Celebrating crafts, kids and the everyday through photographs.
Goals for today:
Two more hours of sleep
Footprints into the baby book
Pass the one week checkup with flying colors
Lots more snuggles
A picture with my girl
Sharing Tuesday with visitors (yes we’re ready just call)
A walk with my two favorite people
Baby laundry (it’s so cute)
A real blog post with lots of thanks for kind words and well wishes
Write out the birth story
A nice long nap in the afternoon
I’m off to work on the first!
We were completely taken with her the minute we saw her.
Bj is so in love.
Everyone loves her.
Much more to come we're just in baby love la la land.
We're so excited to welcome our new little one! She was born at 1:04pm on January 10th into the water and papa's arms. She weighs 7 pounds 4 ounces, and is 20 inches long. Mama and baby are resting and doing great. We are getting to know our new daughter and will let you know when we are ready for visitors and phone calls. Thank you for giving us this time with our new little one.
Birth story and many more pictures to come!
Oh how good do I feel today?
Ahhhh so good. The guys still have to come in two more times: to grout (Monday) and then seal the tile (a couple of days later), but I am SO OVER THIS CONSTRUCTION THING. Hehehe. And I really needed to get this paper pulled up to preserve my sanity (and also the floors, it can't be that good for it). I think my love for this pecan is pure and true. Remember when I first had it refinished? Ah those were the days. Take a good look at that post because the front of the house is never going to look the same:
Rick – an action shot. We won't have a front door for a while, but who really needs one anyway, right? Our new porch is going up next week, I can't wait to see how it changes the look of the house. That is all that can really be done in this Oregon winter weather (um wet, wet, wet). We'll have to wait until spring then to re-side the house and get the new windows in downstairs (a Bj project).
I have to say despite all my (pregnancy induced) moaning about the remodel I feel so lucky and just insanely grateful to be living in it. This was mid-October, not that long ago really. Such amazing progress. Bj and I go upstairs to bed, wander around, sit in the baby's room, take long hot bath-tubs (well I do, Bj's more of a shower guy), and say to each other, "We are so lucky! We love the remodel so much!" And we do, and it might be a while before we can squirrel away the $348 or whatever the Baby 411 book says to put aside for college a month, but I think baby will really appreciate having a bedroom (and bathroom lucky baby!). Speaking of baby, okay YES I am past my due date. I'd like to point out that this does NOT make me overdue. You have to be past 42 weeks to be over due, I'm not and baby is perfectly happy in my nice warm uterus. Yesterday I felt its little heal for the first time, it was trying to stretch so I sort of grabbed it and pushed, oh the cuteness, it was playing with me! Despite the fact that I go to appointments every week where everything is deemed to be perfect people who have not once asked about my prenatal care are now freaking out that I'm not being induced. To them I say, chill. And um, mind your own business.
Besides I have plenty to keep me busy, like yesterday I made a sewing machine cover, I have been meaning to do that for freaking ever! Pictures to come though, because I have some embellishment ideas first. Also I went through all my pens this morning and thew out the bad ones. Plus I got these back from the cleaners:
The silk drapes for the lower level. I was thinking they were dusty from construction, but when I got them back and they were fully a shade different than the color I brought them in as I think they might have been more than dusty. I'm going to do some touch up paint around the windows and then get Bj to hang them up. And I'm knitting of course. Oh they just started jack-hammering. I'm going to be the most popular girl in the neighborhood!
I didn't get a lot done today… well I got a few naps in, but besides that nothing really to show you. Except that I got some cuteness in the mail:
I have no idea about baby shoe sizing, but I think these are maybe for a one-ish year old? I tried to pick a size I thought the baby would actually be walking in. Sciarrino thought she'd come over to see a new outfit for the baby, but I've moved on to knitting for other babies that are beating my baby out of their wombs.
Boring post, but I feel like if I don't you'll all think I've had the little baby!
Ah this is a relief:
So much better, and exactly what I was thinking. I will have to buy two boxes of tile, but at least they are some of the cheapest tiles known to man. That's as high as they can go in one day because the tiles can only hold each other up so much. Love it! Ironically I'll rarely shower in here, but still.
I've been knitting:
A little baby cocoon (more pictures and details on Ravelry)! It's only 21 inches long from bottom to top of back so hopefully I can squeeze my newborn in it for a few pictures. It's mainly an aesthetic garment. And totally NOT my idea, these are all over Etsy. I winged the pattern (read didn't use a pattern at all and just started knitting), it was really fun. It might be too small, but that's okay I'll just give it to V to play with. Plus I have enough of this yarn to make a regular person sized one (okay not quite, but almost!).
I also finally blocked another one of those tri-peak hats:
(details on Ravelry). I would like to point out again that these hats have no decreasing! So easy, and a free pattern.
My next project might have to be spinning up some of the yumminess I got in the mail yesterday from Hello Yarn:
I love the fiber club. I am so glad I got doubles.
It's always fun to get mail, especially when it's super exciting things like nursing bras… but wait! The Baby Center store is closing so I had a moment of weakness:
Ah the cuteness kills me! And the whole outfit was less than the price of the shoes regularly ($28.20), so like I had to right? Bj thinks no, but hey I can always return it (or save it…). Also I'd wear those Mary Janes in my size. Oh I was going to link to the site to share, but they've already closed (they still take returns), glad I stumbled onto that sale. The store is now called Diapers.com (but they have everything, not just diapers… looks like they have some deals, but not on Zutano and no See Kai Run).
I guess this means I have to do the other stuff on my do to list now, the non-knitting stuff, bummer! Also, I think maternity leave was made for a reason. I made my first ever really stupid mistake on a Ribbon Jar order (left out a whole envelope of ribbon out of the package) and had to overnight it to the person (she needed it to differentiate puppies of a litter, awe). Then I took on a special order I should have said no to (but the pleas for ribbon are hard to ignore sometime) and that got to the person a day late, stupid post office. I am trying now to take. my. time. And learn to say no. 🙂
But if you say anything like, "oh you'll have the baby tonight," I'll be mean to you. I'm so annoyed with people checking in on me, like seriously annoyed. And I know they are just being kind, but um, if you know me well enough to call and check on me, chances are you'd know when I had the baby. Mini rant over. Major rant starting:
I get up this morning, begrudgingly, so I can be up and dressed (in one of my two outfits, it's the green sweatshirt and yoga pants today) for the construction workers. I'm in the shower for like two minutes when Bj comes in to tell me that they aren't coming today, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. I was so upset, I could have been in bed! Luckily wonder-husband called later to talk to the head guy and say, "um, this baby thing, it's not maybe going to happen, but it is happening, and soon, so ya, finish." Only much more eloquently I'm sure. Everyday that it drags on (and we're talking little things here, nothing major except the outside front porch) it becomes less a possibility that they'll be here with me and my newborn and more of a reality. A reality that I do not like thinking about. But a bunch of them are coming tomorrow and then maybe one day after that? Two if more if you count grouting, so that makes me happy. Also making me happy? More baby stuff!
Caps are from the Mama to Mama pattern from old t-shirts (that I loved too much to throw out luckily, since they are the old short style). The blankets are from the Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts book. You're supposed to hand stitch the edging on, and I totally started to… but only got halfway on one, so I zig-zagged the over the top of that and around the rest. For a swaddling blanket I think this is a-okay. I did all of this in my new craft den. It's fairly organized now so I'll share:
(and the other side) I have severe storage issues in here right now, due to lack of cupboards and drawers. Bj did make me that awesome pull out thing for my paper so I don't have to crawl around on the floor to try and get things. I also don't know exactly what I want to do with the curtains situation. Unfortunately because of weird neighbor situation I have to do something cafe curtain like I think. A lot of my things are still in the Ribbon Jar side of the basement, where I set up my drafting table for packing orders, it would not have fit in here. The other side of the basement is also making progress, in fact it looks downright awesome:
Awesome rug from Ikea (actually looking at this picture, there are a lot of things from Ikea). Bj put up a bunch of my art work, and we moved the big bookcase to separate the laundry area, which rocks. I always hated that being the very first thing you saw coming down the stairs, and my mom came up with this arrangement, much, much better. It's not so bad having this wall up separating the sides after all (you may recall we had to put it up for structural reasons, demolishing my earlier work to remove it). Bj worked hard all weekend mopping and cleaning to get his "man cave" (we're currently looking for better name options for the space) ready for gaming:
TV, chair, he's all set.
While at Ikea we also got things for the baby's room:
Awesome mirrors. I was going to do a bunch of random mirrors, with ribbon, but we saw these and had to have them. They fit the style of the room much better anyway. And we got this poster and frame:
Bj loved it right away, but the thing that sold me was the randomness of it. It has a little saying at the bottom "stop coming to my house." Funny. Bj has taken to putting monsters everywhere. Here's an example. And here's another view of the room.
I got (freaking expensive petroleum based) foam and some cool fabric for the alcove:
I really like the color.
It's definitely missing some pillow action up there, but I did manage to squeeze in some fibery-goodness. Shh, don't tell Bj. It was looking so empty and sad with out yarn 🙁 Now what to do… knit up here or do the responsible thing and make a cover for my scrapbook paper so it doesn't get sun burnt. Hmm….
Oh I wanted to tell you this; remember those awesome onsies Erin made me? That she said she wouldn't sell and blah, blah, blah? Well turns out people can be very persuasive and she and her boyfriend, Aarron, set up a little etsy shop. They also have these cool mittens from sweaters. Check it out here!
And totally unrelated, but it got me rolling last night, to the point of tears… This American Life, episode #241 at about 33:51 into it. Even Bj was cracking up. And not funny, but beautiful, is the movie The Fall, why have I not heard of this, amazing.
Last night when Sciarrino and I were running errands I found some of the same very soft fabric that Bj had put in the inside of his Baby Hawk baby carrier. He loves this stuff called minkee, it's very soft and, I found out, super expensive. I've seen off brand stuff but Bj had this same chocolate color put on the inside of the baby carrier, so I really wanted to use it for something for him. Well I had a 40% off coupon at Craft Warehouse and so I was able to get a bit of it, along with some cute flannel to make up this little blanket:
Hard to photograph, but it's a ribbon tab blanket (how to on Ribbon Jar right here).
Such a quick and easy project. I made one for Tracy's baby and ever since Bj has been wondering why I don't make one for our baby, so I did. And I did this in maybe an hour tonight. I gave it to Bj as a "baby and papa play blanket" for him to have in his new fun area downstairs (video game/guitar center in part of the basement lower level).
Bj meanwhile has immersed himself in a new book The Essential Kitchen: Sushi. Bj's parents know that we've been spending all our money on the baby and remodel so they sweetly gave us some cold hard cash for Christmas to spend on ourselves (I have yet to decide what I'm going to get). Bj got this cookbook, and new sushi knife that he is happy to show anyone who comes over.
After reading up yesterday he spent this afternoon running around finding specialty ingredients to make a Japanese dinner (Taro aren't you proud?). Mmm we like.
Sciarrino's favorite was an avocado roll with miso paste:
I liked the plain cucumber and the asparagus and cream cheese. Bj was quite proud of his first attempts:
And so was I. Now if only we had some mochi balls…
One step back. Today I was busy, well as busy as a pregnant person should get probably. We spent yesterday organizing, and re-arranging all of our rooms. I think I've mention that the front room will now be Bj's office/guest bedroom (well in the future). I managed to cram so many craft supplies in there in the last two years, even though we were living in there and we had our bed and clothes and everything set up. So I've been trying to get everything out, but it's a process:
Yikes. Until I get some better storage options I don't know where everything is going to go. For now I'm working with what I've got in the den:
Just a peek, maybe after this weekend I'll have it organized to show off a little bit more. Bj made me a nice rolling thing for my paper to push under the desk, I have the built ins behind the door pretty organized, and I've pulled the old shelf out of the office closet so I'm using that. I really want these Ikea built kitchen built ins. It's a dream right now (a dream that is very clearly sketched along with where everything will go in new cabinets), but maybe some day a reality. I'm really going to have to watch myself with this space because it's also the walkway to the stairs. We'll see how I do.
After all that work I had to have a nice sleep in this morning. Bj was home from work so he got to take the morning shift and let in the construction workers. It was nice to be able to relax. In fact I went right from relaxing to a massage, which was perfect. I'm getting one every week now, and I can not say enough good things about this. If you are pregnant think about it, I don't think there is much better money you can spend in your last month(s). Then I went right to an appointment with my midwife, who we also had over for lunch. I'm telling you all of this so that you will understand how I was too busy to check in on the two guys tiling our old bathroom downstairs.
I had picked out plain white 2×4 subway tiles, in fact it was something I decided on pretty much before anything else since we knew that bathtub surround was going to have to be replaced. Well I just assumed that they were going to be staggered like bricks… but assuming makes an ass out of you and me, you've heard that right? Bj and I walked into the bathroom and they were about a third up the wall with the tiles all lining up perfectly. I didn't really say anything just walked out. A little bit of time went by and I just kept thinking about it. Bj was running errands and I asked him if he liked it, if he thought that was how it should go. He said he didn't care, but totally picked up on my voice and asked me if I liked it… no I said. It was not how I pictured it. I was thinking maybe I was crazy to think it went that way so I looked it up online and then quick called my other design experts: my mom and Sciarrino, they agreed with me. Bj texted me to please tell them now if I wasn't going to be able to handle it because it was still wet enough to pull down. So I did. I was like, "please don't hate me but…" and explained how I had envisioned it. I just kept saying, "I'm so sorry, I feel so bad, but I just can't live with it like that." They were pretty good sports about it really. I know it would have driven me crazy not to have it like I envisioned (like this but vertical). Oh but I did feel terrible to have day's work end up like this:
I might have to buy a few more tiles, but that I can deal with. It's really one of the only parts of the remodel most people will see. I mean I don't plan on having company come up and hang out in our room or the baby's for the most part. Okay so I'm glad I said something, but man I need to get my big belly and my nose into more business that goes on around here, I'm really slipping!
This evening Sciarrino and I ran a bunch of errands (thanks for hauling me around Sciarrino!). I've got the foam now for the window seat (well Sciarrino does really because the woman at Jo-Ann's did not inspire much confidence in her foam cutting ability, "Look, I'm not going to guarantee this is going to be straight." so she took it home to hack it up with her electric knife). And we found fabric 40% off that is a fabulous green color to cover it with. I can't wait to get it all cuddly up there with pillows and things. Mom I might have to come back for my white ones that are at your house. Look for that update soon (assuming I can still figure out how to cover foam right).
No tax credit for us for 2008. 🙂 Happy New Year to you all!
