Cha-cha- changes

So like the new look? I've finally updated my blogger templates and such for the first time since around 2005ish. Yay! I'm still messing with it all but this is a step in the right direction.

In other big changes news:

Helping Daddy take down the crib

Yup. She's in a big girl bed. It's been... well it's been a transition. Some days it's awesome. Others not so much. But we're getting there.

I am making my MOM crazy with the not napping.

Although I am happy to report that the things I was really worried about - like her wandering around in the middle of the night getting into trouble - were completely silly. Seriously. She isn't an idiot. She's just a toddler. I don't know why I thought she'd turn into somesortof demon spawn who pulls down furniture and plays in the toilet or whatever just because it was nighttime.

I'm not a demon child.  I just require my OH WOW skirt if you ever want to pry my RAWR (dinosaur) pj's off of me.

Also she HATES being baby gated into her room almost as much as she hated the crib so we decided to give up on that plan pretty quickly.

She hates all baby gates, actually.  "OUTOUTOUTOUTOUTOUTOUT"

So far the worst she's done is stand at the bottom of the steps (our bedroom is upstairs) yelling MOM MOM MOM MOM at the top of her lungs. Not exactly horror movie material.

Seriously, why do you want to make me into a demon spawn? I'm a good kid!

And I'm super excited that she's becoming a Big Girl. A couple people have asked me if her growing up is making me sad. No. Not at all. There is so, SO much to look forward to that why would I be looking back? Each phase has been even more fun than the last so I can only imagine how much fun the future is going to be. Also I think being a Big Girl will help her cope with the way her world is about to be rocked. Speaking of which her sibling is now the size of a squash:

Yeah. It's going quick. This baby moves alot more than she ever did. Well maybe it's not the quantity but the size of the movements. Picture what would happen if you put a cat in a pillowcase and you get an idea of what's going on in ma belly. Also this kid is WAY hungrier than my daughter ever was. Seriously with the FOOD NOW MORE FOOD NUM. And can I have some more ice cream, please? NOW. Yet oddly enough I'm not gaining weight the way I did the first time around. Aaaah pregnancy, you are so damn weird.


Have a good weekend, everyone!

Blue Monday Knitting Roundup

So today is the Most Depressing Day of the year. No, seriously. Something about the time since Christmas combined with the weather and the fact that it's a Monday and... blah. So you know what makes me happy when it's cold and bleak and yucky out?

Yarn on Sale.

So for today and tomorrow only everything at Destination Yarn is 10% off! Just use the coupon code 20BLUEMONDAY11 when you check out!

I've been in a blue/gray mood with my knitting lately, too.  Check it out:

Earl Gray Socks in Portland, Maine


Socks of my own Design (hopefully I can release the pattern soon) knit in Helisinki, Finland




Owls baby vest knit out of Rainy Afternoon DK weight combined with leftover Sea. I'm really liking this one since it is knitting up quickly using only one skein. Love the one skein projects!


Oh and yes, I know. Steelers fans are decidedly NOT depressed today. I have something for them to celebrate with, too:

Sixburgh DK. 

There should be plenty of time before the Superbowl to knit up a quick Tailgate Hat and Mitts!

I did tell Matt that even if there is a correlation between me being hugely pregnant and the Steelers going to the Superbowl I have no intention of having ridiculous amounts of kids.

Also if you distract your toddler with Nutella for breakfast so that you can photograph your knitting REMEMBER TO PUT A BIB ON HER:

Lesson.  Learned.

Happy Blue Monday, Everyone!

A New Dress

So remember back over the summer when I was doing that whole sewing thing? Well back when I was really down the rabbit hole of looking up simple patterns online I found this fun tutorial for turning a men's shirt into a toddler dress:

It took me until now to do it but I'm so glad I did. Here's the before:

Crappy cell phone pic b/c there was no way I was going to go and retrieve my camera once I had both creatures corralled in my studio and distracted with something else.

And the After:

Mom told me to pose. Someday I will give Benny Ninja a run for his money.

It came out much smaller than the pattern b/c I used a small shirt. I just didn't have that much fabric to work with.

I drafted out the pattern specs in CAD (of course I did) and then busted out the good old sharpie and trace paper to alter it to fit within the fabric I had. Honestly it felt good to be drawing something again... even if it was just a silly little dress for my silly little girl:

cheese!

 

I like drawing, too, MOM.

It's a bit disproportional... the sleeves are a bit too poufy for the bottom. But I think that's because I cut the bottom off before the dress really flared out. I wanted the amount of space above the yellow band to match the amount below it. I'm OCD like that. I think next time I'll make the pattern flair quicker to avoid this issue.

Oooh do I get another one of these? Because I'm super cute in this

Although next time could you make it a bit longer?

Overall, though I really like how it came out.

And while I don't usually discuss cost of project because not many people would understand why it makes perfect sense to spend $30 and many hours on a pair of socks ....I can't not mention it here...

I got this shirt for a quarter.

Yes. A whopping $.25. And the yellow fabric? I stole out of a bag of scraps my mom was going to throw away. So including the elastic (which honestly I think I stole from my Grandma at one point) and the tread I think I'm at less than $1 for this whole project. One. Dollar. Math like that makes me want to sew alot more!

I have one more shirt to try this pattern on. It's flannel so I think I'm going to try to keep the long sleeves and use the existing cuffs. This might be a horrible plan. I'll let you know.

Florida

So it's that time of year again. Our annual Florida trip. It was basically the same as past years only this time I didn't randomly end up at a pirate festival with my two good friends:

Michele, Me, Lori Beth at Gasparilla last January

Nope, this time it was just my mom and I with the toddler*.

Where are we going?

I was almost worried about the flights but then thought Meh. I've delt with worse travel situations. This is only going to be like 4 hours door to door so even if it sucks it's not for that long. My only real fear was that we'd get stranded at the airport for hours/days. Which is ludicrous since it was a direct flight and at both ends we had people close by who could come get us if there were issues. However sometimes when dealing with worry my mind does not understand logic.

Silly, MOM. Of course I was fine on the plane. You certainly brought enough crap to keep me quiet and amused.

There was one moment of strife when she had to put Black Kitty through the xray at security. But we just sold it as "she's taking a ride" and it was fine.

The second we landed she started asking for NONNI. Clearly I had talked it up a bit. And the Tampa airport is such that there's a long walk and then a train (monorail? shuttle?) ride before the waiting area. She spent that whole time scanning the crowd all NONNI? NONNI? SERIOUSLY, MOM WHERE ARE MY NONNIS.

You should have seen the look on their faces when they finally saw each other.

My toddler checked to see that it was ok to let go of my hand and then went running to my grandparents as fast as her little legs would carry her. And never looked back:

Not sure which one of the three of them is happiest in this picture.

And that's pretty much the way the weekend was. She was thrilled just to hang out with her NONNI and NONNO (also known as NONNI and PAPA. She clearly hasn't decided what she wants to call my grandpa yet).

Big fun included washing a bowl of shells with my grandma:


Baking cookies:

I don't understand why I'm not supposed to take a bite out of each one of these before they go in the oven. It's quality control!

Napping with nonni, watching the birds around the pond nearby, rough housing with nonno, and of course the flea market.

It's a Florida tradition.



And that about sums up the weekend. Nothing fancy just a nice time with family.

4 Generations. It's a lovely but I kindof hate pictures of myself right now because seriously with the large.

Oh I did learn the very important lesson that if you tell a toddler all day that she's going to have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner you better make damn sure that the second you put her in a high chair you have it ready to set in front of her. Oops.

*Matt, when given the option of coming to Florida when it's "not even warm enough to swim" or spending his weekend with the house to himself completely free of his responsibilities as a parent clearly chose the latter. In the past he's had epic guys weekend long parties that left my house smelling like feet and beer. This time he laid low and was "So lazy. No, seriously, I was SO lazy. It was awesome." I'm guessing he played an insane amount of video games and slept in as late a possible. Things you take for granted but really, really miss when you can't do anymore. Oh and he met his brother for the Steelers game which worked out perfectly - one playoff game I don't have to deal with. Rock.

** Moments like that - where it was clear that she actually listens to me - were some of the highlights of the weekend. I spend half my life repeating the same things over and over and over and over and over again to the point where I think I must be insane. Don't put your feet on the table, hold my hand, stay close by, be gentle, don't scream, you have to leave Black Kitty in the car, you can't take that toy home from the store with you, etc. etc. etc. PLEASE JUST LISTEN TO MOMMY GAAAAH FACEDESK So to see that at least some of that has stuck is infuckingcredible.

Catchup

Wow.  Where to begin.  I'm so far behind I don't even know....

We went and saw Santa

I don't know who this dude is but I am NOT sitting on his lap.

My brother got married on New Years Eve:

Wow.  I look... pregnant.

All 3.5 of us were in the wedding party which was super fun:

Again with the pregnant.

Our toddler had a BALL dancing to the live band and playing with the party favors:

I JUMP.  Also run away from MOM.

We had bronchitis as a family which was superfuntimes.  Our friends stayed with us for a few days before the wedding which was actual funtimes.  And I've been getting really, really large.  Like uncomfortable and grunty large.  And I think that's about it!  I know this is very late but...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!