christmas ornaments

little santa hat, pattern on ravelry
tiny sock (cast on 8 stitches!) the original pattern is also from ravelry, but i changed it quite a bit.

these are going into an advent calendar that us stitch and bitch girls are making for one of us, who's moving abroad. i'd say the tiny sock would be great on a card, too!

power cut

We had a power cut last night, 9 hours! It was a nice evening actually, maybe we should voluntarily switch the power off every now and then! Emm had her first candle lit dinner, and loved it! Our neighbours dropped by for a cup of tea (gas hob, how lucky!) the stayed, so we ordered pizza, opened a bottle of wine, then we got out the cards and played '110'. It was so nice and relaxed, no distractions, no fussing or cooking (didn't want the fridge to get warm!), no background noise, just candles and friends. when they left, we looked up at a beautiful starlit sky, we rarely get to see the stars properly, because of the light pollution! i wonder will there be a baby boom in the area, in 9 months time!

a weekend with friends

two friends from college came to visit this weekend, we had a great time! there was less going out and less hiking than during previous trips, and a lot of emm entertaining! everything is so much easier with two friends around, to entertain the baby and help with the dishes or cooking... i wonder would communal living be like that. i was surprised how i had time to finish a cup of coffee or eat my dinner while it was hot!
we went to skerries and carlingford for walks, and food, and emm came with us. i didn't take many pictures, but the girls got a few nice ones!


we went into dublin without emm, but i didn't enjoy it as much as i had thought i might. i missed her, and i just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for shopping, it just seemed quite unimportant! i used to love trawling around the shoe shops, and buying clothes and accessories. i never bought very much, or very high fashion stuff, but i used to like hunting for the perfect cardigan at a good price, checking out what's on offer and buying when i saw what fit the bill. on this occasion i just couldn't be bothered with the 'checking out what's on offer' part, i didn't really want to look at all the runners in all the shoe shops to see if there was a pair to replace my worn to bits and recently thrown out green golas. i'm actually wearing an even older pair of cheapo dunnes stores runners, and i don't mind at all! it must be part of the mother hormones...
i had been hoping to maybe go to the art gallery, but we never got around to that, with no train running we had to rely on the buses they put on, so we had to leave quite early. maybe i'll go in with emm, and visit the art gallery.
i find time runs so fast, and i still haven't any proper structure to my week, with scheduled outings or fun things, i go with the flow and it works to an extent, i get the important things done, but i fear i might fritter away my career break without making the most of it!!

my friend took this picture of the clothes line, another mother gave me lots of girls' clothes, and i did a red and pink wash, to make sure none of the rest of our clothes get died pink!



my friend's lovely scarf, i admired it greatly,

as she only just got it in her town, and she said the shop had loads more, she left it for me! what a nice gesture, now i have a souvenier of their visit!