Hi Ripkin!!

I hope he looks good enough to chew on!This little monkey started as a back up baby gift (you know, one to have on hand in case someone needs one). Unfortunately, I don't like him. I previously made the same pattern with different yarn and he was the cutest. This yarn, which was a leftover from the lace panel socks, did not stripe as well for a little monkey so he is for Whitney's baby (Ripkin) to chew on. I hand-knitted a chew toy for a dog. Call me crazy.

Knitting does give me a bit of sanity in the craziness of everyday so it doesn't matter what I make, as long as I am doing it. What do you do to keep your sanity every day?

Catching up

While my baby is doing this... I can finally update my blog. I know you aren't supposed to cover the baby with a blanket, but he loves it! Thanks Momo!
How pathetic, August was my last post! My kitchen is done as well as some crafty things to share today.
As well as gratuitous baby pictures!







This is my finished kitchen!! I love every inch of it! The hood doesn't let a bit of charred food smell into the house, the tiles wipe down so easy and the sink is big enough for a baby!I really should have straightened up a bit before I snapped that picture, but the above bambino only lets so much get done at a time.









Next is my advent calendar for next year. I imposed this project on myself to get it done in time for this Christmas so the pressure would be on to finish it. Hopefully my little boy will enjoy peering into each mitten next year as the days count down to Christmas! I tried to make one per day and I had to make up for the first week but believe it or not I finished!

Oh and a picture of Lenny enjoying his Christmas and presents!!
I have never made anything wearable for my baby. It was hard to believe for me too. So I present the Flying Helmet. My mom got this yarn from her quilt store and it was originally for socks. I just adjusted my gauge and got going on this.

I love the ear flaps and the point on the top. The top flap occasionally falls into his eyes, but it just makes for a fun game of peek-a-boo. Ok, now for the cutie in his hat
He really does like it!


And just one more because he is the cutest little pooper.
He is holding the yellow Moose from Nick Jr. There is also a blue bird to go with him that I made for him, but because of copy rights and my fear of getting in trouble you can imagine what two felt stuffed toys would look like.
He does love the sound of "Puzzle Time" and whips his little head around to see the moose and bird.



Wow, a whole post in one nap. Go me!

Under Construction

While my little person is growing, my house is also becoming more of a home. I have decided to post each room as it gets done so you won't think I am living in constant construction. The first one done was Lenny's room and I am so proud of it!! Every piece came together perfectly and I really hope he will enjoy it as much as I do now!This is the basic setup as you walk in. I am sorry it is so dark. Now for the around the room tour.
This is his hand me down crib from our wonderful neighbors. Finding a crib was the hardest thing to do and when we traded a daybed for the crib and changing table, we both won!! I put these Ikea boxes under the crib for sheets and clothes that are too big for now and they luckily match the green of his dresser perfectly. The extra storage is nice too.

I also love how the alphabet in the frames came out. They were actually wall decals from Etsy that I put on poster board and framed. Now the alphabet is moveable, or can be changed out if he out grows them. Also, the long picture on the wall is a picture where babies come from, from Aunt Marsha. I had it framed at Michael's and it really means a lot to us!

This is Joe's great Grandmother's chair. It may look a bit spooky with the dragon faces on the sides, but I can't imagine another chair in this room. Joe has fond memories of his family members being held in this chair and it is comforting to know his child gets held in it now!It is soo comfortable for when I pump and enjoy Lenny's room!

Another semi dark picture. I hope I'm a better mom than photographer! But anyways, these are the curtains that I made. The letters were cut out for me from a seller on Etsy who did the mobile and I fused them on cheap Bed Bath and Beyond curtains. So for all of the window dressings it cost $35.00. Including the rod! Oh wait, I know the blinds were expensive, but those stay, the curtains I'm sure will be changed at some point so 35 bucks isn't bad.


This is my baby's dresser. Hopefully his big boy dresser too. Finding a wood dresser for under $500, that will hopefully be okay for a big kid, have enough storage, and match other things is a tall order. We didn't even have it when the baby came, but luckily I found this at the Room Store and it really does meet all of those requirements. Also it has these cool inserts on the drawers for pictures. Nothing is in them yet, but maybe when he is older he can make something to put in them! Now just a few details of cute stuff.
The dog we found on our baby-moon at an antique store. He runs when you pull the string. The basket was Joe's mom's picnic basket. He said that I could use it for whatever I wanted. I say why keep something in storage when you can look at it every day and use it? Oh and those are my beautiful floors. Finally installed. It is so nice not having to walk on ply wood!!

This is just the top of the dresser. Hopefully Lenny will play with these blocks at some point, but I can decorate with them now. The clown is a music box that Joe's dad bought for his mom. His first two boys hated the clown and they even frowned when I put it in the babies room. I like it and it is special to us, so I'm sure the baby will like it when he hears why it is in his room.
This is the changing table. Nothing too special here except it matches the crib, and you may notice we are using cloth diapers. We love using cloth diapers. We tried Pampers for 3 days and our poor baby's bottom turned into a wreck, not to mention we had our first blowout with them. Maybe it was us, or the poop, but we quickly changed back. They weren't worth the trash they made.And the inspiration for the whole room. The alphabet mobile I found on Etsy. The letters on the curtains were cut by the same person so they match. Hopefully Lenny likes looking at this when I change his diaper. I love looking at it when I am in the rocker.

So it's not too matchy-matchy, and hopefully things can be added or taken away and I won't stress about having to redo his whole room again, unless he tells me when he's five that alphabets aren't cool and he wants all race car stuff.... Oh I am getting ahead of myself again. I hope that we can enjoy this for at least five years.

The next rooms will be our master bathroom and bedroom. They are both done right now, but I want to take my time with these. And now I have to spend some baby time with my munchkin.
Here's a sneak peek at our new tub! He loves it!

Lenny is here!!!

It has been a bit since I posted last and now we have a perfect person! Leonard Joseph was born on July 8 at 2:01pm and he weighed 7lbs and 10oz. And he is just a peach! Everyone came to see him and I think everyone agrees he is just perfect!
He's so wonderful. Here is one of his face. Cutest ever!!!
There are tons of pictures of this Junebug but you get the idea. I also haven't decided what to call him. Mostly Lenny but when I am being cute it is Peachy or Junebug or Pumpkin. I'm sure one will stick. Dad calls him Lenny Poo Pants. He does a lot of that!!!

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!