A New Bag!

I have made a few post-pregnancy summer items, but it's hard to get any pictures taken when you're wrangling a 4 month old.  Hopefully soon!

Meanwhile I also made a new bag for work.  I have been using a velvet bag from the Gap that I like very much, but the straps are falling apart and it's just a tiny bit too small.  The new bag is bigger, has 2 interior sections, more external pockets and it is the best colors!

2 slim pockets on the front and 2 elasticized pockets on the sides.  The straps are long enough to fit over my winter coat, which is always a problem.

On the inside I made a wall to create 2 compartments, since I carry a laptop.  I also made skinny ties to hold the bag somewhat closed in the rain and other inclement weather.

I got the three fabrics from Hawthorne fabrics and just love them.  I got a yard of each, so I have plenty of leftover.  I'm thinking a collection of matching storage bags- a zippered bag, a Nook cover, and whatever else I can eek out!

A Star is Born!

One Wednesday in March, I walked into Janda's office and said, for the hundredth time, "How can my stomach get a month bigger than this!"

Janda replied, helpfully, "You are getting BIG.  When was the last time we took a picture?"

Normally we took the pregnancy photos on the weekend, when I was a little less tired and my hair had been brushed nicely.  At first I thought, "No, no photo today," due to my fondness for routine and the fact that I had worked all day and was tired, but I thought it was touching that Janda was into documenting the pregnancy, so we took the photo.

Good thing we did- that was the last day that I was pregnant!!

Huge!

We didn't have a clue what was coming our way; the only hint was some major back pain while I was trying to do the dishes.  It was so uncomfortable that Janda finished the dishes.  I suppose looking back that that was probably back labor.  Anyhow, it went away and after dinner Janda and I stayed up too late (11pm on a schoolnight!) and watched Lord of the Rings The Two Towers.  At midnight I woke up and had to go to the bathroom, not at all unusual during week 34 of a pregnancy.   Once downstairs, I realized that not only did I have to go to the bathroom, something unusual was going on.

Since this was my first pregnancy and I was only 34 weeks, I didn't really think that my water could be breaking, but I thought something was happening.  Janda came down and we talked to the on-call midwife.  I was convinced that she was going to tell us that it was nothing and to just come in for our appointment on Monday.  But no, she told us to come to the hospital.  I was then convinced that when we got there they would tell us to go home and come in for our appointment on Monday.

We got to the hospital around 1am, talked to the midwife, determined that my water had really broken and that the baby was breech.  Within 90 minutes, I was getting a C-section and at 3:17am Janda and I heard the cries that would bring tears to our eyes.  Our son has good lungs.  

For a 34 week and 5 day baby, Ryder was quite healthy and large, 6lbs 11oz!  Thank goodness he decided to come early, any bigger and I wouldn't have been able to move!

Thursday was a blur.  I was in recovery until 6am, went to visit Ryder for a couple of hours and then rested for a while.  Janda left to take care of things at school and returned around midday.  We spent the afternoon resting and admiring our baby.  

 Happy Birthday Ryder!

The next morning we got the bad news that our otherwise healthy baby was experiencing a serious health issue that required him to be transported to Children's Hospital in Boston.  Since it was so soon post-surgery for me, the hospital would not let me go with him.  The rest of that day was spent nervously waiting for updates from Janda.  

Thank goodness they discharged me the next morning and for the next 2 weeks, Janda and I spent our days at Children's Hospital.  We arrived mid-morning after rush hour traffic and didn't get home until 9pm or later every night.  It was a tough 2 weeks, but really we were very lucky.  A lot of the other babies in the NICU had been or will be there for months.

First family photo at Children's

The first week was spent getting tests and waiting for OR time and the second week was spent recovering from the surgery.  He did great in the recovery, thank goodness.  

Scariest day of my life - still anesthetized post surgery

Ryder received topnotch care in the NICU at Children's.  I cannot say enough good things about the compassionate and knowledgeable staff of the NICU and the surgeons who worked on Ryder's case.  We hated leaving him every night, but we knew that he was receiving the best possible care.  

Ryder loved his nurses at Children's - look how peacefully he is sleeping

Finally on Saturday April 6, after 17 days in hospitals, we were given the all clear to take him home.  Unfortunately, we had to bring him home with a catheter, but we were home nonetheless.

On our way home at last

After all that Ryder had been through, we were ecstatic to have him home to meet friends and family and to just enjoy having a baby.  He has really taken to life at home and has put on a considerable amount of weight.  He is getting healthy and for that we are thankful!

Enjoying the simple life at home with Mom and Dad

Week 34 Starts Today

We're starting to really get things ready around here, since we have somewhere from 4-6 weeks left, most likely.  We've been working on cleaning up and cleaning out, basically our normal spring cleaning is coming early, since spring will probably be pretty busy.  We're trying to make sure that we've got everything that we need ready to go.  I really need to get ready at work; that's the most important, since no one but me can get it done!


In non-stashbusting sewing news, I've started working on the diaper covers and have some clothing patterns cut out for the little guy.  Of course, I really want to be sewing for myself, but I can't fit anything in this condition!

Is is weird to keep all the baby presents in the carriage?

I organized everything so that it could be put away, but I still kept it in the carriage!

First attempt at a diaper cover.  Not bad, but I need to sew the elastic on tighter.

The Fold-Over-Elastic works great and looks really cute.

The baby likes to stay on one side of my stomach.

Staring week 34, can it keep getting bigger?

Why didn't I do this sooner?

I bought some pants back in September from the outlets with the plan to turn them into maternity pants once I needed maternity pants. Since I"m in the 3rd trimester, obviously I've needed maternity pants for a while!  I still had a couple of pairs of non-maternity pants that I could wear in early December, but since then, I've been making do with one pair of work pants and one pair of jeans.  I have some skirts and dresses, so I wasn't wearing the same pants every single day!

After all that procrastinating, it took me about 45 minutes to turn both pairs into comfortable maternity pants.  Honestly.  I took some heavy duty, medium stretch white knit fabric from my stash and tried 2 methods of attaching.  For the brown pair, I cut a U in the front and filled it in with a U of fabric and on the black pair, I removed the waistband and replaced with a knit waistband.  Both styles are very comfortable, but I think that I cut the U on the brown pair too low.  I was being lazy and cut under the zipper instead of removing it first and cutting across it.  Oh well, I'll just wear long shirts with that pair.  I can also dye the white knit with some Rit dye if it's too noticeable.

The brown pair with the U and back waistband intact

The black pair with a new knit waistband

Wearing the brown pair at 28 weeks.  I look a little tired.  I wonder why?

5 Month Whirlwind

In August we demolished.

In September we reconstructed.

In October we painted inside.

In November we painted outside.

In December, we decorate!

Stripped to the bone.

Fortifying and insulating. 

New drywall.

Primed and ready to go.

Oops.  That color was a misstep.

New, lighter colors in living room and kitchen.

New seating area next to fireplace.

A real dining room.

A more open concept.

New windows and shades throughout.

I finished something else!

And it was not from my list of Spring projects and it didn't require hand sewing.

I made this from my leftover Valori Wells voile- there is still enough to make a teeny skirt for a teeny person!  I had not intended for there to be a crossover front, but I didn't have enough fabric to make the top above the empire waist out of one piece.  I think that the crossover worked out well, though, so I'm happy.  The fabric has some stretch even though it's a woven and I chose not to use a zipper, so it's a little tight to get on and off!  Any looser and it would have hung off my back funny, so that was the trade-off.  My plan is to find some ribbon or to make a ribbon from the fabric for the tie at the neck.  White doesn't quite go.  I also plan to add some clear seed beads to make this top a little dressier.  You can see from the side view that the back hangs down a little- but not nearly as much as it did at first.

I don't plan to wear this top with work trousers, but that's what I was wearing at the time.

Janda and I were so busy with mad lots of yardwork over vacation that I didn't get anywhere on my other projects.  Hopefully soon...  I have a birthday party this weekend and I'd like to wear one of those dresses!

I finally finished something!

I have sewn up 90% of 4 of the summer dresses on my Spring/Summer Sewing list and now all that remains is either annoying or hand sewing. Not surprisingly, as soon as each of them was 90% done, they went onto the 90% done wall to wait for me to be in the mood to hand sew or do something else annoying. Since that was getting discouraging, I decided to make a quick skirt.

Please ignore the squinting and bedhead

I have a few patterned fabrics that I have been stewing over, b/c I didn't want to make a skirt or dress that had a lot of seams. In the end, I decided to make a elastic waist, knee-length skirt. One casing, one seam and one hem. Easy peasy. A half an hour later I had a finished garment. I couldn't wear it today, even though the weather was amazing, b/c Janda and I went out on our motorcycles. Not conducive to skirts. Hopefully I'll get to wear it this week.

I was a little nervous, b/c I had never attempted an elastic waist skirt before and I was cutting into some of my precious and expensive Valori Wells voile. I figured that it would work out b/c I made my niece Emma a romper last week that used elastic extensively. I just took my hip measurement, added 4", cut a rectangle and sewed a few seams. I ordered some more patterned fabric from fabric.com this weekend, so I think that I'll be making more of these.

Emma's romper

Hopefully this week I'll decide to get some of those other projects done!

New Projects

I have lots of supplies for lots of new projects, but for one reason or another, I've been waiting to start them. I finally found one that needed no waiting: Reusable Fabric "Paper" Towels. I made a batch of six of these last week for light cleaning, i.e. nothing red: like wine, spaghetti sauce or cat throw-up and definitely no bike grease. They should be good for most other things- dusting, wiping up non-red liquids, etc...

This was super easy (although not quick b/c my machine is cheap and therefore apparently finicky) and I could've gotten them done in one sitting had I wanted to. You just cut rectangles out of quilters flannel and terry cloth, sew 3.5 sides together, flip and then top-stitch around the whole thing. Voila, reusable fabric "paper" towels. I read about people making these to use less actual paper towels, but I don't think that I will use less because I only use paper towels for the previously mentioned things. I'd say that a roll of paper towels lasts a couple months around here. But, now I won't have to go searching for crappy old t-shirts to rip up next time I want to dust.

A batch of 6

Backed with cream terry cloth- thus the ban on red!

Summer Projects

I went into this past summer with high hopes of getting many many projects done. I didn't exactly finish as many as I'd have liked,but I did get a few done. Since summer officially ended last week, here's what I accomplished.

An old dry erase board turned into a retro chalkboard.

Mini-quilt, of course it's cat themed.

A pink silk cabled scarf, modeled by the most beautiful girl I could find.

The biggest project of them all, the family of cats. Luckily I had help with this one from my dad and the rest of my family. They were quite a handful and boy do I miss them. I'm glad that Girly-girl got to stay!

The bookcase is done!

I made a bookcase to sit on top of Janda's desk, because his desk has no drawers, thus no storage. My dad and I have been working on it for a couple of weeks now and it's very exciting to be finished.

It was hard to get a good picture because the office isn't exactly huge, but it looks pretty good on top of his desk. It has definitely added some space to the top of his desk and that was the goal, so I guess that we can say mission accomplished!