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.