Champagne in one hand...

F(Ph)enomenal Friday: Be The Change You Want To See In The World - Rob Lyon

This is part II of a series of F(Ph)enomenal Friday posts about the people of Children Walking Tall.  For part I, click here.

And today, I welcome you to.....

“Who Wants To Be A (rupee) Millionaire” (cue loud audience applause)

For 1000 rupees: Have you even seen or read about an injustice or disaster and thought “I’m going to do something about this?  I can do something to make this better”?

Come on. Hands up…. high in the air….that’s it, right up. Yep, lots of you and I’m very glad to see it.

 
For 10,000 rupees: Have you ever followed that thought by donating money to charity?  Done a sponsored bike ride/swim/run/Harry Potter reading marathon?  Keep your hands up….come on Hilary, Karen, raise them high.  Do you sponsor a child in a 3^rd World country? Have you ever written a letter to a politician or stood up in a meeting and declared your desire to right an injustice? Yep, keep them up – Fantastic!! Many hands still in the air.

 

For 100,000 rupees: Have you ever been so moved/incensed that you have decided to up sticks, leave a career, move to another country, battle with (often corrupt) officials who constantly question your motives and set up your own charity, to make absolutely sure that you can make a difference?

No one? All hands down?  You can ‘Call a Friend’……

Hang on….I see someone….weaving in and out of Goa traffic (worthy of a blog post all of its own) at breakneck speed, on a Bajaj Pulsar 220, dodging sacred cows (ugh, apart from that one ;-) and skidding into the hall with both hands aloft!!!!  
Meet Rob Lyon, founder of Children Walking Tall! 

 
Hang on though….not too fast….there’s one final round….for 1 million rupees….

Is there anyone here with the patience of Job, who has his motives for running a children’s charity in India constantly questioned, is at the mercy of a landlord who can (and did) double the rent of the charity headquarters? Anyone who, when the license for having a ‘childcare facility’ ran out, refused to pay the um, “fees” (bribes) to unscrupulous officials because he was determined to spend that money on the KIDS, endured multiple hostile “inspections” and decided that with no license to have children at Mango House, he would take Mango House to the kids…..into the slums…. for two years and counting? Anyone that has done all that and:

 
Yep, we still have one man standing.  Congratulations Sir.  You (deserve to be) are a (rupee) MILLIONAIRE!!!!  Give the man a Honeybee and Coke!!

 
Rob Lyon, having some rare downtime!

Add a few ‘Dudes!!’ to Rob’s vocabulary and a skateboard (or maybe, more fittingly – rollerblades – he used to be a wicked rollerskater) to his feet and Rob; dark hair, glasses, 5 o’ clock shadow, laid back almost to the point of falling over, would blend into a southern California surfer town.  His tenacity however, has taken him on a completely different path. His dedication to > 100 slum kids is palpable.  His life is the kids.  Like a dedicated father, he works non-stop to give them the very best. That laidback trait of his has served him well also….during eternal interactions with Indian burocracy.  Curiously, said laidback trait completely disappears when on aforementioned bike ;-)!

8 years ago, Rob, a (then 30 year old) computer programmer traveled to India with his then-girlfriend to volunteer at a kid’s charity in Goa for 8 months.  When he returned to England, he couldn’t stop thinking about the kids and how he might do things a bit differently (and better).  Friends and family encouraged him and not too long later, Rob was back in Goa.  He founded Children Walking Tall “A UK Charity Helping Children In India To Have a Childhood Worth Remembering” in 2004.  Rob wanted the charity to have a base, somewhere kids from slums near Mapusa, Goa, could come, learn, wash, eat, receive basic medical treatment and most importantly PLAY in safety.  The Mango House looked like the perfect place!  What do you think?

  FOR RENT:  Charming Portuguese-style house, large gardens, a dream home for the DIY enthusiast. (Reproduced with permission from the Children Walking Tall Website)

Rob however saw the potential, and with determination, and volunteer support the dilapidated wreck was transformed into this!

Build it and they will come…..Reproduced with permission from the Children Walking Tall website

The Mango House kitchen - BEFORE:

mmmm, 5 second rule does not apply

and AFTER:

you could eat off the floor!! (not advised by author!!). Reproduced with permission from Children Walking Tall website

 The Hallway BEFORE:

Reproduced with permission from Children Walking Tall website

and after:

Fun times with Goofy, Tigger, Pooh and Dumbo! Reproduced with permission from Children Walking Tall website

And come they did.  Around 50 kids from 2 local slums came to the house 5 days a week for morning school, afterschool, showers, play, sewing classes, crafts, meals and basic first aid (every kid LOVES a “puttee” (bandaid)!).  As Mango House’s childcare license was nearing expiration, positive inspections were thought to guarantee a seamless renewal……Two years later, at a burocratic crawl ungreased by backhanders, Rob still doesn't have a renewed license in his hands. With bittersweet irony, since the license has lapsed and Rob et al. have been forced to take CWT into the slums, the charity has been able to help many more kids (well over 100) but with less structure and stability (slums are often transient locales).  CWT may also have the world’s only slum savings bank for kids (with an interest rate to make you envious!).

Taking Mango House to the slums. Aly (AKA "Sir") helping with homework at the schoolroom at Karaswada slum.

We're gonna have to put the school fees up for this classroom!!  a BEFORE photo!!

Song time at the, em, "outdoor classroom" at Crossroads slum

Rob and the staff at CWT still labor to get the kids (usually from out-of-State and lacking necessary paperwork) into school.  Savita and Heena at Mango House sew their uniforms.  Rob rushes them to hospital in emergencies (severe cuts, burns, abuse and infections are rampant in a slum environment) and the charity pays for all the kids’ medical bills.  CWT organizes day trips to the beach, the circus, for a boat ride, pedalos, a train ride, to the aquarium….heck even the bus rides to get to where we were going were adventures (and some of my happiest memories).

"Has it all gone in?"  Sunblocktasticness on a beach trip

Rob and Saroja (CWT's cook) on a pedalo ride at Mayam Lake

Make it go faster!!!!! Fun at the Children's park (open from 4pm only!)

At the park near the slums.  What do you MEAN it's broken?  Push me, push me!! Thank God for Tetanus Vaccinations!

Rob LOVES those kids.  And they love him.  Go anywhere around town with him (eeeek! Perched on the back of the Bajaj Pulsar 220) and you will pass lots of beaming faces, frantic waves and ‘ROOOOOOBBBBBBBBBB’ s.  The man is mobbed like a rockstar when he arrives in the slums!  and it’s all that love, that keeps him doing it.  Let’s face it, how many of us get to witness on a daily basis, how much good our work is doing?  I mean really doing?  In a "be the change you want in the world" type way?

Rob’s future hopes for the charity are simple:

“…to keep helping slum and street children by providing them with a chance of a loving and fun childhood. I will try to get them off the streets, into school, get them fed, improve their health etc.”

I hope he keeps on keeping on.

If you are interested in volunteering, riding on the back of that motorbike or just finding out more about CWT, click on the cute little animated icon in the top right hand corner of my blog!  While you are there you could subscribe to my blog and start getting email notifications when I post ;-)

More about the people of Children Walking Tall next Friday!

Have a fantastic JULY 4^TH WEEKEND!!!!

 

 

Celebrating 1000 Hits and Getting to the (Bikini) Bottom of a Problem

Happy 1000 hits to me,

Happy 1000 hits to me,

Happy 1000 hits dear Champagneinonehand.typepad.com (sing really fast),

Happy 1000 hits to me!

Yep, over the weekend I passed the 1000 views milestone on my blog (who woulda thought I could hit the refresh button that many times?!!).  I’ve had readers from all over the USA, Canada and the World (New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, England, India, Germany, Switzerland plus some places I don’t even recognize!) – it’s super cool seeing all the places pop up and I hope I’ll see many more in the future.  To date, my biggest number of hits in one day has been 58.  Here's to reporting on 100/day soon - Cheers!! and thanks for reading!

Now, some Dolly news! People cautioned me about working with a model.  They warned me that they could be precious, high maintenance and often acted like complete airheads (and let’s face it, Dolly doesn’t have much up top). But Dolly seemed different....it all started off well.  She worked her little butt off (and later you will learn how that has presented me with a serious gluteal predicament) modeling many of the 7-day-bikini-challenge bikini tops that are now listed in the Champagne in One Hand...shop on Etsy.  Look!!

 

 

 

 

Perhaps it was the extensive travel to exotic locations, the glamorous clothes,  or the mixing with celebrities, but Dolly started to get a bit big for her (figurative) boots.  She complained that she was attracting unwanted attention at the clubs dressed solely in a bikini top and requested, nay demanded, that I make her some bikini  bottoms to go with those tops.  It’s difficult to argue with a torso, and I kinda saw her point.  My first bikini customer requested the top alone, so that’s how I continued, but I realize that many people would prefer a full suit, so I set about appeasing her.  After a couple of early attempts that quickly began to look like cumbersome, medieval underwear one is stitched into for months at a time, I used one of my own bikinis as a guide for shape and made these.

 
I have to say they really finish the look and make a super cute bikini! What do you think?

 

I just have to add swimsuit lining then I will put them up on Etsy as a set. 

Dolly was ecstatic and hurridly put them on.  It was not difficult to see the problem….a couple actually.  How can I say this delicately?  Dolly’s gorgeous, size 0, cellulite-free, good girl legs just wouldn’t separate. 

Problem #1: scrunched up bikini crotch resembling an adult diaper.

and I deleted the really bad shots!!

“Loosen up girl”, I encouraged.  "Maybe a sneaky morning glass of Sauv blanc would help?". A bit better... 

.... but still not good enough for my perfectionist eye (Dolly pre-background treatment a la Mummy Smelt ;-)

Problem #2: the girl has no butt.  I’m not talking small, flat,  needs to do a few squats “no butt”, I’m talking concave, hollow “no butt”. 

Get down the gym Dolly!

I can honestly say that if you had told me a year ago that right about now I would be spending my days crocheting and manhandling a plastic torso to get the perfect bikini shot, I would’ve shot you a "she/he's crazy-in-the-coconut" look!  If I had been given a heads up, perhaps I would have foreseen the limitations of a butt-less mannequin!!  So now I’m on the lookout for a butt double! Kim Kardashian lives close by, but is busy with wedding plans. I would do it myself (not really) but hey I’m trying to sell these things! so it’s back to ebay for me!  Either that or ply my friends with copious alcohol tonight as we get together at Toi Tapas bar in Thousand Oaks and execute a late night fashion shoot.  Any volunteers?!!

To be continued….!!

 

F(Ph)enomenal Friday: Helping Children to Walk Tall

One thing I love about this blog is that I can make the rules, then bend and break them all!  Perhaps it is a reaction to all the controlled GLP (Good Laboratory Practice), GPP (Good Publication Practice), GCP (Good Clinical Practice) and GDAISNAIDP (Good Do As I Say, Not As I Do Practice) to which I adhered during my biotech career. Here, I can write what I want, when I want and people can choose to read or not to read (although I hope they choose to read – by the way do you realize that my page views spike when I mention nudity or bikinis in the titles to my posts?!!).

 
Sex sells! Cheap tricks for blog hits Dr Smelt, cheap tricks!.

So, back to bending and breaking rules.  A HUGE part of my life last year and in fact a HUGE part of my life, my life, was the 4 months I spent volunteering at Children Walking Tall in Goa, India.  Four blissful, messy, scratchy-eyed (I got the WORST conjunctivitis), soggy (monsoon and humidity suck!),  mosquito-bitten, musti, cuddly, glitter-covered, crazy moped riding, curry eating, life-lesson learning, tumbling, swirling, twirling, sari-wearing, come look my shop-tastic, honeybee and coke-ness months!

Feeling hot hot hot!! Pink eye SUCKS!

 
Ah! That's more like it! (thanks to mum's amazing electronic scrapbooking skills!)

But how was I going to write about CWT, a place crawling with F(Ph)enomenal people, in a single attention-maintaining blog post? I pondered, I worried, I resorted to math (of sorts) and decided to bend my own rules.

Using the blogging equation:

If # of inspirational people/m² (A) > 4 paragraphs + 6 photos (B) then # blog posts = (A x B)^sara

I calculated that I needed >1 Ph(F)enomenal Friday to describe all the inspirational people I met at CWT.

And so it will be!

The obvious F(Ph)enomenal person to write about here is Rob Lyon, the 37 (is it Rob? ;-) year old English founder of Children Walking Tall, who went to India to volunteer with slum kids for 8 months, 8 years ago and who only briefly left (before returning to establish his own charity that did things a lot better). And I will write about him.

Curry time!! Rob 'my superhero outfit is at the dry cleaners' Lyon chilling with Heena (sewing teacher at CWT) and the vols.

But CWT has many other F(Ph)enomenal people who inspired me in different ways. Of course, the stars of my very own Slumdog Millionaire (± a millionaire) are the KIDS!!!!! The incredible kids! Living and thriving in 2 slums in Goa. Laughing, loving, playing, caring, surviving, rag-picking, making soooooo much mess with glue and glitter! Tiny humans with enormous personalities.

Possibly the cutest BFFs ever!!

Musti (naughty) but nice (like, "Can i put him in my handluggage and take him home?" adorable!)!!

The support cast isn’t too shabby either. In the next few weeks I’ll introduce you to many of the dedicated and talented staff who keep the kids fed, safe, healthy, educated, clothed and entertained.

And of course there’s the volunteers! – a motley crew of ordinary people like you and me (hey, I was one!) with widely varying ages, nationalities, backgrounds and reasons for volunteering.

Anne on a face-painting day.

Brave Katie being dollied up by over-enthusiastic make-up artists!

Some of the kids’ parents also make a ‘special appearance’ – often redefining “Ph(F)enomenal”(!) but their stories are eye-opening nonetheless.

I hope you will feel inspired as you come to know and respect these people. Who knows, maybe one of you will decide to volunteer at Children Walking Tall!!!! That would be amazing! What a F(Ph)enomenal experience you will have – one that will change your life (and the kids’) in a good way, forever.

But enough for now. I crossed blog attention threshold a couple of paragraphs back! I’ll just begin with a few facts about Children Walking Tall and a promise to tell you more about it's people next friday.

• Children Walking Tall was established in 2004 in Goa, India
• It is a registered UK charity dedicated to helping slum and street children in India
• It is headquartered in a beautiful Portuguese house called ‘Mango House’ with outreach to 2 slums near Mapusa in Goa.
• It provides food, shelter, medical care and education for over 100 children (and sometimes their parents!)
• Balanced meals containing a protein (chicken, egg, fish etc) and white rice are given to the children 5 days/week. Fresh fruit is distributed daily also.
• CWT aims to give the children something most have never had before: a childhood worth remembering with LOTS of play and day trips.
• CWT relies on volunteers who can come to Goa for a minimum of 3 months.
• Volunteers work at Mango House and in the slums, as teaching assistants, Craft Masters and Gate Keeper of all things glitter related!
• Honeybee brandy is approximately $2 a bottle in Goa. Gin is just under $3 :-)
• Volunteering at CWT is likely to be the most incredible, memorable, life-changing activity you will ever do.

The Mango House. Headquarters of Children Walking Tall

If you are interested in reading more about CWT, just look up at the top of my blog…..up…up….further up…on the right….I can’t point!!  And click on the cute animated icon.

Come back next week to meet some of CWT's characters!

Have a fantastic weekend!

 

 

Hello Dolly!!! (WARNING: May contain some nudity)

I have body envy. I have plastic envy. I have plastic body envy. Is it wrong to be envious of a $9 headless, armless, legless, plastic mannequin? Maybe when she has a body like this! Meet my new model employee Dolly. Dolly Bird's unconventional ID photo (show off!).

10% body fat and washboard abs (I’ve never seen the girl eat). She’s a model model, a goody two shoes some would say – don’t drink, don’t smoke, what do you do? She lists her favorite pastimes as travel, sunbathing and long romantic hikes in the beautiful mountains of California(really?).

Dolly 3 wishes are for a home filled with fluffy kittens, world peace and some arms (the flesh, not gun kind).

Dolly doesn’t talk much but is enjoying her job making my bikini’s look fabulous! I see a promising future and lengthy employment for Dolly. Her salary request was very reasonable and she’s fine with flexible work hours. No stamping-of-feet tantrums from this top model!

Here she is modeling a non-7-day-bikini-challenge bikini top that I made upon request. Hot hey?!!

Dolly enjoys being at one with nature.

Maybe it was "Dolly envy" that caused me to do a double take when I saw today’s Living Social offer. Or perhaps the fact that for someone who claims to aim to live life in color, I’ve been so caught up in bikininess recently that color has been a bit lacking. Nothing like 5 x 1 hour-long pole-dancing lessons for $25 to splash more color into my life than a nursery school art class! Time to dust off those 7 inch stripper heels and get ready to twirl, pout and hang upside down!

Damn girls! I need to up my game and my inches!

Seriously though, pole-dancing is supposed to be a wickedly hardcore workout and I guarantee that your partner is not going to hate the idea!

I (did not have to twist arms too hard at all to) convince(d) a couple of friends to sign up too - oooh I hope I can take photos!! Dolly wasn’t interested. She’s focusing on her modeling career and doesn’t want to cheapen it with questionable pastimes. Plus she just wouldn’t be able to hold on! Now to choose our stripper names......!

 

F(Ph)enomenal Friday: Hilary and The Egg Lady

 Two Fridays ago I introduced you to Kat O' Sullivan, a lady who for me, embodies the spirit of “Living Life in Color” and blazing her own trail.  I’m meeting a lot of people like her lately and so I’ve decided to write about them, every Friday from now on, til forever…or for a few weeks at least…until I decide I won’t anymore! So, what to call this series?  Every blog post needs a title.  Hmmm, something beginning with F to go with Friday?  Motivational Monday or Stirring Saturday would be so much easier! F??? F is tough. Motivational synonyms beginning with F are completely absent from the thesaurus! Could I employ a silent F?  (F)Inspirational Friday!! Hmmm, that’s maybe bending the rules a little too far.  What about F(Ph)enomenal Friday – yes!  Gotta love fəˈnɛtɪks and the people I write about are all pretty             F(Ph)enomenal! Huraah!

I don’t intend to go out and seek these inspirational people, but rather, have them (figuratively ;-)) land in my lap. Inspirational people are all around.  They stumble (or in this case, cycle) into our lives serendipitously.  Meet Hilary Howard, 2500+ cyclists, 600+ support volunteers and a fabulously curious, slightly eccentric, but truly inspirational phenomenon – “The Chicken Lady.”

From June 5^th to June 11^th, Hilary, "The Chicken Lady" and 2500+ of their lycra-clad buddies chose to participate in the 2011 AIDS/LifeCycle and ride 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles to raise money and awareness for HIV and AIDS research, support and education.

Half Way Hilary

Hilary alone raised an incredible $5,328 in sponsorship. Altogether, a record breaking $13 million was raised by people who just wanted to help people.

Hilary told me she “rode every one of the 545 miles…..and had an amazing experience both physically and more especially, emotionally….meeting some inspirational folks along the way. There is nothing like hours on your bike to give you chance to think about life and the importance of taking care of one another. It is infrequent that one gets the sense of making a difference and being able to witness it too…..”.

Day 5 of the ride is customarily “Red Dress” day:

Hilary with a bevvy of beauties!! Believe it or not, the cute polka dot swimsuits are from Target!! 

“Red Dress day came to be because on part of the route that day you can look back and see a ribbon of red (2500+ riders) along the road”.

 

What a moving (groan!) visual that must have created.

“There is a famous character on the ride “The Chicken Lady” and the last day an egg was put on the saddle of all the riders…..” Inside Hilary’s egg was a lifesaver candy and a note which read;

“Life is too short to wake up with regrets

Believe everything happens for a reason.

If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it.

Nobody said it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

Applaud yourself”

When I heard that story and read (and reread) that superb quote, I got tingles down my spine.  What a simple, hugely poignant and uniting gesture “The Egg Lady” makes each year. Take a second right now to imagine 2500+ people discovering the eggs on their saddles.  Now you will automatically visualize that huge mass of people smiling, experiencing a huge rush of love/joy/wellbeing and starting the ride that day with a renewed spirit and spring in their step pedals!

Hilary and “The Egg Lady” rock!

 Meet Ken "The Chicken Lady" Thompson (you thought it was gonna be a woman didn't you?!!)

Should you feel moved to support Hilary and the other 2500 riders in their mission to rid the world of this devastating pandemic, click here to go to her fundraising website. 

To find out how you can peddle your great big heart out in the AIDS/LifeCycle 2012 (June 3rd to 9th) click here.

Have a fabulous weekend!

 

Last But Soooo Not Least! The Final Bikini!!

Ta Daaaaaaaaah!! The final day has arrived! The grand finale bikini top!!! At last!!

My 7-day challenge may have expanded slightly, but for good reasons!  I am happy, I enjoyed my challenge, I learnt a lot, I crocheted a LOT, I have so many design ideas for more bikinis! But right now, I am truly bikini’d out (you may be too!) and looking forward to a bikini-free Wednesday.  On Thursday I will make the custom order rainbow bikini top responsible for starting this entire week’s obsession! But tomorrow….no bikinis!  

This top was made using 11 different colors of Aunt Lydia's Crochet Thread (Size 3).  10 colors (candy pink/warm rose, warm blue/warm teal, lilac/plum, copper mist/maize and lime/sage) were used to make the 2-tone circles and I made the bra in black.  I used a size C (2.75mm) hook for the entire piece.

Thanks for checking in on the challenge.  I know that lots of you have been (I can see!!) even though you’ve stayed very quiet ;-) 

COMING SOON!!: A photo tutorial for today’s final bikini and then something completely different.  Well, marginally different.  Well, when I think of it I’ll tell you!

Final Day (Part I) of the 7-Day Bikini Challenge - Almost a Grand Finale!

Today is a great day!! The 7-day (which has kind of morphed into an 8-day, shortly to become a 9-day) bikini challenge is reaching its crescendo!!!!  I also got my lovely camera back from photographic ICU!!  Oh the joy of having decent photos again (you can’t miss the difference).

The challenge for me for today was to create an original design for a bikini top.  I imagined lots of little circles....and lots of color (no surprises there then!).  Fortunately I’ve just got a fantastic assortment of rainbow-colored cottons to do a custom bikini order, so I was set.  I made 20 x 2-tone circles (using a size C crochet hook) and arranged them in a pyramid.  I love it!!

 I made 20 2-tone circles (10 for each cup)

At first I thought I’d attach the circles to each other and then to triangular bra cups made from a lemon yellow T shirt. 

Lemon Yellow T Shirt Triangles

Hmmm, or did they look better on a black background? And rather than sewing them on  T-shirt fabric, would they look better on a crocheted bra (in lemon, or in black)? Circles "posing" on yesterday's "pineapple" bikini top to get the idea of a black background.  What do you think?

My Director of Color and Fashion visited and liked the black option. I was convinced too but now I’m looking at the photos I’m leaning back towards the lemon crochet option.  What do you think?

One thing I was more decisive about, was how much I liked this circle design!  The colors look really cool too! I decided I wasn’t going to rush it just so I could get some photos up today.  So the 7-day…..8-day challenge is now a 9-day challenge! (I'm such a cheat!! Anyone would think I was getting special treatment from the judges!).  Tonight I will dream about the best way to assemble the multitude of circles!

When I’m finished, I’ll put together a photo tutorial for the bikini top and I’m considering making some bikini bottoms to match. 

The progress photos posted here are just to prove that I haven’t been slacking!!

COMING SOON!!!: The Final Day (Part II)!! 

Day 6 of the 7-Day Bikini Challenge - The Pineapple Bikini

No, you won't look like a pineapple in this bikini top. It wasn't made for a pineapple and it's not covered in pineapples.  The pineapple bikini top is edged with a beautiful Italian novelty boucle yarn called "ananas" (pineapple in Italian and Spanish). 

No, I don't know why it's called 'pineapple' either....ask an Italian!

Ugh! This really doesn't do it justice.  The colors are incredible.  I get my proper camera back from the repair shop tomorrow - Hallelujah!!  I'll take some better final photos of all my bikinis with that next week.

This bikini top was made following a pattern from a Belarusian blog! (yesterday Japanese, today Belarusian - I truly am the United Nations of Bikini Patterns!).  No English instructions on this one but a very good schematic.

This top was made using black Royale crochet thread (size 3) and edged with Filatura Di Crosa's "ananas" boucle yarn. I used a size C (2.75mm) Clover Soft Touch crochet hook.

I did say that today would be all about pom poms. I did put one on for good measure (it may or may not stay there) but they looked a bit silly and detracted from the beautiful rainbow-colored yarn I used.

COMING SOON!!: THE FINAL DAY!! Making it up as I go along! an original pattern (whose silly idea was that???).  See you tomorrow!

Day Kinda 5 of the 7-Day Bikini Challenge - Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Purple Japanese Bikini

Ok, I’m back on track.  Here is day 5’s (not as) itsy bitsy teeny weeny (as yesterday) purple Japanese bikini.  I added two extra rounds of pattern so it will now fit a small human! It was made using purple Berocco Suede yarn with a size D (3.25mm) hook.  The bikini top was lined with beige swimsuit lining and for the straps I used beige sueded cording.  Cute!

 

 

COMING SOON!!! I’m thinking pom poms….

Day 5 of the 7-Day Bikini Challenge: Rain Stops Play

So....perhaps when planning my “7-day bikini challenge” I should’ve considered that my boyfriend would return from Ghana after 3 weeks away on Day 5.  That however, sorta suggests there was some planning involved in this challenge and that it was not a spontaneous, “hey I have an idea, I’ll make 7 bikini tops in 7 days and blog about it” thought last Sunday.  Hmmm, fast forward to today.   It all started well enough:

• 5.10am – drag self to bootcamp – COMPLETE
• 7.00am – feed puggles – COMPLETE
• 7.30am - shower – COMPLETE
• 8am – start bikini…

I made one cup; I made it wrong.  I made the second; I made that correctly. I “frogged” (unraveled) the first cup. I realized that perhaps I should’ve considered the likely size of the author when I chose to follow a pattern from a Japanese girl's blog (yep! it really is in Japanese!! but there's a schematic and a few English instructions thrown in!).  It’s a beautiful bikini with a pretty flower design but it’s teeny tiny!!!  Like “fit-my- friend’s-daughter’s-Barbie-real-nice” small !!  Well, maybe not that small, but it’s little!!

It was an itsy bitsy teeny weeny purple Japanese bikini..

I started to panic. Was I going to fail my own challenge? Should I leave Omari a voicemail?  “Welcome back babe, make your own way home, I’m busy”.  Nah, that’s ridiculous! I’ve really missed him! In the midst of my panic, whilst perusing my “7-Day Bikini Challenge” Rule Book, I noticed Regulation 6.1.4:

"In case of natural disaster (fire, earthquake, flood, forgetting that boyfriend would be returning from 3 weeks away in middle of challenge, volcano, tornado etc.) and in the unlikely event that the contestant fails, through reasons beyond her control/meticulous planning to have adequate “hook time” to complete a bikini top, then said contestant may elect to play a “joker/get out of jail free card” and postpone the bikini challenge by one day”.   

Fantastic!!!  Perfect!!!. I really must remember to write and thank the organizers for such forward-thinking regulations! I was off the hook (so to speak ;-)).  So I picked the boy up at LAX at lunchtime.  We drove back along beautiful Pacific Coast Highway 1.  We stopped for lunch at Paradise Cove in Malibu.  It was fantastic to have him back!  He gave me some gorgeous African bracelets that he thought I could incorporate into my bikinis and bags!!  I’ll take photos tomorrow!  The crochet was put aside and we had a great day! 

I’ll be back tomorrow!!