Waiting for baby...

A beautiful day yesterday if not a little bit cool out. We went down to Kettle Cove for a few hours for a picnic. It was nice to sit outside and watch the fishermen and the seagulls. There are more Monarch Butterflies around here this year than I have ever seen! I only see them in big numbers by the ocean. Kevin brought along some wood to carve and I brought a small embroidery project. I am doing a series of birds. Nice and portable. ..even if I only port them from the couch to the bedroom. Tomorrow is the 'official' due date! We'll see what happens....

I went to the library today to get some movies to enable my couch sitting. Feeling quite tired but I still have somewhat of a crafting urge. I have some designs figured out for the embroidered part of the quilt I want to make.

I had a lovely visit with a couple of friends of mine this morning who came over for a bit of visiting. Jenna gave me a great needlebook which I will take a picture of soon. I will leave you with a picture of one of my favorite dolls. My mother bought it for me when I was teeny tiny when she went on a trip to France. I think she is so sweet, I would love to make one like her at some point. Lots more practice!

More piles. This pile of fleece has been sitting around for a while now. I think I am going to end up donating most of it because I have no place to put it and I am tired of having it sitting there. I think the green will end up being a little fuzzy blanket and the grey maybe a stuffed animal. My brother gave me a book with tons of teddy bear patterns for Christmas last year that I haven't really given a good shot at trying yet.

This little ship is a patch on the bag I sewed up with some old fabric I had around to make a tote style bag for my wipes. It hangs off the side of the changing table in a most convenient way.

My first day off from work consisted mostly of lounging around and taking lots of naps. I spent a lot of time hanging out with the bunny and making lists. Later in the afternoon I got a surge of energy and decided to take a trip to the fabric store. The last one for a little while I think. I'm not much good for doing a lot of walking at this point. I wanted to get some supplies for a baby quilt (surprise) for a friend of mine. I have been inspired by these quilts. I think a nice little embroidery project that I can pick up and put down is about my speed right now.

I usually go for really bright colors but I was feeling pretty earthy yesterday.



This is the fabric I got. The texture doesn't really photograph well but they are a nice medium weight linen and the brown is a fine whale corduroy. In other news.. I have my last pre due date appointment today. The belly is bursting!

And lastly...what happens when a man has nesting instincts?? Power Tools!! He put them to good use and built me a plant shelf/stand thing to go over the current low table I have my plants on in the kitchen. Of course, project started 20 min before he had to go to work but hey.. he got it done!

After my rant about baby wipes I still couldn't rationalize the price of making vs buying them. So.. here is the stack.. and I bought another few yards just in case. Now, what to do with my first day off from work.

So today was my last day of work. I hope to catch up on some much needed rest and relaxation.

This is another craft project I would like to continue with at some point. I really enjoy doing embroidery. This I did based on a photograph as a present a while back. It is hung in our bedroom above the non-working fireplace. I have been trying to get inspired to do another one.
This is it hanging.. kind of an odd perspective because it is up fairly high.

A detail. It was a lot of fun to experiment with different stitches and thread thicknesses.

I finished another project on my list last night. I covered the cushions of a rocking chair that I got from a baby shower at work. It is a fabulous glider but the cushions just don't go with my living room. I found some neat textured, olive colored fabric and basically wrapped it up like a Christmas present around the cushions and hand stitched the back to keep it together and tacked down. I need to fix one of the handles but all in all it came out pretty well. I think a bright little pillow will be nice in it.

Finished product with belly cast...looks like the bunny snuck into the picture as well..

And because I am feeling picturey here are some flowers from the farmers market. I was experimenting with the saturation levels on my camera so they are very electric looking:

I had some fun at Two Lights state park yesterday. I had some energy and was able to climb around on the rocks a little bit while Kevin did a few watercolors. I took some pictures of tidepools that I am really happy with: (click to see bigger images)



Tonight I have been working on making a slip cover for the rocker that was given to me. The belly cast we did yesterday is sitting nicely in it. Once I get some good light I will share those projects. Went to a thrift store today and picked up a wool sweater to shrink up and try doing a shibori scarf to wear with my new hat!

A couple more pictures to leave you with. A very pregnant (due in 2 weeks) me and the artist at work:

The ambitious task of making diaper wipes for 1 weeks worth of diaper changes is really becoming a HUGE bore. I have cut out and pinned together about 8 yards of 8 X 8 flannel. Just a snippet there in the picture. I do like my new pinking shears, and you can see the monster ears of a creature I made for Kevin when we first started dating.

There are so many more interesting things I want to make..like a mobile and a mini quilt, cover a chair.. umm a lot to do in a few weeks. I think I have hit the wall and will just buy a stack or cloth wipes that are already made. At least I tried. Hopefully cloth goes well. I found some good recipe's for making my own diaper wipe solution. Just put it in a spray bottle and off you go.

Time to work on some more rewarding craft projects! We did do a belly cast today. That was fun. It was hard to sit still and not micro manage the process. I felt kind of like the dictator/queen in my chair telling poor Kevin how to do it. I better start learning to let go now!

Off to read about breast feeding...

Ok, I'm ready. I just went out and bought diapers and had a mini panic attack while doing it. We are waiting for the cloth diaper service to get back to us so we can get that set up but I wanted back ups in the mean time. Deep Breaths....
An assignment for my Birthing From Within Class was to make a birth bundle. It is a symbolic little pouch with various meaningfull things inside. It was really fun and medetative to make this since crafting is a good outlet for me and it gave me a chance to really foccus on what symbolic things are important to me and why. Here are a few pictures of my birth bundle:

The tree embroidery was done on the machine. After that I added some little felted wool leaves with french knots in the middle.


























I made little velvet pockets on the inside for a shell, a quarz crystal I found in a local quary, and a marble. The feather I tied to the otherside. Pretty typical symbolism for a seaside town with plenty of woodsiness to run around in now and then. I am definately connected to this place.

These are pictures of rug I am thinking about putting together from various scarves I made. I think what I will do is cut them up into squares instead of leaving them in stripes and then weave wool strips to hold them together. I am considering some wool applique as well to break up the stripes a little. Good thing Fall is closing in, this wool is WAY too warm to knit with right now!



Dexter approved...

I am not sure if Kevin or I took this picture but I think it is so interesting. It looks very painterly to me. When you click and look at the large version the wings almost look like stained glass. We went to Two Lights State Park and had a picnic. There were SO many Monarch butterflies Kevin was in heaven chasing them around taking pictures. Unfortunately, I realized I am not really able to climb around on the rocks much these days but it was really nice to watch the waves and wear a wool sweater for the first time this year.
This is another project that has been ongoing for a long time. I started out making heavy winter scarves out of this wool material but I realized they are really just too heavy to wear comfortably. I used to knit outside a lot and people would ask if I was making a rug. I always told them no a scarf but I think I finally got the hint. I am attaching my scarves to make a rug for my living room. Looks a lot better than as a scarf I must say! Plus I am sure Dexter Rabbit will enjoy it more than skidding around on the wood floor.

This is entered under the Design category of Whip-Up's September hat competition.

37 weeks pregnant and I needed a project! I put aside making burp cloths and diaper wipes and decided to try this. I think matching mittens, and hats for baby and daddy are going to be on the way.

I used all recycled and local materials starting with the remainder of the fisherman's sweater I used for the bird bag. (It was a BIG sweater) I hand sewed this together using yarn I bought from Sunrise Acres Farm. I then embroidered little branches and french knot flowers into it using wool felt from my mothers stash of rug hooking materials. I love raw edges and the chunky quality of the wool felt. I am looking forward to fall to wear this while toting around the new babe.

This is one of my latest creations. I found a giant old fishermans sweater at a local thrift shop and shrunk it in the wash. It didn't entirely felt but it tightened it up enough so that I could sew it once it was cut out. I lined it with some upholstery fabric I had left over and to top it off made a bird applique/embroidery using wool felt strips. It is one of the biggest bags I have made. I am hoping it will fit a few diapers and changes of baby clothes.

I thought I would start this out with a belly picture. This was taken about 2 weeks ago so I have gotten even bigger since then! The sun tatoo looks a little funky...we'll see if it goes back to normal. Feeling pretty good with only 3 weeks left. Kevin is putting together the changing table my generous work gave me as one of the baby presents. Almost ready! I am working on some crafty baby projects that hopefully will get done in time.