Baby Turbans for Baby Showers

So this Sunday is the baby shower for my very special friend! She is so cool, and she let me do her wedding flowers last year and they ended up to be my best yet:

So because she is one of my friends, I can't actually post pictures of her handmade gift but I can assure you, a tutorial is in the works. This girl is such a beautiful bride and I know she's going to be a beautiful mommy too!

Speaking of mommies, one thing I can share is the hat I'm recreating. The pattern is written in a completely different language and I might have to call on my friends who speak german to figure it out. Although it might not be german. Luckily, I'm confident enough in my 'making up' skills to take a swing at it myself.

It's a BABY TURBAN!! AUGH!! This baby even looks like one of mine so I took it as a sign that I HAVE to make it. I think I'm going to add some flower embellishments to it as well to make it my own. Because knitting patters are hard to make correctly and honestly, I don't remember anything I did except that I'm on a 3rd row of a stripe, I will not be posting a pattern for this wonder. Hopefully it will be finished in time for baby B to wear to the shower for our good friend. And of course, I will also be making something similar for baby A.

My Muffin Top is All That

People always say that your pregnancy will be like your mother's pregnancy. It may be that I had twins and my mother never did, but my pregnancy was not at all like my mothers. Neither is my post. We have a video of our family at an air show and my mom is sitting on the side walk with three of us running around her and my 6 month old sister sitting in a stroller next to her. She's wearing short shorts and a belly shirt. No stretch marks, no stretched skin... nothing.

This what's strange to me... I act like my mother, I talk like my mother, I even see my reflection in windows and wonder, "What's my mom doing here?" Then I realize it's me. Four months now and having babies has made my weight fluctuate almost on a weekly basis. I have NEVER had this problem before and didn't expect it to hit until I turned 40, to be honest. In fact, before I was pregnant, I expected that once I did have babies, I wouldn't get stretch marks (my mother didn't), and I would be able to work out (I can't), and just snap back within a month.

Like I have said in previous posts... there is no way you can prepare yourself for having babies.

You know, really I guess I can't complain. I'm taller so extra weight is distributed pretty evenly and not really noticeable to the untrained eye. The trained eye, though, would see that my shape wear cami doesn't adequately squeeze down the folds of fatty saggy skin oozing out of the waist band of my jeans. They don't see how my butt sags too... How did that happen? There was never anything there to sag!

I guess I could just buy myself some hands weights and a video and work out at home. But who wants to do that when they could sit at home watching episodes of 30 Rock, eating chocolate chips, changing diapers, and drinking caramel flavored coffee?

Change

Apparently it's been a while. We've had our children, we've partially finished our house, and we moved in just in the nick of time. Literally. We moved in, a couple days later (boxes still COVERING our house and no running water) I went to my check up thinking I still had one week to go and the nurse says, "Are you ready to have your babies tomorrow?" Yeah. My c-section was rescheduled. I called my husband and told him to not freak out or anything but he needs to get water in the house NOW. I immediately went home and my family came over and unpacked ALL our boxes, my husband got the water working, I got everything ready to go have some babies. After a fitful sleep, at 4:30 I woke up because I had to be checked in by 6. And we didn't even get to bed until 11 that night. By 9:15 am my husband and I had our lives take a huge turn because our twinnies were born.

This is Summer and Isla.

5.11 & 5.9

Now they're four months old, screeching, cooing, rolling, smiling, and lots of fun.

In the same order:

Aren't they dolls? It's amazing to me how different they are at such a young age. Summer is the pistol and Isla is calm and not easily ruffled. Summer fights sleep with all that's within her until the very end and Isla welcomes sleep any time any where. Just give her a paci and a soft blanket.

I can't tell you how many people have told me, "I wish I had twins," with a whimsical, far off look in their eye. I was recently talking to another mother of twins and we both laughed as we said that those people have nooo idea. Twins is like a whole other level of hard that you can't even prepare for. And I pray to God that I never ever have triplets. I feel like I ride on the edge of going crazy almost on a daily basis. And they're only four months old. I've only just recently been able to wrap my brain around how to get them on a schedule. I've had to give myself goals to be able to accomplish with out help like, taking a shower (three weeks, check), doing laundry (two months, check), and I still have to bring people to help me take them to doctor appointments. I finally got my babies to go to sleep by 10 and now I'm stuck on their 2 am schedule. Part of me can't wait for when they're older and the other part does NOT look forward to teething and crawling. My mother in law said it in my favorite way, "Herding cats."

After all that, I love having kids. I always knew I would. It's been hard and not at all how I planned, but I love these girls and how they've changed us. I love having my own house that I can do whatever I want to. Now I just have to find the time and figure out how to hang things without ruining my brand new walls.

A Ticking Time Bomb

Fall is coming!! In Alaska it's not the season most people look forward to because of the deep, dark, and LONG winter that follows. But in August, my neck starts to feel lonely, my feet are tired of being dirty, and all my body wants to do is snuggle in a big cozy blanket.

Husband and I are expecting a rather big addition of twins girls to our family every single day now and I don't know if it's the season or if it's my brain telling me to cram in all of the things I love to do while I still can... but I've been knitting like crazy. Currently I have one project going and two still milling around in my brain... actually more than two. And the only reason why I haven't started on all of them at once is that I have been put on a strict "No Spending," policy. And that has happened because Husband is also building our house which is to be finished before babies arrive. So I have to make a decision between door knobs and the cozy blanket I want to make to throw over our couch once said house gets built. To be honest, this is a hard decision to make right now.

So I'm just going to stick with what I'm making (forest green felted slippers!!) and the ones that I'm still looking for perfect patterns for (socks and mittens).

On top of all these knitting projects my little brain and fingers are itching to decorate my house that's to be finished hopefully before babies get here. I'll admit, I'm getting nervous. I'm at 32 weeks and even though pregnancy wise the babies are staying inside well, and the inside is almost livable, I feel like our clock is ticking and time is running out! I have picture frames to hang up! A living room to put candles all over! A bathroom to find a right shower curtain for! (stupid no spend policy) A kitchen to put together! And how lame would it be to go into labor half way in the middle of putting away my dishes? To come home from the hospital with two brand new babies and 20 boxes to unpack?! LAME!! Oh well... I have a hard working husband and it will get done.... whether they're here or not!

I'll try to take some pictures of my slippers.

Dreamin

You know what would be cool? To be one of those people that other people send their brand new clothes to for you to wear for advertising purposes. Yeah.

The Time Has Come

For me to read the whole Twilight series again. I keep thinking about it. And I feel like I deserve to drive around pretending to be white hot (or cold in this case) vampire again. The other day I looked in my closet and realized that, "Hey, all my clothes are ones that Alice Cullen might wear if I paired them together right!" (The majority of my closet is greys, blues, and whites. Alice, you want to raid my closet and you know it!) After I looked in my closet, I looked at my skin and realized that despite the summer (lack of) sun I am still beautifully pale. (Recently I decided that 3rd degree sun burn every year is something that I don't look forward too. Hello SPF 30!) If only my hair was short and brown. (Not really, I'm starting to like it long)

Speaking of books, I've been reading quite a lot lately. I usually read a lot but schedules and craft projects have not allowed very much time for reading. ALTHOUGH!! I just discovered my dilema of never being able to read while I'm knitting. Suprisingly, the gift was from my husband and I'm pretty sure that he didn't know that his gift was allowing me to do many many things at once. What is this phenomenom? It's a Barnes and Noble NOOK!! A little portable electronic reader and it's wonderful!

Anyways, here's a list of the last few books I've read and how I would rate them.

My first is:

The Eye of the World. A fantasy book by Robert Jordan. My husband recommended it to me and at first it was slow going but at about Chapter 4 or 5 it gets really interesting. Action packed, slight romance, great read, and about 700 pages of thick, the first book of a series of 12. I find myself wanting the second book.

Young Rand is just a shepherd from a small village. Until visitors come to his village turning Rand, and his closest friend's lives upside-down.
Rand, his friends, and the mysterious Aie Sadai and her Warder then start off on an adventure that will change them all.

Five stars!

My next is:

"And Then There Were None." I love me a good Agatha Christie mystery. Miss Marple, Hercule Poroit, I've read them. This was one that my brother's girlfriend recommended to me and I have to say, it's the most chilling one that I've read from her. Like most of her books it's a quick read. But you kind of want it to be because you want to know what happens next...FAST!

A group of people get myseriously invited to the same place, an island owned by no one knows! The mystery thickens when hearing a recording of someone exposing their hidden secrets and one of the guests drops dead.

OoooooO!! Scary but not enough to give me nightmares or have me paranoid. My kind of mystery.

Last but not least:

"Have a Little Faith," by Mitch Albom. This is my book club book and it was a goody.

A true story about the author two influental men in his life who taught him about God, faith, happiness, contentment, and peace in your life. These two men are his old jewish rabbi and the African American christian pastor who came from a life of violence and drugs.

It's a very quick read that gets you thinking. It leaves you with a happy feeling but then again a, "Man, I need to look at the world differently." Or at least that's how I thought about it. It's such a good book.
I would let you borrow it but it's on my nook. :) I read this book while knitting some throw pillow covers. Which I haven't finished and my husband took my camera so there are no pictures of them.... yet.

Peace out!

All Things Handmade

I know it's been forever. Please don't hate me.

This spring/summer has been incredibly busy. Work, projects, our yearly move, and much much more.
Alex and I moved again into a much better, nicer, cleaner, WARMER AND LEAK FREE HOUSE!! Did I also mention that there are no more wood chips? And that I spent a month picking wood chips out of everything AFTER we moved? Yep, things are finally coming together.
Alex and I had our 2 year anniversary and I just recently had my 21st birthday. Now all I have to look forward to is being old enough to rent a car and retirement.

Anways, I have a few projects up my sleeve. One of them being a vintage inspire, fashion show/auction of all things hand made. I'm putting it together for my work and it's going to be wonderful.

And that's all I have to write about for now.

January Shmanuary.

This winter has been hard on both myself and my husband. Hard for me because I live in a house that has leaks, pipes freezing, drafts, broken washing machines, and lacks the ability to remain warmer than 40 degrees. I am serious. When it got into the negative temperatures (as it always does in the winter) the bathtub would have a lob of ice frozen to the drain where the spout was dripping. I should have taken a picture so you would believe me. And hard for my husband because he had to fix it all. Every night he would have AT LEAST one thing to fix. And that is NOT an exaggeration.

And because it is cold, it is also hard for me to craft and to cook. Because the heater broke in my kitchen so every time I was in there I had to have the oven on and door open so that I could have something to warm my hands up on.

But, it has been warming up so my crafting bug has returned. But I do have a couple of pictures that I documented one extremely trying night when I decided to bake and drink the cold away with nasty organic sugar cookies (but an excellent cookie cutter) and the most tasty homemade hot cocoa.

Enjoy:

(My little Organic Cookie Forrest)

(Why I'm the greatest wife that ever lived.)

And now that it's warmer outside, it's warm enough in my house to lay stuff on the floor... or to even sit still for a large amount of time. So I decided last night to teach myself how to applique. It turned out quite well. It's not quite finished, as you will see by the picture... but I think I might turn it into a throw pillow or something. I made the pattern and everything by myself. Just some scraps from my collection of fabrics:

Sorry that I don't have some super awesome picture of it. Maybe I'll post a better one later. This little dresdin plate (so I found out later that's what it was... I didn't know, I just made it up. Honest!) still needs to be sewn on to it's background and I don't even know if I want it to stay on there. I'll have to think about it. I might just do something white. I don't know though, I kind of like all those colors together.
I seem to have this fascination with throw pillows because I also have anothher pillow in the works. I think they're the ones that I might use to build my etsy because I don't know anyone who would like them in their house. Not because they're ugly... just because they are so... unique?

Anyways... I'll update later.

Peace Out!

New Moon, I Just Can't

As seen by the title, I had to pull myself out of the vampire world yesterday. Day offs are not good for me when I've seen anything Twilighty. So yesterday I pretty much forced myself to go grocery shopping and then burry myself in the home design channel and my crafts. I knit the sleeve of my husbands christmas present while he was taking a nap, and then when he woke up I made us stockings. And! I have pictures!

And so this is the sweater I'm making for Alex for Christmas. You can't really see the picture of the guy but it's called the "1950's Cardigan."

And now for the stockings. Isn't he cute! I crocheted a chain for the letters and then hot glued them on. Hot glue is my personal duct tape. And despite how the foot looks on the right stocking, they both have pointed toes and that cute little foot shape.
Yesterday was a frigid -20 F. or so outside so it was the perfect day to just sit inside and get some stuff done. I worked on a necklace too but I'm not satisfied with it so I didn't take a picture. I'm having a hard time getting chains to hang right. When I went grocery shopping I also stopped in a craft store and got myself the beginnings of a christmas wreath.
Christmas is around the corner, folks! I'm so excited about it that I clean forgot about Thanksgiving!

Why of Course I Saw New Moon!

One of my friends had the nerve to ask me if I had seen "New Moon,"  YET.  Ha.  The nerve.   Of course I had.  I waited in line for an hour and a half just so I can see it.   She obviously does not know me well.  

*sigh*  I guess I should forgive her for ignorance. 

Christmas Time!

Also, incase you didn't notice, I decorated my blog in a candy cane color scheme. Your Welcome.

There Will be Casualties. Just Saying.

I am so ready for the weekend it's ridiculous. Not just the 2 days off that I get, but also having the time to sleep in AND clean my house. I have made a rule for myself that unless it gets terribly awful and I can't find any clean clothes, I can set aside Saturday to wash all of my dishes, scrub my bathroom, and try to make my floors wood-chip free. Why wood chips, you might ask? Well my friends, there are only 2 downsides to having a wood stove. One is that you always have a possibility of burning yourself horribly, (or at least I do... I'm not good around fires.) and the other one is that you get wood chips all over your clothes, floor, furniture, everything. The shirt I put on this morning had random wood bits sprinkled all over it. And considering the fact that it was hanging up in my closet I have absolutely no idea how that happened. There are wood chips in my bed which I loathe to no end. I will not be surprised the day that I take a bite of my food and find a wood chip in the lasagna. The wood that gets tracked all over my house, has weaved it's way into all of my socks, and makes my wonderful suede couch a danger to sit on is my extreme arch enemy. And Saturday is my day to conquer it... at least until my husband (who has no problem with wood chips) decides it's time put more wood in the fire and brings in a couple more logs which he dumps on the CARPET and then without brushing off his clothes RECLINES ON MY SUEDE COUCH. Gosh how we love each other. (We really most certainly do. For reals, I promise.) So his actions have made the conclusion that the wood chip invasion in our house is all his fault. And my dyson's fault for not sucking up all of the piles of wood around the fireplace with out getting clogged.
To be perfectly fair to my husband who has now taken his verbal lashing for being the vessel which brings the wood chip immegrants to my country, I will also say that I bother him when he's relaxing in front of the tv after a long day of work, try to talk to him and impute my two cents into the conversation that he's having with someone (oh this is embarressing) over the phone (but I promise I don't pick up the other line, I just say it out loud while he's trying to wave me away) , And I also randomly volcano emotions on him when he least expects it. I call it 'a suprise attack of suppressed emotions.' It's never pretty and there are many casualties.
Anyways, that's probably all I had to blog about. It wasn't very much. I was just bored at work.
Peace out, yo!

Momma Like

How much do I like our new deep fat fryer? Very much. I like it so much, that I don't even mind and can actually laugh heartily at my husband who deep fat fried himself some mushrooms for dinner. While he was eating this he downed a 16 oz glass of egg nog. Yummy, right? (Luckily my husband also has this uncanny talent of it not being physically possible for him to gain weight.) Any way, he will never be doing that again because it left him with quite the stomach ache.

Haha... I love that picture.

I'll probably have some more fat fried food to pig out on once I get home. That or something else. That little cook.

Handmade House Filled with Handmade Articles

My little handmade, tilted, wood panel infested house will once again be filled with the sounds of my sewing machine!  Thanks to Rebecca's dad my sewing machine is well repaired and for only $15.00.  Thank you, Sir!  I have been mostly busy trying to get my winter mittens finished, (Considering the fact that it grows more and more cold every day)  but it's comforting for me to see it resting on my table and blowing up my electricity bill because I leave it plugged in all the time. 

Subject Change:

I've started 2 new projects and in those 2 projects I have come up with 1 new revelation.  The new projects are:  A christmas sweater for my husband (don't tell!)  and a pair of patterned socks for my friend's christmas present. 

And my revelation is:  I HATE knitting small socks.  I would probably really like to knit socks, except for I seem to have this head problem where I'm attracted to all of the socks that are hard and knit with tiny tiny needles, and include either intricate patterns and/or multiple colors.  Why do I do this to myself?  I have no idea but next time (if I can ever bring myself to it again) I will make sure that I use at LEAST a size 5 needle and a bigger yarn.  Sheesh.  But I can make no promises that I will ever make another sock again.  Although I have found that people do request them in their christmas lists to me.  (What can I say?  Even though I lead my hands to a quick path of arthritis, I make some AWESOME socks.)  

I'm making myself a quilting type pillow, which is starting to look pretty time consuming.  And said pillow is planned to make it's little way right to my ugly red couch which once was the not so proud owner of the ugly and mangled tan slip cover.  I finally just decided after months of tucking in the corners of the slip cover, that I would rather dress up and look at the ugly red cover than adjusting the stupid cover every time I walked by for the rest of my life. 

And that's about all, folks. 

Bitter Sweet

My sewing machine is BROKEN!! The gear that moved the fabric feeder just snapped! (I know because I opened it up to look at it myself. Quite the dangerous surgery. But I'd rather do that instead of paying someone else up the butt just to tell me that when I could possibly figure it out myself.) That puts all of my sewing on hold and I'm so angry I could just spit. And I have so many projects to do! I think it's time for me to start saving up my money so that I can just buy myself a new one. Because really, if it's $79 just to clean it, ordering a part and fixing it would probably be the $200-$300 that it is just to buy a new machine.
On a happier note, I went on my bike ride yesterday and it was all that I ever hoped for and more. It was really quite fun. I also went and saw the movie called, "All About Steve." It was funny but I don't think I'll ever really want to see it again. Sandra Bullock says a lot of funny lines in it and she plays an excellent stalker but the guy that plays in it always plays a jerk wad and I can't get over him.
My husband is gone again. My mitten patter in stupid. I thought they were finished but when I tried them on they were child's sized. So saaaadd. Yesterday was a bittersweet kind of day. Dropping off my husband at the airport, biking and spending time with my sister and friends, and my sewing machine breaking. Bummer.
I need some coffee.
Oh, and a little shout out to my friend who had a secret wedding today! Congratulations!
Peace out.

Hallelujah

Today I walked outside, took a big whiff of the great outdoors and one thing entered my head. Bicycle time. Now if only I had a bike. Luckily my mom has a cruiser with a massive seat so that you're butt doesn't get sore (hallelujah) with a rich, creamy, tan paint job. It's the cadillac of cruisers, if I do say so myself. All it's missing is a basket on the front or back and some handle bar tassles. Add those little details and that baby is set. Maybe I can talk Alex into buying me a cruiser for christmas... or just for fun. Basket, tassles, and bad ass seat included.

Book recommendation:
"Same Kind of Different as Me" is the latest and greatest book that I have read. It's about a colored southern share cropper during the 50's (He was basically in slavery... all that was missing was the title) whose life was basically one tragedy after the other, and a middle class white man who has been very successful in life. The story is how they meet and their lives come together in friendship. God uses them to make a HUGE impact in the world around them. It's a true story and it will change you. This book is a must have addition to anyone's book shelf.

Tonight I'm going to go home and clean my kitchen. I'm also thinking about making myself a new showe curtain. So I'm going to measure my shower. I'm going to change it to a black and white theme. (There is nothing more classy and timeless than the black and white theme. You can't mess up with the black and white.) I'm also going to try to talk my husband into buying me some stick and peel tile so that I can re tile my bathroom.
Wish me luck!

Creation to the Max!!

So this morning I woke up with frost on my car so thick I had to scrape it off. Crap, dog!! (I pretend like I'm sad but really I love fall and I'm happy it's coming a month early because that means there's a chance it will last 2 months instead of one. But I bet that's not how it works. We'll have permenant snow in September.) I also woke up this morning to a nice little thing I like to call, "Low Tire Pressure," and "No Gas." Did I also mention it's so cold in my office that my fingers are numb and the 2 sweaters I have on are making my body temperature just right and not slightly warm?
Anyway, on a good note, today I plan on going antique shopping as well as craft shopping. I'm planning on making some things that I can sell online. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to create an etsy!! After all, any crafter needs an etsy! With all of the stuff I like to make, I feel like I will have a well rounded etsy. I plan to include handmade aprons, jewlry, knitted goods, clothes, maybe some stationary, and also maybe some obscure antiques that I find! My friend Audriana was also interested in starting one with me. She's a fabulous artist/photographer and also shares the love of a crafter. I feel like it's a good, well rounded match for my etsy. Maybe my sister who prints patches and clothes and is also quite the clothing designer would contribute a few items. I feel like this etsy will be on a rocket ship to success!! I will be sure to let you know when we have enough compiled items to create one!
So later I'm off to shop!!
Until next time!!

An 8 that wouldn't fit an 8 year old.

There is nothing that makes you feel more down about yourself than to sew a skirt that is 2 sizes larger than what you usually wear and then when you try it on half way through making it and you realize that if you keep going the way you are, it will never be able to go past halfway up your thighs. As I was trying to inch it further up to see if I could try to get by so that I could fit in it uncomfortably and with the seams stretching, I started to remember all of the things I had eaten that week and how I had never exercised. In fact, I haven't exercised for about a month.
So tonight I'm going to take the necessary steps to making that stupid skirt fit. One is to let out all of the seams. That should hopefully help. Next would be to call my sister in law and see if she's willing to once again go on an exercising routine with me. Possibly one that starts early in the morning so that we're not exercising super late into the night which is what we were doing last year. That, dear readers is my ultimate plan to fit into a size 8 that wouldn't fit an eight year old.
Aside from that little tid-bit of news, I took a few pictures over the weekend that I will hopefully post tomorrow if I remember to bring my camera.
Until next time!

This Just In!

I know I already blogged today and that's it kind of late, but I just wanted to say because I was so excited that I got a wonderful clock today for $11 and I reupholstered a dining room chair and it looks awesome!

Started on a Bad Note

Today started out with me rolling my tired butt out of bed, throwing on some clothes, and showerlessly driving my husband to the airport. After I dropped him off I went to one of my favorite coffee shops to treat myself with some breakfast and coffee only to find that I had forgotten my debit card. All I had was some checks and that coffee shop doesn't take checks any more. So I went off to the more expensive and not so tasty coffee shop, only to arrive to work 10 min. late and with no lunch. So I just begged a granola bar off of someone and a few stale cookies. Today has been awesome so far.
On a good note, I saw a shirt I wish to purchase and I also have a couple of new projects up my sleeve. And so I will sit here at my work top with my cup of english breakfast tea and tell you of all my new aspirations.
I bought some camel colored plaid fabric to make a vintage inspired vogue pencil skirt with a high waist... it's a little hard to describe but the waist also has a little extra button and waistband detailing. I'm super excited to make it and plan on starting tonight!
Also I bought a slip cover to hide the hideous red of a couch in my house. I still need to manipulate that dumb slip cover. I'm beginning to hate it as much as the red color of the couch. But I also bought some rich pailsy fabric along with some novelty taffeta and I've been making myself some couch pillows. I had a hard time finding something to match, but this paisley I got does and the color of my moss colored couch brings out colors in the fabric I didn't even notice before! It looks amazing. :)
I also think I'm going to use the left overs of some of the fabric to re opolster a chair. I don't know if I spelled that right... Pretty sure I didn't.
So now my tea is all gone and that's what I have up my ally besides the other knitting projects I have already talked about. (My socks are ALMOST done. )
So until next time! Hopefully I can take some decent pictures!