S jacket!

And lastly, a big 3 year old birthday cake - definitely not anywhere near 'good' as far as cake decorating goes, but we had fun doing it and Lachlan loved it - that what counts doesn't it ?!