KNITTING PROGRESS

I am slowly knitting away at my green shrug, I've decided to get this finished before starting on another project. I'm a bit worried actually as I didn't do a gauge, I'm just too darn impatient. This is probably going to the item that will make me understand how important it is to do a gauge sample! I'm definitely going to do them in future, just hope that I get away with it this time. It looks just like a long sleeve at the moment, which I guess that it is actually! Once I have finished this part then I have to pick up and knit on circulars which I'm pretty nervous about doing, I would hate to muck it all up. I'm enjoying knitting this as it's a pretty simple pattern, which means that I can also watch telly at the same time with only a small amount of backtracking involved.

Knitting is great for helping me to stay awake, my eyes were starting to droop on Fri night while Julian and I were watching a DVD, so picked up the needles and managed to stay awake for the whole film. Unlike Julian who snored his way through most of the film, I did offer him some knitting, but he wasn't interested!!! Shame really I can just picture us both sitting there knitting away...................

So I am pleased to report that no bread passed my lips yesterday!!!! Unfortunately, I seem to have swapped bread for chocolate biscuits and I'm pretty sure that this is not going to get me into my dress for the summer! Note to self....must try harder (blimey sounds like my old school reports)! X

Goodbye Bread

Hey guess what it's Monday and I'm starting a new diet........... I have decided that I am giving up bread, I seem to be eating loads at the moment as it is a quick and easy thing to fill up on. I am hoping that by eliminating this from my diet I will have to slow down and try to think of new and healthy lunch/snack ideas. I have of course been dreaming about hot buttered toast with marmite, but it is only Monday so I can't cave in yet!!!

I signed over my gym membership at the weekend, I just couldn't find any time to go, so it seemed the best thing to do. I can't say that I am sad about this as I was never really a gym type of gal... I plan on doing lot's of walking instead, much better out in the fresh air. Walking is all I did after having Kalem and it seemed to do the job then. I need to get fit, healthy and loose those baby lumps and bumps so that I can fit into the dress pictured below. I fell in love with this dress last summer while I was pregnant, of course it did not fit me then, but I figured it would after baby arrived. HAHAHAHAHA, not quite!!!!! I hope that by picturing the dress here I will be motivated to get into it by this summer, hmmmm fingers crossed!
SISTERS......I love this photo of the girls (and I love being able to say 'the girls'..), they both look so different, one with big brown eyes and the other with big blue eyes.

A BIG THANK YOU to Jackie and Kate for helping me after my last post, see I actually managed to put the Handmade pledge badge on my blog!!!

HELP

This is just a quick post to ask for some HELP! I really want to add a couple of badges to my blog, but I can't seem to figure out how to do this. I know that it is something to do with copying and pasting and URL but not sure where I have to paste it. I have spent ages trying to figure it out to no avail and I am getting really frustrated. I am sure it is probably something quite simple and when I finally figure it out I am blaming my BABY BRAIN...... yes I am still using this excuse!

THE TOOTH FAIRY...

Last night Kalem's front tooth finally fell out, the 3rd lost tooth to date. It was so cute, he took his little tooth into the bathroom before bed and brushed it with his toothbrush so that it was all shiny for the tooth fairy. He then wrapped it in tissue and placed it carefully under his bed. The tooth fairy who was actually feeling a bit under the weather last night almost forgot to replace the tooth with a shiny coin.....Luckily she remembered just in time! A couple of weeks ago Kalem came home from school and said that half the kids in his class believed in the tooth fairy and half thought that it was their parents. Is the tooth fairy real he asked?????? I answered straight away, that of course the tooth fairy was real......... Now though I keep thinking, did I do the right thing? He is 7 1/2, is this the age that children stop believing in magic? I love nothing more than watching my children's imagination at work and it saddens me to think that soon he will not want to know about the wondrous, enchanting world of make believe. I want him to always believe in dragons, fairies, father Christmas and the Easter bunny, but I know that he wont, so I guess that I will have to come up with new ways to spark his amazing imagination.......

Oh and whilst on the subject of fairies my own little fairy Talia announced yesterday that she has changed her name to Buttercup. This is apparently more fairy like! She would not answer to Talia and had a great time telling everyone she saw her new name, even a random lady at the fruit and veg shop. I guess that it will be a while before I have to start worrying about her belief in magic.

Illness and Mosaics......

Urghhhhhh we are all sick and feeling sorry for ourselves here...There is so much coughing, sneezing and nose blowing it's scary!!!! I HATE WINTER....... Actually I can't really say that as this winter in NZ has been okay, I just hate the weeks of sickness that come with winter. I have been getting back into Aromatherapy again which is one good thing to come of all this. I have been burning oils constantly in the hopes that they may eliminate some of the germs in the room and I have also made up a chest rub oil which I am massaging into Kalem and Talia's chest and back a few times a day. They are so cute and they love it, Kalem just relaxes and lets me get on with it, but Talia just lies there telling me what to do. She is such a bossy little madam, I keep telling her to lie back and be quiet I AM THE PROFESSIONAL after all.....

Anyway enough about illness, I though that I would post a few of my mosaic designs. I love mosaics, but can't seem to get into it in the winter as a. My work bench is on the garage and it's too cold to stand out there for hours, b. I have realised that I am actually more inspired in the summer and c. knitting seems to be my new obsession...................

I have done a few mosaics using tile, but a couple of years ago I went on a course to learn how to use glass in mosaics. I definitely prefer to use glass myself as I find it easier to shape. The first picture is the plant pot that I made during the course.



This is a photo frame that I made for Talia. My plan was actually to make these to sell, so this was an experiment. Of course I never got around to actually making any more, but I am thinking of trying to brave the cold and getting out into that garage this weekend. I have drawn up a few designs so I am quite keen to see what they turn out like. I would not do future frames with names on either as it is too fiddly.

I love sunflowers so I made this to hang in our garden. It is great as it adds a splash of colour on an otherwise quite bleak winter garden.

I have also made a couple of other mosaics as gifts, but I don't have photographs of them. Oh well better get off computer now as I see 3 snotty noses that need wiping, oh happy days!!!

A Tidy House...

Yay, I managed to keep my house tidy for the whole day by putting the kids outside on the deck with loads of their toys. They play outside a lot on their bikes and on the trampoline, but they don't really take their toys out, they had great fun Talia played with her polly pockets and Kalem built a lego rocket and launcher...Me, well I watched on from inside where it was warm!!! Not sure why Kalem has got his helmet on, falling meteor's perhaps????


On my needles at the moment is this newly started ribbed shrug. It's great knitting on such big needles (8mm) after using 2 3/4mm needles for Talia's fairy doll which was like knitting with toothpicks, very frustrating.... It's knitting up pretty quickly as you use 2 strands of yarn together. I hope that it turns out okay as I love the colour.

A Day At The Beach....

In fabulous NZ style we have jumped from snow to weather good enough to spend the day on the beach. We have had some great weather recently, you would hardly know it was the middle of winter. Hmmmm bet it rains tomorrow now...................................

Ice Skating

Today while Talia was at Montessori getting turned into a beautiful butterfly....................

Lola, Kalem and I went ice skating...................

Well actually Lola preferred to sit on the edge and watch with her Godmother.............

It was Kalem's first time skating and he thought it was "AWESOME" his word not mine, he is such a little kiwi.... Poor kid fell over so many times (probably be black and blue tonight), but instead of giving up, he just kept getting back up and skating on with a BIG smile on his face. It was great to watch him and we had a lot of laughs as we both wobbled along on the ice holding hands, I am not quite sure who was actually holding who up...... Oh and just in case you are wondering I did not fall over once................................ X

A finished project

I have FINALLY finished my fingerless gloves. I am quite pleased with them, but I wish that I had knitted them in the small size rather than medium as they would look nicer if they were a bit more fitted. The first glove took me ages, there was plenty of unravelling involved and much confusion with having to learn how to knit with 5 douple pointed needles, but I am pleased to say that the second glove knitted up pretty quickly. I think that I may be getting the hang of this knitting lark!! It has been really quite warm in Christchurch since I finished them (I am soooo not complaining...), so still waiting to try them out.

I am still finishing up the fairy doll that I am making for Talia, just need to get some wool for the hair and make the felt wings. Now though I need a new knitting project, I am thinking either a sweet little rucksack for Talia or I may be adventurous and knit myself a top, not sure if I am quite ready for that though.......... X

Dora the Explorer

Today Talia and I went to see the Dora the Explorer Live show....it was brilliant! Talia was totally captivated and on the edge of her seat throughout the whole show. There was singing and dancing and lot's of flag waving, a lovely mummy/daughter day out...just the 2 of us (and all those other Dora fans of course..)

Julian took Kalem and his cuzzies out for a bike ride on the forest this morning so they had a lovely (MUDDY) bonding time as well. Lola had lot's of fun with her daddy and brother this afternoon, so a lovely day was had by all. X

A chilly Weekend......

The snow has all gone now and the sun is actually shining...not sure for how long though! Before the rain washed the snow away the CRAZY members of my little family went out for a walk. They had fun until it started raining really hard and Talia had to get away from the 'stingy rain'..... Poor little mites were freezing cold and dripping wet when they got back. Nothing that a hot bath couldn't fix of course. The knowledge that Grandad was treating all of us, auntie Ness and cuzzies to a chinese take away that night helped to put the smiles straight back on their faces!

At least the bad weather over the weekend enabled us to finally decorate and get started on the kids scrapbooks. kalem and Talia cut lots of little pictures out of old comics and glued them on to a plain scrapbook, then we added a photo and I covered them in the clear plastic covering (the type you use for school books). This kept them busy for ages and they were both really excited about the finished item.

We kept a scrapbook for Kalem the year before we left England so that he would have something to remember his time there. It was simple and childlike filled with movie tickets, a map to Lego World (somewhere he will never forget), photo's of his little buddies, a underground timetable for the tube in London and lot's of other bits and bobs.......hopefully he will always treasure this

I love the idea that one day the kids great grandchildren may read these books and marvel at how the world was in 2008..............X

Longing for summer...........

Today it is a very cold and snowy day here in Christchurch!!! Being English, snow does not really appeal to me, I have seen a lot of it in my life and it basically means it is BLOOMIN FREEZING!!! However, the look of delight on my kids face when it started to snow earlier was a picture. We had actually headed out this morning to a local farmers market, it certainly did not look like it was about to snow, but here in NZ you never know what the weather is going to do. The weather here truly baffles me, on Tuesday it was so warm that Talia had on her crocs and a skirt and now today it is like this...................

Unfortunately it is not really snowman building snow (I'm English, I know my snow...), it's also raining which is a shame as the kids are desperate to get out there. It's days like this that make me long for double glazing and central heating....... Julian has still not taken off his coat and we have been home for about an hour, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

It does look quite magical outside.................. X

NEW SHOES....

Yesterday these adorable little shoes arrived from the wonderfully talented Melissa from Norway. You have to check out her blog and Etsy shop, both inspiring and delightful......

Look they are reversible............

Soon to be worn by this yummy little model..................

Look... Lola and her little cloth dolly have both got (almost) matching stripey pants on, so cute! I know, small things amuse small minds...............................XX