Monday 30 January 2012

Happy Birthday Tom!

Tom's 1st birthday is actually tomorrow, but we celebrated over the weekend.

Readers, all 3 of you, you will be very pleased to hear that Oxford Grandma was in residence, and she brought her camera.




It was a lovely family party. Oh so much more fun for the adults when we outnumber the children, and we are related to them all. I hope we'll be able to get away with it for two more of Tom's birthdays. Just sayin'.




I'm not usually one for sentimentality, but really, how damned lucky are we?





HOWEVER. What is with everyone saying that they can't believe it's been a whole year since Tom was born? All those people who talk about how the time flies when your kids are young -- ARE YOU ALL SMOKING CRACK? I love my kids and all, and I wouldn't want things any different, but these have been the S.L.O.W.E.S.T 4 years of my life.

Monday 9 January 2012

Trains

How long will this last? Harry has an obscene number of Thomas trains.





This is a selection, not the whole lot. If I think about how much money this represents, I feel a bit ill. But. He plays with these suckers for at least an hour every day. Per use? Not bad at all. If anything I regret buying a lot of the other toys. The boy knows what he wants. Strange, I wonder where he gets the obsessive streak from.



Saturday 7 January 2012

Guilty Pleasure

On Christmas day, when Sian was opening presents that she had bought FOR HERSELF, I finally had a brain wave. A new bigger telly. It's good. Really good. And here's the side benefit:


Yep, old tv in our bedroom. Tonight we watched bridesmaids. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!






Friday 6 January 2012

Knitting Small

I'm a little obsessed with knitting small things right now. Like the teeny tiny mittens. I have also decided to start a bee-keepers quilt, made of hundreds of little hexagonal puffs of loveliness. Said puffs are made with leftover sock yarn. Imagine my delight when my stitch-n-bitch co-founder brought me two cute little mini-skeins back from her hols. Sooo cute!


You can tell the size even better here.


I am serious about this project. Even knitting a gauge swatch.


So pleasing. I'm also very happy that I am due a phone upgrade in a month. Better camera with a flash.

Thursday 5 January 2012

Decluttering Finds

I am a natural declutterer (there must be a better word), but some gems do deserve a photo before they hit the scrap-heap. In my office, I said good-bye to a decade-old floppy disc collection. Don't they look more 1990 than 2001?


Last week Mum gave me some of my knitting pattern books from the 80s. Boy did I love me some Patricia Roberts:


Actually, I'm not quite ready to toss the books. What marvels of shapeless intarsia. In other news, Tom is just past 11 months, and a recent measuring has him at 9.6 kgs. He is in fine form, and starting to climb. Stair gates go up this weekend. I can't remember how long this goes on for. 18 months? Ah well.

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Back to Normal

I know I'm still feeling the holiday vibe because I didn't cry when the bus was too full to stop for us today. Instead, Harry and I killed time in the time honored tradition.


One last Christmas treat.

I am still coldy, and now that the children are back in the hands of professionals (hallelujah), my plan is to leave at lunchtime and spend the afternoon in bed. I'm salivating at the thought.

For now, busy busy!



Tuesday 3 January 2012

Yarn

IKEA was a success! Cute table and chairs for Harry put together today by yours truly. So much easier than playmobile.

I also got a very large vase. For yarn. Stash as art. Winner.





Yeah, I know. Having only 8 hours of daylight and no flash pretty much blows. I am hoping that through the course of the year I will start remembering to take pictures during the day, preferably outside.

Harry and I start back at work/preschool tomorrow. We are both pretty excited.

Monday 2 January 2012

So Long Christmas

It may not be the Epiphany just yet, but work starts tomorrow, so (most of) the decorations came down today.

Bye bye tree.








This evening: IKEA. We have definitely turned into one of those households with too many toys. As I don't see the consumerism abating anytime soon, brightly coloured storage is on the menu. Eew.

Sunday 1 January 2012

Bloody Blogpress

This is the first day of my commitment to blogging every day in 2012. Annoyingly, I wrote said post in car, and saved it to my phone for later posting. Now the app crashes every time I try to access drafts. Grr.

Still, I am undeterred. (Speller just tried to auto correct to undermined. Universe, f*** you.)

Anywho. We started the New Year as we mean to go on. Boys down the pub for Sunday lunch. They fit in so well.





How much less flattering are my normal clothes in comparison to the tiger?


My resolutions are pretty much set, but I'm still in search of a motto for 2012. Hmmm.