Settling in

I can't believe we have been up here for a month! Sometimes it feels like longer, and sometimes it feels like we just got here. We're finally unpacked as of 2 weeks ago when we stayed up late one Friday night rushing around cleaning and unpacking the last few boxes so we could have a presentable house for some guests who were staying with us.

Part of the unpacking process has included unpacking and organizing my craft things, and let me tell you, that is hard! My crafts are all stored in this old pantry style cupboard we got from Canadian Tire when Shep was born (we used it as a closet in his room), and anytime I want to making something I need to pull about 5 things out (with about 10 things falling on my head in the process) and nothing stay neat in there. And don't get me started on my yarn! I used to keep my yarn in a big blue tote beside our couch, next to the fireplace- it was so nice to sit and watch a movie and work on my projects by the fire- but our new place doesn't have the same space. My tote is now stored in the crawl space behind our coat closet. I shouldn't complain because it is actually a really neat little hideaway that we've nicknamed Narnia.

Anyway, after all of those excuses that have kept me from crafting the past little while, I have been able to work on a few projects. I'm working on a few slipper patterns for women and kids and I'm pretty pleased with them. But, surprise, I haven't finished them, I've only made 1 slipper of each pattern, haha. I'm also slowly working on the blanket for Liam. The list goes on and on for the projects I want to complete.

I also sent out an email for friends and family to let me know what they would like for Christmas. That is my priority right now. Well, Liam isn't napping this morning so I'm off. I'll post pictures later of my current projects and my sad storage situation :).

LG

Working away

I feel like I haven't had any time to do anything. I know that's such an over exaggeration, but this time it's true. The sad thing is, I haven't been terribly busy, things just have not been running smoothly around here. I've decided to do one load of laundry everyday to keep on top of things. That ended up with loads left in the washer because I forgot about it, loads sitting unfolded in baskets around my house, and baskets being tipped over with Shep using the contents as a landing pad. Oh, and the kids have given up on sleep! My kids used to be great sleepers. The house is quiet, with no one home upstairs to wake them and I'm being quiet, usually trying to finish a craft, and an hour into their naps (naps that took 30 minutes to an hour to get them to sleep) they are awake and crying. Sigh!

One good thing that happened the past few weeks is that I got my walking foot in the mail! Yay ebay!

But, it's bittersweet because I have no time to actually sit down with my machine to use it. My machine is sick :( I don't know what is wrong with it. It's making some knocking noises and not sewing properly with uneven stitches and poor tension. I've tried everything to fix it. Cleaned and oiled it, changed the needles, tried every possible tension. The one thing I haven't tried, now that I think about it, is that I haven't tried a really good quality thread. I've been using just whatever polyester blends and some are pretty old. I think I will try some new thread and pray that it works.

Today, I did manage to do a little craft with the kids for my dad for Father's Day. I know, that was last week but they live up North and we're going to visit them this weekend for a week! I'm so excited. So, I found this stepping stone kit at Michael's on sale and figured I would give it a go. I'm not 100% pleased with it. Here is the progress so far. It needs to set for 48 hours and we did it at 11am this morning.

Well, I must be off. Liam has been screaming for a little bit and I don't think he's going back to sleep :(

Baby Eli's finished blanket

My dear friend had her little (well, little isn't really how you can put it, he was 10 lbs!) baby boy this month and I finished the baby blanket I made for her.

It's the "girly" blanket I was making if I had a girl, but I figured it could be gender neutral. I also added another round of blue on the border after this picture was taken. She loved it and I'm sure Eli will like it too!

I think I will start selling blankets soon, probably once Liam is a bit older, but I'm sure I can whip them up pretty quickly if the price was right ;). I'm also making a brown basket weave blanket for Liam right now so the orders will just have to wait for now.

same ol' poop, different pile...

I've decided to take on yet another craft... diaper sewing. Yes, I know I can barely get through the crafts I have on the go already but I am determined to make cloth diapers. I have the fabric, the snaps, the elastic, the patterns, I'm just waiting for my new even feed walking foot to arrive in the mail so I can start my cute little dipes. I started with a wet bag but the feeding dogs in my machine ate the material like it was nothing! Besides, I needed to get the walking foot for quilting, yet another craft I will be taking up soon, but that's for another post.

We've been using cloth diapers since our oldest, Shepherd was about 18 months old. We were shocked at how much money we were literally throwing away and decided to look into the cloth option. We're not overly environmentally conscious, just more health conscious and we learned that disposable diapers are full of harmful chemicals! I always hated when the diapers would shed little jelly pieces on our little guy's bum. He was also very prone to rashes and burns that we later realized were from using disposable diapers and he had fewer to no diaper rashes since switching to cloth. Our second, Liam has been in cloth since he was 1 month old and only had rashes in disposable diapers. He did have a few rashes when we tried switching to cloth wipes but for some reason he does much better with disposable wipes. I really would like to switch to cloth wipes, again since the wipes are full of chemicals but we can always choose natural disposable wipes.

Anyway, cloth diapers can get pretty pricey and although I have found a great Canadian store based in Vancouver, I have recently found a site to buy fabric specifically for making your own cloth diapers. It's not Canadian but the prices are great! As soon as I get that walking foot, and assuming my kids are well behaved, I will be posting pictures soon of cute little handmade cloth diapers.

knit tales

I've decided to brush up on my knitting skills. By brush up, I really mean learn how to knit. I knew how to knit in high school (I won't say how long ago that was, but it was long enough to forget to knit), but I'm just no good at it anymore. I'm getting a little bored of my stiff crochet stitches and I want to make something soft and light. I don't know what I will make with summer coming, but it's a good chance to tackle the skill before fall and winter.

Oh boy, can you tell it's late? It's taken me about 30 mins to write this post because I keep daydreaming about knitting, and whether I really know how to at all anymore.... ugh, to bed!

Camera Shy

Yesterday I helped throw a baby shower for a dear friend. I helped with food, games, and made her a lovely gift. The only problem, I forgot to take pictures of the final projects!!!! I guess it's not a big deal, I can always take pictures of the gifts when I visit my dear friend or take pictures of the new baby with the gifts.

I made my dear friend a cute tote using some adorable fabric I bought online, a cute little taggie toy, bee themed thank you cards and I finished (ha, it's not finished, I still need to sew in the ends, but I still gave it to her at the shower) the colourful blanket I was making for myself if I had a girl. She doesn't know what she is having but I knew she would like the colours and she can use it in the future if she has a boy this time round- although I secretly think she's having a girl!!!!!!

I do, however, have a picture of the cupcakes, Oreo pops, and the fruit skewers we made (the picture of the fruit is from another dear friend's party, but they looked exactly the same!).

Vanilla cupcakes with blueberry jam frosting!

Oreo pops as favours!

Rainbow fruit skewers!

Well, hopefully I can post pictures of the gifts I made my dear friend soon...

...long time no blog!

Oy, it has been a while! So much has happened in the last 2 months (oh dear, 2 months and I'm just getting around to blogging...). Liam has outgrown all of his hats I've made him. I started an owl hat for him but surprise, surprise I never finished it! I did however, manage to make him an adorable bear hat. It reminded me of a cute little grizzly bear hat. Also, the 2 blankets I started for "baby#2" are only about half finished....

Well, I said I would post pictures so here we go...

This is Liam about a week old wearing his grizzly bear hat :)

Tummy time!

I have also started making baby "moby" style wraps but I haven't been able to take a decent picture where Liam and I look somewhat normal at the same time, so that might not be posted anytime soon. Also, I have been busy crafting and baking but silly me forgot to take pictures!!! I was able to make a cute purple and pink tutu for Shepherd's girlfriend's 2nd birthday as well as a frilly apron for her :). And last weekend I was able to whip up some homemade lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting!! YUM!

Alright, both kids are asleep and if I want to be able to make it through my 2am date with Liam I best be off to bed. Thanks for putting up with my gibberish!

It's a...

BOY!
Well, baby Liam (full name William) Davis was born one day early on Feb 1/2012 at 9:23pm. He was a tiny little thing (thank God) weighing 7lbs 14oz, but loooong at 21''. He is soooo cute but since he's so small, his little head doesn't fit many of the hats I made for him. The solution: make Liam more hats! The secondary problem: no time! Oh well, I'll find time soon enough, but for now, Liam will just have to endure the hardships of not wearing his mom's super cool hats; it's a good thing he has a full head of hair.
Pictures coming soon!

Boy or Girl?

Since we don't know the gender of our bun in the oven, I'm always being asked if I have a "feeling" whether it's a girl or a boy. For the longest time I felt it might be a girl because the ultrasound tech said "she" at one point during our appointment even though we told her we wanted to keep it a surprise. Over the last few weeks I've change my thoughts to the baby being a boy with a heart rate usually hovering around 136beats (anything below 145 is supposed to be a boy, anything over is a girl, according to ol' wives tales).

Well, I wasn't able to commit to either one of my feelings so I've been making gender specific hats and I'll just sell the hats I don't end up needing.

Here are my girl hats

And here are my boy hats

This one could be for either a boy or a girl, but it's pretty colourful so I see it more of a girly hat

Baby blanket blunders

This "boy" blanket is giving me some grief! I started with a chunky white yarn but didn't account for the gauge change when I was choosing my other yarns. The greens and blue I chose are much lighter than the chunky white yarn so I'm experiencing some puckering I guess you could call it. I ended up removing the center white stitches to help the blanket lay flat. The end product is more circular than square but I think once I add the border it will square it up.

Since I was getting so annoyed with my boy blanket, I started my girl blanket (I usually have a few projects on the go at the same time). Again, not learning from my mistakes, I didn't think about my gauge and I used a chunky yellow cotton yarn that doesn't have as much stretch as my other yarn choices. I think I've also lost or added some stitches along the way, giving it a rounded shape. I think the border should help once again.

Still going...strong?

Well, I'm still pregnant. I should be glad because it gives me a chance to finish the 2 blankets I'm making for the baby (we don't know what we're having and I have too many yellow and green blankets, I wanted a colourful girly one and a nice blue one), as well as all the baby hats I keep dreaming about.

My son doesn't like when I crochet, he always says "no, no, no Mommy" and pulls it out of my hands. It's a good thing he's cute or that would just be annoying. He gets the yarn caught between his fingers and it's hilarious watching him try to unravel himself. Much cuter than when my husband moves my projects and ends up undoing rows of my hard work!

So, while my son is napping and the house is quiet, I think I'll pour myself a cup of raspberry leaf tea (apparently helps to bring on contractions, I've been drinking it for a few weeks!) and stitch until the baby comes.

Hello blog world!

Well, I've been thinking about starting a blog to post my projects and little thoughts, but considering how long it took me to actually start my blog, my posts might be far and in between. You see, I'm 39 weeks pregnant, potty training a 2 year old boy, starting a crafting business and trying to keep my husband sane and happy through it all. I hope you all enjoy my quirks and projects. Please feel free to comment and leave me messages.