Wednesday 17 December 2008

New author to discover

It may look now as if people educated to use our newest technologies efficiently are the world's elite, but in the long run I believe that people educated to have, as well, that point of view that used to be described as humanistic - the long-term, over-all, contemplative point of view - will turn out to be more influential. Simply because they understand more of what is going on in the world...
To my mind the whole push and thrust and development of the world is towards the more complex, the flexible, the open-minded, the ability to entertain many ideas, sometimes contradictory ones, in one's mind at the same time.
Doris Lessing Prisons we choose to live inside.

--
I finished reading this tiny book by Doris Lessing and looking forward to reading her other works. She sounds like fascinating wise woman.

Saturday 6 December 2008

Discovering the world: the joy of having a backyard

Specialy when we keep on waking up before 5am
Early in the morning
Banksia seed pod
P.S. If anyone wants a postcard from Melbourne send me email with your postal address to fioleta at gmail dot com

Friday 5 December 2008

In Melbourne

I haven't been back to Australia for almost four years. It is incredible how much can be forgotten in the few years and even more incredible how many memories can be triggered by simply opening a car window and breathing in the fresh evening MEBLBOURNE air.

Saturday 29 November 2008

Fabrics

Craft Central is going to have another Fabric & Trimming Sale on the 4th and 5th of December. I can't find any info on their website at the moment, but the flier I got via their mailing list says:

Amazing two day sale of high quality FABRICS, LACES, TRIMMINGS, LEATHERS, BEADS & BUTTONS: Gorgeous silks and wools £3-£5 metre, pure cotton from £1 metre, designer lace fabric from £4 metre, stunning vintage flowers, new & vintage beads and lots, lots more!
Thursday 4th - Friday 5th December 11am - 6.30pm
Showcase, Craft Central, 33 - 35 St. Johns Square, EC1M 4DS

They also going to have Jewellery Sample Sale at the same time. Of course I'm already going to be in Australia and won't be able to go myself. Last time I got two pieces of fabric for the projects I wanted to make - I probably would've gotten more if I had time to think, but over-tired grumpy toddler wasn't conductive to thinking or buying. And I already used one to make a cape for the Little Girl. She is too young for proper dress-up role-playing, but I couldn't resist as the material was exactly the right colour I always imagined a perfect cape to be.
Emerald Cape
I used this hooded cape pattern. Despite finishing it a week ago I keep on forgetting to take a better photo of it.

Thursday 20 November 2008

Saturday 15 November 2008

In New York

We went to the Central Park Zoo three times and I lost count of how many times we walked past it to listen to and look at the Delacorte Clock, which supposed to chime on the hour and half an hour, but actually does so at 5 minutes past an hour and at 35 minutes.
Delacorte Clock
The Little Girl loved feeding alpacas, who successfully kicked the sheep away from the feeding hands; thought polar bears were hilarious (don't ask me why, she just kept on laughing every time she saw them), was totally fascinated by frogs; but most of all she enjoyed this activity:
Running through
Together, we also went to the American Museum of Natural History; Museum of Modern Art, which is too big to explore with a toddler and I only managed the top two floors where I was surprised to be able to recognizer most of the painters work by their style (maybe I know more about art than I think); American Folk Art Museum, which is trying to represent too many varied themes/works in a tiny space.

With Papa, who only got one day off, we went to the New York Historical Society, which I thought was perfect size and had good mixture of everyday objects, historical information and art. We also showed him a wonderful Heckscher playground at Central Park.
The Slide
Actually Cat and I spent a lot of time exploring the Park and I'm totally in love with it and the bright fall colours, which shows in the photos from New York.

Sunday 9 November 2008

Pirozhki in English

If anyone wanted to trying making Pirozhki, Rachael now has the English translation of the recipe on her blog.

Friday 7 November 2008

Back from New York

Katya and I came back from New York yesterday. The poor thing didn't handle the flight very well this time. I'm always impressed by people, who travel extensively with small children. However, I'm starting to accept that traveling far away with a toddler isn't for me. I would rather find interesting things to do close to home while keeping our routine intact, avoiding having to search for the food she would eat and having to discover the new tricks to get her to sleep while she is overexcited about new surroundings.

I'll post about all the things we enjoyed in New York once my husband comes back with my camera. He had to stay behind for few more days and I left my camera with him as I wanted to have as few items of luggage as possible and it wouldn't fit into my backpack. (Should I buy a bigger backpack, smaller camera case or both?).

Today the fire alarm system went off in our building during Katya's nap. There wasn't any smoke, but I didn't want to take a chance and decided to get us outside. Despite the loud noise right next to her bedroom, she was still sleeping, but talking in her sleep saying "Папа там" (papa is there), which just proves how much we miss him. The fire alarm was due to the system malfunctioning, but it took fire brigade almost an hour to get it to behave again.

Tuesday 28 October 2008

Comfortable challenges

A challenge is something that will stretch your powers, with the likelihood of confirming them; you want to take on a challenge because you have confidence enough that you can succeed. A threat is a task that seems beyond your powers to accomplish or cope with.
John Holt How Children Learn

--
Recently I stopped by a Julie's Pictures blog, who sets herself yearly challenges. Her first one was to walk for at least one mile from home everyday and record what she saw. Her friend, Fiona, just started a challenge to stitch a small picture everyday – they are so simple, yet interesting and visually pleasing.

I admire and respect their dedication, but recently I came to realise that for now I’m unable to commit myself to one year long daily challenges. I set myself simpler goals, like trying to make Russian pirozhki following these two Russian recipes: with apples and meat.
Pirozhki
Recently I also joined Everyday Matters group, which has weekly drawing challenges. There is a list of 193 previous ones and so I’m trying to complete one old one alongside each new one. Here is the watercolour painting of autumn leaves for the challenge number 34.
The autumn leaves (watercolour)

Saturday 25 October 2008

Simple drawstring bag

Collage: The Guide
Maybe one day I'll make a prettier reversible patchwork one

Wednesday 22 October 2008

The best guides

Parenting is a process of mutual growth, in which parents and children grow in different levels through their interactions and through the elements they bring into one another’s lives.
Rahima Baldwin Dancy You are Your Child’s First Teacher
--
Collage: The Guide
Few months ago I pulled out my husbands discarded photos and made a collage from one of them. While making it I contemplated the important influence other people have on our lives and our personal development. And how the best teachers and guides are often the ones, whose intention isn’t to teach us or to lead us down a certain path. Because their intentions are far removed from directing us, we are able to freely journey next to them; to choose the lessons we accept, reserve for later or reject; to grow at the pace comfortable to us.

My dear daughter, thank you for changing my life.

Tuesday 21 October 2008

Missing Posts

I keep on having problems with Bloglines lately, which often result in me missing few posts on various blogs. So I'm trying to migrate my list of blogs to Google Reader. Hopefully it will act a bit better (?)

Monday 20 October 2008

to New York

My dear husband is going to New York for work (28 Oct - 5 Nov) and we are going with him. At first I was just glad that we’ll have a chance to spend some time together, though he may have to work on weekend, and I won’t have to do any housework for a week. I’ve been to New York before, but I mostly remember feeling constantly cold, as it was windy and wet and I didn’t have appropriate clothes. So we spent past weekend looking for some warmer clothes and shoes for our trip.

And now that I’m not worried about being cold and after looking at all the wonderful places we can explore I feel really excited: Museum of Arts & Design, Central Park Zoo, the Met, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum. And we’ll be in US for Halloween (isn’t it the coolest holiday?), so maybe we’ll go to the Halloween Celebration at the American Museum of Natural History. Looking at their website I’m starting to suspect that we can just spend the whole week there and I know that the Little Girl will enjoy looking at the butterflies more than paintings, so I may have to narrow down the things I want to see. Anyone has any advice on what shouldn’t be missed? Any suggestions for child friendly restaurants and places we should try? Actually every time I go to America I end up overdosing on sugar or salt (or both), because I can’t resist trying things I heard about, like Cheerios, Wendy’s, and all sorts of donuts and bagels; so maybe I should be asking for healthy food suggestions.

Since it’s gloomy and cold outside here as well, we went to our Natural History Museum. I think she was highly impressed by the giant animatronic model of T. Rex, but everything else wasn't very interesting. New York museum sounds like more fun, since it has some live exhibits.
Inside Natural History Museum, London
(She just wouldn't stay still, so this is the least blurry photo I have)

Saturday 18 October 2008

Procrastionation & masking fluid

I’m still procrastinating on starting any new craft projects, but I got few more supplies today and there are many ideas slowly brewing inside my head and beginning to feel closer to their realisation.
Tulips at Dask
In meantime my friend brought me some tulips, so I enjoyed sketching them.
Tulips - pen sketch
Tried using the masking fluid for the first time – interesting - now that I have a better understanding of how it works I really want to try again, maybe I’ll sketch a cityscape.
Tulips - watercolour sketch

Friday 17 October 2008

Few more discoveries in London

Turbine Hall at TATE Modern
Today, taking the advantage of the warm and sunny weather, I took us to TATE Modern to look at the installation/sculptures in the Turbine Hall. The experience was super enjoyable, because we could touch them. I don't think it is possible to fully understand and fall in love with most sculptures until one can touch them and trace their outlines not only with the eyesight, but with the hands. I didn’t end up taking any pictures of the actual installation and TATE doesn’t seem to have any info about it on their website. Strange.

Next we headed across the bridge to have tea with our hardworking and rarely seen breadwinner and to visit the real goal of the expedition – Fabric & Trimming sale at the Craft Central. I got some fabric and probably would’ve bought even more if I had some time to think about all the wonderful things I can make, but the Little Girl was getting tired and we headed to the King’s Cross/St Pancras station. It wasn’t the closest one, but they have lifts and I wanted to avoid having to carry the pram with not so light child down the stairs.
St Pancras station
It was also interesting to see bits of the area that I don’t know very well. On the way to the station I noticed Exmouth Market and will add it to my list of potential London spots to visit.
Ironically the lift at home wasn’t working, so we had to walk up the stairs anyway.

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Enjoying London

Last two weeks our Gymboree class was extremely crowded; today I didn’t feel up-to spending my morning in the small room packed full with loud, energetic kids and since we’ve been listening to the first 5-10 minutes of the Paddington Bear narrated by Stephen Fry I took Cat to the Paddington station instead to look at the stature of Paddington Bear, .

Cat loves trains at the moment and was highly impressed with the big loudly humming ones there. Afterwards we walked to the Kensington Gardens to look at the birds and the fountains, chase the squirrels and observe the slow fall of leaves. And we got to see few tractors pulling the wagons with collected leaves. Cat loves them almost as much as trains and even started saying tractor/трактор few days ago.

I’m reading John Holt’s How Children Learn and am surprised by how much I’m learning from this book as a parent. For example instead of seeing dangers everywhere, I am able to relax more and trust Catherine to know her own limits. Today instead of grabbing her to prevent the potential fall into the fountain, I peacefully watched as she first sat on the edge and later leaned in to take a closer look at the water. Free from worrying thoughts I was able to see perfectly well that she wasn’t in any danger. Being a relaxed parent is more fun than constantly worrying one - I'm glad we stopped watching news in the morning as they constantly have conflicting segments on dangers surrounding kids, negative effects of overprotection and various debates on parents failing to do the right thing, whatever it deemed to be on that day.

Monday 13 October 2008

Lime green

For the last two weeks the theme for the A Year of Color: Inside & Out was lime green. I didn't think we had any inside our flat until I started looking around

But I totally forgot to take one outside.

Happythings changed the rules slightly allowing to post inside and outside photos both weeks, so for the next tow weeks I'll be looking for Yellow.

Sunday 12 October 2008

The Knitting & Stitching show

Yesterday I went to the Knitting and Stitching show and came back home with a very small textile item by Jean Littlejohn.

After seeing her and Jan Beaney in action I understand better why they are so successful: they are so full of energy, humour, enthusiasm and wisdom; they are able to chat to people easily and make their audience laugh and feel inspired by sharing their stories. I wish I could afford to buy some of their big pieces. Their work wasn’t the only one I wanted to take back home with me. I was very impressed by the showcase of graduates work. And my excitement reached its peak when I saw something very familiar and on closer examination confirmed that it was work of Jeanne Beck, who’s creative journey I was following for few months via her blog.

Trying to see all the exhibits and the supply stalls in one day was a bit too much. I bought some fabric and took few business cards, so I can check out their online stores in a relaxed fashion at home instead of trying to make purchasing decisions while being tired and overwhelmed. I also now have a list of other fairs and exhibitions I want to visit. Maybe I’ll make it to Origin: The London Craft Fair next weekend.

Saturday 11 October 2008

Sixth photo challange

I saw the challenge to post the sixth picture in the sixth folder in your photo files on Annie's blog and since Cat is still asleep at 7:30 I thought I'll try it.


I took this photo in Kiev, Ukraine. There were so many old decrepit buildings, falling apart, but yet still so beautiful. I loved this little scene: the veiled building, the half asleep seller in his posture reflecting something of the building.

Friday 10 October 2008

Counting

Despite me counting the stairs in Russian every time we walk down from the third floor and back up, Cat recently started saying “one, two, three” while climbing onto her highchair and before running down a hill. She actually “counts” in Russian as well, but totally out of order with most numbers being три (three) or шесть (six).

And at the moment she is in her bed doing her own rendition of “Row, row, row your boat” instead of sleeping despite looking exhausted for hours.

Wednesday 8 October 2008

Strange afternoon


What a funny afternoon we had yesterday. It started very normally with Cat asleep and me embroidering the eyes for the latest sewing project. I was listening to the sound of rain and eventually got the feeling that the rain was inside our building. Maybe the neighbours are having a shower, thought I. They do have showers at odd times, yet it didn’t really sound like one. Eventually Cat woke up, but wanted to stay in her cot to look through some of her favourite books, so we both read for a bit. And then on moving to the living room we discovered water dripping of the wall around the balcony door. It didn’t look like the water was coming from the outside, but from the flat above. So I went outside our flat to investigate and found out that the downpour was much worse in the communal corridor. At this point the fire brigade arrived and turned off the electricity and the water.

Trying to act normal, but unable to go outside for the worry of coming back to drowned furniture, we played inside periodically empting containers of collected water. Since electricity was off I couldn’t cook us dinner (our stove is electric), so we nibbled on fruit, crackers and had some breakfast serial with yogurt. After it got dark I lighted the candles and recited as many nursery rhymes and tales as I could remember. I wonder what my little girl thought about all this, it must have been pretty strange to her – sitting in the dark, listening to my voice and the sound of the dripping water.

We saw the fire-engine leave earlier, and by about 7 I started thinking of going to bed, since no one had any idea if the electricity will be turned back on. And of course as that thought came into my mind I heard the knocking. Some official looking guy brought electrician to check out the damage. After checking the leakage I was told that the electricity will be back on in under an hour – it actually took them less than 10 minutes. We didn’t get the water back on until around 10 pm at the same time as Clive arrived back home from the office. By chatting to the workers, who just fixed the water flow, he found out that a cold water pipe burst upstairs on the sixth floor, which is taken up entirely by a penthouse apartment and since no one was home it flooded the whole apartment until water found a way out and gushed down flooding the fifth floor and eventually sipping down to the fourth and our third one. The water damage was so bad upstairs that people on the fifth floor moved out and last night we were the highest floor to have electricity. We weren’t badly affected, ending up only with the small bit of soggy carpet and some soggy toys. Pretty lucky, I wasn’t looking forward to functioning with candlelight and no running water. Today in the morning I found out that our neighbour’s flat on the other side of the building got much more water damage and was deemed too unsafe to have electricity.

To get some normality back into my life, after putting Cat to bed, I finished the Green Kitty Pillow. The pattern is free from Amy Butler website.

Monday 6 October 2008

Flashbacks to my education

I mentioned previously that I worry about my parenting style, but at the same time I agree with Rahima Baldwin Dancy:

Our task is to do our best, and trust in the best. We need to trust our children to be resilient, to be able to heal, to be terrific people despite our flawed efforts and our most regretted actions. (from You are Your Child’s First Teacher)

I’m glad that before having a child of my own I accepted that my own parents did their best based on their knowledge, their resources and their emotional/psychological fit with me. I feel that my acceptance of their parenting style gives me more confidence in my own and allows me to be gentle with myself, to forgive my own mistakes faster. I know I’ll make many mistakes, but all parents do.

I started reading R. B. Dancy’s book as part of my research into various educational streams/theories: Montessori, Waldorf, homeschooling, unschooling, autonomous education. I just finished reading John Holt’s How Children Fail. Here is excerpt from his own foreword to it:

But there is a more important sense in which almost all children fail: Except for a handful, who may or may not be good students, they fail to develop more than a tiny part of the tremendous capacity for learning, understanding, and creating with which they were born and of which they made full use during the first two or three years of their lives.
Why do they fail?
They fail because they are afraid, bored, and confused.

His book is so easy to read and I had no trouble agreeing with him throughout the book, because, despite being a good student, I disliked school and as result skipped some of it. Yep, I was a truant. According to my mum I even disliked kindergarten.

At school I was often bored, because the subject matter was irrelevant to me, too easy or plain boring. I still remember listening to my uncle’s stories about Catherine the Great when I was 10 or 12 and being surprised to discover that history can be interesting, that it involves real complex people, that it isn’t all about poor underprivileged people rebelling against the rich.

The whole life in Soviet Russia was full of fear and confusion to me. There were so many unwritten rules, that no one explained to me, but plenty of people were eager to tell one off for breaking them. I think my capacity for learning and creating was getting squashed long before I started school. But specifically at school, I was afraid of being presented as model example to the other students (it had great side-effect of cutting me off from the rest) and being ridiculed for the wrong answers. Being in the middle of the pack was the safest option. I still remember being asked to tell what the classic composer was trying to portray in a short musical piece and being laughed at by the teacher for saying that I heard a train speeding away and the sound of the train horn. The correct answer was the hunters on horses chasing prey and blowing a hunting horn. Trust me when I say that hunters and galloping horses weren’t part of my childhood experience in small Soviet town. So the whole situation seems totally ridiculous to me now. Actually all of us dreaded music lessons, which mostly consisted of learning patriotic songs, because our teacher was sadistic bastard. I learned a lot of things at soviet school like how not to show initiative, not to ask questions, avoid responsibility, hide my thoughts and feelings, cheat, pretend to be dumber than I am, not to stand out.

Yet while reading a book I was also trying to think about studying in Australia and I realised that I can’t form any judgement on their schools as by the time I got there I just wanted to get good grades at school to get into university and at uni to pass to get a well paying job. Learning wasn’t one of my goals. There were some great teachers, some average ones and only one I truly disliked.

I hope my daughter will have better educational experience than I did. After I started working I made sure I enjoy my jobs most of the time and didn’t dread going to work every morning. I don’t see why a child should dread going to school where they spend so much of their time. To keep our options open we are trying to move to an area, which has a range of good public and private schools/kindergartens including Montessori & Waldorf.

On Saturday we actually went to the Waldorf kindergarten/school open day. How could I not like a place that is full of wood, balls of yarn, crayons, music, kindness and respect? I loved it and think I would enjoy chatting to the people, who work there, and creating my own things surrounded by its magic atmosphere. But I’m still not 100% convinced that it is perfect for my daughter, though she enjoyed playing with all their toys, was happy to be away from us and didn’t want to leave.

And since this is supposed to be a craft blog, here is a picture of the shoes I crocheted for her last week, since we were asked to bring slippers as outdoor shoes aren’t supposed to be worn inside the Waldorf school. Crochet pattern from DROPS Design - there are many other free crochet and knitting patterns on their website.

Sunday 5 October 2008

On a rainy day


I have few quotes to share with you this week; but despite the rain, the wind and the cold we went to the Kew Gardens today, had great time exploring mostly indoor parts of it and now I feel too exhausted to type all the thoughts I have relating to these quotes - so maybe tomorrow.

Russian orphans

A friend sent me a link to the “In a fairy-tale village, Russian orphans thrive” article. I hear from him so rarely that any email, even one that contains no personal information about him, feels like a little gift and I was very glad to read about someone trying to do something different to help a small number of Russian’s orphans. If you want to find out more about Kitezh visit their Russian website.

While we are on the topic of Russian orphans, Rachael posted very positive update on her Simple Wishes Project. The woman is amazing and is definitely one of my real life heroes.

Friday 3 October 2008

Reality check

I often worry about doing things correctly, what lessons I’m teaching my daughter unconsciously and if I can be a better parent. I’m faster at noticing the negatives than positives. I occasionally get into the complaining about everything mode. And then I’m violently pulled out of it by the reality check. This time it came in the form of a book – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The main character of the book is an orphan German girl and the action takes place in the small town in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. She has real Problems. In comparison whatever problems my family or I may have at the present moment are solvable with a bit of creative thinking; we don’t fear for our lives and have reasonable confidence in our child having comfortable and secure existence for the years to come; we don’t have to make any hard decisions; our morality isn’t tested on any big scale. Basically our lives are good, profoundly beautifully good, and I can see that easily if I stop for a second my fast chain of complaints and actually think about them.

Since I have no idea of how to write useful book reviews, I’ll just point you to the ones here. Hopefully they’ll give you a better idea of whether this book could be worth reading for you. Myself, I fall in love with the book from the first few pages and cried at the end of it, though I seem to be crying at books very easily nowadays.

Tuesday 30 September 2008

Visas & spider webs

Yesterday I received my new UK Visa - spousal one this time. The changes in visas are good representations of my life: from Working Holiday Maker to Highly Skilled Migrant to Spousal.

On Saturday I went out to photograph the leftovers of the fog, but ended up taking photos of spider webs instead.


1. Spiderweb low in the grass, 2. Behind the vase, 3. Caught leaf, 4. Detail of spiderweb

Saturday 27 September 2008

Multitasking


TATE Modern

Have you ever attempted to push a pram with one hand against the oncoming crowd, to keep an eye on your child to make sure she doesn’t fall off the bridge or get stepped onto and to take photos all at the same time? My multitasking abilities are improving daily. Luckily for me the Millennium Bridge has a small mesh section, though which one can see the shore beneath and while Cat was looking down in fascination I snapped one good photo to remind her about our Friday outing to get Papa from his work place.


Millennium Bridge & St Paul's Cathedral

Friday 26 September 2008

Reading & Listening

I went on the book reading binge, which means that I haven’t done much crafting and my brain turned into the muddled confusion of ideas. Once I’ll sort them out, I’ll try to write about some of the books I read in the last two weeks.

Actually looking at my short craft list of 8 items, most of them start with “figure out the materials required” or “buy the materials required”, so hopefully I’ll find time to go shopping on the weekend.

I do manage to draw almost every day – there are very few things that make me as happy as drawing. Fresh flowers come close.

I’m also knitting a baby blanket while listening to TED (highly recommend) and interviews with Sir Ken Robinson, but the blanket deserves its own blog post. I used to love listening to the radio as a child and glad to discoverer the availability of online podcasts that can be listened whenever one has time.

Tuesday 23 September 2008

Colour Inside and Out


I love colour, but until recently was afraid of it: I struggled to tell which colours worked well together; I would often wistfully walk past bright clothes; I would settle for safe blacks, whites, browns and neutrals. And then I started beading and taking photos and looking at the incredibly beautiful photos and creations of others.


I started to notice my yearning for having brighter colours in my surroundings and clothes, my desire to confidently use colour in my own work, my wish to understand the colour theory. I read, but more importantly I looked for colour lessons in other’s work and nature. And is there a better colour theory teacher than nature?


Eventually I joined A Year of Color group on Flickr, created and run by HappyThings. Last year, every week, she choose a combination of two colours, this year’s the theme is Colour Inside & Out. Having to photograph a certain colour each week really makes me pay attention to my surroundings and find colours in the most unexpected places. I didn’t think we have much red in our house, but I found some and finding red outside during autumn is too easy.


Since the new year of colour started just last week, you can also join and discover the colour in your life.

Monday 22 September 2008

Silver knot


I finished making another Chinese knot necklace, this one with the lampwork bead by Kathryn Ward.

Sunday 21 September 2008

Tapestry of water


With finest needles
finest beads
lawn and dew are making
a tapestry of water...
From Entries on Light by Mimi Khalvati

Saturday 20 September 2008

First machine sewing project

I bought a sewing machine. Actually, according to my Flickr photostream, it happened a month ago; but last weekend I finally started my first sewing (and second embroidery) project and finished it on Thursday.
Even while making this simple coin purse I learned a lot. I guess there is no substitute for learning by doing, but to prevent myself from making too many silly mistakes I will be grateful for any sewing book recommendations. I have two books titled Complete Sewing Course (one mine, one from the library), but the amount of the information in them is overwhelming. I would prefer something that teaches some basic skills in small chunks with lots of projects for each skill set. Our library recently upgraded their computer system and the side benefit was that now they link to the large number of other libraries and I can reserve books from any of them for free to be delivered to my local library. So lately I was able to find almost anything I wanted to read.

Thursday 18 September 2008

Discovering the world: wooden blocks


1. Short & tall, 2. Dinner time, 3. Nap time, 4. Someone isn't sleeping

After seeing Cat stack up cardboard boxes, I remembered the wooden blocks my parents bought at the beginning of the year and took them out for her to play with. She is using only round blocks to create tiny towers (you can see one on the main photo), but loves watching us make elaborate constructions and enjoys knocking them down.

P.S. She is past her sickness, though still has a horrible sounding cough.

Tuesday 16 September 2008

Back to posting

I am back to blogging, at least I think I am, though I’m starting to give up any idea of the regular posting. Cat was sick for last few days and slept really badly: waking up often at night and getting no more than 45 minutes of sleep in the afternoon. Any disturbance to my routine makes me feel lost and unable to find energy and time for writing down my thoughts, even though there is some free time left.

The oatmeal bread (recipe from Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course) worked out really well and I'm eager to make it again. I decided to improve my cooking skills and so borrowed Delia's book from the library intending to go through all the sections and recipes systematically. However looking at the contents I straight away realised that my plan will fail - there are SIX chapters on various baking and desert making and I couldn't resist trying these recipes first.

Today, after Cat woke up at 5:30, I made scones for breakfast. They came out lighter than I expected, but are delicious. There is slightly different scone recipe on Delia's website. There are plenty of other great recipes there and useful cooking tips.

Here is some miscellaneous info for you about me - I tried scones for the first time at 19!

Thursday 11 September 2008

Agrr...

I was actually planning to write a longish post today, but after spending about 3+ hours booking flights to Australia (online and eventually by calling the travel agent) all I want to do is relax (and bake some bread). The flights are booked (thanks to the second travel agent, who seemed to know what she is doing unlike the first one). Cat and I will be in Oz from the 3rd of December until 9th of January and Clive from 25th till 9th.

Monday 8 September 2008

New name

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
William Shakespeare. Romeo & Juliet


--
While creating a user picture for Julia, I finally tackled making a new header for myself and in the process changed the name of my blog. It was bothering me for awhile that I don't have Fioleta anywhere in it's name; and with the Cat growing and this blog becoming less about her and more about me the "Ordinary Miracles" name no longer felt right (though don't think that I don't consider myself a miracle - we are all miraculous). I reserve the option of changing the name again, but for now I'll call my blog "Fioleta's Journeys". And here is the small good bye to the old name (sent to me by Driftwood):

Friday 5 September 2008

Silk & wood

After all the fun of the long weekend Cat decided to sleep better at night and less during the day; and I'm still adjusting to the new routine and haven't done much crafting or writing or photo taking.

However I made another autumn present for myself - Chinese Button knot necklace with wooden beads.

Olive green is one of my favourite colours, so I couldn't resit getting some silk cord in that colour even though the shop had very little left and I wasn't sure if it will be long enough to make a necklace. On my return home I remembered about the wooden beads I had for at least a year and was very glad to finally use as I love the feel and look of wooden beads, but didn't want to have necklace made out of them only. I was very glad to find out that there is enough cord for it to just fit over my head. Very good and easy to follow instructions for making knots can be found in Chinese Knots for Beaded Jewellery book by Suzen Millodot )

I had to take the photo of the unfinished necklace while the sun was out (it was raining for 3 days and the forecast predicts more rain): I tightened the knots a bit more and still have to cut of and seal the ends using cigarette lighter flame (don't think we have one in the house).

Tuesday 2 September 2008

Welcome, Autumn.


The signs of autumn were around for a long time, but now the summer is officially over and I can accept the trueness of these signs. Autumn and spring are my favourite seasons, but it is hard not to feel slightly sad while putting away summer clothes that didn’t get much wear this year. However, I can now enjoy the crisp freshness of the morning autumn air, the sound of rain at night and the sight of fog in the mornings. Welcome, Autumn.

Sunday 31 August 2008

...
I wither and you break from me;
yet though you dance in living light,
I am the earth, I am the root,
I am the stem that fed the fruit,
the link that joins you to the night.
Judith Wright Woman to Child

Friday 29 August 2008

Life afer...

(random photo of something I like, which has nothing to do with this post)

I used to stare in disbelieve at my friends when they announced their desire to die at 50, 60 or 65, because they didn’t want to grow too old, too weak, too sick, too dependent on others, etc. I never saw the point of choosing a random age to define being old, as there are plenty examples of the active & fully alive people of that age and conversely the half-asleep people of the younger age. Today I stumbled on the blog of a woman, who moved to London from Paris at the age of 74, and on the whole seem to be enjoying her life. I find her example inspiring and am wishing to be in the good health & sound mind when I reach her age. (She also appears to have an even bigger book addiction than I do, which makes her extra likeable)

Thursday 28 August 2008

More bags


Last week two beautiful bags arrived from Rachael's etsy shop. I love them, specially the zebra one, which has an interesting history (I can't believe Rachael managed to part with it).

You still have few days left until 1st of September to enter her give-away and plenty of time to help her bring some Christmas cheer to the Russian orphans.

Wednesday 27 August 2008

Short trips during long weekend

We rented a car for the long weekend, but haven’t booked any accommodation. On Friday Cat developed a runny nose and I started to get worried that we’ll be stuck at home for the whole three days. Despite my worries we ended up having a fantastic weekend.

On Saturday I had a haircut and in the afternoon we took a walk along the Grand Union Canal in the small village just outside London, but I forgot to bring my camera.

On Sunday we went to Ruislip Lido, because I love tiny trains and wanted to check out the railway there for ages.


As well as catching the train we enjoyed running on the grass, playing at the playground and building sandcastle, though Cat was more interesting in throwing the sand around.

On Monday we traveled to the Wimpole Farm – a perfect place for a young family like us. Cat enjoyed looking at the animals.

I marvelled at the beautiful flowers

(though I wasn't the only one),

artistic scarecrows

and checked out the contemporary textile exhibition by CHAT.

Clive and I enjoyed looking through the rooms in the Wimpole Hall and all the clocks, specially the ones with pendulums, kept Cat mesmerized.

And we left with a pile of books from their second hand shop (and I have to point out that this time Clive got more books than I did).