A Sweet Little Distraction...

We've been a bit distracted here, with a sweet little bundle of joy! But after four weeks, I think I'm beginning to get the hang of this motherhood thing. I joke, I joke, this is only the beginning. But little Mr. E is just about the best baby ever. I know I may be a bit biased on that topic, but really, he sleeps from 10pm-3am every night. I cannot complain at all. We've been doing some bonding and lots of cuddling and netflixing.

I have to admit, I have the best life. Truly blessed, am I.

Though we (Mr. E and I, that is) are enjoying hanging out at home doing just about nothing, I feel like it is time to reboot the good-old blog machine and share some of our lovely adventures with you all out there in internet land. Be looking forward

We hopped on an airplane...

....and moved across the country.

Something a Bit Different: 5KCBWDAY5

Here's something quite different from my normal posting style for you: a video!! I thought it would be just loads of fun to take a video of myself knitting all afternoon and make you poor darlings watch it. But don't worry, I sped the footage up just a wee (1600%) bit. And I added some music. And sound effects. Because they are fun!! And I figured you didn't want to hear the Dr. Who episodes I was watching on Netflix in the background.

Just something different. I must say, getting my camera to cooperate and take the videos was certainly difficult. It's be going all fine, then my camera would be all, "Boop! Imma go to sleep mkay? Bye." No low battery, no lack of memory space...just bored of watching me knit, I guess. Oh well.

These are the"Easiest & Fastest Baby Booties Ever" by A La Sascha on ravelry. It's a free pattern! And as you can see, it is indeed easy and fast. I made a pair in under a minute! ;)

It's a Girl!! or How to Tell What Secrets I am Keeping via Ravelry

I have mentioned this before and I'll say it again: I am not very good at keeping secrets. I can't make up a "likely reason" to keep someone off the trail of a surprise I have for them. I have my moments of brilliance where I blame the internet or Google for "knowing what you search for a lot, that's why that shirt keeps popping up. Not because I bought it for you."But those moments are few and far between.

Plus, I'm impatient.

If I'm excited about something, I want EVERYONE to know. Which is why there was absolutely no way I was going to even attempt to keep it a secret when we found out what gender Baby Z is. Well, there are a lot of reasons why we didn't want to keep it a secret, but the primary one is I'm a loud mouth and see no point in struggling to be silent for 4.5 more months. Plus, my sister would have tortured it out of me. You don't mess with that girl when it comes to babies.

But, for a moment, let's pretend I were going to keep the baby's gender a secret. Okay, fine. But since I know what the baby is, I'd want to make stuff. And If I want to make stuff, I probably want to document it. And if I want to document it, I can't do it in a place that my friends and family will be looking. Because, come on, one look at what's on the top of my Ravelry queue currently and you know what's up:

"Uhhh....no, I was just. Those are for...some...other....baby...I know."

No. It wouldn't work.

Me and secrets about babies do not mix. Especially when the secret is something like, "WE'RE HAVING A BABY GIRL!!!" and is going to require a ton of crafting in the next 4 months. Short term secrets are a bit better, but when it comes to my baby, I'm going to be doing a lot of shouting with joy.

Blooms and Bumps

Dat baby bump!!

Betchya can't guess which one is me! Oh right, you've seen pictures of me before. And I'm the pregnant one. Right.

My sweet sister takes some pretty amazing photos, and yesterday since it was finally warm out and flowers were blooming and whatnot, she decided we should have a sisterhood/baby bump photoshoot at sunset. This was her fave shot of us, sitting in the scilla in the front lawn. So pretty, and such a nice end to a festive Easter Day.

Hope you had a beautiful day on Sunday and could celebrate the Resurrection with your loved ones!

Shout out to Tara Lea Photography! If you want to see some spiff-tastic pics of people doing things, check out her page. She's great. Love that girl.

Baby Sophisticate; or Not Everything I do Turns Out Okay

 Remember when I bought all that cotton with visions of baby stuff dancing in my head? Well, I started working on the baby cardigan before we moved, and got pretty far on it! I was feeling pretty proud of myself, but I had to put it on hold until we got somewhat situated.

When I pulled it out again, I was disgusted to find that what I had previously seen as a perfect beginning of a darling garment...was a mess.

I kept telling myself it was okay...it wasn't.

Wonky. Distorted. Stretchy. Lumpy. I was so distressed, I took a quick photo to show some of my other crafty friends. I was hoping that they would calm all my fears.

"It'll block out!"
"Oh it looks fiiinneee. You are just being harsh on yourself."
"Cotton always looks like that before it's washed."

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if anyone said any of those things to me, I'd think they were lying. Because they would have been. My baby cardigan was weirdy shaped, and there was no denying it. When I showed my internet crafty group the pictures, my go-to knitting guru and favorite Norwegian citizen Liz (of Lizzy Knits Day By Day) confirmed what I had already accepted as truth: there needed to be some major changes if I wanted this cardi to look normal.

So, unfortunately, I'll be frogging this baby. If you hear screeching or uncontrollable sobbing coming vaguely from the direction of the midwest, it's me, ripping the sweater apart. Good thing it isn't an adult sized sweater! I'd be inconsolable if that were the case.

Really, it's not so bad. But if I want an heirloom baby piece, I want perfection.

What your worst gotta-rip-it-out story?

Pitter Patter: Knitted Baby Socks

As I mentioned earlier this week, our life plans have undergone a massive makeover in the last two months. The job out West fell apart, so we have decided to stick to our roots and buy a house in our hometown in Illinois. In the meantime, my loving parents have graciously opened their house to us while we sort things out. Gotta love family!!

Though we are in a gypsy state of living with my parents until we find a house, my nesting desires are growing stronger everyday. My body doesn't care that my mom would probably flip her lid if I painted the living room while she was out. I want colors! I want to decorate! I want to move furniture around! Okay, I don't want to personally move the furniture, but I want to tell Sailor to move stuff around as much as my prego brain desires.

But alas! Though our house hunt is going well, we are not in our own place yet. So I have to be content with casting on and making some socks. If I can't force my husband to do manual labor, whipping out some adorable socks is the next best thing, right? Right. Don't argue with me. I'm pregnant.

I used the Leftovers Baby Socks pattern that I found on Ravelry. It's free. It's easy. It's adorable.I am pretty sure I'm going make at least a bajillion more. They work up super quick, especially if you are watching Dr. Who on Netflix in you pjs on a rainy day. Just sayin'.

Cuffed or uncuffed, these socks are adorable.

 I really like how tall the socks are. Baby Z is going to be born in August, which means winter will be right around the corner. Gotta keep those darling little newborn legs cozy! Especially if this coming winter is anything like the winter we still have hanging about. Did I mention it snowed last week? Barf.

Pretty proud of these heels. I am indeed. Why was I scared of socks before?

You can bet your sweet biffy that baby-type projects are going to increase dramatically in the coming days. Nothing wrong with that, right? Right. Riiiiggghhhtt.

An Update and a DIY: What's in the Cards for us?

As you may have noticed, I have been sort of missing in action the last few weeks. Things have been a touch crazy here since Phase #1 of our big move. In fact, they have been so crazy that our entire plan for moving and the whole reason we were going to move across the country fell apart.

Say whaattt?

Yeah, that's kind of how I felt when it all happened. The job Sailor got out West has been postponed until further notice. His employer gave him the choice to wait it out, or say "no thanks" and pursue other opportunities. After much talking and prayer, we went with the latter option. That meant that a) we were no longer moving, b) he didn't have a job anymore, and most importantly c) we would be staying in the area where both our families live. Pros and cons all over the place. And stress. Did I mention I was a bit stressed about all this? I was. Juussttt a bit.

This story has an amazingly happy ending though. Within four days of saying "no thanks" to several months of waiting to move and not having a pay check, Sailor got a job. What. A. Blessing. I cannot stop thanking God for providing for us. I mean, the job market is a bit slim where we will be living now, and he was able to find a job in four days. Four days people!! I've been doing my happy dance for a week now. Booyah!

How well this all worked out makes me feel super silly for stressing out so much. God finds a way to make schtuff happen no matter what. Gotta look through the clouds and rain and prepare for the sun.



Speaking of rain, it was super gross-nasty in the Midwest last week. Nasty rain-snow slush poo winter weather. I am so ready for spring. The last few days though, there's been hope. Sunshiney, slightly above freezing-y hope. But it's supposed to be below zero in a few days again. Gotta take what I can get, I suppose.

Bleck. Rainsnow.

 What better way to cheer the sloopy weather than by making pretty things?? And what better than making pretty things you can send to other people to spread the cheer?? I don't know! What could be better? Nothing, I think.

There is nothing more cheerful than a big stack of mail to send that isn't all bills.

 I've been taking any downtime I've had these last crazy weeks to distract myself with crafting. My sister is giddy with joy that Sailor and I will be in the area so she can throw "a billion baby showers" for Baby Z. Her words, not mine.

With the prospect of many thank you notes in need of being written in the near future, I decided to get a jump on making thank you cards. I promise, I'm not one of those crazy overachievers who creates time-intensive and stunning cards. I make simple cards. I don't know if it even counts as making cards, because really, I just stamp cute stuff on some cards and call it a day.

REGARDLESS. I am very pleased with these ahdorable cards I churned out.

I had all the stamps on hand from various impulse buys at Michael's. Their dollar stamps are irresistible!! Dat hedgehog! Come on. Can you blame me?

I also found the blank cards and envelopes at Michael's. They were sold in sets of 8 for $1.50. I bought two packages of cards with lil word bubbles cut out of them. I also bought a blue ink pad (also $1.50).

So my grand total so far for these thank you notes is: $4.50. Breaking the bank here, yo. That's probably cheaper than buying sixteen thank-you notes, and I got the added joy of designing my own.

I can't get over that hedgie. Sooo cuuutteee.

I am having a very hard time not knowing what gender Baby Z is. I just want to theme all the things. All the baby colors and things and stuff. It's hard to be neutral. -dramatic sigh- At least hedgehogs are pretty neutral, right? The flowers might be a little girly, but it's close enough, right?

Love the cut out! So fun.

 And because doing 16 cards wasn't enough, I had to dazzle up the envelopes too. It's totally legit to have matching cards and envelopes; it makes the card seem even more special!!! I stuck with the same stamps, even though I was tempted to use all the stamps I own on the outside. Gotta practice restraint sometimes.

Gotta have matching envelopes!!

Return address fancy-ness. I feel so posh.

I was surprised how fast I got done with all the baby thank yous. I had some other kind folks I needed to thank for non-baby related things, so I decided to make some other notes to send out. And since I only have black and blue ink, I went with nautical themed thank-yous. It may or may not also be true that I have a ton of nautical stamps. Maybe. Kinda. I have a theme problem. It's a bit of an obsession.

AHOY SHIPMATE!!!

I had to make the cards for these notes, but it was super easy. I snatched some cardstock, measured my envelopes, and went to town. I added graph paper accents because, why not? Plus, the blue lines match my blue ink and matching is best. Always.

One of my fave stamps: "Just a Quick Note"

Again, matching envelopes. I cannot resist the matchingness.

I just love getting and sending mail. I've already used one of the baby notes and three of the nautical ones. I have a hankering to make even MORE cards and just send them to people. If I have your address, beware. Prepare your mailbox for an overload. Hehe.

Do you make cards?
Linkin' up at these fine sites!