Hurry Up and Wait

Last week my sister, my BIL, and I ran around the house packing hospital bags, folding baby clothes, and making sure everything was ready for the arrival of little Liam.

And now, we wait. 

In the interim, I've been trying to keep busy. 

I made some shortcake.

I made a new web banner (see above). E and I are fans, but we're very open to your comments.

And I made a Laurel Love Cocoon...unfortunately the intended model has not yet made an appearance, so we used the next best one.

Yep, it's a fit!

Melissa's pattern suggests bulky yarn and size 13 circular needles.  But we all know I can't follow a pattern.  I used just shy of 2 skeins of Peaches n Creme (in Sea Mist, in case you're wondering) and size 8 circulars.  I cast on 70 instead of 40, and it's 8.25 inches wide (measured with my ribbon bracelet).  Success!

Now, time for more waiting, and if I'm lucky later, maybe some Guinness. 

Caught banana-handed

I just finished a little crochet banana using a pattern from Amigurumi Paradise. Its for my soon-to-be-here nephew, Liam (remember when babies were named after they were born?) to match the monkey hat I finished last month. 

I put the banana in a plastic bag and snuck it and a camera to the local grocery store for a quick pic among the "real bananas."  I tried to be covert because there was a stockman on the other side filling in some bare spots.

I made two mistakes:
  1. I left the flash on, which said "hey everyone, look at me!  I'm doing something questionable in the store!"
  2. I left the memory card at home.  The camera was quite angry about this and started beeping. Effect?  See above. 

So, no picture and the banana man came over to check things out.  I grabbed my little fake and  a bunch of reals and scurried off.  This pic is from my kitchen counter, where weird stunts are expected. 

Three Little Holes

Ugh, my favorite hoodie, which I've had for years upon years (E -didn't you try to steal it?), developed three tiny little holes.  I thought, I'm crafty, I can fix this.  I remembered seeing a tutorial on fixing this very thing, but instead of looking it up...I just started cutting. 

My brain kept saying "measure twice, cut once."  But three cuts later (two free-hand hearts and one stenciled star) I have this little beauty.  And I had the good sense to look up the tutorial by the insanely awesome Sister Diane at the also awesome Craft Stylish.  The BF is modeling here - can you tell he's happy from the way his shoulder are hunched (maybe he realized the star is crooked)?  But you also get a shot of the awesome Home Sweet Home sign E made for me the first time I moved to Oklahoma. 

Also this week, I bought 50 skeins of yarn for $42. My defense - it is my favorite yarn and it was on clearance, and I had a coupon, and...shoot, that's all I can think of.   I'm so excited to jump into it!

And last, but not at all least, finished another Calorimetry.  Yes, I said the previous one was the last one, but that was before the loving postal service lost it!  Ugh!  It's probably a soaking wet ball of wool now stuck between late letters to Santa.  Tear!   

This one is Rowan Wool Cotton (leftovers from gloves for BF and Leanna's sweater) and has little pink vintage buttons.  I'm almost glad me mum is getting this one, because I like it so much more than the black one.  Maybe I'll keep it a little while, just to prevent the Postal Service from losing it.  Yeah, that's a good reason.

Another Man's Baby

Technically, the baby belongs to a totally different family. I can't take credit for everything, no matter have adorable it turns out!

I bought the fabric for a fleece loopy ball & blanket and a summer swaddling blanket last fall off the JoAnn Fabric's clearance rack. I made a bucket-full of loopies last year while I was prego, and since my babe loves 'em, they all should!

After a last minute dinner invite @ the expecting couple's house last Saturday, I couldn't put the crafting off any longer. So while my Russian busied himself with Netflix, I cut, pinned & sewed the babe's nap away.

I was super-happy with the colorful blanket. So happy I figured I'd iron the loops & the seams. Something I never do. And that I will never do again. Someone should put a label on that fleece, letting sleep-deprived Mamas know that it burns. Easily. Cause it does. Errr.

But, anyway everything was a big hit. Especially the monkey JB stitched up for the baby girl.

If only the motivation will keep rollin'. I dreamt up an awesome glass-etching baby bank idea last night...

Bye Bye Christmas!

Despite the awesomeness of our turducken, I thought I would serve the BF a warm meal without a face for Christmas.  He wanted ham, but what he got was Morning Star chick'n nuggets.  You win some, you lose some. I made a loaf of bread the night before for the stuffing - there are few things worse than taking a perfectly good loaf of bread and cutting it into tiny bits for even more cooking. 

Christmas Dinner was followed up with a little drinky drink.  A couple years ago, BF's sister and I made some delicious cranberry sauce, and during the cooking phase, skimmed off a little juice and mixed it with vodka.  Voila!  Jello-free Jello shots!  They were so yum that I tried to replicate them this year with BF, and although they looked super cool, I think I waited too long to skim.  Just a wee bit too tart and too solid.  Eh, but who lets alcohol go to waste?

I never got to the "Ira is the Reason for the Season" cross-stitch (I really like This American Life), but I did finish a dolly - this is BF's sister-in-law, Leanna.  She has wavy hair, which I tried to replicate by pulling apart wool yarn into strands (after threading it through the head - I'm not a masochist).  It looked like my hair does in the morning, a little fluffy for a gift.  But I gave it a little rinse with some soak (had a sample from the Loopy Ewe) and it laid down quite nicely.  I even had enough soak left to wash the BF's fingerless mitts, which looked like, well, a boy had been wearing them.  Everything is crocheted except the sweater because knit sweaters are cool, and Rowan Wool Cotton + Bamboo Needles is so slippy awesome, I couldn't resist. 

Hope you had an awesome holiday and that E will post a pic of her baby boy wearing his homemade gift.  Mostly so I can see his cuteness again.  I miss the little dumpling!

Last one, I swear

This, children, is my last calorimetry for a while.  Even though E said she needs two more with some "slight" tweaks. I guess headbands are the new monkey? 

My mom hits the Flickr pool every once in a while and thought E's headband was a "sweater" - a pretty scandalous one, I suppose, but she swears it looked huge because of the crop.   Hopefully this one throws her off as well.  She wanted black to match her coat.  I tried to tell her that if you have a black coat, you should have a crazy headband, but what do I know?  I try to wear as many colors as possible on any given day. I did throw in a vintage button, though, because it added a color (ooh!  cream!)

E, your Brooklyn trip is cracking me up!  You are, as always, the queen of deals and deserve the mantra WWED.  Of course you owe me nothing for the monkeys - just seeing that little dumpling cuddled up is all I need.  Gosh, how did you make such a super cute baby? 

Who counts calories when there's a monkey on your back?

Well Brownie, since you asked... I absolutely LOVE my new calorimeter ear muffs. They've added to my homeless hippie look, so I'm pretty sure the Wheeling Junior League won't be calling anytime soon. Of course, that's not entirely due to my spiffy new do-rag.


The cranky babe loves it too; which is great, cause it's taken some of his attention off of my oh-so-vulnerable glasses.

Baby Boris is also in love with his new, improved & poop-free sock monkey.

I was thinking of cutting the head off of the original, dryer-deformed monkey & sending it back to you. But I guess that would be mean:).

Don't worry, I'll pay you for all these lovelies, and the present monkey. The check is in the mail...