Birthday treasures

In my recent Boxing Day post, I shared my Christmas outfit, which centred around the amazing white crocheted dress my grandmother made for me. This dress was the granting of a wish, written about in a post some time ago, but which had been around for as long as I've loved the movie, To Sir, With Love.

Hearing about my desire for a crocheted dress, she dug out her collection of old patterns. Together, my grandma, my mum and I decided that this style was the closest match to what I was after, especially if it was altered to leave the cuffs off.

Despite not having crocheted in quite some time, she whipped this up in less than two months to be ready for my birthday, back in September. And apparently she really enjoyed making a return to crocheting, which made me even more pleased than I would have already been, knowing that her kind gift to me was a happy experience for her too.

Here I am, in my fabulous dress, with my amazing birthday cake (made by a gifted cake-making friend) on my birthday. I need to get some better shots of me in the dress but, for now, this one will have to suffice, in which I have allowed one of the sleeves to twist around...

But that's not all the handcrafting that went into my birthday. No, while my grandmother was working away with her crochet hooks, my dearest mother was putting her knitting needles to making me a beautiful cardigan.

Like my grandmother, she pulled out an old pattern book and, after some debate, we decided on 'Skyline' in a rusty pink colour.

And here I am, wearing the beautiful creation, whilst eating rainbow jelly and ice cream. Look how pretty and perfectly stitched is it! I was so impressed when I finally got to see it on my birthday.

I'm such a privileged lady. Think how special I felt in the lead-up to my birthday, knowing that these two were both lovingly creating gifts for me.

'That's a gorgeous cardigan', I hear you say, 'but wait, what's with that backdrop...?'

Oh, yes, that's just my birthday bouncy castle! You're never too old...

And here's a better picture of my cardigan, with the lovely maker. 

'Gee, Miss Marie, where do you get your dress style from?' I know, I know... But we don't always coordinate. Just every now and then...