A little white cat for Anne

Our friend Anne who went to school with my big sister Vicky is always very generous when it comes to Christmas presents for Daisy and Iris, i think she just loves buying presents.

We gave her a home made mouse for Christmas which seemed rather lame, so we sent her two more to keep that one company, then i thought perhaps a cat might like to chase them.

This cat is made of whitish fleece with yellow and blue felt ears and feet, he also has a blue felt flea on his bottom.
There had to be yellow and blue in it cos Anne works for Torquay United and those are the colours.

Daisy at Discover in Stratford

We went to Discover on Sunday 17th to a little boys 6th birthday party, the same little boy who didn't get the hat, instead he got a rather lovely book all about Pirates.
Discover is absolutely brilliant, it has loads of stuff for children to do, it has a room with hot-spots on the floor that make noises when you walk around, a crafting corner where you can cut and stick stuff onto other stuff, you can climb over a big mound or go into the mound and discover strange noises and buttons and dangly things, its' all really rather exciting for a nearly 4 year old.
They also have dressing up...
This is what Daisy chose to wear for most of the party, for some very strange reason.

This is the photo that in years to come, she will wish i'd never published on this little blog, for the whole world to see.
I'm so cruel.
Marc took it by the way.


I cannot look at this photo without smiling.

Camera shy

Hmmm....
I tried to take some pics of these girls today, Daisy was quite up for it until Iris woke up from her sleep and then Daisy refused point blank to be photographed with Iris, then Iris cried cos Daisy was making such a fuss, so then i gave up.

Floss aged 2, in her birthday hat

And here is Floss modelling her birthday hat, oh so sweet.

Last hat for now

This hat started out as a present for a little boy we know, but (because i don't really use a pattern, instead i use about three different patterns and i mix and match them all together via swatches and guesswork), it turned out a bit too big, so it is kind of Marc's now, although it is perhaps a little small for Marc.
I wanted to try swapping wool balls and it was tricky.
This is the hat not quite finished, and still on the needles, i haven't taken a pic of it finished yet, but i will.

Floss' birthday hat and scarf.

OK, the next hat was for Floss, Run and Lisa's little girl, it was her birthday really recently and we also needed to send them a thank you for having us over at New Year so i thought what a perfect opportunity to knit a hat and scarf.
This wool was lovely to knit with, really chunky, therefore really quick.
I must ask them to send me a pic with her in it.
(Hat finished 12.02.08)

Iris' hats

Here are hats no 3 and 4, which were knitted for Iris, the first attempt modeled by Iris with no bobble and then Daisy with the bobble, was the one that was too wide and not tall enough, it didn't stay on the head once taken out for a test drive, so it was quickly unravelled and knitted up again in a different style.
The second two pics are of Iris with her new style hat which has ribbing down the bottom that makes it a little tighter, and i also did two i-cords as ties to keep it on her head.
(Hat finished 04.02.08)

She hates it by the way, well she hates all hats, so i guess i shouldn't' take it quite so personally.

Hats, Hats and more hats

I am now officially obsessed with knitting hats.
I have now made six hats to date, although one was unpicked straight away (after i took a photo) cos it was too wide and not tall enough.

My very first hat turned out far too small for Iris, so it was given to baby Elodie, i will take a pic when she grows big enough to wear it.

This is my second hat, which Daisy seems to love, she has a matching scarf.
(Hat finished 14.01.08)

Roundy-thing in the playground.

Here are a couple of pics of Daisy and Leo on a roundy-thing in the playground, it looks a bit like a flying saucer.
Daisy enjoyed it for ages until she got very dizzy, i felt dizzy just pushing them.
Iris was asleep in the buggy at the time.

Hackney Downs with mist.

Here are some pics of Hackney Downs with a rather spooky mist over it, for anyone reading this post who is in a warmer climate, Sarah, Rachel, Josh, Adam, Sophie etc... you will probably be enjoying your summer even more now.

Green slime and bye bye Mary & Andy.

Yes we are plagued with green slime again.
It started last weekend when Auntie Vicky and Michelle was up staying with us and it seems to have just gotten worse.
Daisy got it first on Sunday and now she seems to be feeling a lot better, i still sent her to nursery, how cruel am i?
Iris then caught it on Monday (i think) and she still has it today, her nose is just streaming.

One of my oldest and loveliest friends Mary, and her husband Andy and two of their three children Corum and Zoe flew to Brisban yesterday, well they are probably still flying as i type now at 11am on Friday morning.
Sam the eldest boy has decided to stay for now.
Mary has a job out there doing sciency things, and i believe she starts working straight away.
Andy is very handy with bikes and engines so i am sure he will get a good job doing something like that, he is also very good at painting tiny war characters, i believe he has quite a name for himself in those circles.

I didn't manage to see them before they went, which is a big shame, i was going to go out to Heathrow to wave them off but these girls' colds could have caused an epidemic.
Just imagine, we could have infected a goodly amount of people about to get on planes, then those people could have infected everybody else on the planes (air conditioning and all that) and then all those people when they got off the plane could infect everyone they met in their final destinations.
blimey.

Anyway though Mary can't get away from me just cos she's on the other side of the world.

Good luck to them.

The Kitchen is still in a state.

Yep the kitchen is still in a terrible state (no worse than when you saw it Vicky at the weekend)
Today a fella came from UK Drains Network or something, he came to find out if it was a leek from the mains supply in the street, to our house, and it is not.
He did a test which involved filling up a big vase of water, holding it under the tap with the spout submerged, then turning off the mains supply out on the street and watching to see if the tap started to suck the water back up, which it didn't.
This apparently means it is an internal pipe problem.

I know Direct LIne have to work out what the problem is by elimating the possibly causes one by one, but this is taking a ridiculously long time.
So check list
A) It is not the Drains, ANSA have been twice.
B) It is not the main water supply into the house, UK DRAINS NETWORK.

We are sure we need a plumber, but before we just call one off our own backs, we just want to check who's footing the bill for all this, fingers crossed it is still Direct Line.

Vicky's photos

Here are a couple of pics that Vicky took of the girls.

Tate Modern gave us a bug.

On Friday we went to the Tate Modern to meet up with Lisa P and her two boys Ben and Daniel, Eugenia and her two girls Bella and Amandia, Vanina and her big girl Carolina and little boy Federico and last but not least Rita and her boy Leo.
It was all a lot of fun, when we eventually arrived (the walk from Waterloo was long and cold along the embankment) it was lunch time so we went to the bit where school kids can go and eat their lunch and we found a big table and we all ate our pack lunches.

I think being in a room full of young school children meant that it was very germ infested and nearly all of us caught a very nasty virus. Me, Daisy, Iris, Eugenia, Bella, Amandia, Rita and Leo. The rest seemed to escape the bug.

After lunch we went and looked at the cracked floor which is an art exhibition by Doris Salcedo, to be honest whilst i was there i didn't really read anything about the artist, two small children make that quite impossible, but the internet has come to the rescue, i've just read a bit of it from the Tate website www.tate.org.uk/modern/.
It says that by putting a crack in the floor she is changing our perceptions of the very grand Turbine Hall's architecture, making us look down instead of up.
What a crock.

But it was jolly nice to get out and about in London.

That is Leo in the pics with Daisy and Iris, and yes Iris did get her foot down the crack.