Minnie Mouse and the Owl

An OWL beanie I crocheted as part of a birthday gift last week :)

This is my little princess in her Minnie Mouse costume I made (black leggings, red stretch velvet top with cute puff sleeves and the poofy red polka-dot skirt, the Minnie Mouse ears are courtesy of Miss 17 from her trip to Disneyland)

She won 1st prize for Best Dressed Girl :)

The big reveal...lol.

Who am I?  Where am I?  

This is me.  Here I am.

My PLUS SIZE Women's clothes I've been tell ya'll about...finally a link so you can check me out :)

Yeah...so that's it.  That is me.  ia ua lava loa...poetry is NOT my strong point LMFAO

So it's not much...but it's enough to keep me busy :)  I do it all myself...design, pattern drafting/grading, cutting, sewing...and finally listing on Trademe.

At the moment I only sell on Trademe as I don't have enough time to sew the number of garments I'd need to sell else where.  I am also kept busy by the steady stream of customers who want items made in different colours/fabrics.

While I'm in Samoa, I hope to play around with an idea I have for a bolero/shrug - something to cover the ol' upper arms when ya wearing my tunics and strapless maxi dresses :)  I'll draft the pattern and grade it up in size while I'm in Samoa and when I get back I'll start making them up :)

NZ's slackest blogger??  Quite possibly :/

Oh well...no point going on about how slack I have been to update here...jsut get on with it right?

So here I am.  

I have found a bit of time here and there to be able to sew again...plus size clothes remember?  So yeah, have been doing a bit of that and selling slow and steady on Trademe...enough sales for the amount of time I actually have to sew the garments up, so that is good :) 

My eldest daughter had a school trip to the U.S.A - that's been and done...she is back home safe.  "al qaeda" did not attempt to blow up Times Square on the 4th of July while my daughter was there - a fear I had in the back of my mind when they said that's where they would be that day...I didn't tell anyone my fears until she returned lol.

She had a ball...who wouldn't - lucky girl.  She even got to meet my extended family from California on the one free evening she had a couple of nights before her return.  They SPOILT her and treated her with so much love I was blown away and overwhlemed that I sat in my lounge, on facebook, looking at the picktures they were updating of their evening, with tears in my eyes, that these people (yes we are related) but they have only ever met me once nearly 20yrs ago!!  and I was older and they were LITTLE KIDS then!!  But they are all grown up now with their own lil families and they went out of their way, over and beyond anything I expected...amazing.

My 'baby' is now nearly 15 months old!  Gorgeous, happy - still super clingy *sigh* Healthy and keeping me busy :)

I have been missing my mum like crazy (both my parents live in Samoa).  My brother and I went halves on our dads fare here for a holiday in Sept.  And even though we are recovering from the financial hit we took (lol) to get our daughter to the US, I decided to do something nice for me (THANK YOU TO MY HONEY) and booked flights for me, baby and my 14yr old son to go to Samoa and SURPRISE MUM and dad lol.

I've never managed to 'surprise' her before, cos I get too excited and end up telling her a week or so before going over, but this time I will make sure to keep my mouth shut :)  Main reason being that my mum goes to so much trouble to get 'things' ready for us before we go over... from the smallest things like changing her curtains to getting Dad to finish building whatever it was she got him to start building...but it puts so much stress on my dad...see mum is a 'strong' Samoan woman...Dad is a quiet, 'do as he's told or put up with mum being pissed off at him for the next two weeks' Palagi man LMFAO.  So yeah...our lil trip is gonna be a SURPRISE :)

I'm so excited I can't stand it!!  I don't even care if I don't see a beach or a night club!! while I'm there...if all I do is sit at home and stare at my mum all day and night, I will be the HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD :)

The one thing I am NOT looking forward to however is the never ending "Oka...ua e koe lapo'a"  Oh really?  STUFF YOU.  A simple "Hello, how are you?" would be nice....but ok...thanks NOT.

On that note though, I am looking forward to the food :)  It will be early Mango season right?  The fresh niu.  Pawpaw.  Oka...LOVE it.  Fresh sashimi.  Mmmm.

So I have been thinking, what can I do while I'm there?  Something useful.  My 14yr old hasn't been there since he was 8/9yrs old?   Decided that we are def gonna be spending one morning at the plant nursery 'Nafanua? or do I have my names wrong lol...and we're gonna buy fruiting plants...avocado, orange, low growing Niu (any other suggestions please?)...and we're gonna plant them stragicaly on our land at Vaitele.  It will be good to show my son where the land is and explain to him that this son, is one of the reasons why we can't buy that flat screen tv, or that big 4x4 truck that your friends have  cos your mum and dad are putting money into things that will last forever!! and one day when we win Lotto hahaha we will come back and build a beautiful home here where he will be able to bring his friends for a winter escape etc... 

So yep.  Can't wait to go to Samoa.