Baby girl's amazing feats

As most parents are, we are proud of our kids. Here's baby Z with 2 of her amazing feats. . . she's been going potty since a month, sitting unassisted like this for 3 weeks and saying hi like this for around 3 weeks as well.

Look Ma no Training wheels!

The training wheels came off last night. The movies I took last night were as good on Charmie's part, but the camera didn't like the dark. Here's his daytime version!

Book Signing

Z and I went to a book signing by Stephanie Pearl McPhee the original Yarn Harlot. Cool lady, lots of good stuff to say! We got our pic on her blog twice though one pic is so tiny only I know we're there.

It's been a while. . .

Photo "shoot"
71 pics
results:

Lots of weird things have been happening lately. For one I haven't been blogging much. I've been sucked into an alternate universe on Ravelry the best designed forum site ever where I exist to knit/crochet/swap and just live in the fibery goodness. Sorry to those of you who used to get a kick out of reading my blog. I will return again. Hopefully as I get used to being a mommy to a small brood of preschoolers you will hear more from me soon. But for now I spend much of my free time to be online in my happy place on Ravelry.
Updates in other areas. . .
I've picked the idea for my belated Chrismas swap, swap partners (C, J and K) hold on, your goody is coming just as soon as I can get some quality time in the sewing room! Which first needs a massive cleaning as I've been stashing stuff in there left and right.
Well I said it, I may as well elaborate. The yarn diet has been broken on so many levels. I plan to return to it, but I've had some binging issues. I got some goodies with my birthday monies, the books I already blogged and many more and a touch of yarn from a LYS. But then I got some other yarn online from swaps and some from perso to person swaps and well lets just say I've brought quite a bit of yarn into the Ray home the last month or so. I've been sending out yarn too though. . . I said I had been swapping. I've also sold some and given some away.
Books, books, books. I Lurve me some books. These days I can't get enough of my books. (Once again thanks to my parents and in-laws for the birthday monies. I've stretched them far far far and have sought out steals and deals, used coupons etc. to get my books at great deals.

3 months

my Birthday! and yarn diet updates

I just had another birthday at the end of February. . . It was a good one. I didn't do anything terribly special, life went on, kids needed to be tended, the house needed to be maintained. . . Z had her 2 month check and the reports of her growth are all good. She does have reflux but for now it doesn't need medication. She also may have a dairy sensativity so I started a dairy free diet. It seems like when she has dairy she's more likely to have colicy periods, digestive tract upset, and irregular sleep. That wasn't good or great news, but it could have been worse and at least now there's a plan to deal with her irritability.
Rocky worked extra hard to be able to be home to take me out to dinner. That was nice, to not have to cook and get some yummy food. He, my parents, and his parents gave me money for my birthday. I was glad because I have been wanting/needing some goodies for my hobbies an this was a good time to get them.

Since I had money I have been shopping the local craft stores on their 40% and 50% off coupons for these books! I love, love, love books, they tie with gadgets in things I love to gather. I already have some new projects queued in Ravelry from these knitting books so this was perfect.
You will notice a jewlery making book. That's my latest persuit/hobby. I'm loving making things. I have some projects that I'm itching to do. I just need to have the time. . .
Janet got me these two yarns, two that I have never gotten before for myself, but have been wanting ever since I heard of them. I cannot wait to knit them up.
This is sock yarn by Noro and I LOVE Noro's color combinations. These are going to be some neato socks!

This is the softest, loveliest merino by Malabrigo that is going to be a soaker for Z, that is if I don't steal it for something soft and lovely for myself.

And now a word on my yarn diet. I started it a week or so ago. So far I've been able to resist purchasing new yarn, though I've been tempted. Getting money, being in 2 yarn shops and multiple craft stores, and just being online have been making it hard, but so far I've been good. I plan to stay on it and knit from my stash until I can fit my stash back into the storage I have for it.
You see right before Christmas time my lys, RaveKnits, closed it's doors. The shop owner had a mad crazy liquidation sale and during the sale time I got a ton of yarn, needles, tools, patterns, books, accessories for knitting, and even some of her fixtures for storage in my craft room.
Before this point I had adequate storage for my yarn stash, but since then, especially since I haven't rearranged and set up the new fixtures yet, I have more yarn than I had space for.
Also since Z has come along and started to get older my time for knitting or any crafting has severly decreased. The slower I knit the longer it takes to burn up the stash. . . so I guess I need to get to knitting!

What happens when your baby spits and you knit. . .

My baby spits. . .
Her brother did before her. . .
She has reflux. It's not so uncommon in babies. It's not so uncommon to me. Two of my three children have had reflux. I thought Zuri wasn't spitting excessivly at first since I was comparing her to Mardie and he had a severe case. I just ALWAYS have to make sure that I have a burp cloth close buy because there will always be something coming up. Sometimes it's a trickle, sometimes it's in waves, sometimes it's a gush. But there's always something. I love my spitting babies. I feel for them though as it must be horrible to have heartburn all of the time. It must be uncomfortable to be wet a lot too.
I finally decided to do something for Z.
Today I designed, knit and completed a whole project! I cannot believe it as normally I don't get to knit for periods of time since the reflux makes for a somewhat fussy baby.
I made this:

It's a bib top. Not an original design in that I've seen these before, but an original idea as I haven't seen them before solely for the purpose of being a bib. It's knit in very soft organic cotton in seed stitch. It's shaped at the bottom and gathered at the neckline.
I finished the top edge with an applied i-cord and then crocheted the back straps and sewed buttons on the ends.
(Z is also wearing Chicken Butt for the first time today! It's so soft, the gathers don't bother her at all and it's a great soaker to hold pee too!)

You can see the tiny buttons here peeking through the fabric on the side.
The soaker is an interlock CuddleWool one-size diaper cover. I'm loving these with my Cuddlebunz and other brand one-size fitted diapers.

Here's a back view of the little tiny straps.
I'm so happy to be able to start and finish a project in a day again, let's hope this lasts!
I'm going to be making her some more of these but they will probably be different designs and styles. The common denominators will be that they are 100% organic cotton, and bib tops.

Firsts

First:
lace
shawl
cables
beaded row counter

I found The Luxurious Nursing Shawl in my new Nature Babies book and knew that I needed to tackle lace to have one, an added bonus is that I am also learing how to make cables! At my knitting group meeting I also learned how to make beaded row counters like the one to the right of my work. This is the first knit shawl that I have made. I have always wanted to learn these things. I guess I was just afraid to try before.

Barter Clogs

I've always been a fan of well made toys. I love, love, love HABA toys and all of my children have had some to play with, especially in the early years. I had a renewed interest in them however with the recent scares/concerns over lead in the materials that make up toys. So when Z was on her way I made a conscious effort to make sure that the toys that were to be for her early years were safe. Either hand made in the US with safe, if possible organic materials, and I added a few more toys from HABA.
Some of them were used and some were new. A few of the used ones came from my dear friend Vicki. Her girls have outgrown them so it was time to pass them along. We decided to barter. The first installment was the socks I completed right before Z was born.
Here's the 2nd installment.
You can see from this picture before felting how oversized they are.

Here they are after felting.

They turned out just like I watned them to and only after 10 minutes. I hoep they fit just right and if they need a little tweaking, Vicki can re-wet them and custom felt them the rest of the way!

what I see when I wake

3-in-1 bag done

1 week of knitting
1.5 machine loads of felting
70 minutes on dryer rack in dryer +1 evening air drying time
3 hrs fabric shopping
20 min to cut lining fabric
30 min machine seaming
3 hrs hand sewing
all with Zuri breaks, and it's finally done!

pre felting, yes this covers the chair!

Post felting.

Lining, with compartments for:
1. Zuri
2. Knitting
3. Me ;)

a few pics

A quick family pic for Mardie's Awana Valentine.

Daddy and Z.

Z on me. Catching a nap.

naptime

z's helmet

She still needs a hat outside since it's still cold many days,or the only thing exposed is her head when she's in the sling. She has hats but I thought she really needed one made by me. She had a growth spurt so this is only going to last a week or two.

daddy daughter time

From time to time I need Rocky to watch Z for a few minutes so I can get something done. . . or just grab a quick break. Here's some shots of what I saw. Of course I'm now the other woman! Sorry for the blury pics but I didn't want to turn on the flash and they were bouncing and moving this whole time.

I finally broke down and turned on the flash :( the lighting is all wonky though.

sneak peek

Here's a sneak peek at the bag before I line it. Our Family Blog has the story for this pic.

Awana drive In Movie Night

Two weeks ago for Awana the boys had a drive in movie night. Rocky built cardboard cars for them. Mardie had Lightning McQueen and Charmie had a Monster Truck. The rules were the car needed to be built entirely from cardboard, paper, tape or staples. Wood, glue, metal and plastic were not allowed. The boys loved their vehicles. Rocky really loves his boys and was so happy to do this for them.
The kids watched the movie Cars and ate popcord and had Sprite or Juice to drink. I made a few batches of my carmel corn to mix with the regular popcorn to add to their treat.

Zuri tagged along for a bit of the time. She just watched and took it all in.

New things

Last night in lieu of knit night (it wasn't a knit night week anway) Janet and Jenny came over. Janet brought her rovings and some drop spindles and gave beginning lessons in learning how to get started spinning. It was neat to try. I had to take a ton of breaks for ms. Z. I will definately like to try again when I can give it more dedicated time.
Jenny brought her jewlery making supplies and Janet brought some too and we learned how to make the prettiest stitch markers. I got to make one. I have another planned but not completed.
We had a lot of fun and I definately would like to do it again.
I've been wanting a bracelet for Zuri. I had not designed it yet. This morning since Rocky had the boys I took ms Z to The Bead Lady and made her this. Her birthstone is Turquoise. This bracelet is so tiny and it has just a little wiggle room for growing. The beads and findings are sterling silver.

I made a felted bag called My Constant Companion 2 weeks ago and have been using it as my diaper bag. Today My mommy and I went to MaryJo's to get lining fabric. I can't wait for a moment to be able to sit and sew it!
I also have some new shelves/racks that I'm trying to integrate into the room as I get time to move things around.