Rest assured, Miss L is still a New Yorker

Miss L relaxing at Auntie D's house

One adjustment that we have had to make here in San Francisco is to slow down the pace and not be in a hurry. It's hard at times. I've noticed my foot tapping on the ground impatiently waiting for people to respond a little faster, move out of the elevator to the supermarket a little faster, and just stop dawdling. I guess Miss L has been feeling the same way.

Last week Mister T and I took Miss L out to dinner to our favorite Thai restaurant in Noe Valley. Miss L enjoyed the appetizer of veggie egg rolls and was munching on some crispy wafers in a spicy Thai dipping sauce. Mister T and I were having a nice conversation as Miss L kept eating. Soon enough though the appetizers were finished and we were waiting for our curry and pad thai dishes. Miss L started to get shifty in her high chair.

Then she turned her body toward the kitchen, craned her neck and screamed,

"WE'RE READDDYY!!!!"

It still brings a smile to my face to tell it. I'm so proud of my little New Yorker. When Miss L wants her food, she wants her food.

Manhattan Beaches

With the full month of rain seemingly behind us (finally), I've been meaning to give a quick shout out about New York's newest downtown beaches. Water Taxi Beach's newest outpost are in our very own South Street Seaport and Governor's Island. With their own sand (imported from where?) and faux palm trees, you'll almost feel it's the real thing. There is also a mini put put course for when the little tots are ready. The beach experience can become much more vivid should you choose to induge in a frozen cocktail, beer, or rum punch. We took Master L there a few weeks ago and he truly had a blast. Between digging in the sand and running under the dance floor/gaming area(?), he had plenty to do. Wait, did I mention the rum punch? What more is there to say. Oh, there are also some tasty treats including a raw bar, fish tacos and various other fried selections. The original location on Long Island City also boasted soy dogs, but I am not sure about our downtown spots. That's all dear Mamas. I am off to the beach.

Another finished object

I'm exhausted here so just a quick post to say that I actually finished something! Hurrah. This is my lovely new blanket, Sweet Lorraine Lace Throw (for those on Ravelry). I'm quite "hooked" on crochet at the moment and the speed that you can finish something spurs you on. It looks like a berry red in this picture but it's more of a deep blood red.

When I showed Mr M his comment was "It's not bright enough. I thought we were decorating this house with bright colours?". Ummm since when is red not bright? It's going to be part of a stack of blankets and cushions I plan to knit/crochet/sew and have in the hole that was once the fireplace until the owner unsympathetically covered it during renovation.

Now I'm going to sit on the sofa with my legs up and try not to fall asleep while knitting/crocheting something else. Just not sure what to start now. I'm not doing any baby things until I know what I'm having. So it's just knitting for the home and me!

Greetings from San Francisco

I hope you all will forgive me for my recent hiatus from blogging! My poor excuse is our cross-country move and getting settled in our new home, which takes much longer with an energetic toddler. However, I can happily say that there isn't a box left in the place and everything has found its place and is organized, down to my collection of books by subject matter.

This picture is the view from our new home. It is a delight to sit at our dining table and take in the surroundings of the Marin Headlands and Golden Gate Bridge. And the view is always changing. Here is the same view with a thick blanket of fog. Miss L can now imitate the sound of the fog horn!

We have had a nice transition back to California. Miss L is having fun playing in the neighborhood parks, going to the pool at the JCC which is only a few blocks away, and visiting her grandparents on the coast. She has adjusted quite well, even with her first molar coming in during our first two nights here.

Mister T and I are having fun exploring what feels like a new city since it has been over seven years since we last lived here. We are enjoying the fresh fruits and vegetables from the Ferry Building and seeing old friends. I've been able to take a few day trips with Miss L to visit extended family throughout Northern California. Yes, I am driving our car on a regular basis! It took about a week before I would back the car out of the garage. Mister T said I couldn't keep calling him to come down and park it for me.

While the transition has gone very well, I do miss my mama friends terribly. At the oddest times during the day I will have a deep yearning to go for a walk up the Hudson to Rockefeller Park or take a stroll to the Seaport to pick up summer CSA veggies, and that is when it really hits me just how far away I am. I miss seeing my friends throughout the week and feeling that close bond of knowing everything about their lives in that moment. It is during the week that it feels the loneliest. I know it will take time to make friends here, but I must say that my friends in New York cannot be replaced. So there have been a few tears along the way.

On a lighter note, I am the only one here with a Stokke stroller. I am in the land of the BOBs. I am often stopped on the street to explain my strange, high-tech stroller. It is really odd not to see Stokkes and Bugaboos pass me by on the sidewalk. I also tried to have a bagel last week and almost couldn't swallow it. There really must be something special in that New York City tap water to make such delicious bagels and pizza.

Surprise in Spain

Source: Baby Surrey

I met Suzette and her daughter Honey recently at a mothers group in my area. We then met up again recently with another mother for a playdate in the park. Our kiddies are all around the same age so it was nice for them to play - and yes, nice for the mums to chat!

As mums do we got to talking about our births. Suzette them told us about her horrific experience with Honey. She had 12 weeks to go and thought it was fine to go to Spain to visit her family. Unfortunately her waters broke while she was there and needless to say she had a terrible experience. This is an interview that appeared in Baby Surrey*. It's well worth the read but be prepared - this story is a tearjerker. Especially how wonderful her husband is. Thankfully Honey is now a perfect little 18 month old toddler.

I just hope that my baby 2 doesn't decide to come early. As much as I'd love him/her out from a discomfort perspective, my little baby is much better off cooking for 10 moreweeks.

*I couldn't find a link to the article on their website but you should be able to click on the images above and they'll be large enough to read.

Thank you mamas!

At my send off in February I was so surprised at the generosity of my wonderful mama friends - I received a rather large gift voucher to a yarn store in London! It's taken me a while to actually get to the store All the fun of the Fair (ATFOTF) but yesterday it was right near my dentist so I had to pop in.

I have to confess that yarn stores in the UK are nothing like the US. I'm really disappointed in general. Not at ATFOTF mind you - the lady who runs it is just lovely, they have a smallish range but make up for it with heart. I was just so spoilt with yarn.com, The Point (RIP) and all the other yarn stores I could click and shop or visit frequently.

It saddens me that I have all these ideas for projects and I can't knit/crochet them because I just can't get the yarns here. What am I going to do? I'll probably end up ordering from the US and paying the extraordinary shipping and duties.

However, I did see some beautiful yarns at ATFOTF and just need to plan some projects around the yarn rather than the other way around. I didn't walk away empty handed though. I saw this lovely Baby Doll Dress while searching for a crochet blanket/throw type pattern on Sunday night and thought it will be a great post baby dress - the top should be stretchy enough to pull down for feeds (or I'll put some buttons in it) and it's nice and forgiving around the tummy area for the few months it takes to get my belly down. I'll just get a nice slip to wear under it.

Although I have so many grey things and it makes me look like a dishrag, it's such an easy colour to accessorise and hopefully won't show up the dirt like a lighter colour - or puke for that matter. It will look fabulous with one of my many red pairs of shoes and a great scarf. I might even thread a red ribbon through the bodice. We'll see.

I started it today and am hoping that it's a quick crochet. I'll certainly show you the finished result but I probably won't be able to model it personally for a while - I'm HUGE!

Thanks again mamas and you really are missed...

A finished project - finally!

Moving, sorting, working and just living have taken up so much time that I've had very little time to do any knitting/crocheting recently. Luckily though having grown up with me crafting, Master R doesn't mind playing while I sit on the sofa watching and working away with my hook or needles. It's during this time that I get the most work done on my projects.

I actually bought this yarn about a year ago when a friend told us she was having a girl. But when I started work on this crocheted blanket I decided there was far to much work involved to give it away and I'd keep it for my girl - if I have one!

I'm so pleased with the result. I didn't do the vertical embroided stripes, just the red horizontal ones mainly because I didn't like the way it looks where you secure the threads to the edge. It looks too messy for my liking. It also looked exactly the same as a Burberry plaid and that's way to chav (British word of the month). All I need now is a baby girl. If not the next person to have a girl can have it since the way I'm feeling right now, there will only be two kiddies in our family.

I've been DIYing too!

You can tell that Mama H and I have recently moved with our DIY projects. When we moved into this house the owner asked if we'd mind keeping the table as it didn't fit out any of the doors and would have to be cut up if we didn't want it. Although I love our dining table (that Mr M painstakingly sanded back and stained) I was happy to adopt this beautiful solid timber table. And it meant that ours didn't get damaged by little kiddies. This table was in the house when the current owner moved in 15 years ago so who knows how old it is.

The issue we had though is that our dining table has matching bench seats. We needed to find chairs. Being a rental I don't want to spend a lot of money either. Inspired by my mother in law's love of all things colour, a Peter Jensen scarf I own and the purple splashbacks I've grown to love it struck me that we had to have different coloured chairs.

I thought a simple trip to Ikea would solve this problem but they only had some horrible acrylic chairs in softer colours and I wanted bright. But I saw these chairs that come in red, white and black and decided that Mr M, being the wonderful handyman that he is, could paint them. However Mr M thought the chairs were too hard for his precious behind so I convinced him that I could make cushions for them. So we bought 6 white chairs, 3 different patterned bright fabrics for the covers and 6 cushions (at £2.95 each!!! How do they do that?).

We took my rainbow scarf into the local hardware store and they customised the high gloss paint to match. It took 6 weeks for Mr M to paint them because he could only do it on the weekends and only 2 at a time with at least 24 hours drying time between coats. Plus there was trial and error with just how many coats they needed. In the end he really did perfect it and after 3 coats they look incredible.

My job was to create the bright, vibrant, random cushion covers. My machines had been in storage here in London for over 2 years so they really needed a service before I could use them. Once I got them back I had to develop a pattern and create the cushions. After working on one cushion and being delighted with the result I made the remaining 5 finishing each with vintage buttons I'd bought off ebay a while ago.

Saturday morning we both finished the chairs just in time for the unveiling to friends over for a BBQ. They were really impressed and couldn't believe 1) we thought of the idea, 2) they were painted so well, 3) the cushions were so great and 4) we were brave enough to have all those colours together! We're very proud of ourselves and wonder what we're going to do with these chairs when eventually we move out and have our own walnut stain table with matching bench seats again.

DIY how to brighten an all-white dresser

I decided that Miss L's all-white dresser needed more color so I decided to replace the knobs. Mister T and I went to Restoration Hardware first and bought glass knobs that were tinted lavender, but they didn't fit. Then we decided to try Gracious Home. I found these painted knobs in lavender and green that would match Miss L's room just perfectly. When I inquired about them I was told they were $30 each! A woman on the UWS paints them in her spare time (by day she is an attorney).

Mister T told me I should just paint the original knobs myself. I liked the idea and hoped that I could pull it off. I bought Benjamin Moore paint samplers and a small paint brush. Here is the finished product.

Instead of paying $30 for each knob, I ended up spending about $3 for each! And I had fun painting them!