Things that make me happy today....

Living in a country where you can buy a huge bunch of flowers for just a few Euros


The new (to me!) Hipstamatic app on my iPhone - takes me back to the photograph albums of my childhood..


Glass bowls filled with diffent kinds of lovely balls, to be made into as yet unstarted projects..


The new addition to our family - brother and sister- and already a lot bigger than when this photograph was taken. As if we didn't have enough to do already!!!


My new white walls and furniture providing a clean backdrop for photographs...



And finally, the fact that I figured out how to upload my flickr photographs to my blog all by my very own, and I didn't have to ask Daddy Long Legs for help even once. It's not rocket science I know, but I'm quite chuffed!

Normal service shall resume shortly....

... Honest!!

Wow, I can't believe that we've been in our new house for nearly a month now. Slowly, things are coming together, boxes are gradually unpacked, and our family starts to find its new, everyday rhythm.

We have a HUGE amount of decorating to do.

Our living area is starting to come together. We still need some coffee tables, another bookcase, curtains etc, but it's starting to feel a bit more homely.

Do you notice the sofas?...

Meanwhile, the rest of the house looks a little like this :

we're doing one room at a time while the occupants sleep in one of the 'spare' rooms. It will take a while, but we'll get there.

The children have done so well in adjusting. We have lots of phonecalls, emails and skyping to friends back in the UK, but I am so proud and amazed at how well they have coped with all the change - not least of which has been having to speak (and learn in) Dutch all day at school. It's not been easy, but they are doing so very well.

I'm too busy at the moment to take stock of things really, I'm trying to find my feet, decorate a house, remember to speak Dutch to everyone, look after the children, find my new 'place', make friends and work out the health system here to really stop and let things sink in. That will come. I miss my friends dearly and am yearning for company, but I know it will be baby steps, one at a time. Until then I have a visit of my closest friends to look forward to in September!!

I've missed blogging! Really have, but when my workroom looks like this

you can understand why there's not much 'making' going on at the moment, and it's only this past week that we've found our routine again. Hopefully things will settle down soon and I'll be updating a lot more regularly. Till then, please be patient with me!

xx

Just a quick 'hello'..

I'm just popping by to say 'hello' and to let you know that I won't be around for a little while. I'm back in hospital again on Monday for another operation on my kidney and may be out of action for a little while. I just hope this op is more successful than the one a few weeks ago. Turns out, they did the 'wrong' op. Honest, no kidding, so this time I'm back in for the one that should have been done the first time. I just hope it leaves me in less pain and solves the problems I've been having, and yes, we are pursuing the matter of the previous debacle...

On a much more upbeat note, I have found the most perfect sofa for our new house. We are lucky enough to have two living areas, one I can imagine for the TV and mostly occupied by the children, the other I'm imagining as a more peaceful reading/knitting area for me. Guess where this sofa will hopefully be going....I saw this sofa tonight and squeaked out loud when I saw it (honest!!) It's a 'Klippan' sofa from Ikea in Lappmon covers - I love it! Now, just to persuade Daddy Long Legs.....

Butterflies, daisies and a generous helping of glitter!

On Sunday, we celebrated Miss Chatterbox's sixth birthday.

I decided to make a cupcake tower instead of a Birthday Cake, the first time I had tried something like this.

I was really pleased with the results, and more importantly..

so was Miss Chatterbox!

Oh, go on then...!

.. a little peek at my Spring Swap surprise.

Can you guess what it is yet?!

Oh My!!

What a mad few weeks it's been here!! We had our offer on our favourite house accepted (they dropped €65 000 in the end!). This means that we have only 8 weeks to go before we move to Den Haag. Eeeek!! At the moment we are swamped with trying to find reasonably priced movers, arranging the mortgage, and sorting out schools - there is only a place for the Engineer at the local school so far, despite us being promised places for all 3 - and all the local schools are full up. We are really disappointed as we were keen for them all to be together locally so they could begin to make friends in the neighbourhood. At the moment we are looking at a long car drive to place the two girls. It's all a bit mad here!

On top of that, I had my operation last Monday, which unfortunately didn't go as planned. I'm in more pain now than I was before and need to have another op. in the coming weeks. Not fun.

I have been a little busy with crafty things though. I made a pencil roll as part of a present for one of Pickle's friends

and of course, had to make one for Pickle too (though it's not finished yet...)

I have been plodding on with my 'Granny a day' project,

I even found a snippet of time to make a brooch for my new coat!

Plus, I've been working on my spring swap project, though I can't show you anything yet! Pictures will follow soon though!

Scroll lace scarf (part two!)

I knew when I finished this scarf only three weeks ago that I would probably be making another one soon as it was such a lovely easy pattern to do. Lo and behold, here is version two!

I made it as a thank you gift for a lovely friend who has been helping me out since my hospital trip in November by taking Pickle along to her ballet lessons. (Sigh, still on high doses of pain meds which mean I'm not terribly safe on the roads... I've got a date for my op. now though -22nd Feb - Hooray!)


Anyhow, I wanted to make her a little something to show how much I appreciate her help, which has had to continue for much longer than first anticipated. So here it is.

I knitted it in a sockweight yarn this time, which makes it a lovely thickness, perfect for spring, and which really shows off the lace border.

Picture courtesy of Abstract Cat

I used Green Granite from a rather larger order that I placed with Abstract Cat recently. I've already cast on a pair of socks using the 'spiced' - lovely and soft!

I did try using a couple of rows of garter stitch before the picot cast off for this one to stop the 'rolling issue', but it didn't work and I didn't like how it looked, so I re-did it. Any other ideas that may help?