Teacher/staff appreciation week…

Not sure if I’ve ever mentioned…every year, about this time of the year, the parent community at our school organizes a week long lovely treats for us…

My favourite is always the lovely smiles of our students as they hand me a flower to fill a vase…in my case…I’m very lucky to come into contact with all of our kids everyday…so it pretty much “upped” my chance of getting a flower or two.

This is after I did a little pruning…it is Friday after all, so some little flowers did not manage to make it into this photo…but the love fills my office…

Every year, I tell them…I wish I can snap a photo of each smile as they hand me the flower…put them on a frame and I can savor it for the whole year…

I am grateful for where I am…

my handmade childhood

Reblogged from Kate Davies Designs:

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Various things have been prompting me to think a lot recently about the role that sewing and knitting and other handmade things can play in the shape of ones life. Like many crafty folk in the UK, I enjoyed watching the Great British Sewing Bee. Unlike so many of these competitive TV formats, this programme seemed to me to celebrate genuine amateur…

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Thanks to Kate...I've been thinking about that myself lately...where does it come from? Mama sewed throughout her life...in the 50's there was little to be had for a family like hers...my aunts and Mama made their own clothes... 70's came along, there's more to be had but not to Mama's liking (price point or style)...so she bought lace trims from markets and sewn them onto store bought socks for us.  The boy in me hated those trims...they are scratchy and frilly...my older sis on the other hand loved them. She made us pajamas, our school play costumes..many many lovely items that we do not have in our hands anymore but the memory stays... My older sis has this beautiful red/white checked art smock...I have a pajama dress...my younger sis a simple mini quilt... What does it mean exactly?  I do not know really...aside from the fact that we are blessed with the love of making/creating wearable items for ourselves and loved ones...passing along the love...thank you, Mama... Oh...I should not leave out our Baba...who proudly displays his childhood embroidery work enclosed in a frame for all to admire...his school work from the 40's...after the war in Singapore...he loves cooking and using his hands to create too...thank you, Baba...

My very own BMC

Finally….I had time on the day we were all alone at mum in law’s to divide the 9 skeins of lovely Spindrift…and started the BMC.

Funny enough, as much as I thought I would be knitting at night while we were in Paris, that did NOT happen…

We were super exhausted by the time we were back at the apartment. Most of the knitting was done on the plane ride home!

Done with the first half and started the second…can’t wait to wear it with a light wool tunic I’m planning to sew up!

My third Dollheid!

My third one was knitted up using all the leftover yarns from the Osaka tea cozy from the Knit Real Shetland book…that tea cozy was for my older sis…her birthday…

I took the left over yarns with me on the long plane ride to Europe and knitted while watching some great movies…my fave is Ernest & Celestine…

Oh I digress…so this was knitted up while we were at my mum in law’s…there was a whole day while girlie and I were home alone…resting, nursing a cold that came on while we were on the plane.

Mum in law was adoring the tam as I knitted, so I handed it over when it’s finished.

My second Dollheid

This…is my second Dollheid…in the colourway that Kate prescribed.

My older sis loves the skullcap I knitted her from the Knit Real Shetland book…so here’s one more for her!

My first Dollheid!

I can’t begin to tell you how much I LOVE Kate Davies’ blog and her designs…

This pattern was purchased a long long time ago but I had so much to “do” I never had a chance to get to it…

Once I purchased the wool though, the knitting portion was much faster than I expected, as it with all of her patterns!

This was knitted up in 3 days…mind you, I work full-time and have mommy/wife duties…

This saved me from the crazy super cold weather in Italy/France this April while we were there…thank you, Kate!

Our trip to Italy (and stop over in Paris on our way home)

Tis the year…

Mum in law says she will not be able to make it over to visit…

We packed lightly for the coldest Spring in Italy for the past 50 years…

So glad we went…the elders were so pleased to see us…assisted 2 of them as best we could while we were there…

We made sure to sneak in 2 days of educational something for our girlie in Florence…the Uffizi and climbing the Brunellischi dome…

On our way home, we made a stop in Paris…more museums in the cold/rain/hail…made the best of the visit…crazy amount of walking…so good for us…

More posts will come…I promise…

Cafe Angelina (on the first floor of Galeries Lafayette)

We plopped our weary selves down…our little girl’s first visit to Paris…

My daddy brought me here years ago…we wanted to give her a similar experience.

I was thinking fondly of my big sis who LOVES montblancs when we were little…with a pot of Darjeeling.

Montblanc a bit too sweet for my taste (I’m not a dessert kinda gal) and sadly, the hard water in Paris did not allow the tea to do it’s part…aside from that, we had a splendid time…lovely to enjoy my husband and our daughter’s company…no work/school stress…

“Mama, why is the Mona Lisa such an important painting?”

Oh, the crowds…pushing and pushing…I do not recall my last visit being like this!

My disgruntled girl hates crowds…tight spaces with people galore is NOT her fave…

After a bit of light pushing, she managed to get to see her…but of course, cannot figure out why this painting draws big crowds…actually…I’m a bit puzzled today too…

The Louvre is a rather frightful place now…beware of pickpocket signs posted every where…no flash posted every where but half the people seem not to care…staff do not interfere…

We planned to visit on their late opening night…Wednesday, but when we arrived with prepurchased tickets, we were told they are closed! Turns out staff was on strike due to the ongoing organized pickpocketing in the museum…offenders are all minors, so there’s little anyone can do…apparently, there’s violence too…

What’s the world coming to? How is it that it’s unsafe to work at a museum? Or to visit a museum?

What a meal…

Unfortunately, we were not able to polish our main course…the food was great…the wait was long but worth it.

La Coupole is always good…especially when one has no schedule…