Waiting

Worlds crappest blog title. Waiting. But waiting I am. Unfortunately I am still a few days short of 34wks so I’ve still got an awful lot of  waiting to do. I now know why pregnant women (particularly first timers) abandon their blogs for months at a time. First time pregnancy is nothing short of eyeopening. And if I don’t want to be living these symptoms then you certainly don’t want to be reading about them.

Thanks to pelvic pain I have barely left the house in a month and only when Dave has been able to drive me anywhere. Yesterday he very kindly took a detour on the way to a customers house to pick me up and drop me at the local shops for a whole hour of freedom. Yep, I’ve lost my marbles if I’m excited about spending time at the shops this close to Christmas in this humidity. I was even desperate enough to risk a trip to the local op shop – in 34wks I have been maybe 3 times because the woman who works there began to really creep me out and cross boundaries. It was worth it though, I got a wooden train set which will be perfect for transporting her wooden animals around the house – or for mama to trip over.

Someone asked for a baby update so I’ll try and keep it brief (and tasteful) – she’s 3/5 engaged now, I’m in considerable and ever changing pain, whining constantly and currently melting in the summer heat – the humidity this summer is not the norm for us. Tending towards all over fatness as I do I am surprised by how…frontal the bump is. I’ll shock you with a photo asap. The midwife is guessing she’ll be 7.5lb but jeez if this is the pressure, pain and discomfort caused by a 7.5lber then what must those poor women who have 10+lb babies go through? I’m pretty sure I felt each of her little fingers through my skin the other day, so surreal. The discomfort seems to be cyclical – several very rough days followed by one or two crappy but normal days. You’d think being built not unlike a Russian peasant I’d fly through pregnancy with nary a complaint. And I’ve developed a whopping surge in my usually minor lactose intolerance which means looking for non-dairy alternatives.

(Also does anyone have any experience taking raspberry leaf tea? Recommended or a waste of time?)

Thrifty score

New? Probably $100+. Secondhand? $30. I’ll give it a sand and paint one day and the wriggler can have her little tea parties here. Some days I just love thrifting. This whole month has been well worth the effort actually. Sometimes I walk out of a thrift store with an amazing mint condition bargain in my hands and just can’t believe that someone got rid of it. And actually I’m a little giddy with excitement that one day I get to buy a little tea set too.

Baby steps

If I thought I was tired before I was wrong. W.R.O.N.G. And if I ever felt lazy…I shouldn’t have. Now I know what lazy feels like. I look at the list of planned baby knitting and laugh hysterically. Well no, laughing uses too much energy. But I certainly snort and roll my eyes. Currently a good day includes doing the dishes. Or making dinner. Or doing laundry. Doing one of those is a good day. Doing two is a miracle. Perhaps later on I’ll have some freakish nesting fit where I find myself able to knit a full cardigan in half an hour. But for now this is my progress:

It’s taken me 3 weeks at an average of a row a day. I had a freakish day where I knit 5 rows but then I didn’t pick it up for about 4 days. Obviously 5 rows just wore me out. Oh well, I have time. And I’m going to need all of it at this rate.

Dave voluntarily took me to the thrift store today and I finally found something I have been hunting for, for a long time. A vintage wooden high chair! My mum had one as a baby, I had one as a baby and I am ridiculously overexcited that my child will have one as a baby. I can’t stand those enormous plastic things. It needs to be cleaned and repainted and that decal will have to be removed. That will have to wait for the nesting (and money – man, paint is pricey!) but I am so happy I found one for only $15. I just wish I had found it before I bought a fancy wooden one for $100! Isn’t that always the way?

Set for summer

We’re not having Christmas in our house this year due to some…personal problems. It’s much easier for me this year to just cancel it and stay at home without other people around. So instead I am going to celebrate the summer and enjoy hopefully our last one without a baby. Summer took its sweet time arriving but it has now and it is glorious. And to celebrate I have:

Yarn. Lots of yarn:

Zucchini! I grew food! The garden has exploded this month:

And todays new addition to the never ending ‘must repaint’ pile. A rocking horse! I only dropped in to the op shop to drop off a box of stuff. Dave gave me quite an unimpressed ‘look’ when I came out carrying this!

Play oven

When I see certain things at the thrift shop I can’t help but snap them up. This was definitely one of them. I liked it so much I carried it home nearly 2 kilometres rather than wait two days to pick it up in the car. It was not my best decision ever – I couldn’t quite feel my arms by the time I reached my house. But I love it and am planning to add a fridge and sink to it to make a whole play kitchen. I’ve been looking at the ones people have made on flickr. Woah baby. People have been unbelievably creative! I am so inspired and I’m thinking something like this will be perfect. Although I will never ever be able to decide what colour to paint it. I never really think of making things, it’s always buybuybuy then I get depressed that we don’t have enough money to buy all those things I keep wanting. That’s next years motto planned out: Make more, want less. I’ll have to write it down. I never did write this years motto down and I’m buggered if I know what it is.

Thrifted treasures

It’s been a long couple of weeks and I have become increasingly stressed and short tempered. So today I was irrationally thrilled to finally have the chance to trawl through five thrift stores and score some real treasures:

A sweet little hobby horse!

Another fixer upper dolls cradle. I’ll paint them all in spring (a month away!) and decide which to keep and which to sell. Before I run out of space hopefully.

A hot air balloon softie. It’s a bit grubby and not brilliantly made so I’m going to try drafting my own pattern. A softie tutorial perhaps?

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!

Thrifted

I think I have mentioned already about how incredibly lucky the thrift stores have been for me this year. Today was another lucky day. I couldn’t leave it there for someone else to buy:

Right? Right. My grandma had one just like it 70 years ago – as ‘just like it’ as you can tell from a tiny 70 year old over exposed photo anyway. This is the very last dolls toy I am thrifting though (it won’t be) because I am completely out of space (that bit at least is true). But I think it has ‘family heirloom’ written all over it. Plus can’t you see me my kiddo trying to put the cat in it one day? With a knitted cat bonnet (there are patterns online….so I hear).

P.S. I’m bored, not crazy. My cats are in no danger. Other than being at risk of being made to look ridiculous…ly cute.

It’s like they knew I was coming

I have had what can only be called a dream run of thrifting this year. The rest of my year is generally a suckfest but the thrifting is extra good. Other than the doll stroller and dolls cradle I showed recently you here’s the best finds so far this year:

– The Wool Company Perendale Utiku 8ply, 3 200gm skeins in Desert. This is an old discontinued colour but I’m pretty sure I can find a use for it. I may have actually run into the store when I saw it in the window. It’s more chocolately in real life. You can spot a Weight Watchers member by their ability to compare anything to a food.

– Blocks. Lots of wooden blocks. Big ones and small ones and over a full shopping bag of them. A few have drawing on them which I’ll have to try remove but for $4 it’s a small issue.

– The cutest silliest adult sized mittens. Winter is pretty much here ( I have real issues with winter affecting my mood) and these have put a smile on my face. As soon as they dry from their trip through the washing machine I’ll be threading them through my sleeves every day when I head off for my walk.

– A dolls crib – as if a stroller and cradle weren’t enough! Another painting project! Yay! It is filthy and in desperate need of paint (what the hell do kids do to their toys?) and then making a mattress, pillow and quilt (yay again!)

There have also been oodles of vintage and modern knitting patterns and craft books. And the exact circular knitting needles I searched everywhere for. And….well now I’m just bragging so I’ll stop. I must admit though….it might be time for a really deep declutter, my craft room is full!

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!