lying low

i took the day off today...

my parents and their friends arrived in town yesterday and we met them for coffee and took them for a walk around the city centre, making sure they get their bearings, pointing out nice pubs and restaurants... i was so delighted with the nice weather and wanted to make sure they see the city in the golden light and take home some nice impressions, knowing the next few days might get quite gray (and look out, what a gray day!!) seeing so many people out enjoying themselves on a mid week evening, they were surprised by that, but of course they get way more lovely summer evenings at home than we do here.

i must have overdone it a bit, i walked from stephens green to brown thomas to meet them, then we made our way with a few turns to the busy feet cafe (it's not that easy finding a cafe with space for 8 people on a sunny thursday evening!) after that we weaved our way back towards their hotel, along grafton and dawson and nassau street, the tourist information, the foggy dew, temple bar, the 'italian quarter, finishing at that pub on mary st that's in a former church. there we split, and i could really feel my belly. the husband and i made our way back to o'connell st and i could started to get cramps and pains, we decided to get a taxi back to my office where i had parked the car, but of course my husband had had a pint with my dad and friends so i still had to drive home, i got a bit scared with the pains and had to breathe really deeply, and moving my foot from exelerator to break was really sore...

i went straight to bed when we came home, but didn't sleep properly all night, (the baby had lots of extra energy from sleeping all afternoon/evening while i was walking) every time i got up to go to the bathroom the cramps started again, scary! there was no more pain though, so i'm pretty sure we're OK. anyhow, i'm off today, taking it very easy, but there still is a lot of tidying up to do, before the visitors come up to our house tomorrow! i'm leaving all the strenuous stuff for the husband though, who unfortunately has a work night out tonight, so it'll be left to him in the morning, when he most likely will have a hangover!!

all not ideal... but i'm glad i could take the day off at short notice, and of course i'm not telling my parents, i'm going to say i'm working from home! wise people that they are they were saying all along the way that i should turn around and head back to the car and not overdo it, and i was ignoring it, thinking i was going to be fine and wanting to spend more time with them. i miss them, they are going to spend most of their time sightseeing with their friends while they are here, looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow. i just wish their friends would do stuff on their own for at least one evening so we can spend some time with just my parents, but they all don't speak any english and want to stick together, and the friends are looking towards my parents as the seasoned travellers, because they've been here before!

i also thought my mum looked very tired and red eyed and my dad looked like he lost weight so i'm a little worried about them...

annions

sorry, is it just me or is rachel allen pronouncing onions in the most peculiar way? we were just watching her make roast chicken and were nearly on the floor laughing, especially as she said it so often, we didn't count but it went 'then i take the annion and i peel the annion, then i put the annion into the saucepan..." anybody know where she's from?
the other thing that cracks me up is that she often looks like she hates the food she's tasting, while saying 'i lav the flavour, mmh, it's delicious' and it often looks like she hates touching produce, too!
enough bitching, i have to say i love her clothes, make up and jewellery, and the actual food looks yummie!

break ups

two of our friends broke up this weekend. i feel really sad that it didn't work out for them, and also because i'll most likely be losing a friend, she's only moved in with him last year and we started doing lots together, we get on great, now she'll be staying with family in the city centre, and then rent her own place, maybe near here but there's no way she'd stay living in this village, it's just too small. and by next summer she'll most likely move to the south side, for a new job, and i won't get to see her much at all any more! she's quite teary and sad, but at the same time relieved and happy, because she's finally made the step, from what she said and from the impression i got, she's been working very hard to try and be happy in the relationship, to settle with him, to build a future, it just didn't work, she was edgy and things just weren't falling into place. i remember being in a similar situation, and every little extra bit of commitment was making my want to jump out of my skin, and i was doing all i could to ignore it and to be 'grown up' and 'work on the relationship' like my much older boyfriend at the time was telling me to.

i had a feeling there were some issues, and that they might break up, but still i was hoping that i was just imagining all that!

add to that the miserable weather, the mess in the house (lots of little organising projects started but none of them quite finished), a slightly hungover husband... what a miserable day... i just have no energy! i slept like a log but still feel like all i want is to curl up and go back to sleep.

instead i did laundry, some tidying up, filing papers from the last 5 years, and hugging my husband a lot, because i'm upset over the breakup and grateful that we're together. now i'm writing this post while watching 'last choir standing', after a bowl of half and half cornflakes and crunchy nut (this baby is making me like food i usually don't buy at all! and it seems to have a thing for sweetcorn...) and i'm feeling a little better already.

mamma mia

we had a girlie cinema night out, to see mamma mia last night, hilarious! really cheesy, of course, and the plot is slightly confusing, they had to try and somehow fit in as many abba songs as possible. most of the singing is alright but Pierce Brosnan's singing and dancing is so bad, we were dying laughing in our seats! the youths did my head in, but the 3 ladies were brilliant, especially done up in shiny seventies gear! a very cheery film, for sure, unfortunately i'd had non alcoholic beer, i think the film would have been better with a few cocktails. my favourite thing though was the interiour design, light turquoise blue walls, slightly distressed bright red accessories, beautifully embroidered throws and cushions, any type of apron you can imagine, seventies style tablecloths on the clothes lines, mismatched plates and chairs...

at the end of the film i was more or less decided. i was going to paint one wall in our bedroom that colour, and do a similarly bright and mismatched nursery, but the girls pointed out that it all looks right in greek sunshine, but won't be so lovely on an irish, dark, dank, rainy, day. i'm not convinced, i think especially in grey weather bright colours are needed!

missing july

how weird... july is missing from my blog archive!?
and i was nearly sure i posted a bump picture a few days ago? that's gone!

ok, found the bump post, for some reason it appeared with a june date? blogger is doing funny things...

WIP - yet another baby beanie

not sure if i prefer this heart shape or the one from the last?

eclair desaster...

this is a picture of yesterday's attempt to make chocolate eclairs... i used duck eggs, which i think might have been the problem. i tried all kinds of temperature time combinations, but the centre just wouldn't cook! it was gloopy, eggy, shiny, wet, nearly custardy. what a waste of a saturday afternoon! the reason i tried making them was that the weather was awful, torrential rainfall! and i thought i'd feel much chirpier if i could have the eclairs i fancied without leaving the house!

you'd think i'd have gotten into the car today and bought some, but no, i'm attempting them again. with medium chicken eggs. the dough looks lighter this time, less oily, wish me luck!!

the recipe i'm using is a german 'windbeutel' recipe,

60g butter
1/4 l water
pinch of salt
150g flour
1 tea spoon of baking powder
4 eggs.

i'm going to do some more experimenting.

using the fan oven i'm starting with 20min 200 degrees, (eclair shapes, not german sized profiteroles or mini profiterols) i'll try all sorts of combinations again, from different other recipes, and hope that at the end of it i'll get at least 2 eclairs for dessert tonight!

bump picture! (28 weeks)

my bump


my toes



my arm

(after only one stab by the midwife!)

another baby beanie

this one might be for ours. or my cousin's or my friend from college's or my other friend's or my neighbour's! we'll see who has a girl first... it's slightly bigger than the others, 76 instead of 72 stitches

i finished it last night, i've never done stranded (and woven) colour work before... details on ravelry!

the weather is brilliant today! we're mostly spending it in the garden, relaxing, reading, having some cool (non alcoholic in my case) beer, getting up every now and then to do tiny amounts of pulling weeds, watering, harvesting... and to flee indoors for some shade, we're so lightskinned! factor 25 and i still feel i have to get out of the sun every half hour!

later we are planning to go to eurobaby and/or mothercare to look at some babythings. i've seen a bedside cot on the web that i want to have a look at, it's basically like a co-sleeper, but a proper cot as well. that ticks all the boxes in my book! and it's small enough to fit into our bedroom if we get rid of the bed side tables! if we get a very slim bedside lamp we could still have a reading lamp on the other side of the bed.

garden in july

gooseberries - green and hairy, just as they should be!



redcurrants



strawberry blossom, this variety is pink!



lavendar, perspective 1


lavendar, perspective 2, i think this will be part of my next moo postcard set!

baby beanie hat

i made a hat for my nephew! this is actually the 2nd, the first one was plain sage green, with no beanie topper. the pattern is by onegirl, and it's a great one (i modified it by doing stripes and adding the beanie topper)!





this is it inside out


here you can see the colour change on the wrong side.


must get some more wool and make more, this one only took me one evening, while watching TV and 'In Bruges'. I used the magic loop method. I weaved in the ends and evened out the colour change this morning on the bus, and posted it to germany at tea break...

car bootie

i went to a car boot sale and got these beauties! they are soup cups and saucers and i just love the leaf pattern... and the colour!




my idea was to plant something in them, but for the moment i have them on the window sill just to admire them. and the middle one right now holds the last flower of my anniversary bunch of flowers, a pink lilie that was only opening up when the rest of them had already given up the ghost.

these are the flowers on the day i got them!



and this was the anniversary breakfast, fruitsalad with raspberries and yoghurt, and the first redcurrants from the garden, made by me, and french toast with honey made by himself, he makes the best french toast...


hard to believe we're married over a year already!

oh, must stop writing, just got handed a delicious smelling beef and udon noodle stir fry, with some of the monster pak choi from the garden!

window sill gardening

pepper progress!
they are a lovely bright red now, there was a spanish student in the office the other day, and she couldn't believe the veggies were doing so well, she didn't think you could grow peppers or tomatoes at all in ireland... this is an east facing window, the sun is gone after one o'clock, so i'd say you could work miracles with a south facing window!

coralicious, again...

remember my post about my current favourite nail polish? i am in good company, marian keyes herself writes about it in her newsletter! it is a a great great colour of course... it'll save your sanity on a ridiculously torrential july day like this (yes. i am wearing sandals. foolish, i know. but it wasn't raining when i left the house! and it is july!)
PS the image of it on the rimmel website really doesn't do it justice.