I love days when I wake up feeling refreshed. Today has started as one of those days. I think it may have something to do with the new stools I have. Strange, but true. Pre-pregnancy I could jump, climb on counters, etc to reach whatever it was that I needed. These days that does not happen. In fact, even washing something in the kitchen sink, cooking at the stove, or cutting up veggies has started to become a chore because my baby gets in the way.
As of this week, I have an upstairs stool, which allows me to reach the things on the shelves in our closet and is a small blessing when it comes to reaching for laundry detergent or getting clothes out of the washing machine. I can actually reach those pesky socks that stick to the bottom of the wash tub now. Downstairs I have a super handy fold out stool with a handle so I can reach things in the cupboards and a mini platform that my dad made me so I can work at the kitchen counter and cook without harming baby. Thanks dad!
I know these seem like trivial things. Before I was pregnant being too short to reach things was never a thought that crossed my mind much since I had developed ways to get to it anyway. With my big belly, I now have greater appreciation for a little thing like this. Without my stools, nothing would get accomplished. Now, if only I could find a way to reach those shelves at the grocery store...
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
I Am One Crafty Beotch
Early on we decided against anything pink for a girl or blue for a boy...at least as far as the nursery goes. These are colors that are difficult to avoid in baby world in general, so it seems. I found a super cute "neutral" jungle-babies border for the nursery before we discovered that the baby was a boy. It turned out to be a difficult theme to pair with paint color, but I think I made a good choice. I decided on 2 different shades of bright green. Luckily grandpa was a painter before he retired and spends his spare time building and refinishing furniture. So, he is painting and wallpapering the nursery for his grandson. He's also making me 4" platforms that I can use all over the house. Turns out I have a hard time doing dishes, cooking, etc because my big belly and short arms make me look like T-Rex in the kitchen. Gotta get that belly up and over them counter tops. This is also proving to be a problem when doing laundry. I'm currently using stacks of books. That old medical dictionary is finally getting some use. :)
Nursery so far.
Since I'm trying to be relatively frugal when it comes to the baby stuff, I decided to make the babies quilt for the nursery as well as the curtains. I haven't started the curtains yet, but finishined the quilt in 2 days! It was super easy, I basically stitched 6" blocks together to make an averaged sized baby quilt. The most time consuming thing was making the blocks look random, although I placed them rather methodically. All blocks compliment a bordering block and no 2 blocks of the same pattern border each other. It took me several hours of planning, but it was worth it. The back side of the quilt is the softest fabric ever made. I desperately want to cuddle with this blankie myself, but am resisting. It was also super cheap since I used a bunch of leftover fabric that I already had and hit up the fabric store during a 99 cent quarters sale. I also had leftover batting that I used. Total cost = $20.00. Cha-ching.
I also found a pattern for these cute little sleeper blankets (that retail for about $40). Here is the first one I made. I used snaps per the sewing instructions and also sewed little legs into it so we can use it in a car seat or stroller. I'm working on another one, but I'm modifying the pattern. I think that something like velcro will work better than snaps and I'm going to keep it more like a sleepsack without legs this time. The third time will probably the charm. Fortunately, fleece is very cheap during the summer months!
Nursery so far.
Since I'm trying to be relatively frugal when it comes to the baby stuff, I decided to make the babies quilt for the nursery as well as the curtains. I haven't started the curtains yet, but finishined the quilt in 2 days! It was super easy, I basically stitched 6" blocks together to make an averaged sized baby quilt. The most time consuming thing was making the blocks look random, although I placed them rather methodically. All blocks compliment a bordering block and no 2 blocks of the same pattern border each other. It took me several hours of planning, but it was worth it. The back side of the quilt is the softest fabric ever made. I desperately want to cuddle with this blankie myself, but am resisting. It was also super cheap since I used a bunch of leftover fabric that I already had and hit up the fabric store during a 99 cent quarters sale. I also had leftover batting that I used. Total cost = $20.00. Cha-ching.
I also found a pattern for these cute little sleeper blankets (that retail for about $40). Here is the first one I made. I used snaps per the sewing instructions and also sewed little legs into it so we can use it in a car seat or stroller. I'm working on another one, but I'm modifying the pattern. I think that something like velcro will work better than snaps and I'm going to keep it more like a sleepsack without legs this time. The third time will probably the charm. Fortunately, fleece is very cheap during the summer months!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Me No Understand Punctuation
So I was just reading over previous entries and am ashamed at the number of punctuation and grammatical errors. I will try to read my entries a little more carefully in the future. It makes me wonder, have you people understood a word I've written up to this point?
Friday, May 16, 2008
The Great Sweater Challenge
After finishing the quilt for the bed, I was well into the seriously icky first trimester. I had a sudden urge to embroider (something I hadn't done since living in Vermont years ago). I picked up some pillow cases and started a pretty flower and paisley pattern. I found out I was pregnant around the time I was finishing the first pillow case in the pair. It stays untouched in the bottom of my crafting chest.
Yes, I have an entire chest (an old toy chest) and closet filled to the brim with materials for nearly every crafty whim that overcomes me. The room that holds said chest usually is overrun by yarn and fabric during one of my, "does this go together?" rampages. The fact that this room must become the nursery was a fact I faced early in my pregnancy...thankfully!
Since I wasn't feeling very well at first, but have a difficult time doing nothing I gave myself a few...ummm..let's call them challenges...to keep myself occupied.
Challenge 1. An oldie but a goodie, go back to the Well-Educated Mind and finish the books on the first reading list (see previous entry). So far, I'm not doing too bad. I'm finishing up Crime and Punishment (number 11? out of 30), which I really like so far.
Challenge 2. Read the entire King James version of the Christian bible. Since my husband is Christian, it only seemed like the right thing to do...and it seemed like a) a great literary feat, b) something completely outside my comfort zone, and c) I might learn something. I think item "c" is the primary reason for taking on this project. The reason? I was once eating at a tasty Indian buffet for lunch with 2 friends. One is Jewish, the other Catholic. I turned the my Catholic friend and asked what a traditional Passover feast with like. She turned red and said I don't know. Then I turned to my Jewish friend and said, doesn't it have something to do with Lent? They both burst into laughter...there were tears... thankfully they knew I was seriously ignorant and not intentionally trying to be insulting. I have tried to educate myself about world religions ever since. For some reason, Christianity has been a difficult one for me to tackle. Mark has been very informative and I'm starting figure out why I've been so confused by it for so long...there are endless "versions" of Christianity. They all believe different things...well, not the major premise of course, but there are differences. Reading "The Year of Living Biblically" by AJ Jacaobs (one of my favorite authors because he's into weird life projects like myself) helped me jumpstart the great bible reading project. I have finished Genesis and Exodus. I think the rest will have to wait awhile.
Challenge 3. Ok. Back to the crafty stuff. For this project I decided that I had way too much yarn, fabric, etc. I also recognized that I would need to get rid of this stuff to make room for baby. There is no way I was going to shove it into a box in the basement. I also knew that the baby would be born in the fall (perfect sweater season) and would need clothing. My task was to find free patterns on the internet and make tons and tons of baby clothes using the yarn already in my chest. I have made quite a few baby caps and sweaters (most of which are so ugly I would never in a millions years put them on my child..I blame it on yarn limitations). There were a few cute successes though.
This is a little hoodie I made from a free pattern my sister gave me. Some of you may have seen pictures of Mark knitting this one. He only finished one row, but I say that counts as helping make one of our son's first sweaters. Aww!
This is probably one of my favorites. It's a little striped cardigan.
Here's an itty bitty v-neck. Another favorite.
These things are adorable! They are actually made to be handwarmers. The little bottom opens and you can put rice-filled bean bags inside, which can be warmed in the microwave for cold nights. I thought this would be nice if we go camping, or if we are outside of the house for a walk on a brisk night.
Yes, I have an entire chest (an old toy chest) and closet filled to the brim with materials for nearly every crafty whim that overcomes me. The room that holds said chest usually is overrun by yarn and fabric during one of my, "does this go together?" rampages. The fact that this room must become the nursery was a fact I faced early in my pregnancy...thankfully!
Since I wasn't feeling very well at first, but have a difficult time doing nothing I gave myself a few...ummm..let's call them challenges...to keep myself occupied.
Challenge 1. An oldie but a goodie, go back to the Well-Educated Mind and finish the books on the first reading list (see previous entry). So far, I'm not doing too bad. I'm finishing up Crime and Punishment (number 11? out of 30), which I really like so far.
Challenge 2. Read the entire King James version of the Christian bible. Since my husband is Christian, it only seemed like the right thing to do...and it seemed like a) a great literary feat, b) something completely outside my comfort zone, and c) I might learn something. I think item "c" is the primary reason for taking on this project. The reason? I was once eating at a tasty Indian buffet for lunch with 2 friends. One is Jewish, the other Catholic. I turned the my Catholic friend and asked what a traditional Passover feast with like. She turned red and said I don't know. Then I turned to my Jewish friend and said, doesn't it have something to do with Lent? They both burst into laughter...there were tears... thankfully they knew I was seriously ignorant and not intentionally trying to be insulting. I have tried to educate myself about world religions ever since. For some reason, Christianity has been a difficult one for me to tackle. Mark has been very informative and I'm starting figure out why I've been so confused by it for so long...there are endless "versions" of Christianity. They all believe different things...well, not the major premise of course, but there are differences. Reading "The Year of Living Biblically" by AJ Jacaobs (one of my favorite authors because he's into weird life projects like myself) helped me jumpstart the great bible reading project. I have finished Genesis and Exodus. I think the rest will have to wait awhile.
Challenge 3. Ok. Back to the crafty stuff. For this project I decided that I had way too much yarn, fabric, etc. I also recognized that I would need to get rid of this stuff to make room for baby. There is no way I was going to shove it into a box in the basement. I also knew that the baby would be born in the fall (perfect sweater season) and would need clothing. My task was to find free patterns on the internet and make tons and tons of baby clothes using the yarn already in my chest. I have made quite a few baby caps and sweaters (most of which are so ugly I would never in a millions years put them on my child..I blame it on yarn limitations). There were a few cute successes though.
This is a little hoodie I made from a free pattern my sister gave me. Some of you may have seen pictures of Mark knitting this one. He only finished one row, but I say that counts as helping make one of our son's first sweaters. Aww!
This is probably one of my favorites. It's a little striped cardigan.
Here's an itty bitty v-neck. Another favorite.
These things are adorable! They are actually made to be handwarmers. The little bottom opens and you can put rice-filled bean bags inside, which can be warmed in the microwave for cold nights. I thought this would be nice if we go camping, or if we are outside of the house for a walk on a brisk night.
Yes, I Have Hobbies Other than Complaining
I am a recovering busy-body. I used to get up well before dawn, workout on a regular basis, take public transportation (which is a chore in itself), commute to work for many many minutes (often hours), work all day, repeat said commute, squeeze in phone calls with friends and family, do volunteer work, moonlight as an editor (hey, broken dogs don't pay for themselves), read books, watch movies, spend time with Mark, make healthy dinners, go to concerts, keep up with the housework, and deal with whatever ridiculous mishap was happening at the time (eg, broken water pipes, broken dogs). And all that might have been in the same week. Weew!
That got pretty old (and tiring) so I went for a serious change of pace and moved to the country. Yay boonies! Getting pregnant put a little damper on forging ahead with my freelance career though. I just couldn't get my mojo going when I was sick all friggin' day for nearly 3 months (followed by a wonderful bout with a ruptured cyst on my ovary). I know, too much info, but it kind of explains why I felt great one day and then suddenly felt so terrible that I dropped off the planet for another month. It was unpleasant to say the least.
Fortunately, my amazing future hubby works his booty off so that I can spend more time worrying about resting and eating than...well, anything! Isn't that sweet?! So blah, blah, blah... I was busy, busy, busy now I'm lazy, lazy, lazy. Although I'm still writing (and trying to avoid a serious TV addiction with that reading list), I have little else on my plate. This has led me to become...
...the fanatical crafter! What does one do when lying supine for days on end? Hmmm? Knit maybe?!
So...it actually started with a quilt for our bedroom, which was actually pretty labor intensive. I got most of it done during the holiday break before I left Takeda. Finishing the quilt was one of my first major projects. The original pattern for the quilt was much smaller than I wanted so I added panels to all 4 sides and created a unique patch for each corner. Once the day came to put on the batting and finish it up, I realize I was running short in the batting department. I improvised and turned it into a duvet cover for our down comforter. I also made it reversible. There is a really nice white on white print on the back for the days that I'm sick of red and brown. I think it turned out great!
COMPLETED DUVET COVER
IMPROVISED CORNER PATCH
I then realized our baby would be born just in time for sweater season...
To be continued...
That got pretty old (and tiring) so I went for a serious change of pace and moved to the country. Yay boonies! Getting pregnant put a little damper on forging ahead with my freelance career though. I just couldn't get my mojo going when I was sick all friggin' day for nearly 3 months (followed by a wonderful bout with a ruptured cyst on my ovary). I know, too much info, but it kind of explains why I felt great one day and then suddenly felt so terrible that I dropped off the planet for another month. It was unpleasant to say the least.
Fortunately, my amazing future hubby works his booty off so that I can spend more time worrying about resting and eating than...well, anything! Isn't that sweet?! So blah, blah, blah... I was busy, busy, busy now I'm lazy, lazy, lazy. Although I'm still writing (and trying to avoid a serious TV addiction with that reading list), I have little else on my plate. This has led me to become...
...the fanatical crafter! What does one do when lying supine for days on end? Hmmm? Knit maybe?!
So...it actually started with a quilt for our bedroom, which was actually pretty labor intensive. I got most of it done during the holiday break before I left Takeda. Finishing the quilt was one of my first major projects. The original pattern for the quilt was much smaller than I wanted so I added panels to all 4 sides and created a unique patch for each corner. Once the day came to put on the batting and finish it up, I realize I was running short in the batting department. I improvised and turned it into a duvet cover for our down comforter. I also made it reversible. There is a really nice white on white print on the back for the days that I'm sick of red and brown. I think it turned out great!
COMPLETED DUVET COVER
IMPROVISED CORNER PATCH
I then realized our baby would be born just in time for sweater season...
To be continued...
Drum Roll Please....
Well, yesterday was the big "you're halfway there" ultrasound. We were excited, to say the least. The baby was measured, pictures were taken. Soon the technician asked the question, "are you sure you want to know?" Of course, I'm thinking, Huh!? Are you crazy bitch, I've been waiting for this day for a looooong time. I not into surprises. I'm into decorating and I need to know what color to paint the damn nursery okay? My baby is not about to grow up in the boring world of beige. (Snap snap snap, I should have been born a gay man.) I was also secretly hoping that I wouldn't have to experience the "pink" baby shower. Hey, we all have that "aunt" who usually isn't related to us and who has to make some pink shit out of lace.
So we get to see the creepy baby face/skull. Although its my baby so its f'ing cute if you ask me. We saw the legs, toes, feet, spine, etc. We even saw a yawn. Awwww! Baby wasn't cooperating so the techinician pulled a fancy little belly poke to get the baby to move. Next thing we know, the baby is mooning us.
Now, we've been told these ultrasound aren't 100% accurate. However, you if you look at the little butt cheeks below, you will clearly see some junk down there. I don't think our little man left any room for doubt.
IT'S A BOY!
BABY FROM THE FRONT (yes, I know the skull is sort of creepy)
So we get to see the creepy baby face/skull. Although its my baby so its f'ing cute if you ask me. We saw the legs, toes, feet, spine, etc. We even saw a yawn. Awwww! Baby wasn't cooperating so the techinician pulled a fancy little belly poke to get the baby to move. Next thing we know, the baby is mooning us.
Now, we've been told these ultrasound aren't 100% accurate. However, you if you look at the little butt cheeks below, you will clearly see some junk down there. I don't think our little man left any room for doubt.
IT'S A BOY!
BABY FROM THE FRONT (yes, I know the skull is sort of creepy)
The Complaints Continue
I promised to continue my list of pregnancy not-so-pleasantries (Note: it appears I'm very good at making up words these days, bare with me).
Where did I leave off? Huh-hmmmmmm (me clearing my throat so my fingers can type better)...
5. Knocking items over with my belly. This is truly inconvenient since I also have a terrible time getting down to the floor to pick up said items. Once on the floor, it takes me a solid 60 seconds to get back up. It's sort of like I forgot how to drive and end up doing a 20-point turn to get out of my parking spot. Needless to say, I avoid the floor unless I have something to help me up. I digress, back to the belly...
Let me exemplify the belly problem by sharing a recent incident. A few nights ago a storm moved in pretty quickly. I was in the kitchen making dinner. Once I heard the raindrops I headed upstairs to close the windows with a tall glass of OJ in my hand (don't ask why I was carrying this with me, I apparently forgot to put the glass down). Once I reached the bedroom, I was winded because stairs are evil and Mark is not yet convinced we need an elevator. Although breathless and fatigued, the catlike agility I have developed since becoming pregnant can only explain what was to happen next. I carefully place my glass of OJ on the night stand and gracefully reached to close the window. Success, no rain in this room. As I turned to the leave the room, forgetting my OJ, my belly ever so delicately brushed the glass. The aroma of fresh oranges filled the room as my feet and newly cleaned carpet were dowsed in my precious OJ...it was the last glass by the way.
I cried. OK I didn't, but I wanted to.
Later I reflected on this and I realized I should be thankful that I'm too short to clear most of the surfaces in my house with the belly. Another perk of being short. Then I got to thinking some more (dangerous, I know). Do you think it's possible with my ever increasing size, gravity will have a greater effect drawing me closer to the ground? Will pregnancy make me shorter? If so, will my next blog tell the tale of my belly clearing the coffee table as I walk by? Hmmm...this would be unfortunate.
Aren't you happy you're not my brain? Its filled all sorts of nonsense.
Where did I leave off? Huh-hmmmmmm (me clearing my throat so my fingers can type better)...
5. Knocking items over with my belly. This is truly inconvenient since I also have a terrible time getting down to the floor to pick up said items. Once on the floor, it takes me a solid 60 seconds to get back up. It's sort of like I forgot how to drive and end up doing a 20-point turn to get out of my parking spot. Needless to say, I avoid the floor unless I have something to help me up. I digress, back to the belly...
Let me exemplify the belly problem by sharing a recent incident. A few nights ago a storm moved in pretty quickly. I was in the kitchen making dinner. Once I heard the raindrops I headed upstairs to close the windows with a tall glass of OJ in my hand (don't ask why I was carrying this with me, I apparently forgot to put the glass down). Once I reached the bedroom, I was winded because stairs are evil and Mark is not yet convinced we need an elevator. Although breathless and fatigued, the catlike agility I have developed since becoming pregnant can only explain what was to happen next. I carefully place my glass of OJ on the night stand and gracefully reached to close the window. Success, no rain in this room. As I turned to the leave the room, forgetting my OJ, my belly ever so delicately brushed the glass. The aroma of fresh oranges filled the room as my feet and newly cleaned carpet were dowsed in my precious OJ...it was the last glass by the way.
I cried. OK I didn't, but I wanted to.
Later I reflected on this and I realized I should be thankful that I'm too short to clear most of the surfaces in my house with the belly. Another perk of being short. Then I got to thinking some more (dangerous, I know). Do you think it's possible with my ever increasing size, gravity will have a greater effect drawing me closer to the ground? Will pregnancy make me shorter? If so, will my next blog tell the tale of my belly clearing the coffee table as I walk by? Hmmm...this would be unfortunate.
Aren't you happy you're not my brain? Its filled all sorts of nonsense.
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