Besides the text sometimes coming out wonky I love being able to instantly post photos from my phone. I’ve been back through them recently and often forget about the little moments I was trying to capture. This is from our drive yesterday. I think I need to make this girl a baby friendly scrapbook, she loves looking at photos… and sometimes eats them 🙂
Visiting
Argh, the second time making this post, darn you internet and your weak signal!
So this last week Tutu and I have been hanging out with lots of our friends big and small. At the beginning of the week we got together all of the Capricorn babies (all born with in two weeks of each other and were due on the same day) for pictures. Most turned out like this:
So funny and cute. Isn't that always the way with pictures of lots of kids together? We did get some good ones though:
(from the left: William, Tuesday, and Lachlan) Later we all went to the park for a picnic lunch and ending up hanging out for hours. The weather was perfect and the kids loved it:
Karen was also with us, along with her beautiful little girls. Four weeks old and she is already going on adventures with them, rock on Karen! They are not quite as mobile of course, so we didn't want our crazy five month olds mixing it up with them yet. 
Mama baby love! The girls are chillin right behind Lachlan and Tracy in their mega stroller. 
Donna holds one of them while William rests. Sorry Karen I need to get better at capturing your sweet girls. Goodness knows it goes fast! The next day we were lucky enough to have my friend Beachwood come down and visit with us:
We love you Katie!!! And I love that T-shirt, I put it on her pretty much whenever it's clean:
Of course all this merriment wears a girl out, so we sleep while we can:
Speaking of crazy sleepers (she throws her head back like this every night – even when swaddled!) I have to start the next project:
A bumper for the crib – yes crib! She's outgrowing the sweet little cradle. So we went today to pick out a crib. I am going to make an effort to get the nursery done up all extra cute soon and give you all a little tour of it. I have some cute ideas. Right now I'm off to clean up the craft den before any cute little fingers find their way to not so cute paper piercers!
Math class flashback
Finally figuring out my guage difference so I can cast on for the hourglass sweater. Driving up to Portland with Bj and a sleeping Tuesday, so peaceful and nice.
Doing…
Well, I didn't mean for it to be THAT long between posts. What have we been doing? Tons, but we'll start with the scrapbooking stuff – you heard right – scrapbooking! I have been organizing my scrap stuff after a great weekend scrap day with Sarah last weekend. Of which I took one picture and it's this: 
But speaking of pictures. I've been going through those as well:
Going through the storage albums: old photos to be tossed or cycled into my category drawers (system is from the Big Picture Scrapbooking class I took last year: Library of Memories). I have to make way for a big order from Shutterfly (they are having great deals right now by the way free shipping, free prints, 10 cent print plans, etc). I've also been purging supplies:
The amount of scrapbooking stuff I have is almost embarrassing! I'm going to donate this, and hopefully it will make it easier for me to pick through supplies I really enjoy and love. I have filled out a few pages of the baby book:
It's really simple.
This is true baby book, I'm planning on scraping plenty of Tuesday (and have, when she was less mobile). But since I'm a bit out of practice I worked on other things. Some really old things (pre-blog!!!):
That is one half of a layout from 2003 when I went with Laura to Sciarrino's home town. From my film days when I got doubles of my photos and of course couldn't delete right on the camera if I want to. I utilized the square punch and tossed a bunch of photos. It felt great. Then I flipped through my storage albums and found some really fun photos:
It was so fun to go through my supplies, sit with Sarah and just create. 
I know, I know, I took pictures of the layouts. I hate that, but I hate scanning and stitching them more. So that's what I've been doing on the craft front. Coming later what Tuesday and I have been up to together. It's even easier to use the computer now that Bj found this link for me and I was so happy to finally be able to clean my mighty mouse to get it to work perfectly.
Oh and a note: If you love my Baby Hawk like I do and want one of your own, this is your chance to get one on their yearly sale: 15% off by entering bday09 at check out (until the 8th). I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just love it, Bj loves it, I love that we can both wear it. Tuesday loves riding in it… hmmm wonder if Bj would care if I ordered another in a summer color?
Weekend
Hands down I had an awesome weekend. We didn't go anywhere but we did have lots of fun. Starting on Saturday when I went thrifting. That's right, Sciarrino and I were back up to our old tricks. I thawed some of my milk, left Tutu with Bj and headed out early. I didn't have any huge scores, but I did get some fun things, like this Mulder action figure and these games:
Most of my weekend haul was from an immigrant's estate sale, and everything had Russian price tags. I even got an atlas in Russian:
I got a few knitting books, including this one, and some older pamphlets, this is my favorite sweater from those:
I did end up getting a "come home quick" text message, after Tuesday refused the bottle. We had given her one before to see how she would do, but she has never had to miss a feeding (that's right my max time away from her before had been about 1.5 hours). When I got home she smiled crazy at me like she was saying, "hey you came back!" And then she was too distracted to eat. I didn't want to waste the pumped milk so I heated it and had Bj try again. He fed her, and she stared at me the whole time and chugged it down no problem, funny little girl.
Saturday night Ethan and Sciarrino came over and we did a classic BBQ and game night. Sunday I spent the whole day with Sarah, scrapbooking. It so deserves it's own post, if for no other reason than I got pages done and this post is already going to be picture heavy. It was really fun though, and Bj got in most of our new windows while I was doing that – so a very productive day.
Sunday my mom and Bill were home from a southwestern vacation so grandma came over to hang out with Tuesday 🙂 We went for a nice long walk, it was great, I love my neighborhood more and more the warmer it gets out. We went over to my mom's for a BBQ in the evening. I had my little brother hold Tuesday:
Which was pretty cute, though not as cute as this:
Tuesday's first swim!
(Let me take this opportunity to say that while yes, I am wearing my maternity swim suit – I am not expecting again! Yes, I did get a congratulations this weekend on expecting again – yikes. The sad thing is I thought I was doing really well eating better. I'm at 139.4, I was 134 when I got back from Hawaii in January last year (damn chocolate covered macadamia nuts), and 124 right before I got pregnant. So, I'm working on it! I also have this bad habit of sticking out my stomach when I hold Tuesday, and I'm sure the bad posture doesn't help)
She loved the pool. I knew she would. She kept pushing herself up out of her little seat and kicking her micro sized legs.
I think this is going to be a very fun summer.
She as totally cracking us up.
I should say I'm not really sure when babies are supposed to go in
pools, but luckily this is my mom's pool and I know it is very clean
and doesn't have too many chemicals.
Awe Tuesday loves grandma! I think I'll wait a while before taking her to a public pool. Tuesday would have stayed in here all night, but she started shivering, so we got her out. I got her back into some knitwear and she chilled in her vintage pram while we ate:
Last night was a whole other story. She did not want to sleep – at all. I think maybe it's because she took a nap yesterday while we walked, and another micro one when we got to my mom's. So maybe 1.5 hours of sleep during the day total? She ate so many times I lost count, and by 7:30 I just had Bj bring her to me in bed so I could nurse her lying down, I was so exhausted. Bj was so cute he said, "Tuesday you have to remember to thank you mom for all this milky some day." She's napping again now, hopefully it won't be a vicious cycle, but she looks too peaceful to wake up. She may just be going through a growth spurt, I don't know. But I hope I get some more sleep tonight!
Making Tuesday Look HUGE
Are these two little peanuts:
Karen's beautiful twin (fraternal) girls. On the left is Kourtney, on the right Kathryn. 
Tuesday and I spent yesterday over there "helping out" I use that term loosely, though I did bring food. My almost, but not quite 12 pounder is such a big bright eyed baby now! I notice all the little things she does, but seeing her next to these babies really showed me how much she's changed. She was about the same size as Kathryn when she was newborn.
That's Kathryn, Karen and I think that she and Tuesday might be bestest friends soon, as they seem to have similar personalities. 
Little Kourtney is just mellow, mellow, mellow. This is the first picture of her with her (so pretty almost purple) eyes open. 
Seeing Karen in that newest part of motherhood made me so happy. She has a wonderful fun spirit, and I know she is going to be (and IS being) a great mother. Snuggling with Tuesday and letting her nurse as long as she wanted tonight until her sucks were little flutters I'm just amazed with Karen and her girls. At only 18 days old we even loaded up our strollers and went out for a walk. I feel so lucky to know so many amazing women who are having or have just had babies. Lucky Tuesday to have so many little friends so soon. 
Now Chloe we're just waiting on you, come out, come out!
I need a bigger allowance…
Seam allowance that is. When I calculate quilt stuff or any kind of sewing thing it seems the math and I never really get along. A few weekends ago Sciarrino came over so we could have one of our good old craft days (yeah!) and I worked on a project you might remember me blogging about a while ago… if you read my blog in April 2006, oh the shame of my half finished project pile!
I laid out all of the triangles for placement (pattern is from Denyse Schmidt Quilts – Flock of Triangles). My little Sparkle Pants took her longest nap ever in the swing in an attempt to get me to focus on this project:
A valiant effort. I did get it all laid out and into neat little piles ready to be sewn by row.
I figured I could tackle the rows like one a day or something (I have 24 I think). But I got stuck at how to even put two of them together. I have made a quilt with triangles before, but it was so long ago that I don't really remember the details. I finally figured it out (and in case any one has the same trouble on flickr I explained it in one, two, three pictures). As soon as I had one row together I knew I had a problem. The freaking thing wasn't long enough – UGH. Now, it's not like I didn't have enough fabric for this queen sized quilt (hopefully this will go on our bed). Oh no, when I ordered it I thought I would need like 11 yards for the front. I don't know how I got there (even though I found all of my notes on the matter), but I did double check that I had the right amount of triangles for the length and width I wanted when I picked this project back up. And it sure looked gigantic all laid out on my floor. But no. There is like NO WAY I'm laying this thing back out again, I mean Tuesday is pretty much done with naps, so it would be almost impossible. So I'm going to sew up the rows as they are, leaving off the very end half triangles. Then I'll lay those all out and add a triangle to one side or the other, and then put the half triangles on. And after all that I still will have to sew the rows together, which might end up quite tricky since I'm dealing with bias. Me thinks I will not be quilting this myself. 🙂
Is it any wonder then that I've decided to start a new sewing project?
With circles (which I've never done) and a pattern I'm making up myself? It's sure to be a success. Hopefully I won't be blogging about it in 2012.
Incentives
Bj and I were discussing ways we could get into better shape, and have decided we need incentives.
Bj: "Okay so how about this? You get down to 120 and you can have $X for the craft room."
(I want new cabinets in here)
Amber: "Ugh, 120, that's like 20 pounds."
Bj: "You've weighed that before."
Me: "I weighed 110 when you met me."
Bj: "I can't believe you were ever that small."
Me: ____________
Bj: "Wait no, you're taking that the wrong way."
Me: "How is the right way to take that."
Bj: "I mean you've always only been this tall." (holds hand up to his neck).
Me: (mimes digging a hole).
It is so on!
Windows
So original on the title, I know. So the bee situation seems to be under control. This is not what fixed it:
But it does show you the horrid state of our windows. It also shows you Tuesday's new My First Baby Legs. We picked those up at Target yesterday, love them! Okay so really it just shows you that they are dirty, which should be no surprise since they are still doing tons of work outside. Here is what they really look like:
I've done a pretty good job of keeping them nice on the inside (oh I still get a little sad seeing those trees my neighbor cut down), but once they removed the aluminum storm windows, you could really see the bad shape the frames, glass and glazing were in. So while pregnant Bj talked me into replacing them all to match the ones on the new second story. I was a bit hormonal and reacted with the classic, "well you just don't care how hard I work on things do you?" crying fit. Once I came to my senses and Bj explained that the the frames would not have to be messed with and I got to see what kind of vinyl windows are made now. We found some that I really like because the grid is not only in the middle, but also on the inside and outside. I thought I would share how we (meaning Bj and our friend Brian) retrofitted our old double hung frames for new windows.
Step one:
Using a cat's paw and hammer remove only the one piece of trim holding in the window.
After clipping the sash (if they are not already broken like at least 60% of ours), you should be able to pull the window up and out (bottom) and the top one down and out. You can do everything from the inside, so if you have a second story don't be scared to try it!
Next smash these pulleys flat with a hammer (both of them).
baby interruption! Had to finish up explanation with the next window, the big picture window in the front of the house:
First put a bead of caulking on the bottom of the 3/4" stock then nail it to the sill, this will hold in the window. 
From the inside put the bottom of the window in first. 
You'll need to replace the trim piece you took out in the beginning. 
Looks the same! I am especially impressed with the picture window. 
The sills will still have to be touched up (filled with wood filler and sanded a bit) and painted when the whole house is, but I am loving it so far. The difference in noise and heat that comes through this compared to the old one is incredible.
Last weekend we had dinner across the street and we were talking with our neighbor's about how everything on our houses has been repaired/replaced in some way. It's true older houses (we think ours was built in 1941) need more work to meet modern standards, but I just love the look of them. I can't wait until all this work is done and we can tackle the yard! Bj was talking yesterday, "what if we lived here for forty years? Our house would be a over a hundred years old!" Now that is crazy!
Friggin Bees
We could go with a post about my lovely in laws visiting, or some new spinning, or the great weather we had, or even our three new windows, but instead: bees.
On Saturday when our tree stump removal guy was here (which is pretty awesome by the way, the process), he pointed out some bee action happening on the corner of our house:
Only think like forty times worse since Bj took this at dusk (with the flash) and there is only a tiny percentage of the bees active. I was like, Oh that's nasty, but we'll kill them no big deal right? Oh so wrong. First of all I go to the bathroom and realize midstream that there are bees all over the vanity. I have never pulled up my underwear so fast in my life! Bj's mom cleaned up the piles of them that had congregated in there by Saturday night (but I was feeding Tuesday so I didn't snap a picture). This is the next morning:
Ew, bees. They are coming in through the vent… we think. So Bj went ahead and hung some traps and sprayed some killer and….
it's worse (hey but a nice addition to the hovel that is our backyard right now).
People I don't want to be overly dramatic… but I can hear them, yes, HEAR them in the ceiling of my craft den (which means they are between the floor of Tuesday's room, or around there). I'm sure I'll sleep great tonight. No bee keeper wants to take them because they are so high up (we called them first to try and do the "right thing"), so tomorrow we're bringing in the professional bee assassins, wish us luck.