FO Thursday # 2

I haven't had that many finished objects to blog about in the past week, but I do have a few pictures (click pictures to make bigger):

The Ball Band Dishcloth
"Grinch Vomit" colorway (red & green Bernat cotton yarn)
I like the eclectic look/design of this cloth, but don't care for the size. I need to modify the cast-on rows to make it less wide.

DW Dishcloth

Yellow/White Ombre Peaches n Cream colorway
This was fun and makes a lovely cloth. I will make more of these.

Another view so you can see the neat color pooling.

Simple crocheted dishcloth, pattern from blogging friend
Same yarn as DW cloth
Quick to crochet, takes about a day for me...in between wrangling a 10 month-old

More to come next week, so stay tuned!

Gayle, you asked if I only used cotton for my cloths...Yes. For now at least. I have heard wonderful things about Bamboo and Hemp, so someday I would like to try those, but they are kind of pricey (since they are so new), so I will wait. I love the fact that the cotton is pretty cheap and you get functional things from it. I can get at least one cloth out of a little ball of cotton, and here, the balls are about $2.25 each. As for the wool, it is all for gifts. Although I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that we do move to a cooler climate next year. I am getting tired of sweating day in and day out.

I have already pulled the pattern and the needles along with the Navy Andean Silk to start the Irish Hiking Scarf. I just need to get a little bit more done on the shawl/poncho thing before I can cast on. It will be my first time doing cables!

I was considering using the Bordeaux colored Swish and doing the Besotted Scarf, we will see. I totally want to order more Andean Silk to do a Clapotis for a gift. Must. control.myself.

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Do you just love my Meez on the sidebar? I do! She even has a Barack Obama shirt on, khaki shorts and lime green Crocs. So me! Of course I wear my glasses when I knit. Most of the time anyway. Do you think that the Meez is too big? I use firefox as a browser and my laptop has a wide screen, so it is hard for me to tell.

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In the sadness department:

When Mom died, my BFF's DH (Hi Jason!) very graciously worked with me to create a video to be shown at her memorial luncheon. Wait, back up...he did the work, I just gave him the pictures, the list of songs and pointed out the order that I wanted things (thanks again, BTW). Anyway, it turned out fabulous and I watch it every couple of weeks. I gave Mom's parents and siblings a copy of it along with a framed picture of Mom that nobody had ever seen before.

So, getting on with the sadness part. You all know that we don't have TV here (we have tv's, we just don't have cable so no cable = no tv, not even with rabbit ears, and yes, it is by choice), so every day I have the radio on a certain channel and I keep it on all day long. I have noticed that about every other day, I hear "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor during the day. The eerie/sad part is that it is one of the songs on Mom's dvd and I end up crying while singing it. I miss her so much, I can't even begin to try to explain how I feel. In a way, I keep telling myself that it is her trying to let me know that she is here with me, but I don't know if I believe that 100%.

Peace.

Lots of Stash and a stitching question

So, I have been spoiled by Jenn recently. She sent me another package with a new book in it (which I started yesterday) and 4 Lizzie Kate charts. Thank you so much, Jenn! I have a few ideas in mind on how to repay your generosity...stay tuned.

Lizzie Kate 12 Blessings of Christmas Flip It's Charity & Joy

Lizzie Kate Flip It Bits January & February

While we were at home, I got a chance to stop by the LNS "Needle & I" in Rockford, IL.

4 My Boys A Cabin, A Moose and A Fish, Hitch Your Wagon to a Star and Comfort & Joy

And, we went to a LNS in Green Bay "The Stitching Bee" when we met Kim and her DH. Lots of LHN models on display. And, they have HOHRH on display that was done over one on 40 ct. silk gauze. This thing was incredible!!! I wish I would have taken a picture of it. I would have gone blind doing it on something that small. Bent Creek Zipper Kit Sand Man

JCS Magazine

LHN Home of a Needleworker

4 My Boys Cluck & Doodle, Americana Blooms, and My Very Bestest Friend

Since I have new stash to put away, I have been trying to organize. I bought more page protectors while at home and have been putting things away.

This has led me to the realization that I have TONS of freebie charts. More than I will ever stitch even if I live to be 762 years old. Then I had an idea...anyone interested in a freebie pass-along? The idea is that I will gather all the freebies that I will never stitch or I have duplicates of (how did that happen?) and send them to one stitcher that wants them. Then that person can go through them, take what they want (or make copies), and add any that they no longer want and pass the packet along to another person...and it would keep going. Any takers? I just hate to see these go into the recycling bin.

Also, I have 2 of these:

Prairie Schooler Christmas Village, book 79 OOP. One recently sold on Ebay for $20 without shipping. Anyone interested in it for $20 including shipping?

My email address is mhighfill@gmail.com if you are interested in the PS book or the freebie pass-along.

Peace.

It's not so bad...really.

So, last week I turned 30. Time marches on. It really wasn't as traumatic as some people make it out to be.

My actual birthday was great! DH woke me up to feed the baby and when I went into the living room, I saw that the baby had my present. A nursing necklace. (It is something that Mama wears to try to keep baby focused on the task at hand instead of jerking it's little head around to see what is going on, and the baby can play with it instead of pinching Mama or grabbing her hair.)

Later on, when we actually got out of bed (around 7), DH surprised me by making me a pot of coffee and fixing a cup of it just the way I like it. Then my family started calling, and DH went and cleaned both bathrooms and started laundry while I chatted. Later we went to lunch at Wild Bill's (my choice, love the burgers), ran some errands and then later went to Aqua to meet some friends for happy hour. It was a nice day. I wouldn't mind turning 30 again next year if it would be as nice as this one.


I received a wonderful present from Carol. As soon as I saw the return address on the package, I got all excited and told DH, "Ooh, that Carol, she makes the cutest presents for her friends and finds just the right chart to stitch for the recipient." And true to my words, she really wowed me with this fob...perfect for a "Treehugger's Wife". The little charm says "Believe". It is on 40 ct. linen and the teensy tiny stitches are perfect. Thank you again, Carol!!

Another present that I got was a Moby wrap. It was from Dad & J. My step-mom is the type of person that hounds you and hounds you until you finally give in and tell her what you want. This was all I could think of that was not diaper related.

I love the Moby. We haven't gotten the hang of the ring slings yet, and I still wanted to wear the baby (and try to get some things accomplished during the day), so I decided on the Moby. LOVE IT!!! Super easy to use also.

I started crocheting a pair of wool longie pants for Connor. Why? Because it was killing me not to. And crocheting goes really quickly. I first attempted to knit them, but after ripping them apart for the 4th time, I gave up and picked up a hook. I am using Lion Brand "Wool Ease" yarns and no specific pattern. Just increase / decrease as I feel like. This is the backside of the pants...not perfect, but it is a start. And yes, the stripes are supposed to be random like that.

I might have Connor wear them for a while on Saturday so that nobody pinches him for not wearing green.

The kite festival was cancelled because of weather, but has been rescheduled to April 14. We are so going!

Peace.

Ramblings...

So, I have a birthday coming up...a big one. Big in numbers only. It means that I will have to change the little blurb under my blog title from "twenty-something" to "thirty-something". Yep, the big 3-0. Weird. I still think of myself like I am 23. I *think* that we might be going to Aqua on Friday for happy hour by the pool to watch the sunset and see friends. We have been going for the past couple of weeks. I am always the designated driver.

And I don't want presents for my birthday.

When someone asks me what I want for my birthday and I immediately think of things for Connor that I want to get, is that just a little strange? Especially since it is usually diapers or diaper covers? DH is too cheap frugal to convince justify spending $30 on a diaper. We are a prefold, snappi & cover kind of family. At least he went along with the splurge to get unbleached indian cotton prefold diapers. Don't want to get too out of control.

I mean, who wouldn't want these awesome custom embroidered diapes for their baby's bum? These are from Middle Earth Diapers

I am seriously considering getting a green (Rainforest) Berry Plush and having the "recycle" logo custom embroidered on it. Maybe that would soften up DH a little.

And these...these seriously rock in my opinion...who wouldn't want their baby to have a cute little monster booty?

They are "longies", knitted with wool yarn. Plain longies can go from $30/pair up. Longies with designs or other embellishments can go from $45 to well over $100 for a pair!! I have got to work on my knitting skills and figure out a cute similar pattern so that when we move back to cold weather in 2008, I can make some for Connor.

If you want to see more cute pictures of monster booty, you can go to the blog of the lady that makes them...Crankypants blog. She also makes Sock Monkey booty longies. Super cute!

Speaking of cold, I never thought that I would say 73 degrees was cold. I willl say it now, 73 degrees is COLD! I am freezing my tuchus off here. It has been rainy and chilly for the past 4 days. And the house is sticky from all of the moisture. I just noticed that my refrigerator has condensation on the outside. Yuck! To my friends and family on the mainland, I know your hearts are just bleeding for us. : )

Connor is 8 weeks old tomorrow. He has started to go 3 hours between nursing sessions and has started sleeping through the night (8 or 9 pm to 5 or 6 am)... YAY! At his vaccination appointment last week he was 13 pounds and almost 25 inches long. BIG baby! But the doctor wasn't concerned at all...he was a really great doctor (Dr. Stewart) and I wish that we could see him regularly. We talked at length about breastfeeding and food choices. I think that we will not be introducing him to cow's milk when the time comes and instead opt for soy or rice milk. But that is a long time down the road. And did I mention that breastfeeding has gotten TONS easier? It happened practically overnight around 6 weeks or so. It is like something just clicked and it has been smooth sailing ever since. Buh bye frankenipples. I set periodic goals for myself for breastfeeding. It was 2 weeks, then 4 weeks, then just make it to 6 weeks...now I have set the bar at 4 months. Then it will probably be 6 months. By then he should have a few teeth and I will re-evaluate.

Here he is on a quilt that his Grandma D sent to him. Our little monkey.

This weekend there is a kite festival thingy here on Saipan. Even though I have never been to one, I told DH that we are going. I think that kites are neat and the craftsmanship is amazing on some of them. So, if you are going to be in the Garapan area, it is Saturday 10 am to 3 pm at the American Memorial Soccer Field. Hopefully there will be tasty food as well. My appetite is crazy! I have lost all but one pound of baby weight and have been wearing my "pre-pregnancy clothes" since about 3 weeks after Connor was born. Yay me!

Peace

SBQ & Went to the Beach

This week's SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:

Do you have any good internet links to tutorials for your favorite finishing techniques that you would like to share?

I usually just go with ideas and a "vision" of what the finished item should look like...but I did buy Summer Truswell's Ultimate Big Book of Finishing last year. She used to have the tutorial online *for free*, but I guess that it got so popular that she realized that she could make money off of it from idiots people like me. It does have some great ideas in it and I think that if you are at a total loss, it is a good deal. I do like how it is spiral bound, so it lays open flat.

Other than that, I just kinda wing it. I like seeing pictures of other finishes and figuring out how to do them based on a picture.

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The weather was nice this weekend...scattered showers, but what can you do? We decided to take the dog to the beach. Because she loves it we think that it is good for her to get out of the house & yard every now and then. Aren't we nice? She doesn't particularly love swimming, she does however love to ride in the car. If you leave the car door open in the garage, she will get in and just sit there. If you haven't caught on yet...Lady is not so smart. But she is a good dog and will be great with our kids.

DH also took my new camera for a test run and since I don't have any flattering pictures of this pregnancy yet (only ones I take in front of a full length mirror to track the belly growth), he wanted to get some shots of me. I guess that this is as good as it gets.

This is a local fisherman, he was walking the beach when we first arrived. I think that they just look for good spots where they think the fish are and throw their nets out and hope for the best. I don't know. We use fishing poles at home. And I have yet to actually catch a fish using a pole, so maybe a net is a better deal.

This one might be my favorite:

Of course, I had to take some of DH & the dog.

And these are the hermit crabs that I just love to watch. They are everywhere on the beach and on the rocks.



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I finished "November Twirls" snapper from Bent Creek. I started it a couple of days ago. It is part of my 50 project challenge. Now on to December. I want to be caught up through January when the baby comes. I already have February, March & April done so I can take a break then. I stitched this on some kind of ivory 28 ct evenweave that I won in a lot off of ebay. My plan is to take the ones that aren't finished yet (Oct, Nov, Apr) and stitch them into a pillow case and then just make one form and slip it into the coordinating case for the month. That way I don't have 12 pillows sitting on the shelf taking up valuable room.

I have also started to crochet again. I am obsessed with baby hats. Why? I dunno. I have 2 skiens of baby yarn and don't want it sitting around so I have been making all sizes of hats...mostly preemie and newborn though. Believe me, I have enough hats for the baby treehugger already in it's dresser, so these along with the scarf (and any other ones I finish up) are going into a flat rate box and going to The Baby Project. I put a couple of the hats on onions just so you could see how small they are. I know that babies come in all sizes. Hopefully they can use these for someone that really needs them. Or someone that has a doll with a cold nugget.

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I noticed that BlogRolling has taken a vacation again, so I have been trying to keep up with GoogleReader. Sometimes I forget though. Whoops.

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My Granny sent us a tin of home made cookies that she baked with my Aunt J and the girls. Oh Mylanta, were they ever good! She sent spritz cookies and I ate them first. Sad to say that they are almost all gone : ( But, I did talk to Granny yesterday and asked for some of her double layer rice krispie treats. She makes a batch of red (more like pink) and green (like mint color) and then in between them she puts melted butterscotch chips and peanut butter...holy cow they are deelish. I miss those alot. I think that she will send me some in the next couple of weeks. Granny rocks!

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Not much else going on here. Can I just say that not "doing" Christmas has been so freaking stress free? No cards to mail, trees to put up, last minute shopping to do, worrying about going over budget or if the recipient will even like what is picked out for them...I might be able to get used to this.

We are seriously considering buying a new dining room table though. One of the furniture stores here is relocating to Guam at the end of the month so we went in and looked around and found a nice Teak set that we like. I think that we might go back today and take a closer look at it now that we have talked about it more. I will for sure post pictures if we decide to go for it. It really is pretty.

Peace