Getting something done

After a very busy 4th of July weekend, involving lots of family and very little sleep, I have decided to hibernate. Hibernation day one did not produce anything but greasy hair and a renewed love for Breakfast At Tiffany's. Day 2 however was just the kind of productive that I needed.
Way back in February my mom bought me a Moda layer cake of the It's a Hoot design line. I LOVED these fabrics so much that I allowed them to sit while dreaming of something exciting and fancy for them. Yesterday I decided however, that easy peasy had won the race. I sat down and sewed them together as is. It was nice to have a finished product that had zero glitches in it! Save one, because at one moment I decided to mentally check out and sewed a fabric in sideways (oh the humanity!) , but a quick visit from the seam ripper and all was repaired.
We have been living and loving the knowledge that our new little person is a girl for 2 weeks. Charlotte is overjoyed to have a little sister, Max not so much. I am excited because I will be able to sew for this new little person entirely from fabrics I already own! How convenient!
For three years now I have worn a necklace almost everyday that displays the first initial of each of my children. While I had already purchased (a girl scout is always prepared) an initial last summer for the new (not yet conceived) baby I have decided that the necklace is pretty big and bulky. So last night I ordered a new one from the Etsy shop tinytokensdesigns and cannot wait until it arrives!!
Now my big task is to make a list (total lie, making a list is a hobby not a task) of things to make for my new little lady. There is going to need to be some sewing, some knitting and a little bit of crafty sprinkled everywhere!

Knock. knock. "Who's there?"

18 weeks in with Baby Trois

This morning I woke up to a familiar but wonderful feeling. Our new baby decided that 6am was the best time to start practicing somersaults in my belly. Knowing that this is my last time to experience all of this wiggling and squiggling kept me happy amidst my new alarm clock and also in bed for at least 15 minutes just to feel this little person move. The baby is excited because today is the day we will find out just who is in there. Well, hopefully. We had an opportunity last month but someone (not going to name any names, mostly because not knowing who is in there, I can't) decided that shyness was the order of the day.

When I was pregnant with our second child I had a wave of panic pass over me. What if I did not love this child as much as I loved our first born? I was terrified. After experiencing the all powerful love that one feels for their child I wanted no part in short changing a new life. Of course, seconds after holding Max I never worried about that again. And now with this baby I have abandoned all such crazy fears. I was in love from the moment that this tiny person was given to me.

Charlotte and Max are very excited as well. We all take daily stock of the growth of my belly (which Max feels at time could just be a reminder of a meal taken way too far). I cannot wait to find out who is joining my little family, cannot wait to hold him or her, smother them in kisses. But also I am happy that we are only at week 22 and not 40, this time, the third time, I am soaking up every second. I want to file into memory every kick, every hiccup and roll. A habit I think that will continue long past birth as we welcome our last child, hoping to experience enough baby sweetness to last a lifetime.

The small things

Lately I have been relishing more than ever the small moments of joy that add up to make this life amazing. Here are a few of them:

1. My little man galloping around the living room with a kitchen towel tucked into the back of his pants (because he is a horse and it is his tail).

2. Charlotte showing us her new ballet moves.

3. Banana bread fresh from the oven.

4. My quilt laying in my lap as I sew the binding by hand.

5. Max sitting next to me as I sew chatting my ear off.

6. The pug curled up and snoring at my feet.

7. Making new friends at coffee shops.

8. Being near my 2 out of 3 of my sisters again.

9. Alan's work keeping him close to home for a couple of weeks.

10. My grandparents getting their new furnace a day ahead of schedule.

Cheaters never prosper

I have been cheating on knitting with sewing.

(first quilt top all done)

But just a little, if by a little you mean a lot and all the time. I have had a knitting project tucked into my bag that I do continue to work on at night after I have put some mileage on the treadmill (running inside blows). Thankfully we have netflix so I keep the good times running by watching movies that do not involve cartoon characters or moral building story lines. The other night I watched a movie called Purple Violets. I am not recommending this movie by any means. In fact, on the blow scale (from 1-10, 1 being not blowing at all and 10 being a really stinker) this movie scores an 11. I only rented it because I have a thing for Patrick Wilson who may be the only blonde that I am ever attracted too. Even though the movie was a bomb I found another reason to keep watching. Knitwear. The movie had the most amazing sweaters in it. So amazing that I found myself knitting fervidly. Then I started sketching and making notes in my journal concerning said knitwear. This girl's glass is half full. Crap movie, but overflowing with inspiration.

A handmade Christmas

For too many years now I have had a Christmas to do list that has been haunting me. On it were the aspirations of a semi-crafty lady. I think the original list was made somewhere around 2003. So 7 years later I finally got my tush in gear (and now own a sewing machine which was one of the players needed that was missing earlier on). The goals were to sew our own stockings and to make a tree skirt.

These little things were made important to me because many, many years ago my Grandmother made stockings for each one of my sisters and I. Those stockings are still hung every year at my parents house even though we have moved away. They are there like little stand-ins of Christmas joy, beacons that hold memories and hope. I wanted to weave that same love into my own family's holiday.

So finally and abruptly (which is how I start most things) I tore into our garage on Monday and found the box that contained our sad little store bought felt stockings. 15 minutes and my handy dandy seam ripper later I had my pattern. I decided to not use Christmas colors mostly because I am not a huge fan of red and green, sure I like a sprinkling of them here and there but was excited to do this stocking thing on my own terms. So Max's stocking is made of a combination of colors that make me thing of my little boy; browns, butterscotch and a little teal. Max has always appeared to me as a little brown bear, so my color choices for him usually reflect that.

For Charlotte's I dove into some scraps that I brought home from a recent trip to Washington and some scavenging that I did around my mother's sewing table. She is making a beautiful quilt for Charlotte which meant that I came home with some gorgeous fabric scraps. Sewn together they look like this:
Unfortunately (or rather fortunately for me) my little girl was not completely in love with her stocking. Her exact words were, "Mommy that is really pretty but when I dreamed about my stocking it had some red in it." Ok back to the drawing table.

Now I just have to find some fabric for Alan's stocking and a bit more fabric for the tree skirt pattern that I found. Then my "to do" list will be a "done list," and those are the best lists to have around.

I am no Caroline Wilder

Charlotte and I have been reading "The Little House on the Prairie." I love reading to my little Bug just before bed. I decided last summer that she was ready for longer more involved books. Our first big girl read was, "Because of Winn-Dixie." It was cute and I was just as excited as Charlotte to watch the movie when we were done because the beautiful and talented Dave Matthews is in it.

The next book that caught my eye was our current selection by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I picked it up with excitement at an used book store and was immediately reminded of how much I had loved the series as a child. So it came home with me and two weeks ago we dove in.

But reading the book as a grown woman has brought out different emotions in me. Like this one for example, "Why the hell did Caroline allow her husband to drag them so far away from everyone that she held dear into dangerous territory?" or more recently "I think that I would have told Pa to shove it." Of course I have not been sharing my thoughts with Charlotte but I am afraid that my modern feminist sensibilities are getting in the way of my pleasure in the story.

I think I am more Anne of Green Gables (yes I realize that she was a fictional character) than Caroline Wilder. My husband pointed out that it is likely that Caroline did not have any choice in the matter of her families migration west, which is true. Or perhaps she found Pa's wanderlust and shenanigans endearing? Whatever the matter, I think I may have to go dye my hair red and walk the ridge-pole of a roof. Has anyone seen Diana Barry?

Tis' the season

This time last year I was knitting my little fingers to the bone. I had set lofty goals and wanted to knit about 6 gifts. This turned into the two darkest knitting months that I hope to ever experience. This year I am learning from the mistakes of my past. No knitted Christmas gifts. Period. I have decided that knitting gifts are going to be used for birthdays and general wishes of good will. So this year I am finishing a cardigan for a friend's little girl, and then casting on a cowl (for whom I have not yet decided). In the sea of holiday craziness knitting is going to remain my quiet sea of calm.

Now if I could only talk myself out of the crazy 48 hour bakeapalooza that I do every year. Small steps, right?