Avec Potty!

It was a banner day at chez remodel - the toilet was installed.




And, I meant to show this off the other day and was surprised to find that there was no photo. This still is not super-fabulous, but there is no shower curtain rod in the bathroom yet.

Hooray for Follow Through!

Before:


After:


Not only did the fabric choice surprise me in the first place, but the enthusiasm with which La greeted the finished product. Even the nearly-finished product. I had the shirt done up to the buttons/button holes before bed on Saturday (cut out the pattern and started sewing on Saturday during her nap). Sunday morning, La was wearing her panties and "vest" until I finished the shorts and then added the buttons and button holes. Although, I would not classify this as a two hour pattern, it was pretty straightforward for the most part. That said, there are definitely parts I didn't do right. Like the interfacing. Sometimes, I just have trouble following directions.

I also got the shower curtain done on Friday night. Now we can finish the bathroom.

Here it is in it's current state. What's new is the wallboard that had to be replaced and the tile (no grout yet). Next? grout, fixtures, grab bar.

264: In the trenches of Motherhood

Or: All but war is simulation.

La is all about taking care of her baby Braedyn. Last weekend she realized that he needed new diapers. Blues Clues ones (Luvs). $11 for 40. (Not a bad deal if you have a real baby that makes real p00py. Not as much of a bargain if you only need 3 or 4, and they're probably too big to boot.)

We found some boy patterned cloth diapers and talked her into them. But the catch was that I had to alter them. So, we went from this:

to this:




















Braedyn is a "little mommy" baby. La got him for Christmas a couple years ago (age 2?) and has been playing with him non-stop since. I've made three of these, each a little different. I've got three more to go. But here's how I did this one. First, I trimmed off some excess from the diaper.














I turned under the raw edges, folded as described on the back of the package, sewed a line at the front and rear to keep the fold, and sewed on velcro rectangles (fitting it on to Braedyn before).















This is the outside, laid flat.

And voila! All done. La was using some of the trimmed off pieces for a blankey for Braedyn.

Public Stickers (when life imitates art)

I saw this post on Whip Up, called "Public Embroidery" about someone who leaves little embroidery tags in public spaces (which, frankly, begs the question when does public art become defacement of property).

I gave LaLa (age 4) a set of stickers that came with a scrapbook magazine offer. Later I bought her a set of St. Patrick's Day stickers from the grocery store.

Oh, and I think I have an answer of when it's "interesting" and when it's a problem: when the stickers end up on something important (like my kitchen table) as opposed to something of little value or something that's easy to un-sticker.

These are a few of the things I found in the house:

Baby Gifts and other updates

DH has a work baby shower in the first week of April. The "office men" had the option of pooling money for a "from the guys" gift (which seems kind of gender biased, but maybe I misread the email.) In discussing what DH was planning with work friends, I am now jokingly referred to as his "sweatshop". He asked if I could knit up a baby blanket. I'm assuming that's a compliment (and not just a whole gross underestimation of what it takes to make a baby blanket and how much free time I have.) I may have laughed at him and said that I might be able to work up a hat. Here's what I've got in the works:



The bibs were really easy to make (but they still need fasteners. I think I'm going to get some of those velcro circles. I used the pattern template for Bib B from Pooppockets. (who thought of that URL?) The ducks and the yellow are both flannel and leftover/stash. The yellow was in the electric sherbert quilt and the ducks were from my nephew's quilt. I skipped the pocket. I cut out the pieces, turned them right side together and sewed with a 1/4" seam allowance, leaving an opening to turn right side out. Turned them right side out. At the hole, tuck in the edges and pin. Topstitch. They are a little on the delightfully wonky side, but probably pretty functional.

The other things are flannel recieving blankets. Also very easy to make and really handy to have. It is 1 yard of flannel off the bolt (so about 36x45"), washed and pressed. Turn the edges under twice and sew with a zig-zag stitch. You can mess around with the thread color, sewing all three with a contrasting thread color (esp. good if there's a coordinating theme to the fabrics) or match it to the material. whichever. The corners take a little navigating because there a lot of layers of fabric. The black turtles and the red/black spots still need to be turned under.

Here's the brown sock that I started for DH. For some reason, and it might be because I've been coding a lot, the idea of sitting and doing a lot of stockinette is not appealing to me right now. I completed another repeat on the Shetland Triangle shawl (um. That's three now. Only, like, 5 or so more to go.) I really like the colors of this sock - the variations of the brown.



Let's see.....It's starting to be shorts weather. Our Hancock Fabrics is having a huge going out of business sale (which really sucks). So, here's what's been added to the queue:

The print really surprised me, but La's been on a polka-dot kick lately. She's also got some bright stripes and plain blue and I'm hoping to use the "pretty dress" fabric that I probably bought last spring.



This is the fabric for the bathroom. I figure we can pick a wall color from it - there are lots to choose from. I haven't told anyone yet, but I'm leaning toward a nice sunshiney yellow. The plan for this is a panel 6' x 6' with button holes along the top for the shower curtain holder. Then a clear vinyl shower curtain for the inside.



Finally, here's the state of the bathroom:

Tuesday:


Wednesday:


Today there should be drywall. Then after that is some kind of tile (floor or wall, not sure which).

Oh, and I would like to figure out a way to go back and add tags but not mess up the bloglines stuff. That's why those other two posts were "refreshed."

Sock Progress

1. The monkey socks are done and washed. Not blocked per se but washed/soaked in euclean and hung to dry. That was enough to make the lace pattern look like the lace pattern. I'm surprisingly pleased with them.



stats:
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill (Brights Potluck),
Pattern: Knitty's Monkey.
Mods: roll-top instead of ribbed cuff. 3 repeats of pattern for the top part (vs. 6. Who wears such long socks? OK. I'm in Florida) and plain stockinette foot (vs. continuing the lace pattern on the top of the foot) and on the gusset decreases, reducing the stitch count to 60, vs. the pattern's 64.
Needles:2.75mm. Probably would have been nice and snug with 2.5mm, but it seems that I don't have any in my needle wardrobe.

2. Here's the progress on my sister's Jaywalkers. I've turned the heel and am working on the gusset. I'm home today (and yesterday) with strep throat and wait until you see the big mess I made with something simple, and you'll see why I'm not working on these yet. They are really going to be lovely socks.



3. This is the mess I made with something easy. I took my Joann's discount coupon and just ordered myself a ball winder and swift to keep this from happening again. This is the FleeceArtist Mohagany that I ordered, thinking that it would be closer to garnet. Then I was thinking that it would be nice socks for DH, but it says "handwash only", so maybe not. I need to finish the stinkin' jaywalkers to free up those needles. I can either make a mate to the pair I started last summer or use something else in the stash (a wool/nylon blend that would be more sturdy).



To continue with the list of goofy things I have done during this episode of strep, I threw out my desk key (with my pocketbook locked in the drawer - after being flustered, I found a coworker with a compatible desk key), I made this yarn mess, and I crashed my computer. I'm not sure if I'm the actual cause of the computer crash, but I'm not ruling it out. Symptom-wise I don't feel too bad (for strep), but I am certainly addled. Frankly, I felt kind of wimpy calling in yesterday and going to the doctor. I did feel kind of vindicated that it was an infection, though.

Not much progress to report

But I got a new camera, so I'll post a couple of photos.

1. LaLa's quilt in action. She loves it. It's toasty (thinsulate in the batting), and the bottom is soft (tie-dyed sheet), and the edge is blanket binding, just like her bear-cat.



2. A good shot of the monkey socks! Not sure how I finagled this, but here ya go.