Extraordinary mondays - and the winner is...

Nat!! Congratulations, Nat. You are now the proud owner of one of my very first Christmas origami tree decorations plus a kit to make your very own. And on your personal request, it also comes with a morning/evening with me in the new year!

Look out for it in the mail, Nat!

To all those who participated, thank you! Your support meant a lot.

Extraordinary Mondays - Origami adventures

I have been experimenting with some origami patterns lately for Christmas decorations and scoured the net for inspiration. I came across the prettiest origami creation I have ever seen! It's by an origami creator named Herman van Goubergen. The creation is made up of 12 units which are called "curlers". Don't you think they would make the most beautiful Christmas tree decorations?

Below is a fantastic video made by barbabellaatje that teaches you how to make it step by step:



And in the Christmas spirit of giving, I am giving away one of these origami pieces plus a kit to make one yourself. Just drop me a comment or an email and I will randomly pick the winner this time next week.

I can explain...

...the silence. I have been busy working away on my Christmas to do list and that list includes some cool surprises for readers of this blog. WATCH THIS SPACE!

Unconditional love

Amelia absolutely adores her brother. Her eyes light up whenever she catches sight of him and always turns to the sound of his voice. She kicks and squeals with delight whenever he plays with her and particularly loves playing "catch" with him (although it is probably adding to my neck issues as I lower her down to his level and chase after him).

About two weekends ago, on a Saturday morning, the light that was coming into our living room was perfect for photos so I was frantically taking photos of the kids when Zach jumped onto the sofa where I had placed Amelia and hugged her. She turned around and planted a kiss on his cheek! Moments like that don't come along very often at her age and more still when I am poised, ready with a camera.

Extraordinary Mondays - Christmas presents

I have been battling an inner battle for a while now. I think my body side is losing. This is the battle: Do I make Christmas presents this year?

I have a number of items I have in mind to make. Things such as little ornaments for my colleagues, decorated canvas photograph frames for my sister, a photo box for my mom with photographs of her grandkids and the list goes on.

I have a less than a month before I leave for home and the longer I fight this battle, the shorter I have time for make these things. This is compounded by the fact that I only have about 2 hours of kid-free time during nights to work on these. That means that if my calculations are right, I have about 56 hours in total.

And here I am dreaming up sewing patterns for Amelia because I have some cloth leftover from making her mat on the weekend.

Can I make the extraordinary happen? I'll keep you posted.

Klean Kanteen review

My order of Klean Kanteen bottles must have arrived more than a month and a half ago. I spent a long time considering coloured bottles for the kids but I figured that they will see the most wear and the colour coating would scratch.

Zach loves his bottle with its sport spout and as a result of that is drinking a whole lot more fluid. (I am working hard at trying to get him to drink plain water but that is such a battle.) I particularly love that the spout gets popped up when you open the cover. His bottle is already showing wear with bumps.

Mine lives in my handbag and goes wherever I go and although the stainless steel cap makes such a clinking noise opening and closing, I am completely plastic free. The water doesn't have any metallic taste. Amelia hasn't got to use hers yet. I have yet to buy the white Avent spout for babies +6 months.

I have two gripes: 1. The bottle cap with the green Avent spout does not have a cover. 2. The bottles are made in China.