You’re probably wondering why I had to do my tax return before Chinese New Year?  Well, it is a superstition that you should repay all your debts before the New Year, otherwise you would be constantly owing people money for the next year.  So I’ve paid my taxes and subscriptions, although I do owe a colleague £2 which I will have repay on Tuesday, oh well, I’ve tried my best.

We have also got all our lucky packets ready to give to unmarried relatives and children of friends and family.

I wish everyone a Happy and Healthy Year of Dragon!  I’m off to Mums for a big meal .

My girl and her friend made some flower cuttings (for the wedding) using the paper punchers/cutters and folded tissue paper:

Embossing looks interesting…….

But before I go back to my knitting and work, here are a few things we got up to during the holidays:

We went ice-skating at Canary Wharf:

Here is a short list of plans that I currently have floating around in my head:

I would like to:

1. spend more time on my small business and blog, which has been so neglected during the past year.
2. spend at least 30 minutes having a walk (out of the office) during lunch time (even in the rain)
3. eat healthily (I have been watching the Food Hospital on TV which is very interesting)
4. make more things
5. be more organised at home and at work.

These sound like early New Year’s Resolutions, which they are, in a way. However, before I start putting these plans in place, I’m going to enjoy the last 10 days of 2011. So far, we have taken our little girl to see Jack and the Beanstalk at the Shaw Theatre. The Nolan Sisters were great as the good and bad fairy. We also went to Surrey Docks Farm Christmas Craft Fair. There were many activities for the kids such as making Christmas wreaths, beeswax candle, Christmas decorations and planting bulbs. Here are a few photos:

Candles made from beeswax from the farm:

A Christmas dear made by my little girl:

Freshly baked bread:

We also attended Gracie’s (now Mrs Li) annual Pre-Christmas Roast diner last Sunday. Mr and Mrs Li alway makes such delicious food, including cake off course. This year we had cake and Christmas pudding. She will blog about it at SimplyScrumblicious, but here are few photos:

I hope everyone will have a great Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year! Enjoy your time with your faimily and friends too!

Brugge is such a lovely city.  It is not too overwhelming and we managed to visit most of the places and shops during our weekend trip.  We were surprised to see cars give way to bicycles.  The people who live there cycle together; from little children to their grandparents, and they don’t seem to lock their bikes, which is very different to London.

We visited the main tourist sites, such as the Market Square, went on the horse carriage around the main town and a boat trip on the canal.  We also ate lots of good food including lots of chocolate and waffles.  The hotel we stayed at (The Flanders) was directly opposite a small local craft store called Gobelin Kreatief and there were many small independent design and vintage shops on the same road.  Here are some photos of our trip:

The Hens:

Here is a silly photo of us imitating the models.

We then dressed up for dinner and cocktails at a local restaurant. The next day was spent relaxing by the river Seine and drooling over the amazing Parisien pattiserie.

Laduree:

Pierre Herme:

My second hen party was for a close family friend which took place in London at Le Chandlier at Dulwich which is a hidden gem. Again we had afternoon tea and my daughter was invited as well as my friend’s daughter:

We all had a great time and it was nice to have a relaxing afternoon with the girls, chatting and eating lots of cakes.

Before we have a catch up, I have to blog about my annual trip to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace with Kyoko over the weekend.  Every year we look forward to being inspired by all the yarns, patterns, fabrics and crafts.   This is exactly what I needed to get my crafting mojo back after such a long break.  This year we were joined by my little girl who has taken an interest in knitting and sewing (as well as dinosaurs and astrology).  She was very excited about going to a ‘palace’ full of crafts and she wasn’t disappointed.

There were also many new stalls and of course familiar stalls at the show.  Firstly, we stopped by at Jamieson so that Kyoko could drop off some of her knitting kits. I have never knitted with their yarn and there is currently a sale on a selection of their yarns which is very tempting.

We then visited The Knitter magazine stand, where apart from magazines, there were many blankets and knitted squares (to be sewn up into blankets) for Refuge which is a great cause. 

We then visited the Fyberspate stand as I wanted to get a Skein of Scrumptious 4ply to knit Childry (a lovely shawlette).  The colours of the yarn are amazing and reflects the autumnal colours.  I chose a warm cherry colour, but I was very tempted by the yellow.

We wanted to take it easy this year as Kyoko has got her half marathon charity run the next day and my little girl was getting a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing.  It was definately a great day out.  I asked my daughter whether she would like to join us again next year, which she said yes of course. 

Have a lovely weekend everyone, I will be taking my bike out of my Dad’s garage to start cycling again.  It has been 15 years, lets hope it doesn’t rain.

There are twenty patters in the book and here a few of my favourites:

Hethe by Judy Furlong is beautiful cardigan.  The feel and the colour of the yarn is lovely.

Childry by Emily Doyle a lovely shawl pattern which has been added to my ‘to knit’ list as well as Hethe.

We also had fun trying on most of the garments:

Challow by Jeni Hewlett – a pretty fair isle jumper (sweater).

My daughter tried on Hendred by Emily Doyle which matched her coat.

We had a great time at the launch party and Jeni’s Mum made some amazing cakes, scones, macaroon, sandwiches and nibbles.

We all had a great time, including my daughter who had a great time sorting buttons and playing with the dogs at the farm.

Have a lovely week and keep knitting.

My poor husband has really missed it all due to his exams.  He has been stuck in the library for most of April.  So I’ve been busy keeping my daughter entertained over the weekend.

First of all we had frozen yoghurt at Snog, which was amazing.  The decor, the wide choice of toppings and the frozen yoghurt were great. 

We visited the Butterfly exhibition at the Natural History Museum:

That is a real butterfly on my daughter’s head.  The butterflies were really big and I was actually really scared of one landing on my face, but my daughter looked after me. 

We watched the Royal Wedding on television while eating a fry up (English Breakfast):

I finally got the opportunity to wear my Mimi Cropped Cardigan, yay!

I’m currently working on knitting my Coraline Cardigan which I’ll blog about in my next blogpost.

Better go and have a snoop around blogland to see what everyone has been up to during their long break.    Have a great week!

With a bit of practice (it’s been a while since I’ve done any cross stitch) this is what we managed to do over a couple of afternoons:

We are hoping to move onto cross stitching some pictures, but one step at a time. 

I hope everyone are enjoying their long bank holidays in the UK, the weather has been great so far.  We have been spending lots of time around London Parks, especially Greenwich park off course, having picnics and playing some games outdoors (badminton, frisbee, football etc).  Here is a photo I took around Greenwich Park one afternoon.

I hope everyone will have a great Easter tomorrow.