Little ones and little deers

Hello Dear Readers,

Two weekends ago I went up to see my friend Molly and her family in Cambridge.  We had a really nice, relaxed weekend.  I went up Thursday after work so that I could babysit Katelyn on Friday afternoon while Molly and George went for Molly's 20 week scan, another baby on the way!  Katelyn and I read the book I brought up, Aliens Love Underpants.  Ten. times.  And that was just after nap time!  It reminded me so much of when I used to read to my little brother, his favorite book was BIG RED the Fire Engine.  Go big red, go!

Next time I know to bring a few books up so at least I get some variety.  At least I am getting a really good preview of what life with Clara will be like in the future, potty training, learning to read, and, apparently, making bread!


Here is the whole family making dinner together, with Katelyn  learning how to knead bread dough.  George had the added excitement of getting a loaner piano while we were there!  As it happens, I have borrowed my friend Lauren's ukelele this week to learn to play, maybe next time I see them we can jam out a bit!  I'm getting fairly good I think, though I have to fight with Patrick over use of the uke, it's so fun!

I have also been very busy with some knitting....... A few weeks ago I went to hang out with my old knitting group at the Natural History Museum.  My friend Sarah told me that she was asked by the guy who she buys some of the books from if anyone would be interested in knitting  him an "ugly" Christmas sweater for his company's Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Competition.  Of course I would love to, and this is the design we decided on :

Now take a closer look at those reindeer, although readers of this blog should be familiar with that design. And that is James.  I hope he likes it!  I really wasn't sure about the fit, but better a little big than too small. Apparently the grand prize is a Caribbean cruise! If I had known that I would have taken a lot more care over the sweater, I thought he just got office bragging rights. I hope he wins and that he takes me with him on the trip.

The weather has been unseasonably warm this fall, which I am loving as it gives me more time to really get into my allotment.  I also volunteered to take care of the communal herb garden, oy vey!  I'm nothing if not busy, but you get out of life what you put in, and I'm getting a lot so I can't complain.

Hope everyone is enjoying fall as much as I am! Almost Halloween...... and I get to wear my Halloween socks now.  I wear them on the outside of my cycling pants so everyone can see.  Yup, I'm pretty cool.

Cheers!

Let's go to the Mall!

Hello Dear Readers,

As a natural consequence of my new obsession with fashion blogs and videos, coupled with the fact that this slow house buying buisines is making me so cranky I can't even stand myself, I decided to take myself out this weekeend.  One of the blogs I watched showed that H&M is running a promotion where when you bring in a bag of clothes to donate they give you 5 pounds off of a 30 pound purchase (or 15% off one item in the US).  Hmm, clearing out old clothes before the move AND finally replacing my holy skinny jeans while AT THE SAME TIME saving money?  Sold! 

I also had 5 Lush pots from the lovely gift set Chris got me last Christmas, which I'm still very much enjoying, so I was planning to turn those in to get a free fresh face mask.   A quick email to a friend who very handily lives a 10 min walk from the mall and I am set!  I cycled up there and spent an enjoyable few hours trying on every pair of jeans in the place, while scoping out all the other goodies too.

Since I knew I had to get up to 30 GBP worth of stuff, I kind of turned it into a treasure hunt, finding exactly what I needed and knew I would use.  In the end I got some slim jeans to replace the ones that had embarassing holes in the ah-hem region, a lovely new top with lace panels (since we are still having a decent summer with temps in the 80's), a semi-statement necklace (which I will sitll be able to wear when the trend for statement necklaces is gone) and some faux tortoiseshell hair snaps, which I think look better in my brown hair than the silver ones.  To top off the day, we had lunch at Yo-Sushi!, one of those places where the sushi goes around on a little conveyor belt.  Since I saved 2.80 on transport by cycling, 5 for bringing in my bag of clothes and 5 on the fresh face mask, lunch practically paid for itself!

To top off the evening I soaked in a long bath with a Lush Twilight Bath bomb, suds-ed up with their Turkish delight body wash, and washed with their Angels on Bare skin facewash and had a Brazened Honey face mask, finished with their Celestial moisturizer.  Sigh.  I love my Lush box, the Christmas gift that keeps on giving.

I also wore my new outfit to work today and felt like a million bucks.  I'm not usually an advocate of retail therapy, but new clothes without holes or stains and fashionable new jewelery, well it can really lift a person's spirits.
 
This weekend felt sort of like a vacation because our two other housemates are away and it's just the three of us at home, so we can relax and not worry about being too loud or bothering other people by taking extra long baths or singing Little Mermaid at the top of our lungs in the kitchen.  For example.  In the spirit of being on a "stay-cation" (and speaking of gifts that keep on giving) I broke into my birthday present from Patrick this year, my emergency knitting kit to make a bicycle seat cover!!  It was a perfect project for a hot weekend in watching the end of the Tour de France, no?

Tah dah!  EVEN Patrick and Chris approved, and let me tell you they are hard to please.  Oh and they liked my clothes, also a rarity. 

 So I'm feeling a lot more chipper today than I was on Thursday when I out crankied myself and decided to do something about it.  We will move. Soon.  At this point it's just nice to take advantage of being able to pack and clean and tidy up slowly.




Patrick and I packed up the bike stuff in the office together, which was a great little achievement, and I packed up the bookshelf in my room (plus the bonus of two bags to H&M, let's not forget) AND my bedskirt to my friend who I went shopping with AND...... I have a friend who is supposed to pick up an extra duvet.  Soon I hope.  Now I just need to get Patrick to turn in those X-BOX games we went through in exchange for Portal, or maybe a party game......


Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!  I'm back to getting a veg box delivered every week and enjoying fresh salad and tons of fruits and veg. And making fruit smoothies in the morning without disturbing other housemates!   SUMMER!

Cheers!

March already!?!

Hello Dear Readers,

 How can it be March? I know February is a short month but this is ridiculous!  We celebrated Chris's birthday with a lovely chocolate peanut butter fudge rice crispy thing from my still favorite blog.  Yesterday was my good friend Jennifer's birthday (shout out!) and tomorrow is Adam and Melch's birthday (shout out!), was that last year already?  But this also means that I can reveal some more of my secret knitting projects,

Can you tell what it is? It's the bigger on the inside shawl/scarf that I made for Jennifer's birthday.  You'll remember we exchange Dr. Who related crafts, and when I saw it in Knitty, I just couldn't resist!  See all the little Tardis' along the edge? Subtle, yet for the true hard core nerds, very very clever.

Last weekend I was seized by the start-itis bug, and got a little crazy with the knitting, most of it wasn't even baby related.  Well of course SOME was, but only the most adorable hat you've ever seen.  For reals.

 Didin't I tell you? Cute coming and going! I also need to make sure to send my sister those clips that go on the back of your hat to the back of your coller so the little monster doesn't throw it out the pram.....of course if s/he does it IS basically a cry for more knitting, that's how I would treat it.  "I'm throwing this hat out in a demand for more knitwear Aunty Heather."

Then of course I had to replace my most favorite wool socks which bit the dust this year. The trip to the Scilly Isles was the last straw, I darned them but it never took.  I've now used up the last bit of the glorious yarn made of crab shell (so soft, and of course it wears well in water, as you would expect of crab shell) which have already been matching socks for Molly and Katelyn.

 There was much debate in my Stitch n Bitch group about the accent color, I see it as blue but the words "mint green" were thrown around. Either way, I think this stitch pattern and color combo make these the most beautiful socks in the room.  Depending on the room, of course.

Finally I had this hat pattern from the glorious designer Ysolda Teague (great name for a girl btw, Isolda.  Just saying.  Cat and Jeff.)  I also had most of a ball of red yarn left over from a fornicating raindeer hat, and somehow I couldn't resist making it.  I think it'll go great with my powder blue coat, and the second of my two new dresses from Oliver Bonas, which you can see the top of in this photo.  It's so cute, I wish it wasn't 3 C still, hurry up spring!

House hunting continues apace, with the usual setbacks and dramas.  Looked at a few places, some are ok, the ones we can afford need some love. We'll see how it goes.  Sigh.  I should be more excited but I just know it will suck away my soul and desire to live by the end of it.

Also, next week officially marks the end of the Year of Me, but I'll have a review of that next time.

Cheers!

Ufh Dah.... still raining

Hello Dear Readers,


Grumble grumble, it's the middle of July and it's cold and rainy.  And it's been cold and rainy since April.  Now I don't mind being able to wear my sweaters for a bit longer, and I love a rainy day to sit at home and knit, craft, read or just sunggle.  BUT 3 AND A HALF FRICKIN MONTHS OF SOLID RAIN EVERY DAY?!?!?!  I'm starting to get a little bit of cabin fever.  So with Chris off in Cyprus last week, I took a FlexiLeave day on Friday and headed up to Cambridge for a little relief.

Oh yeah, it was still RAINING up there, but it was a change of scene kind of rain.  Even little Katelyn was a little tired of it.

 I knit up some socks (in the car from the train to her house - talk about last minute!) in yarn that my friend Toad gave me, it has chitin in it. Yup, you Googled correctly, it's crab and shrimp shells.  They were warm and toasty, just what you need for an English summer.  Molly wore them when we went to the Cambridge Botanic Garden on Sunday.  She was comfy.





Of course I also had to make something for Katelyn, while she still can't argue about what she is wearing.  I used some lovely lush brown wool (also for free from Toad, seeing a pattern here?) and trimmed it with some hand spun green fiber (uh, from Toad, again). Check out those awesome corn buttons! From Helen, formerly of the Hammersmith Stitch 'n Bitch, but now sadly moved to New Zealand.  That's how I can afford to knit so much, people just give me yarn, but I love it.

We went out for the whole day Saturday to an art open house in Cambridge, it was delightful.  We had coffee in an artsy cafe, then walked around to the houses in between rain showers.  We had lunch in a french cafe nearby, where Katelyn ate as much as me, and that's a lot! then finished off with a banana which she ate, then smooshed into our shirts.   (Jennifer, I found a good home for your pineapple shirt, Molly loved it, it wouldn't fit over my boobs... )

Molly and George had evening engagements Friday and Saturday nights, here they are before going out to a friend's wedding.  Luckily I introduced Molly to Call Me Maybe so she knew how to rock out.  If you haven't heard this song  yet, you have to, it's the song of the summer.  Not that there is much summer to be had around here.  Noticing a theme?


The last day when we went to the Botanic Gardens, which I've been meaning to go to forever, I asked if they had an agreement with Kew as some gardens allow you to get in free if you are a member or staff member of another garden.  The woman looked at me through the flood of rain hitting the plexiglass of the ticket booth and said, "Normally no, but go ahead."  I guess she figured if we were crazy enough to go to the gardens in the POURING rain, we must really want to.  Luckily there were green houses and a lovely tea room to sit in after getting soaked.  Here I am enjoying what is called a Jade Plant from Thailand.  Lovely big bean pods.  I'm wearing a tank top, short sleeve shirt, thin cardigan, Holister Hoodie (cause I couldn't afford to dress trendy when I WAS 16) ....... and a bulky aran jumper.  In July.  And I am comfortable.  Sigh.

To look forward to next month, trip to Whitby, home of Dracula and Lewis Carroll.  Visit from Cousin Elias, visit from Cat and Jeff.  Oh yeah, and the Olympics.  And rain. More rain. Probably.


Hope everyone else is managing to stay warm and dry, I'm going to go snuggle under my quilt with a hot water bottle......


Cheers!

Lady in Red

Hello Dear Readers,

Took a little break from blogging, now I'm back, so here we go..... I'm still working only part time at Kew (but it looks like that will change soon) so last Thursday I enjoyed a day out with a girlfriend from knitting who took some time off work.  I wanted to check out the Portobello road area, made famous for a lot of Americans in Bedknobs and Broomsticks.  It is well known for it's antiques and/or vintage market, the busy day with all the stalls is Friday and Saturday but I thought a quiet Thursday morning was fine for me.
We walked along the shops, just window shopping, seeing a lot of nice antiques.  Further down the road it turns a bit more into name brand high street shops, but with some interesting restaurants (the first vegetarian place in London, for example) down the way.  Along the way I was talking to Lucy about how I was really thinking of buying a nice leather jacket (I know, I know, some people will be confused about a vegan buying a leather jacket, but my issue with fake leather is that it isn't environmentally friendly, and I'd rather use the whole cow anyway than let it go to waste.  Eating vegan is more about reducing my carbon and pesticide footprint than anything else, not that I feel I have to justify myself, I'm just explaining). I have been influenced lately by stylings from Wendy's Lookbook to try to define what I like and how I want to look.  Plus, as it's the Year of Me, I think I need to stop dressing like a graduate student.  I really like the fashions of Emma Swan in Once Upon a Time,  Elena Gilbert in The Vampire Diaries and leather jackets are a key part of their look.  Plus, after seeing photos of myself in my old spring/fall coat, I didn't think it was flattering at all and it's gone into the charity bag as of last night.  Anyway, while talking to Lucy about this we happened to walk right by - a leather jacket shop!  Thirty minutes later, with a little haggling for 20% off the price, in a very uncharacteristic move for me, I walked out with this beauty.

And haven't been able to take it off since!  I would never have thought of red, preferring brown or black, but I felt like it would go with a lot more of my current wardrobe, any color brown boots, black, my navy jeans or a black dress.  Anyway, I'm feeling like a sexy FBI agent, or a cool biker chick when I wear it and since it's been such a cold spring, I think it's going to get a lot of use.

After shopping we walked down to Hyde Park to check out Kensington Palace, where Queen Victoria was brought up and Princess Diana lived.  They have recently renovated it so it was shiny new and stunning.  Afterwards we went to Lush on King's street to stock up on essentials, and made our way back to the palace for Afternoon Tea in the old Orangery.  The building is lovely, really a good afternoon tea feel without the bustle of having it at a hotel or department store.  We had small cucumber sandwiches, scones and a selection of sweet things like shortbread, lemon tart, macaroons and a small layered chocolate cake.   I had a white tea with mine - the whole thing was divine!

I really can't remember the last time I had such an amazing day, Lucy brought out the daredevil shopper in me and I'm very grateful.

Though the weather here has been drizzly and overcast (perfect for leather jackets, btw.) it has made the bright spring greens of London really pop out, as you can see in this shot of the Sunken Gardens at Kensington Palace.  Makes me nostalgic for William and Mary's sunken garden.

On the craft front, my good friend Molly sent me quite a few of her worn out t-shirts and clothes to do a little magic on to turn into things for Katelyn.  I was so excited to get the box, the only thing to tear me away from it was the above trip and jacket adventure.  A few frantic sewing days later (apologies to my housemate for the sound of the machine at 7 am on a Friday), here is the majority of stuff in all it's glory.  Three leggings/pants, two adorable dresses and two summer hats (she threw all the other hats I made her out of the stroller already!)

 I love this little dress to the left mostly because it highlights a science fair held at Cambridge, not a feature on most baby clothes and I don't know why.  With an astronomer father and a biologist mother, this girl is bound to have a curiosity about the natural world - whether she wants to or not!  When they were here last month Molly said Katelyn is really into lady-beetles so I sewed two lady-beetle buttons I found in Portobello road.  The dress below I'm very proud of too for my recycling of lace from the bottom of a much loved but now see through camisole top I got many Christmas's ago in a Kohl's Christmas sale.  Sigh.  The tissue thin top also got used for the lining of the slightly thick spandex white top, and the sleeves for the top were turned into leggins for a matchy matchy look.  The only trouble is since I don't have the kid here to try things on I just have to go on faith and measurements that they will fit........ I'm a little bit nervous, but I figured if they don't' fit her, surely Molly will know someone else with a smaller baby, or wait for Molly to grow into things.

 Fun fun fun, would love to have more little kids (not of my own) to sew for as the projects are so quick and fun.  My brain was bursting with possibilities after I got the box, and I still have more ideas left, though less raw materials.

I also made the two hats, and this little crocheted one should be good for our spring, cotton so as not to be too warm, but pretty enough that she hopefully won't mind wearing it every day (until she throws it off that is).  Oh well, baby clothes should be like babies anyway, their ephemeral nature are what make them so special.



Enjoying a "Bank Holiday" weekend this Monday.  Bank Holidays are a bit weird here, they don't commemorate any event as far as I can tell, or mark any pagan or christian ritual, or even come evenly spaced.  There is "early May" bank holiday, and late May, and Early August, and some others throughout, but nothing like Memorial Day, Forth of July or Thanksgiving.  Christmas and Easter are marked, but the other special days like St. George's Day (patron saint of England) or Remembrance Day (war memorial) pass by without a day off to reflect and BBQ.  Anyway, not complaining about a day off,  just observing and celebrating cultural differences.

Cheerio!

Molly and Baby Katelyn

Hello Dear Readers,

This past week my good friend Molly came down for her spring break and brought her daughter Katelyn with her, who is one year old last month.  We spent the first day recovering from their trip, hanging out in Putney and visiting the children's playground that you can only go in if you have a child with you, how frustrating!  I finally got to go in and play on the swings!

 

The next day we had a sunny day, well sunny morning, out at Kew.  There were quite a few birds out on the little lake, and Katelyn was fascinated by them.  We tried to steer her more towards the plants but we may have a budding ornithologist on our hands.

 Later we had a delicious lunch in the garden while I played with the settings on my camera.  Here I am picking up on all the pink, after all she is a girl and girls mean pink, right?

 It started to rain a bit after lunch, and it was close to nap time so we took the train back home, planes trains and automobiles, this is one well traveled girl!

 The next day we really lucked out because it was sunny and not too windy, the best you can hope for in an English Spring so we took the train down to Brighton.  Here we are enjoying a delicious take away vegan cafe (Infinity Foods Cafe for those interested) lunch in front of what someone once described to me as a giant curry palace, but which is in fact a summer palace of George IV.

 That girl managed to smash an entire baked potato into her mouth, go girlfriend! I had half of a great BLT with potato wedges and vegan mayo and a half of Molly's miso tofu and finished her fries, delish!  We left a little before 5 pm and made it home just as the weather changed (i.e. turned to rain).

They left Thursday morning, but not before I got Katelyn to put on her new duds, pants made from an old t-shirt, and her new matching Easter sweater and bonnet!  A warm Easter sweater is what you really need way up north in Cambridgeshire, and a matching bonnet is just so classy.  It was a really nice distraction, and I hope they are able to come again soon!

Snow Bunnie!

Hello Dear Readers,

Winter finally came to London dropping a whopping 2-4 inches of snow last night!  Chris's cousin Christiana came up from Guildford to collect some dresses we brought back from Cyprus for her.

I made some cracking good vegetarian lentil chilli and then a big bowl of popcorn for watching a movie. As we were watching, we realized there was snow falling outside!  This was our street at about 8 pm as viewed from the window in the upstairs bathroom roof.

 This morning our house looked like this, I could hear the snow melting off the roof though all night because our bed touches the outside roof wall.  Note the tiny snowman made by our neighbor on the gate plinth on the right.  The snow has been melting pretty steadily all day, but the sun never came out so there is a bit hanging around.

As usual I've been working on my projects from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, since I'm working from stash I'm largely limited to the smaller and therefore faster projects so I'm really churning them out.  I finished off this bunny from Cascade 220 I used for Patrick's rowing socks and a little bit of pink mohair, last seen in my now defunct Jem legwarmers.  Here he is posing on our still snowed over back porch, savoring the last of the wintery Sunday afternoon "sun".  Isn't he adorable?

 And here he is showing off one of the 1 hour projects, the knitted kerchief.  I'm really pleased with the way this turned out, using the same cottony recycled  yarn I made my mother's sweater out of, the last ball in fact.

  It looks pretty good around my neck for a spring/fall small neckerchief, or equally good around my head to keep my hear back and my head warm, or I should say "one's" head since I am planning on gifting most of these projects, in the spirit of the book.   I'm so glad I started this project as I've really enjoyed the challenge of sticking to patterns (mostly) and not improvising so much, as well as making things I might not ordinarily.  They are starting to pile up though, so if you see anything you like just give a shout out and you may find it in your mailbox :-).

In an effort to slow down my project making a little bit I've also started spinning some of the 70 g of lovely merino/tussah silk fiber my friend Toad gave me at our Knitting group Secret Santa swap.

Here is the whole shebang, laid out on my workspace.  Don't you just want to snuggle it and roll up in it?  I'm spinning it very finely and I think I will do a Navajo ply on it to give a lovely round lofty yarn.


Patrick and Calvin are fast asleep on the couch now "watching" the Six Nations rugby tournament, warming up to go to the pub at 11:30 to watch the Superbowl. Go Giants!  I'm letting my bread machine french bread cool before I put in flour for a pizza dough.  Just a lovely lazy snowy Sunday afternoon.

Cheers!

Last Weekend in January, Resolutions Going Strong

Hello Dear Readers,

I had the photos for this post set up on Monday, but somehow didn't get around to posting until today.  You may recall we painted the hallways and living room a few months ago, and this weekend I prepped the kitchen for painting which was enough to inspire Chris...

Who blew though the kitchen and onto the office with vigour.  It was so nice to see him happily absorbed in something, I'll have to think up more household tasks he'll enjoy, maybe laying down wood floors in the hall? He even painted the ceiling in the office, which is great if I'm going to end up working from home more, I can lean back in my chair and enjoy the white white ceiling.

I've continued apace with my New Years Resolution knitting, and finished the tea cozy from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts, though mine is Cascade 220 and not cashmere.  Here it is being modelled on my teapot, though it's a bit snug.

I really like the look of the thermal pattern, I think it would be nice for a "cozy" human sweater.  The cozy came in handy as I had friends over for tea Sunday afternoon, part of my Year of Me campaign including spending more time with friends.  Have I mentioned the Year of Me?  I think I have, but it bears repeating, to myself and others, otherwise I (and they) might forget to spoil me this year.

I also blocked the Airy Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, which was finished knitting a few weeks ago but languished in the blocking line, and being mohair it really needed it.  It is actually quite warm, and longer than I thought it would be based on the books photo.  I was considering lengthening the scarf, but I'm trying to stick more or less to the patterns, just for fun, just for a change.  My plan is to knit only from my existing stash (except possibly for a sweater for Chris), but I still have quite a few items lined up to make so I hope to be knitting well into March, if I'm careful.

I'm risking life and limb taking photos on our back deck as we are experiencing the cold snap weaving it's icy fingers across Europe.  I wore one layer of bamboo socks and then my alpaca knee high cable socks that I made in Germany to cycle to work today.  My fingers still feel like they are going to fall off when I cycle, but I nicked my brother's snowboarding salt heaters for my hands. Unfortunately I only have one pocket in my cycling coat on the left breast.  So I cycle with one hand on the bike and one on my breast..... I probably look like I'm having a heart attack, but it gets me home in the end!  

Chris's cousin is coming up this weekend which will be nice, and I'm working on Sunday.  I have 57 days to find a new job (my contract is up at the end of March) but I wouldn't mind being unemployed- just for a little bit - to get some rest!

Cheerio!

Old year project and new years resolution project #1

Hello Dear Readers,

What really keeps me from posting when I want to is poor lighting, which means I can't take photos of the things I want to share. It's usually dark when I get home, so if I don't take a picture on the weekend, it's too late. Fortunately I went in to work a little later today so I was able to take some snaps this morning.

This is the first project finished for my new years resolution to work my way through Last Minute Knitted Gifts, the Baby Hat.  I'm pleased with the way the cotton looks, and how it matches the original in the photo.  I'm trying hard to follow instructions, not an easy task for me but that's why it's a new years resolution.

I'm currently working on the light and airy scarf, it's beautiful in some blue mohair given to me by Icy when she left the knitting group.

I also snapped some photos with the self timer this morning of my Chickadee sweater that I've been working on off and on since Sept.  I finished before Christmas, but didn't get around to photos. Not sure how happy I am with it, it fits really nicely, but the colorwork seems to put people in mind of bad Christmas sweaters....though the birdies are really sweet.

  I also love the vintage buttons that I picked up at Prick Your Finger in Bethnel Green.  I cycled over there this weekend, 10 miles, along the river, through the city and out to the East side. It's so wonderful to be able to cycle anywhere, and have such views.  I went by  Big Ben, saw the London Eye, and went past St. Pauls, The Gherkin, and all the skylines.  Also went by the Tower bridge accidentally, but hey, getting lost is all part of the fun.

Still, it's been a fun knit, and nice to have a new sweater.  There is also a woman's sweater pattern in the Last Minute Gifts book which I will attempt to do with the white camel I got from my friend Lucy when she was in China.

The Christmas Gift that Kept on Giving......me a headache

Hello Dear Readers,

Here I am in sunny warm Cyprus!  I had intended this to be a blog intensive trip, full of photos of the fun stuff Chris and I were doing this time since he promised that we wouldn't do chores or see lots of relatives.  Well, he partially kept his promise in that I spent almost the first full week in bed (starting on Christmas Day) with a nasty, knock down cold courtesy of Chris.  According to his family, the cause of my cold was the change in weather in Cyprus, as it had just turned "cold" (14 C/ 60 F) when we got there. I pointed out that it was actually warmer than in England, which then changed the story to, "the drastic change in temperatures is what caused my illness."  I pointed out that Chris had the same bad cold a week before, but that didn't seem to make any difference, and people mused that traveling such a long distance in an airplane the day before probably also contributed to the cold.  So either it was the fact that it was cold in Cyprus, or much warmer than the UK, or traveling great distances, but not living with a sneezey coughing Chris that caused my illness.  Only by wrapping up warm and sweating it out could I recover, oh, or I could take antibiotics.  Sigh.  I think it was more tiring trying to explain basic biology principles than actually being sick.  I'm still stuffy and coughing, and seem to have pulled a small muscle in my chest with all the hacking, but I'm trying to cram in a few fun things now that I am vertical before we fly out tomorrow!

Before I got too ill, we were able to visit our friends Stavros and Margarita who have two little boys.  I love to make things for them, last year I did the sock monkeys and this year it was a dragon and a lamb.  For some reason Andreas was afraid of the lamb at first, but he took to it eventually with his usual good humour.  Somehow he seems to have skipped the terrible twos.  Here is his baby brother with the dragon I made him, lots of good sticky out parts for him to put in his mouth, which is exactly what I intended, along with some safety eyes that he can really get his teeth into.

Christmas day was a very quiet affair, as only myself, Chris, his mother and aunt and uncle were home (and I was in bed the whole day), but being Greek Orthodox Christmas isn't really celebrated, it's New Years (at midnight) that St. Basil comes and delivers gifts to children.  Chris's cousin and her boyfriend were here for New Years, and somehow we got into a discussion about traditional clothes.  Chris's aunt happened to have an old dance costume of one of her girls, which I immediatly put on and paraded about hte house in.  It's very comfortable I have to say, on a par with what I wore when I worked in Colonial Williamsburg.

 Further proof that I was born in the wrong era, I think, I make these outfits look so good!

New Years day we had the traditional lunch at his Aunt's house.  His sister's family was two ill to drive the 1.5 hours to come see us, so it was just the 7 of us.

L to R is Chris, his mother Nikki, Aunt Anna, Uncle Stephanos, Cousin Valando and her boyfriend Dolis.  I've been able to make good use of my Greek lessons this trip, though the fast paced, slang Cypriot dialect still gets the best of me most times.   Fortunately I've been able to use the time I wasn't comatose to finish up a sweater order that I got before I left. 

Yesterday we drove to the Capitol to see Chris's sister and her family.  His mother spent the whole day before cooking and buying food because she seems to think that the largest and capitol city in the island is a desert, devoid of food and, apparently, quality eggs.  It was a bit of a bust though as Odie is deep in his terrible twos stage, every item in the house is his, and you can't touch it or you get a whack with a plastic wrench.  When given a book as a gift from his great Aunt, he proceeded to tear the whole thing apart while his father watched and sighed "Oh dear, tsk tsk." Hmmm, someone really needed a nap, or perhaps everyone.  Not really endearing him to me yet, but I remember my brother was a little brat as a kid, so I'm hoping in 10-15 years he'll be fine.......

Today is our last full day, and it's sunny and warm.  I'm finishing up a job application (it's a never ending process in these austere times) and Chris is doing his annual servicing of his cousin's computer.  Afterwards we'll take a stroll on the new path by the sea and pick up a few groceries that we can't find in the UK.  Tomorrow it's back home to England, and snug in my own bed again!  I hope that Patrick has fufilled his promise to repaint the kitchen, we'll see....

Hope all my dear readers had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I think I've slept enough this week to last me through the rest of my contract at the Museum, and feel refreshed and ready to tackle the new years resolutions I've made.

Cheers.