Broadcast from middle Baby Land

Middle America...middle baby land. Life is returning to normal, as normal as UPSIDE DOWN can be! We're in the process of buying our first home, we recently bought a new car, had our first baby, and most recently I returned to work from my maternity leave. Once we're in this house, the SEWING MACHINE comes out of storage! WATCH OUT. I'll be practicing my straight line sewing once again! :) I've been brainstorming new ideas for the shop. I only hope I can some how find the time, or rather, the baby sitter, to allow me a few hours to play. How do you mothers DO it?

She's here!

Just waiting

My due date came and went last Friday the 8th. Still no baby! She is still extremely active and puts on daily shows complete with kicking and the hiccups. My mom had the chance to see a hiccup display and quite enjoyed it. Often times at night while watching netflix with Doug I'll suddenly yell HOLY CRAP!!! Because I think she just tried to kick me in the chin... from my stomach! I told Doug I'm kind of afraid we're going to be one of THOSE parents at the grocery store with a LEASH on our kid because she's so active!
I'm actually feeling very comfortable, physically. I attribute this entirely to having a large frame and being 6'1"...something that allows for all the extra weight and mass to be distributed over a larger area. I feel SO SORRY for my mom though.. at 5'2" she had ME.. and I was a 10 lbs baby who was two weeks late! She had me as a natural home birth and I can't imagine how uncomfortable she must've been! I'm sorry mom!
I also think being heavy has helped me tremendously as well... I already knew what it was like to live with a belly! So things are good...but my patience..well...it's wearing down a bit. I just can't wait to meet this little girl!
Of course there's always the fact that my father is a massage therapist, and I've been receiving a massage once a week since the start of my third trimester. And then there's the 4 days the baby was breech at 37 weeks... I started seeing a chiropractor who is certified in the Webster Technique to help remedy the breech, and have been seeing her ever since. To help flip the baby we also tried acupressure and moxa sticks - it's a mugwort concoction that looks like a giant Chinese cigar and you smoulder it NEXT to your little toe to activate a particular point... just don't do it inside because it smells like pot we found out. Our land lady obviously wouldn't be pleased if she smelled that! I also performed acrobatics while laying on a tilt board (ironing board). Unfortunately that really messed up my back (and bent my board a little! lol Not that I mind that since I HATE ironing! I only have one for my sewing projects!). And did other little things...whatever worked...WORKED. She is in the proper position and ready for birthing! Someone just needs to alert my uterus!

We're all set up (and have been) for quite some time... I'll be taking 3 months off from work and when I do return we're looking to buy our first home. We'll also be buying a new-to-us car as Doug's died in the same painful way mine did this past fall. It's a big year of change (double entendre (sp?)...change as in different and change as in money, get it? GET IT? Oh funnies! :)

I can't wait for this birth to begin...if only for the fact that I'll be having a home birth in a birthing pool in my kitchen... I haven't had a bath since our honeymoon 4 years ago...water is so relaxing for me... I've been tempted to set it up and take a bath in it before having the baby...but sadly I only have one liner for it. Oh well! :)

Now... let's get the show on the road!

p.s. If you should find your baby is in the breech position -http://www.spinningbabies.com/ is THE place to go! And good luck!

My quilt top

I wish I could say this was for the little one, but...well, it's not. This one is entirely for me, made with some of my most favorite fabrics in my most favorite of colors. And it's taken me over a year to get this far! I hope I get it finished before the baby comes or else it will likely be another year or two...or three...before its entirely finished.

Check out that awesome Kitchen Aid cozy my mom made me for Christmas! (along with buying me the Kitchen Aid!) And my "Martha Green" mixing bowl on top of the cabinets.

I was sucking in my baby belly so it wouldn't poke through the blanket lol

It was supposed to be the disappearing 9 patch, but ended up staying as a 9 patch for fear of never being complete. I think I chose wisely. It was funny though, I had to run it by my mom, who has held my hand throughout my entire quilt making experiment. I needed reassurance and "permission" to deviate off course - she was very good and supported me and my wild ways. I live life on the edge people. You never know if I'll make a disappearing 9 patch into a regular 9 patch, or maybe a CRAZY 9 patch (I don't actually like that pattern).

Next up: beating this sore throat that's had me down for the past week. And if you're suffering from a sore throat I'd like to let you know that wonton soup feels AMAZING on the throat, as does watermelon. Highly recommended. :)

The trials and tribulations of making your own nursing pads

Maybe this is my version of nesting...since we live in a one bedroom apartment and don't have a designated room for the baby. Maybe it just takes me this long to get things done (shudder). Either way I finished making 4 baby blankets for my bundle of joy that will be joining us in May. I started making the blankets double sided flannel, but then ended up doing one side a nice cool knit, and one side flannel. They turned out to be a really nice weight that way, and my husband and I want a large version for ourselves. I'd show you pictures of the blankets...but I already packed them away until they're needed.

I've also finished a quilt top. I started this more than a year ago. It was going to be a disappearing 9 patch quilt... but it turned into just a regular ol' 9 patch when I realized how long it was taking. I'll post about that another time. I just know my mom is dying to see the photo :)

So my last bit of business is nursing pads! I will be breast feeding our little one, and I will also be returning to work after 12 weeks at home. So I need something to contain the flow of my precious resource. Since I work with the public I need to make sure it wouldn't be too obvious I was stuffing my bra, and I had a few issues coming out with the right mix, so I thought I'd share what I did to create my nursing pads. This is EXTRAORDINARILY SIMPLE... that's just the kind of sewer I am!

To Make Your Own Nursing Pads:

Trace a CD/DVD onto some flannel, I used a regular ol' pen for the tracing bit. You will need 4 circles per pad, a total of 8 circles for a set.

I'm using prewashed flannel that I had left over from making the baby blankets - so these will be some pretty snazzy looking nursing pads! You don't have to worry too much about what color/print because you'll be wearing these inside your bra, underneath your shirt, and possibly another layer. So my elephants and clouds really won't have a chance in the spotlight.

Next step is to sew the stack of 4 flannel rounds together. This is where I had trouble. Other directions on the web said simple sew together, I saw a few pictures using a zig zag stitch, so I tried that. But it left me with lump edges that were evident through my shirt. Now like I said, I work with the public, so this wasn't acceptable.

First failed attempt:

You can see how just lying on the table the pad has a ruffled edge sort of look.

Next I tried sewing a cross in the middle, hoping it would hold things together better and maybe miraculously fix my ruffled edge problem:

That didn't work either. Although lying on the table the ruffled edges aren't as evident as the first try, it was still a problem in the bra. See my bra shots in a dirty mirror as evidence:

You can easily see the difference in how the nursing pads lay... I achieve the "good side" by doing this kind of wavy stitch:

I purposely did not go too near the edge, as to allow for the fabric to fan out by its self, which would hopefully relieve some of the tension this poor little pad had built up. And it worked!

To make them prettier I did trim some of the edges with the pinking shears. Mostly just because I want an excuse to use my pinking shears. Which are actually pink. :)

Using my leftover flannel scraps I managed to pump out 11 sets of these, along with two mistake pads and one lonely pad that doesn't have a mate. I was pretty pumped to use up that flannel. And to actually have CREATED AND FINISHED something. I haven't really had the urge to sew since I found out I was pregnant back in August/September. Winter usually brings it back around though. Especially winter and a good SNOW DAY which is the high I was working with today. Well, that and the fact that I had my "jelly bean test" today. It's an alternative form of the glucola test that my midwife told me about. You have to eat 28 of a specific brand of jelly bean. You must eat all 28 beans within 5 minutes - which is actually harder than it sounds! And then exactly one hour after that have your blood drawn as a Random Glucose Test. This must be done on a fasting stomach first thing in the morning. I thought I would enjoy eating jelly beans for breakfast! But I didn't. But I hear that the glucola is WAY WORSE so I'm happy with what I've got. Now I just have to wait a week or two for the results. I'm really really hoping I don't develop gestational diabetes. Wish me luck!

Little Miss Muffet...

Okay so it's cold, it's BEEN cold, and it will continue to BE very cold until April. This is after all NEW ENGLAND. But someone needs to inform the squished blob of brown on the edge of the envelope I just used. Spiders are not supposed to be out and about this time of year. Because a spider just dropped straight down on his string from our 10 foot ceilings. He had to die. I'm sorry, but he came in between me, and my breakfast sandwich. And that just isn't kosher. Rest in peace little guy, please don't haunt me!

I have been horrible, terrible, no-good, VERY bad...about posting

I initially started this blog as a place to keep all my artsy crafty inspirations in one place... but I find myself more often than not simply saving the information on my computer and (shame on me) NOT sharing! I apologize and with the help of my huge "Crafty" folder on my desktop, here are some things of interest I hope you will appreciate!

• How to make a warmer/cozy for your casserole pans http://cottonspice.com/CSblog/?p=1045


• How to sew your own nursing cover http://www.breastfeeding123.com/free-pattern-to-sew-your-own-nursing-cover/


• How to make your own reusable nursing pads http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/367074/how_to_make_your_own_reusable_nursing.html


• How to make your own boppy slipcover http://economicalbaby.blogspot.com/2006/05/diy-slipcover-for-boppy.html

That is almost everything that I've saved since November (I didn't include somethings because I couldn't find a link to the original page, or it was Christmas related and I hate hate HATE Christmas when its not Christmas-time, It makes me so depressed!).

p.s. I made these Banana muffins (minus the streusel only because I was feeling so lazy) and the Hot Chocolate (I used rice milk and preferred it WITHOUT the half n half addition) and even though I over cooked the muffins (I did 18 minutes and that was probably 3 minutes too long, but I also forget to add the third banana.... gimme a break I was tired folks! - they both came out good...the muffins would've been great if they weren't so overcooked).

This is a pile of cuteness showing off the quilt that my Grammy (or great Grammy??) made years and years ago. The cats REALLY like quilts, I should make them their own. They also like soft fleece ...maybe a fleece cat quilt? How cute!