M1

We spent the weekend celebrating M's 1st birthday. It's such a cliche but it really has gone by so fast! Seems like only a few weeks ago I was on a "new baby" high, ecstatic that our new baby had *finally* arrived. She made me wait 11 days over my due date and then made a super quick entry into the world. I hadn't planned an unassisted birth but couldn't have asked for a more perfect way to welcome baby #3. I am sure my Mum will always have a special place in her heart for the granddaughter she delivered.

So henceforth she will now be known as M1. Much easier than BabyM , MXmonths etc :D

Here is the cupcake 'sculpture' that was her birthday cake.


Things were a bit trickier this time as N2 is gluten and dairy free at the moment so I had to do a bit of planning to come up with a suitable N-friendly birthday afternoon tea menu! I managed it though and have to say it was all very yummy! In case you need to bake something yummy for someone gluten free the recipe I used for the cupcakes is here. Very moist and light and definitely hard to pick it was GF. I managed to somehow make them crunchy on the top and gooey in the middle so they tasted like GF brownies. Very very nice.
Decorated with dairy free frosting and GF marshmellows. I was a bit stressed about what to do but it all came together pretty well I thought!

And here is the birthday girl playing with her new maraca. She loves the shaker things at playcentre so this was definitely a favourite present.



I didn't knit her anything. Shocking I know!

My nephew is having a birthday this week too and I *did* knit him something. Carrying on with my attempts to do as many handmade presents as possible this year. His Mum mentioned he often has cold hands so I made him a pair of mittens using this pattern . I'd seen a pair K made and had queued the pattern for just in case. Good move - these are easy peasy and a really nice fit.



I made them from some blue and gray DK in my stash. The pattern is for aran weight but I tend to knit loose anyway and these turned out a perfect size without any modifications for lighter weight yarn. This pic is a much better one of the colours. I love the gray against the navy.




These were a easy and quick knit (which you will recognise as my favourite kind of knitting). I'm working on a pair for myself now!

If you've been reading my blog for awhile you will know my nephew has leukemia. Thank you to everyone who has used my chemo earflap hat pattern and donated to the Child Cancer Foundation, and sent love and prayers his way. I'm very relieved to say that, while he is still very frail, he is doing very well and is now on the maintenance programme. We hope the worst is now behind him and there are no more hurdles in his way to a return to good health.