In which Minty turns four and I gift her with abandonment issues...

Happy valentines day everyone!  Lots has been happening about these parts, hence the lack of consistent posting.  

Minty turned four yesterday and also had her very first full day of kinder.  I think it all went OK... until I forgot to pick her up.  OK so that's not entirely accurate.  I didn't 'forget' - I got the times mixed up and thought I was supposed to pick her up at 2:30 instead of 2:15.  And then Turi and I fell asleep on the couch together and we were running late for our incorrect time.  So all in all she waited for us for… ahem… almost half an hour.

I'm sure this is the kind of story Minty will be telling her psychotherapist in twenty years time.  Lucky I'm not embroiled in a custody battle since I'm sure this would be lauded out as evidence of my extreme parenting incompetence.  (I would counter with tales of the time when the Mr accidentally slammed the car door on Minty's head).  Clearly we are both shooting for parents of the year!  As it is, I'm sure I'll just beat myself up over it for the next few months until I manage to push it to the recesses of my mind in an attempt at self preservation.

Thankfully the birthday wasn't a complete write off.  We did manage to put together a nice party for Minty on the weekend with some friends and family.

I will share some pics of the party tomorrow but in the mean time here are a few of Minty in the party dress I made for her.  She insisted on carrying her new umbrella (a present), so the shadows are a bit all over the place.  I used this pattern but left off the pockets and gave it a round neckline.  The fabric is double gauze Nani Iro, which I picked up on sale while we were in Japan.  I'm not sure why I keep making things out of double gauze, possibly I'm some kind of masochist.  This one was fraying excessively as I was putting it together but I think I managed to encase it all within the french seams.  I used much less fabric than was recommended in the pattern (which always makes me feel very thrifty).  I cut the fabric so that the top and bottom panels were densely patterned, with the lightly dotted section in the middle.  Luckily the print is very forgiving since Minty has already managed to permanently stain the front with chocolate and raspberry ice-cream!