Welcome February Sponsors (and Babymoon!)

A warm welcome to my latest sponsors:



At Sarah's Silks we believe in the magic of creative play! Our playsilks, dress-ups, canopies, and playthings are natural fiber toys that stimulate a child’s imagination and capture the magical soul that lives in young children. Children love to dress up with these beautifully dyed cloths! With an inspiring palette of playsilks, children will spend many hours exploring their limitless imaginations. Go to our web site and sign up for our emails to get a 10% off coupon in your email box a few days later! And fan us on Facebook for specials and sales news.



  Hilitos - In my shop you will find one of a kind hand knitted toys, ornaments and accessories. "Hilitos" is the Spanish word for "little thread/string" which always gives me the idea of something simple and sweet, just like what I want my stuffed animals to be. I enjoy dedicating quite a lot of time to each of my toys and try to make them lovely, unique and resistant so they can bring good fun and company. Thanks for stopping by!

{Photo courtesy of our amazing midwives taken shortly after his birth. He looks like a cute little old man. I am happy to say he is already growing into his skin and plumping up.}
I am still enjoying my babymoon and soaking up every second of newborn baby bliss, knowing that this time is so fleeting. I'll be back for Tuesday's Crafting on.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to all of my readers and sponsors for your support.
For affordable sponsorship with ever growing exposure please do be in touch: FarmerGOPI@yahoo.com 

Welcome February Sponsors (and Babymoon!)

On January 25th

Our sweet, tiny peanut surprised us all with his arrival on the morning of January 25th. Weighing in at a mere 5 lbs 8 oz, I am not kidding when I call him a peanut! We are both doing well and our family is completely head over heels in love. Thank you for all your well wishes!!

Love,
Nicole

On January 25th

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

I finished baby's balloon pants over the weekend and instantly cast on the Tír Chonaill - Baby Wearing Edition. I love the idea of this to keep baby and I warm during our outside time in the winter months. The pattern has a steek sandwich, and that makes me quite nervous but I am going to be brave and just go for it. I chose bright and cheerful colors to surround him and also help cover any stains that may come (because I know they will!).

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

Irrational

On Saturday I went out to clean the inside of our van in the pouring rain (because I had the energy to do it right at that moment and I knew if I had waited the motivation would be gone) only to discover mice poo in our children's car seats. *shudder* I knew mice had been coming in our van before and we believe in "live and let live" or "do no harm unless others intend you harm" so we just hoped that they would eventually go away. They have in the past. The cats find the ones that actually venture into our home and I try my best to capture the mice once they have them cornered and set them free elsewhere but it doesn't always happen. I have just come to accept that in the winter where we are currently living, mice are something we deal with. But once I got to the back of the van and saw Little L's car seat padding ripped up and his seat belt partially chewed through, I lost it. We don't exactly have extra money hanging around to buy a brand new Britax car seat and the thought of mice living in my children's car seats - especially the baby's car seat just did me in. Hey, I am hormonal right now! I came in the house explaining everything to Kevin and he didn't really have a reaction, which for whatever reason irked me. I said, "Why can't you see this like an irrational pregnant woman?" Hehe. At least I know I am irrational, right? Our current resolution is parking our van outside instead of in the garage and I poured way too much peppermint essential oil all over the inside of the van hoping to hinder the mice from coming back. So far, so good.

I spent two hours Sunday evening sewing the girls' badges on their AHG uniforms. Phew that took longer than I expected! But it made the sewing bug come back and now I want to sew some itty bitty clothing for the baby. I wonder if I'll have time. I am still not completely prepared, as one of my midwives keeps reminding me, even though I took the time to label baskets on the changing table - that counts for something, right? Even so, I am slightly hoping his arrival is sooner rather than later. As much as I don't want this pregnancy to come to an end, I just want to hold him in my arms. Plus he has been putting pressure on a nerve in my back which sends shooting pain down one of my legs. A humble reminder of how painful growing pains are in children and that I always need to take my little ones seriously when they crawl in our bed in the middle of the night wanting their legs rubbed.

Irrational

Exhaustion

I mentioned that we had an all day adventure in Boise earlier this week. Nothing too exciting just our usual errands and midwife appointment, but this time Little L got some time alone with Mama and Daddy while the girls were having fun with their AHG group. Well, apparently our day out completely exhausted Little L. He fell asleep on the way home (at around 6:30). We decided we should wake him back up before picking up the girls from their lock in (which ended at 8:00) fearing that this was a power nap and he would wake up in the middle of the night full of energy.

Kevin carried him in from the van and sat him on the counter to help me put away groceries. Instead he got down and climbed up on top of our coats on the table. I thought he was being silly but kept up with my work. A few minutes later Kevin came back in and noticed that Little L was fast asleep, sharks around him and all. The little guy was so tuckered out he just couldn't make it any longer. Surprisingly he slept in the next morning, too!

Tonight I am feeling the same way Little L did - EXHAUSTED. I spent the whole day scrubbing an reorganizing my kitchen for when the midwives come, yet it is still no where near where I want it to be (because, you know, they will totally notice those kinds of things). I guess that is what tomorrow is for! But for now - sleep.

Exhaustion

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

I had to rush and snap this photo on the way out the door just as the sun was rising. We had an all day adventure in Boise while the girls were at an AHG lock-in, so no time to take a photo in decent lighting.

I started working on some cute little baby balloon pants for the baby. The remind me of the squirrel pants I made for Little L a couple of years back. I hope they'll fit! I love the color. It's the same yummy Luna Grey yarn I used to knit the baby a hat with.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

Here we go again

We made our first batch of popcorn from the strawberry popcorn we grew in our garden last summer. It's really delicious! The kernels are smaller than regular popcorn but full of so much flavor. I am wishing we had space to grow more. Maybe our next house will. In the meantime K wants to grow some sweet corn so she can snack on it right out of the garden.

I found it rather ironic that some of my prized vintage Pyrex is in the strawberry popcorn photos. You may have seen what I posted on the Facebook page on Saturday about vintage Pyrex containing high levels of lead (inside and outside each piece!). My first reaction was denial. No, it can't be! I admit I am attached to them. Pyrex was what we switched over to when we rid our house of plastic many, many years ago. But then rational thought came back over me. I know all too well the dangers of lead, as my K had high lead levels as a toddler (before our Pyrex days, though), and it is not something I will play with.

So here we go again, back to the drawing board of what to store and bake our food in - mixing bowls, too! I am thankful now that I bought a large set of All Clad stainless steel pots and pans years before I even met Kevin, so I at least have safe cooking ware. I was working part-time at Williams Sonoma then and loved using my employee discount. How on earth I managed a full-time job, full-time college and a part-time job at the time blows my mind. I can't even imagine it now. But that's another topic. Back to the matter at hand - I think I am going to look into some cast iron bake ware for our oven needs. I am researching enamel cast iron, too. We use mason jars for some food storage in the fridge but I need to find something larger for other leftovers. I would love to hear your thoughts on what you use and why. Maybe we can all help each other have safer kitchens and homes.

As for the Pyrex, it will sit high up on top of our kitchen cupboards for now. I do still love the way it looks...

Did you see those sweet little baby gifts in the photos above? *swoon* My talented friend Jackie thoughtfully surprised us with those. They brought tears to my eyes. I was just thinking about the fact that we don't really know anyone here and that this sweet baby boy won't be celebrated like his siblings were when we were surrounded by loving friends and community. Jackie reminded me otherwise. Thank you!!!

Speaking of our baby boy, I finished my nursing shawl over the weekend. I love how it turned out. Oh my did it grow! I was nervous that it would be too small but I think it came out just right. As soon as it was dry we ran outside behind our house to snap some photographs. It was pretty dark that day but I thought we could still make it work. One thing I didn't take into account was the crazy wind.  The shawl and my skirt were blowing all over the place. Oh well. We'll get better photos when the baby is actually here.

I think I am going to beg for request some blocking wires for my birthday or Christmas this year. I think that would be much better for future knits (and even to re-block this one). My sewing pin method seen above took a good 45 minutes to block with and the edge isn't as neat as I would like it to be, but sometimes we just have to make do, right?

This is actually my first time using some sort of nursing cover so we'll see how it goes. I am pretty discreet with my nursing in the first place but I thought this shawl might be helpful for church. I just want to make sure I am respectful, especially since this is a small church in a small town. I have never nursed a baby in church before as I didn't join the Catholic church until Little L was a toddler and not needing to nurse as often. This is a whole new territory for me.

Rav notes here.

Here we go again

Makings

There has been quite a flurry of making around here lately. Unmaking too, as the cat on the baby laundry pile proves. I guess we just prefer to create instead of clean. Can you blame us?

When we were in Oregon during the fall, K and I had gathered a bag full of walnuts from Walnut Hill (at our beloved school) for the purpose of dyeing yarn. I forgot about the walnuts for awhile but then found them again at the end of November. K wanted to make a dye bath immediately so we researched how to do so. We found quite a few different recipes and tutorials for making walnut dye but K and I ended up choosing the fermentation method in this book. The walnuts sat in a bucket fermenting (the book said at least 3 weeks) until last weekend when we finally opened it up and made our dye bath. It was an intense dark brown but the dye yielded a beautiful warm honey brown. I'll share photographs once it's dry.

The children has all been immensely enjoying a new part of our baking rhythm - grinding our own grain in a grain mill Grandma gave them for Christmas. Little L, especially, loves to grind the grain. I swear he could go on for hours! This wonderful gift has inspired us to grow some grains in our garden this year so we can enjoy bread truly made from our own hands from seed to finished product. How great will that be? I just hope we have enough space to grow enough for this endeavor.

And what is a post without something pregnancy/baby related (at least this month)? The children and I are also working on some baby bum bath salt (a natural remedy for diaper rashes). We made our chickweed, plantain and calendula infused oil and now just have to add the rest of the ingredients. Funny thing about our infused oil - I don't know what I was thinking but I put it outside in the sun for a solar infusion like we normally do (as indicated in this book), forgetting that the current temperatures are below freezing. My oil became solid so we brought it back inside and did a double boiler infusion instead.

I was hoping to finish up the baby bum bath salt today but when I opened the Epsom salt that I had purchased a strong smell came from it. I checked the ingredients and there was fragrance added to it. I hadn't come across that before so I never thought to check the ingredients when I picked it up. Oh well. So our salt soak is on hold a couple days longer until I can get to the store again. Now what else can I find to make whilst avoiding the laundry?

Makings

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

Working on a last minute nursing shawl. I loved the one I was working on before but I made too many mistakes and had to rip it out. I wanted something I could knit up quick without a lot of concentration instead (you know, so I can focus on watching Downton Abbey as I knit).

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The Baby Knits {so far...}

I am saying so far because I am still knitting for this little guy and will probably continue to do so until the very last minute. I feel like I am making up for the lost baby knitting time during the first trimester (24 hour morning sickness) and lack of energy during most of this pregnancy. Then, of course, there is the need to knit every cute baby pattern I see. Anyone else suffer from that?? We'll see what I can finish before his arrival. It doesn't feel like I have done a whole lot but K made the comment, "That's a lot of newborn baby knitting!" when she saw me set up the photograph above. I guess it is quite a bit for one little newborn, probably more than he needs but that's okay. I loved every minute of knitting them. I also forgot about the fact that he also has Little L's newborn baby knits to wear as well. I think this little guy is pretty set for the first couple of months. It worked out rather nicely having two baby boys born in the winter months.

I thought I would try and put most of my projects in one place/post for those of you who were curious as to what my favorite newborn knits were. I hope it's helpful. You'll notice I tend to chose brighter colors for my baby (and children's) knits. I prefer to surround them lighter, cheerful colors as opposed to heavier earthy colors - at least for the first few years. I know there is a pedagogical Waldorf reasoning behind this but I honestly don't remember it now. Anyone want to chime in? It has just become second nature to me. Although my new obsession with dyeing yarn naturally has brought in some earth tones for this baby (like the baby gown dyed with dockseeds from Oregon).

I included a link to my Ravelry page in the title of each knit so click on the title if you want to see more. I tend to modify most of my knits and try to keep good notes of how I did so (try being the key word here).



His first clothes (incorporates the Beyond Puerperium cardigan, Picky Pants longies, Bouncing Baby Cap, and Perfect Fit Newborn Socks) I am hoping this will be the first thing he wears after birth along with a wool undershirt. The clothing seems a bit big though and my babies tend to be on the smaller side *knock on wood* so we'll see. I think I have plenty of hand knit back up options just in case.



Harvest This is one of the sweetest little baby cardigans I have knit. The size is 0-6 months so I am not sure of when exactly it will fit him but I have a feeling he will look adorable in it. The pattern doesn't call for a button but I had to add one just to use that beautiful bee button you see above.



Kumfy Gowns My babies live in wool gowns and sleepy sacks when they are home (we have a couple Disana ones that C and L wore for many months each) so I thought this pattern might be nice for our new little guy. I knit one with our dockseed dyed yarn and smaller needles and the other with some leftover MadTosh yarn and bigger needles. The hand painted mushroom buttons are from Frost Lane and the chicken buttons are from Wooly Moss Roots.



Small Things Romper I had to knit another one of these rompers for this little guy. This time in our own hand dyed yarn using black beans to get such a pretty blue.  The one I knit for Little L was (and still is) one of my absolute favorite knits. I mean, how cute was he in it?!


This time around I knit the grow with me cuffs instead of the garter stitch ones. I remember Little L outgrowing it's length before outgrowing it's width. Star buttons, again, by Wooly Moss Roots.



Bouncing Baby Cap or as I call it - Nikka's hat. This pattern was given to me years ago by my friend Sophie back in Oregon after I constantly admired her daughter Nikka in it. I meant to make one for Little L back then but never got around to it. I wish I did! It is the most darling little pilot cap ever. I know I will be making many more of these. Keeping baby's head covered is so important.



Pilot Cap I knit this one to see what all the fuss was about. It's cute but seems big. I still prefer my more traditional pilot cap patterns over this but we'll see what it looks like on him.



Rib My Heiny Longies These are so cute and look so comfortable!



Milo Little L lived in Milos his first few years so it seemed like a good idea to knit the new baby a newborn sized one. A good way to keep his core warm.



Dogwood His first blanket.  I still can't seem to capture the gorgeous blues and greens in this yarn. You'll have to trust me that it is stunning in person. This blanket knit up really fast and isn't as tricky as it looks.

Previously photographed: Perfect Fit Newborn Socks, and Baby's Booties.

Phew! That's it... for now.

The Baby Knits {so far...}