It is that time of year that I just love - Autumn!! And thankfully the rainy week that began ended with some sun. Hooray! We are having a fun weekend here in London and have enjoyed getting out for the last several days. Here are some pictures and a recap of what we've been up to ...

Thurs: Kensington Gardens - The Princess Diana Memorial Playgrounds w/Ava & Hannah. Hannah and I have managed to get together sans kiddies for the last few Fridays. When I've returned home, Kaneu asks "You see Hannah? When I go next time?" He has missed his friend! Ava and Kaneu had a really fun time together and managed to get into some mischief during lunch at Whole Foods. Too bad we didn't catch it on camera, but the security guard came over to see why they were having so much fun.

Fri: Origin fine arts and crafts fair at Somerset House. Hannah and I attended this last Fri too and found many things that we loved, but couldn't really afford. Isn't that always the case?!

Sat: Pumpkin picking at Garsons Farm w/Ava, Hannah & Rob. The pumpkins were a little "picked" over, but we still managed to bring home 3. We were pleasantly surprised to find that they also had pick-your-own dahlias. There were many other pyo vegetables and fruits, but the dahlias and pumpkins tired us out. We opted for tea in the restaurant instead of more picking :)

Sun: Primrose Hill Park. As you can see the leaves are changing here, but more importantly the Redskins are playing today and the Hokies won yesterday's game to Duke.

Brian just returned from being in the States earlier in the week and brought me back a whole suitcase of goodies, including a great new cookbook. I am really liking this book so far, though I haven't prepared anything yet, but the recipes sounds great and I can't wait to see how the brownies (with spinach!) and chocolate chip cookies (with chickpeas?) turn out. Amongst my goods are also new fabrics (see below)! I am now ready to begin the quilted throw that I'll be making. I'm very excited and a little nervous. I've been sewing more bags (see below), and am feeling much more confident in my sewing skills. He also brought me back some new sewing books and so I may opt to complete a few more small projects before embarking on the throw. I haven't had a chance to look through the new books but have a feeling it'll be a late night! I feel as though it is like Christmas. I know, I'm such a dork to be so excited over fabrics and cookbooks. What has happened to me?!

Hope you are having a fun day doing what you love. dana

It's official!

Well, it is official - we are on the waiting list for a referral! I should also note that we are at the bottom of a very, very long list. There are 85 families currently in our agency's Vietnam program - some of them have received referrals and are waiting to travel, though most families are waiting for their referrals. We are so relieved to finally be on the list. Once we are closer to receiving a referral we will begin putting our dossier together ... again :) dana

I've been dabbling with flickr and made this photo collage on another neat web site. Here are some pictures from the last week of the various things we've done. About 2 weeks ago I cut my hair AND dyed it an auburnish-brown. The color has faded a lot and I'm thinking I'll need to touch up soon as it's quickly turning into a reddish color that I'm not a big fan of (no offense to you redheads out there, I just don't like the color on me). Anyhoo, it's been raining here and it's time to put on my boots and go get Kaneu from school. We'll have just enough time for a quick lunch and then we're off to gymnastics.

Enjoy :) dana

Croatia

I haven't had a chance to comment on our trip to Croatia yet and am sad that my memories aren't as fresh as when we returned home. Let me first say it was incredibly fun and we were constantly in awe of the beauty of the Dalmation coast. Luckily for us Croatia is less than a 3 hour plane ride away. Unforch for our friends, Greg and Sarah, theirs was an 18 hour journey from Blacksburg, VA.

We split our 10 days between Cavtat (pronounced Tsavtat), a small coastal town south of Dubrovnik, and the island of Korcula (pronounced Korchula). It was a very relaxing vacation - we kept to a really low-key itinerary, meaning we had no itinerary, which is very uncharacteristic of our trips. I usually go with articles and research I have collected for months and months. On this trip I opened our guidebook on the plane and did a little leisurely reading. I have to admit that it was really nice exploring the place on our own, without a list of "must sees" and discovering the sights fresh without the slant of a clipped article or book recommendation. Here are some of my favorite photos, we took close to 500!

Brian & Kaneu in Cavtat

Dubrovnik

family in Korcula

view from our villa (Korcula)

hammin' it up in Korcula town

view of the Adriatic from Racisce (Korcula)

nice view

fun in the sun

walking the wall in Dubrovnik

counting fish in Cavtat

first day in Cavtat

If I had to gripe about anything (and I always do about something -- look out for a future post about this) it would be the weather. Keep in mind that the London Summer of 2007 didn't happen. Yes, somehow summer sneaked in and sneaked out and left me feeling very dissatisfied. I was extremely excited about our trip to Croatia - had been reading that the weather was hot and sunny for most of the summer ... until we showed up! The day we arrived mother nature decided to give the Croats and tourists a break from the heat by dropping the temps from the 90s down to the 50s, 60s, and low 70s. She was even so generous to throw in a mix of rain and winds. We evidently have bad luck with weather and travel, or so it seems anyways. We still had a fantastic time and Croatia is such a beautiful place that we got over the weather and thoroughly enjoyed our visit. Thankfully we packed many layers and wore every one of them. In the pictures it looks as though I was wearing the same clothes over and over ... because I did. I was doing laundry almost daily. But hey, I'm not complaining! :) dana