As yet unnamed!

Leaving on a jet plane...

Here are the kids after dinner tonight just as the sun was setting. It is so hard to get a photo of them when they both face the camera and both smile without making funny faces. I can't believe we're flying home tomorrow, the last 8-9 days have gone by so fast. We had fun though with lots of swimming, plenty of ice cream (N had 5 scoops yesterday!) and time together and time apart (K and I took turns with the kids so we both got a break each day with time to ourselves). Next year C will be old enough to stay at the kids' play groups without one of us there though I think deep down we'd both be bummed out if the kids didn't want one of us to stick around with them. 

Here is a photo of the four of us. Totally unedited and uncropped. Once I'm back on my own laptop I'll share more photos as I have very limited means to edit anything on K's laptop. I spent a good 3 hours sunbathing today but could use another few weeks to really get the tan I am after. I did ask if I could stay for another week on my own but for some reason K said no. I suppose it would be a bummer to miss N's first day at big girl school NEXT WEEK!!! To console myself over having to leave tomorrow, I enjoyed a full body massage in the late afternoon. I think I'll need a regular massage once I get back to London to console myself for not living in a beach city. 

Stay tuned for more photos over the next week. I figure I'll need something to do in between all the loads of laundry that we're taking home with us.

Making Monday Week 2

Week 2 of Making Monday brought to you again from Sunny Crete on my last day of summer vacation. So sad to be going home but pleased I managed to finish one project while I was here.

The bag turned out a bit larger than I had planned and the straps were about 1" too long but otherwise, I'm happy with it. I will line the bag when I get home though as it needs a bit more sturdiness to it not to mention I don't want stuff poking out! 

I used 8 skeins of Patons Cotton Twist Aran weight yarn (50% cotton/acrylic) and a size 3.5mm/E crochet hook. I might make another one using different yarn as the colors were not quite what I wanted. I might gift this bag once it's lined. Not sure who would like these colors but it would make a cute tote bag and would hold a decent amount. 

Having done the little flowers for this, I have decided to make a little cushion cover with them once I am back in London. They are super fun and easy to do thanks to a tutorial on my Fave Crochet blog: Attic 24.

This afternoon I'll get back to working on my Peasy cardigan. Hopefully I'll be sharing the finished project in a near future Making Monday update!

One week into our holiday...

The kids are getting along great but aren't as interested as playing on the beach as they were the first few days. They are both spending a lot of time in the swimming pool in our garden though. N is just about to grow gills and C is getting braver each day. Today he tried swimming without his ring and apparently went under water a bit but was fine. 

I went down to the beach for an hour in the late afternoon for some more sun. I know my tan is going to fade the moment we enter UK airspace so perhaps I'll take a few photos to remember it all when I'm back to being pasty white again.

N is getting harder and harder to photograph as she pulls funny faces and can't seem to just smile normally. Even a smile looks totally faked unless I can catch her off guard or take 200000 photos and one usually turns out okay. So glad we use digital cameras now. Here she is tonight on our way to dinner. I bought her this cute dress before we left and even bought it a size too large so she can hopefully still fit into it next summer. Shame she won't be able to wear it other than on the weekends once we're home thanks to the school uniform she'll have to endure. 

We have 2 more full days left here and then a morning before we fly back to London. I'm dreading leaving but C seems excited as he misses his trains back home. I'll just have to cheer myself up with happy thoughts of escaping London at Christmas time :)

Puppet Show

We ventured down to the kid's activity center they have here this morning after breakfast. They had lots of arts and crafts, a volleyball net, 2 sandpits, a slide, swings and legos and all sorts of toys for the kids. We can't leave C there as he's not quite 3 yet so I stayed with them to give K a break and some peace and quiet. Some of the other kids had made puppets and did a little puppet show and N got totally obsessed with making her own puppet. It was just about lunch time though so I promised she could go back after lunch to make one. K took them back while I laid out down on the beach. When we all got back to the room, N insisted on setting up her "stage" which is the aircon unit in the living room. Then she put on a little show for us with her puppet which was pretty much singing and dancing around. She encouraged audience participation as you can see. Of course they both want to go back to the activity area again tomorrow so I'll take them after breakfast but have insisted we spend the afternoon together either at our pool or down on the beach as it's SO hot to be playing all afternoon without at least dipping into the water from time to time to cool off. 

At night the sky gets so dark here. We're not used to it as London nights are never that dark, more just a dark grey shade so it's hard to see stars. N has loved that we can see the stars here each night so it's become her routine to stargaze with Daddy before she goes to bed. They use an app on the iPhone which you hold up to the sky and it tells you what stars you're looking at. Here they are tonight sitting out in our garden area. We also sat and watched the sunset as well, another thing that we don't really notice in London. I remember the LA sunsets were gorgeous thanks to the smog they had, lol. I'm surprised we don't see it more in London as the air is pretty horrendous there as well. I guess we also kinda need the sun to shine in order to have a sunset. So many things we'll miss when we go home again. 

Another day in paradise

Waking up each morning and looking out the window at the clear blue sky and sunshine reminds me SO MUCH of living in LA. It's been 12 years now I guess but I still miss it. London has never felt like home and I doubt it ever will. I can just see the kids having so much fun living out there, getting to play on the beach just about year around and being in the sunshine. Such a happier lifestyle. 

This is the view from our balcony and pretty much the pool off of our lounge. C finally got over his water issues and spent a good couple of hours paddling around yesterday. The water is pretty cold in the morning but is great in the afternoon. K is braving the cold water in the mornings to play with the kids. Once you're in it doesn't feel as bad but getting in... yikes! We spend the morning in our pool, afternoon on the beach and then another hour or so in our pool once we get back from the beach. 

 

 

 

 

 

N is quite confident in the water this year which is a huge difference to last summer when she was petrified in the water. All her swimming lessons are definitely paying off as she'll happily jump in the pool and swim around without her ring. I need to sign C up for his lessons starting next month so that when we go on holiday next year both kids will be able to swim on their own with us just watching them. I've always been a really good swimmer thanks to my folks starting me off super early and with tons of lessons so I'd like our kids to be good swimmers as well. 

Leaving you with a photo of C staring out at the sea. He loves playing in the sand and building sandcastles but he's not entirely convinced with the waves. Yesterday K, N and C were down by the water and a wave came up to C and hit his knees and he totally melted down, petrified. I have to admit I like the beach but don't like the ocean much. Salt water, and a bad experience with some nasty waves back when I was a kid equals me prefering the pool. 

Our little mermaid (and some little red faced boy)

N is definitely taking after me. She brought her camera with her and was taking photos of C at the airport. Then there's me taking a photo of her taking a photo of him. 

Kids were pretty good on the flight. C slept most of the way, N was fine until the last 30 minutes when she decided she was ready to get off the plane and I was just about ready to ask the flight attendant if it would be okay to let her go play outside for a while. At least our kids weren't the ones a few row back screeching and squealing for most of the flight. 

Our villa is pretty cool. Swimming pool off the lounge, ocean views (we're one row back from the beach- willl share photo tomorrow as it won't upload for some reason) and then this cool pillow menu we had upon arrival in our room. 6 choices from the usual kind and then one which had cherry stones and another with horse hair! The cherry stone one was kinda cool and I nearly requested it but then thought I might wake up with stone marks in my face or something so I've stuck with the boring standard pillow.

We spent time at the villa in the morning and then went down to the beach in the afternoon. We have a cool cabana with sun loungers reserved for us. I think if you're not in a villa you have to fight for a sunchair on the non private beach or at one of the main pools. SO glad we don't have to deal with that as we'd never get a sun chair if it means getting up at 7am to secure one. C isn't a huge fan of going in the water so he played with his toys in the sand, digging tunnels and getting covered in sand. About 30 minutes of that and he was done and wanted to come to the room and get cleaned up. N on the other hand spent probably 5 hours in the water today. By the end her lips were a dark blue as I think she was a tad cold. She was covered in sand and didn't care at all. She already has tan lines while C is a bit red especially in the cheeks despite the amount of SPF50 suncream all over him. 

N is so excited to spend all day in the water again tomorrow. She loves the beach and the water. Makes me wish we lived in LA where she could spend all her spare time swimming and playing on the beach. I miss the nice sand out there. It's not too bad here but it's still just not the same. Better than last year in Tenerife where it was really gritty. Maybe one of these years we'll take the kids to LA. Only problem is, Mommy might not get on the plane back to London. Can you really blame me?

Making Monday

My Making Monday project is a WIP from Crete :) I've started the crocheted bag from a tutorial on Attic24's blog using some Paton's Cotton Twist Aran in 7 colors. I'm not overly thrilled with some of the colors as the red looks more like a pepto-bismol pink and I thought it would be more raspberry. The joys of ordering yarn over the internet! As I'm not entirely sure I'll use it as a bag to carry around in public, I'm thinking of stopping the increases where I am now and just making a bucket shaped item to use as a project basket at home. I'm hoping I brought enough yarn to finish this. I brought enough yarn to do a cardigan and a pair of socks too so at least I won't run out of stuff to do and knitting takes much longer than crochet so I am all set! 

 

Play trains with Papa, we love Lala and another crafty project

My folks came over for lunch today which for C means "play train with Papa!" He gets so excited when he knows Grandpa is coming over as he knows someone will play trains with him (Nana is the other favorite as she spends hours playing trains as well!). I finally remember to capture a photo of them playing in C's room. He has a large Thomas play table which has 2 massive drawers filled with tracks, buildings and trains. I recently bought him a 50 book box set of Thomas and friends books and C somehow knows ALL their names. It's like holding up alphabet flashcards but with trains. Hopefully he'll be as good with his alphabet as well. C definitely has my Dad's piercing bright blue eyes. K has blue eyes as well but they're a bit darker. Hopefully on another visit Grandpa will be captured playing princesses or something with N. 

 

 

There's a super cute and friendly cat in our neighborhood who does really well with the kids (unlike our cat who is a tad scared of them though she is getting used to N a bit more these days). This little white kitty is called Lala and we see her just about daily. She plays in our garden and sits on our doorstep when it's raining outside and will try and follow us inside for shelter. She does have a home though (I've met her owners) so I won't let her in our house/won't let the kids feed her, etc. N is totally in love with animals in general and C is just thrilled a kitty will let him within petting distance. 

Yet another finished project, this time for the family room sofa. It's a very simple circular crocheted pillow cover. It was made using some left over Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in various colors. The pillow said it's approx 14" in diameter but it's more like 12". It used up approx 375yds/3.5 balls so I had plenty left over for another pillow, a square one this time. I just finished the front of the square pillow today and will start on the back when I finish this blog entry. I'm loving how much stash I'm using up. The teddy bear is N's which she picked out at Cath Kidston yesterday on our way home from a playdate in the park with some kids from her new school. She played for a while with one of the little boys so at least know she'll have 2 familiar faces on her first day at school (another little boy from her nursery). 

My next project will be some knitting I think. I want to make the "Peasy" cardigan on Ravelry using up yet more stashed yarn. I've done my swatch for it and managed to  just about get gauge once I blocked. It will actually be 1" bigger than if I had hit gauge perfectly but that works out well so I'm pleased. 

Crafty Progress

I've finished several things in the past 2 months, both in knitting and in crochet. I swore I would never do crochet but now I'm loving how fast it goes and how much of my stash it eats up! I only am interested in blankets at this point as so far, I don't love the look of crocheted garments and accessories too much. Well, other than home decor type stuff. 

My most recent crochet finish on the far left is a blanket which is approx 45" x 66" in size using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in my stash. I bought loads of it to make knitted toys for the kids before I realized I didn't need THAT many balls of it. So I decided to make good use of it and I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out though they are not my colors. 

Then another one that I made for Noemie. I started this last October in the US using Vanna White Baby yarn in worsted weight (it's pure acrylic which I usually sneer at but this stuff was soft and great to work with!)It's approx 50" x 50" in size. Noemie loves it but the kitty also loves it so I see a fight in the near future. Both blankets were made using a pattern from Attic24. She has great tutorials for beginners. I'm also working on her hexagon blanket and want to do the bag at some point too. 

I did a test knit for a shawl that is meant to look a lot like the one the Duchess of Cambridge (aka Kate Middleton) wore to the supermarket shortly after she was married. It's a large shawl 69" wide by 26" deep. I used a fingering weight cashmere/silk blend from Fyberspates which was a dream to knit with and it took approx 1200yds of yarn! I'm looking forward to the cooler weather so I can make use of it. This was designed by a lady in Oz called Colleen and you can find the pattern on Ravelry. It took me approx 2 weeks from start to finish and it was hard work but I am thrilled with the finished item so it was totally work it!

Next up is a pair of socks called "Fiyero" from this years Knit Love Club. It may be the only pair I have knit so far this year... last year I only knit 1 pair as well. I am not signing up to any sock clubs next year as I've not done any from the 2 other clubs I also joined. I've reached saturation point with yarn and am at the point where I want to choose patterns myself. This pair was a quick knit and as soon as I saw the pattern I was anxious to cast on. It uses sock yarn hand dyed by Alice of Socktopus. Love her yarns :)

 

 

 

 

One last share though I have several other things I finished. I'm not as excited about them and don't want to bore you with more stuff tonight (I want to go knit as well, lol!). This is Ishbel by Ysolda Teague knit up in MadTosh Sock yarn. I can't knit socks with this stuff no matter how hard I try. It's just so sproingy and I can't get a tight enough gauge. It's awesome for shawls though and this one knit up in I think 3 days. Super easy, super fast. I made the smallest size and it was still a good size to wrap around the neck. It was a gift for our nanny who had a birthday last month.

Off to knit. Must edit photos from the kids' sports day last month. I need to get better about taking photos. I'm not scrapbooking at all so I'm less interested in taking photos of everything and more interested in just living in the moment and having fun (taking photos all the time is just no fun to me anymore).

Hexipuff Project Bag

Recently on Ravelry a pattern was published for making a blanket made up of knitted, stuffed hexagon mini "pillows". There are loads of people working on this with groups on Ravelry and a smaller group of us on Facebook chatting and sharing photos as we go.

Marianne, the owner of the Fluff-n-Stuff shop on Etsy designed a super cute and practical Hexagon shaped project bag to be used for this project. She asked for volunteers to test the bag and do a review and I was lucky enough to be online at the time!

I received this bag in the post a few days later, made in my favorite color with dots! It's a really good size and holds a surprising amount of goodies. I took photos to show how much I stuffed into it and there was still plenty of space left to add more. If you look at the side view photo you can see that it's not over stuffed. I had three 5ogr skeins/cake of Koigu yarn, some tiny skeins, a baggie of lavender, needles and crochet hook, toy stuffing and a pair of scissors. There is a hook on the inside of the bag on which you could hook your scissors or anything else you might want. Initially I was worried that the stuffing would poke out from the outside pocket but the buttons are well placed so everything remains secure. An added bonus is that once you have stuff in the bag, it sits on it's own despite not having a "bottom" per se. I like my bags to sit upright while I'm working on stuff so I can easily reach in to get stuff. 

The bags that should soon appear on her Etsy shop will also have an inside pocket, useful for storing your bits such as needles, crochet hook, etc. Have a look at her photos of the updated bag. My version didn't have this but I've commissioned Marianne to make me a small zipper needle pouch which can hang off the hook in the bag :) This is a delightful project bag which will keep me company while I hexapuff along and then afterwards (in about a gazillion years!) I'll use it for knitted toy projects, or perhaps some socks... a shawl? Pretty much anything!