Sad Mardie

Mardie lost his remote control to his view finder. We looked all over and cannot find it. He's so sad. . .

lap of luxury

Here's a soaker I finished up knitting for Zuri this weekend. It's 0-8mos size. It's a merino, alpaca, silk blend yarn that is so yummy and soft. This yarn was made possbile by Janet, see previous post of how I begged her for it. I was thinking of dying it, but the more I see it the more I love it undyed. I hope I have enough leftover to make a matching cap.

cup of Tea

Here's my response to Karina's post on favorite cups.
This is my favorite cup at the present. I seem to adopt one every few months or years for different reasons. This one was given to me last year at MOPS for the Tea and Testimony that we shared for one of our last meetings. The gift was a reminder to us of what we mean to our children. Drinking from this mug/cup reminds me to try to be the best for my Ray's.

I drink way more tea than coffee. Tonight as it's 2am and I can't sleep I'm brewing some Tazo Calm.

Is that a knit WIP merino, alpaca and silk diaper soaker peaking out from behind????? I just couldn't wait to start this one. Janet (the sweetest, most generous, loving, unselfish and best big sister ever) found this yarn and I very ungracefully and literally got down on one knee in all my preggo splendor last night in ACMoore and begged her to let me get it as it was the very last of it. (Can you say pregnancy hormones causing irrationality? Can you say OC over Zuri's butt covers? Can you say, maybe she's lost he mind?) Then I kidnapped her away to Target in the next town to fulfill a selfish need to acquire the final basket. . . see below.

OC about a butt????

Along with my cleaning I guess I've fully crossed over into the nesting phase because I'm OC about getting things ready for Zuri. I still have until mid January before she's due +/- a couple of weeks but none the less my impulses are not driven by what I know to be true. That being said this week I've been obsessing over her diapering.
I know you're thinking, what can be so important about a baby's butt? I don't know exactly but it's all I can think about this week.
Last week Rocky found this beautiful changing table on Craig's list for me. Recycled treasure!!! It all started when I had mentioned that since our mbath doesn't have a closet and we'd be sharing with Zuri we needed a place to store all of her fluff. We discussed something to go here and decided that a plain ole changing table would probably be the most functional and affordable. We're still using the Shower Baby (look above the toilet behind the table for what imho is one of the BEST accessories for any baby!!!) for her actual diaper changes, bathing, etc. But we needed a place to house the cloth diapers and accessories, her toiletries, wipes etc.
The table had no baskets with it though. I went on a mad search for days, since just stacking the dipes on here wasn't the look or style I was going for. Just think open access to two little boys to mix, toss, flush and do whatever at will with the diapers. I was starting to have panic attacks just thinking about it. Plus I tried it with carefully planned rows of like items and the stacks were barely a few inches high and looked sloppy, disorganized and were starting to cascade to the floor.
I don't know why, but places that sell changing tables DO NOT sell baskets or bins that fit onto them well to house anything without substantial loss of storage space. Let me explain. They all have baskets and bins, but they start wide at the top, which is only about 4-7" tall anyway, and loose about 2" all the way around at the bottom. The wedge shaped baskets don't take up close to the space of the table so though you can fit 2-3 baskets/shelf, the actual storage gained is no more than if you just stacked the stuff without the baskets. Plus the baskets are not very sturdy so when and if baby ever gets a hold of them they are going to be trashed. I guess they are trying to make them disposable so you need new ones after baby is done with them? Go figure.
I needed sturdy storage with either deep sides to accommodate for the sloping sides, or they could be lower with nearly straight sides. I found a great solution of crochet baskets made from fabric strips to fit exactly 2/shelf made by a WAHM in the latter, but could not afford her $50/basket price. I think they are worth it, but just not in our budget.
Further searching online and finally in stores yielded these lovely bamboo slat baskets from Target. I LOVE THEM!!!! So much so that I actually made 4 trips to 2 different Target stores in less than 24 hours, including one 2 towns away with 15 minutes to close! I started to get that feeling that someone else would stumble on the use usefulness of my baskets and buy them all before I could figure out what I needed. Can you say OC? It was worth it though as they are the look I wanted. I entertained the idea of traditional baskets but am not a big fan of wicker. These definitely not like wicker (no holes) are all lined with natural cotton fitted liners. The added benefit is that the bamboo is biodegradeable, sustainable without damaging forests, wildlife, prevents erosion and naturally has less or no pesticides due to it's quick growth cycle.


I've arranged Zuri's things in the lower 4 bins as such:
The top bin on the left is daddy diapers. These are 11 all-in-one diapers, 3 pocket diapers and 4 g-diapers, 8 g-diaper liners and plenty of g-diaper inserts. Basically this basket has the ones that Rocky doesn't have to think too much about. All he has to do is take off what she has on and put it into the pail or if it's a g-diaper flush it, then grab a new one from here and slap it on like a sposie!
The top right bin is all covers and wraps. . . 5 nylon, 5 pul, and of course my favorite, 5 WOOL and a wool sleep sack! There will be more wool coming I just have to knit them or sew them up.

Can you tell I LOVE WOOL?????

The space between bins on this shelf will hold 4-6 folded and rolled hooded baby towels. We use plenty of those with our Shower Baby!

On the bottom left I have 15 contour and 12 fitted dipes.
The right has 9 flats and 19 prefolds.
The space between the bins on the bottom shelf will hold the clean reusable diaper pail liner and smaller wet bags for the diaper bag.



The set up for the upper shelf of the table for quick access to supplies is:
From the the top left special bath toys, the middle is snappis and pins and the bottom has toiletry tools like hair brush/toothbrush, nail clippers, etc.
In the middle the top is diaper doublers and the bottom is washable fleece liners.
The top is right cloth wipes, the middle is flushable liners and compostable nappy sacks, and the bottom is baby wash, lotion, oil and creams.
The top of the table is my favorite part since there are special places for all of the goodies Zuri will need.

This is our current newborn to small sized diapering stash (up to around 12lbs) with 70+ diapers. I can go a few days between washing if I desire. All of the larger size diapers are in storage. If I decide that I need to add some more to this and when she grows into the bigger dipes there is plenty of room in the bins to accommodate more booty stash. I'm so glad now that I saved so much of the cloth diapers and supplies from Charmie and Mardie. Even though they are either gender neutral or boyish it feels nice to get ready to use them again for their baby sister.

Changing table Nirvana. . .
Now I can move on to being OC about something else.

domescitiy bliss

I haven't been blogging as much as I would like to, and I also haven't been knitting or sewing as much as I would like. I've been domestic. Being a stay at home mom, some of you may be asking yourselves, well isn't that your job? I say, well not exactly. My job is to be there for my kids, but domescity comes along the way.
These days more than ever in my life. I've taken some new responsibilities pretty seriously and in doing so created some new habits for myself and somewhat for my family. I created a budget. We are sticking to it as painful as it has been. I love to shop and Rocky loves a bargain and the boys love new stuff so it's been really painful for us all, but it's good to know that we are within our plan now. We haven't eaten out hardly in the last 4 weeks. I've been preparing our meals breakfast, lunch and dinner. We've started eating mostly organic. This has made the budget even harder but I think it's worth it. The boys have actully voluntarily have somehow started to selectively eat veggies.
In cooking more and with the projects I sometimes give the boys to help with cooking and baking in the kitchen I wanted a step that they both could stand on with no one falling off. We have a single step from Wally world that is perfect for just one person but is no longer sold by them. I went on a search and the step stools that I've seen have no room for 2 kids no matter how small. I don't like the boys standing in chairs. There's something from my childhood that doesn't sit right with that. I even looked online, but the best I could find was a bulky, heavy, and very expensive piece of furniture that got great reviews for it's functionality, but poor ones on storage, or being able to move it around much.
After that I decided forget the commercial stuff, my husband has a miriad of tools and carpentry skills I was betting he could build exactly what I wanted. We discussed basically a wider and deeper version of what I already had. We worked together on the design details. He did the cutting and measuring and calculation of angles. I decided the main dimensions, features like two handles and support rails and did the sanding and fine tuning rotary work (always with a mask). It still needs to have possibly a blonde stain and varnish finish but here's the result:

I'm so proud of my husband's work on this. It's exactly what I wanted and so nice. I'm proud to have it out in our kitchen area all of the time. I doubt I'll be wanting to store it away, yet at this size storing it wouldn't be a problem. The boys love it too. I've been fighting them off of it ever since Rocky flipped it right side up and finished construction. With no finish it's easy to get the wood dirty and stained, but as soon as it's finished I know it will be hard to keep them out of the kitchen.

With my new found domesticity my house is much cleaner too. Now don't get me wrong. Any person could walk into my home and probably find an area of clutter or dust. I' not perfect yet. But it's getting better. I have systems to manage laundry, kitchen duites and cleaning and tidying of toys that have kind of popped out of nowhere. Being in the end of my 2nd trimester isn't helping btw. I'm SO TIRED! Today I did some major cleaning that's been needing to be done in my master bathroom. We're going to be sharing our room with Zuri for the first 16+/-months of her life so we need space for all of her things. This process started very early on in our bedroom of clearning away spaces for her things, but the bathroom was another story. Today though it all came together and I'm so happy with the resulting combination of functionality and asthetics. Well it's asthetically pleasing to me. . . Lots of things tossed out that I no longer use, lots of rearranging. Lots of cleaning and clearing. But the end is space for Rocky and me and new space for Zuri.
So that's what's been giving me bliss.
Tiredness but bliss.
And now off to bed. All this blogging has zapped me completely.

knit night produces undies

tonight at Rave I mostly finished up the panties and undershirt. I just had to edge the arm holes and add the french knots to the intarsia flowers when I got home. I'm not going to tackle the rest of the clothes tonight. That will have to wait for another knitting session. At least I don't have to see her little naked body anymore. I think the clothes suit her well. I am learning that I suck at intarsia, that or it's extremely difficult to do on fine yarn. None the less I'm glad these clothes are for a doll and not a person!

3 out of 4 rays prefer. . .

I made pizza tonight for the first time from scratch. . . well I didn't make the sauce from scratch, that's next time, and I didn't make the pepperoni or the cheese, but I think you get the idea, this wasn't frozen or a kit. I used the Pizza dough recipe from Whole Foods for Whole Families LLL cookbook. I need a 2nd pizza pan or baking stone. I had to make my cheese only pizza in my 9x13 pan and the crust was all folded over on the ends.
Charmie said he didn't like the skin, which meant the dough and crust, but Mardie ate 3 slices and Rok and I had our share too! I'll definately be making this whole wheat pizza from now on vs. buying the frozen ones from the store. I felt so much healthier serving this and I'm glad it was enjoyed by most of our family. Charmie is under the weather so maybe when he's feeling better he'll enjoy it too. That and I'll never say never, but I am not planning to buy any more of the frozen ones and we aren't eating out very much anymore so this is probably the only pizza he'll be getting for a while.

Zuri's dolly

I have been struggling with trying to find affordable safe toys for both Zuri and the boys. There are tons of toys available, but many are not safe. I knit some balls for the boys when they were smaller but I wanted to make something a little more complex for Zuri. Here's dolly. We'll have to name her later. . . she also needs some clothes. I decided vs. straight yarn hair to give her little french knots all over her head. Here hair looks like mine did when it was shorter. I don't know what Zuri's hair will be like, but I assume it will be somewhat curly.
I used some organic cotton yarn from Janet that is weight suitable for weaving with size 1 needles. She's based off Lucinda Guy's And So To Bed's Lula doll. The pattern includes knitted underwear, a dress and booties so those will be coming soon.

making pretzels

I've never done this before but thought of making a baked treat today and this is what came to mind. I found a simple recipe in my Sugar Free Toddlers cookbook and this is what it produced.

Here they are all baked, well the 2nd pan is baking and looks a little different because I added salt. We're waiting for them to cool to enjoy!

close up on ruffle

For those who are interested, here's the ruffle close up!

Zuri's Pinwheel is finished!

I've been working on this for about a month. This is the baby blanket I've been planning to make for my sweet Zuri for a while. I'm very happy with the finished product. I chose a lime green cotton dk weight for the body of the blanket. I struggled for an edging idea. I wanted to maybe try my hand at lace, but I also wanted to have a contrast boarder and hadn't picked out the yarn yet. The ladies from Universal Yarns suggested one of their tape yarns similar to Tango that they just happened to have enough of to trim my blanket. It was a perfect match on the green and the purple and royal blue are very complementary, though the blue barely shows on the front. I crocheted it on after binding off the cotton, vs. knitting it on like I did in the ruffle soaker. I like the ruffled effect but it's a pretty labor intensive process to either knit or crochet on. It reminds me of the deliberate stitches I took when I first began knitting and crocheting.
I have enough cotton remaining to make her something else that matches. I'm thinking a kimono or little dress and maybe a matching hat. Now that this is done I can progress to some of the other projects that I've been wanting to start though.

Mardie's birthday presents

The Richards gave a cool projector with sounds that the boys love to use in the dark.

Grandpa and Grandma Manuel gave Mardie a cute Quincy doll that sings and talks.

We got Mardie the first parts of his riding gear, His first helmet, a neck brace, gloves and goggles. Here he is on his first ride wearing some of his gear with Charmie and Daddy.

Happy 3rd birthday Mardie!

This year we finally had a party to celebrate Mardie's birthday. We've had plans and something always comes up to sabotage this poor child's birthday party so Rocky and I were determined to give him a party that He would remember. Our original plans were to have a party at our home but the projects we have going on in the yard made it unsafe to have a bunch of toddlers running around. Mardie asked for Chuckie Cheese's. He's also STILL obsessed with Disney Pixar's Cars and Lightening McQueen. He was one happy little boy this day!

yummy marble cake.

eating cake and our family

Mardie smiling as we sing Happy Birthday.

hospital caps

As I was going through bins and totes to dig out things to use for Zuri. (During Rocky's week off we spent some much needed time to "clean house") I found the boy's hospital caps. They still fit!

Dan Nichols Park

Rocky was off work two weeks ago. . . we did some fun things with the boys, especially since it was Mardie's 3rd birthday on the 11th! Here are a few pics from our time at the park.

Dye Project

I decided to use some prefolds in my cloth diapering this go-round for their simplicity and cost ;-}. I dyed these with Dylon permanent dyes along with some Diaperaps cotton blend covers. I also have some dyed in the larger size but those are packed away. I have three more colors to dye a few dipes each in but I'm waiting to see if I have anything else to dye first.

Knitting Projects

Rear of diaper soaker for Zuri. Ruffles are a unique tape yarn from Universal Yarns. Knit into soaker every three rows.

Front of diaper soaker for Zuri . Body is a wool silk blend. I love how soft this yarn is for baby things.

Pinwheel blanket for Zuri. The color is brighter. Flash washed it out so this is without flash. . . maybe I should have turned the light on? it's unfinished. I need to add a few more rows and weave in the ends.

knitting projects

Here are some knitting projects completed, on the needles, and to be started:

Baby legwarmers for Zuri. Cotton lycra blend.

Baby leg warmers for Zuri.

Hemp wash cloth for Zuri.

Super soft merino and wool/silk blend yarn to make diaper soaker pants for Zuri.

Weaving Project

My sis has started weaving and of course being the little sis I had to tag along. I borrowed one of her simplest/least complicated looms and yesterday afternoon strung it up. I want to make some wash cloths. I used teal cotton for the warp threads and am weaving through a foxfibre organic cotton chennille on the weft. The white at the beginning of the weaving is waste and has been removed since I've been able to advance the weaving once already.
I don't like the setup process, it seemed long and tiring. I didn't like weaving on my lap, but on the kitchen counter it was much easier. I made progress this am to the point I'm going to advance and start washcloth #2. Basically I need to put on a LOT of warp and then I can weave to my heart's content!