Adidas 5K Run

Hello! I'm still here, it's been a bit chaotic at home during the school holidays (hence lack of blog posts during this summer), but now my Rascal has gone back to school I get to have my evening back....hee hee hee.....I'm such a bad mum. I took a day off work this Monday to take her to school. She has been looking forward to going back to school throughout the summer holiday. Her new teacher is lovely and her friends were all hugging her.........so sweet. When I came to pick her up from school, she had so much to say, especially about making a windmill form cardboard boxes.

I watched day time TV that day, something I haven't done for a long time. They were talking about children's homework involving making thing out of felt, card boards, fabrics. One of the presenter said that they do not have any of those things at home, she would have to go to Tescos and buy some cornflakes pour it out of the box in order to get some cardboard. I was thinking, I have all those things at home because I like making things (i.e. I'm a big kid). My Rascal and I have is planning on making a jet out of a Dove body wash container, this is our project at the moment.

Back to the main point of the blog post. Kyoko, Gracie and I participated in Adidas 5k Run last Sunday. Kyoko ran for WWF, Gracie for Sparks and I ran for Great Ormand Street Hospital, all for a good cause. Kyoko was very good and completed the run in 26 minutes running all the way. I've been relying on my dance classes (will blog about this later) to keep me fit for the run, and I completed the run in 36 minutes.

I was very dopey that day because we left Gracie behind. Sorry darling, I still feel bad about it. What happened was that I thought Gracie had joined the race already so I thought she'd be at the front of the race. Kyoko and I were keeping an eye out for Gracie, then at the finish line I realised that the race was split into three groups. The group at the front of us were the professional/fast runners, we had got into the semi fast runners group and Gracie was actually behind us in the 35 minutes plus group. Arggggg......I think all is forgiven as she still texts me.

It was such a lovely race, the atmosphere was great, the weather was great, the runners were great and the crowds were great. It was such a great time, here are some photos of the day.

We finished the Run with Dim Sum. Yum....

Mimi

It's starting to get cooler here in London, although I've heard that is going to get warmer later on in the week.

As mentioned in my last blog post, here is the project that I'm currently working on.

The pattern was in Lets Knit magazine last year and I fell in love with this cropped jacket pattern, Mimi, from Begere de France. I meant to knit last winter so I can wear it in the summer but now I should hopefully be finised by next spring. I bought the yarn from Disswool where I found out that the Esterellle in Calpico has been discontinued so the lady helped me find altertive colour which I prefered more than the one in the original pattern.

I've only manged to knit part of the left front, I'm not too sure how to cast on extra stitches for the sleeve (the cardigan is knitted in one piece). Any tips will be wellcome. Hee Hee Hee. Yep, I'm kind of stuck. I also want to learn how sew up the side of the cropped jacket using the mattress stitch. Still so much to learn.

and the Winner is.....

On Friday I put the names of fellow bloggers into envelope and my colleague picked out Maria. Congratulations. I will e-mail you my e-mail address and we can arrange to get the book sent out to you. Here are the photos that I promised in my last blog post.


It is such a lovely book that I want to make everything and it is clear that Claire put a lot of time and effort in writing such lovely and practical children's knitting clothes patterns.

I also managed to take some photos of the prize that Kyoko and I won at the book launch:

The Debbie Bliss Eco Fair Trade Collection pattern book and 10 yarns in cream and here is the pattern that I have chosen.

I'm working on a knitting project at the moment and I will show you my WIP in my next blog post. So this will have to wait.

Hope you all have a lovely week and those of you in London, enjoy the good weather while it last.

Book Signing and Giveaway!!

Despite the torrential rain last night, Kyoko and I went to Claire Montgomerie book signing of her new book 'Easy Kids Knits' at Loop. When we arrive, we found the shop full of happy knitters each holding a book. I bought two signed copy, one for myself, and I would like to give the other signed book to a lucky (more about being lucky later) blogger. So to enter the giveaway just leave a message on this blog post and I will draw a name in on Friday 14 August 2009.

Thank Kyoko for the photo: Me with Claire (me with flat and frizzy hair after the getting drench despite having an umbrella)

It is such lovely book, just like the author Claire who spent hours knitting for the book for the past year. The knitting pattern age group goes from 3 to 10 so I have got some time to knit something for my daughter aged 5, as you probably know by now that I take months/even years to do anything. When we brought the book we both got a raffle ticket for the prize draw and then went to have dinner at Ottolenghi and planned to go back to Loop to look at some yarns afterwards.

Photo taken by Kyoko

The food was great and dessert was very yummy . We both had the Passion fruit Meringue Tart which is highly recommended! When we were finishing our dessert, we got a phone call from Sarah saying that we have both won the raffle prize! We were both shocked and very happy of course. There were only two prizes and imaging Kyoko and I both winning?! So we were both giggling like school girls and left Ottolenghi to collect our prize of 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Eco range and her Eco Knitting pattern book. How lucky. Thanks Sarah and Claire!!

I will post some photos of the signed book and all other stuff tonight, so keep posted.

I'm back

Gosh, I've been away for almost 2 months. I've missed everyone in blogland and glad to be back. What have I been up to during my break? Have a look:

My daughter was a flower girl at my friends' wedding. It was such a lovely wedding at a beautiful venue.

The weather in London has been so great that we decided to have a bbq on our communal terrace. Kyoko (far left) came with her fiance, my friend who had recently got married (second left) and my childhood friends. I found out that the headmistress at my previous Chinese school (and a MBE) also knits in her spare time. How cool is that!

My Mum taught me how to make some Vietnamese Jelly (chocolate and milk flavour) which is made of Agar. It was really good!!! Gracie, I will make you some to change your mind about this Jelly.

Talking about Gracie, she made me the most gorgeous cake, ever for my birthday. Have a look here to see.

I have decided to get some plants (that my husband and daughter will not be allergic to) and I have started with this beautiful orchid.

Kyoko and I have decided to be more active and do more for charity so we have both signed up for this September's Addidas 5k run. I have been trying to train for this as, from my older post, I'm not very good at running. I've been cross training, playing badminton, dancing and power walking to train for this (see that I haven't been jogging :D, I'll leave that till later).

I haven't forgotton the giveaway.......although it is very late.....sorry......I'll sort it out in the next blog as well as a recipe for a Chinese Steam cake.

Little Break...will be back soon

Oh dear.....no blog post for a whole month..... been a bit busy lately, so I'm taking a little break from blogging. I will be back soon......

Change of Plans

Last week we were planning to watch Star Trek and being a secret Trekkie, I was really looking forward to it!! So we went to the O2 and Jaxs went to buy the tickets. When the film started I noticed the name 'Christian Bale'...hmmm......what is he doing in Star Trek?? Then it dawned on me that my husband had bought the wrong tickets, so we ended up watching Terminator 4 instead. The film was ok, too much action for my liking, the only thing that was good about it was Christian Bale and Sam Worthington. Hee hee hee! No seriously, their acting was good as well as their looks.

Then on Saturday we were planning on accompanying my Dad to buy a new car. However, my Dad's old car was not being itself (I think it is breaking down as it is more than 25 years old) and our car was left at my Inlaws, so no car. Instead we caught the bus to Borough Market. Here are some photos:

At Borough Market we were handed a card from the Crafting Creatures about their Crafternoon that day. My Rascal and I decided to go to the Crafternoon, and we really enjoyed ourselves. My daughter made aPom Pom I tried to do some knitting, there were also felt creature making and cross stitching. We also enjoyed some cake, tea and a live acoustic band playing some great music. This was their second Crafternoon, so it will be interesting to find out when their next one will be.

We then went to the Tate Modern for some exercise........have a look: