Blog for Wednesday 14th January 2026

Well, it is a very, very “Happy Birthday Jill!” to day! Jill is one of my good friends and who is a faithful reader of my blogs. “Jill, we hope you have a really wonderful day celebrating your special day. Enjoy!”

I sort of rolled out of bed at just after four o’clock this morning and then did everything in slow motion style!

I went upstairs to my studio to have my Quiet Time, and I also did some studies before going downstairs to do the washing. Once that was done, I hung it all out on the washing line. Such a good girl!

The rest of my day I spent sewing my little smocked dress. I am so pleased with my progress so far. Yes, it takes a long time to make, but I gain such satisfaction, knowing that our little great-granddaughter will one day be wearing it.

So far, I have now attached the smocked front to the yoke, and the collar to the yoke too. Then I have lined the whole top of the dress. I have sewn the sleeves but still need to attach them to the dress. So, all I have to do now is attach the sleeves, sew up the side seams of the dress and hem it. Unfortunately, I will have to re-do the embroidery as I had embroidered white roses on the smocked area, but when I came to the collar I could not embroider white roses there, so I used the peach color, but now I need to re-do all the white roses on the front of the dress and the sleeves and do them again using the peach color too.

This is a photo to show you that the roses need to be changed.

My smocked dress in progress

For supper Ken had the last of the savory mince on toast with some cheese sauce. I ate my main meal at lunch time.

I had planned to get to sleep early but then got hooked into watching a debate on my phone, and so it was after ten, when I turned my light out!

What lesson did I learn today? Slow and steady wins the race.

What am I grateful for today? The rain - it began to fall gently as the day disappeared.

My saying for today is …