Pieceful Creations

Baby Contest

Okay.

I have no idea if there will be a prize or what the prize would be if there is one (yeah that makes sense) But there could be a prize, later on, when things calm down for someone who plays.

But a few of you might want to play "guess the details"

As of Monday, we believe that Baby M will be born tomorrow or possibly Wednesday (induction). I'm number 5 on the induction list for tomorrow.  I'll be around 38 weeks.
That gives you a bit of a time frame/size idea maybe.

1) When?
2) How Long will Baby M be?
3) How much will she weigh?
4) Will she have a big head with little arms?
5) What color hair will she have?
6) How long will labor be?
7) Will she indeed be a girl?

There you go. Wish us luck =)
T.

Lookie - Lookie!

Isn't she cute?
Born June 14th
7lbs 4 ounces, 21 inches long
Red hair

I think so.

Okay, I might have got some of you. This isn't Baby M (yet) This is Danielle.
Today's her birthday! She turns 5.  Awe

Happy Birthday Baby Girl. =) You got a few more weeks to live that title.

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

18 to 24 days left

Test knit is done.

Old apartment still needs more cleaning.

New apartment still not quite set up how I want.  (furniture wise)

Feeling blah.

Feeling depressed.

Pre-pardom blues? Does it happen?

Sigh.

Family Fun

On a search for more 'family fun ideas' that got my kids (and me I suppose) unplugged from video/computer/tv this summer and involving some kind of craft I thought up this new 'game'

Not sure what we will call it yet, but here is how it went.

On a recent trip out to the store, I took a stack of index cards and a marker. Not telling my kids what it was for, I asked them to think of simple nouns in various categories. Food, stuff you do at school, things at home etc. They rattled off a number of nouns and I wrote them down quickly.

While at the store we bought enough play dough that each person could have their own color.

When game time came, we randomly pulled out a card, set the timer from 3 to 7 minutes and had fun 'making' the word on the card, trying to think out of the box if we needed to.

Here are the pictures from the first round.

Blue = J
Green = Mike
Red = Deonna
Pink = Dani
Orange = Me

Baseball bat: Notice J went out of his way and created a bat, ball and glove.  Deonna has bases and a man with a bat.

Beds: Mines a bunkbed. Look at Deonna. It even looks like the covers are rolled back. J's looks a bit like our bed, blanket and 2 pillows.

Boy:  Deonna made a boy face, Dani a well created boy body (although not sure about why it has 4 legs). J over achieved with a boy with a bath and a hat and a number 6, and Mike made sure we'd know it was a boy with XY genes.

Dani made a Lemon Tree, J made a lemon and a carton of lemonaid. My orange portrays a fish with lemon slices (really) and a drink with a slice of lemon. Mike made a lime instead of a lemon.

Rectangle. Mike made a rectangle snowman, and Deonna made a house with a rectangle body.

Wagon: Our last one for the night. Mike made a pioneer supply wagon. Deonna's has a person and supplies in it also. J's has a cute little handle that he spent 3 minutes working on, Dani got a bit upset at her wagon and the fact that it looked more like the Lock Ness monster. Sadly my little guy fell off the wagon....

Overall a fun game and it seemed like all ages were able to enjoy it (we've had problems trying to involve a non-reader into family game time)

If you try the game let me know!

T.

Cure for Nesting

You've probably heard that many pregnant gals near the end of their time as human incubator get an uncontrollable urge to Nest.  The urge to clean, organize, get ready, brood, etc.

I have the CURE!

Move. Pack up your whole nest and put it somewhere else. It works.

Yep.

We are at the end of our 2 week frantic move. Things are settled, pictures are up on the wall, my kitchen sink is shiny, dinner is planned and in the process. I even vacuumed a bit.  I've been rewarded with hiccups from Baby M. Bad news: We have to pay rent at the 'OLD yucky place' for June and still clean it all up. Yikes. There goes what savings we had... but got to do what you got to do, especially when they threaten you with things like 'collection agency and some mumbo jumbo about implied this and thats..." Burning with anger... really.... but will get over it.

I have 35 days left.

I know I haven't posted in a while so I'll just throw out some pictures. I'm a bit unorganized on the whole computer/bills/life still, but my house is clean =)

A test knit due June 20th. I'm having second Sleeve-itus.  (yep it has sleeves)

Our Floor plan

(did I mention I have lots of drawers in the kitchen and bathroom. Drawers. Imagine that!)

51 Days

51 Days til Baby M is here.

I'm waiting for yarn for another Test Knit (it involves lace and sweater shaping... should be interesting. I have til June 20th to get it knitted, but it always makes me anxious when the yarn takes so long... 10 days since shipment so far...)

In the mean time I finished, finally, one usable baby blanket!

I made it using 100% pima cotton (Crayon) from Knitpicks. It didn't take much yarn at all and is about 37 inches square, unblocked.  I'm not real sure how long it will stay together and not mat up into a scruffy looking blob, but it should be usable for a bit.

My friend, Cathie sent me flowers for Mommy Day. Pretty Huh. The orange ones are starting to open wide and they look a bit Hawaiian to me.

We had a yard sale on Saturday, selling a bunch of my old quilt and sewing items and fabrics. It went well but I overdid it and my body is paying for it. Here's hoping my back snaps out of it.  It's been relatively calm this pregnancy and I haven't needed physical therapy. 

Oh, and I don't have a picture but I"m excited because the gal next to me was selling a Moses Basket for 10.00 at her yard sale so I snapped it up very quick! Now my idea of a laundry basket, foam and sheets won't have to be done lol. The baby can have a real basket to sleep in for a few weeks around the house.  Speaking of houses, we are still on our 'new place to live' look out. Hasn't' looked promising yet though.

April Pictures

This post will be full of pictures.

On Friday my children had their annual Spring Concert at school.  So J and I took time off and went to see their talent.  I have video but they are pretty big files so you'll have to just enjoy a few snap shots. When I see some of you next I'll try and bring a cd with them singing if you are interested.

It's been pretty spring days here past few days. Record highs

It's been over a month now on our Plant Pets. Peppa in the red (jalapeño peppers) and Tom in the green (baby tomatoes)  So far, so good, except I know the time is coming that I'll need to pick who survives and who dies..... aka replant. 

Knitting News:
My test knit is Done! I'll be shipping it off to Knit Picks tomorrow. I still can't tell you what it is or show pictures (they'll take better pictures than I could anyway) but here are a few things I learned from this test knit:

1) I cord bind off

2) Applique involving 2 knitted pieces (quilting experience was a good thing for this)

3) Color work

Now that it's done I can return to my regular knitting schedule. Baby Blankets and Design Shawl

Shawl looks like a blob of lace so I know it's working out.

1 Pink Baby blanket that will be a square, with possibly a lace edging.

Then 2 other rectangle blankets, one using baby yarn (white) and the other worsted simply soft. Patterns found on internet somewhere and in baby afghan books.

65 days left til Baby M is due. Hope may goes by fast.  Starting to plan the summer activities both indoor and outdoor for the kids. Any one have ideas?

T.

77 Days - How Lucky

Baby M has 77 more days to Cook. (Bake? Chill? Wiggle?)

Not sure yet how my current 'baby' feels about it. I think she's still pretty clueless.
All she knows is that the baby will live in her room and watch tv with her...... oi!
Some people say we look alike.. what do you think:
BAD HAIR DAY! woohoo lol

Test Knitting continues. I test knitted part of the test knit, while waiting for additional yarn.
Here's a picture.  It's a new technique for me.... I'm going to read up on the technique a bit more to see if I can fine tune the finished object. Maybe it's because it's in garter stitch that's throwing me off. I'm not a huge fan of garter stitch.

My projects

Poor Dani-girl was up most of last night being sick. Not sure if it was left over medicines in her system finally working themselves out or what. But it makes one tired mommy.  I know in a few months I'll be up most of the nights and miss my sleep, but feeding a baby and taking care of a sick girl who keeps crying "I want daddy" is hard. (sorry but Daddy is sleeping cuz he has to work tomorrow)

Here are some projects I'm working on or finished past few weeks that haven't made it to the blog.

I'm a brand new test knitter for Knitpicks.  I'm excited in that the first commission work will pay for the Baby Crib. I can't really give you much details, but here's a picture.

Color of course is off. It's Fired Brick, think brick red. I get to keep doing that for oh, roughly over 77,000 more stitches, then get to do other things with it lol.

The 2 Microspun hats. Patterns found at the headhuggers.org website.

A Crochet Doily. It was going to be for my new-2-me coffee table but it's to big. It's about 25 by 20 inches.  It reminded me why I don't crochet much anymore. It took forever, but it looks okay on the shelf I chose for it's home.

A scrap baby (? something) (again not big enough for a blanket.. but be okay for a burp cloth or at least something to lay the baby's head on that's really soft, or throw over the carseat to keep out sun. I used my left over skeins and pieces of shine cotton (knitpicks) and knitted it from the center out using increases found commonly in triangle shawls (yo, k1, yo) Instead of keeping the YO's open though, on the next row, I knitted them through the back loop to close them up a bit.

I have a pink baby yarn version of this started that I'll work on and off when I get tired of knitting the 77,000 test knit stitches lol.

85 days left and counting til Baby M. (name available on request, but it's a secret for some)

T.

Carnival Fun

We had some fun today at a local Church -- to celebrate Easter Weekend.
My camera battery died before some of the really fun things (Like Team Xtreme) but here are some pictures.

And most were taken by Jon, while I hid out in the ever shrinking strip of shade I commandeered.

(for Grandparents, aunts and uncles: You can click on the pictures to make them bigger in another pop up window. Enjoy)

Deonna - Too Cool to play:



Unless it means that she can beat up someone:


Mike: King of the Mountain, and King of the Joust:




Dani: cute as always.




Easter Egg Hunt:


My Silent and Strong Guard of the Family:


Tomorrow, Sunrise Service and Remembering Him.  It's always such a pleasure to meet other believers in this valley and get together to do things like this Carnival at their church and Sunrise service at the university.

God Bless, and may your world be made New.

T.