Tuesday, December 25, 2007

steps 1 and 2

step 1:

step 2:
the transformation wasn't that simple but you get the gist.


It still needs to finish drying, and have some finishing steps but the main form has been made and that's the biggest deal. I plan to blog those steps too. I've been preoccupied with other things lately so finishing may have to wait until after Zuri is born.
For example earlier this week on Rocky's birthday, I ended up in the hospital with contractions 1-2 minutes apart. I'm 36 weeks and that night seemed like it may be the real thing so I wasn't comfortable with putting this off. Sorry Jenny as I know you were going to be my helper to do this. Thanks for being willing to come to do it even though it didn't work out.
Making this last night reminded me of all of the wonderful blessings I have, a loving, caring and supportive husband, and beautiful, healthy, children. Rejoice, for the Lord is good and Merry Christmas to you all!
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More Christmas morning

This post should be after the previous one.
The boys with their new mailbox and mail. Charmie had asked for this toy two years ago. We were happy to finally get it for him.

Charmie excitedly spelling C-A-T. Earlier this week over at Grandma and Grandpa Manuel's home Grandpa helped Charmie read his first book. He read the words: cat, bat, hat, mat, Nat, Pat and sat with just a touch of help from the pictures and memory. He was so happy to find one of the words he could read in their new spell cards.


Charmie was also very excited about his laptop,


and Mardie for his VSmile pocket and My first Leap Pad.

The boys as I blog are watching their Bible Man vidoes and playing with several of the action figures along with Bible Man.
I didn't get pictues, but two weeks ago we visited Grandma and Grandpa Ray and the boys received their Chrismas presents from them at this time.
At church on Sunday (I was not there, recovering from some preterm labor) the boys were in their play that Rocky directed and sang Happy Birthday Jesus directed by Uncle Colin. The video is below.
After services the kids had a Happy Birthday Jesus party and gave gifts to Jesus of Gold (offerings) Frankensinse (prayers) and Myhrr (service).
Then Sunday evening we all gathered at my parent's home for a family meal and exchange of gifts. It's been a blessed Merry CHRISTmas!
Now if that baby girl can just show up!
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Merry Christmas Ray boys

The boys. . . Rocky, Charmie and Mardie got up early ( I was dragging) to open gifts.
Charmie asked the man dressed up like Santa for one thing. A space station. After this he promptly told him and eveyone else who asked him this year that Santa isn't real!
I was so estatic to be able to find this one at our favorite consignment store. When I wrapped presents the other day, Rocky finished assembly so it was ready to go this morning.

Walkie Talkies


Cutting food for their kitchen


Rocky putting on his slippers (which he is still wearing) from his Uncle John and Aunt Jan. There was a beautiful scarf for me, and a Dinosaur excavation kit for Charmie and Science experiment Magic Schoolbus kit for Mardie.


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Monday, December 24, 2007

Early Christmas presents

I meant to post here, but instead I posted to the craft blog. The blog title post is a direct link though.

Charmie and Mardie viral?????

Here is our Church's youth congregation singing Happy Birthday Jesus.

Sooooo soft!

I got some wool interlock fabric that is so soft. I cannot begin to explain how soft this double knit fabric is. I plan to make some diapering accessories for Zuri and some goodies for me. I'm plugging along though these days just beign pregnant so not very much is getting done. Here's the first thing I made. I need to practice serging in a circle with interlock so the edges don't lettuce.
These pads when lanolized will absorb 40x their weight in breast milk hopefully keeping my clothing nice and dry! They are also naturally antibacterial and anti microbial, they will be self cleaning and lastly but definately not least they will be warm and comfy to help prevent clogged milk ducts. I had two pair of these from breastfeeding Charmie and Mardie by LANA care and cannot find them anywhere. I'm glad I was able to find some soft interlock to make a new pair.
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Early Christmas Presents

The boys are estatic, and are going down for bed as I type! We gave them "one" of their CHRISTmas presents early. A set of new bedding for their bunks and two new pajamas each. The sets are Superman themed. It's hard to tell from the picture since it's mostly of the blue with little detail showing.

This may become part of our Christmas tradition for the future. The boys liked it and they were ready for new bedding and new pj's!
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Friday, December 21, 2007

Nursery?????

As we get ready for Zuri's arrival one of the things we needed to do was hang the hammock. She will probably sleep 99.9% of her nights with us, but for naps, and those times when we want our own space in the bed she will sleep in her hammock. We got this hammock for Mardie and used it from bringing him home from the hospital when he wasn't in our bed and for naps. We had a permanent and temporary set up for it at our other house. When we moved we just used the temporary set up since we were'nt going to drill a hole in our ceiling if it was just being used for one baby.
Today Rocky went into the attic and secured the hanging bolt so that we can have a permanent mount in our room. This takes up about the space of a bassinette but without the floor space and is close to my night stand for easy access. This hammock was a lifesaver with Mardie and all of his reflux so I'm sure Zuri will enjoy bouncing and sleeping in here too!
This Hammock and the armiore is about all the nursery Zuri is going to have. Eventually her bedroom will be what is currently my craft room. Our priorities over what we needed have changed with every child. It's been fun to get some girly things this time around, but honestly getting ready for Zuri has been a much less involved process than either of the boys since we didn't even try to really do a "nursery" for her.
This picture shows the cushions and the wool pad I I knit which coincedentially ended up EXACTLY the correct size.

Here's the hammock, cushion, and wool pad with the organic cotton sherpa cover I made for them. I can't wait to lay her in this. It looks so soft and cuddly I want to crawl in.
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barter socks

This is the first pair of socks I made for someone else. . . For some reason I had a hard time finishing them. Other projects kept getting started, and then finished. I knit them on two circular needles which was a learning experience, and I also did a short row heel which was a new experience too. Both of those proved challenging as I knit these socks from my mind, vs. from a pattern and for new things I'm an instruction kind of girl.
These are for my dear friend Vicki. We bartered for some great Haba toys for Zuri that her daughters are done with and this is the first "installment" of payments. There will be more payments to come as I get the things done.
I hope Vicki likes them. I know it's tempting at this point to keep them for me!
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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Streamers for Praise

Our Church Congregation during the Praise portion of services invites the children of all ages to be like David and be "undignified". They provide streamers for expression of praise. They are a little long for toddlers, normally aren't enough to go around, and when dropped the kids fight over them as they all look the same.
Jenny made some beautiful streamers called Fairy Tales that inspired me to make these for Mardie

and Charmie

These have smaller handles so I don't have to worry about anybody getting whacked with them. They are also shorter which is perfect for shorter people. I can't wait for them to try them out on Sunday at our special CHRISTmas celebration!
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Mardie's suprise

Here's mardie's I-Spy bag. I had to get another set of the alphabet blocks. I cannot wait to give these to the boys. I think at first they won't exactly know how to play with them. I hope with time they grow to like them.

Mardie has 40 things to find too!

Now to decide do I tackle something else on my to do list or head to bed?
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Dying for Sherbert

I finished the last of the dying. Orange! I had 2 dappi covers given to me from my friend Jaime. I love my rainbow of flats and kimono t's!

Soon, maybe very soon, my sweet baby Z will be wearing them.
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Friday, December 14, 2007

Shhhhhh, can you help me keep a secret?

Here's a gift I made for Charmie. I still need to make Mardie's. This is an I Spy bag for those of you who have never seen one before. It's a bean bag with a clear window and filling that is pellets. Mixed in with the pellets are little charms and trinkets. Some are plastic, some are wood and and a few are bead, button, etc. type things. The goal is for the child to find or spy the items on the list, and some of them are very small so it's challenging to get them to rise up to the window for viewing.
I've been seeing these online for sale and I finally decided to try my hand at making one. It was more labor intensive than I originally imagined, but I think the 2nd and any subsequent ones will go faster.

On the back I have sewn on a list of the 40 things I've tucked inside for Charmie to find. This toy will probably be kept in the car for times when we need a quiet activity and are away from home.

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Dying to change

I got to dye yesterday. I just need one more package of orange dye to finish off my kimono t's and flats. I love the colors that Dylon produced. I don't know why but I ended up with one light and one dark kimono and both were in the same dye bath at the same time and I thought equally agitated with the flat diapers shown below. The diapers dyed uniformly. The dye on the kimono's is uniform, just one is a different shade. All are 100% cotton.
It wil be so fun to use these flat diapers and tops at the hospital for my babe with her fashion wraps!

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bib, wipe, burp, just cloth????

I finally broke down and bought some of the yummy organic yarn I've been seeing in stores. Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic cotton. It is more of a Aran to light bulky weight and a single strand twisted around a mass of soft cotton fibers vs. a twisted cord. It's very soft. I liked the look crocheted vs. knit.
Here are some baby cloth's I made. The sides are between 8" and 10". This was from one ball of the strawberry and one of the walnut. I have since gotten one ball of Pistacio and one of Pecan and am working on three more in the middle of my other projects.
My plan is to use these as bibs with my bib clips, but also to use them as a wipe or burp or lappad if needed. So basically multi purpose cloths for the diaper bag or at home.
If they survive till after Zuri I can use them as hot pads or kitchen cloths.
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Monday, December 10, 2007

fashion tabs

I decided to cloth diaper Zuri at the hospital. This is a new undertaking. The boys had their first cloth diapers at home. I am going to use flat diapers, single layers of cloth that are in large rectangles or squares that unfolded provide no protection for diapering, but are meant to be folded many times into other shapes to hold/contain pee and poo. They can be used without covers by being pinned on fastened with a snappi fastener or just held on with wraps. For ease in the hospital I will use wraps. My sis gave me these newborn wraps along with a ton of cloth dipaering things before Charmie was born. They have a notch for the umbilical cord cut out. I hardly used them for my boys moving quickly to wool covers and all in one diapers. When I decided to use flats and prefolds I realized that they are perfect for hospital use and our early cloth diapering days.
I had tried to hand paint them, but they are polyester and the fabric paint just washed out, and bled into the stitching. I didn't dye them for the same reason but I wanted them to be cute.
I was recently blessed to be able to purchase some PUL remnants and had a few free scraps given to me too. Since PUL is waterproof fabric I thought what a great choice to embelish diaper covers with. I sewed a little tab cover on and now the once plain covers are fashion covers!
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Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Yesterday's fruit

I've been laboring over organized storage for this armiore. Zuri will be room/bed sharing with us for the first 16 mos. of her life as her brothers did. Since her eventual bedroom will be what is now my sewing room and the sewing room will be relocated into a bonus room to be built she not only needs a place to sleep but also a place to house her things.
Thankfully we had this armiore, and it was mostly holding miscelaneous things that could be relocated elsewhere.
We have had the wicker/reed baskets for a few years but the lower shelves had no organization. Tiny baby things don't do well just floating on shelves. I have had several ideas running through my mind, but kept coming back to this type of bin for a quick affordable solution. I had purchased some others but they had a horrible chemical smell, and not only did I not want to breathe it, I didn't want my infant daughter's clothes and things smelling. So after a week of trying to offgass them back to the store they went.
On a quick run to BigLots I found these 6 bins for $2.50 each! I couldn't beat the price, the color goes with our room and they work perfectly for what I was trying to achieve for now!

I needed a new wrap/tie sling since I sold my Ellaroo. I purchased 5 yards organic bamboo knit fabric and have been wrestling with what to do to finish it. . . I ended up just choosing a simple rolled hem in a similar color wooly nylon and organic cotton thread. I am still deciding as to whether or not to add a pocket, toy loop, and where to add my label. I tapered the ends for less bulk and ease of tying.
This sling is so soft, comfy and yummy to wear.
I am horribly out of practice though and after 3 attempts to sling Mardie over my swollen belly and on my aching back I realized that I'm so glad that newborns don't move much and don't weigh much!
I'm sure Zuri and I will learn quickly what we need to learn to sling happily just as I did 4 years ago with Charmie!


Here's a swatch I worked up to determine gauge and also find out if I could take some yarn I love, (4 varigated colorways) have been saving for just the right project that is super bright and make it into something I would love to wear! ( I normally don't wear super bright)
I found some dark brown and knit with the two strands together. This makes almost a heathered tweedy look that is just fun enough for my tastes and a bulky knit that is growing on me. Luckily the pattern is written for multiple gauges and yarn weights.
I'll be starting this probably at knit night tonight! Here's the pattern (scroll down to The Babywearer), but I plan to make some changes to the bottom part to better suit my shape/size/height. I'm looking forward to wearing this in a few weeks!


Finally here's what a momma does when she has 2 boys and then a baby girl on the way with the boy's baby clothes. . .
My take on an ensemble for Zuri. The fox hat and booties were gifties from my sis for Mardie. I love them and am happy to use them again. The soaker just happened to go with the kimono, I really didn't plan it that way! And the legwarmers are just part of Zuri's stash. It's neat to have a variety to draw from for various looks.
On another note, my dumb dog ATE a matching fox long sleeve onesie that I had sunning to remove some spit stains when it blew off the deck, clothes pins and all! I barely found the remaining threads later, but the poor onesie is beyond repair. I'm just thankful for the dog's sake it wasn't one of my handknits that he ate or I don't really know what I would do to him!

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Sunday, December 02, 2007

Organic prose

I decided Zuri needed some organic ones. I have one more to stitch but I didn't want to change thread color in my serger

. . . feeling a little undermotivated today.
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Saturday, December 01, 2007

I felt like dying today. . .

I didn't feel like or have time for anything major.
I did get some housekeping done.
I went through some baby things to pull out more gender neutral things that I will probably use for Zuri. . .
We ran some errands as a family.
I shopped for groceries.
I decided I felt like dying



I had to make my potion.
I took some white distilled vinegar.
Some water, more than the vinegar.
And some cheap store brand drink mix.


These I combined into a glass casserole and mixed well.
I figured this concoction might just do the trick.
Then I got out two of the first soakers I ever knit.
They are knit with undyed, LB Fisherman's wool.
I started with Fruit Punch.
I chased it with Berry Punch.
After they were dyed I threw them into the wash on the short hot cold cycle with 2 dryer balls and the pretty stitch patterns turned into
felt. The colors are more vibrant that the photos show below

This soaker was a size large and is now a size small.
The one below was already felted some from large to medium and it is also now small.
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