Happy Birthday to Me!

Isn't this so cute, every year I am sent a Birthday card from a little character called Calimero*.  On the morning of my birthday,  I always make a point of signing into my email account to see if Calimero has sent me a card and since 2001 he has never failed me. I love you Calimero!

There is one reason this little guy means so much to me. You see the memory of this little chick was brought to me by my brilliant much missed Aunt, who passed in 2001 from cancer. She introduced me to this beautiful little character when I was about five. I had Calimero key-rings, now lost :(  ,  I watched Calimero cartoons and I talked about Calimero non stop; morning, noon and night,  I was obsessed.  So when I became older and started earning I made a point of buying myself a limited edition Calimero figurine (see image below).
 

Calimero

 And ever the big kid when I saw the website I knew that I had to join and become a member.  Now if only I could find a knitting pattern of this little guy!!   See, told you I was obsessed. 

Have a lovely day every one 

Shirley xx

*Calimero is an Italian cartoon (designed by Toni and Nino Pagot) about a charming, but hapless anthropomorphized cartoon chicken; the only black one in a family of yellow chickens. He wears half of his egg shell still on his head.  Calimero originally appeared on the Italian television show Carosello on July 14, 1963, and soon became a popular icon in Italy.  In the Netherlands and Belgium, the term "Calimero complex" is used to denote someone who thinks the world is against them because they are an underdog; often the character's lines from the show are cited, "They are big and I is small and that is not fair, oh no!  (Wikipedia 2013)

I'm in a quandary.

Well I just had to go ahead and become ill didn't I.  I won't go into any details let's just say it was stomach orientated and not particularly nice.  Now, I'm feeling pretty restless and my hands are itching to make something, but my brain is so overwhelmed by my Rav Queue that I haven't got a clue what I want to make.  One minute I'm looking at toy patterns; quick and easy to make, the next minute I'm looking at scarf patterns; it's still cold enough for a scarf, right? And then my other choices are two little cardigans; one is free the other is not.  I have the yarn to make one of the cardigans but not both, and I just  love Andi Satterlund's patterns but can't honestly justify the purchase so close to my birthday (I can feel myself sliding and giving in on this one).
The other problem I have is my knitting stash, a couple of years ago I boxed up all my stash into stackable boxes but at the time I just shoved every colour and every weight into any old box, don't ask me why,  not terribly organised am I? Lol!   It's been preying on my mind the past couple of days, and I keep thinking I really need to sort it out, so why don't I ?  I'm embarrassed to say I have no motivation or time even though I'm on a two week holiday from college, most of my days, are spent plinky, plonking on my computer writing and compiling essays.  Can you tell that I'm fed up? So in an effort to make myself feel better on Sunday I decided to  browse the internet.  I'm a member of quite a few forums, but not been on them as of late, so I decided to give myself some rest-spite and go a wandering.  That's when I happened upon Craftsy  I have been a member of this group since it pretty much started but never actually utilised it until today.  After browsing for about half an hour it appears I have managed to book myself not one but six classes -oops.  I honestly don't know when I am going to have the time to view or complete them, but hey-ho.  The classes range over all the hobbies I am interested in; sewing, spinning and weaving,  I didn't select any knitting or crocheting classes as I have Ravelry for that. The ones I'm quite interested in completing first are:

I'm going to keep the other three classes under wraps for now, and I will just suddenly announce the finished products on my blog once I have made and completed them.   And when I'm done, I will have hopefully gained a few more skills!

Hop, hop, hop!

Say hello to my beautiful little bunny. So much fun to make, she is only 2 inches tall, and a delightful pattern to knit and make.

Bright Shiny Noses

  Some rabbits have bright shiny noses 

I'm telling you now as a friend 

The reason their noses are shiny-- 

Their powder puff's on the wrong end

 Wrong end, wrong end 

Their powder puff's on the wrong end

 Wrong end, wrong end 

Their powder puff's on the wrong end.
(Can Teach:no date)

The pattern is Teeny Tiny Knitted Toys by Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits.

http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems66.html

Day 3 of scrumptious fruit salad Greek yoghurt combos. 

 Made with raisins, diced nectarine and chunks of banana.

 Drizzled with a mango coulis. 

I have been on a bit of a health kick eating wise over the past few days.  Apart from eating Easter eggs,  I don't know if my new eating habit is to do with the little bit of sunshine we have been having lately.  Or if it is due to being a bit off my food, you know when you crave something new, and you just can't be bothered with the same old, same old (cue, dragging of feet). I've also been really tired and wanting to have naps in the afternoon, something that I really don't have the time for as I'm snowed under with course work, humpfff!  So I've come to the conclusion I'm either pining for something or I'm about to come down with an illness. I hope it isn't the latter, just that I need to be more healthy and eat better food.  Does that make any sense?

These are the  Easter Eggs I received this year from Paul.  They are from Marks and Spencers.  I really wanted a Cadbury's Egg because that is my favourite chocolate :(. However, these are extremely yummy.  There are five flavours in total; Ginger and dark chocolate, Raspberry and dark chocolate,  Butterscotch and milk chocolate, and Chocolate Buttons and milk chocolate. The straw is also edible (rice paper).

A couple of weeks ago I decided to cave into the adverts being shown on the television and ordered myself a Graze box.  I have been receiving these boxes for a couple of weeks now I have been sent three boxes in total and to say I'm loving them is an understatement. Yes, there are some  selections that are not my cup of tea but these are few and far between.  At first I was just eating the selections by the handful then Paul came home from the supermarket with some Greek yoghurt, slurp!  So for the past few days I have been eating it for breakfast.  The one pictured is  Super Berry Detox, a mixture of Goji berries, cranberries, blueberries and green raisins topped off with diced nectarine and mango coulis.