Alice Jean

Coffee 1. What is your preference? Whole beans or ground? Whole beans. 2. What kind of coffees do you enjoy? A rich, bold roast; a light, fresh one, or something in between? Leaded or non? I prefer the bolder coffees, leaded. 3. If you were headed out right now to buy some coffee for the house, what would you be picking up? Fairtrade Cafedirect Machu Picchu Peru or Tesco Finest Java Sumatra. 4. Do you drink for caffeine, pleasure, or both? Both. Definetely. 5. Do you enjoy flavored coffees? How about add-ins or flavored creamers? I don't like the flavoured coffees and hate add-inns. 6. A large, lovely mug or a small, dainty cup? Rather a large, lovely mug. The kind that can hold a good cup of coffee. 7. Describe your perfect cup - not JUST the coffee, but how you'd enjoy it! Coffee and knitting. Coffee and reading. Coffee and travelling. 8. You're sitting down to enjoy a nice cup in the local coffee shop, knitting bag in hand, iPod all tuned up - or maybe you're there

Remember the handspun I got from Sarah ? It is dyed. The colours are the result of a collab between my daughter and me. She preferred actually far more pink, but as pretty much of her jumpers are in pink, I convinced her another colour would also be nice. She came up with blue with a bit pink and violet. I think she has chosen well. Handspun BFL/Corriedale by Babylonglegs , hand dyed in shades of blue, periwinkle, pink and violet. The matching solid skein is periwinkle. What will become of this? It will be stashed for some time now as there are many other projects that need to done and/or finished. And when all is done? Well, might be a hoodie.

Tried before and convinced it was not my cup of tea. But when this yarn arrived, I decided to reconsider my earlier decision and give it another go. I spent a few hours browsing for a nice pattern and found Mystic Waters , just what I was looking for. And I must confess, it really goes well. Yes, there are a few mistakes, but I found out to fix them without frogging the whole thing. And I have learned there is no need to make the perfect shawl. I might go for the smaller version, don't know that yet, but for now I'm pretty pleased with the progress.

It took the postal services some time to deliver, but finally it is here. Spoilt again! Christien was my upstream partner in the 'mamma swap' and supised me with the most gorgeous items. First of all she knitted me a pair of wristwarmers/ fingerless gloves. They fit very well thanks so much! I am a very cold handed person, so they will be very useful. And then she assumed I'm a coffee addict, so there were four coffeecup coasters. Very pretty. A book full of stitches and patterns... some yarn for my stash :-) And, if it was not enough already, also some easter decorations and a bookmark. Thank you so much Christien for making this swap special!

Received an early birthday gift today. She is so very pleased with the necklace and the lucky charms. The fairy and frog postcard is so very precious, we've framed it. Zinzia , thanks so much, you made a little girls day!

Thursday evening a parcel arrived. A Pay it Forward gift from Marjon . She put the most gorgeous things together, almost all for Dory. Pretty much in pink, one of Dory's favourite colours. Something to wear and some clothing for Babyborn, who was also very pleased with it. I totally adore these tiny Babyborn slippers, they are too cute! I must admit I was shocked when I saw the calendar at first - how much I love everything knitting related, my knowledge of German is not very well. But all the patterns are in Dutch and that is a language I do understand :-). Lieve Marjon, heel hartelijk bedankt voor dit prachtige pakket!! We zijn er erg blij mee.

Early this morning a box, stuffed to the nose, arrived at our home. It came from Afton , who granted my wish for fantasy books for my sons. 22 of Piers Anthony and 1 of Lloyd Alexander. And as a surprise she sent me also a whole lot of Spinnerin Sheer Delight (95.5% virgin wool/ 4.5% mirlon. Okay, that's it, I'll finally have to knit one of those gorgeous shawls I see everywhere. Thank you so much Afton!

A large part of my stash are the only skeins of a kind. Pretty colours, though not enough to knit a larger project. And how many hats does one need? So I decided to combine some yarns. This jumper is the outcome. Size: 5 years (oversized, I like it when she has some use of it a bit longer). For the top part I used the combination of the PIF wool I got from Christien -50 grams of each colourway- and the 2 balls of red Rowan Pure Wool DK I'd stashed. I liked the idea of a girly finishing and that's when the Veeler Wolletje of Tessa came in. Dory is very pleased with this 'Princess Jumper' as she calls it.

Came through the door today! LucyJ sent a surprise parcel with 100 grams of lovely dishcloth cotton and a package of small scented gel pens. Thank you so much Lucy! I am truly pleased with it!

Tagged by Myrthestiek , who asked me to tell about an ordinary day. So I picked yesterday. 6:30 am Woken up by Dory who jumps into my bed. While she is playing with some soft toys, I do some reading. 7:30 am The alarmclock goes off. 7:45 am We really go out of bed, take a shower, get dressed, arrange the breakfast table, tell my youngest son where to find his planner, PE kit, tie, football boots and so on. 8:30 am The boys leave home for school. While having my own breakfast, I run through dozens of emails and have a look at Ravelry. 9:15 am Dory and I leave home and walk to her preschool. 10:00 am Back home again. Time for my first cup of coffee of the day (Starbucks Christmas blend) and to answer and write some mails. Later I start to prepare some orders and have more coffee. In between I do some knitting on these socks. Lozenge socks, using the yarn I got from Johanna in my Vintage Socks parcel . 12:00 Collecting Dory. She has had a good time at preschool. We walk to a busst

Nature is having one of its busy weeks. Earlier this week the earthquake, not quite a shock as we were only woke by the vibrations. Though the storm of last night caused some actual damage. Fences blown away on both sides of the garden. Not onlly our garden or the neighbours, but also the fences of their neighbours and theirs... Well, it is only material damage. It could have been worse.