another photo heavy post

Peonies from Michael for our Anniversary- This was quite odd as I have never before expressed an opinion on Peonies. Then about two weeks ago I was in town and sow someone walking by with a bunch and thought- Wow - those are great and then my husband sent me some. Think what you will :-0
Purple Austermann Step socks - have been OTN for about 5 months. I actually had to buy a second skein of yarn to finish these.
A mini sock for the key chain my Mom sent for my birthday and a box of yarn I recieved from Cheryl.

I really should be making dinner but...

I have tons to say and even more to show and I thought I should at least make a start. Monday was my birthday- and Tuesday our anniversary. I had a small party on Sunday evening and we celebrated "into" my birthday. The be-utiful red biscornu is from Carol- I was so thrilled to receive this. Carol does wonderful work and it is the first bisconu that I have seen in person. Fab- really!
My sister made me the napkins and the necklace and bracelet in the next picture. I am sort of addicted to cloth napkins ( this is very wierd and I should probably save it for one of thoes tag thingys) and she knows exactly my taste.
the next picture is the contents of the box my Mom sent- various bits that she new I would like. I was very "angetan" byt the mini sock blocker and sat down yeesterday evening and knit a sock for it. It only took an hour or so. Pictures in the next post :-)
In the last picture ar a necklace from Michael , some homemade strawberry jam from the neighbor , some silk ribbon, a necklace and ring from Anja and my Pandora bracelet. The Pandora bracelet is one where you collect different beads for it and the boys gave me a new one- hard see though.
I so have more news- about my back , stitching and socks but it wil have to wait as the natives are getting restless for their dinner.

Sorry - blogger messed with me and now the pictures are in the wrong order- but your smart- you'll figure it out.

Lovely presents

Last week , Michael saw this "Strandkorb" for sale and wrote me an email with the link and said that if I liked it I should order it. Wasn't that sweet!
I did and I did. It said it would take 10 working days to be delivered , but it only took a week - and there was a holiday in there! I was so surprised- and then Patrick put it together all by himself ( it came packed flat) and when I got home from work I could sit in it- isn't it cool?
You can see some of my newly potted plants there as well. Thats about the limit of my gardening- a few large pots with flowers- I regularly let them die ( the fl0wers) and buy new ones. You would think that being from California , I would remember to water.
May is always a big present month for me , mother's day, my birthday and our anniversary. I do like getting presents- deosn't everyone?
For mother's day I received a boquet of flowers and a "Tears for Fears" CD from my kids and from my one god daughter (Ciara) a self strung bead necklace on an elastic. I think there were a lot of these made and given this year :-) I wore mine all day and then hung it on the rearview mirror in my car. Sweet!
Does anybody know what "Strandkorb" is in English, not the literal translation , but what the thing is actually called?
On the health front: After a year and a half of dealing with my back problem , I am going to have a series of very slightly invasive procedures which will hopefully sove the problem - at least to large degree. The first is on Friday- wish me luck.

Kids!

This is what we gave our kids for Easter.
















And this is what I get as a thank you :-0

We do have a rule at our house that goes " shoes on or socks off" , but is appears that if I am not on the spot to enforce it , my children simply ignore it. And no , my children do not wear hand knitted socks- otherwise I am afraid they would no longer be able to walk much less play basketball!

Busy....

This is my baking afternoon production. Twenty four cupcakes, a small heart shaped cake , brownies, two carrot cakes and a loaf of bread. The cupcakes and the heart are from a yellow cake mix. But the rest are not and are all made with spelt flour. The brownies are from the back of the hershey cacoa box- this is a great recipe as you only need one bowl and a spoon to make them- fantastic. The carrot cake is from "The Silver Pallett", it was my sisters wedding cake. It's a bit more work as the carrots are cooked and pureed and not just grated ,but the last time I made it I did enough carrots for twice and froze it. They will get clasic cream cheese frosting - the cupcakes will get a glaze and some sort of deko too, but not until Sunday morning. The bread is with onion and cheese . I have made this a number of times - always with a slight variation -so I am never sure exactly what it will be like- keep your fingers crossed :-) The whole of this is for a communion that we are going to on Sunday. I didn't plan to make this much , but I kind of started and couldn't stop.
I pretty much began at 4:30 this afternoon and managed to clean the kitchen , shop, do laundry and iron shirts between as well. Oh and talked to my Mom , my Sister and my DH on the phone too.
My sister and I ordered a watch for my Mom for mother's Day and they sent it to her with the invoice and no gift card. She had recieved it, loved it , but simply could not remember having ordered it. I wondered that she hadn't said anthing to me because it should have reached her early this week. I finally did say something and we had a good laugh. She thought she was losing her mind.
We are off tomorrow to our friends so - have a nice weekend and a lovely Mother's Day!!!

Socks and art cards

Another pair of finished socks- They were almost finished a month ago and only needed about three hours to complete them this weekend. The yarn is Opal and the pattern is from the new Interweave book.

On to lovely gifts. The Easter card and art cards are from Dianne- they are so cool. I had been hoping I was on her list of recipients and was thrilled to receive these. Thanks again Dianne.

I had quite a nice weekend. The daughter of a friend of my mother, Emily , is studying here in Germany for four months. I am thrilled that she found time to come for the weekend and that we were able to do some fun stuff. We shopped- ate out- went bowling , and best of all went to the Felix Nussbaum Museum in Osnabrueck. I actually enjoyed most of the art ,but that is not what we went for. The building is called the Museum without an Exit and was designed by Daniel Libeskind- the architect who has designed the World Trade Center memorial. His buildings are very modern, different and interesting. If you ever have a chance to see one- do .

I promised the winner of the book recomendation contest in this post. I received a number of recomendations for books that I had already read- but I bought and read everything else. To my surprise I was not able to read (or knit) as much as I had planned on vacation , but I did finish them soon thereafter. I really enjoyed two books- Both were fantasy and I will read more books from both authors. "To Say Nothing of the Dog" by Connie Willis and "His Majesty's Dragon" by Naomi Novik. After a bit of thought I decided that " To say Nothing of the Dog " was my favorite. I really love time travel storys and the twists they force my brain to make.
So the winner is Barbara!!
Barbara- I know neither your shoe size nor what color etc.. you would like.. but I am sure we will figure it out.

More ....

This is my God daughter Ciara at her first communion two weeks ago. I actually have better pictures , but I love the way her face looks in this one. I was actually standing about 8 feet away, on a low brick wall , with my camera held above my head and she was surrounded by adults. So this was just a luck shot. The communion was in The Netherlands and the service was very child friendly and sweet. And, it was the weekend before Michael left and so he was able to go with us. Very nice.
The boys wore suits for the first time - I wish I had a better picture - I hope someone else does. Next weekend we are going to a confirmation and they will have to get dressed up again. Maybe I can persuade Patrick to put on his tie , and I will try to get a better picture.

Barbara: Yes , I did get your note. Thanks and I too, am sorry we couldn't get together, but we will :-)

Annamarie: Yes, I have checked and will continue to check the passports- not only the dates ,but do I still have them?- They are all good for ages and yes, I do have them , but I am very nervous about the whole thing.

Carol and Su: Yes, I would please like to have Carol's RR when Su is done with it, but please don't mail for it to get here between 21 June and 4 August. There will probably be someone who can recive it , but I 'd rather be here mysef.

Hugs and thanks to everyone else for continuing to check and comment on my blog . I do appreciate it- more than you can imagine.

The next post will have the winner of the book suggestion contest!!

Happy May First!

Well, I have been trying to write a post for almost a week, but I couldn't bring myself to start what should be a huge long thing and so I have been avoiding it. I actually hate to write and don't think I am good at it . I always have to convince myself that I am only going to write a few sentances and then just stop whenever. So that is what I am doing now.

Posting a picture and writing something, just to get back into the swing of the thing.

These socks are my finish for April. They are "Monkey Socks" from Cookie A. The yarn is Opal, in a colorway that wasn't planned to match my sofa. That was a coincedence.

Michel is back in the Congo. He left last Tuesday and is supposed to stay for two months. Right before he comes back the boys and I will leave for 6 weeks vacation in California. Our planning leaves something to be desired, but we do the best we can.

I have spent most of the last week trying to get my house back together . While Michael was here I barely managed to keep us fed and in clean underwear. Now it's back to the grindstone with the addition of everything I avoinded doing the last 4 weeks. When will someone invent self-cleaning houses?
Anyway I am ging to aim for a short post every couple of days. Maybe with a picture or two of our vacation.

Birthdays and other exciting and harrowing events.

Well, today is Michael's birthday , and as you can see, he is back in Germany- or we are in the Congo! I have on a hat too ,but I took the picture. We had big plans for he weekend. Michael was supposed to get to Germany on Friday Morning to begin his 4 week vacation, but then this happened http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/03/22/Congo.reut/index.html
and he was unable to get to the airport and was confined to quarters. Our plans to go to friends in the Netherlands and our tickets for a function went right out the window.

Thursday evening I pretty much had decided to go anyway . Friday morning , Patrick woke up with a stomach ache and I decided not to go. Friday midday, Alexander came home from school and asked "Are we going?" As Patrick was feeling better - we jammed some stuff into the car, grabbed the dog and went. The between the lines here is a lot of telephone calls with Anja- tears and stomping about, on my part, a trip to the Dr. for Patrick and Michael not knowing exactly when he would be able to get on a plane.

Friday evening , I went with my friends to our "event" . It is a big charity function- I have been most years for about the last 12. Years ago ,I was on the committee that organizes this event and it is always a highlight in my year. It is a fun evening with food and drink from different countries, a casino, music and dancing and a huge tombola . But.. I prefer to go with my husband. I still had a nice time and Saturday Morning, Anja and Ciara and I went to Aachen to do a little stashing ,that is the other picture , and to hit Starbucks.
Buy the time we got home, Michael had called and said that it looked pretty good to get to the airport that evening and we could pick him up from the airport in Dusseldorf, on Sunday - that's today- his birthday. We manged to greet him at the airport with the dog, a candle in a Starbuck's muffin , paper hats etc... The main thing is he is home , safe and sound. Right now he is asleep on the sofa- OUR sofa in OUR house. You understand.

For those that come for knitting /stitching content- my new stash came from Junghans Wolle in Aachen. The greenish yarn is Opal cotton- I might actually have this already, the other yarn is Regia bamboo, there are some 2mm Addi circs , some beads to try beaded knitting, a book about knitting mittens and gloves- I may branch out, some very short knitting needles- for knitting the fingers, some blank memory cards- to make your own, and the blue box thing is a stretcher stitching frame thingy for stitching projects. I have no idea if the stretcher thingy will work ,but the box was torn and they were selling it for 2.50 , so into the basket it went. You can hardly go wrong for 2.50.
I also managed to get a great massage yesterday- so , although it started out badly , the weekend has turned out pretty well!

More socks

Not only did I finish Su's RR yesterday - I finished these socks , late last night. They are the embossed leaves socks again , but this time in a pale green Regia.

I am up early this morning- for a Sunday ,as it is the first Formula One Sunday of the year and the race is in Australia . I did not get up at 4 am like we used to do. When the kids were smaller and Michael was home , the kids would crawl in bed with us and we would all watch together. This morning I am watching the repeat- by myself. I got up at 8 for the pre-race show and ironed shirts while watching it, and am now watching the race, but it's just not the same by myself. I think I'll go cast on a new pair of socks!

If you missed the "Help" post, please do go read it. Thanks.

Su's RR - done and in the mail

Well, Here is a picture of Su's RR . I stitched the square in the bottom , left hand corner. The picture is totally crooked ,but it is raining and gray and I was trying to get as much natural sunlight on the thing as possible. Then as it was already 11 and our post closes at 12 , I packed it up and hurried over there to make sure it got in the mail today, and only looked at the pix afterwards. But I did get it mailed :-)
Now I am waiting to receive Veronica's from Barbara and hoping for inspiration. Barbara did a fab job extending a square that Veronica had stitched. I am not sure I have enough imagination for this! I will do my best.

Help!! There is a prize involved here!

The book cases are exploding- it's time to buy more books!
Seriously folks- We are going on vacation over Easter - Center Park in The Netherlands. We will be spending lot of time swimming and saunaing ( don't think this is actually a word ,but you know what I mean) bowling and playing ping pong etc.. but I also hope to visit Amsterdam , knit , see Barbara and just relax and read. So here's the thing- I need some book suggestions. I want to make a largish order from Amazon in the next couple of days ,but I don't know what to get.
Many of my favorite authors have new books coming out in June or July , but I need something now! So please let me know what you think I would like.
Please include your shoe size if you would like a to try and win a pair of hand knit socks. The person who recommends the book I like the best will receive a pair of socks knit buy my own two hands.
If you don't want socks but just want to recommend a book - just leave out your shoe size. I know there are a lot of people out there who think hand knit socks are eeeeeee :-)

Edited- Barbara wants a hint about what I like- is will be easier to say what I don't like . I am pretty opinionated . I will never again read Danielle Steel or Stephan King. So no really cheapy Romance, and Horror is pretty much out. Scary and Romantic are both good- just not that kind. Also I won't read L. Ron Hubbard , even though the one sci fi that I read from him was pretty good. I just refuse to support that kind of thing. I think the last book that I just loved was "The time Travelers Wife" and before that it was "The Red Tent". That's all your going to get ,as I want to know what YOU think I would like.

I 'm alive!!

Here is a picture of Su's neighborhood in progress.
Alexander has learned "which" one is the wash machine but not how to use it. He has however learned to change the bag in the vaccume cleaner.
I got a massage last Friday!!!
My husband might be coming home on the 23rd and staying for a month!!! He can celebrate his birthday at home.
My chest no longer feels like someone is sitting on it all the time.
Here are also two picture's of recently completed socks.
And a picture of my feet- not to show you my good taste in sandals, but to demonstrate how nice the weather has been.

Washing Machine?

Von- keep up the good work of making your kids do their own laundry . You are a credit to motherhood as I , obviously, am not!
Tomorrow, we have friends who are coming for the day. I was baking a lemon meringue pie ,when I realized that the fridge was full and I would have to turn on the small fridge to store the pie. I called to my older son to bring an extension cord and to plug in the fridge, "but" I said " plug it into the outlet where the washer is and not the outlet where the dryer is plugged in. " He looked me strait in the eye and asked "Which one is the washer?"

Pictures are of pie in small fridge, and 16 year old who is focused on x box and doesn't know the difference between a washer and a dryer!

A picture of Ash and some sort of related bits.

Here, for your enjoyment is a picture of Ashleigh ( I really, really have to learn how to do that clickable link thing) . I took this picture back in September when Cheryl and I met Barbara and Ashleigh in Amsterdam and we went out for dinner at the Hardrock Cafe. I have been wanting to post this picture since I took it- because I think it is a really pretty picture of Ashleigh. I also want to mention ,once again, that I had a fab time the time we were in Amsterdam and that the dinner with Cheryl, Barbara and Ashleigh was the "dot on the i " this is a translation from German and sounds stupid in English ,but you know what I mean. The second reason for posting this picture is that I am going to have to use "old" pix until I can figure out how to reformat the memory chip/card in my camera- or buy a new one. The one in there is full and I am not sure which will come first, either I will figure out the reformat thing or I will give in drive to Media Markt , where they can hopefully, tell me what I need. P.S. for Ash. The Valentine's cakes you made yesterday- too cute!

I had planned a picture of the flowers my husband managed to send me from The Congo. I was feeling a little weepy yesterday- which is getting close to being my standard state- when I got home from the Dr (again!) the box with the flowers was waiting on my doorstep. I promptly burst into tears. I didn't think he would manage , as I know that he has had problems with his internet connection.
Yesterday , I read a lot of blogs and comments about how Valentine's day is so commercial and we should show our love to our.. well.. loved ones every day. While I totally agree with this and I also believe in spreading Valentine's around- it is not just for couples- I want to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day.
I have another take on it as well. Sometimes, I am glad for the "commercialism" of the day as it gives me the kick in the butt to sit down and send some ecards- let people know that I am thinking about them. This can only be good- right? Also, my husband is home so seldom that I never expect him to clean the bathroom ( he was a great diaper changer though) and while I don't place a value on myself based on if I receive flowers on Valentine's Day or not , it is nice to know that my husband was/is thinking of me.

On a whole different front- I just spoke with a physical therapist and have an appointment for a check up and a private Nordic Walking lesson. I have to do this. I need to lose weight. I need to exercise, I need to get out of the house and I need more fresh air.

Birthday bowling

Hera are a couple of pictures of the boys bowling . This was Patrick's little birthday party. We all had a fun time and Alexander is getting to be a pretty good bowler. Afterwards we came home and and I made tacos. Sorry - this is an incredibly boring post and I can't think of any way to make it interesting ,but as I uploaded the photos I am just going to leave it.

Pix!!

Okay - here are the missing pictures from yesterday. Didn't Cheryl do a fantastic job on the felted bag? it is so pretty- I am just not sure what to use it for as I want to use it for something, where I will see it often.
The other picture shows my foot stool, with some knitting and the cool sock needle holders Cheryl sent. On the right is a finished sock, on the left is the second of these ONT. In one of the needle holders is a half sock , from the second I left one end open so that you can see how it works. Fun stuff!
My sister received and liked the socks I sent her for her birthday- which was yesterday- she said the socks fit and both she and Holly (her cat) approved the colorway.

Speaking of colorways- yes, I changed my blog template. Blue is and always has been my favorite color, every few years I take a dive into pink or purple ,but in the end I always come back to blue.

A Pictureless post- for the moment.

I had a lovely box of goodies come from Cheryl yesterday. A felted bag that she made, a sampler book and some really, really , cool needle holders for when you put down your socks that you are knitting on DPN's .
There were some sweatshirts for the kids as well, but while that's very nice, it's not very exciting for you :-)
Anyway ,I wanted to photograph the felt bag which is a wonderful purple and green , I even wandered around with it to try and find an "artistic" place to make the photo, as opposed to most of my photos which I just take on the table. Sometimes I stand on a chair to get a good one ;-)

I have an ivy plant which I am training around a big heart shaped form and I thought: A ha- perfect. But, my camera was dead. The plug for the cradle goes under my desk and I probably stepped on it and pulled it out. I have killed a couple of headsets this way. The cables get wrapped around my leg and then I walk away and pull on them in ways they were not made to withstand. I have however plugged the camera cradle back in and it seems to be loading. Hopefully in a couple of hours I can take my "artistic" pictures. It might be too dark by then though...
In the meantime I am going to drive to the store. I was just there an hour ago. I want to make chicken pot pie for dinner . I looked up a recipe , made a shopping list and forgot to buy....chicken!

Stitching knitting content

For those who come for stitching, knitting content-- here it is. Finished and mailed these socks for my sister's birthday- I hope they fit and she likes them. The leg bit is quite long - the cuffs are folded over, but if she has on high boots she can leave them unfolded. I also received and STARTED on Su's neighborhood RR. I will complete this on time!!!

Happy Birthday Pacman

Yes, it is Patrick's birthday and yes, he opened presents before school- before breakfast even. Michael, Alexander and I gifted him with a couple of band T-shirts ( have you heard of System of a Down?) , a duvet, pillow case set with a print from some heavy metal band and a new, bigger (read louder) amplifier .
The Duvet cover has a horrible print of some boney, thing with a hatchet and and dripping blood. Eddy, Freddy ? from Iron maiden? Anybody know this? Anybody want to admit to knowing this? I am not sure I can sleep with such a thing in the house. I am sure I would not be able to sleep under it ,but then I am not a 14 year old boy. I was even a good mommy and baked a cake yesterday and did not wait until this afternoon to try and bake in a panic, between my English lessons. Dinner, at Patricks request, is a huge platter of nachos.