Bergamota

Oh I am so excited that I can finally share what’s been happening in my knitting space now that the recipient has got the gift! Behold everyone – Bergamota, a little shawlette in a luscious citrusy red!

Bergamota was an extremely enjoyable knit ! It was the first time that I’d knotted with Malabrigo lace yarn and it was so much fun feeling the soft wool and seeing the project unravel!

Bergamota is the perfect size (I think) for those cool summer nights when you just need a little wispy something to adorn your shoulders or neck. Here it is laid out to dry after a mild wash near to some unsightly bananas.

Add a little bottle of wool wash to the care package….

Finish off with a big pink bow and our little birthday surprise is all ready to be gifted!

Gift giving is so much fun! I hope you enjoyed this post as I did putting it together!

See you later alligator!

Find out more about the pattern for Bergamota here !

Hamming it up

Woweee what a day it’s been! I’ve so much to share, it’s difficult to really decide where to start! Perhaps simple is the way to go here!

Well The Dude and I hosted our annual Christmas do today. It sounds really grand but it really was with close friends and family, a close knit crowd, just the way we like it!

A special occasion like this deserves special occasion food, like some Christmas ham for instance!

This ham was so huge, it took up most of the oven space! The Dude was the chef of the day -lucky me! Here he is prepping the ham before it went into the oven, see how carefully he’s poking the cloves into the “diamonds”!

Ten minutes later, this impressive looking ham was ready to be cooked and glazed!

It was a bit of effort to glaze the ham but the end result was really worth all the hard work! This picture doesn’t really do justice as to how beautiful it looked after it came out of the oven!

We enjoyed the ham with a large tasty spread of assorted salads and bites….

And but of course, we had a big selection of desserts to sample from to end off the meal!

All that eating sure is hard work! Especially after I’d spent the previous night working hard at finishing these….

Knitted Christmas lights!!

The lights hang happily on our bookshelf now, at a height where Bugs can easily touch them, which was really what I’d intended for them since embarking on this crazy project!

Time for a cup of tea and some much needed rest now! Have a great day everyone!

A picnic we will go

Playgroup was on today and it was a little bit more special than usual as there was a teddy bears picnic going on.

So early this morning, we made some avocado and cream cheese teeny-wiches (baby sandwiches)….

Made sure we packed Eeyore into the pram and headed to playgroup!

It was a nice and sunny day, perfect for picnics and outdoor activity, we settled on a nice shady spot next to the beautiful gazebo….

Placed our food in the centre of the mat and sat down with teddy for some songs and stories!

We were asked to tell a bit about the teddies that we’d brought. Eeyore was particularly pleased when I mentioned that he was Bugs’s BFF (take that Pooh bear!)

The teddies were offered little teddy biscuits and fruit cordial as snacks – very cute indeed! But we didn’t manage to spend a lot of time on the mat for Bugs was more interested in running around and exploring the park than sitting down!

Oh well! Maybe she’ll get the hang of it when she’s older! At least both her and Eeyore had fun today!

Daydreams are made of these

Boy has the week been pretty grey and gloomy! I’d almost run put of places to bring Bugs to when I heard about an indoor play area which had a special section for babies! Plus it’s not too far from home – that’s two ticks in my book and a definite visit for me!

It’s school holiday season now so there was a little wait before we finally manage to get in.

The place was just absolutely bustling with kids! I was pretty surprised at the scale of the play equipment that they managed to fit into something that was the size of a school gym! There were cubby houses, mazes like this one….

An area to ride toy cars and even a large bouncing castle and slide!

It didn’t take us long to figure out where the special babies’s area was, it was pretty much the only part of the place that had a safety gate!

The activity wall station on one of the walls really captured Bugs’s attention the moment we entered the space.

But the colourful ball pit was where she had most of her fun in the time we were there! Seeing all those little balls in one place must have been really exciting for her I think!

Wow wee! Another place to add to my list of kid friendly places! That’s a pretty fruitful day to me!

Have a great day folks!

A new find

It’s always pretty exciting when you discover a new venue that your kid can play in. Especially when it’s indoors and costs next to nothing!

We were walking around the nearby shopping mall and chanced upon a little play area that had been set out for the kiddies. We were really excited when we saw it! It’s been quite cold and wet recently so finding somewhere which is nice and warm and kid and wallet friendly has been quite a challenge.

The area is quite simply decked out with a few flipping block puzzle features…

And a bright yellow car right in the middle of the space which a little someone could not resist climbing into the car the moment she set foot on the mat!

Bugs was super keen to sit in the driver’s set and spent most of her time fiddling with the steering wheel!

I think she’s trying to tell us something here – i’ll leave it to Daddy to tell her she still has a long way to go before she can start driving for real!

Everyday simple

Sometimes happiness lies in the simplest things in everyday life. Like a bunch of unfolded clothes.

I’ve been actively devising new ways to keep Bugs entertained around the house. Especially during the time when we had to stay indoors because of the weather or when Bugs was unwell, those little games were sure handy in keeping our little explorer as happy as can be.

The best sort of games, I find, are those that allow you to get some housework done and keep baby entertained at the same time! Our current favourite game is the simple task of folding the laundry or “Foldy clothesie” as it’s known to Bugs and me. Bugs plays with the clothes while I sit beside her and fold and keep them away once she’s done playing.

It tickles me to see how excited Bugs gets the moment I place the big pile of clean laundry on the floor. She always scuttles as fast as she can on all fours and starts inspecting and grabbing the items in the pile.

A few items in the pile always interest her: a cute bib that was a gift from my cousin with a car sewn on it – Bugs is very taken by the appliqué….

And buttons on garments like the wooden buttons she spotted today on my worn blue sweater.

I added a little twist to today’s session by making an impromptu hand puppet using the leg of one of Bugs’s pants. It looked ridiculously amateurish but I think the little one was very pleased with my efforts by the huge giggles and smiles I heard and saw!

It still amazes me how a mundane everyday activity can be so much fun in the eyes of a little one! I think I might treasure these moments while they last – I’m pretty sure “Foldy clothesie” won’t be her favourite game when she gets older!

Friday adventures

Hooray!! It’s finally Friday! We did something extra special today – Bugs and I , we visited the National Gallery of Victoria!

It wasn’t really for the art that we went there today (though the exhibitions there are pretty good) but it was more to give Bugs a change of scenery and experience something new.

Bugs bubbled with excitement as we walked past these fountains and made our way to the entrance of the gallery – I think she figured out that something fun was coming her way!

It didn’t take us too long to finally reach our destination – The Gallery’s specially designated play area for kids! Did I also mention that entry to this space is free? Too good for words!

The Kid’s Space is a huge play area filled with lots of kid friendly activities and exhibits to entertain the wee ones. Some of the exhibits were eye catching, like these crown jewels replicas….

And some were just funny, like this Mickey Mouse terracotta warrior ‘relic’!

Our little explorer had lots of fun crawling around the big play area and peeking around the various nooks and crannies of the space….

And playing with everything that came into her sight , including these boring looking paper recycling boxes!

The interactive constellation light show did somewhat pique her interest ….

But the ship gallery section of the play area really caught her attention big time! She spent a good part of time trying to reach for the steering wheel…

And staring at this paper figure of a little captain – I think she’s trying to tell me something here!

What a big adventure we had today! Bugs was all smiles and chuckles when we finally headed home which was always nice to see!

We’ll definitely be heading back to the Gallery soon, only this time it will be for this….

Stay tuned and three cheers to the weekend everyone!

Testing testing

I’m kind of in between knitting projects at the moment, with my last big finished piece being those awesome kanoko pants. Since Easter is not too far away, I thought I’ll get a little crafty and make something that would knit up quickly on my needles!

Meet Test bunny – I call him so because he’s the first rabbit toy that I’ve ever made! Making him was also a challenge on my sewing and pom pom making skills so the name seems quite appropriate!

The pattern for Test bunny was written by the fabulous Rebecca Danger who is really famous for her wacky monster toy patterns. Oh and did I mention that this pattern has been provided for free! Yay to that!

The knitting bit of Test bunny was very straightforward and took me a few hours to complete.

Here’s all the completed parts of the toy- body, two ears and pom pom tail. Making the pom pom did take me a few tries to get the right amount of fluffiness.

I started the sewing bit by first stitching on the face before adding on the rest of the elements….

And finally stuffing and sewing up the bottom.

Test bunny does not look like the immaculate soft toys with seamless stitching that you can find in toy stores everywhere. But I’m pretty happy with the result and the fact that I completed it in under three days! Double yay to that!

Here’s how he looks like from the front….

And from the back! I heart the pom pom tail!

Rebecca Danger did mention in the pattern that the finished bunnies are notorious for loving cookies, especially the chocolate kind. Given that we had just purchased a box of Chips Ahoy cookies, I thought it’ll be best to write a small warning note….

And stick it near Test bunny so that The Dude would know not to consume any cookies anywhere near it!

A quick knit and a great start to the week- triple yay to that!

Birthday delights

Oh happy day! My Williams Sonoma cookie cutters arrived earlier this week and I finally had the chance to use them today!

I had been eyeing these personalised cookie cutters for the longest time and was pretty stoked when I learnt that The Dude had got me a set for Christmas! Only thing was that these cutters were out of stock till February, which meant I had to wait patiently for them to arrive. Now that they are here, we had the perfect excuse to put them to good use today!

You see, tomorrow happens to be The Dude’s good mate- Tom’s birthday! Some personalised cookies would be a thoughtful gift for a thoughtful man like him, we thought!

There was a handy sugar cookie recipe that came with the cutters which we decided to use. I chose the star cutter to try stamping on the cookie dough first.

I assembled the words in the cookie cutter and pressed the cutter into the dough…

And out popped this little cutie!

Very clever! The cutters work perfectly and I love the font on the cookie! We were really impressed at this stage so we assembled Tom’s name on the rectangular cutter and continued stamping out more cookies. We decorated the cookies with silver cauchous before popping them in the oven.

We probably left the cookies a touch longer in the oven than what was required so they turned out browner than what I expected.

I decorated a craft takeaway box with some stickers and scrap book papers….

And lined it with gold aluminium foil (interesting what you can find at the supermarket) before packing the cookies in.

There you have it! Our very first personalised edible delights for a special birthday boy! Hopefully Tom likes them, if not we can always count on that trusty bottle of Cab Sav to do the trick!

Ribbit!

Happy leap day everyone! To all the leapers and leaplings out there – a BIG happy birthday to you! I hope you are planning something special to do today -after all February 29 only swings by once every four years!

I thought I’ll get a leap start on my post today and share with you something fun and easy to do that takes literally a few minutes! It might even get you addicted to create your own version!

So here’s what we are going to do today – I will be showing you step-by-step how to doodle a cartoon frog! This little amphibian creation was borne out of endless hours of doodling on my textbooks and homework when I was in school! It’s probably the best thing I can doodle (so don’t get your hopes too high – I’m no Jim Davis) and seemed appropriate to celebrate this special day!

Get your pen and paper ready and here we go!

We start off first by drawing the eyes. The horizontal line through the circles gives the cartoon a deadpan look. Not sure why but I like to draw my cartoons that way.

Next add a somewhat incomplete triangle for the mouth.

Draw the arms and hands coming out from either side below the mouth. You can add more fingers on the hand if you wish – again it’s a habit of mine to draw only three.

Next draw two curves on either side (see picture below) for the hind legs.

Finish off the feet with a couple more curves and lines.

Voila! There you have it! Your very own cartoon frog! I hope the instructions were not too confusing, it was a little difficult to describe in words, hopefully the pictures helped!

But wait…..there’s more! We’ve just completed drawing a male frog. What if we wanted a female frog? Simple! Nothing that a little makeup can’t fix! Add some eyelashes and a pair of lips and there you have it- a female version of our original frog!

Here’s how the two frogs look side by side. I’ve drawn a little card for Riberio (that’s the male frog) to hold and added some lipstick on Riberta (yeap the female frog) to complete her look!

Riberta’s hands were looking a little empty so I added a bunch of flowers. Now it looks like they had just exchanged gifts! Flowers for Riberta and a love note for Riberio – how sweet!

And all done while they were floating on their lily pads !

I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did drawing it! Be sure to show me your creations if you do have a go at doodling it! Feel free to comment as well on my drawings! Have a fantastic leap day from all of us here! *Ribbit* *Ribbit*