Karate

Kyan needs to move a little, and we thought that karate would be a good idea. First, because he can use some help on his gross motor skills. Then, because we like the philosophy behind the martial arts. And finally, he's been doing some wacky kung foo moves for a while, one of these days he may end up in front of somebody who really knows martial arts. So far, Kyan loves the classes, and is very proud to show Anastasia what he's learned.

News from the Giraffe

A few weeks ago, I submitted 8 designs of children clothing to a startup which, through contests, produces and sells the most successful submissions. Out of the 8 designs, 4 got selected, and now it's time to vote. This week, you can vote for bottoms (leggings, shorts, skirts), until August 28th. The tops will come next week.

So, if you're interested in supporting The Lazy Giraffe, you can vote through your facebook account. To vote, follow HERE, sign up with your facebook account, and click on the little heart on the design you like (you can vote for as many submissions as you like). You can also click on Follow and therefor will receive all my future submissions.

The theme is "Urban Garden", for little girls 2-6, Spring '13. And if you'd like to see the other submissions, it's HERE.

Thanks a bunch...

Not so quiet after all...

Last night, Neo the Cat decided to take off. Since it's part of his bad habits, he can only go out in the backyard tied up to a long leash, which doesn't seem to bother him. The problem is that last night the leash got untied, and Neo was left wandering in the nature dragging a 20 foot long rope, with a strong possibility to get caught on a fence or a tree. Hoping to catch Neo before it ends up in a very precarious position, I took the kids and went search the neighborhood. That's how we met a whole bunch of people living on the street behind our house, and Kyan and Anastasia had a blast on the adventure, meeting new people and knocking on doors to go check in everybody's backyard. They even got some chocolate along the way. Not much luck finding Neo, though...

I kept on looking outside all evening, in case Neo would show up. In the process, I bothered a garden snake hidden in the wild rose bush, a skunk roaming behind the shed late in the night, heard a family of opossums by the fence, and went in the backyard at 2am to check on suspicious noises to find three raccoons perched on a tree. Given the mess we sometime find in our garden, I suspected we had a few nocturnal visitors, but never imagined it to be such a popular spot (it's a rather small garden). And, of course, still no cat.

That silly Neo finally showed up in the morning, and with all the possibilities to get trapped, got stocked with its leash on our steps to the garden. Lucky, lucky cat, but no more roaming for Neo for a while...

As for the pictures, I didn't take them but am hoping to be lucky enough one of these days to have a camera handy at the right time...

Quiet garden

A few news from the garden: the great peach tree which had delighted us with fabulous fruits a few years back is no more, old age or sickness, we don't really know. On the other hand, a shrimpy apple tree we had cleared out of overgrown bushes when we bought the house is doing fantastic every year, it produces a lot of apples, quite small to be honest, but absolutely delicious.
And while the garden is growing, I did some henna... 

In Ontario

Still traveling, but we will calm down very soon. We were in Canada for Michael's niece's wedding (Michael and the kids are still in Toronto actually). While there, we also did a lot of gardening, and went kayaking and canoeing a few times on the many little lakes in the area. Typical activities for a Canadian Summer, actually...

While in Switzerland, I went, as usual, take a look at fabric stores. Seems like the selection is shrinking every year, but I still found a few fun prints. Kyan had his heart set on this fabric with sheep, a thick cotton in which I made him a pair of cropped pants, and a short skirt for Anastasia with the leftover. I also found a cute fabric with cows, I just couldn't resist making a very suiting little dress. While I'm working on my own cow pattern, that is...