more new knitting

New knitting from me...more details at kitchen table studios or ETSY or here

hot and not

ok... so lubyloo must be having a break, but i'll still link to her Hot/Not post from before.

Hot

Making pommegranite sorbet with the new ice-cream machine, mmm.

Finding some very exciting French silk flower making tools...iron cutting tools that are in the shape of liitle flowers and leaves, a little blunt, but will still try them out on something. If that doesn't work, I'll sharpen them up with the dremmel.

Today was a hot day for my elsbeth to start kinder.

Not

Seeing tug-o-war over Elsbeth's pretend cakes she made at kinder, and having someone elses little tikes saying, "They're not cakes, that's play do!!". Well little dude, Elsbeth says they're cakes, back off! I say in my head, while trying not to cry, and trying not to be a total kinder/stage mother...

Having a sick little boy with a mysterious tummy bug, cleaning up throw-up and disgusting nappies.

Elsbeth acting like a different person for the last couple days...probably because Charles isn't well

Being snippy with me bloke 

The, um, french flower tools being a tiny bit expensive.....

Where has my little lamb gone?

I could do with that gin...

So it's been a while since 'hot/not'...
I tell you what for nothing, having two children under three is the hardest full time job you'll ever do. What was I thinking doing that market? It's a very unpredictable thing planning ahead to do more than look after your children. We have had a most turbulent time with our girl. Elsbeth is so funny, and so clever and so frustrating. We are on day 4 of not really sleeping properly, and what I mean by that, is, either waking up insanely early, or not staying in bed at night. Springing up every 20 mins until 10.30 pm. no afternoon nap. So she looks like she's been smoking pot all night and hasn't gone to bed....great. plus, the later it gets in the day the more like a psychiatric patient she acts.... Charlie, the same, cruisey, except he's started to take steps, and can climb!? We caught him trying to climb up an open cupboard, just in time to actually catch him before he fell backward, mmm, fun times ahead.
As shopping therapy I bought 2 new books. One is I could give a frock, and the other is From sometimes love Beth. Both have made me feel more like myself... Thank goodness.

8 months

time flies.....little man looking quite grown up in his little 'mini me' shirt...like daddy.

happy to you

Today is Elsie's birthday. She likes to sing the above words to Happy Birthday. This is she in her birthday present...full of sugar.

What a week!

I cannot beleive the week I've had with our little girl. Saturday night she woke up at 1am and did not go back to sleep....at all, until 10.30am the next morning. So, we watched a LOT of Charlie and Lola.
Talk about marathon. The poor thing has had a temperature and a nasty head cold. She really didn't come good until thursday. But, in the mean time she hasn't slept through since Friday night, except one night, just to lull us into a false sense of security. Both P and I also have colds, so, we feel great getting up to see to elsie at 3.00 in the morning.....and the little poppet will be 2 on Monday. I just wonder when will this sleep madness bit be over?
Not for ages, because our little fella is coming!!!

news

So, first things first. Yes, I am having another baby. And it will be a boy from all acounts...I have seen it on the ultra sound, and it all seemed clear to me that it is a little boy. We are VERY pleased to be adding to our little family. We love having one, so two should be really interesting, especially being a boy. Lucky for us. Elsie will be 2 in about a week. She is very busy, running and talking her head off.

And on other fronts, as you may have read on a previous post, a friend of mine passed away in August. That has been really sad for me. When you have a little one running around, it's hard to stay in a sad mood for very long, because you don't want to confuse or scare them, so often when I'm on my own or at night when I'm trying to get to sleep, I just get this wave of sadness. I get surprised at myself, I didn't realise how much I would miss Kate, until now. I expect I just thought she would be around, like my own Mum. When I found out she was ill, I just thought that there would be time. Selfishly I thought that she might be ill for a long time, but that was not the case. And really, I expect that was a blessing. Hilary and I were asked to 'finish' off a tapestry left on the loom at Kate's place last week, what a privilage, and how strange.

cake

I have been making a cake for years from a book called Crafts, Cookery and Country Living by Kim Victoria Abeles, it's one of those excellent handwritten hippy books, like the Brocoli tree, and Woodstock crafts...etc
Anyhoo... the cake is called Zucchini Bread
Here it is

3 eggs

2 cups sugar ( can use less)

1 cup oil

1/4 teas. baking powder

2 teas. baking soda

1 teas. salt

3 teas. cinnamon

3 teas. vanilla

2 cups, raw unpeeled, shredded, and packed zucchini ( can use carrot, apple or beetroot, or a mixture)

3 cups flour ( can use nut meal mixed with flour)

1 cup nuts, (optional)

Beat eggs till light and fluffy. Add sugar, oil and vanilla, blend well.
Add dry ingrients to creamed mixture.
Fold in nuts.
Pour into 2 loaf tins, or muffin tins and bake at about 180, or medium for about an hour. Less if you're doing muffins.


this cake makes excellent healthy play lunch cake, healthy snacks for kids, good play lunch cake for husbands...or wives. My Mum used to give it to us in the 1980's. It is a very forgiving recipe and can be adjusted to suit youself.
Enjoy!

It's been a while....

Well, it's April.
I've beeen in a bit of a whirl of activity.
Mainly because our girl is on the move.
I've been making toys for her.
A lee-ow (cat) and and
clic-clic (horse), which she can ride on. She has also taken to
Neng-nengs (elephants) and of course she loves her
Nou-nou (Miffy).
We've changed computers and this new one is very strict about what programmes I use...I'll be posting photos of my new makings soon.
Ooh, I've been selling stuff on Ebay...who would have thought it was so easy?

Guts Loom...weaving tales from Caroline Tully

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/njal/njal156.htm
On Good-Friday that event happened in Caithness that a man whose name was Daurrud went out. He saw folk riding twelve together to a bower, and there they were all lost to his sight. He went to that bower and looked in through a window slit that was in it, and saw that there were women inside, and they had set up a loom. Men's heads were the weights, but men's entrails were the warp and weft, a sword was the shuttle, and the reels were arrows.
They sang these songs, and he learnt them by heart:

THE WOOF OF WAR.
"See! warp is stretched
For warriors' fall,
Lo! weft in loom'
Tis wet with blood;
Now fight foreboding,
'Neath friends' swift fingers,
Our grey woof waxeth
With war's alarms,
Our warp bloodred,
Our weft corseblue.

"This woof is y-woven
With entrails of men,
This warp is hardweighted
With heads of the slain,
Spears blood-besprinkled
For spindles we use,
Our loom ironbound,
And arrows our reels;
With swords for our shuttles
This war-woof we work;
So weave we, weird sisters,
Our warwinning woof.

"Now Warwinner walketh
To weave in her turn,
Now Swordswinger steppeth,
Now Swiftstroke, now Storm;
When they speed the shuttle
How spearheads shall flash!
Shields crash, and helmgnawer (
3)On harness bite hard!
"Wind we, wind swiftly
Our warwinning woof
Woof erst for king youthful
Foredoomed as his own,
Forth now we will ride,
Then through the ranks rushing
Be busy where friends
Blows blithe give and take.
"Wind we, wind swiftly
Our warwinning woof,
After that let us steadfastly
Stand by the brave king;
Then men shall mark mournful
Their shields red with gore,
How Swordstroke and
Spearthrust
Stood stout by the prince.
"Wind we, wind swiftly
Our warwinning woof.
When sword-bearing rovers
To banners rush on,
Mind, maidens, we spare not
One life in the fray!
We corse-choosing sisters
Have charge of the slain.
"Now new-coming nations
That island shall rule,
Who on outlying headlands
Abode ere the fight;
I say that King mighty
To death now is done,
Now low before spearpoint
That Earl bows his head.
"Soon over all Ersemen
Sharp sorrow shall fall,
That woe to those warriors
Shall wane nevermore;
Our woof now is woven.
Now battlefield waste,
O'er land and o'er water
War tidings shall leap.
"Now surely 'tis gruesome
To gaze all around.
When bloodred through heaven
Drives cloudrack o'er head;
Air soon shall be deep hued
With dying men's blood
When this our spaedom
Comes speedy to pass.
"So cheerily chant we
Charms for the young king,
Come maidens lift loudly
His warwinning lay;
Let him who now listens
Learn well with his ears
And gladden brave swordsmen
With bursts of war's song.
"Now mount we our horses,
Now bare we our brands,
Now haste we hard, maidens,
Hence far, far, away."

Then they plucked down the
Woof and tore it asunder, and each kept what she had hold of.
Now Daurrud goes away from the Slit, and home; but they got on their steeds and rode six to the south, and the other six to the north.

Some little cards I made

These are some little water colours I've made for a ATC swap...we'll see what I get back in return. The theme is Halloween.

So now I'm all whizz bang!

I've updated the blog, still the same, but a bit fresher.
I've got a killer sore throat...ouchy
Swollen glands...tonsil-itis-y
So windy here today.
Baby all crying.
Have to go.

hus-Bandy + Baby

hus-Bandy + Baby
Originally uploaded by racheljkhine

This is what a nine month old lovely baby looks like.

Elsbeth in hil's overalls

Elsbeth in hil's overalls
Originally uploaded by racheljkhine

Elsbeth is 6.75 months old. She is sitting up quite well un-assisted...but still has no teeth. She's eating three meals a day and just tried avacado yesterday.

Just saw our friend Jarrod on the telly...art investment advice anyone?

Pete has a gig today, and we're all going to go and have a listen.

I can't stop watching Big Brother...I wish I could. It's not the same since Emma left. I know she seemed to be a catty bitch...but I loved her...even with those silly fake boobs.

sunnymeade2

sunnymeade2
Originally uploaded by racheljkhine.

This is Elsie when we went to the beach for the first time. We think Elsie looks pretty good in this picture.

Else this morning

else this morning
Originally uploaded by racheljkhine.

This is Elsbeth on her 5 month birthday. We must be doing something right.
She sleeps and sleeps at night. We are so lucky.
She eats a little Farex most lunch times and seems to like it. She's like a baby bird...opens her mouth as the spoon comes towards her. Soon I think she will either sit up or roll...but at the moment she lays and kicks a lot. She gets such a kick out of seeing us in the morning, she's always laughing and smiling. Although, the sensitive little flower doesn't like loud babies or weird mechanical sounds, even though we live on the train tracks...which she doesn't mind at all.

New things we've been doing

This is my contribution to a mail art project. Trying to save a colony of Black-headed Gulls in Riga, Latvia.I've always had a thing for Latvia.

These are some acrobats from Nica.
This is a picture of me and Else in front of the tapestry I helped weave.

Elsbeth's room

Nana and Elsbeth

Well, there's been a lot of growing in the last month. Elsbeth is getting very long...and quite heavy. She has started to pick things up in her little hands, and everything is going into her gummy little mouth. Her eyes are still steely blue, but I think they may not stay that colour.

My Nana was 100 on the 5th of February, Nana and Elsbeth got into the paper...100 and 10 weeks. Somehow it seemed a little depressing, the very old with the very young...like we're all going to get old, or something.

We went out at night, to a local gallery and then on to Japanese, that went pretty well. We managed to all eat our dinner without too much yelling.

I have also managed to make some pretty cute pants for Else...the pattern says they are "capri pants". One pair are Jeans and the other is pink cords.

There is the most annoying banging going on somewhere near my house...it sounds like an enormous heart beat and is driving me a bit crazy!!

Happy Elsbeth

I just thought you might want to see Elsbeth, this was taken a few weeks ago...when it was hot.

What I just saw down the street

As I was leaving the post office, I spied two "ladies" leaving our local Curves gym, both had tatoos, nothing wrong with that...on one "lady" was some man's name on the shoulder...on the other shoulder was YODA...YODA!!!! A 10 cm high drawing of Yoda, from Star Wars. Noice.