KNITTED BABY BEANIE

Oh my, how time flies. Oscar is already two and a half weeks old, and he's already grown so much that he's starting to fit into the newborn sized onesies (he was far too small for them when he came home from the hospital). How did that even happen?

And so far, we seem to be adjusting well. We've had a couple of challenging nights, but for the most part he lets us sleep pretty well through the night, and spends most of his time napping. He's actually currently on my lap, napping away as I type this. Because in the time it took me to start writing this post, he's demanded that I stop everything I'm doing to change and feed him, and he's now happily snoring away. Yeah, our household basically revolves around him these days.

And since everything runs on Oscar time, I haven't had much of a chance to do anything else. Any project I started before Oscar was born has basically been put on hold. That baby mobile for his crib that I started on the day I went into labor lies unfinished, and this Christmas present I started making hasn't been touched since he got here (no, no, calm down, I wasn't being overly organized, I was just trying to keep myself busy while waiting for him to arrive). So this knitted baby beanie I'm sharing here today is actually something I knitted a good while ago, when Graeme and I were enjoying a weekend at my parents cabin. But I'm kinda glad I waited a while to post it, because, you guys, have you seen my little hat model?

I used the leftover yarn I had from this blanket to make this beanie. It's a very simple and quick hat to knit, where you start at the bottom and decrease at the top. To make, cast on 72 stitches on size 3.5 double pointed knitting needles. Knit two, purl two for about 10 rows, or until you have the rolled edge as big as you'd like it to be. Then, knit one row to make a natural fold for the rolled edge. This step isn't technically necessary, but it makes the folded edge a lot neater. Continue by knitting two and purling two as you did before, until you've knitted about 10 cm. Then, to decrease, repeat the following until the end of the row: * knit two, purl two, knit two, purl two, knit two together, purl two, knit two, purl two, knit two, purl two together *. For the next row repeat: * knit two, purl two, knit two, purl one, knit two together, purl two, knit two, purl two, knit one, purl two together * until the end of the row. Continue like this until you're just knitting and purling two and two together, and finish off by pulling the yarn through the remaining stitches. Make a bobble and attach to the top of the beanie. Place hat on baby.

Don't take too many photos of said baby in beanie though, or he'll end up making this face:

Oh, how I love that little angry face. Oscar the Grouch.

And also: after telling you all about how I have tons of unfinished projects and seemingly no time to do anything about them...guess who went out and bought yarn for a new project today? 

HELLO THERE, OSCAR FINCH

And there he was, our little Oscar Finch.

He arrived on Monday May 9th, weighing in at 3280 grams and measuring 51 cm long. After making his impatient mamma wait for ages, he decided to arrive at full speed on the day before I was scheduled to get induced. He's got his dad's dark hair and one of his mamma's dimples, and we both pretty much melt every time he opens his big eyes to look at us! We are super smitten and absolutely over the moon. <3

OLYMPUS OM10 / A WEEKEND IN OSLO

So my due date has come and passed, and there's still no sign of mini McMillan. To kill some time, I've been working on a new photo book. Just over a year ago, Graeme and I hopped on the train and headed to Oslo one weekend. Our trip was for wedding related business. In order for us to get married in Norway, we needed to visit the British Embassy so that Graeme could swear on a bible to prove that he was not already married in his home country. We found this whole concept hilarious (we're not religious in the slightest for a start), but decided to make the most of it and enjoy a lovely spring weekend away.

With a bit of luck I also managed to snatch my dream wedding dress that weekend. I'd tried it on in a shop in London, but sadly they only had one left that was just a little too tight. And by some bizarre stroke of luck, there was a girl in Oslo that weekend selling the exact same dress, only actually in my size. She'd bought it in New York for a wedding that had been put on hold, so the dress hadn't even been worn and still had the tags on. Graeme and I celebrated afterwards with a pint at Grunerløkka Brygghus.

These were all shot by Graeme (except for the one with Graeme in it) on the Olympus OM10 with 35mm film. I love this camera, and I've been using it quite a bit recently. I handed in a film to get developed last week, so I'm quite excited to see how they'll turn out!

2016 ALBUM: MARCH & APRIL

I was a bit late with finishing the March chapter of my 2016 album, so I decided to just wait with the post until I was done with the April chapter too. And whoa, this means I'm actually 1/3 through this album. I swear 2016 just started?

I had a bad case of the flu over Easter so ended up spending a little too much of March in bed, and didn't really take a whole lot of pictures. April's kinda been a bit of a waiting month. I went on leave after the first week, and I've been keeping busy since. A friend of mine also came to visit for a weekend, which coincided with my surprise baby shower (they caught me totally off guard, I was just taking the dog for a quick walk when a bunch of cars filled with balloons and friends in party hats pulled into my driveway haha)! Spring's also brought us a bit of sunshine, and sunshine = walks on the beach.

We have no plans for May, as I suspect we'll be rather busy once the little one arrives! My due date was yesterday, so guess he'll be here any day now. Hopefully he won't hold out on us too long!

PINEAPPLE CHUTNEY

Last week, we tried out one of those meal plan boxes. If you're unfamiliar with the concept: you get a a box delivered on the Sunday/Monday with a pre-planned dinner menu for the week complete with the recipes and all the ingredients. You still have to cook your food, but all the planning is taken out of the equation, you end up with way less food waste, and you get to try a couple of new recipes. We ordered it just to try it out and don't plan on turning it into a weekly affair, but I can also see us doing it again sometime.

As a special offer, we also got a free box of fruit with our meal plan box. It seemed like a good idea at the time when I was ordering, but I didn't really realize how big the box would be, and in retrospect I think about half of the amount of fruit would have been more appropriate for two adults. I've been starting my days with fresh smoothies everyday and constantly nagging at Graeme to take more fruit with him to work, but there's still a lot left. It also doesn't help that with a few exceptions, I'm allergic to most tropical fruit, so there's only so much of it I can actually eat. Bananas, melons, avocados, kiwis and even certain nuts will make me itch all down my throat, eyes and ears, and can even cause my tongue and throat to swell up. It's not so bad that I need to carry around an epipen or anything, but the reaction can last all day so I generally find that it's just not really worth it haha.

One thing I've learnt though, is that for some reason I can eat most of these fruits if they've been cooked. Fruit compotes, pineapple on pizza, coconut curry or mango baked into a cake? Yes, please, don't mind if I do! So in an effort to eliminate some tropical fruits from our fruit boxes, I decided to turn that deadly fresh pineapple into a delicious pineapple chutney. Now we're talking!

Ingredients:
1 red onion, chopped
3 chilis, chopped (I used really mild chilis, so I decided to leave the seeds in)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cumin
1 pineapple, chopped into chunks
175 ml apple cider vinegar

Directions:
Add the onion, chilis and spices to a medium sized pot with a bit of oil, and cook on medium high heat until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the pineapple and vinegar, and let it simmer with the lid on for about 30 minutes and get thick and chunky. Transfer to sterilized jars and let cool.

This chutney is delicious with barbecued pork, or on a burger. Or, you know, you could enjoy it in one of my favorite ways to enjoy pretty much any chutney: in a grilled cheese sandwich. Lunch is served!