I have been wanting to try making this bag for a while. It's another design from Handmade (which isn't nearly as saccharine as the website colours, thankfully). Because I am a little frightened of cutting up favourite fabrics, I did a trial run with some inherited fabrics that went well together. Trouble is, it turned out so well that I wish I'd used more "me" colours. Still it makes an excellent home for my current knitting.

Winter is on its way. At least, we hope it is. Nights are that little bit cooler, and the mornings hint very gently at chilly days to come. Time to do a little knitting. Joshua is the proud recipient of the first of a series of winter scarves. This pattern was designed by Lily, from block-a-day, and published here.
The wool, a cheap and nasty from Large Craft Chain Store, does not do justice to the pretty, and very simple to knit, basketweave pattern. Next time I will use a much less randomly coloured wool, to allow the stitches to show to their full advantage.

I finished knitting and cast off last night, cutting the tassels while watching The Duchess, a movie full of spectacular fabric and extraordinary wigs.

The morning photo session was closely supervised by this lovely old gentleman. He pretends he's a wild outdoor cat, but his aging bones just crave sunbeams. He's actually black, but his love of sunshine has bleached him red. When the sunlight disappears he's most definitely an indoors cat.

We have had visitors. This precious little girl and her family have been staying at our house while she got her new hearing aids. The first sign that they were working was when she noticed that the kids (out of sight) were in the back yard and rushed to look out at them. She spent some time pointing at all the things she could hear for the very first time. Birds chirping, people talking, her own name, it was all so amazing, and a real honour to watch.

It's Easter activity day again! Some of us have been looking forward to it all year. Others of us tolerate it, but really look forward to the cup of tea afterwards. We spent the morning with the younger half of the school divided into groups, which progressed around activity tables. I was in charge of making bunny rabbit cards. They trusted me with scissors and glue! Heh. I only had to sticky tape together a couple of mistakes.

The Easter Bonnet Parade is the highlight of the day. We have spent weeks thinking about our creations. The Year 6 and 7 children had a theme, "True Blue", to work with, while the younger ones could do what they wanted. Christopher opted for a green and gold Aussie colour scheme.

Samara created an entire garden scene, with little chicks, flowers and eggs. She and Joshua did their hats all by themselves, and I was very impressed with the results.

Joshua has secured his status as heart breaker as far as all the mothers are concerned. He blows me kisses constantly, during Easter Bonnet Parades, cross country races, swimming lessons, whatever. He's so darn cute!

The light was atrocious for photography, but I had to share. I made these pretty placemats for my new dining table. There was a bit of trial and error regarding the binding, and they do not stand up to close scrutiny, but they are nice for everyday use, and don't seem to mind the odd bit of dinner spilled on them. I am slowly working more pretty into our house. Darling Hubby resists any 'girlification' of his environment, but he's not the one who knows how to sew, so I get the last word ;)