Giving Back

Instagram, gahhhhhh, I love you, maybe a little too much, but sometimes that is a good thing. A couple of weeks ago I was doing the usual scroll through my feed when the lovely Shelley over at Spin Cushions (want to learn to crochet? Shelley has an awesome tutorial series to get you going!) posted a picture about a project she was helping out on and I thought “now this is something I can do!” The project is called Days for Girls and Cath from My Bearded Pigeon put a shout out into the instagramming world for people to help out. Days for Girls is about providing girls in impoverish communities with sustainable feminie hygiene products – reusable pads and washcloths, to keep them in school and work.

As their website states – Imagine if not having sanitary supplies meant DAYS without school, DAYS without income, DAYS without leaving the house? Girls use leaves, mattress stuffing, newspaper, corn husks, rocks, anything they can find……but still miss up to 2 months of school every year. Worse, girls are often exploited in exchange for hygiene. It turns out this issue is a surprising but instrumental key to social change for women all over the world. The poverty cycle can be broken when girls stay in school.

Now anyone who knows me well enough (and well all of you now to) would know if it wasn’t for the wonders of modern medicine a couple days a month would result in a lot of crying, screaming and withering around on the couch in agony for. While that stills happens, once those drugs kick in I’m back to normal, so I hate to imagine going through that with no access to feminie hygiene products. This was an easy project to get involved in, for about 2 hours of my time I was able to provide 2 washcloths and a carry bag that will help some girls out once a month for up to 3 years! 2 hours = 6 months extra school or work over 3 years. It’s definitely a worthwhile investment to me.

I didn’t need to buy a thing as everything was in my stash, beautiful soft cotton yarn and some nice bright cotton fabric. As the girls use the bag for everyday use I reinforced the tops of the side seams where the drawstrings goes to hopefully give it more strength! Hope the Days for Girls organisers don’t mind! Want to help out? – jump over to their website and find a local branch and enquire or there is still time to send stuff to Cath as she is collecting till Easter.

It’s definitely good to give something back!

I’m Back!!! + A new pattern

So it has clearly been awhile. I don’t really have an excuse, I have just being lazy really. So what has been happening? Well, 1 week ago I had another surgery on my wrist (the original surgery was 10 months ago) to release the tendon to my index finger which was stuck in scar tissue from the previous surgery. So far so good and I have more movement than I had when I went in!

 

Last weekend my partner became a God-Mother to our good friends little boy. It was a cute ceremony and they combined it with his 1st birthday party (he is 1 next month), so it was filled with extra presenty goodness. We also caught up with friends we haven’t seen in 3 years, lets hope it isn’t another 3 years till we see them again!!!!

 

Ok, so I am sure we have had a lot more going on, but I’m sure that is the main things so the new pattern. A few weeks ago I posted a pattern on Instagram and now I’m sharing it with you all here. It is another dishcloth pattern, and very similar to the essential dishcloth pattern. So it is  - The Heavy Duty Dishcloth Pattern.

 

SUPPLIES

4 balls of 4ply cotton yarn

6.5mm hook

 

Stitch Abbreviations

ch – chain

dc – double crochet

 

Pattern

1. Using all 4 balls together ch 20.

2. 1dc into 4th ch from hook. 1dc into each chain to end. Turn (17dc)

3. Ch 3. 1dc into each dc of previous row. Turn (17dc)

4. Repeat step 3 7 more times. Fasten off yarn & sew in ends.

 

This is a super quick project and is great for using up the left over yarn from making the essential dishcloth’s!

Instagram

Yep I have finally discovered the joy’s of Instagram! You see, recently I finally got a new phone. I upgraded from an iPhone3 (yes the original) to the new wizz bang iPhone5. I am totes excited as the young peoples say! With a new phone came the joys of Instagram and many other funky photography based apps that has resulted in my Canon DSLR feeling like a disregarded child’s toy. I promise I am still every bit in love with my Canon as the day I got it, but I do love the easy of taking pics without the cumbersome bulk of my DSLR!

So what do I snap pics of? Anything and everything really - my current projects, dinner, my garden, the beach, you get the point – ANYTHING!!! I love sharing a few moments of my day with the peeps (what is with my hip kids lingo today lol) in my life! Want to share in those moments too? Follow me - http://instagram.com/naomiscouller