We're building a house and a person!

We're not really building a house, but we might as well have started from scratch!!! I have some in progress pictures! First this is me building a person.

The last post I think I was 5 months preggo, so hopefully this is as big as I am going to get. Eight months pregnant. The next bunch of pictures will be my motivation to show you why I am willing to hold this little person in for as long as possible!

This is what it looks like as you enter our house and get to the top of the stairs to the kitchen. Those stairs are unfinished and all of those boxes are our new laminate floors!!!!!! I love that the floors are here because this is what the floor looks like now...


Now this is the living room and as we walk through the rest of the house you will see why the entertainment center just had to stay right where it is.
Isn't nice to imagine having to wear flip flops all of the time because you may get a splinter when you have to run to the bathroom for the 100th time?

Now these next pictures are as you walk down the hallway past the living room. If you notice we went really classy with the bathroom door in the hallway... That is a shower curtain. Our door is a shower curtain!!!!!

Ok, wait a minute it's not all that bad, let's stop and look at our floors actually installed in a room that is (semi) done. I really do love them it's just... did you see the pictures?

When I say semi done, it's because our bedroom is actually my sewing room. The nursery, well it is only that in name right now and the only distinguishing feature that makes it a nursery is the fact there is a crib in it. If you squint really hard you can see it. But the floors are down and complete in both of those rooms. I do love my sewing room. And Joe worked so hard to put up the shelves and all of the totes to organize it.

Now you may ask, why are you sleeping in your sewing room? That is because our bedroom is construction central. Air compressors for nail guns aren't the most comfy pillows! And that is my closet with no doors and the beautiful contractor bags to keep the dust out.

But this is a teaser for the exciting master bathroom! The tiles are up! The bathtub is in (not in the bedroom anymore).

It is bitter sweet. Look at what is next to our beautifully tiled tub...

More construction stuff. And just because it is hilarious, and you saw our bathroom door, this is what your finished basement looks like when you have no doors to any of the rooms.

And now I am completely embarrassed. Well, very excited too!!! It is taking a while and did I mention that I am eight months pregnant? I can't imagine a more stressful time! It is coming together and as this little person grows in my belly my house is becoming more and more of a home, for him or her to grow up in! I hope you enjoyed the tour of my house and I can't wait to update you to when it becomes more complete!!!!

What to knit when you are expecting! (In the snow)

It happened really fast, we got married (see below) and then one month later we are expecting! I promise to put up more pictures more frequently but here are a bunch for now. First this is my belly at five months.

In case you didn't hear about it, Maryland is in a snow emergency. It isn't as much as all of the family gets in upstate NY but it's a big deal for us down here!! The kids across the street are loving it!! And yes it is 40 degrees outside.

We are supposed to get 6 more inches of snow tomorrow too. How will Maryland ever handle all of this snow? My family hasn't seen me preggo yet so this should be exciting to hear about!

And what to do when your belly is getting bigger and bigger and you are trapped in your house? KNIT! I didn't make all of these in one day, but you get the idea, there isn't a lot to do around the house. First a monkey, a bunny and a snake for Dylan. The bunny is my favorite and I think the monkey holds a strong resemblance to Joe (maybe it is the ears).

The monkey and the snake are made with self-striping sock yarn, and the bunny is this super plush handpainted wool Mom and I bought in NY. The bunny is the only one that gets to stay the other two get to go to new homes. I hope Dylan likes the snake! He's about 30 inches long.

And this one is my biggest project. Momo said she would make our little bundle a quilt and that she had some Hungry Caterpillar fabric (from the Eric Carle book). Well I had a lot of leftover yarn and a hungry imagination this day!

I think I will post a tutorial on this one because I had to make up the pattern, but this may be a big challenge for me. Also I would love to have the butterfly done so I could get both patterns out. Now the pressure is on my mom to get sewing!

That is a lot of posting for me. Especially since it has been so long. I promise I will keep you updated more frequently!

I'm back! And Married!

Click here to view these pictures larger

So much has happened since the last post. Joe and I got married! The best day of our lives! There are close to 600 pictures of the day but these are just some of the highlights (mostly Joe and me). I think it may be best if I just start a whole new post with some of the other details. If the picture don't show up on your computer click to "view the pictures larger" then you can see them!

China in the China Closet?

Who would have thought that China could go into the china closet! Well that is what Joe thought, but after it was in he was pleasantly surprised!!! ("I wondered what those grooves were for")

When did I get china for the china closet? When my mom needed more room in her cupboard and I needed a set for my (almost) married home. The two tea sets were Joe's mother's and his aunt's and the Wedgewood-momo's. I have to say I love it and I love it each day more that I look at it in the china closet!!! Thanks MOMO!!! Love You!

Two Pairs of Socks

Really quickly I wanted to show two pairs of socks that are done and being enjoyed and since I am at the computer, I will put them up. The blue pair is made from bamboo wool my mom gave me for my birthday last year, and the yellow and maroon socks went to Erin-Bearin for christmas. ( Both pictures have been stuck in my camera for ages.)

I put a lace panel in both of them, the pattern is on the back on the blue and on the top of EB's.

I do have one more good post but I can't sit at the computer all day! More to come I promise!

Making Soap

It's wedding time and I am trying to save money, show people that I am thankful they came to my wedding and still stay crafty. So I came up with this. For a coffee themed wedding how about Handmade Coffee soap? This works so well for removing odors and the grounds really do smooth your skin. I had to make a pot of coffee for each batch of bars, so needless to say I got them all done really fast because you definitely do things faster and with more energy when you are all hyped up on coffee!!! Here's a quick tutorial...


Step 1: Lay out your supplies and let everyone in your house know that the kitchen island will be off limits until they are all made.
Step1A: Make a pot of coffee!
What you need:

Melt and Pour soap-(From Michael's)This is shea butter soap, and I lucked out because the brown coffee and white soap made it a really attractive light brown color. Exactly the color I like it when I make my coffee with cream and sugar!!!
Soap Mold
Scented Oil (I picked vanilla to complement the coffee)
Brewed Coffee Grounds
Glass Measuring Cup
Microwave


Step 2: Using 4oz of Melt and Pour soap (they are divided into 1oz pieces) Cut into smaller pieces so it melts evenly, and place into glass measuring cup (or anything microwavable) with scented oil. I used 6 drops per batch and it gave it a nice smell but not too overpowering.



Step 3: Go to your coffee pot and carefully open the top (so you don't get a hot steam facial) and scoop out about 1tbsp of brewed coffee grounds and place in measuring cup. The more grounds you put in the better exfoliating power, but if you put in too many they all sink to the lowest part of your mold.


Step 4: Microwave for 40 seconds. Then stir gently and pour into mold.

Step 5: Cool for 20-40 minutes, on countertop or in the refrigerator. I found no difference between either and remove from mold by just working it out slowly. If they aren't hard enough, they won't come out easily.

Step 6: Package so they look pretty. The packaging was the most expensive part for these favors $0.99 for 50 cellophane bags, $0.50 for 10 yards of ribbon and a little bit of my time (which is priceless). So the total for the whole treat including the bar of soap ($0.68)=$0.74!

Craftiness and Favors complete!!

Christmas is almost here!

I love Christmas! The presents under the tree, the smells, the cookies, the music! It is all wonderful! I am so excited about our Christmas tree and it is the funniest joke ever! Stove, thinks it is real. And I can't wait until we get back from NY to find out how he watered it!

I did so well this year too, as far as making sure everyone was accounted for with gifts and the majority of the presents are handmade. Maybe I was being cheap, but I have to say I like well made, thought out gifts the best!

Now for Pie, Dash and Dylan they all got matching hunting socks. Different sizes but the same yarn. (Yes, I just took those pictures out side and yes there is no snow!)

And because everyone got individual presents, I also made some soft blocks for Dylan. I am sooooo happy with how these turned out and true to Beauty they are made of recycled jeans. Completely machine washable and in 3 different sizes...3 inches, 4 inches and 6 inches. Super easy!! Hopefully super fun!!

But I don't want to ruin all of the presents!! There a few more handcrafted things but we'll wait until after christmas for those posts!

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!!