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A little miracle

I have been so excited over the last two months and have found it very difficult to keep a huge secret
but now I can share.

We are absolutely delighted and over the moon to be able to announce that
Rebecca and Antoni are expecting their first baby in April
What a little miracle after everything she has been through

Now 13 weeks, and baby is about the size of a plum. The twelve week scan has passed with every thing OK
Baby was hiding and we only got a wave, but soooooo exciting
I sent them a special photo frame that says 1st scan, 2nd scan and I´m here, to keep the photo safe

We knew two months ago and straight away out came the needles
using yarn I had been storing up in readiness I clicked away knowing they were coming out in the next three weeks and I wanted to give her some goodies made with oceans of love.

So in those three weeks I made, two blankets, cardigan, hats, mittens, bootees, found some pink and blue wrapping paper and was ready, Rebecca came out first and I couldn´t wait and she was so pleased with every thing
Oohing and Arring over each piece.
Antoni was pleased too, but it´s different for the men isn´t it!

Since then I have been working on a larger, cot size blanket and a hooded towel in 100% cotton.

So I have been busy but just couldn´t say anything, we speak every day to catch up on news and any thoughts or niggles, which is very comforting being so far apart

I am careful to say lets find out about a topic because many years have passed since having my two and with modern technology at your finger tips and different medical opinons, some of it is old hat, although some is also just common sense. Also of course, Rebecca has some special medical needs, but she was given a cardiologist appointment within three weeks, with ultrasound and halter tests arranged, next is an obstetrics appointment, so they are on the ball

Rebecca has a couple of apps, detailing week by week what is happening with baby and also Mum which is quite informative for both of us. Not like me, it was just get on with it back then.

So now you know why the yarn delivery from Deramores was a little bit secret, couldn´t show all the lovely pastels and soft bamboo and cottons without giving the game away. Already used the cotton for the hooded towel robe, finished the large size blanket and now onto a smaller one idea for car seats or pram.

There is a fair amount of steam coming from them there needles lol


Posted by Chrissie at 5:07 PM 9 comments: 
A little baking

Got into a bit of a rut with meals so decided to make a bit of an effort
We are waiting for our supermarket delivery this afternoon so the fridge was rather low on goodies
but with a courgette, carrot, and a little cauliflower grated, mixed with a finely chopped 1/2 onion and some red pepper with an egg and seasoning, I made some veggie muffins, the only other ingredient I added was some grated semi cured goats cheese.
180 and 20 minutes later, these appeared served with some beans, a simple but filling lunch and Chris came back for seconds.
I also had some stale crusts left. I usually make breadcrumbs, but quite why I don´t know, a thought popped into my head of making bread pudding.
I haven´t made this for years, but as a kid, my Mum always served it with golden syrup or custard.
She also used to make bread and butter pudding, but I wasn´t so keen on that.
We are not really dessert people preferring a natural yogurt or fruit, but the spicy aromas wafting around prompted Chris to investigate which produced a huge smile and a ýummy It´s a good job I took a photo when I did as there isn´t that much left
someone kept popping back for more!

I thought the muffin mix was tasty and made some more but this time adding red cabbage very finely sliced. The idea being when you want just a little something to get you by whilst waiting for a meal this sort of coleslaw would work. Didn´t add the cheese or any dressing though, thought that was better added at the time.

Finished the green/silver necklace during cooking time, so now have 3 necklaces and 1 bracelet to add to the board

Need to do my spanish homework for this evening, so
hasta luego

Posted by Chrissie at 1:58 PM 10 comments: 
A bit of a yarn

I thought it was about time I put some new additions on my jewellry board that is up at Maria´s restaurant. I also wanted to make something a little different, I usually go for petite designs so after rummaging I was pleased to find some chunky beads and began threading.
Apart from jazzing the board up a bit, my main thinking was more choice for perhaps Christmas presents. It´s been about 27C so it was nice to sit in the courtyard just beading.
Perhaps my biggest problem is trying to work out what to charge
Always a difficult one no matter what you are crafting A couple of weeks ago I placed an order for yarn with Deramores
Their postage charges are usually 4.95 no matter how much you order and usually take about a week to arrive.
Having made my selections I found they were offering free postage to Europe on orders over 25.00, and as I had umm spent a little!! bit more than that, I qualified.
Then I spotted a 15% off code, even better
They are also doing a points system that you are able to redeem on your next order or save it up
I was also able to collect more points by just liking them on Facebook  etc, so discounts and now I have over 5.00 saved in points.
Win, win The parcel was quite large! It took a week as expected and now I just need more time in the day to complete some of the intended projects.
I´m sure we can all identify with that lol


Posted by Chrissie at 2:17 PM 7 comments: 

This summer with it being so hot, has really stopped alot of things happening, including finding the mojo for crafting, so wanting something easy but satisfying to do, I found my inspiration here

Jo´s post was all about what was on her needles, including knitting beanies for the homeless.
What a fantastic idea, I had some yarn I was given but didn´t know what I would use it for, so tad dar moment
So Jo I hope you don´t mind that I nicked your idea and thank you for your inspiration
I have made these through the summer and have given them to Rebecca to take back to Reading as there is a homeless shelter there. I basically used just two patterns using straight needles
I do hope they will be of use to them.
Moved on to some different projects now,
but I can´t show them yet!

Posted by Chrissie at 1:11 PM 8 comments: 
More fish in the sea

After sharing our exploits of the beaches with our friends Gary and Leslie, they wanted to visit the Moraira beach which they have never been to. They usually only visit the dog friendly ones further along the coast.
It was a lovely day out, still warm but with a gentle cooling breeze, the waves just a little choppier, fun was had by all with the boys taking the cameras off fish hunting again.
Gary couldn´t believe the amount of activity just under the surface.
We had coffee at the beach side cafe watching the sea, then with the sea air giving us all a health appetite they took us for lunch at the WOK,
a lovely restaurant where you choose your food and take it to the chef to cook
there was so much to choose from, ranging from meats to fish an abundence of veggies and salad, along side pre cooked dishes, different rice, noodles, sweet potato chips etc
You could return as many times as you wished to try different things, the only stipulation being no waste. There were plenty of desserts too including fresh fruit which suited me
We were all suitable stuffed and came home to just chill out. We had a wonderful view of the moon from our courtyard and Chris took a couple of arty shots too Bernia sunburst
Then he had a little play with photoshop!

It´s amazing what a little rainfall will do, we are having showers at the moment and everything in the garden that was seemingly holding its breath, has now shot up and is beginning to resemble a jungle. the terraces are now green and in need of a mow, unfortunately the rain has done something to the courgettes, there were loads of flowers but they were not setting and now the plants have curled up their toes and have been affected with mildrew
We have lost several almond trees due to lack of water for several years but also we think age. We did have 18 but are reduced to just a handful, but it is the same for everyone.
Instead of just chopping them right down for firewood we have decided to make a feature out of them, so instead of an ugly stump, (we certainly couldn´t dig them up) we hope to have a bit of fun.
Work in progress.........


Posted by Chrissie at 12:10 PM 4 comments: 
A wonderful visit

We have had a fabulous time with both Rebecca and Antoni
Seemed to have crammed so much in
They took the car a couple of times to visit friends
We have even been to the beach three times

We are not really beach people and find it incredibly boring just sitting there cooking
but this time the boys wanted to take the Go Pro cameras out
Secure in their waterproof cases, they were able to dive and film

We tried three different beaches, the first, La Fustera was a cove with rocks on either side but the beach was like small grit, not sand at all and the seaweed was in abundence, also the beach shelved quite steeply, not so good if you are not confident in the sea
The second one was in Javea, this has a port side and a lovely sandy sweeping beach
The gradient is so shallow that you can walk out for ages and still only be up to your waist
I have rather long standing issues regarding the beach/sea
Amongst them being stung by jelly fish, very painful!
Stepping on flatties/Dabs etc and feeling the sand wriggling like hell under foot, I was only about 9 at the time and frightened the life out of me. The worst one was being trapped in a Spring tide in Langston Harbour with 15ft waves crashing around, sliding down the waves and being tossed around like some sort of theme park ride. We were in a rubber dingy desperatly trying to keep the engine running whilst bailing out at the same time.
After what seemed like hours battling the tides we eventually got back, exhausted and very frightened.

On Rebecca´s insistance, I bought sea shoes
They were brilliant and gave so much confidence that I achieved a great milestone and actually enjoyed swimming and being in the water.

The third beach was Moraira
This was perfect, rocks for the boys to film underwater
and a lovely sandy beach with gentle gradient for Rebecca and myself to have fun with. A wonderful way to celebrate their anniversary

They had forecast storms and heavy rain but apart from a couple of down pours that quickly blew away we had glorious weather and temps up to 29C

An abundence of fish just milling around quite oblivious to swimmers We had fun cooking old favourites for dinners, including meat pie and apple crumble
We celebrated their 2nd wedding anniversary with a super meal out
We achieved what we set out to do and made many more memories.
The time just skipped by and suddenly we were taking them back to the airport yesterday
I will admit to a little blubbing, but will just have to look forward to seeing them again soon.

Posted by Chrissie at 1:26 PM 6 comments: 

What an amazing 4 days
We met Rebecca from her flight on Saturday and have spent a lovely 4 days catching up, chatting and topping up on huggles.

We took a trip out to Calpe yesterday and enjoyed lunch by the sea
although we were not prepared for a complete dip it didn´t stop us from rolling up our leggings and having a wonderful wander along the waters edge and paddling our feet
We even saw some small fish swimming around some of the rocks
and the sea was warm which was nice.
A few of the waves were bigger than we thought and caught us out but it just added to the fun

Off to collect Antoni this evening to join us for a further week.

Posted by Chrissie at 6:21 PM 6 comments: