New Year it is !!

Happy New Year to one and all! Hope 2014 will be a great and prosperous year for all.

Mini Fabric calendars for Sale

If you are wondering why I have been so successful in distributing those dresses to different locations around the world, it is because of these items that I handmake to sell. Some of you dont have to like them but they are Dress A Girl Australia's bread and butter. Without these items being purchased by the public I do not think I will be able to sustain this campaign, distribute such a large number of dresses. So please help spread the word about the things that I sell. None of the proceeds go to my pocket instead they all go to Dress A Girl Australia's postage fund to pay for the cost of sending dresses to different locations around the world. 

If you are one of those people who still think that paper and/or fabric calendars are still in and not a thing of the past, then why not check out the fabric calendars in my shop. A good way to start helping raise funds for Dress A Girl Australia's projects in 2014. 

These calendars are approximately 10.5cms x 16.5 cms. Actual calendar is 8cms x 4cms. Monthly calendar is inserted on a pocket and is refillable every new year. Each calendar sells for $6.00 plus postage.

Magnetic calendars will be available soon. To purchase these calendars, please click here for the 'Good Friends' and here for the 'Friendship'. Click here to check out the entire range of fabric calendars available for sale.

New Year Countdown - Barely 3 more sleeps to go

With barely 3 days to go before we say goodbye to 2013 and say hello to 2014 I thought I would be a little bit crafty by making something australian and add to my shop to sell to help raise money for postage for next year.

By the way, for the next 3-6 months or depending on how long it would take, proceeds from the sale of soy candles and handcrafted personal treasures for charity will be donated to Dress A Girl Australia's campaign to build a well in Kalagi Uganda until I have achieved the target amount of $10,500. The sale of the other items are allocated to Dress A Girl Australia's postage fund.

This time I revived my fabric picture cards which I used to make about 8 years ago and donated a dollar for every card I sold to a breast cancer foundation here in Sydney. I stopped making and donating when I went back to work. I used to make these cards in between problem solving of work issues when I worked from home. At this time I am only making a couple of Australian-themed picture cards. If I am in a good mood I might make the Sydney Harbour bridge or if I make a lot of sale. :-)

Fabric picture cards are pictures and/or images fitted inside window cutouts. Regular 100% cotton novelty-designed fabrics and/or images are printed by me on a 100% cotton fabric sheet to fit the card's window cut-outs or I use plain fabrics just like the Kangaroo below. To produce a raised effect of the images inside window cutouts I insert a wadding. Size of the card is the standard 110mm x 155mm and comes with matching envelopes. The inside panel is blank for personal messages just like any normal greeting card. You can have them framed too and hang on your wall if you want.  

So if you have any intention of saying hi or hello to a friend overseas, these cards would be perfect to send. :-) These cards are being sold in Dress A Girl Australia's shop for $2.50 each plus postage of $1.20. They will make a good keepsake or souvenir. To make a purchase, please click here. For any questions or more details, please click here. To help spread the word about items being sold in the shop to raise money for postage, I will leave that up to you. Thanks!

Wish for 2014 - Dress A Girl Well for Kalagi Uganda

Please come and join Dress A Girl Australia in aiming for the stars for the people of Kalagi Uganda. For at least one star... one big star that will change one village' way of life ...hope through clean water. 

With your help, we can make this happen. Please help spread the word around. Thank you!

After Christmas Day.....

This is what I have been up to and will be up to in 2014 !

It's finally here....Merry Christmas

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
  ~ Dr. Seuss

Merry Christmas to one and all!

My pre-Christmas Day Diary

It is the day before Christmas and having a day off from work and Dress A Girl Australia. As early as 6:30 in the morning and avoiding traffic jam and parking chaos I decided to go to Coles for some prawns and flowers for my Dad. Indeed I had so many choices as to where to park. :-) 

On my way back to the parking lot I thought about making a dress for my 10-year old niece (youngest girl in our clan). Since I started Dress A Girl Australia I kind of made it a point to sew a dress for her too and usually at the end of the year. She had a pillowcase dress and last year she received a t-shirt dress which was a bit too small for her that I think after 2 months it hardly fitted her. I learned a lesson then and this became my standard of distributing dresses. I should give at least 1 or even better 2 sizes bigger than the actual age of the child so they could wear it for a longer period of time as this could be the only decent dress they would own. 

So I went back to K-mart but could not find a proper t-shirt for her. Most of them had kind of open or plunging necklines and the t-shirts for girls were too small for her. Maybe the dress was not such a good idea after all this year and was on my way out when I saw school uniform t-shirts on sale at $2.00 each. Well, why not! I just wanted to make my niece a dress so she will be the last girl in the world I will dress in 2013 and I don't really care if she wears it to sleep. So I bought 1 yellow-one size bigger t-shirt and I also bought 5 extra t-shirts to start my Dress-A-Girl t-shirt collection for 2014. Here are the 5-tshirts I bought to start my collection -

and here is the dress I made for my niece using a material from my personal fabric collection. And I think it is about 2 sizes bigger this time.

Then I decided to  give her a couple of the simple treasures I make for Dress A Girl which I sell from my e-shop to raise funds for postage. Actually I did not get a chance to post my decoupaged pendants but they were bestsellers in my last market. Simple treasures of a decoupaged pendant/necklace and my 'Girl's best friend' charm bracelet in a heart-shaped tin.

and bundled them all up in a biscuit tin with a five-dollar note inside an envelope -

Then I decided to make one for one of my nephews to represent the boys who received t-shirts and pairs of shorts this year. Since I did not have the time to sew a pair of shorts anymore (I don't even think he would wear it) and forgot to buy a t-shirt for him I thought I should just give him a 'Love our Earth' necklace (another fundraiser - now you all would really think I have such weird ideas! LOL!). My nephew is at an age (12?) where he wants to wear something or anything that makes him look cool. :-) Well, he gets an earth-friendly bicycle and recycle charms to wear to remind him to love our earth for his future.

and again I bundled them all up in a small tin (from my soy candle supplies) with  a $10 dollar worth of coins so he can buy his own t-shirt hopefully with the print of 'I Love the Earth' ( this would really be funny and great)!

And with less than 3 hours to go before our traditional family Christmas dinner (and I had to wrap up my other presents for the rest of the kiddies/family + Kris Kringle present) I managed to make last minute clear ball decorations filled with M&M's. I also was able to finish my Christmas cottage ball.

Seems like I accomplished a lot during the day. I had a great time making these items the same way that I had a great time, fun and enjoyable 2013 with Dress A Girl Australia. 

Am off for our family dinner, wait for midnight to sing a happy birthday for another niece whose celebrating her birthday on christmas day (that is why we call her Chrissie) and I hope you all have a very lovely Christmas!

Almost Christmas !

Christmas is almost here!

Well, 2 more days and Christmas will be here. I know (just like me) we all are looking forward to getting some Christmas presents. A lot of you have been extra good for a lot of disadvantaged kiddies around the world and would like to say a wholehearted thank you to everyone! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 2013 is/was a job very well done and I hope nothing is going to stop you from continuing on being good next year too. 

                        Merry, merry Christmas and a happy new year!!

Quilt Distribution #4 - For the children of India (Mercy & Grace Charity) Parcel 1

I came to know about Mercy & Grace Charity in India through Ellen of the 'Wrap them in love' organization based in the NW Washington state in the US. She wrote back and mentioned about the charity's need for quilts and clothing donations. Last week I wrote to Mercy and Grace charity and here I am sending what quilts I can pack in a parcel and sending them for the children of Mercy & Grace charity in India.
Here is the parcel leaving for India soon from Dress A Girl Australia -

and here are the contents of the parcel - 10 quilts for 10 kids

and the quilt donors -
1) Vera Jeffs
2) Shirley Bell
3) Lorraine Sandow 
4) Gaynor Botcher
5) Chris Redden
6) Craft & Hope Group SA

To see larger images of the quilts, please click here. For more details on this distribution (and also at a later stage when feedback is received) please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab which you can find at the top of this page.

Thank you so much to all the quilt donors who made this parcel of 10 quilts to India possible. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Much appreciated.

Dress Distribution #48 - For the children of Andhra Pradesh India (Mercy & Grace Charity) Parcel 1

This is a last minute distribution for the children of the Mercy & Grace Charitable foundation in Andhra Pradesh India. Mercy & Grace Charity is supporting around 4000 children from different villages and slums in India. When I learned about the number of children I told myself that for this particular situation I will just have to keep on dreaming. :-)  Realistically there is no way I will ever be able to provide clothing to at least even a quarter of them. Dresses - yes, easy to raise and easy to sew (I have lots of fabrics waiting to be sewn) but the cost to send the parcels to India will be very difficult to raise. India has no sea mail which would have helped a lot. At the rate my selling is going I dont even think I will be able to raise enough funds to be able to afford to send at least 500 dresses. But I still would like to be able to provide dresses to at least a few of the kids in my own little way and based on what I can afford. So here is the parcel that will be leaving soon for India - 

and here are the contents of the parcel - all 67 of them for 67 girls and I hope I would be able to save enough in a couple of months so I can send them another 67 and maybe at the end of the year 2014  I would have dressed 500 girls -

Dresses made possible by the following donors -
1) Delci Wardrop
2) Ladies of Kapunda Sewing Group
3) Betty Barrett/Betty Paull
4) Frances Cornish
5) Mary Lauke, Sally Giles and Julie Quast
6) Wendy Yates
7) Sian McIntosh

To see larger images of the dresses please click here. For more details on this distribution (and also at a later stage when feedback is received) please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab which you can find at the top of this page.

Thank you to all the dress donors for helping make this parcel of 67 dresses possible. It is much appreciated.

Nemo and Dress A Girl Australia

This is Nemo. With Nemo's help in 2014 (fingers crossed), I hope to be able to provide more dresses/shorts/shirts to the less fortunate children around the world. 

"We are going to shake the world" says Nemo and Dress A Girl Australia. WooHoo!!

So be on the lookout for Nemo in the coming weeks.

3 days before Christmas

It is not too late yet. We still can share the spirit of Christmas by providing hope to the people of Kalagi Uganda through clean water.

If you wish to donate and need more information, please write to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

More pictures from the Abim Uganda distribution

Here are more pictures from the Abim Uganda distribution from Operation Uganda. Have a look and see if you can see any of your dresses. 

To see larger and individual images of the above, please click here. Thank you Operation Uganda.

** Operation Uganda is a non-profit organisation that, with your help, rescues orphaned and vulnerable children and creates sustainable community development projects.

Dress Distribution #47 - For the Children of the Riverina Murray Playgroup

This is another unscheduled distribution which I did not want to miss. In such a very short notice I came up with 2 parcels which was sent last Tuesday and were received yesterday for children under age 3 who belong to a playgroup in Riverina Murray, Wagga Wagga under the coordination of Kelly Robertson of Save the Children Australia. In the parcels that I sent were about 50 soft toys as Christmas presents for the children, dresses and pairs of shorts, t-shirts and undies.
I have published the parcels earlier in the week and here are the contents of parcel #1 -

made possible by the following donors -

1) Frances Cornish
2) Tannis Brennan
3) Valda Ridley
4) Fabi Sun
5) Liz Williams for the undies
6) Gaylene Herrmann
7) The Sewing Library facebook group
8) Jenny Jarvis
9) Sandra Lew
10) Bethany Greenaway
11) Ladies of Kapunda Sewing Group including several sponsored dresses
12) Sally Giles
13) Nicole Devet
14) Alana Pritchard
and the contents of parcel #2 - soft toys

made possible by the following donors (my work colleagues) -
1) Jenny Fegredo
2) Haesook Jo
3) Candace Quach
4) Agnes Kwong 
5) Agnes' friend Candy
6) Munich Sami
7) Vlad Vanovac
8) Vincent Yuen
9) and a few teddy bears from Dress  A Girl Australia

To see larger images of the dresses, shirts and shorts please click here. For the soft toys' contributions, please click here. For more details on this distribution (and also at a later stage when feedback is received) please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab which you can find at the top of this page.

Thank you to all the donors who made these 2 parcels possible especially to my work colleagues for coming up with the soft toy goodies in such a very short notice. Thank you so much. Thank you for helping keep the spirit of Christmas alive. It is much appreciated. 

Feedback Letter from Uganda re distribution made in Abim Uganda

Sharing with everyone an email I received from Karen Evans yesterday expressing her thanks for the wonderful presents of new dresses, t-shirts and pairs of shorts given to the children of Abim Uganda.

Thank you to everyone who made this great contribution possible. Much appreciated.

For a larger and more readable version of this email, please click here.

Important Information on Slow Moving Dresses - Sizes 0 to 4

I thought I should let everyone know especially those who are planning to make dresses for next year. As of tonight I still have about 300 dresses between the sizes of 0 to 4. These sizes are very slow moving as requests are for bigger sizes from 6 to 10. Also when I do the distribution, I always send bigger sizes or at least 1-2 sizes bigger than the actual sizes of the recipients so they can outgrow the dress or wear it for a longer period of time.

So my request is if you are planning to make smaller sizes only (between 0 to 4), to please delay the making of these sizes until the second half of next year (after June) or when I am going to have a need for it which everyone would always know anyway as my priority next year when I start to re-distribute is to clear the 300 dresses I still have. I know a lot of you wants to help but it does not really help me at all if I have the sizes that I cannot distribute. So please be guided with this information. Thank you.

Video feedback from Abim Uganda by Operation Uganda

in addition to the photos I posted last night, sharing with you a short clip of the distribution of dresses, t-shirts and pairs of shorts to the children of Abim Uganda made by Operation Uganda.

Post by Operation Uganda.

Feedback Distribution from Abim Uganda

Here are some pictures shared by Operation Uganda during their distribution to the kiddies of Abim Uganda

For larger images, please click here. To Operations Uganda, thank you for sharing.

Packing #4 for the children of Australia - from the men at work

Not from the band but from my male work colleagues. They were the reason why I had to wait till today to send my parcel but look at what they came up with. I cant leave it behind -

To Vlad, Munich and Vincent, thank you so much. Thank you for helping keep the spirit of Christmas alive especially for the disadvantaged kiddies. It is much appreciated.

And here are the 2 parcels I posted late this afternoon for Wagga NSW. A photo-finish
sent off with the postoffice about to close and the Australia post van almost ready to leave with their collection of the day. Whew! I was practically running so the van can take along my 2 parcels as it takes at least 3 days for mails to arrive in Wagga and not possible for me to take to work to post at lunchtime tomorrow so the parcels had to go today. 

So my parcels left with the van with 50 soft toys (10 more), 30 dresses, 7-t-shirts,4 shirts, 7 pairs of shorts and about 18 pairs of boys undies all for children under 3. I did not send any undies for the girls as I could not find any girls undies for below 3. I practically opened all plastic bags with undies but I could not believe there was none. Since it was almost midnight (maybe I was not seeing the size numbers right) and I still needed to pack the boxes I decided to stop looking and not send any. Went to bed at 1am and had only about 5 hours of sleep as I wanted to go to work early so I can leave early to post the parcels. And I made it and all's well that ends well.

More details on the contents of the parcels (i.e. donors) to be published soon.

Exciting Christmas

9 Days until Christmas. Am not sure what am excited about really. Whether it is because it is christmas time once again and that I will be getting a kris kringle present on Christmas eve or is it because I know there are about 1000 children around the world who will be getting presents from the wonderful people of Australia, 1000 children who are going to have their best Christmas ever, 1000 children who are going to feel something different in their lives knowing that there are people in this world who actually cares for them. WooHoo!!

Packing #3 for the children of Australia

This is the third batch of soft toys for the children of Riverina/Murray playgroup donated by Agnes Kwong and her friend Candy bringing the total number of soft toys I have received to 40. I have another bag (final bag) which I will take home tomorrow and make sure the parcels are posted by tomorrow afternoon as I think it takes at least about 3 days for parcels to get delivered to Wagga.

Another 7 kiddies will have someone soft to hug anytime during the day. Thank you so much to Agnes and her friend Candy for these wonderful presents to the children of the Riverina/Murray playgroup. Thank you guys!

Parcel Updates

I have the whole day today to decide whether to pack a parcel for India or do it in early January and continue with my sewing.

All dresses, pairs of shorts, quilts, toys and others that went into the parcels of South Africa, Philippines, Mbale Uganda, Romania and Riverina/Murray (all parcels I did in November and December) will be posted next week when I am off from work. Thank you for your patience.

2 dresses today bringing my total to 153

Woohoo!! I am back to sewing. The last time I made a dress was in June when I made Dress #151. In the beginning of the year I started a One-dress a day campaign for 365 days. My second attempt as last year (2012) I stopped on the third month (March). Well, this year at least I made it to June but there were days when I missed sewing a dress. My last dress was made on Day 164 but since there were days I could not do some sewing I only managed to make 151 dresses. 13 short. By the way, none of these 151 dresses were included in this year's distributions as I gave priority to all the dresses donated. All of these 151 dresses will be given priority when I restart distributions in April of next year.

Today, I did 2 dresses and I hope to be able to do more before the month of December ends.

The fabrics of these 2 t-shirt dresses and the t-shirts were donated by Betty Barrett. Betty was trying to help me with one dress a day by sending me pre-cut fabrics and all I had to do was sew but still I could not manage to sit down and do some sewing.

To Betty, thank you so much for the fabric and t-shirt materials. I think I still have about 3 to make which am planning to do in the coming days. I hope to make it to at least 200 dresses before the year ends. Thank you so much.

Charm Bracelets for Charity

Reviving my charm bracelet product line to help me raise funds for the Dress A Girl Australia well to provide clean water for the people of Kalagi Uganda. Once I have reached my goal, proceeds from sale of these items will be donated to Dress A Girl Australia's postage fund to help pay for the cost of sending dresses to different locations around the world.

I have 3 types of charm bracelets. One is the 'Girls best friend'. The second one is 'Imagine the possibilities and the third one is for the environment 'Be Green'.
(1) 'Girl's best friend' comes with a dress, stilleto heels, a girl, a bag and a sandal charms plus a bonus of a 'peace' charm.
(2) The 'Imagine the possibilities' are for sewing enthusiasts. The bracelet comes with a pair of scissors, sewing machine, tape measure, buttons, a single letter of the alphabet and on this particular charm is for letter H for hope and a bonus 'peace' charm.
(3) The third one which is the 'Be Green' comes with a recycle, butterfly, mushroom, tree, bird and a globe. All about saving the environment.
All bracelets are about 19cms (about 7.5") long which is the average size of a ladies' wrist.

For the first 25 customers, each bracelet purchase will come with a heart-shaped hinged tin. I had these tins for years but only 25 left though. Not sure if I can still sourced this item at this size and at the same price I bought it about 5 years ago. Actually I was trying to look for an item that is easy to sell in ebay because I was thinking I might send an extra parcel to the Philippines and the parcel would probably cost me about $60 to $80 dollars to send instead I found a box which had these inside. I wanted to sell something if I want to send an extra parcel as I didnt want to touch what I have started to save for next year. I did mention earlier that I used to sell arts and craft supplies to finance my craft hobbies but had neglected it when I went back to full-time job.

So if you purchase now you might be one of the lucky 25 who will get a free heart-shaped hinged tin. To check out these items, please click here. Each charm bracelet cost $10.00 plus postage of $1.80. I dont think you will find these charm bracelet combinations easily as they are a product of my imagination.

Important Info re dress distributions

Hopefully this will be the last time I will be reiterating information about dress distributions. There are no more scheduled distributions between now and the first quarter of 2014. Dress distributions will resume in April of 2014. I will still continue on checking for parcels in the postoffice every Saturday but they will not be distributed. You can hold on to your dress donations and send them next year if that is what you prefer.

I am quite happy spending my time sewing and crafting to raise money for postage for the next 3 months and honestly, I think I need a break from the sorting, packing and carrying of parcels to/from the postoffice which I have been doing for the last 9 months of the year. I probably have been carrying more than 200 kilos of dresses the past 9 months. Dresses I still have which did not make it to the cut-off are safe and happily stored until they get distributed. They are safe if anyone have any doubts about what is going to happen with them. Thank you all for your understanding.

Christmas countdown - 11 days before Christmas

Do you really know what you want for Christmas? Well, our greatest friend at Christmas time is well on the way to getting all the presents together and will be flying over Casula and make sure does not miss Dress A Girl Australia on Christmas eve. 

I hope some of you would also remember the less fortunate children around the world and the less fortunate locations needing water and fly over Casula too on Christmas eve. 

Pictures from New Zealand sewing day

I guess I was too quick in posting the article regarding the New Zealand sewing day. Sharing with you pictures I received from Jo this morning.
Here are the dresses they made - (love this picture)

and a few New Zealand ladies who joined the sewing activity and doing their tasks -

Jo, thank you for sharing these pictures.

Sale #4 - Soy Candles for Kalagi Uganda

Another lucky day. These cute candelina jar soy candles were bought today by a very good friend of Dress A Girl Australia who shall remain nameless for the simple reason that these candles were bought to give as Christmas presents to recipients who could possibly be likers of Dress A Girl Australia. It would destroy the excitement of opening a gift at Christmas day if the recipients happen to read this posting and find out it is for them. It is better to be safe. :-)

Thank you so much for helping provide a clean water to the people of Kalagi Uganda through your purchase of these soy candles. It is 'soy' very much appreciated. Thank you.

If you still are looking for christmas presents for that someone special in your life, please drop by Dress A Girl Australia's e-shop. Please make a purchase if there is anything you like. It is going to a very good cause. Thank you.

Packing #2 for the children of Australia

This is the second batch of soft toys for the children of the Riverina/Murray playgroup. These softies have been donated by several donors from work namely Candace Quach, Haesook Jo and Jenny Fegredo and from myself too. I have a few more to bring home on Monday as not everything could be accommodated on the bag that I had.

What a wonderful Christmas it would be for the 40 kiddies of the Riverina/Murray Group. To Candace, Jo and Jenny, thank you for your kindness and generosity. Thank you for the gifts. It is so much appreciated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY13/12 #170 - 31 dresses from Jill, Elaine, Haze & Vicky

First parcel for the month of December and number 170 on the list is from a group of friends Jill, Elaine, Haze and Vicky of South Australia. They made 31 dresses and had lots of fun making them for 31 deserving little girls around the world.
Here are the 31 dresses which I received today -

and here are Jill, Elaine, Haze and Vicky -

From the picture above, they do look like they are having fun which is really great to see and know as everyone sewing dresses is supposed to be having fun while sewing and at the same time making a difference in this world. To Jill, Elaine, Haze and Vicky, thank you so much for the time and effort you spent making these 31 dresses. Thank you for helping make this world a better place especially for the 31 disadvantaged children around the world. Thank you. Much appreciated.

New Zealand sewing day

About three weeks ago this group from New Zealand and I made contact. They wrote about their desire to make dresses and planned a sewing day on the 13th of December. Today I received an email from Jo Dixey on how they went with their sewing which happened today. They made 29 dresses. Here is the email she sent.

I am not sure where this group is based in New Zealand. I probably would know when they have sent their parcel but I noticed Jo mentions that the school have agreed for them to have a sewing day once a term so I think they are a group of teachers again.

Well done, Jo and the group. Looking forward to receiving your dresses. Thank you.

For a larger and more readable version of the email, please click here.

My flowering yucca on Friday the 13th

This article has nothing to do with Dress A Girl Australia but might help bring luck to my world. When I came home today, the first thing I saw in my frontyard was my flowering yucca on a Friday the 13th. Am sure the flowers were not there early this week as I usually watch them so I can take another snapshot.  Also I read somewhere that if yuccas grow  a bunch of flowers it means luck so I never miss checking them out in case I do get really lucky. :-)  
(By the way, before I started Dress A Girl Australia I used to blog about my garden and my yuccas and succulents. I hope to go back and continue to blog about the living creatures in my front and backyard as it is the only way I can have another chance of a well-maintained garden. It has really been neglected for more than a year now. Besides I enjoy watching my plants grow and then die when I dont bother about them. take pictures when they are very much alive and when they have wilted.)
Hopefully this flowering yucca will bring me good luck in the next few months until it starts to grow flowers again. Usually the flowers last for about 2 weeks only and then it withers.

And since I stopped blogging about my garden (almost a year now) look at how a section of my frontyard garden now looks like. To think that I want to put up solar christmas lights in the next few days I need to have it cleaned and dead grass removed or is it too late. The other-half of this picture is even worst. Two months ago my brother made a remark of 'what happened to your garden. you used to have a nice little garden.' LOL!

I think this is the only nice part of my frontyard now which lights up at night especially if the sun really shines during the day as it charges my christmas solar lights.

Well, I hope by this time some of you are starting to know who I really am based on my blog postings, what my likes and dislikes are, start to know the person behind Dress A Girl Australia after almost 2 years of running the campaign through images of my garden. I think these pictures are a good start of getting to know the real me. :-)

Toys for a Toy Appeal project at work

It probably is just my imagination that the box for the toy appeal at work is always empty that I decided to bring a toy today and another one tomorrow.  The box is located right next to the lift and everytime I get in and/or out of the lift I would look at the box and I dont see anything on it. My friend would ask 'where are the donations?'. LOL! I was thinking maybe the person in charge is just too efficient and gets the donated items every hour before the box gets filled up but I really dont think so because there was a day this week where I took the lift almost 8 times and I did not see any item inside the box. Perhaps  the people still can not feel the Christmas atmosphere at work? Still cannot feel the Christmas spirit of sharing? Or just cannot be bothered.

Someone saw me put the toy in the box at lunchtime today (the toy in front of the picture) and she said to me 'What a nice thing to do.' I wanted to say to her, how about putting one too. :-) These 2 toys are not really new. They belong to my nephews who are way too old to play with these items these days and I dont think they really played with it as they still look brand new. I collected them for a second chance toy project at work a couple of years ago but did not make it to the cut-off. 

I kept them in my garage all this time. I was thinking of donating them to a day care centre as that was what the second chance toy project was all about but didnt have the time to look for a daycare centre worth giving it to. So now it is time for them to be given away. Tomorrow I will be carrying with me the school box you can also see on the picture. There are 3 more of these type of toys but I think they need batteries so unless I am able to secure new batteries I cannot donate them. Am sure these 2 will bring joy to 2 kids anywhere in the world as the toy appeal is for a project of the group around the world.

Email addresses removed

Good Thursday morning everyone! Just wanted everyone to know that the feedback emails that I receive from very thankful recipients of parcels that i send to different locations around the world which I post here in my blog every now and then or whenever I receive one to share with everyone are 'copy and paste' of the original emails I receive. I have the original emails in my inbox in case anyone wants to see them just send me a request. I remove the email addresses on the copy I post in the blog for privacy reasons. Thank you for your understanding.

Another one for the Dress a Girl well

One of my all-time favourites (i have one for my own) i wished i had bought more of this panel is the Angel Doll advent calendar which i sold last Monday to Heather Harris.

Thank you Heather! Much appreciated. I hope you will like it or whoever is going to be the lucky recipient. Thank you for helping provide clean water to the people of Kalagi Uganda.

Another 'thank you' for the quilts from Romania

Tonight I received another 'thank you' email from Lavinia of the Romanian relief organization for the 2 parcels of quilts I sent to them in September this year. Sharing with everyone this note from Lavinia especially to those who donated the quilts -

I hope the donors are happy of this feedback the same way I feel so happy that the quilts have arrived safely. Thank you once again.

Soy Candles for Charity

Since I will not be busy with sorting and packing for the next 3-4 months although I still would be doing my regular task of acknowledging dress donations whenever I receive parcels , I will be writing about the products I will be selling in 2014 to help raise money for postage, boxes and boxes to use for packing, packing tapes and sometimes even customs fees and..... if someone makes a purchase, how much I have raise. It will be an open book even though there is no need for it. What I would do is whoever makes a purchase will be given the option to specify where they want the proceeds of the items they purchased to go to. Whether they want it to go to the postage fund or to the Dress A Girl well although the Dress A Girl well is temporary until such time that the money needed to raise a well has been reached. I think it makes me feel more comfortable if I sell items to raise funds. At least for some they get something out of their money and at the same time help disadvantaged children around the world. It is a win-win for all and does not cause any inconveniences. Selling more of my handmade products is part of my 2014 plans and activities for Dress A Girl Australia.

Soy candles will be my main product next year to raise money for postage as they are easy to make. If you are into candle burning or if you know of anyone who is into candle burning, please check my soy candle products.  If you are wondering if I know how to make candles, yes I know how to make candles but only made of soy. I have been making and selling candles for 2 years about 6 years ago and stopped when I went back to full time job. Also I was able to save enough money to buy a table top kiln my time then got deviated to playing around with my kiln and making small pendants. I even used to sell soy candle kits. Specialty of the house were the candelina jar candles, tealights and travel tins. My sister helped in making them she also used to help make soy melts.

Check out these products especially if you are not familiar yet with candles made of soy. These are handpoured from my kitchen and very environmentally friendly. 

When you buy products from my shop you are actually always hitting at least 2 birds with one stone. For soy candles, you are helping save the environment and also making disadvantaged children happy by providing them with handmade dresses they can call their own. Except for the big soy jar candles I call the soy biggies, the sizes of the candelina jars are small enough to take anywhere with you especially for those who can't seem to go anywhere without bringing a candle to light with them. Soy travel tins are so soy-convenient to carry around too.

Soy candles…..soy-convenient…soy.. why not check them out and if you are into candle lighting make a purchase. It is for a very good cause. Please click here to check them out. And please help spread the word around. From the soy candles page, you can also learn a lot about soy candles, burning times and burning guide. Remember, burning a candle is a responsibility....so be safe!