Out of focus

Last week we visited gentlytiptoe and as usually it was lovely to see everybody. We were very lucky to have a special room for us so thank you very much Hannah (and Andrew) for all your efforts. We were dined, wined, shown around and had the chance to see in real life many of gentlytiptoe beautiful things. Thanks for everything. Looking forward to the next visit. Unfortunately the camara was mostly in my bag and when it was taken out most of the shots I took look like this:

She even manages to look cute out of focus.

Moo (II)

One more cow. This one is made of some of Ana's baby clothes and is also my own creation. The eyes are a charity shop find and they came in a tatty plastic bag together with other buttons. They look quite old and I'm not even sure if they are buttons but I think they really suit her. This cow is soft and cuddly and Ana would love to suck her eyes out (she's tried a few times).

I still think I can /should make improvements on her, like the poor thing could do with having four legs. Working on it.

First shoes

First steps: 28 September (11 months and 22 days)

Moo (I)

I made this cow a while ago. I had been looking for a template but couldn't find one I liked so I decided to make my own. I wasn't too happy with the end result but I've grown to like her, after all she is my first cow. She has even started to eat some of the rocket we have in the garden. More friends to join her soon. Mooo!

Coffee

Usually I don't make coffee at home. I much prefer to leave the house, stroll to one of the cafes nearby, order a latte, grab a paper, sit down and relax while I'm licking the froth from the spoon. At home you never get it frothy or tasting the same. Anyway, today I didn't fancy leaving the house so I decided to make a coffee.
One of the signs that I've lived in this country for too long and that I'm adapted to its ways is that I used to have coffee in this...

And now I go for this...

Double expressos are gone and milky coffees are part of my live. Another change: dinner at 5:30!!!!!!! Did you know in Spain we have dinner at around 9 pm? Couldn't do it now.

Mushroom soup

Just finished cooking some lovely mushroom soup. I saw some reduced mushrooms this morning and had to buy them. I have never cooked it before but ate it at John Lewis the other day (they do the best home made soups) and fancied having a go

The recipe came from this book which I worship

The secret is adding some fresh grated nugmeg. Yummy. All gone now.

My mum

My mum turned 60 on the first of this month. She doesn't speak any English at all. I've tried to make her say a few words and phrases but she still gets mixed up with 'good morning' and 'good evening' and when she says 'thank you' it sounds more like 'thenky' no matter how many times I've told her the right way to say it. She had to leave school at 14 because her teacher chose her to look after her kids and clean her house (a great honour at that time!) so she never received any decent education. But now she is regaining time and learning all those skills that she missed due to the society she had to live in. She is doing plenty of things: literature and math lessons, computing workshops and what she has turned out to be quite good at, painting:

Not bad for someone with no training or visual education. I'm well proud of her.

One

Ana was one on the 6th. I know everybody talks about how quickly babies grow, but isn't it true! That day I kept on thinking about my delivery and how birthdays should be about the mum not the baby being born. It's not the time or the place to revive her delivery(not so bad, at least it was quick and she was out in 8 hours from waters breaking)and I should focus and what I've been making to celebrate her/my day.

As Hannah put enormous pressure on me (she is my role model in many, many areas)I felt I had to do some work on the cake front:

I mean it's not really an effort. It meant hiring some cake tin and deiding on waht type of cake to go for. It was carrot cake in the end. It's not very elaborate but ana loved it:

And yesterday we had a little party with some of our closest friends, so I had to improve on my efforts. This time I went for a our cream and blueberry little number, but I run out of blueberries for the toppig and I had to add some stawberries. It was yummy, though. Ana's favourite thing at the moment is blueberries, oh and toothpaste tubes:

So if you remember I made some invitations (my friends hated me for it, by the way, but you only have your first daughter's first birthday once in a lifetime)so I had to make some real bunting:

It's very short because I used some cheap but lovely skirt from Gap and I run out of material. I thought I could add some more every year, but that sounds good now. We'll see.

I also felt and wanted to make something for...

I know it's cheating (cutting out some nice material and stuffing it is hardly rocket science) but the animals are soft and cute and it's the second bag I've ever made so I'm chuffed. Now I need to start working on the dolly I should be making for her second birthday. Pressure (thanks Hannah, you are even my spell checker!)