Cleaning, hair cut, and FO Friday

1) It took three of us two solid hours of work, but the cupboard was clean and tidy by the end of it (and minus the thick layer of builder’s dust which had covered everything).

2) Hair cut day today – I had about 10cm of length removed, and I’m really happy with the result 🙂 .

3) It’s Friday, and I have a Finished Object to show you today.  M’s ballet class have insisted that they wear their hair tied back, preferably in a bun, for class. So I quickly knitted up this little snowflake bun cover for her hair. Below is a pic of the ballerina herself!

Snowflake Bun Cover

  “Take a picture of me pointing my toes, Mummy!”

How could I refuse?!

Need inspiration for you own knits?  Head on over to Tami’s blog for more of today’s FO Friday’s .

Autumn light, playing in the park, and WIP Wednesday

1) The sun shimmers through the leaves of the tree bearing the first autumn colours, and the whole tree seems to glow in the sunlight. Later, the shyest of rainbows appears briefly, before disappearing from view.

2) M and I spin on the roundabout, feeling the breeze in our hair, and watching the world go round. Then we swing higher and higher, before slowing to look for cloud pictures in the evening sky.

3) Progress is being made on my two major projects of the moment, my Wendy Tank Top, and the Hitchhiker shawlette.  I’ve completed the ribbing on the tank now, and am on to the main part of the body.  In Hitchhiker news, I’ve completed 22 of the 42 points.  Sounds good?  In terms of number of stitches to complete the garment, I’m not nearly halfway through – the real half-way point lies somewhere between points 29 and 30.  Sigh!

In other knitty-type news, I’ve finally cast-on Autumn Project #2 – Pompom handwarmers (sorry no pics, but my camera battery died right after I took the pic of the Hitchhiker – you’re not missing much though – just 10 rows or so of a P2, K3, P2 rib).  I also spent Sunday afternoon making a snowflake bun cover for M to wear to ballet class… But you’ll need to wait until Friday to see that!

For more of today’s Works-in-Progress, check out Tami’s blog

Quiet moment, text message, and welcome rain.

1) M comes out of ballet class, cliimbs straight onto my knee and curls up. We stay like that for a few moments, enjoying a cuddle.  Then she bounces back up again and starts getting changed.

2) The moment when I realised that, in my initial skim-reading of a text message, I had completely misinterpreted what it said – it actually said pretty much the opposite of what I’d originally thought. Phew!

3) It starts to rain, and cool, fresh air floods the room through the open window. A welcome relief from the warm, muggy atmosphere.

Out and about again…

Time is racing by at the moment, and we’re seriously planning all that we need to do/see/sort out before we leave next month.

The weather has been pretty nice (mostly) recently (although cold – I’ll spare you my usual rant about looking forward to the warmth of Scotland!), and we’re doing our usual of trying to get out and enjoy it as much as possible.

A couple of weekends ago, we had Aunty Heather and Uncle Martin to stay with us, which was lovely. Martin joined us on the Saturday for a trip to Musick Point, and a scramble down to the beach there.

We reckon we must be trying to get as many different views of Rangitoto as possible these days, as on Saturday (just past) we headed north of Auckland to the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, and had lunch watching the kite surfers performing with the wonderful backdrop of the volcano and downtown Auckland. From there we went to Waiwera – nothing quite like relaxing in outdoor hot pools, on a freezing cold day!

Sunday, we had Anna round for lunch, and then we took afternoon tea to Western Springs (park) with Nan and Grandad, and had a lovely walk around the lake.

On a different note, the kids have been getting on pretty well generally, although we’re noticing a similar lapse in Aidan’s ability to concentrate that we saw in the few weeks preceding our move here. Megan’s ballet teachers seem to be somewhat upset that she’s leaving though – after her lesson this week, I was instructed in no uncertain terms that I must find a class for her in Scotland which is fun [so that she doesn’t get put off], but which follows the RAD syllabus – “she’s got potential” they said… 🙂

I realised that I’m feeling a bit lonely on here – so, if you are reading please do leave a comment and say “Hi!”, just so I know I’m not alone!! Ta!

More on Megan…

Given how much Megan loved her ballet class in Scotland, I’d investigated from Scotland and found a class for her to go to in NZ, but I also wanted find a couple of other classes to fill in the mornings we would be at home (given that her kindy sessions are Tues, Wed, and Thurs in the afternoon.

I spotted a poster at kindy last Tuesday, and Wednesday morning saw Megan and I attending our first ever KindyRock session! It’s fab – it’s a Jo Jingles/Musical Steps equivalent. We bought the CD at the end, and have listened to it lots in the car ever since, so we should be well prepared for attending session two tomorrow morning!

Monday morning, MIL had booked Megan into a gymnastics class – it’s not as structured as Tumbletots, but Megan seemed to enjoy it a lot (she was so worn out afterwards, she slept for 2 hours!!). Then in the afternoon, she went to her first ballet class – and adored it. Another photo opportunity here – small pink girl looking very cute! Watch this space!

Both kids start swimming lessons next week, and we’re going to go and join the library – at least K, A and M are, given they are all NZ citizens. I would need to pay as I’m “only a foreigner” so would have to pay a bond that wouldn’t be refunded in full. Think I’ll just get K to take books out in my name.

So I think we’ll be pretty much sorted 🙂 .