Master chef...

... Izaak

He's decided he wants to be a chef "once I grow up to be a big man". I see opportunity so we've started some basic cooking lessons and as a result once a week he is going to (with assistance) be cooking dinner.

Last week he decided on enchiladas and while I fried off the mince he prepared the rest and this was the final result. Looked good and tasted great!

Any ideas on particularly kid-friendly recipes for budding chefs??

What a weekend!

So for the long weekend the whole extended tribe headed over to Batemans Bay for a 'family' holiday. I use that term loosely because the tribe consisted of me with the two ferals, my folks, my sister & her partner and their two little boys. In the end it turned out much better than expected and I even managed, for the most part, to keep my mouth shut!

Kids had an absolute blast. Izaak has been wanting to learn to ride a bike without his training wheels for a while now but on the advice of his physio and occupational therapist I had decided to leave them on. I'd love to say that it was my intrinsic belief in my child tht I took them off but the reality is that my seven year old has amazing 'nag' powers and it all got too much for me. I should have gone with the first motivator because I put him on the path, gave him a little wobbling, pushing and lots of encouragement and he was off! This was the first day I took the wheels off and he did so well (and was so big!) that I got him a bigger bike while we were away. He rode 5km from the cabins into town and back again and was on the bike every free moment he had - definitely worth the investment!

Charlotte loves her bike too and did a great job on the massive 5km ride as well. It was crazy looking at this little girl and remembering that 18 months ago she was too scared to even walk on sand and I had to carry her when we went to the beach. A dozen camping trips later and she runs through the water, jumping in the puddles and having a great time watching the pelicans and seagulls in the water. She was fascinated by the boat ramp as well and spent a good half hour in the evening watching the boats come outof the water and onto the trailers. Same thing in reverse the next morning.

It's been a crazy ride but man do I love this little chicken...

We headed home on Monday around lunch time but had a quick stop off for a game of putt-putt. It was hilarious and wonderful at the same time. I loved seeing Izaak - waiting, sharing, talking, interacting like a 'normal' kid. Heart warming for this proud mamma!

Then it was back to reality - my law & ethics exam was today and went well. I've got one more paper to write and another exam then I've got a few weeks of uninterrupted, unplanned, creative crafty time that I am **so**looking forward to!

Clapotis v2.0

Remember my first clappy? I love her and she'll always be part of the family given that she's one of the first 'real' things I have knitted but I have since discovered that mohair and I don't mix well. I itch. and itch. and itch. So I have been planning another one with various different yarns over the past months but had done nothing about it until we went to the OBDM wool day. I went with mum and it was a lovely outing with no children! Bliss! We made our way around to Helen from Waratah Fibres and I spotted some lovely 8ply in reddy/berry colours and decided I *must* have it. 200gr of "mixed berry" 8ply followed me home and the following weekend at our Brown Owls meet Clapotis v2.0 was cast on.

Fast forward 6 days and she was finished! A super quick knit for me given the time of the semester, kids etc. I had initial misgivings about the needle size and gauge but she has blossomed bautifully after a good soak and has already been taken out for a number of excursions!

Excuse the dodgy photos - just one of the many pitfalls of living alone ;-( Anyway, crazy thing?? I'm thinking I might just need another one. I do have some smoothie laying around.....

A new project

Casting on for another project tonight. Thanks to Eilleens blog I've become aware of a project over at the National Gallery of Australia that involves covering their foyer in knits. Yay! Anyone else planning on knitting for it?? I think it would be great to see my own little strip up along so many others in a national institution. Can't wait to see this once it's all up and finsihed!

I put on a vest with an S on my chest

I love the song Superwoman by Alicia Keys - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK8t0gP4isE
"even when I'm a mess I still put on a vest with an S on my chest...I'm a superwoman" for me it's one of those empowering songs that picks me up when things seem so bloody hard.

My last post was a list of things that was happening for my little family and me and things were looking pretty crazy. I'm feeling like a bit of a superwoman though - I've been able to cross off quite a few things from the list...

- Izaak has had his speech assessment with amazing results. In one of the subtests his raw score last year was 9. This year?...................... 22!!!!

- Green swap is finished - well almost. I just need to wrap everything up

- Stashbuster swap is finished. A fair isle cowl in Noro and a little choccie. Again just needs wrapping

- Cowl swap is almost done. I just need to graft the two halves together. I've been trying to do a 3 needle bind off but I'm thinking, after making upteen mistakes, that I'm just going to graft them together.

- 1 essay almost done.

In other news I applied for a scholarship way back in March and this week found out that I have been awarded the Lorna May scholarship for 2009!! This means that I can buy textbooks for next semester and apply for a few courses that I've been looking at without having to worry about moolah ;-)

So all my juggling balls - uni, clinical, kidlets, family, housework, crafting - are still up in the air and I'm still sane! Miraculous!! Must be that vest....

So much to do... so little time

So in the next five weeks I have

- Woolaholics Cowl Swap

- Rav green swap

- Rav stash-busting winter swap

- My nephews 3rd birthday

- Speech review for Izaak

- 2 essays

- 2 exams

As well as the normal, everyday run of the mill stuff that happens around here.

How do you deal with deadlines? I could probably use a pointer or two!!

Knitting productivity

Some more finished things from this week......

Pattern - Aunt Maggie Slippers (Rav) (Non-Rav)

Yarn - Cleckheaton Nautico? (I think??)

Needles - 6mm straights

Comments - We have slate floors and it's FREEZING in the winter time. I wanted something quick and cheery for Izaaks feet so he wasn't so cold. These were perfect. I knit the two at the same time using 2 different balls which made them go even faster - they took one day and that was between shopping, cooking, eating, playing etc. Perfect fit. Lovely.

And of course if one has something the other seems to think that they must have the same. Charlotte picked an absolutely fugly yarn - but she tells me it's like beautiful rainbows. Anyway, the yarn was worsted so I used it doubled and decreased the cast on to 21 which ended up being a perfect fit.


Pattern - Girls cap sleeved spring shirt (Rav) (Non-Rav)

Yarn - Vera Moda Tradition

Needles - 5mm

Comments - I really like this pattern. It's the second Shelly Floyd pattern that I've knit now and they are simple but really lovely. I ran out of the purple yarn so had left it for a while then while attempting to find something in the absess known as the cupboard under the stairs I found another ball of tradition in a lighter shade of purple so added in a stripe on the bottom. I'm thinking it might need some duplicate stitch something on the top to pull it all together?? Anyway, it fits really well, will last for a while and she loves it - perfect!!

My nephew turns 2 this weekend and given how badly he has trashed the sock monkey that I gave him last year I decided a new soft toy was in order. Made up as I went along with fabrics/felt/buttons out of the stash this little monster was born....

Let's hope he likes it!