I'm back. Made it to my knitting class maybe even a little ahead of the other students (thank goodness for The golden Girls marathon on late night telly). So the knitting has been put aside for the needle felting and that isn't going well. Ailee thinks her lion's head looks like a brown flower. What am I going to do? I'm committed! I've told so many people I'm needle felting this years Halloween costumes I have to keep going. I can't go to Costco now (and get the costumes the girls actually wanted), I have a reputation to establish as that amazing Australian woman who needle felted those beautiful costumes! Maybe Ailee could just be a big brown flower! I'll run that by her in the morning.

So The Munari/O'shannassy's left us and the overcast skies of that weekend opened up and it rained for three days, night and day, solidly. Amazing. I had to go out and buy wet weather gear because there is no such thing as rainy day schedule at Waldorf, no, it's get out in that rain and jump around in those puddles ( so long as you are dressed appropriately of course). Phemie told her class how exciting it would be if we got rain at home like this.

But on the forth day the sun came out and it was back to the banana lounges and there hasn't been a cloud in the sky since. I was getting ready to make soup a week ago and now we are back in the pool. 

We did have a birthday last week, Pheme turned 11. One of my personal favorite birthday traditions in our family is letting the girls make their own cake. They love it and if you think craft causes me stress well baking just tips me over the edge! (Hi Lee, Hi Jules). Using her array of Halloween decorations (Thanks Lee), she set off to create a spider web cake. Yummy. 

I'm on a knitting deadline and if I don't finnish the body by Tuesday night then I can't start the sleeves and it's the last class and anyone who knows me (hi Mum), will know what stress this knitting business can cause me plus Halloween is fast approaching and I've told the girls that this year we are not throwing cash at the costume shop, nup, Mummy's going to needle felt you all a costume! So blogging has taken a back seat at the moment but after Tuesday I am back on board with loads of photos to post.

No it can't be the true, cloudy in Santa Barbara! Sadly for our visitors from Down Under, we experienced the first really cool and cloudy weekend. Still managed to have a great time, going to the Santa Barbara Seafood Festival ( oh how Daryl loves a festival especially when there is a craft market attached!), followed by some shopping in State Street, and then an adults night out starting with drinks at a wine bar and dinner at a mexican restaurant. 

Sunday was slightly slower, lots of pool time ( freezing as it was there are some braver that I), trip to Costco for undies, cameras and champagne, dinner, bed. Hope they are now having a great time heading up the 101 on their way to San Fran!

Back to the subject of knitting for just one moment. I have to mention that one of the most amazing knitters I have ever known is my own mother and I am so grateful that she had the patience to teach my sister and I to knit. Thanks Beryl xxxx