Her first felt food

Last year my very favourite blogger (who is sickeningly talented) Karen and I did a little summer Christmas ornament swap and I made a felt strawberry, a VERY kiwi Christmas symbol. As a kid we always had stupid things like snowman ornaments on our Christmas tree and this year we had the hottest Christmas Day since the 1930s. (Talk about the wrong summer to be pregnant! Last summer was wet and miserable, this summer is so hot I’m nearly in tears some days!) So all those winter ornaments are just out of place. We’ll have our first Christmas tree next year for the baby’s sake and so I decided to make a few strawberry ornaments for it. Unfortunately I must have used a different circle template last year because it came out too small. But I decided that I’d turn it into her first felt food instead. I’m not really supposed to handstitch anything because of the carpal tunnel but it’s being so good at the moment and it’s so boring not being able to make anything that I risked the chance of pain and made a second one. Eventually there will be a whole plants worth of berries but there’s risk and then there’s being stupid so I’ll pace myself.

We had a midwife appointment today (she’s jammed right down in the pelvis and has ‘dropped’ which is a good sign for an early birth and also horrendously uncomfortable) and the midwife referred me for a scan to check on the wriggler because I’ve had decreased movements and have been stressing about it. Everything is fine and the scan tech called her feisty which sounds like a good sign! She’s on the small side but has plenty of time to grow and is at least not going to be a 10lber! I think the lack of movement is because she’s facing the placenta a lot now and kicking that. The funny thing though…I wanted to confirm she isn’t actually a he (since it was so hard to get a decent look at 19wks) but she had her legs politely crossed…and yet if you turn your head to the right I’d swear she’s picking her freaking nose! Tell me that’s not what it looks like:

It does look like it, right? She’s going to be a handful, I can just tell!

A mobile to grow with her(and a bump update)

I wanted a mobile over the babys bed to stimulate her eyes and keep her interested but I’m not spending $80 ($80!!) on a mobile that while very, very cute is not changeable as she changes and frankly there’s only so much Disney one person can take. So I was very excited to see this mobile tutorial when I was newly pregnant. I have yet to go buy some duraseal (the stuff she refers to as laminating sheets) and tissue paper) but I deconstructed a brightly coloured felt mobile I made a long time ago and voila, instant eye stimulation! They say new babes see black, white and red as their first colours so thats definitely on the to do list. The colourful circles can be put up after a month or two as her vision develops. The mobile is a Kikkerland photo hanger and only cost $16 here. Once she gets beyond mobiles it can hang in the corner with photos of the people who love her watching over her as she sleeps.

And how about a bump update?

The left photo was 22w4d and the right photo is today at 29w5d. I’m not finding it easy or pleasant in any way and am counting down the days til my pregnancy is over but I’m also counting down the days til our girl arrives. Each day that passes I feel less like I am growing a many tentacled alien and am beginning to think that I might actually be making a real, healthy human in there. Although she kicks like she has many tentacles so I’m still not entirely convinced she’s not alien.

New directions

Day 4 with a little energy and only a little nausea. It’s scary to suddenly have that fog clear, like it means bad things. But there’s just enough nausea remaining to reassure me. I don’t know when it will return so I am making the most of it. I am trying a few new things this year – some wooden items and not surprisingly many of them are baby related. Shocking I know. My supplies have arrived and now it’s time to get to work. I am so ready to get my craft on! Gnomes, teething rings, oh the fun waiting for me!

My first practise nursing necklace – cos you know that point when they get bored and start yanking on your hair but you know they are still thirsty if they would just focus on the bottle? Yeah this is to save your hair and keep them from getting distracted by every.little.thing. Also good for babywearers who wear their babe on their back – all that hair hanging down from mamas head can be just so tempting to grab 😉

Calendula baby balm

(My blood test results came back saying all the right things on Tuesday! Yay! I was able to begin my second daily injections last night and reduce my morning dosage. The symptoms have eased in the last couple of days and hopefully the new injection will help them ease further. I would really like my short term memory back please!)

After Ginny blogged last year about making calendula/comfrey baby bottom salve I decided it would be a perfect project to try so I scattered some calendula seeds in my newly planted garden bed and waited for them to grow. Sweet mother of…they took an eternity. Then about 2 days before they (and I) were ready to pick the entire garden got thrashed by a wind storm. Despite ending up a foot back from where I originally planted them they were one of the few garden survivors. I used Ginny’s instructions and it worked perfectly. The pellets I used were very light compared to the bars in the photo so the balm is lighter than I expected but it’s still balm. I left out (okay I forgot) the comfrey but might try it next time.

Since I am not having a baby until at least November I think I will give this batch away (does 2 small tubs count as a batch?) but luckily it’s ‘baby season’ so that shouldn’t be hard to find a recipient. The good thing about calendula balm is that it’s all purpose, not just for baby bottoms and diaper rash. It’s also perfect for the little bangs and bruises kids like to collect so I think this will become an annual project. I don’t know about you but around my house the adults do the occasional bit of wound collecting too. Dave looks like he’s hugged a hedgehog when the cats have finished kneading his arm. Hmmm maybe I better keep one tub.

Rainbow horsie the second

Because rainbow horsies breed prodigiously. Did you know that? It’s true. When you can sew and have a love of rainbows rivaling that of an 8 year old girl they do anyway.

Grumpy Bear

It’s Spring here. Actually I should say that again the way I mean it: IT’S BLOODY FANTASTIC SPRING HERE!!!! Not only is Winter gone for the next 7 or 8 months (and good bloody riddance to it) but it’s finally Spring. The Spring winds are here (how did I forget about those?) which can make for an interesting hairdo when I’m out walking but I don’t care. I have Grumpy Bear Syndrome and that’s all that matters. You know when a bear emerges from hibernation and they’re hungry and feisty and you best avoid them? Yep, that’s what I have. Except for me rather than making me want to rip you to pieces it means my crafting mojo has returned just in the nick of time.

I just about went crazy this winter with one project after another getting abandoned or turning out badly. It was really depressing for a while. But now…I have a stall at the local Waldorf schools craft and toy fair in 7 weeks, the only fair I will be doing for a while so I want to go all out. Plus the more I sell there the more I can spend there. I look forward to it all year. And Dave’s sister has asked me to make her 80,000,000 strings of bunting for her wedding. And source the fabrics. And the wedding is two days before the fair and I can’t find a bloody green fabric. Guess who is panicking? And I just volunteered to make a  bag for someone in exchange for her left over prenatal vitamins. What was I thinking? She let me hold her baby and I just lost my senses and offered. And just like the picture suggests I cast on for a personal project too. I am easily swayed by rainbows and the rainbow merino yarn was just too much to resist. Sleep is optional right?

Weekending

Other than the usual dramas (injured kitty, winter rain and random cat vomit) this weekend has been good and it’s only Saturday. So hopefully I’ll get another day of awesome things tomorrow.

There’s been thrifting – a childsize rocking chair. I have been looking for one halfheartedly for a couple of weeks and it got donated to the thrift store just as I arrived there this morning. Meant to be or what?

And knitting – a Pebble vest, my first one. I wanted to try one for ages but got a bit intimidate. As usual once I got started the pattern is easy (as long as I pay attention) and so stinking cute. I’ll show it to you when I finish it next week.

There’s also been notknitting. This scarf I started a while ago keeps reminding me that it’s winter now and I really could do with a new scarf. But seriously, 6 feet of rib? What was I thinking? I hate ribbing!

And sewing – vintage embroidery bunting. There will be 4 or 5 coming to my woefully abandoned etsy shop soon. I had forgotten how much I enjoy sewing!

Stashbusting

I’ve been spending the past month ‘shopping the stash’ rather than buying yarn. Money is tight and I have more yarn than one person really needs so I thought I would challenge myself to find projects to match the yarn I already have. It’s actually inspired a surprising amount of creative ideas.

– A baby bib from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I swore off stripes after the baby hats so of course it totally makes sense that the very next project I made was a stripey one. This was a great way to use up small balls of cotton and there will totally be more of these…but not yet. I really do need a break from stripes. So many ends to weave in for one little bib! 14 of them.

– Rainbow bunting. Call me a child but I never tire of rainbow colours. I’m thinking boy colours are next. And I still have to decide how to hang the flags. The ridiculously easy pattern is from here – and it takes insanely little yarn and time to make.

– A Milo Soaker from Vintage Baby Knits. It’s knit flat and seamed so it’s also ridiculousy easy but you could easily do it in the round (and if I could handle dpn’s I would).

– I’ve (sort of) finished the dolls cradle revamp too! Lobotomy Dolly (the closing seam on the top of her head makes her look like she had one) is on a slant because the mattress is only half stuffed but it’s close enough to finished for me. The mattress was pink flannelette from my stash and the wool stuffing is too. And yet somehow my stash doesn’t seem to be shrinking. Ahem, I have no idea why.

Doll stroller revamp

It took a while to finish painting itand then I had to handsew the seat onto the frame but it’s finally finished! The stroller was part of a $4 thrift haul (including fabric and 2 wooden bowls so it cost maybe $1), I used about $1.50 of paint and the fabric was a thrifted $3 brand new apron. Total cost approx $5.50 = you can’t go wrong with that. And it’s easily 10,000% cuter. I would like to replace the wheels at some stage but haven’t yet found wooden ones big enough.

Now I have to paint that sticker covered dolls cradle and also a dolls crib I got last week when I dropped into the thrift store on a whim. Not sure if I’ll get them done before winter hits and painting weather passes but there’s always dolls quilts to keep me busy. And there’s my knitted scarf which is only 1 inch long and no matter how many rows I knit it doesn’t seem to grow!

Deep breaths

This year has steadily gotten worse and after today I’m absolutely exhausted and it’s only 3 months into it. I won’t even begin to list the dramas but they are constant and expensive. I knew early on that this year was going to suck but I had no idea (thank goodness!) just how draining it would actually be. It’s really really forcing me to look for the positives – which is nice but doesn’t come naturally to me. So I think it’s time for a deep breath to ponder the positives of this rather trying year:

– I made scented playdough for the fair today. It didn’t sell well but sometimes people just don’t behave the way you want them to. And damn, it did smell good – that chocolate one in particular was very trying for this struggling weight watchers member! Thankfully it has salt in it so I won’t actually try eating it!

– After nearly 2.5 years of not embroidering I was inspired by finding a nearly finished badbird design I started….a long time ago. I can’t wait to finish it and make it into a softie.

– I got a letter from the fertility place about our appointment with good medical news. More progress which is good, now we just wait for that pesky funding and a date for treatment.

– I saw these on the thrift store counter when I was buying a book and needless to say I couldn’t resist. Sheepskin lined baby booties – winter is so close and I really am tempted to try make a pair in my size:

– Dave bought me a new desk from the thrift store today which is much more suited for my sewing room than my old one. We had to slot it into the car like a jigsaw puzzle which was….fun. I do love that man.

– I got to hold a sweet 2 year old girl last week. Oh my. Good thing she was too heavy to run off with! (bad joke!)