Silent Saturday 7/7/12

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So Much Summer

Now Playing:
Amarantine
by Enya

We took Little Miss swimming for the first time today. She was scared and cried a lot. We never let her go and she relaxed a bit, smiled and laughed while we all jumped up and down in the water (while I still held her tight). She even had a bit of fun when some nice boys let her play with their ball. Hopefully, I'll have pictures for you soon. Teen Miss took some at the beginning.


Mo is being transistioned to the spare bedroom (which used to hold a roommate before he moved out). Here she is napping on the air mattress we have in there so that I can get her to sleep in there and sleep in there myself, if need be. Monday, I will probably start getting her crib and dresser in there too. Once she gets used to her new room, I hope to start night weaning her too. I'm actually feeling kind of sad thinking about it all now, but, it's coming time and nursing off and on all night is wearing me thin. We'll take it slow for her... and me.


I did acrylic tips on Teen Miss this week. Best acrylic nails I've ever done in my life! They were nice and thin and needed minimal filing. Now, if I could just figure out how to keep nails from lifting, I'd wear an acrylic overlay myself all the time. I've already taken mine off, they started lifting the next day. I even roughed up the natural nail and used a primer.


Stu and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on Wednesday. We went to dinner at a bar and grill called Fiddler's Elbow. Best, bad for me, burger I've ever had. I ate only 430 (healthy!) calories for breakfast and lunch that day to save up for this... then prompltly ruined my efforts by having dessert on top of it. Oh well.


This lovely shawl collar circle jacket I'm crocheting is almost done. I get so tired of projects like this that are worked from the center out, because every round takes longer. Recipient to be revealed soon!


Bruce and Marissa came to get the mei tai I made for them. Marissa got Abigail all snuggled into the carrier and said, "Amber, this is beautiful." And I don't really think she was talking about how pretty the carrier was (but that's just a guess). Baby wearing really is a beautiful thing, especially with a mei tai. They are my personal favorite style of carrier.


Here's sweet Abigail!


You know you're addicted when there's knitting hiding in your kitchen fruit basket... I'm just sayin'.


These are the freezer pop socks I knit for my sister and her two girls.


These are some freezer pop socks that I knit for my friend, Marin. She saw the pic of Little Miss's on Facebook and told me she wanted to buy some and even let me do them however I wanted.


Walking to the bank and library. Do raggin' it as she has no hats to protect her little head and ears from the sun.


She got a grape sucker from the bank. Mmmmm.


First ever clean dinner plate! This is an awesome milestone for her! She has been slowly getting better at trying proteins. The only protein she ever eats for sure is chicken and it's only certain she will if it's covered in some kind of crunchy breading or batter. She often now asks for eggs (and eats every bite), will eat beans and, in this picture, it was her first time trying pork chop and she ate every last bite that she was given! She also had corn and mashed potatoes with it, two of her favorites. Trying a new protein and eating all of it in the same meal has been unheard of until now.


Blue nails with pink polka dots!


My new flip flops from the Old Navy $1 flip flop sale this morning! Thanks to my awesome hubby for watching the baby so Teen Miss and I could go quickly. I have SO many flip flops already, these are colors I didn't have yet. Seriously, I had like, 12-15 pairs before this?

And, I'll finish up with a cute captionless photo montage...

Cookies & Carriers

I made some pink sugar cookies like the famous commercial pink sugar cookies. They weren't exactly the same, but pretty close and definitely cure the craving for one... or two... or five.


Little Miss was sooooo ecstatic to try one of my pink sugar cookies. I mean, just look at her face! She was such a good girl, too. When I set it down to take of picture of her with it, she didn't try to pick it up, she just hovered over it, smiling and saying, "Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!" and waiting for me to give her some.


I sewed this blue floral mei tai for a couple who are dear friends of ours. They have been borrowing our Sleepy Wrap since their baby girl was born, but they're moving to another city soon and I didn't want to leave them without an awesome baby wearing device once they returned my wrap before moving.


Little Miss helped me test it out. She was having fun saying, "Cheese!" for the camera, probably because cheese is one of her favorite foods. I was really afraid that not pleating the wide straps wouldn't leave much room for a baby's legs, but it works just fine! And if it's rolled up to make it shorter for a newborn, the legs would be tucked in or so little anyway, it's still going to work nicely. I will be sewing the carriers in this way from now on as it's much easier and quicker.

Hold The Booze

Well, Little Miss is slowly getting better. Her nose finally cleared out about 1 AM last night, after a very long and awful crying episode. =( She was awake for an hour and a half. We went into the room that we are moving Mo into gradually and we slept on the air matress so my husband could get sleep for work. But, once her nose cleared she nursed and we both passed out in a hearbeat. It stayed clear until we woke up this morning. But, then it stuffed up again and is still stuffy tonight. Grrr. On a good note, she seems to be feeling better all around.


I made Little Miss another rice pack. This one is made from a repurposed flannel burp cloth.


I made virgin Mojitos! They're just Sprite, lime juice and crushed mint leaves. I think I might just do this with the Sprite and mint only in the future. I had a virgin Mojito when we went to dinner at Rodizio for Mother's Day and I've been craving one ever since. I'm not much of a drinker anymore and I'm still nursing Little Miss, so... yeah. Virgin it is!


Teen Miss recently got a job at Baskin Robbins and we went after dinner to get ice cream and say hi to her during her shift. In between every bite, Mo was searching for her behind the counter and saying, "Sissy? Sissy? Sissy?..."

Well, I'm gonna watch Mannequin now... and probably fall asleep in the process.

She Likes It!

She likes it! I'm so glad. She was not pleased with all the other contraptions (wraps and carriers) I've tried to do back carries with in the past. Her legs actually fall below the leg padding I put in, but she didn't indicate that she was uncomfortable at all, so I think it's fine. This is, by far, the most comfy back carrier I've ever tried. I used the FrankenKozy pattern. www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/FrankenKozy.htm


She thinks it's great for eating Goldfish crackers in while Mommy trucks around the house...


...And snuggling against Mommy...


...and smiling and playing with Sissy in while Sissy takes pictures.

Our New Mei Tai!

It's finally finished!!! I tried making a mei tai a while ago out of different fabric and it was a disaster.

My sewing machine at the time could not handle the shoulder strap pleats. My current (better) machine could not handle me doing padded shoulder straps with what little fabric I had left for the straps.

But, the new machine plus pleated straps equals success!!! I'm so happy with it and can't wait until Little Miss wakes up from nap so we can try it out!

There are of course a few mistakes (asthetic only, I would not compromise the safety of my child by ignoring mistakes in things that make the carrier safe!), but it's only my first one!

I even added some padding around the leg and back areas to provide added comfort for my Little Miss. I hope she likes it!

Thanks to my knitting sista friend, Michelle for providing me with the body fabric for free!

Makin' Stuff

Last night, I made this draped vest from an extra large t-shirt! No sewing required! If you know how to use scissors, you can make this. Seriously, it's that easy. Thrift store with extra large t-shirts, here I come!!! Thanks to my friend, Michelle, for sharing a different t-shirt vest she made from the same website, I came across the tutorial here: wobisobi.blogspot.com/2012/01/re-style54-five-minute-drap...

I wore this outfit on mine and hubby's date today... plus a long silver necklace... Little Miss was playing with it when I took this picture. Don't worry, it's just plastic costume jewelry.


I also wore these! I crocheted these spats for my ankle boots today in a matter of about 20 minutes once I figured out how I was going to make them.

Catch Up

Sewn Apron Base w/ Pockets for Michelle


Sewn Rice Pack for Michelle


Sewn Jersey Headbands for me


Earwarmer headband for mine and Little Miss's daily walks after lunch.


I knit these fingerless gloves for my mom's birthday today.

More Upcycling

I made this headscarf out of an old extra stretchy jersey camisole. These things are great as I am growing out my bangs (and all my hair for that matter) and the hair near my ears that I had shaved off a while ago so the arms on my glasses wouldn't mess with the hair they run through when I wear them. I much rather prefer my hair out of my face and eyes and off my neck. I'm also making one in brown, white and black from another camisole and some t-shirts.

Rice Pack Attack!

My sweet knitting friend, Michelle, asked for a rice pack in a previous post when she saw the ones I made for my girls. This is my first try on an envelope slip cover for the pack that can be removed and washed. You can't wash the pack itself, so this is really nice to have. The base pack was sewn from some old jammies of Little Miss that she's outgrown and the cover was sewn from a flannel baby blanket. I really like how it turned out!

Everything's Coming Up Veggies

Meet (L to R) Steve, Reynaldo and Bitsy. I'm starting some avacado seeds. I know I have no where to plant a tree, but I just recently heard that grocery store avacado seeds are usually hybrids and won't produce fruit. Oh well. Maybe I can just have some nice avacado plants.


I made veggie soup with some celery and a bag of split peas we have left over from a previous soup I made. I used canned tomatoes, carrots and potatoes. I love using canned veggies, they're SO cheap! I also added garlic salt, a few bay leaves, salt and pepper. It was a nice simple, yummy soup.


I'm trying to figure out a way to grow herbs and veggies indoors. I have a south facing dining room with four tall, skinny windows that hopefully might work. These are my experimental containers... and some herb in the tin can on the right. There's cardboard around it with a plastic grocery bag nestled in the cardboard frame to catch water. There's nothing in the left container but rocks to set my plants on for drainage.


Here's another experimental drained water catcher. It's the bottom of a diaper box with a garbage bag liner.


I made these hot/cold rice packs for my girls. We have some rice packs already and I discovered that Little Miss actually relaxes a lot faster at nap and bedtime if she has something very warm to cuddle and fiddle with. She was using a long skinny one, but I wanted her to have a shape better for her and in a fun fabric. So, I used a flannel recieving blanket. We never use those kind of blankets anymore. I made one for Teen Miss as well because she was using a few to go to bed and I just recently stole one back. So, I made her one to replace it. =) Each one took maybe 10 minutes. I love my sewing machine, it's so fast (compared to the less expensive versions I've had, lol)! I'd also like to sew some washable nursing pads with the receiving blankets we still have.


I sewed these curtains for my kitchen window from a sheet today. I used an extra shower curtain rod in the window cut out of the wall for the curtain rod. I whipped these suckers out in like, 45 minutes. Did I mention that I love my sewing machine?


I'm this close to finishing Mo's blanket! I'm now knitting the fourth and final edge!