12 Days of Christmas Starts Soon!

Planning on joining us for our 12 Days of Christmas? We get started TOMORROW! Simply keep an eye out for a post here on our blog and facebook page. To make sure you don’t miss out, you can subscribe to our blog to have each post emailed to you!

To get ready for tomorrow, you might want to collect some plain cardboard, washi tape (Christmas style if you have some) or ribbon, button, scissors, hot glue and a hole punch.

Set aside some time so you’re not too distracted by other things, keep some table space clear and set up all that you’ll need ahead of time.

It's going to be great, Christmassy fun with the special girl in your life!

A sticky craft!

I know, it sounds like the start of a ‘Dad-joke’, but I couldn’t help myself! I had so much fun making some of the 'props' used in our current issue (Spring 2016), that I just had to share how to do them yourself. Here's the first of a few to come!

Sticks and branches can add interest to any room, especially ones that are painted or covered in fabric. Maybe even having extra bits added to them like flowers or leaves, can add an extra touch. Don’t you just love that earthy touch to a room, but like it to look clean and fresh?

Covering a stick with fabric is very easy.

First, pick what fabrics you want to use. Cotton, woven fabrics work best, and they offer a wide range of prints and colour. Choose colours/prints that coordinate well together.

Cut the fabric into strips 2.5 cm wide. They can be a little awkward to use if they are too long (they start to tangle up as you wrap!), so keep them short – no more than about 30-40 cm long.

Begin by dotting the stick with a little hot glue and placing one end of the fabric over the dot, so the fabric will start to wrap on an angle.

Wrap the fabric around the stick, dotting with glue every wrap or two. Overlap the fabric strip about half-way over the previous wrap, so that there is good coverage of the stick and your print/colours show up well.

If you come to a join in the branches, you may need to be a little creative in wrapping to cover all of the stick in fabric.

Keep wrapping until you come nearly to the end of a branch. Cut a short strip of fabric (in the same fabric the outer edge of the branch is covered in), cover the end of the branch with hot glue, and glue the short strip over the end of the branch.

Finish wrapping the branch in fabric and snip off any excess fabric, making sure it is glued down well.

Cover all of the branch/stick with fabric.

To anchor it, attach it to a wall, or if you want it to be more free-standing, place it in a jar filled with pebbles or rice (if the jar is tall and deep, you may need to place the branch in first, then add the pebbles).

You could use your branch to hang things off of, to leave notes on, or to just look pretty in your room!

PS - and if you're young, just remember to be very careful with hot glue, and ask an adult to keep an eye on you while you use it!

Spring has sprung!

Along with the newness that Spring brings, we have a new issue out!

You're going to love the little unexpected extras throughout this issue, along with the pretty colours and light feel about it!

And, our staff are up to new things, too! Our graphic designer has turned mail-room girl, posting off magazines while I'm overseas. Even my mum has become delivery girl for those few that get dropped off at our church! Thanks, you two.

To subscribe, simply go to the link here. All new subscriptions will receive a copy of each back issue of 2016.

Girly time with the sisterhood of family

Do you have any plans for the holidays yet? Some of my kids are happy to just veg out at home, while there are those who want to be 'doing'! And a mix of both can be great for holidays, especially these shorter ones in the cooler months. I'll admit, I'm a 'do-er', so even a day puddling around at home is spent repainting furniture, organising a cupboard long left to cluttering, sewing or gardening. These are great opportunities to spend time with your kids. And of course, there's cousins to come over and play with (we are blessed to have so many that live close by)!

Our family has a wonderful annual tradition that connects the women/girls of the family. Every year we head off to the big Craft and Quilt Fair in Sydney. It's a beautiful mix of generations - grandma, aunt, nieces, cousins and even a 'baby' cousin this year! Our girls have been going with us since they were babies, and this year, they were just at the age (nearly 11 years old) where it was a day they seemed to have grown into. The interactions between the younger girls and the older women were something special to be a part of. We saw our girls acting as caregiver and babysitter to a younger cousin, they were inspired by the various crafts and skills they saw demonstrated (and got to have a go at), chats over lunch and a morning cuppa, the long train ride there and back home ... I walked away feeling like it had been a day where relationships were deepened, not just a day of inspiration!

So, what was so great about all of that?
1 Deepening relationships - After reading Steve Biddulph's facebook post from 24 May 2014, I was reminded that my role as an aunt is very important. Here he noted two main factors in the deterioration of young girls' mental health were the over-sexualisation girls are bombarded with, and the disappearance of adult women in their lives. Today's girls spend 80% LESS time with older women in their families, than previous generations!! Do you remember all the time you spent with your aunt, grandma, older cousins? I do! And I look back at those with great fondness, and the women who spent that time with me, are still significant in my life today! I want that for my daughter, and my nieces! In fact, I'd decided that these holidays, despite all I felt I needed to do to catch up on life, I would make an effort to do more 'auntie' stuff. My nephews are having a sleep over. Of course, there was the craft fair, too.

2 Sharing time over the skills you enjoy - Out of the craft fair, grew something I wasn't expecting. I've done sewing with nieces before. I spend time doing crafty things with my daughter. But, at the craft fair, I realised how important it was to the little girls, that I was interested in sharing my skills and passions with them. We saw beautiful handbags all through the craft fair, so I suggested that we buy a few small treasures, and then spend a day making a bag each during the holidays. The following day my niece asked her mum if she could have the day off school to come to my place to sew her bag! Do you have skills or passions you could share with a niece or young girl in your life? It may seem even mundane to you, but the sheer fact of taking time out to be with them speaks volumes of the value you place on them being part of your life. And one thing I've found as a Home Ec teacher, is that kids open up and share while their hands are quietly busy. This is a chance to discuss those really important life topics, and you'd be surprised at how easily it is the children who open up these conversations when they are quietly working by your side!

3 Glimpses into the inner beauty of your girls - I loved watching my daughter and niece throughout the day. How often do we get a chance to just be observers of our children? My heart was warmed to see their manners in action, their kindness and generosity with each other and with their young cousin, their excitement and enthusiasm over simple things (cute dolls, crafts they'd like to try, even the jellyfish they saw in the harbour as we walked past!), their imaginations ticking away as to the possibilities they could see (along with that attitude of - 'I can do it'). And to not just see these, but to speak to the girls about how I loved seeing their inner beauty.

So, what might you do these holidays to spend time with the young girls in your life?
Here are some ideas:

• Visit a local historical house - great opportunities to look at beautiful china, dresses, old-fashioned anything! And, chat about what it was like being a girl growing up back then, how it is different now ..
• Bake at home - go through recipe books together and pick out your baking (and it could even be part of the fun, to go to the shops for any special ingredients that might be needed), and spend a day inside baking.
• Window shop at your local handcraft markets, or a 'funky' mall - enjoy the moments of dreaming together of what you'd like to buy, the inspiration you have of how you could decorate your room, or even ideas of what you could go home and make!
• Do an op-shop crawl - set a budget - it might only be a few dollars each, and see what treasures you can find at a few different op-shops.
• Take a train trip or a ferry ride - not just to get to a destination, but for that to be the main purpose of the trip! On a cold winter's day, it can be fun to rug up and be outside. You could even stop at a café at the other end for a hot cuppa, before making your way back home. There's bound to be interesting sights and quiet moments for conversation. In NSW with the Family Sunday Funday train tickets, this can be reasonably cheap, and a great option for the whole family to be a part of!

Do you have any other great ideas? You might even want to plan ahead for some of them, so you're not distracted by washing that needs doing, or rooms that need tidying! We hope your holidays are full of wonderful connectedness with the women in your family and social network!

It's busy, busy, busy for us this month! Our launch last weekend, and then off to the NNSW Big Camp!

A great big THANK YOU to all those who came and supported us at our launch! It was a wonderful morning, and we hope you all enjoyed it!

For those who didn't make it, we celebrated our first upcoming year in print with a craft for everyone to do, a facebook interaction, taking a photo with a life-size Amelia paperdoll, and some 'tricks' performed by Andy Matthes!

Tammy, our regular pets contributor, even had two bunnies for the kids to walk around with and hold!

We'll have some more photos to share later.

If you're coming to Big Camp, we'll see you there! Make sure you pop in and say 'hi' during Super Sunday and do a craft with us!

Woven in time

Ever tried your hand at weaving? I've always enjoyed it, and been fascinated with all the different weaving techniques. Nothing fancy, mind you - I've just never had the time to learn that! I think what has attracted me most to weaving is that you're actually creating your own fabric! Even if you're using old fabrics to weave with, a completely new, original, unique fabric is made.

From small to large, any weaving project is going to take time and care. Not only is there the planning, gathering your resources and organising your space. The weaving process itself is laborious. If you were to weave something for someone else, how often do you think your mind would wander to thoughts of them, while your hands slowly worked away.

And, it's that kind of image that comes to mind when I read Psalm 139. Imagine the God-dreams of who you were going to be, all the little bits He added in make you who you are, before you were born.

We've included a small weaving project, suitable for a young girl to have a go at, in our upcoming issue of Amelia Magazine.

You can subscribe to Amelia Magazine at our online store here

Crowning Glory

What is your 'crowning glory'? We often think of our hair. But, it is also something that is important or a priority. For you, is it your intelligence, athletic ability, beauty? Or, is it that you are the daughter of a king - God. Think of yourself as a daughter of God, and does that change how you think about who you are, or how you think about those around you?

We took on this theme in our Summer issue and really enjoyed putting together these 'crowns' for a little princess! They're so cute, I wonder if I could get away with wearing one out and about!