monica's Profile

*** it's time to move ***

It's been a great home this one for me. I've had the best of time... but a change is due... Please come and visit my new place: www.quiltwhileyoureahead.com It would be terribly lonely without you all. Continue reading

Posted Jan 11, 2017 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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- 3 - Hello Fresh

So a few days before Christmas I got talked into joining HelloFresh by two very polite (and completely frozen solid) young men canvassing the neighbourhood. I'd heard of the company before... but they didn't seem to have a box for... Continue reading

Posted Jan 6, 2017 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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- 2 - seed stitch cowl

... or moss stitch cowl, which means the same thing and it would be a better name for this given it is totally the colour of moss. (Don't show this sentence to my English teacher... clumsy or what? Didn't sleep... Continue reading

Posted Jan 5, 2017 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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- 1 - Happy New Year

I've just stripped the tree. It's always sad when the house goes back to normal. Ok it does feel good to have less clutter around... but... it seems like an awful long time to the next Christmas season... Normally I... Continue reading

Posted Jan 3, 2017 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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happy new year Kristina!! lets make it a good one! xx Monica

Commented Dec 30, 2016 on *121** at {quilt} while you're ahead

*122*

Another day another walk. This time - pay attention - at dawn. Yes DAWN. As in virtually still night time, cold and dark. No 2 and his GoPro (I swear he loves that thing more than his parents) had the... Continue reading

Posted Dec 29, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*121**

Contrary to what I said yesterday... I didn't go to`IKEA today. Just couldn't face it. It was sunny and crisp, a perfect winter's day. So we went for a walk... .... with: - a winging teenager. - a cold pre-teen... Continue reading

Posted Dec 28, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*120**

I'm back. All the men in the household are watching the football. Boring. (All bar one: No 1 is shooting insurgents in his bedrooms whilst skyping his mates and snap chatting girls. Who says men can't multitask when it's convenient... Continue reading

Posted Dec 27, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*119**

Merry Christmas to all of you wonderful people! I'm going to go AWOL for a while and enjoy a quite (ha ha) time with family and knitting and inappropriate quantity of food. I'm looking forward to Christmas (now that the... Continue reading

Posted Dec 22, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*118** bauble wreath

It's a little bit blingy and bright and shiny....it's a little fun... It's a coat hanger covered in cheap baubles and a big red bow to cover the badly made fastening. (Coat hangers are hard to bend, people, don't assume... Continue reading

Posted Dec 13, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*117** seed stitch

It's one of my favourite knitting stitch. BUT. It's very boring to knit. You kind of need to concentrate a little so it's not mindless knitting... at the same time it's not exactly challenging. AND. It takes a long time.... Continue reading

Posted Dec 9, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*116**

In my mind I wrote lots of blog posts. In my mind I wasn't absent at all... I wrote about frost and beautiful silver landscapes. I wrote about Christmas shopping and asked your help on presents for an 11yr old... Continue reading

Posted Dec 5, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*115**

No 2 made me a bookmark: ... awwww.... Last night I finished reading NW by Zadie Smith. Brilliantly written but I should have read it slower because I missed one vital clue and the end didn't make sense. Had to... Continue reading

Posted Nov 16, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*114** bittersweet

"Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I've shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised way, a thousand delicious ill-advised ways I'll keep from my children. The world is at least fifty percent... Continue reading

Posted Nov 10, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*113** the 'lounge' quilt

This must be a record. A quilt in less than a week? Without further ado I give you .... 'the lounge quilt' (to replace the old lounge quilt which is now the 'back of the car quilt', not a demotion,... Continue reading

Posted Nov 10, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*112** amaryllis

I woke up this morning with a jolt and then after checking the news I wished I hadn't woken up at all. I can cope with nightmares... but reality? It's a little bit harder. People... what is going on? Why?... Continue reading

Posted Nov 9, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*111* No 1's quilt

When we moved into our new home the boys got new beds. Big boys' beds. Big boys' beds which are still too small when your first born passes the 6'1" mark... but that it's a story for another time. Today... Continue reading

Posted Nov 8, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*110**

I'm still alive!! Still alive. Still The jet-lag was bad, or as the boys would say my jet lag game was strong. Real strong. But I made it through... kind of. The test will be the school meeting tonight... why... Continue reading

Posted Nov 7, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*109** postcards from LA art district

... on the road early, in the rain (and they say it never rains in Southern California... right...) We had an afternoon to kill before our evening flight so we headed towards the Art District of LA and more out... Continue reading

Posted Nov 1, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*108** postcards from Palm Springs

Last day. (as much as I need to see my boys - after a week there's a tugging inside me that wants to bring me back home - I know I haven't finished with this place... I have to come... Continue reading

Posted Oct 30, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*107** postcards from Palm Springs

Still here... still loving it. More than loving it, actually. We took an architectural tour ran by a really nice chap called Robert Imber, so totally passionate about architecture and so in love with this city that it was a... Continue reading

Posted Oct 28, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*106** postcards from Palm Springs

Today we left the Parker hotel to try out some other place with a different atmosphere, but I can't just leave you with that... this place needs to be seen. It could be in fact be called Instagram hotel... everywhere... Continue reading

Posted Oct 26, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*105** postcards from Palm Springs

Today was exactly like I thought Palm Springs would be Blue sky and palms. Fabulous. I went for a walk this morning whilst Mr M hit the gym... The air was warm and clear (I'm getting slightly obsessed with mail... Continue reading

Posted Oct 25, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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*104** postcards from Palm Springs

... so you know the bit about 'sunny California'? Well they lied. About an hour after we landed this happened: Ridiculous. Anyway, the flight was great (annoying kid aside. not ours, we left ours behind with my parents), we exited... Continue reading

Posted Oct 24, 2016 at {quilt} while you're ahead

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Hi Kristina, I’m getting quite upset that in my life I won’t ever be able to read all the books I’d like to read… The talks was about the ‘great American Novel’ and for some reason there was a lot of focus on old books rather than contemporary writer although a few were mentioned as being brilliant (AnnTyler, Anne Patchett, Annie Proux… a lot of women writers! Jonathan Franzen was quietly slated - reading between the lines - of which I’m glad because I really don’t get on with his self-absorbed ranting) The books I’ve jotted down all the books I would like to read to fill a gap in my… ‘reading history’ for want of a better word.. The Ambassadors and Portrait of a lady, the last of the mohicans (I read it in Italian centuries ago) Moby Dick the invisible man Infinite jest (can’t read my writing!) Barkskin The underground railway The heart is a lonely hunter Pale Fire Faulkner Willa Cather Nabokov (Panin? not just lolita) Saul Bellow Jane Smiley John Updike I’m sure you read all of them already! The three panelist’s favourite American books were: The great gatsby, The Scarlett Letter, the invisible man. what would you say? Why did nobody mention To kill a mockingbird?? take care, Monica

Commented Oct 20, 2016 on *102** more book talk at {quilt} while you're ahead