Project: baby room

Before: 

Ugly paint color. Sickly yellow green that is reminiscent of baby poo. Kind of dark even in the light of day. Piles of things I've been accumulating.

Corner of my own stuff

Bookshelf with kid/picture books and all my YA books

Ugh, seriously, that paint color!

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Important intermediate steps: 

Organize everything we bought and were given, into a few clear bins

Put crib together

Pile soft things in crib

Pile bins and other things around the crib in the middle of the room

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Getting started:

We found a cheap edger tool at Walmart and figured it was worth a try. DUDES, it was so awesome. I've done a lot of painting in my day, and a lot of taping and tedious edgework. This eliminates all of that, for under five bucks. Swipe and bam, edge is done!

My mom was here for two days to help paint and other things. My dad brought down some furniture this afternoon. Mister M's parents sent his old Winnie the Pooh wall hangings. I like how this room became a family affair. :)

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After:

New, bright paint: Behr Breath of Spring, one gallon

Bins of clothes and supplies on dresser (I bought that dresser back in...2003? 2004? and it's been in storage at my dad's since) (Clothes will be washed and put into dresser, after we try to fix a piece under the top drawer)

Crib holding stuffed animals and blankets (temporarily! unsafe crib environment blah blah)

Two FERLE rugs from IKEA

Wooden rocking chair from the 1970s, and so comfortable

We bought some cute curtains but need the rod/hardware to put them up

The pile of my things are still there (and maybe inside the closet as well...). Will have to figure out what to do with that stuff, but that can wait. 

I am really happy with how it looks, and that it's basically set up and the big stuff is ready to go. We still need to buy a few little things and set up a changing table station on top of the dresser, and figure out where to store supplies.

But what a HUGE difference from before, and that is such a HUGE relief. Yay!

Leg 3: Illinois

 

Driving out of Ohio in the morning was pretty. We hit Indiana.

 Nothing much there but corn. 

In Illinois we saw our first wind turbines. They are so pretty and elegant! Plus so good for the environment. Well done, states who have lots of wind turbines in their fields!

Speaking of fields, as you probably know, this has been a terribly hot and drought-ridden summer throughout the bulk of the US, especially the parts that are covered in corn and soybean fields. The soybeans were still pretty green, but most of the corn was dying or totally dead. Here's my cousin showing a stunted, dried ear from the field across the street.

 

We spent two nights with my aunt and cousins, hanging out and talking. Got to know the four boys that my cousins have--they are great kids, and wow, they are a handful! 

I also finished the baby sweater I began in July at my other aunt's house in Illinois. I'm going to say it again, because it's that big of a deal. I FINISHED A SWEATER! It's tiny and full of mistakes (it's supposed to be long-sleeved, for one), but I finished the damn thing! This is a huge milestone in my crafting 'career'! 

This is not necessarily for one of mine; I don't even know how big a baby this would fit. Oh, and this was the first time I had to pick up stitches to create cuffs--that made me nervous, but Mister M's mom is a knitter and she helped teach/talk me through it when we were there at the weekend. 

Anyway, having two different sets of family rest time on our roadtrip was wonderful.

Personal Goal #1!

Knit or crochet a garment!

I did a few rows of the back the day before we left for Greece, and I finished the pieces while we were in Paros, the second or third to last day of our honeymoon. (I did a lot of crocheting either on the long ferry rides or while half-watching cheesy American movies subtitled in Greek.)


Well after we got home, like a couple weeks later, I 'tried' it 'on'. I'd made the smallest size because I didn't want it to be baggy. Even though the sizes go by bust size and the smallest was definitely too small for me. So when I sort of draped the pieces over me, of course they were too small. But I'd figured this might happen, and I had a plan: I crocheted three rows of sc on both edges of both pieces. It definitely changes the look, but it's not terribly unnatural, I feel. (Originally I thought about doing a contrast color, like black! and doing a border along the bottom. Some friends said no way jose. :D)

This weekend, after all my progress with organizing and decluttering, I was kind of bored and there's nothing on tv lately, so I finally picked up my pieces and started sewing them together.
(Note: I am pretty bad at this. I should go into a LYS for some help on my next project.)

But, I figure I'm the only one seeing it up close, and who knows how much I'll actually wear it, so really, who cares.



I'm still wearing it now, and it's surprisingly warm, without a lot of bulk! I've never been much of a vest person, but come fall, maybe I will be! :)

Most importantly, this was my gateway garment--I proved to myself (with the simplest possible pattern, naturally) that I could make one. So now I am super excited about the prospect of making another, more fitted one! I can do it!

And if you know of any cute patterns, let me know! :)

crafty

I made some birthday gifts for a family member. First, a hat:
Then, a snuggly waffle weave scarf:




Still loving the waffle weave, I whipped up two colorful dishcloths.


Here's a scarf for another family member:

I have several more hats and scarves planned! But...I probably won't post photos just in case.

Has anyone else started holiday crafting?

craft time: engage

This week I realized, holy crap, it's November! I made a list last month of gifts to make for the holidays. And...now the holidays edge ever closer. (I've seen Christmas things in stores for at least two weeks now.)

Tonight I finished the first piece! It's a scarf and it turned out nicely. Pictures tomorrow!

I wonder if I can actually complete the ten projects I listed. This first one gives me hope!

I have a few crochet projects from last month too; I'll put all that up tomorrow. Perhaps also with a status update on piece #2!

what i've been up to, domestic version

I've actually been up to a lot outside of the work/not-work world! Pretty much 50s housewife stuff, which is a fun role to try on. :) (Fun because it's a choice not a mandate! Yay freedom and equality and stuff. :D)

With all of our new gadgets, I've been excited to try out some new things in the kitchen. I finally stocked up on basic ingredients like flour, baking powder, unsweetened cocoa, etc, and have been trying out a few recipes.

We got an electric hand-mixer and I love it! It makes mixing things so much fun and way easier too. :)

I made Belgian waffles!


I made cupcakes and frosting from scratch!



We got this sweet blender-slash-food-processor and I love that too! I used it to chop onions and garlic. I've made some smoothies and recently we're working on making a good fresh salsa (we've tried twice but something's off with our proportions, and/or we need more/different spices):

Awhile back I bought a slicer thingy, and last week I finally broke it out to make some fried potatoes!


I am going to try some chocolate-chip cookies next. Very excited to try those out! :)

I've also gotten the crocheting bug again in a major way.

I completed my first blanket (the world's easiest baby-sized blanket with giant yarn, but hey, it still counts!):
I also made my first pair of fingerless mitts, or wristers as this pattern dubbed them:

This is all just in the last couple weeks! I'm halfway through another project right now, and now I'm starting to think ahead to the holidays, for simple and useful things I could give family.

We got all of our wedding photo stuff, and I'm excited to look through them again and order some prints and things!