I have survived.

Here i am, in case you are wondering, i have survived the Batbirthday. On Saturday we went to the shopping center, and whilst Mommy was shopping, Leo had his face painted.



He supposed to be a Batman of course. Later when we tried to wash the paint off in the bath, he looked like this:
And then after 20 mins of active scrubbing he looked like this:
Even after i have used half a bottle of my make up remover wash, he still looked like he had eyeliner on. After getting out of bath he looked in the mirror and declared, visibly upset: "Now i dont look like Batman, now i look like a girl!" sending poor Colin into absolute hysterics laughing.
So apart from that i have made 2 cakes, a Batman cake and a carrot cake. The name of the first one does not imply that it was made out of Batman, it was all in design.



It looks really wonky on the picture but i was quite proud of myself, it took me a while to do the symbol.
I think the birthday itself went well. We were blessed with great weather, everybody turned up, there was (more) than enough food (i always seem to panic about that and make too much), kids had pass the parcel, music, pizza, cake and fruit kebabs, adults had chicken, sausages, salads, pickles (all sorts of different pickles) and lots of other stuff. I always tell people in advance that since we dont drink, we dont buy alcohol, so they come with their own if they wish to do so, otherwise we had lots of lovely juice and tea. Anyway, here are some more pictures:







So yeah, i think it was a success. It was my first kids party and i think i did pretty good.. Im just so happy that now all members of my family had their birthdays, now its just mine (which we never celebrate) and the Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, i really need to start on Colin's bamboo pullover, but i am dreading it... Im finding any old excuse not to do it, knitting sock for Unity, then doing a bit on Mother in Law Drops Vest, planning to make socks for everyone for Christmas, just not touching the pullover. It would be my biggest project yet, and im scared......

Goodbyes

Just a quick one, to say my goodbyes just in case i dont survive Leo's birthday on Sunday. At the moment, there are 5 children including mine and 14 adults. Yup, you hear that right, 14 adults. That includes my entire family, and some parents of the kids. Poor them, they probably have never met so many Russians in their lives. So although i initially thought about just making some pizzas, now it looks like a full-blown barbq, so lets pray that weather stays. Lets not forget we are in England and weather here is unpredictable at best of times....
Oh well, all that said, i refuse to get stressed about it, so im cool as a cucumber and we are making a trip to cash and carry. I dont actually know what i will make, so im hoping inspiration will strike me there. Im just set on Batman cake and cookies, but now it looks like i will have to make some pecan roll as well.
May be i am a little stressed.

AAAAAAAAAAAAARrrrrrrgghghghghggh

thats better.

Another weekend

Im happy to report that i have survived this weekend, even though i did have my doubts if i would. And i even did most of my chores, including washing (a lot) ironing (a lot) and cooking. On Sunday we had guests in, new people from the meeting, with their three children, all boys. It was another attempt on our part to accuire friends with children and something in common with us. And I'd personally say it was a success. But i guess we'll see that if they invite us back or attempt to meet up again. I made a lime garlic ginger chicken hotpot and a pecan roll. Here is a picture of the roll:
It split on the side but it still was yummy. They had wine, we had tea. Children watched Star Wars. We talked about cabaret, Barry Long, Buddhism and local schools.

We have finally done the Batparty invitations, so im quite looking forward to making Batcookies and Batcake for Leo (Batman,) birthday on Sunday. I know one boy will come for sure (our next door neighbour), I hope the rest will come too.. It would be good for us to meet other parents as well, we have been living in South London for a year and a half now, but made only very few friends. Working full time does not help with social life...

Aanyway, i took Leo to the hospital today for his ear check up, and unfortunately he is not better so they will have to put grommets in, its a small operation that i was told was quite routine. Didnt stop me from feeling terribly sorry for him and tearfully pressing him to my chest with a big hug. Aaaah poor baby. He was so good in a waiting room as well... Sniff sniff sob... :0(
Oh by the way, grommets are little tubes that are put through the ear drum to help hearing and stabilize the pressure. Hospital put us on a waiting list, they will let us know when they have a date for the operation. On a positive i'd have to stay at home with him for a week after that, and
it is considered a sick leave and not a holiday so i dont loose my holiday days. My mother just gave me "Baking with children" book so we can make a lot of cakes and cookies with Leo. It will be great.
Just to finish this post on the positive, here is a video of Unity walking. She falls in the end, but she didnt cry and was very brave, got up and walked on. All together now: Aaaaaaaaah!

Cocksberg?

Here is an example of Metro news.

Giant ice penis - is climate change to blame?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

If there was any doubt about the terrible threat that global warming poses to humanity, then it can now be dismissed - as this shocking photograph proves that climate change is turning icebergs into giant penises.

I laughed long and hard. I guess in the view of global recession, war, murders, hurricanes, floods and general devastation, it is a good thing to think about ice penises. Thank you Metro!

Power and things

Today i have heard word "power" more than in the whole of last year. I had a big client in, and i mean, Big, Huge kind of client. He is an art director of a very influential fashion and lifestyle magazine, photographer, illustrator, basically one of the most influential people in the industry. And, he is great! I actually really enjoyed working with him. And that makes a change from me going " oh just give up" to the photographer. (And yeah, i do get into trouble for saying that.)
So anyway, he was saying how he'd have all the text written for the article before the images are shot. And then, after the whole article put together he'd just go: "I dont like the way that first letter looks against that background. Why dont we change it to say "M" or a "W". " And you know what? They would have to rewrite the whole thing so it can start with M or a W. Now, that is power for you. Speaking in narrow fashion sense of course.


Aanyway, i wanted to post couple of pictures that i think are pure inspiration in the sense of color, for wool dyeing ( if i ever get around to it).



The last two are my beloved orchids. Loooove orchids.
And last but not least, here is a picture of my sweet dumb cat Maneki.

Discovery

Today is the day i have discovered Flobots. I hope you have too.

Im here

Ok, so the weekend was HECTIC and i mean it really was. I was cooking all day Saturday, made a quiche and lasagna and walnut roll(attempt number 3). Only i swapped this time walnuts with pecans and i liked it better. The dough was great this time, just the filling turned out a little dry. So hopefully next time perfect.
Then Unity had a stomach bug so she was sick in the middle of the night (why is it always the middle of the night?) all over the duvets and basically everywhere. So yesterday it was a big washing and ironing and cooking and cleaning and putting things away day. And then i tried to put the duvet in to washing machine but it was having none of it, so i had to drag it upstairs and stuff it in to the bath filled with warm water with soap and then dance around on it for about 20 minutes and then repeat that procedure like 3 times with no soap this time to rinse it, and then log it into the garden and hang it on the scaffolding. And how grateful i was that my dear husband is lazy enough not to take the scaffolding apart, despite me regularly hustling him about it. And, just when you though that was enough, we had to change the tires on my bike. All that along with taking children to the park and having neighbour's boy around and feeding them and entertaining them and resolving their scuffles.
So it is not surprising that i didnt have much knitting done, and what i thought was gonna be a couple of days kind of project now is going for a second week!
On the positive i have finally organized my yarn into plastic boxes so that my wardrobe is not completely filled with bits of yarn in plastic bags.
Ahhh, i thought i'd never say that, but im happy to be at work. So peaceful....

The last knit

Loooooooove this!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM
Please watch this!!!

Cycling pic

And thats me on my little Dahon. I love my little bike, it is very fast, despite having 20" wheels.
At the moment it is in the garage looking all dismembered, because my dear husband got me some new tires (which was sweet) because my back tire has a massive hole in it, left by a shred of glass. Only the thing is that he got a wrong size tires! And he only realized that after he took my old tires off.... So hence i had to change into civil clothes and take a bus and a train like all the normal people do. I guess the good thing was i could knit on the way to work, but i still hate commuting, it just takes forever and i feel like my freedom to move is morbidly restricted by train times and such.
Aaanyway, i am so close to completing Birthday Drops vest for my mother i just might finish it before Sunday, which would be nice. Oh, and my Rowan Bamboo Tape pattern booklet has arrived, giving me a lot of inspiration. Surprisingly enough Colin got very excited about the idea of making yarn out of bamboo, thats his latest craze - bamboo and more bamboo. He just got some black bamboo to go to our front garden. When i weakly protested that it grows up to
50' tall so will eventually stop any sunshine getting to the front of the house, he enthused that it will be just like living in a jungle. In a semi detached house in southeast London. Oh well, Russians say let children play so that they dont cry...
I was spending a lot of time on Ravelry again, as you do, chatting to more people. I love all that discussion board stuff you know. I even started a new thread and it had fantastic response.
Sweet baby Unity has started her nursery this week. She is doing great, they said she loved it. They give us like these little sheets of paper where it says what she did and what she ate, it was so sweet. I can just see her sitting there on a little chair like a big girl and eating cheesy mush and baked beans with a spoon. She is off today though because she is having her MMR immunization. I hope she takes it well, poor baby.