Another Message From Africa!

Morning Everyone!

Lovely morning today - my kids just went back to school so peace reigns supreme in Loving Hands Headquarters at the moment!

Great news yesterday - we got a couple of donations towards postage thanks to the sterling work of Kate in the local post office! She made a set of our 'boobs' for a lady who didn't like the prosthetics she had been given - she apparently loves the knitted ones and has donated £10 as a thank you - Kate also made an adult sized baby bonnet and bootees for one of her colleagues who was going to a fancy dress party and that happy lady donated another £5 - thanks Kate - you are a star!

We are now going to ask the Post Mistress if she will let us put a giant Gorilla in the post office shop and ask customers to guess his birthday - this should generate some more much needed income to get these parcels off to Africa!

Talking about Africa - I had an e-mail last night from Cerys at the Volunteer Centre. The parcels posted over after the knitathon have arrived and Val is delighted with them - I have attached her e-mail for you all to see - She must have been so thrilled getting so many parcels at once!


"thank you all so much for the nine bags of baby items that you sent over.
there is a website about the baby project.im not sure of the address as i just put up baby pack project.i just do the packing the parcels and getting them out to the mums.
i have been able to send a lot of them out this week with all your help.thank you so much for thinking of us.
there is such a big need here in south africa for clothes of all sorts.the packs we make up are a real blessing to these mums as they have nothing for there babies.
please keep up the good work that you are doing for all the charities as if it was'nt for people like yourselves we could'nt do much here.
God bless you all
val bailey
the baby pack project"

We are doing great folks - now we mustn't get complacent. Loving Hands is like a puppy - not just for Christmas! We are going to keep on going and help as many people as we can! At the moment I am busy making up a lot of prem baby samples which I will take along to the two local maternity hospitals. Apparently each unit has their own way of doing things and not all of them use the same items.

Check out this site for patterns for lots of prem baby things:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/my_pages/babywear/hkp/025.shtml

We are making things for Preemiesuk already - Shelley tells me they are in need of wee blankets, cardigans, bootees and hats so we will make sure she gets a nice load of those very soon! She is sending us some things over as well as she had some extra burial buntings (for the wee lambs who sadly don't make it) and also some wash cloths that she and her young son have been making - thanks Shelley!

Last night I was working on an Angel Pocket (one of the patterns on the above link) I was crying as I made it - just knowing what it was for was enough to reduce me to bits. When I told the girls at the Kelty group they said the same thing happens to them - we are such a tender hearted bunch aren't we. I guess the best way to look at it is that these little touches might give some comfort to grieving parents - but please girls - if it hurts too much don't make the sad things - I don't want parcels of soggy items flooding in to the office :0) Thankfully there is far more need for the other things we make!

Right - I guess I had better go off and get some more work done! I have to sleep this afternoon before I pick the kids up as I work tonight - the joys of nightshift!

Keep smiling :0)