Dance

I went with this little one to a new dance studio last night.

She's been dancing for two terms now at Funky Kids and she's loved it but she asked very seriously the other month to start taking ballet classes.
So I had to look up a different studio.

This one is an old studio that's been in town for years and years and so far it looks promising.

I enrolled her in a beginner's class with the hope to let her take ballet this fall. Or any other class that she would like to try.
With a bit of coaching maybe Isabel will want to join in a class as well.

Scrapbooking made easy

I've never been good at photo albums. Even worse now that we only take digital pictures and stick them all on a file server - not many pictures actually make it onto paper - even fewer into an album.

I tried taking up scrapbooking a while back but it ended up stuck in a drawer.

So when I read about Project Life and saw the pretty scrap booking like albums made with such little effort I thought I'd give it a try.



I place a pre-order for the new Heather Bailey Project Life kit in September when it was launched but it only arrived in the mail last week.
I have cannibalised our photo albums for pictures and  made a few pages. I have 18 months (2006-2007) that I need to make copies from as well as a few years (2008-2012) that I need to make a selection from and order copies.

I was so hooked I even ordered a second kit to try and make a 2013 album from, with a bit more notes and journalling. The second kit was in stock so I hope it will arrive soon and I won't have to wait 4 months for this as well.

Ouchie

I was home alone with two 5 year-olds and was about to start making lunch for us. Rickard and Isabel were on their way home after swimming and Rickard had asked for pasta and bacon and onions.

I decided to fancy it up with some sliced carrots. So I took out the mandolin and started slicing. I have nicked my thumb on it on several occasions and I know it's crazy sharp so I was paying attention. No, I really was!

Then Isabel came home and I turned to ask her how swimming was and got to the end of a carrot and slipped and sliced off a dime sized piece of my right fore finger knuckle.



I had just finished pinning a bunch of sewing and I had some grading left to do on Isabel's cargo trousers so losing the function of my right fore finger was kind of awkward and to tell the truth a bit unnecessary.

The mandolin is so sharp it made a clean cut and it actually doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I also have more flexibility in the finger than I thought I would so it's really not so bad.

The biggest issue is that my bandage gets stuck in the wound so it starts to bleed every time I change the dressing. It's also really hard to keep up with personal hygiene.  (No worries, I said it's hard - not impossible.) Yesterday I had to clamp my right hand on the shower curtain rod to prevent myself from putting it in the water.

Let me tell you, washing my hair with just my left hand was not easy.

Fizzle and pop

Well, if January had been slow and mellow it ended with a bang .. or maybe just a slow fizzle.

When both girls were dressed and in the car on Wednesday morning, I locked up and we drove off to drop Isabel off at school.
I though the car felt weird and thought I had left the parking brake on, but after a quick stop to pull and release it the car still felt weird to drive.




Yeah - I was driving on a flat tyre. So I had to stick the car in reverse and back up to our drive again (we hadn't gotten very far).
Isabel was sent off to school on foot - it's really not that far I only drop her off because it's sort of on my way to daycare.

Sofia and I went inside and I called Mum. Woke Mum in fact. But she kindly agreed to brave rush hour traffic to town to come pick us up and drop Sofia off at daycare and me at work. (Rickard was on a business trip up North and was due home in the afternoon. He also had a big presentation so I didn't want to distract him with our troubles, especially since there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.)

Sofia had a sandwich and some soured milk because she would end up missing breakfast at daycare, and the coffee I had made was still warm so I got to have a second cup while we waited.

I ended up only 30 minutes late. Which considering the morning was pretty good.

Short on blogging

We had a slow and mellow January with not a lot of blogging going on.

There has been some cooking, some sewing and a lot of lounging in front of the television.

Our girls have discovered The Lord of the Rings movies and they don't want to watch anything else these days.
Well - with the exception of the Harry Potter movies.

Some scenes are a bit icky and gruesome but they are pretty good about closing their eyes on their own. We do tell them not to look when Saruman falls from his tower onto that spiky wheel in the third movie.
But on the whole they enjoy the movies and it's fun to have that together. (Both Rickard and I love them and have watched them multiple times.)

I have sewn cargo trousers for Sofia and two blouses and currently I'm working on grading the cargo trousers for Isabel. She's grown so much none of the Oliver + S patterns fit her any longer.
This is the last time I grade one of them for her. I think it's just easier to buy patterns closer to her size to begin with.
I should have a look at my Ottobre magazines. I hope I can find something that will fit her there.

February is coming up and we have a few birthdays to celebrate, among them my own. First up is my Mum though in a fortnight.