Mummy do that!

In service day

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:12:00 +0000

I know blogs are meant to be kind of up to date and like an online diary, but heyho, this is my space and who cares anyway. So remember mid term break? There is this interesting oddity that if your child attends a city council nursery in Glasgow, even on a full time basis, that nursery will be...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Finished Object Friday: Owlets all around

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:22:00 +0000

You know you're taking owls to Athens (that's the German version of "coals to Newcastle") when you knit a baby jumper and the recipient recognises the pattern. Well not the recipient strictly speaking, because he is only a few months old and may be more busy with things like learning how to wind...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

In between jobs

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:22:00 +0000

Usually, the term in between jobs refers to some sort of unemployment. Which is not quite the case for me. My current job is all go as it's heading towards its final bang (and I shall be seeking the help of interested mummy and daddy bloggers to promote an exciting initiative that one of...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Don't mention the war

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:59:00 +0000

Expat life in the UK is a funny old thing at times. Most of the time I honestly don't think about it. I feel at home here, having lived a considerable part of my adult life in this city. Sometimes I realise how many people in Glasgow aren't actually from Glasgow, but mostly, everyone is "just" a...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Finished Object Friday: Crochet T-shirt Yarn Rug

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:31:00 +0000

Ahem. It's a finished object. I like it. But it's all wrong. My excuse: my first big crochet project. But the crochet bit is fine, just the counting and increasing isn't, and I'm not quite sure what happened because I really tried to get it right. Ah well. the kids have adopted it as the...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

United we will swim!

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:45:00 +0000

A good few years ago, when I'd first arrived in Glasgow, I had a lovely Wednesday evening routine. I would meet up with my friend and colleague who stayed locally from me and we'd go to the ladies night in our local swimming pool. It was a fabulous weekly treat, right in the middle of the working...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Finished Object Friday: The Urban Aran

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:37:00 +0000

I've not knitted an adult sized item in, well, maybe 22 years. It's funny how knitting fell by the wayside, especially it occupying such a prominent position when I was a teenager. Was it that knitting fell out of fashion in the 90s? Was it that my last completed jumper just wasn't right (it's...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Musicophile

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:50:00 +0000

I'm a person who can get passionate about a whole lot of things. Pre-children, I sometimes let myself drift by my passions. I travelled, learned languages, read books, and above all, I listened to music. Like any teenager, I eventually found the kind of music for myself that was oh so meaningful,...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

in Wonderland

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:42:00 +0000

If given free choice of where to go, there is no hesitation where our trip should be headed. "Alice in Wonderland!" it is to be, and so today, yet again, Cubling and Snowflake were in Wonderland, having tea parties, opening doors and drawers, growing and shrinking, exploring deep holes in the...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Supporting your bilingual child with the Language Hub

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:59:00 +0000

As a parent who is raising her children bilingually, I'm acutely aware that the main risk for my children's minority language is the fact that it's mainly me who speaks it with them, and that "me" is someone who could also speak English. My kids aren't daft, and from their point of view, there's no...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Rag Rugs all around

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:11:00 +0000

The better half of my evenings last week were made making t-shirt yarn. And what better to make out of all that loveliness than a rag rug! But wait, this is not the only way to make a rag rug. In fact, there are a few approaches to brightening your home up with handmade rugs. Thankfully, all...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Let there be T-Shirt Yarn

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:21:00 +0000

For a few months, there's been a fabulous initiative happening in the south of Glasgow. It's trading by the name of StitchUP and oh, it is so to my liking. Once a month from 6-9pm, one can drop into a very cosy basement of a very nice cafe, and get crafting with fabric and yarn. There's a state of...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Goal posts

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:22:00 +0000

When Mr Cartside came home exceptionally late tonight, I ran off the things I'd achieved today. And somehow it occured to me that I'm not quite sure when exactly the goal posts of what constitutes a successful and satisfying day had changed. Today, while entertaining 4 and 1 year old without...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

That was the plan... And here's the jury:

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:32:00 +0000

I don't do New Years resolutions. Normally. And just to spite myself, I kind of formulated a plan for 2011, which I knew I wouldn't exactly follow through, it was more about reminding myself what I would like to do at one point in time. Needless to say, I haven't looked at the list until today. So,...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

worries by the language obsessed

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:16:00 +0000

In what seems like a previous life, I studied linguistics. I've always been fascinated by languages and if there's one thing that I watch like a hawk, it's how my kids learn to speak. Just that this 15 1/2 months old of mine isn't speaking. Consequently, we've got one worried mama, who once a...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Is this the most beautiful card ever?

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:07:00 +0000

She asked. My answer was something like "beauty is relative and different people find different things beautiful. Your card is probably the most unusual card ever and you have put a lot of effort into making it and I think it's fab." And I wasn't diplomatic, I mean it. (and if you can't make it...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Time to breathe

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:18:00 +0000

The last few months were testing. Within a month after returning to work from maternity leave, redundancy was looming, and it looked as good as certain that I had no choice in the matter and would lose my job. And while in a sense everything is an opportunity, if the opportunity is not a choice,...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

The week before Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:22:00 +0000

These days we've been crafting a lot. With my children or with some slightly older children. I organised a Christmas Fair. We've been to birthday parties and advent celebrations. I've had Barefoot Books stalls at lots of Christmas Fairs locally. I've applied for 2 jobs. We baked Plätzchen. We...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Nikolaus

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:24:00 +0000

So it's Nikolaus today. We almost, just almost did a BIG mistake and forgot to put out the boots. At 11pm I remembered, woke 4 year old up and got her to put out her boot (letting her off the cleaning bit which is part of the tradition, but I thought it would be a bit cruel to make her clean the...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Chase

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:52:00 +0000

These days, I feel like I'm chasing my own tail. Somehow, December has come upon us and I didn't notice. The advent calendar is filled up to day 4 only, and we only have one (poor neglected 1 year old, having figured she won't notice; ha, how wrong was I!) which sums up rather a lot. It's not that...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Catch

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:44:00 +0000

She is 14 months old, and she can just about walk. Crawling is so yesterday that every movement is prefaced by the laborious squat and lifting of her body. Her toddle is determined, yet wobbly and slow. Every step an effort of balance and work against gravity. Her eyes ever attentive, she watches...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

GET IN - young Ambassadors campaign

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:08:00 +0000

It's been all engines go at work (yes I still have a job, even if temporary) and before I collapse after yet another eventful day which was all good but also rather exhausting, it's high time to show you a really highlight of Save the Children's work in the UK, and Scotland in particular. Because,...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

'tis the season...

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:03:00 +0000

...for making photo presents. Every year around about this time, I'm found more in front of the laptop editing photos in the evenings than anything else. My eyes are box shaped as I wade through the thousands of images of two beautiful girls and the occasional rare shot of their parents,...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Babies count

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:05:00 +0000

If there is one thing that has really opened my eyes in relation to rather a lot of things I care about it's the realisation how important the first year is in the development of a human being. Not just the first year of course, but during the first year of life rather a lot happens, and much more...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!

Birthday Treat

noreply@blogger.com (cartside) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 23:48:00 +0000

This was my birthday treat, a bit delayed but all the more longed for. It must be at least a year that I had wanted to do this: The resulting basked is the perfect size for keeping my active knitting projects in. Thanks to Joan Campbell for showing us the basics, cooking yummy soup and...

Continue reading on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment!