Life In Color

Casting off, casting on

Projects finished:

Cutie baby pants (Ravelry Link), that make up the rest of the cute little outfit:

Oh my goodness I can't wait to see my baby! I don't know what I'm more excited for, dressing the baby, nursing the baby, holding the baby and never putting it down?!?! So much to do when the baby comes. That's why I need to knit... NOW. I admit I'm one of those girls who oodles over a newborn until someone lets me hold it, then my mom seems to swoop in, but not this time, baby you're mine! Oh and I guess Bj can hold it some too. After all he has been doing his research. He was so excited about this book that he tracked it down off of a Christian Bookstore website after Amazon was sold out:

It is so beyond funny. But he is taking it very seriously, which might be even funnier:

Now for projects in progress:

Ack! I will be cleaning jars until a) I finish b) the skin on my hands get so dried out they crack or c) I can't take the nastiness anymore. Because spiderwebs + dead bugs + gummy labels + who knows what = gross. I have to pre-wash, then dishwasher wash, than post wash. It's a mess. But it will be fun to organize them, ah organizing, I love it. *If you still want to guess the number, I not near finished, just do it on the post below this one so it's all together.

Also in progress:

Plans baby! For the upstairs, oh ya, super excited about that one. The guy who drew the plans ended up putting two bathrooms upstairs, he was very anti parents/children sharing a bathroom. I think this is going to work out awesome, I can even really picture it since we have the one tiny bathroom now and it really is working fine. The only thing that I'm not a huge fan of is that I don't have a shower and bathtub in the master bath, and I love my bath. Also I want the walk in closet to fit one of those pull down ironing boards that hides your iron in there, is possible. But overall I really like the whole thing. I just am going to have to work so hard to pick materials that don't make this look new. I couldn't stand it if it looked like someone plopped a new house on top of our cute little cottage. This is going to be in combination with a few other improvements on the main floor: gas to the stove, and a new range as well as updating the shower in the bathroom we use now. If we ever want to put a fume hood in above the stove we have to do while the upstairs is still being framed, and the bathroom downstairs has to be demolished a little bit to get pipes upstairs, so we're going to fix the tub situation while we're doing that. Now before you tell me I'm crazy to do this pregnant, I know already! Totally crazy! I don't know what I'm thinking! Well I'm thinking that there is no where to put baby stuff, like at all. What were you going to say I should get rid of my craft room? Some one suggested this to me and I blocked their IP address from my blog (just kidding, but seriously, what were they thinking?)

So let the crazy pregnancy remodel begin*

Oh man, that only took me like thirty minutes and I still have 322 until I get to see the new X-Files movie. WHY DOES TIME ALWAYS HAVE TO GO SO SLOW?

*pending financing.

Love it

Feeling pretty good today since I finally got a haircut. My hair has been brushing the top of my shoulders for weeks now, nasty ends, the works. But of course I had to go and sleep through my first hair appointment last week, so today was the first day I could get in. I felt oh so guilty for missing an appointment when she was squeezing me in that I had to get up and make the famous chocolate chip cookies, I'm not beyond bribery, I mean my hair is going to keep growing after all. Also I tip big. :) She said they were the best cookies ever and I got the best haircut ever, so I guess we're even now. And I learned my lesson and already scheduled another appointment for September... with an alert on my phone to remind me a half hour before hand. Genius.

Also genius? My blog readers, you guys have been being so sweet to me! LeAnn recently sent me this adorable book:

Do you see that, popular Empire and A-line styles. Oh little baby please be a girl. There are about three pages for a boy:

Pants, a coat? Cute but it's no:

No that is cute. Thanks so much LeAnn! I can't wait to use these tips, or at least drool over the book a while.

As if that wasn't enough an astute local reader, Dianne emailed me a Craig's list link for a truck load of jars that she "didn't want me to miss out on." Nice catch!

Let's play a little game, who ever gets the closest number to the real amount of jars (I have not counted them yet) will get a little scrappy prize. As in some scrapbooking goodies. I'll pull together something cute. So guess away!

Oh and:

I know, enough about the powder! But seriously. I had to pee after picking up the jars (an hour and half away from me) so Sciarrino and I popped into an Albertson's. I was looking above the aisles and there were signs for brands of makeup/skin care like wet n' wild, and a couple other old ones. I joked to Sciarrino that if anyone was going to have a travel size of shower to shower it would be some place like this. We went through the aisles and sure enough travel size! Not only that but they even had my old Blossom Fresh, a scent I would like to remind you is not even made any more (when it wouldn't ring up at the check stand I whispered to Sciarrino, "it's because it doesn't exist any more!!!"). I thought maybe they would have the big containers too, so we went to look for those. It was some where totally random next to like hemorrhoid cream or something. I think Shower to Shower must have the worst marketing department in the world. Anyway, check this out: Shimmer Effects. It's so cool! You get a really nice shimmer from it on your arms, or where ever. It doesn't really have a scent, and it's not sparkly, just a light shimmer. I love it. I was all freaking out when we left the store. And rightly so, I mean totally out of the blue, and check out the size difference, you really do need a travel size of this stuff. And since I can't seem to figure out that it will ever go bad I intend to stock pile it until I'm one of those crazy ladies with their sugar packets. My grandchildren will be moving me into a home going, "What is up with all this shower to shower powder?!?!?"

Camping... with bathroom nearby

This weekend Bj and I headed up to Zig Zag (on the way up to Government Camp/Mt. Hood). Can you even believe I've never been up there before? Maybe my parent's took me when I was small, but I don't remember. We always had a cabin at Black Butte, so we went that direction (east) instead. We were going to camp out at Tex and Martin's cool cabin the Bon Fir. I told them I would "link it like it's hot" because they rent this awesome place. They have a beautiful cabin, and a bunch of us old crew girls went to camp out in their big backyard. I wish I had all of the pictures:

Like the ones they are looking at. But they are on Reid's camera. I was wearing a truly hideous sweater (made by my own hand no less) so maybe that's what they were laughing at. We all were supposed to wear old sweaters, but mine was especially bulky (size of yarn super ultra SUV chunky weight), so pretty funny. We were also kept toasty by Martin's careful fire-tending:

Hauling around pallets while still holding the Busch, impressive. We circled up and played electronic catch phrase (perfect for campfires because the words light up). During the day we laid in the sun, went down to the way to swift river to look at it (not swim and risk death), and ate. We did that around the campfire too.

I think Tex was dipping into the nutella :) I made my favorite camping dish: hobo stew. All you have to do is chop up potatoes (I used Yukon gold), onions (walla walla sweet - yummy), carrots, and celery. Sprinkle with Johnny's and add a little water. Fold together in a double wrapped foil packet. Put on coals and pile fire on top. About 45 minuets later you have dinner. Yummy, yummy dinner. It had been a while since we'd been camping, and I got all squealy in the tent. Squealy excited I mean. I love camping. And every time we get in our little two person tent it reminds me of that monster road trip after college, 10,548 miles around the USA. The only difference was this time I had to poke Bj to wake up want walk with me up to the cabin to go to the bathroom. "bbbbbbbbjjjjjjjjj I have to go to the bathroom. I can't hold it. Wake up, I don't want to walk there in the dark. Bj, bj, bj, bj." hehehe. He was pretty nice to take me considering it was 3:45am. If you don't have ten people staying, you could all be indoors and not have to worry about that. Did I mention their awesome cabin is for rent?!?!?

Now I'm currently working on a spreadsheet... on strollers. I am determined to do the most research and have the best one out there that will fit a tall person and a shortie. It will look cool, it will have a bassinet, and it will have a five point harness damn it! Oh and I hope to be able to pick it up and stuff it into the car. Wish me luck.

Baby project updates

I finished the lovely little sweater just now. Knit most of it up over the weekend. I love it!

I have all kinds of tricks up my sleeve now for attaching those sleeves (read all about it on Ravelry). I have to make the little shorts that go with it now. I just finished putting up a list on my side bar that is a registry of sorts. I really contemplated putting Socks that Rock yarn on there, as it knits up baby things fabulously (and is easy to wash) - this is in lightweight, but I love all the weights of the stuff. So ya, you can see all the research I've been doing over on the side. Still have to pick out some of the big stuff (uh stroller - but we need to test those out in person due to our height difference). I did do some serious diaper research a few months ago. I have always planned on cloth diapers, the first kids I ever baby-sat were cloth diapered, and I handled that at eleven no problem (with pins!), so I figured, what's the big deal? As soon as I started looking into it more I was amazed - there are choices! Like so many cute cloth diaper choices, it's awesome. This is what we choose:

For our newborn these insanely soft (and insanely cute - they even have a snap down area for the umbilical cord stub!) cloth diapers. Kissaluvs size 0. I should mention that Bj gets a complete kick out of the names of all these diapers. We're going with Thirsties covers:

That was the best combo that we researched for holding in newborn poo. :) As our baby grows we got a one-size diaper. If you haven't heard of these check them out:

Small...

Large. Genius. Actually Bum Genius 3.0 (the ones on the right) are the ones we're going with. These are basically a cover with a wick away inside and a liner you stuff in. We also chose these for baby-sitters:

Or those with a cloth-diaperphobia. It's all one piece, goes on like a disposable. Anyway so cute. And so is this. After I went and picked one of a dozen styles out to show Bj (there is a big cloth diaper store in Corvallis, a town near here) he picked one up and loved how soft it was. He told me he hated touching disposables, and never liked picking a baby up that just had a disposable diaper on. Well no excuses not to change one now buddy!

We also picked the theme of the nursery out. I have to find the old Martha Stewart magazine clipping I have that inspired this but it's going to be space/travel. I added the travel part because I want to include lots of maps and globes and things. Of course I won't get to decorate it until after the baby comes as the odds of getting the upstairs done before then are close to 1%. That didn't stop Bj and I from getting this at a cute shop this weekend:

You can probably see it has a little scratch. Good thing I have like 50 million tubes of paint, so I can fix that. I want the babies room to be bright, colorful, and full of fun things to look at. No pastels for this kid. And speaking of the kid:

I'm making good progress on that too. I can't wait to feel it move. Soon, soon I know.

Birthday Fun

V turned two recently and had a fabulous little party. So cute with little girls running around in party clothes.

They played with chalk and bubbles, and ran around and ate mini cupcakes. It was brilliant. Here is the little birthday girl:

My little god-daughter just melts my heart. I know the baby in my belly will too, but just to hear her sweet little voice and watch her little movements. I love it!

And she was so tired after her party that she got all sweet and snugly when she hugged me goodbye. Oh and she's calling Bj "jubba" now. Hilarious.

Now off to set in the second sleeve of the cutest little baby top. Update later!

Found!

Color me happy. Thanks for the tips ladies. I found these at a Rite Aid up in Washington (we're visiting Bj's parents). They had two more flavors but these were my favorite. Here is a note about this stuff: you can smell rank, put this on and the moisture and smell is gone, it's fantastic (unless you're Bj and you have to do the before and after tests).

P.S. First test post with new iPhone app. Hope it works!

Baby Knits!

Okay so the baby doesn't knit, but I am knitting for the baby. And have just a few frustrations. I got one of those worked out last night (not being able to find the right yarn), and finished this:

It's a little papoose. That is 48 inches of stockinette people - mo-not-on-ous! But easy, and now done. (ravelry link). My mom talked me into a zipper so it would be easier to check if baby was wet or dry. Sewing a zipper in a hand knit, sure. Oh wait, hard. But figured it out due to some great online tutorials. I also finally got to use the pom-pom maker that my step mom got me for Christmas:

Cute! Right now I am glad to be done with a few cotton projects, as cotton gets a little old knitting with, and Socks That Rocks is so much nicer (a super soft, superwash wool):

Making up this sweater:

(Ravlery Link) I changed the stripping. So I'm making this in a six month size. From what I hear the baby will be pretty much nursing all the time at the beginning so unless I get some mad multi-tasking skills I figure I should have enough hand-knits stocked for the first six months. I think like five sweaters in each of three sizes (newborn, 3 months, 6 months), should last me. Plus I know knitters.... here's hoping they get that hint :) I also want to do up at least 5 hats, 7 pairs of pants/soakers, a bunch of baby socks, a blanket (almost done), and at least one more sleep sack. Am I missing anything else vital there? Moms? I did already do this in newborn size right at the beginning:

Really easy wrap sweater (Ravelry Link). Also this just needs edging:

A little jacket from one of my vintage pattern books (Ravelry Link). Oh my goodness am I glad to have my energy back (for the most part). It's nice to be able to work on projects!!!

The nicer grandparent

On Wednesday my mom and I spent a lovely day together heading up to Portland and visiting with my grandma. She never called me fat, and she made me lunch, what more can you want? I keep meaning to bring my camera up there to take pictures of her cute little place, but I always forget. This time was no different, but luckily my mom had hers:

I love asking my grandma where she got something. The answer is always either, "so and so got that for me" or "oh I've had that forever." Which just can not be true. Her place is always so spic and span I wonder where she hides all her treasures.

Her back yard. Well a sort of side yard really. She just re-did the pond and everything herself. Almost all the plants are dug up treasures or gifts from people. She is growing lots of veggies and fruits too. The salad she made us was all from her garden.

A green house she built out of windows the neighbor's were getting rid of. Quite clever. So if you ever wonder where I get all my mad skills:

These two lovely ladies. And I should add my great grandma, who had the knitting bug way before me. I hope to be at least half as active as her when I'm registering for AARP :) Thanks for a great day grandma!

TypePad on my iPhone

I love my iPhone!

This is BJ and I have the day off. ;)

Grumpy Old Man, Grumpier than ever!

You know what, I'm going to say it, not all old people are nice and sweet. In fact some are the opposite, like this guy:

Ya, ya, he looks all cute and harmless, and like he's taken a few falls this week (he has, two in fact). But man can this guy get on my nerves. Yesterday I wanted to go over there and check on him because the day before he had fallen. And I hate to say it, but really it was his own fault. We have been trying to get him to pull his service cord when he needs help, but the guy refuses. So when he spilled a whole container of Boost (he got boosted he said) he went about cleaning it up himself. From there he ended up face planted to the floor, and struggled for a half hour to get to cord to get help up. I do feel bad about that. I would hate to be so weak, and not be able to do anything myself. But I think there has to be a point where you ask people for help. Instead he falls or hurts himself and we have to go over there double time, and I'm getting a bit bitter about because of what he said to me yesterday.

I told Bj we should head over there to check on him, hang out a bit, Bj suggested bringing him a milkshake, so we did and went over after lunch. The night before I had talked grandpa into taking a pain pill and he had actually slept through the night, which I was happy about. But his mood was still sour. I was sitting next to his bed and Bj was sitting on his walker talking to him when grandpa said to him,

"And you, you better watch her, she's gaining weight."

Bj: "Grandpa, she's pregnant!"

Grandpa: "Well I know, but I'm serious you don't want her to gain to much."

Me: "Grandpa you shouldn't say mean things to people."

Grandpa: "So you're fat, that's not mean, you are fat."

Me: "Saying mean things is your favorite pastime."

Grandpa: "I don't say mean things (turns and looks at Bj with a smile), not to their faces."

Ok yes, it was funny for a few seconds, and Bj was cracking up. But the more I thought about it the more upset I got. We were in his room, but he has no problem saying things like this to me in public, which I hate. I actually did say I would kick him while he was down yesterday. So there, you can't all think I'm a saint now for taking care of him. Argh! We went on to have this conversation. It started out because Bj was wearing flip flops and grandpa just now noticed how large his feet are:

Grandpa: "God you have big feet. I don't trust em. Damn your big toe is almost longer than my foot."

He started to ask Bj if he swam, he doesn't. And I couldn't help but interject that I could beat him in a race. Bj said, "ya, Amber was a lifeguard and everything."

Grandpa: "You were a certified life guard? Was that for a kiddy pool?"

No I told him it wasn't. That I went through he regular training. That I had to be paired up with the biggest guy in my class since I was the smallest. To which grandpa said, "And you're not near as big as you are now." AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

We changed the subject and Bj started pulling out clothes for his doctor's appointment. He grabbed the shorts from last year (it's hot here):

And grandpa said, "No I'm not wearing those, I don't want them to see my shape. I'd have girls lined up."
He pulled out a pair of pants, "how about these?"
Grandpa, "Sure that's fine, as long as I'm not hanging out everywhere."

That guy, he thinks he's like gods gift to women. Still at 88. You have got to be kidding me. The guy drives me mad. And don't tell me he doesn't know what he saying. He totally does. He doesn't have any mental or memory problems. I think that's an excuse people use. I feel like he should have to take responsibility for his words, but I just can't seem to convey this to him. And it's like he knows he can just keep doing it. What am I going to do, not take him to the doctor? I have to. I just am about at my wits end with this guy. A baby is going to seem so easy to take care of after this.  I've logged thousands of hours watching infants, and like zero (before grandpa) watching old people. And you know what, a year an half later, I still don't get this guy!

p.s. when he was complaining about his back I told him to look up karma in the dictionary. Was that mean?