Sunday, July 29, 2007

My weekend in photos...

My mother and I went fabric shopping. I cannot find the crib skirt of my dreams anywhere, and figure sewing one would be much easier than continuing the hunt. Here is what we found...
nursery3
It will be put together like this, with that ribbon acting as a transition between the fabrics.
nursery1
There is a pattern we are following, basically a straight skirt, with two box pleats on the long side of the crib, and one pleat on the short side.

We also stopped at Ikea and got a new piece of furniture for our bedroom.
Ikea
I put that together myself. I love a good puzzle.

K wearing his Avast sweater so I could measure for a zipper-
Avast On
I need to get one that is 28 inches long. I also picked up some grosgrain ribbon to back the zipper with to add a little flair ala grumperina.

The pups loving each other.
Bella Mo 1
It didn't last long. Some jealousy later in the weekend over some bones caused some major issues between them. Bella hid one while Mo was chewing the other. Then Bella stole the second one off of Mo and tried to find it a hiding spot too. I was on the phone with my boss and didn't notice we where down to one bone and two dogs. Bad ratio. So Mo tried to get his bone back and Bella freaked. Spooked Mo and he has been hiding in his crate much of the night. He isn't hurt. Still sad. Bad Bella!

And lastly, please ignore the bags under my eyes, the bad hair day and my favorite pants... a 21 week 2 day belly shot.
Belly 21 weeks
Hi sproggy!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Blocking Avast

Yesterday I finally bound off the finial spot on my Avast sweater! I thought that the endless stockenette stitch may never end. And looking at it in its finial state was not very impressive. That is until I blocked. The hems are not yet stitched in place however once folded under I was better able to envision my finished project. I think I really like it!

Avast Blocking

Still waiting for it to dry. It is locked in the "nursery" right now on Kevin's old twin bed drying. The room smells of wet wool from being shut up but it was all I could do to keep Bella from rolling all over it. She must want to smell like wet wool too. Once dry I can stitch down all of the hems and seem up the second sleeve and we can make K model it for us! YEA! His punishment for recent behavior ;oP

Monday, July 16, 2007

Sugar and Spice...

and everything nice. That is what little girls are made of.

Early this morning K and I headed to the hospital to have the "Big" ultrasound done. We had the first appointment of the day with hopes that K could make it to work without using any more time off. Sproggy had different ideas and proved to be as stubborn as her mother. After a trip to the restroom with hopes to get her moved into a better position, and a second ultrasound tech, we where able to get all of the measurements the doctors needed to make sure she was healthy and growing. We also where lucky to find out that our little Sproggy is a girl (if you didn't pick up on that yet).
Baby 19w3d

That random appendage above her head in the second photo is her leg. Sproggy is one flexible gal! She had held onto it through much of the ultrasound.

Friday, July 13, 2007

My Lucky Day

I hope that I didn't use up all of my luck yesterday only to be left with none on Friday the 13th! Gasp! I found myself in two "lucky" situations yesterday for which I am grateful. The first is knitting related. I am getting very close to finishing up Avast. The shoulder shaping is finished, I continued to knit the collar and the collar lining. Seemed one of the sleeves on a trolley ride home and then started the first of the two zipper bands along the front last night. I am however on my last skein of yarn and still have the second zipper band, bottom hem, and more seaming to take care of. I am terrified of running out of yarn... so I e-mailed the LYS that I had bought the yarn at WAY back on a cold night in February. Stacey from Knit One quickly wrote me back and told me she would look when she was in the store later in the day. This was all on Wednesday. SO yesterday I heard back from her and they have what I need!!! I was just beside myself with excitement and had a sudden feeling that I don't need the extra skein to finish the sweater. I will however buy it, and make it be SOMETHING if the sweater in fact does not require the extra skein.

My second bit of luck was noticed after I got home from work. I opened the basement door into the kitchen only to find Mo waiting for me. This is more unusual than it may sound. We crate both dogs while we are at work... and Bella is probably the better of the two and far more trustworthy out of her crate. However Mo managed to spend the entire day sleeping because I couldn't find anything he had gotten into on his big day out. Phew!

I will try to get around to posting pictures of Avast this weekend... it is just in a wonky state with all of the unseamed hems flapping about and curled stockenette stitch. I just don't think it is very photogenic just yet.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Camp, a week late

So it only took me a week to get this written out, but I did it. And that is what matters. A little background... my parents rented an apartment in Crafton off of a wonderful family when I was just an infant. This family lived on the second floor of the duplex and my parents and I lived on the first floor. They became fast friends and this family extended an invitation to my parents to come and use their camp for a week in the summer with them. It soon became a tradition, and this family became a part of my own family. The children I once played badminton with are now parents themselves and we still try to make a weekend trip to camp each year to catch up and escape the every day.

This year camp was particularly exciting. After arriving, Jim warned us that there have been bears lurking around and it was extra important to keep food out of our tents. The last thing I expected was to actually see one. It has been years since I had seen a bear at camp. But shortly before nightfall one was spotted walking down the main road. He just plopped down in the neighboring property and watched us for a bit until the neighbor scared him off with some shouting and gun shots. He was not the little bear that they had seen more often. This one was likely 250lbs and was very pretty. I only wish I had gotten a picture. It all happened so fast!

Saturday was a bit quieter. We took a hike with my sister Julie and Bella in Cooks Forrest. We used Baker's trail which runs through the property where the Fire Tower and Seneca Point are located. We walked a good hour total. After returning to camp we took some time to relax...

Sunday came to quick as always. I am wondering if we can pull it off again next year with a 6 month old... hmmmm....

Thursday, July 5, 2007

18 weeks documented

18 week Belly shot

So that is what I look like 18 weeks pregnant. I think that my belly is becoming more noticable. In other baby related news I scheduled my "big" ultrasound for the 16th of July. Bright and early in the morning. We are hoping to find out sproggy's gender then, so I am really excited about that. I also had a check up this week and was told that my AFP test results where normal and the baby's heart rate was a strong 145 beats per minute. My mood has drastically improved and I have more energy. However this isn't a constant thing. I still have my moments. I also find myself being more excited about the other baby related things. Decorating, shopping, and just other planning in general. Just yesterday I spent half of the day trying to declutter the former office which will soon become Sproggy's nursery. I ran out of steam pretty quickly however and there is much more to do!! thankfully we should have another 22 weeks to finish it up!

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Progress

Progress has been made. More slowely than I had hoped for. I wanted one of those afternoons when you look back at what you knitted and are surprised at how much was finished. However, throughout the weekend my sweater was not far from reach. Overall I finished 20 rows- 10 of which are decrease rows. In each decrease row I get rid of 8 stitches. So in total I am down 80 stitches. Now my rows are 288 stitches long. Still significant, but we are progressing. Meaning I have another 200 to decrease.
Avast
And a closeup of the decreases...
Avast

More on camp later. My sister took some photos that I would want to include!