Not for sissies

I cried a lot today. Somehow doing my challenges is making me more aware of the massive challenges other people face every day.

As I was driving to town this morning, I saw a family of 3 people walking next to the road, and the little one (about 4 years) was so tired and the mom picked her up to carry her. As I came into town, I could not forget them and felt so guilty for driving past, so turned back to give them a lift. They were on their way to the Checkers in town, to collect some money their dad has sent them as the bread and milk were finished and they had no money. They have been walking for 2 hours and was so thankful for the lift.

After I dropped them I went to Pick &Pay and just sat in the parking area sobbing my heart out. The little one was so thirsty when she got in the car, and all I had was a bit of water to offer her.

Anyway, on my way home I collected them outside the checkers with their one bag of bread and milk, and took them to Eloff where they stay. They never hitch-hiked, they never asked for anything, they were very dignified, extremely poor and I do not even know their names. I did buy them a bag of vegetables, a cooked chicken, oranges, bananas and some yogurt and sweeties for the little girl. Maybe I will never see them again, but there has been a challenge I have been putting off for a long time, and today I was forced to do it. The challenge came from Ty Pennington, and it was to donate 1 hour of my time to someone in need. So I helped them and they helped me!! And I have stopped crying.

Some knitting news - I have finished something else at long last. This is a rucksack and took forever to make. It is from "The Art of Knitting", the Bits and Pieces range number 10. I asked my hubbie to model it for us, and he grumpily obliged (he was already in his payamies and gown)

The cookies I made last night was super yummie - the first one is called Jacques Torre's Secret Choc-Chip Cookies (not really a secret anymore is it?) Just look at the massive pieces of chocolate I put in. Am taking some to work tomorrow for testing.

The other one was not so nice (according to the only available cookie tester which is my husband), but you might like them. They are called Espresso-Bean Shortbread

DRUMROLL!!!!!!!!!! Here is the weekly sewing challenge from http://www.sewweekly.com/. The theme was "reality check" and I had to sew something I did not have in my cupboard. So I decided (very unwisely I might add) that I need a vintage summer dress. It was a Vogue pattern and super complicated. But I did not do maths in matric for nothing - knew it would come in handy one day, so after finishing the dress (which was the equivalent of a massive engineering project) - here is the result!!

Thank you to all of you who asked about my dear little Elvis dog - he is much, much better. here is a picture of him striking a pose. I also include a picture of the holes in his back which is still in the process of healing. On top of being ripped apart, he also got biliary and had to receive blood transfusions and spend 3 additional nights in Kempton Animal Hospital. They saved his life twice and I adore them.

It seems the gold medals ar jsut out of my reach. In my Olympic Games challenge from http://www.flylady.net/d/flylady-games-2012/ I combined event for day 1 and day 3 together, which was to throw away trash in each room for 5 minutes (filled a big black bag)

and find things to donate in all the rooms by spending 5 minutes in each. Here is my donate box, which is going into the car tomorrow so I can drop it off at the SPCA shop.