Waaaaaaaaah!

Last night, HOURS after I got home from singing the Messiah in st Martin’s Catherdral my husband asked me whether I had been expecting a Canadian owl. &^*$ yeah! I exclaimed, and for a moment I was afraid he’d sent the poor animal away, but all was well and as it turned out….My kit had arrived!!!

May I start by saying: I love you Stuart, you rock, you are ace, you’ve done incredibly well, and I LOVE the kit!

Before I openened it I called Eugene so he could witness the process live haha, it was very exiting!
Here’s a picture of the whole thing:

I’ve been so spoiled! there are bags, lots of little pouches and one bag with a Canadian stamp on it. Perfect for knitting!  The pouches sare beautiful especially the one with the snowflakes on them, it goes very well with my Crumpler bag and it’ll keep my ever-present sock project protected when I’m out. I love it!

The yarn is Misty Haven Alpaca anbd the perfect colour! It’s gorgeous yarn that screams for…mmmm…cables I think. There were Harmony needles to go with the yarn, my most used size, my favourite brand, could I ask for more?

On the cover of the Sudoku book it says: Banish boredom with these fiendish level Sudoku puzzles! LOL! Like a knitter’s ever bored!

There’s different kinds of tea, and a tin of chai. My daughter asked me about the tea, and I told her it’s for special occasions, like Christmas eve, and morning. One’s called White Christmas and I told her we can only deink it when it snows for Christmas. She thoght that was silly. Guess she’s not that easily folled as I thought haha!

The stitchmarkers are ace! I promised the “knitting queen’ one to Eugene (harhar). They came in a lovely handmade pouch.

One of my favourite items is the tin of mints. How cool is this:

In the card Stuart said he hoped I liked the mittens. Stuart. As I have written on my muggle blog, I LOVE these mittens. For the last few days I have cycled around town with gloves with holes in them. in this weather:

For real, this picture was taken from our bedroom window this afternoon!

And here’s a picture of me with my new mittens. My mum thinks I look cute in this picture, I think I look stupid, but of one thing I am sure, I LOVE these mittens. I could look like *^%* and these mittens would still make me look cool! These mittens are my new best friends. They are pretty, and soft, and toasty, and they don’t make your hands sweat. Yay for the Olympics!

And I leave you with some pictures my friend Aart-Jan took this afternoon in our inner city. The world looks so pretty in the snow don’t you think?  The full set can be seen here, and these are my three favourites:

Sinterklaas!

Came by our house tonight and dropped off an enormous amount of presents!
Pictures will follow tomorrow! Now bed.

Enna

Yarn dyeing and kit finishing day!

After doing nothing but working and sleeping for 2 months (!) today will be a day for fun and relaxation.
Yesterday I bought a lot of fun and yummy things and today Eugene will come over and we’ll dye yarn, and work on our kits.

This is the first time in ages we have a crafts day planned, and I cannot wait!

Enna

Giving Thanks

Our captain suggested we tell what we’re thankful for, since the American holiday of thanksgiving is on, or just been I’m not sure. I thought long and hard about it, since my year has been particularly bad, but then I decided to just sit down and start, and see what I come up with, so here we go:

In no particular order, I am thankful for:

My family. Even though being married and having children is suffocating and stressful now and then, I know I have found someone in my life who knows all my good and my bad things and still loves me. That’s special. My children are the most beautiful, smart and lovely people in the world, and sometimes I love them so much it almost makes me cry.

My parents. My mother has had cancer this year and I am very very grateful she survived. My parents have never done anything than love me. They are good people.

My friends. I have three best friends. Judith, Simone and Brent. Judith moved to Australia a few years ago and I miss her so much it’s sometimes hard for me to talk to her about the things she does there, I just want her near. She’s been my strong one for so many years. I love you Jude, thanks you for everything.And thanks for giving us your dad as a third grandpa. He’s ace. Simone was my little sister. We met when we were 12 years old and pretended to be sisters all through puberty. She died in a carcrash in January. I am thankful for the 20 years we had together. For her modesty. For the way she put me in my place when I was being rude, for helping me and loving me always. For being a musical inspiration, for showing me that I should not take things for granted, and that you can find love in the funniest places. My heart Simone, has a big aching hole in it since you’re gone. And Brent, who came into my life, and just fitted in. We’re like twins. Thank you for coming back babe, for being here with me again. Thank you for loving me, for telling me I’m too smart for my own good, for saying what you said outside the tattoo shop. I love you sweetheart, and I’ll always be there for you. Don’t you worry about a thing.

Gifts :-)

Today Sinterklaas arrived in the Netherlands… He is the one who gives all Dutch children presents on the evening of December 5th. It’s our version of Christmas and it is one of my favourite holidays 🙂

The tradition comes from st Nicholas wo gave the poor presents on his birthday, Dec 6th, and I believe the good man lived in what’s now Turkey, but the current Dutch little ones believe he lives in Spain.

There he prepares all year for the fest in November and December, aided by his loyal helper Piet (Pete?) who is black as the night, due to his sneaking into the houses through the chimney to get the presents inside. Threats are that if you’re not good one year, he will put you in his big bag and take you with him to Spain, something that actually sounds pretty appealing, but nevertheless, kids still shudder in awe when the Saint and Piet are anywhere near.

Here’s a picture (not by me) of his arrival in our lovely city of Utrecht. We went to see that with the children today, and had a blast.

 

One ultra-cool thing about Sinterklaas is that he lets you put your shoe by the chimney or the front door in the time when he’s in the country and if you’re a good kid he puts small presents and candy in it while you sleep. I have to admit, I had a small peek at our front door and look!!!!! I LOVE that man, even if he’s, like, 700 years old.

 

 

And guess what, when we were in town welcoming our hero I picked up something for my kit….and I’d LOVE to show it to you all, but alas, the girl in thew shop put all this lovely pink paper around it…..

 

 

So that’ll have to wait…:-p

 

Enna

And where’s she now?

I think she first went to Dunedin in New Zealand to check out Larnach castle.
After that Canada, I think Montreal.

Where’s Winnie?

I think she’s in an Italian restaurant in Chelmsford

Enna

Homework assignment no. 1

1. Someone with the same craft as you (either those listed above or another one). My spoiler, Stuart from the Portree lot. We both knit (duh), check out the copperto(n)es socks….beautiful!
2. Someone who was born in the same month. Rowena Bladvak was born in August, ,like me, and she spoiled me rotten in HSKS5!!!

3. Someone from a different country. Lizzy Wychwood is from another country! And we all LOVE Lizzie, our dearest, most fantastic organiser of Shuntbumping 😀 Ooooh to be her spoilee! sigh! Did you see the bag she made Eugene? wow. just wow.

4. A new HSKS Quidditch player. Ginny Lockheart is a firsttimer. Wrong team though……grin

5. A player who has been in 3 or more HSKS swaps. Captain Wisteria Lovegood of the wanderers has been in so many…she can’t even remember them all. Check out her Jaywalkers, they’re funky!!!

6. A player who has a bigger stash than you! (And if your stash is the biggest, proudly say so!) I think Antonio has a bigger stash than me, although I have to say that my stash in Ravelry is enormously outdated! I have to update that stash! and soon!

7. A player who both knits and crochets. Ambyr Phoenixfyre both knits and crochets

8. Someone who has the same favorite color as you. Shioban Mooney, our captain, likes green, like me 🙂

Made the Mighty Montrose Magpies!!!!

I am over the moon!!!!! I made it into my favourite team, the Montrose Magpies! This is absolutely fantastic! I am honoured and flattered that they wanted me. My position is still to be determined, and I hope they will see my beater qualities, but as soon as training starts we’ll find out what I’ll be doing the coming months.

What I’ll be finding out as well is who I will be spoiling this season. Yes, you heard well! Al players in the Magpies, the Arrows, Pride of Portree and the Wigtown lot are paired to spoil eachother rotten! What a marvellous idea! I think they reckon that way we’ll feel more like we’re still at Hogwarts, where the inter-house gifts are keeping the students happy and friendly. I like the idea, and cannot wait to find out who’s going to be my spoilee. I already have plenty of ideas about what to give, but cannot decide until I know their team colours. There will be a certain amount of black and white there to represent Magpie pride though…you better count on that Wandering Portree Arrow whoever you are!

In the sidebar of my blog I will make a wishlist of items I like to receive, since I too will be a spoilee, but as our wonderful teamcaptain Siobhan writes on her blog, the most important things are something self-made, and something from your hometown.

Let the games begin!

Enna

Application to Quidditch teams.

Oh how very exiting! Yesterday I applied to three (3!!!) Quidditch teams for a full time beater position!

After a big family tragedy I had to leave Hogwarts for a year, and since I missed the beginning of the school year, my mother agreed to let me play for a season before getting back to my studies.

I applied to the Montrose Magpies (my ab-so-lute favourites!), the Appleby Arrows, and the Wigtown Wanderers…and might even hear tonight if any of the teams want me in!

Now that the most urgent family matters are over, and we’re almost ready to go back to some kind of normalcy I am very very exited to see my friends again.

More when I found out whether I made a team!!!

Enna.