Amigurumi Pink Elephant

Little pink crocheted elephant.  Now listed in my Etsy shop.  Click on this link to get to it: http://www.etsy.com/listing/98457032/amigurumi-elephant-baby-elephant

Newborn baby raccoon hat

Just listed this knitted little raccoon hat for a newborn.  Klick on this link to get to the item in my Etsy shop:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/98456522/knitted-newborn-baby-raccoon-hat-photo?ref=pr_shop

Amigurumi - Meet Mister Turtle in his basket!

Here is Mister Turtle in his own little basket!  Just listed him in my Etsy shop.  Have a couple more Amigurumies but need to take some photos before I can list the rest of them.  I started out following a pattern but ended up making up my own basket.

Finally some pictures!

Yeah, now that I'm home I can download the pictures I took while I was in Belgium taking care of my mom.  Some pictures of her cats.  Pictures of the three figurines I made and pictures of the baby elephant toy I made.  The Elephant toy will be for sale in my Etsy shop in the next week sometime.  The little bunny I made for my niece's birthday.   I made a bunch of other things but I haven't taken pictures of those yet.  I was hoping to take some today but due to the rain I couldn't.  But at least here are some of the pictures I promised!

Treasuries, confusing keyboard and heading back

First I want to say thank you to those of you who featured any of my shop items in all those lovely treasuries these last couple of weeks. I usually feature those treasuries on this blog but since I've been out of the country for almost two months taking care of my mother I haven't been able to do so. I couldn't get it to work properly on my I pad. Then I tried using my moms laptop! Oh boy, it's a dinosaur from 2000 AND it has the AZERTY keyboard. Which in itself isn't that bad except because it's a 12 yr old computer the keys have been used A LOT so most of the description on top of the keys are worn off which made it impossible for me to work right. But I'm heading home this weekend so once I'm back in the swing of things I will be making treasuries again and feature the once my items are in as well. I made a bunch of new things during my stay here in Belgium but I will need to take photos first to get them listed in my shop. Now some good news - mom gained 3 kilos this past week! Yeahhhhhh, I'm so happy about that. She lost so much weight since dad got ill with lung cancer, the passed away last summer and then she got diagnosed having breast cancer which only added to her loosing weight. But now that she decided not to go for chemo and radiation she isnt all stressed out anymore, has been able to focus on eating more and will hopefully gain another 6 kilos soon which would bring her back to her normal weight. Of course having me her has helped her with eating and trying different foods and dishes so I hope that when I leave she will continue with that. Alright folks, this is my last day in Belgium. Got to pack my suitcase. I'm sad having to leave my family again but happy to go home to be with my kid, my husband and the animals ... And my own computer as well! Come back soon to find more treasuries and pictures of all the new things I made and will be listed in my Etsy shops.

Have you ever heard of "Pietepap"?

I haven't had "Pietepap" in a 100 years I think. It's pasta pudding! First you boil the pasta in water, my grandparents used to make it with spaghetti but my mom always used macaroni. It doesn't really matter what kind of pasta you use for this, to me it tastes good with any kind of pasta. Drain the water off the pasta, then put the pasta with milk and sugar in a pot and bring it to a boil. Mix some vanilla pudding powder with a bit of milk in a cup and once the milk with the pasta starts to boil you thicken it with the vanilla pudding powder mixture. You need to make it a bit more runny then a regular pudding. I used to make it when I had a bit of left over pasta from a dinner dish. You have to eat it while it's still nice and warm. You can keep left overs till the next day but your Pietepap will be a lot thicker by then since the pasta will absorb a lot of the liquid from the pudding. A friend of mine who's mom always made it with macaroni used to call it macaroni pudding but it's the same thing. As a young child I used to make a game out of eating it with my grandfather. We used to slurp the long spaghetti's of the Pietepap. I remember my grandmother yelling at my grandfather for doing so, but we would both ignore her and keep on slurping our "Pietepap"! So guess what I had for dessert tonight here at mom's house? A nice big bowl of Pietepap! It was delicious! I think I might have the left over for breakfast tomorrow. Kids love this dish!

So what would you do?

Mom decided not to go through with chemo and radiation! I know she really really dreaded having to go so when she made her decision last night my brother and I fully support her in making that choice. In the meantime we have contacted the surgeon who did the mastectomy and whom mom really liked. She will be going back to him to have her stitches removed and for her follow up scans. She is so much more relaxed now that she has made peace with her decision and if the cancer does come back we will deal with it then. She has been through hell these couple of months, I'm heading back to the States this weekend. I know I will miss mom but I'm looking forward to get home and hug my kid, my husband, the cat, the dog and even the fish!