Photo update!

Didn't intend to take a vacation from blogging, but it happened and it was not my fault. It was my laptop's fault. It went on strike, and is still on strike, and will forever more be on strike. That and with the sad demise of my laptop I also lost the ability to upload pictures from my camera...and blogging with no pictures is just no fun at all. Now I am writing from our new desktop computer, and using pictures that I now have the ability to take from my shiny new phone.

So here are some photo updates!

1. First of all, I want to give a chicken update since I haven't written much about them since that first egg was so gallantly laid. We started getting 4-5 a day, and now we're down to 1-2 a day because of winter's fading light. I never figured out who that mystery egg came from since she didn't do a follow up until a few weeks later, but now everyone's eggs are represented. The last to lay was my older Ameraucana. We never did fortify the the fence much, but let the hens free range in the back yard. They can get through the back fence, but so far they haven't traveled more than a few feet beyond.

2. Baby update! As you may expect, Baby Lillian is pretty much taking over my uterus and is preparing for her grande debut in February. She's already head down and waiting expectantly. I feel her moving every day, but it's not constant. She seems to be a lazy baby, so I expect she won't be leaving her comfy little nest until well after her due date. We'll see if she's always late, just like her daddy and his brothers.

I have been working on Baby Lillian's room, but I've already had a baby shower so it's a disaster in there!

I am way more excited that I should be about my growing stash of cloth diapers:

So far I have 2 BumGenius all-in-one diapers, 4 Flip one-size covers, and 3 Thirsties size one covers. Since I am quitting my job soon the idea is to save money by cloth diapering. I plan on using mostly prefolds and covers, but I got those BumGenius for only $13 apiece (normally $18) so I thought I'd try them out. I still haven't bought the prefolds.

As for crafting, I have made a crib skirt and put some art on the wall:

I'm loving how the crib skirt came out. The fabric came from a set of those vintage sheets I had laying around.

Yes, that is an exercise ball in the crib. Supposedly sitting on them helps with your posture, and having good posture helps ensure that the baby can turn and be in the proper position for birth. The ball must be caged to keep it away from pesky feline shenanigans. I can't have anything nice. See below for more evidence.

L for Lillian Clare!

This is a poster I got at the Texas Library Association conference that I went to a couple years ago. I picked it up at the time because it was cute and I thought, "maybe some day I will have a baby girl and I can hang this in her room." Amazing foresight, huh? The poster was an irregular size, so I just got a $10 poster frame which was too big and applied wood-looking contact paper to the backing to cover up the ugly particle board.

This little baby was left in the room by the previous owners! Looks like the horse theme was meant to be!

I still need to make a changing pad cover and nursing cover. Oh, and finish the little quilt I started making for her.

4. This is why I can't have anything nice:

This cat is a total mischief maker. She destroyed our old "leather" couches by sharpening her claws on them. She refuses to use the litter box and will gladly use either the carpet, a rug or the tile floor immediately next to the litter box. She quite often has diarrhea. For the longest time I couldn't let her be outside at the same time as the chickens because she would chase them and cause them to panic and end up in the neighbors' yards. Ollie repeatedly laments, "Let's get rid of this cat! She's a nuisance!" But I luff her, and I know Ollie is secretly attached to her as well.

Beginning

Beginning a new project is a thrill. A cheap, easy thrill. I am quick to begin projects, but slow to end. Case in point. Check out this cute apron I just finished:

This "easy" classified McCall's apron was a year and a few months in the making. It sat, and sat, and sat. In a dark, dusty closet it sat. With other discarded, incomplete projects it sat mournfully for a whole year. And three months. And then I pulled it out of the darkness and onto the ironing board where I massaged it, marked it, put it all together, and brought it to life. It only took about an hour to finish. This project has given hope to other neglected projects.

This is a baby "blanket". As you can see, it's only about cat size right now.
This has been in the works since about July and has been shoved into the drawer
under my coffee table. The cat is clearly pleading with me to get it done.

This is the Jane Eyre shawl I blogged about before. In September. Haven't worked
on it this month yet. It's essentially half a shawl.

This mitered hanging towel is only about 10 rows away from being finished.
So why isn't it? This I cannot say.

A shawl I started to crochet for a nursing home charity. We'll see if a sweet
elderly lady ever lays her hands on this baby.

A granny square blanket I just started last Saturday. It's coming along, but when
I take into account my poor history with blankets I have to sense the inevitable
abandonment that is to come.

The half square triangles quilt which has not progressed
beyond this point in the past several months.

I'm starting to view my unfinished projects as monstrosities. I feel like I'm Toy Story's Sid and these are my deformed, half constructed toys which may forever remain undone. The memory of these projects did not, however, keep me from starting a new project this morning. Behold, the Dean Street hat! Oh the thrill!

Here's to new beginnings!

Another Bread FAIL

Wheat bread just does not cooperate with me.  I blame it on the electric mixer.  My mother in law gave us a 1970s electric stand mixer that she bought at a garage sale.  It was not adequate.  The sticky wheat dough traveled up the mixing utensils and tried to escape from the bowl a number of times before Ollie and I gave up that idea.  Of course, using man-logic, Oliver had to push this new power tool to the max and tried mixing the dough full force until he would admit defeat.

I will trust in my own two trusty hands in the future.  My hands do so many great things for me.  They make me beautiful shawls and hats, nifty yarns, delicious edibles, keyboarding letters, and most recently beautiful mountain folk music.  I've started practicing a song called "In the Willow Gardens" which is played in waltz time.  It sounds so delicate and lovely despite the lyrics being about a young man who poisons his lover.  I think it's my favorite that I've learned yet.

I finished my Holden shawl just in time for Easter last weekend.  I keep reading articles about women aspiring to Biblical womanhood.  Some may take this as old fashioned, sexist or degrading.  I think the Proverbs 31 woman has great strength, responsibility and joy.  The proverb speaks in depth about such a woman's capable arms and hands:

"She selects wool and flax

and works with eager hands"13

"She considers a field and buys it;

out of her earnings she plants a vineyard" 16

"In her hand she holds the distaff

and grasps the spindle with her fingers" 19

"She opens her arms to the poor

and extends her hands to the needy" 20

Perhaps the best line of all:

"She is clothed with strength and dignity;

she can laugh at the days to come." 25

All too often these days the tasks of feeding and providing for one's family seem to be regarded as trivial and basically unimportant.  I think there has to be something special about a person using their capable hands to create homemade, homegrown, hearty foods and specially created handmade clothing and other items.  It seems so much more special to do things this way rather than merely earning money to buy generic store bought made-in-a-sweatshop things or waxy buckets of greasy chicken.

So many people work and work and work so they can buy things and things and things.   I swear I will try to do things differently.  Living an "old-fashioned", compassionate, simple way in which people are the greatest treasures in life.  Where the simple, loving actions made by dexterous hands can be esteemed and respected. 

Sappy embroidery

As it turns out, when you only work part-time and don't attend school or watch television you have a heck of a lot of time for delightful activities that you never had time for before.  This is what I created yesterday from a pattern I had prepared about 6 months ago:

I made the pattern by printing out the text in a font I liked on plain white paper.  Then I printed out some graph paper with the tiny boxes and traced the words on that by drawing an x in each applicable box.  The graph paper was a guide to the spacing and stitching pattern on cloth.  I learned during this process that you need to print out the text of the original bigger than you want it all stitched out, because the tiny box graph paper is still bigger than the little stitch boxies on cloth.  All I need is one of those pretty oval frames to put it in.  It inadvertently became a companion piece to this one I embroidered before we were married, as I somehow chose the same color for the text of both:

That one was freehand.  I got inspired by Jenny Hart one day and cranked it out using some embroidery techniques I googled.

Although I am impressed with how these turned out, embroidery/cross-stitch is not my poison of choice.  Knitting, you're still my number one, babe.  At least until I rustle me up some chickens and honeybees, or if I stick with banjo playing long enough get y'know...skilled.

BFL envy

I think I've gotten too comfortable spinning BFL and merino top.  Last week I bought some corriedale.  It feels rough and my spinning is more uneven than usual.  It's very crinkly and there are little balls of fluff stuck in here and there.  I hope it feels softer after I set the twist, perhaps it has some residue dye.  But anyway...I miss the BFL.