Goodbye 2012 Hello 2013

Five more dresses to end the year 2012

If there is a will, there is a way and that is just what I did as I wanted to at least end the year sewing a few dresses and pairs of shorts. Five more dresses completed today to end what I would consider a very productive year for Dress A Girl (Around the World) Australia.   All in all, in 3 days I was able to make 11 dresses and 5 pairs of shorts.
Here is what I completed today -

Goodbye 2012 and Hello 2013 !!!

Happy New Year everyone!

It has been a great 2012 for Dress A Girl (Around the World) Australia in making a difference to the lives of the less fortunate children and I wish to thank you all for the kindness, generosity and support you have provided. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and have a happy 2013!

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #146 - Fabrics from heyboom

MBCCD #26 From heyboom are these six colourful dresses and number 146/#26 on the list. The fabrics were donated by heyboom already cut and all I did was make them into dresses . Three from last night and three were completed tonight. Hopefully these wont be the last sewn dresses for the year 2012. Am aiming for another three tomorrow before I celebrate the new year 2013 with a big bang...welcome the year of living making a difference!
Here are the six dresses -

Thank you heyboom. Finally I have made them into dresses.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #145 - from Frances of ACT

MBCCD #25 Nineteen pairs of shorts and 10 dresses from Frances Cornish with the combined effort of good friend Keryn Thompson is number 145/#25 on the list. Frances did all the sewing for the shorts but Keryn did all the fabric cutting for both the shorts and the dresses since she didnt have access to a sewing machine. Keryn then house-sat for Frances when she went for a holiday overseas and this gave Keryn a chance to use Frances' sewing machine and sewed most of the dresses. Another great example of teamwork and craftivism. They both love to work for a good cause and at the same time make use of a loved skill of sewing. Always love to hear the word craftivism.

Here are the nineteen pairs of shorts and 10 dresses -

To Frances and Keryn, what a combination and loved the sharing you did making the dresses and pairs of shorts to share with the less fortunate children. Living, loving and sharing. That's what makes our world so wonderful to live in. Thank you so much.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #144 - from dear Bettys

MBCCD #24  There is no stopping these two dear Betty's. Number 144/#24 on the list is from Betty Barrett with postage donation from her very good friend Betty(Sharyn Paull's mum). A collection of 20 dresses, each dress has a mini bag in each pocket, 2 pairs of shorts and 10 pcs of hankies. What a great team they make.
Here are the goodies from the Betty's -

Dear Betty and Betty, you two are really awesome and so admirable in what you do and I appreciate very much the time and effort you spend on making and sending these dresses. Almost a hundred children including those that have already been sent have benefitted from your kindness and generosity. Thank you so much. For all the dresses with the mini bags inside the pocket, I will put a small note on your behalf to let each child receiving the dress know where their dress they now own and wear came from. Thank you.

Ladies of Kapunda S.A. activities in 2013

Am starting to hear the sound of the trumpet...three more days....and it will be 2013. A new year, perhaps a new start for some of us who will dare to be different. A year of living making a difference, the theme of Dress A Girl (Around the World) Australia's activities for next year. While some people will have a year of living dangerously, we will be living a year making a difference. And the Ladies of Kapunda of South Australia will be doing just that with a busy schedule ahead of them in making a difference in the lives of the less fortunate.

First of their event is their joint project with Craft and Hope which they started this year. It will continue next year where the participants will sew, knit, crochet or quilt for their favourite charity. This will be held at the address below -

Kapunda Lutheran Church Hall

South Terrace Kapunda

First session for 2013 will be on the 2nd of Feb and Charity Bees are every second Saturday in the month from March 2013 from 9:30-4pm. Bring your own sewing and craft supplies. Patterns and fabric are available for “Dress a Girl around the World”.

Second of their event is their collaboration with the Kapunda Quilters. They are thinking of holding a 'Buy a dress, Send a dress' type of promotion for Dress A Girl to raise some funds for postage and maybe donate to the home site in the US. This promotion will be a joint effort with the Kapunda Quilters who are also holding a Quilt Exhibition. This will be held on the weekend of the 18th and 19th of May from 10am-4pm at the address below -

C.W.A Hall, Main Street Kapunda

Entry gold coin donation to Fred Hollows Foundation.
Hand made items for sale, children’s clothing, Sausage sizzle, Quilt Raffle, craft and fabric stalls  and viewers award for best quilt.

For both events and for more information, best to contact Deborah Parish at 85663628 or send her an email by clicking here. Save these dates on your diary.

Today's Haul by Dress A Girl Australia

Did some fabric cuttings today including bias tapes and elastics and packed them all by batch. This is the first of the batch of 16 dresses and 9 pairs of shorts which I want to finish before I go back to work next week.

And so far I finished making 5 pairs of shorts -

I've got 4 more to go and 16 dresses but I need to add 2 more to bring the total of pairs of shorts collected for the 'make-it' or 'break-it' christmas charity drive to 100. It is currently sitting at 89. Looking forward to tomorrow's result.

Dress A Girl Australia activities in 2013

Several activities are in the planning stages for 2013 one of which is the 'One Day - One Dress' for 365 days' journey. Some of us are embarking on this journey and one of them is Shelley Wild from 'And Me Designs'. 

Here is a link to her note 'Dress A Girl Around the World' project which am sharing.  

'Dress A Girl Around the World' project note.

If you have any unwanted fabrics, bias bindings or elastics to donate to support her in this 365 days' journey, please contact/send her a message through her facebook page. Here is the link to her page 

'And Me Designs' 

or you can send me an email at dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com and I will make sure she gets it. Thank you in advance and to Shelley, good luck and have fun!

If you would like to join us in this activity in 2013, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. Would love to have you join in the fun and at the same time make a difference in the lives of at least 365 less fortunate children around the world. Give it a try. There is no harm in trying. If you want to do something different, dare to be different, make 2013 a year of living making a difference, then come and join us.

Dress A Girl Australia's Numbers update

It is eighteen minutes before midnight and barely 5 days away from the end of the year 2012 and the best time to give everyone an update on where Dress A Girl Australia is at vs 2012 Goal.

As of this writing, 1,661 dresses were received, 161 past the goal of 1500 dresses set last March. 360 pairs of shorts have been received vs the goal of 500 pairs.

An update on the 'Make-it' or 'Break-it' Christmas Charity Drive, we did make it as we have gone past the goal of 1500 dresses. I have received 315 dresses and 89 pairs of shorts since the charity drive started on the 1st of October. It is still not too late to join in this campaign. Still not too late to help make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate children around the world.

Thank you so much to everyone who did their best in helping make a difference this year 2012. The year has not finished yet so there will be more updates coming your way as I receive more dresses and shorts. I think I have about 50 dresses for pick-up at the post and more on its way. Thank you so much. Thanks everyone for your kindness and generosity. Much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #143 - Donated items for sale

MBCCD #23 Since these items when sold will allow Dress A Girl Australia to send more dresses to the less fortunate locations around the world, I have included these items on the list of donations to acknowledge. Donation #143/#23 are tealight holders and will be added in the shop for sale. 

First on the list are screenprinted tealight glass holder covers donated by heyboom shop. These covers have been manually screenprinted (not machine) and done on burlap. I personally saw her cut these star templates by hand before doing the screen print. These tealight glass holder covers will be sold at $4.00 each including the glass plus postage of $6.60. Each tealight glass cover sold will pay for at least one dress to any location overseas. That is one dress for one girl and one big smile. 

Tealight Glass holder covers donated by heyboom shop

A very big thank you to heyboom shop for your continued support of Dress A Girl (Around the World) Australia.  heyboom has an etsy shop for all the things handmade by her. Check out her handmade activities in her blog here.

After receiving these items two weeks ago, I remembered I still have at least a couple of candleholders somewhere in the house. I used to sell soy candles and with it came tealight holders. I stopped selling soy candles when I decided to go back to full-time work after 2 years of full-time rest and relaxation. These two are the last of the inventory items I still have on hand and once sold they are all gone. Am thinking of reviving selling soy candles such as tealight, votives and jar candles only as a fundraiser and if can find the time to make.

This is a made in india tealight holders set of 3. They can also accommodate votives. This will be sold for $14.95 plus postage of $13.15. (Wow! Australia Post has done it again. Their postage rates have gone up.)

Tealight or Votive holder set of 3 donated by Soft Treasures

This beaded mosaic tealight holder is also made in India and will be sold for $4.95 plus postage of $6.60.

Tealight holder donated by Soft Treasures

Any interested parties can contact me or send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #142 from Maria Ladera of Sydney

MBCCD #22  These dresses were actually dropped off my place last Sunday, 23th of Dec. Unfortunately I was not home as we had the first part of our Christmas gathering at my sister's place for a cousin who came to Sydney from Canada and Sunday was allocated for his visit. Number 142/#22 on the list from Maria Ladera from Sydney. 

Maria, thank you for the dresses and the Christmas card and perhaps we would meet next time. Much appreciated. 

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #141 - Fabric Bundles from Kim of QLD

MBCCD #21 The big box was delivered on Friday afternoon, 21st of Dec. The guy who delivered asked me twice if I would be alright to take the box inside the house. :-) The box was full of fabrics from Kim Foster of QLD and is Donation #141/#21 and a great Christmas present for the less fortunate children.

Kim, thank you so much for the bundles. It was more than I expected and as I have previously said that me and  my sewing machine is going to have a blast making dresses and pairs of shorts in 2013 with these bundles. I am again putting myself up for a big challenge next year of one dress a day for 365 days which I was not able to complete this year especially with barely 5 days till the end of 2012. Your big box will be a reminder that I have a task to do. Thank you! 

My Handmades for Christmas Day

I wanted to make these Christmas ornaments in early October (planned in August). I was thinking this would  probably be a bestseller in the Christmas markets but as always, my very good excuse is I didnt have the time. LOL! I bought these ball ornaments from last year's Christmas sale so this Christmas would be the best time to make use of them.  I did manage to make these balls very late Monday afternoon especially that four of the balls were for my nephews and a niece and had to bring them for a scheduled  family 'Noche Buena'. All the time I thought they were made of plastic until I broke one. :-)

The Christmas tree which is made of MDF wood was made by my sister. I was supposed to use this Christmas tree as a prop at Dreamers Markets but I forgot to bring it with me. :-)

I finished making twelve Christmas ball ornaments. Two of the balls were filled with M&M chocolates and another two had a 10-dollar note each. Daring to be different this Christmas, instead of putting the dollar notes inside a plain envelope with their names written on it I thought of the balls as packaging. One ball was filled with about a 6" cut of cotton webbing embellished with the words 'Believe', 'Inspire' and 'Hope'. Another ball had a 6" inch ribbon cut embellished with heart brads and I also put in some mini fabric roses with it. The rest of the balls were filled with normal ribbons rolled around the ball and instead of mini fabric roses I placed pompoms in different colors. I think there were 10 pompons in each ball To make sure that every branch of the tree was filled with an ornament I added in three glass hearts. These glass hearts were meant for a decoupage project which never transpired (again).

After setting down the decorated tree on a coffee table, the ball with the 6" cotton webbing strap embellished with words was my favourite - the cotton webbing strap will make a good fabric bracelet. (hint! hint!)

Thought I would share this with everyone so you would know that I did make something other than dresses and blogging about dresses I have received this Christmas.

Christmas Blessings to everyone!!

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas !!

From Dress A Girl (Around the World) Australia

Dress Distribution #18 - Dresses for the children in care of The Pyjama Foundation

Yes, I have done several distributions but it takes a while to identify the donors of the contents and the last few weeks hasnt really been of much help in sorting and figuring out contents of each parcel but has been a great help in making the distribution and sending of parcels possible. Now that I have completed the donation acknowledgements, it is time to move on for the dress distributions.

Number 18 on the list were two parcels of 100 dresses which I donated to the The Pyjama Foundation in NSW as christmas presents for the australian children under their care. The foundation offers a learning-based mentoring program free of charge to children in foster care through community volunteers they call the Pyjama Angels.

The two parcels were sent almost two weeks ago  and were received by Lisa O'Brien, their Sydney Coordinator. There will be no pictures available for this distribution due to privacy and legal reasons.

Here are the dresses that were in the parcel -

Heaps and heaps of thanks to the following donors for making this Christmas parcel possible -

1) Prudence Mann

2) Liz Lynzaat

3) Doris Beatty

4) Valda Ridley

5) Chicken Ink Creative sewn by Katherine Nott

6) The Sewing Library facebook group

7) Katherine Nott

8) Amanda Sampson sewn by Katherine Nott

9) Loris Pullen, Margaret Adair, Deborah Parish, Margaret Doecke,Veronica Martin,Delilah Balmer, Johanna Sawyer (Sewing Bee#3)

10) Ladies of Kapunda S.A. (Sewing Bee #4)

11) Linda Smyth

12) G Haggett

13) Sharyn Paull

14) Monika Osvald

15) Betty Barrett

16) Georgia Wood

17) Deborah Steed

18) Helen McMahon

19) Pam of Threading My Way

20) Jo Taunton

21) Soft Treasures

To see more of the donations or in larger images, please click here. Links to this article and any feedback will also be made available in the 'Dress Distribution' page which you can find at the top of this page and every other page.

Thank you everyone for your kindness and generosity. Thank you for helping make a difference in this world with one small dress at a time here in Australia.

If you want to know more about The Pyjama Foundation, please click here.

Dress Distribution #17 - Christmas Package for School for Life Foundation Katuuso Uganda

For this year I decided to donate all donated school supplies including a few which I have collected to the School for Life Foundation in Katuuso Uganda through Annabelle Chauncy, a co-founder of the foundation. I also included as a Christmas present to some of the children several donated undies which I believed would fit some of the school girls and boys and 10 pairs of shorts donated on behalf of the winning bidders in the Charity Auction for Dress A Girl Australia.

The parcel has been sent about two weeks ago and has been received by Annabelle.

These are the contents of the Christmas parcel - 1) School supplies and educational items

2)  boys and girls undies

 3) 10 pairs of shorts

My heartfelt thanks to the following donors for making this Christmas parcel possible -
1) Lynn Crossley
2) Wendy Yates
3) Monika Osvald
4) Rachel Platt
5) Dreamers Markets
6) Jo Kelly
7) Jolly Sun
8) Amy Richens
9) Rafaelita Joan Wolf
10) Fabi Sun
11) Rose Preston
12) Group of friends for the school supplies

To see more of the donations, click here. Links to this article and any feedback will also be made available in the 'Dress Distribution' page which you can find at the top of this page and every other page.

Dress Distribution #16 - Karin's dresses to South Africa

Dresses are on its way to South Africa and #16 on the distribution list. Karin Maltby from Perth made these dresses for the gorgeous little girls of the Edith Benson Babies Home in Durban, South Africa.

Here is a snapshot of all the 34 dresses which I took from Karin's album so I can show you all the beautiful dresses she made and very soon find 34 owners and 34 smiling faces added in this beautiful world we live in-

To see larger images of the full donation, please click here. Links to this article and any feedback will also be made available in the 'Dress Distribution' page which you can find at the top of this page and every other page.

Karin, thank you so much for these dresses which by the way, there are actually 34 of them. Much appreciated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #140 from Sian and friends

MBCCD #20 A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of these three ladies and the dresses they made in Dress A Girl Australia's facebook page. Number 140/#20 on the donation list are 6 dresses from Sian McIntosh and her friends Sue Nash and Judy Petterssen. Sian learned about Dress A Girl around the world campaign from Karin Maltby(Perth) whose work in this initiative was featured in an internal newsletter of CommBank.
Here is Sian and her friends Judy and Sue -

and here are the dresses they sent and sometime in the new year they will be making more dresses.

Ladies, my heartfelt thanks for your support in this campaign and for the dresses that you made. Much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #139 from Katherine Nott

MBCCD #19 15 dresses this time from Katherine of ACT and number 139/#19 on the donation list. Katherine has been with Dress A Girl Australia almost from the very start I would say, when the campaign started to attract group of supporters. With the number of dresses she has made, am not sure if I can actually give the exact number (unless I look at my log) but am sure she knows how many she has contributed, how many girls lives' have changed with the dresses she has sewn.
Here is her collection of 15 dresses this time -

To Katherine, thank you, thank you, thank you! Everything you do for Dress A Girl (Around the World) Australia is very much appreciated. Thank you so much.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #138 from Betty Barrett

MBCCD #18 From an amazing lady who makes sewing so very, very easy I need some sewing tips and tricks from her is number 138/#18 on the list. Betty Barrett is at it again with 14 pairs of shorts and 10 dresses. With her creativity in action, for 6 of the dresses, she made small drawstring bags and inserted each bag in the pocket and embellished the neckline with laces. Whenever I see the dresses she makes, I always learn something new. And this is why I enjoy Dress A Girl (Around the World) Australia so much. Not only do I learn something new in sewing, I also get a chance to apply what I learned from others through the dresses and pairs of shorts I make and help make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. 
Here are the 14 pairs of shorts and 10 dresses she made this time -

Betty, you continue to amaze me with your dresses and sewing skills and thank you so much for everything. Your sewing skills is such a hard act to follow. Thank you for your generosity too.

Last but not the least, heaps and heaps of thanks to Betty's best friend Betty(Sharyn Paull's mum) for helping in the cost of sending the parcel to Sydney. You two really make such a good team. I look forward to meeting you both one of these days. Thank you so much.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #137 - Ladies of Kapunda S.A. Sewing Bee #6 Parcel 3

MBCCD #17 The third and last parcel from the Kapunda Ladies of South Australia from their last sewing bee last Nov 24 is donation number 137/#17. A collection of 28 dresses, a dozen undies and teddies for the pockets. Six of these dresses will be donated to the Sandy Hook Elementary Angels, an event jointly sponsored by Dress A Girl Connecticut and Oregon and will be mailed after the Christmas holidays.
Here are the 28 dresses, dozen undies and teddies -

Thank you to Sharon for the 3 t-shirt dresses with cute bags, undies and teddies and thank you as well to Julie Govski(2x), Margaret Doecke(4x), Mary Lauke(1x), Margaret Adair(4x), Nelda(2x), Chris Redden(2x), Loris Pullen(5x), Deborah Parish(1x) and Julie Quast(1x) and the extra 5 dresses made for Bangla Desh. Thank you so very much ladies. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #136 - Ladies of Kapunda S.A. Sewing Bee #6 Parcel 2

MBCCD #16 Second parcel from the Ladies of Kapunda Sewing Bee #6 is donation number 136/#16 on the list. It is a parcel of 23 dresses, 1 pair of shorts and 2 t-shirts. Some people maybe wondering why I am doing this by parcel and not acknowledged in one go. I find it easier if I do it by parcel and more easy when I start to sort and pack to send for distribution. These ladies are too active and I am extremely grateful for the work that they do.
Here is the collection -

Thank you to Loris Pullen(3x) Chris Redden(4x), Deborah Parish(3x), Loretta Vodic(2x), Margaret Adair(9x), Sharon Diamantopolous(1x) and loved the bag,Valda Ridley(2x Tshirts), Shirley Bell(1x) and Marilyn Pitt(1x).

Also, special thanks to Sandra Crawford, Dora Eisen and Lorraine Ellis for their fabric donations. Thank you so much.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #135 - Ladies of Kapunda S.A. Sewing Bee #6 Parcel 1

MBCCD #15 Number 135/#15 on the list is a collection of 34 pairs of shorts, 6 dresses and 2 t-shirts from the ladies of Kapunda, South Australia. This collection is a product of their last Sewing Bee of the year held last Nov 24.  I have never seen so many pairs of shorts (and I thought I already own and wear so many :-)) but 34 (not 33) in one parcel is awesome.
Here are the 34 pairs of shorts from Loris Pullen and Chris Redden -

T-shirts from Valda Ridley

and 6 small dresses from Shirley Bell

To Chris, Loris, Valda, Shirley and the rest of the Ladies of Kapunda, thank you so much for your consistent support to dress the less fortunate children around the world. Looking forward to sewing with you all in the new year 2013. Thank you and more power to your group. 

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #134 - From Lindisfarne Tasmania

MBCCD #14 Number 134/#14 for the christmas charity drive is a bundle of fabric from the Wright family of Lindisfarne, Tasmania. If my memory serves me right (I need to check my list tomorrow), this is the second donation from the family. Happy to think about the number of dresses that can be made from this bundle. :-)

To the Wrights, thank you so much for your donation and for supporting this campaign. It is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #133 - Dresses and Pairs of Shorts from Katherine

MBCCD #13 Number 133 on the donations list and number 13 for the christmas charity drive are  5 dresses and 2 pairs of shorts from Katherine Nott. This batch must be a lucky batch if you look at the numbers 133 and 13. :-) 
Here are the dresses and the pairs of shorts -

Katherine, happy to receive dresses with sleeves . Thank you and thank you for your thoughtfulness. Much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY2012 #132 - A Dress for Bangla Desh

MBCCD #12 This dress which is number 132 on the list of donations and number 12 in the make-it or break-it christmas charity drive is for Bangla Desh donated by Delcie Wardrop of NSW. Delcie has been one of the donors for the Charity Auction for Dress A Girl Australia and when she sent the dress she donated on behalf of the winning bidder, there was another dress in the parcel and a note that it is for Bangla Desh. Yes, next year I will start collecting for the children of Bangla Desh.

Thank you for the dress Delcie. The very first dress for Bangla Desh. Thank you. Much appreciated.

Donations on behalf of the winning bidders(Charity Auction) Batch 3

This is the third and last batch of dresses donated on behalf of the winning bidders in the first Charity Auction for Dress A Girl Australia last Nov 2-7, 2012. Due to circumstances beyond my control (actually it was under my control but I gave priority to another Dress A Girl Australia task which I believe greatly benefitted the less fortunate children around the world) this acknowledgement is delayed but here it is.

The third and last batch of dresses and pairs of shorts are for the following donors and bidders:
1) Donor - Cassie Ashley                               Winner - Rachel Platt

2) Donor - Delcie Wardrop                           Winner - Elizabeth Rowland

3) Donor - Dress A Girl Australia & Katherine Nott           Winner - Frances Cornish

4) Donor - Katherine Nott                                         Winner - Fabi Sun

5) Donor - Katherine Nott                                          Winner - Rose Preston

My heartfelt thanks to all the donors and for the support provided by the winning bidders of the charity auction. Thank you for making the auction a big success. And my special thanks to Katherine for organizing the event. Thank you everyone. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Much appreciated.

Christmas Buttons/Lavender Houses for Sale

If you are looking for the least expensive gift to give this Christmas, check out my Christmas buttons. You can wear them in your hat, pin them on your bags, stick them on your fridge. (Caps for decorative purposes only)

 Here are a few selections - Each button sells for $1.00 each plus postage of 60 cents per button.

Or you can try my lavender houses. Fully handmade. Each lavender house is filled with at least 40grams of lavender. Ribbon attached to each house for easy hanging. Lavender houses are $10.00 each plus postage of $1.80 per house.

All proceeds goes to the postage fund of Dress A Girl Australia. For interested parties, please send me a message or email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Dress A Girl Australia Update

After the weekend market and a couple of days rest, am back and fully recharged and energized to catch up where I left off. Must have been almost two weeks ago since the last time I did updates for Dress A Girl Australia although I have been diligently going to the post office to pick up parcels.

Anyway, I have received 180 dresses and 36 pairs of shorts for the 'Make-it' or 'Break-it' Christmas charity drive for the less fortunate children around the world. I have taken about 47 pictures so far so that means 47 dresses and have about a 100 more to line up on my floor. In total, as of today, Dress A Girl Australia has received 1526 dresses, 26 more than the goal of 1500 I have set on the 1st of March 2012. This total does not include what I havent posted in the blog yet. I have also received 307 pairs of shorts, a bit short from the goal of 500. Not to worry as we still have almost 12 days before the end of the year and I still have a lot of catching up to do in my personal objective. I will make sure I cover up the missing numbers before I start my 2013 drive.

Also as of today, I have distributed 894 dresses and 156 pairs of shorts. Have sent out 5 parcels in the last 3 weeks and have 2 more parcels ready to be sent. 

By the end of the year, I should be able to provide the final numbers. So now everyone knows why I have been quiet in the blog front. Been keeping myself very busy the past few weeks taking advantage of the Christmas season, making lots and lots of handmade items to sell to raise money for the 7 parcels. The task was not only for 50 dollars but for hundreds of dollars in order to make a world of every little girl owning at least one dress more of a reality rather than just imaginary. Unfortunately I cannot make everyone happy, all the donors happy as there are places and/or locations where I am sending the dresses to where pictures are not possible, where sharing of pictures is not allowed due to privacy or legal reasons or people who do the distribution on Dress A Girl Australia's behalf just dont have the cameras to use to take pictures. Rest be assured that all dresses are being distributed to the children in need. Post office dockets and acknowledgement emails that parcels have been received are available in the Dress Distribution page for everyone to see.

In the next few days I will be completing the task of donation acknowledgements and details on the dress distributions. I would also be sharing with everyone what is in store for Dress A Girl Australia in 2013 and I look forward to more people joining in this campaign.

This week's a little bit of this and a little bit of that

More busy days ahead especially with Christmas just around the corner. One more week of going to work and my Christmas break will start. Actually it is a forced christmas break. In addition to my usual holiday trips, I would have wanted to save extra days for a couple of Dress A Girl Australia trips I have planned for next year. I guess I will just have to go negative credits again. What to do!

The past week has been quite busy making more handmade items to sell to take advantage of the christmas season and gift-giving. I have done my lavender houses, just finished my Christmas stockings. One more item to make which is one of my favourites and make them throughout the year and that is the fabric postcards and that's it for Dress A Girl Australia. :-)

#1 - Thank you to Christie Sturre, Wrights family and S Mcintosh for the parcels I picked up from the postoffice this weekend. 

#2 - As mentioned earlier in the week, I will resume writing articles on dress distributions, parcels sent and donation acknowledgements week of Dec 17th. A lot on my list. :-)

The following are the parcels I have sent during the week : 

 - Two parcels containing 100 dresses were sent to The Pyjama Foundation for their children in foster care in Sydney NSW.

 - Christmas parcel containing school supplies, activity books, boys and girls' undies and 10 pairs of shorts collected from the Charity Auction for Dress A Girl Australia was sent to Annabelle Chauncy, a co-founder of the School for Life Foundation in Katuuso Uganda. 

- Two parcels containing dresses and pairs of shorts also sent to Mbale Uganda c/o the Bushikori Christian Centre for their sponsored orphans and needy children within the community.

#3 - Another parcel leaving for India next weekend for the Garden of life family once I have completed the sorting and the packing.

The 'make-it or break-it' Christmas charity drive is still going and will be until the end of Dec. Please create a mess of handmade dresses and pairs of shorts in Dress A Girl Australia's living room this Christmas. Dare to be different this Christmas. Share the festive season with the less fortunate children around the world. For more details or information, please write to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Until the next update, hope you all have a lovely week!

Christmas Stockings for Sale

Once a craftivist...always a craftivist. First the Christmas cards, now it is the stocking-shaped bag which you can hang on a mantelpiece or on a Christmas tree for Santa to put small gifts on Christmas eve. The most traditional christmas decor you will find in houses during the Christmas season. All made of 100% quilting cotton and fully lined.

And if you want to be different or Dress A Girl Australia dares you to be different this time. Try my Christmas stockings where you can insert the picture of the person you are giving the christmas stocking to. I have seen people wrapping their gifts with a picture of the recipient adhered to the wrapping paper or gift box, this time take advantage of my creativity in action. Why not wrapped or put your christmas presents inside this stocking-shaped bags and put the picture of the recipient inside the picture frame. A real treasure to keep.

So if you are wondering what's made me so quiet the past few days, the pictures above speaks for itself. All fabrics I used came from my fabric collection. It is Christmas time so why not share some of my favourite collection. Imagine how many less fortunate little girls around the world will be happy with the sale of these Christmas stockings.

All these stockings will be available for sale at Dreamers Markets on Saturday, 15th of December at the Riverside Theatre, Parramatta. All proceeds goes to Dress A Girl Australia's postage fund.