Light

I see the light at the end of the tunnel that is nursery planning. Yes, we got some paint on the walls and hung the ceiling fan but this was not the part of the planning that was causing me stress. The thorn in my side was furniture. Mainly a dresser. We had started our shopping at Babies R Us. While we found a few cribs that we where happy with in our price range we where not thrilled with the quality of the matching dressers. After looking at a few other local furniture stores and only finding white dressers that where too frilly with the carved flowers and ornate moldings I was not sure we could get what I had envisioned.

A few weeks ago, my friend Cara offered me some hope. She had just been to Sheely's in North Lima Ohio (just south of Youngstown)and said their prices where good, they had a friendly staff, and a decent selection of chidrens furniture. Once we heard they where having a one day sale we made plans to make the trip. Everything Cara said about Sheely's I found to be true. And to make our trip even more favorable we left holding the repciet for our new nursery dresser!

That is the picture from the manufacturer's website. It is a Stanley Young American dresser from the Contentment line. Not only did Sheely's have it listed below the MSRP, but they had nearly everything marked as 30% off their list price. So I feel like we got a good deal. It is in stock, so we should expect to have it delivered in around 4-6 weeks or so. Hooray for Sheely's!!

Progress: Nursery

What a busy and productive day. With lots of help from my parents, K and I managed to get through some of the nursery prep that had been put off for so long. We broke into teams and got to work around ten o'clock this morning.

Mom and I focused on sewing the crib skirt. This is my mom using Taylor. She is much better at sewing straight lines than I am, so I let her have that job.

I was the iron-lady, and did some piece pinning as well. I think it was just as important a job. Despite our hard work, we still where not finished by five o'clock when the boys where wrapping up for the day. We likely have another day of work ahead of us before it is complete. Not a big deal considering I have no crib yet to decorate with a skirt.... In any case, here are the three fabrics sewed together (and ironed ever so carefully)

We still need to finish sewing the hem on 3 of the 4 pieces, attach the decorative ribbon on the top and bottom of the blue section, make the box pleats, and finally attach them all together into one big skirty piece of fabric.

So while we where sewing away, K and my dad where busy painting. They where able to get a coat of paint on the ceiling, the crown molding, and the walls. K came down stairs and proclaimed "I sure hope you like blue" and I became worried about the paint. I asked if it looked nice and he muttered "its okay" more concern entered my mind. As soon as I finished what I was working on I headed upstairs. All of the worry was for nothing, I am quite pleased with my color selection. It is exactly the blue I was looking for. Soft girly blue. Bright but not blindingly so.

Like the sewing project, the painting still is not complete. The baseboards and door trim still need to be painted and perhaps a second coat will have to be applied to the walls as well. I will let my dad make that judgement call.
It is really exciting to see my vision begin to come together.

We hit the Jackpot!

K's work continues to be awesome. It is the small stuff like team building laser tag, summer time picnics, cake day, and employee of the month complete with a special parking space. The quality of his coworkers also seems to be quite high. This is best shown with this picture.


What is that? You don't understand how this mess in my basement is relevant to K's coworkers? Well let me tell you about these boxes...

Well, these boxes (and plastic bags) plus one more that is in my living room. K has a coworker with three young daughters. Identical twin two year old girls, and a 4 year old big sister. This guy seemed elated to hear we where having a girl. Each of those boxes is full of baby clothes! Sized between 0-18 months from what I can tell after a quick glance at the labels. Yes, it is also organized by size. Horray for free baby clothes!

If only I had a nursery dresser to put some of this in! While on the nursery topic, the crib skirt sewing should begin this weekend! Check back for photos!

Socks Suck?

Grumperina recently declared that she is not a sweater knitter. She even made buttons to put on her blog and to share with others that boldly states this preference of hers. This post of hers, along with some lack of interest of my own makes me wonder if perhaps I am not a sock knitter? I enjoy sock yarn, I enjoy turning a heel, love my one pair of hand knit socks... but I find myself starting them and never finishing a set. Not like my normal knitting style at all. I normally hate unfinished objects piling up in my stash.
This sock was started on Sunday August 5th, the day of the first Steelers game of the year. A pre-season Hall of Fame game, but enough to get me thinking black and gold none the less. It sat on hold for at least a week while I wondered if it was too small after turning the heel three times due to my own lack of concentration. I moved past that with help from some other Steeler football and my gestational diabetes test. My progress so far...Please ignore my day-glo white skin.


close up of the third-time's-a-charm heel...


I think the only thing keeping me going is knowing that my Steelers gear won't fit until later in December once Sproggy arrives. Hopefully it will be enough to get me through the second sock!!

Taylors first job

Todays raininy weather was perfect for getting a few things done around the house. I finially felt inspired to work on the zipper for K's sweater. After re-reading Grumperina's tutorial, I decided that hand stitching the zipper into the sweater and the ribbon onto the zipper was more than I was interested in doing. I am not a huge fan of hand sewing. Maybe because it always looks messy to me. In anycase, I decided it was a perfect time to pull Taylor out and see what he could do.

The plan was to sew the ribbon onto the back side of the zipper and then place the zipper into the sweater. I made sure to pin the ribbon to the zipper to keep things from shifting around. Made sure the ribbon had the dark stripes closest to the zipper's teeth to make it symetrical. I put on Taylors letter "I" zipper foot and proceeded with caution.

Once I was done, this is what I had created...

I was very pleased with the results and must say that using Taylor for the first time was quite easy. I used the manual to figure out how to wind the bobbin thread, and thread the machine, but both where pretty easy. I am certainly happy with this machine so far!
I was able to get the zipper hand stitched into the sweater while watching some movies in the afternoon. It is not finished. I only sewed the outer edge and have not yet tacked down the inner side of the ribbon. You will have to wait for 100% finished photos to see how it all turned out!

Also of interest today- I took a square of embroidery that my great uncle had brought home from Japan during the war and put it into a frame. It was given to me by my grandparents when they where cleaning out their home before moving into a smaller place. I believe it had spent a lot of time folded and tucked away in a closet. I hated for it to have the same fate at our home.

We decided to hang it in our bedroom. I am not sure if it is hanging in the right place- or if it just needs to be lowered, or should have something else hanging with it. Any suggestions?


One last note- Today is my little sisters birthday!! Happy 24th Julie!!

Introducing Taylor!

My sewing machine arrived! Yea! His name is Taylor. I have been asked how I know he is a boy, and I just thought it was obvious. It is a Brother brand machine.

I am anxious to give him a try, but am not ready to start my crib skirt project just yet. I do have a well used quilt I received as a high school graduation gift 10 years ago that could use some serious mending. Especially considering it is my favorite couch blanket!

While I was busy with opening up Taylors shipping box, Mo decided to play with his favorite new toy...

Yes... that is our $1.99 Ikea toilet brush. You should see him prance around with it in his mouth. I have tried spraying it with bitter apple with hopes of it would deter him, but my stubborn little man wasn't even slowed down.

And finially some adorable knitting to finish off the post...Saarje's Bootees knit with Dale of Norway Baby UII. Still need to add buttons, but they are basically done.

Taking the plunge!

Well, I think I officially just committed myself to more sewing projects. I ordered myself a sewing machine of my very own. Not that I had any problems with borrowing moms, but I found it was hard to give it back to her. Now that will no longer be an issue. I went with a Brother CS 6000, it was recommended via this blog. I am quite excited for it to arrive! I will be able to christen it with my crib skirt project!

Special thanks to Annie for the added encouragement in making this decision.