Little Romper

I don't have too much to say about this one except that I found the pattern in The Expectant Knitter, by Marie Connolly, that it was super easy and fast to knit, and that I just freaking love it!  I can't wait to try it on my little one!

Baby Sweater

I made this sweet little sweater for my (hopefully) sweet little one to wear this fall/winter.  Looking at it hanging in the closet, it seems very tiny, but I imagine he'll be pretty tiny, too!  I found the pattern in The Expectant Knitter, by Marie Connolly, which is a really fun, cute book full of easy and fast patterns perfect for a pregnant lady with a short attention span or low threshold for frustration.

I also made this little hat for him to wear with the sweater, but, after comparing them, I doubt they will both fit him at the same time!

(Despite how terrible I am at taking photos, these two items are made out of the same color yarn and were intended to be a set.)

Project Ideas

I've had some free time to sit around and dream up new house projects lately, but not enough energy to work on them.  As my husband finishes up work on our new house, I'm coming up with little projects to decorate and furnish it on our budget.  There are some things I definitely can't do - like, say, make a couch - and we'll just have to wait until we can afford a comfortable couch that hasn't been sitting in our carport for 3 months.  But there are a lot of other little projects that I think would be a lot of fun and that I hope I have time and energy to work on during my maternity leave.

1.  Window pane photo display.  We took a bunch of old, oddly shaped glass windows out of our old house, that we are saving to build a mostly-glass shed/greenhouse someday.  One of the windows is smaller than the rest - about 3' x 4' - and I think it would make an amazing frame for our wedding photos.  I'd like to strip the paint off of the trim and stain it or paint it with diluted paint in a rose pink that would still show the wood grain underneath and just warm up the natural color of the wood, which is in pretty good shape.  Then I'd like to back it with a piece of plywood, which I would cover with leftover fabric from my wedding dress (my mom made it, so I have a fair amount of the fabric lying around).  I would then mount a whole bunch of enlarged photos from our wedding on the plywood, and secure the window on top of it.  I wonder how heavy this would be to mount on the wall . . .

2.  Photo Album.  I have been planning for a while to make a photo album for our wedding photos.  I'm planning to make the covers out of heavy cardboard covered in wedding dress fabric and paste the photos on card stock inside.  I always prefer pasting photos to nice paper to enclosing them in plastic.  I just don't like the feel of those plastic pockets, and it doesn't give you the freedom to arrange your photos however you want.  I'll tie the whole thing together with the ribbon we used as an accent for my wedding dress.

3.  Bench and Bench Cover.  I'd like to have one of those nice long benches in the entry to our new house and has tons of room for dirty boots underneath - I think my husband actually manufactures dirty boots, there are always more of them! - and a comfy surface to sit on.  I think I'll commission the manufacturer of dirty boots to actually build the bench, and then I'll sew a nice long pillow to go on top.  I'm thinking one of those ones with the little buttons that give it the nice gathered look.

4.  Chalkboard.  I already have a nice key rack to hang in the entry.  I'd love to add a chalkboard that sort of matches it for us to write important numbers and make to do lists.  The key rack is made from an old washboard which has seen better days.  Luckily, we also have a pile of old wood sitting in our back yard that I think would match it pretty well.  My idea is to paint a piece of plywood with chalkboard paint, then frame it with the distressed wood, including a little ledge for the chalk, which I would then oil to sort of match the wood of the washboard.

Hiatus

Man, it has been a long time since I posted anything here!  And so many awesome projects have been started or finished, or are still in project limbo.  I'm going to try to write some posts and post some photos of the finished projects.  The biggest "unfinished" project right now is my very own baby to knit for, due in September.  My house has been baby clothes central since we saw the first ultrasound and realized we were going to have a real live baby with the right number of fingers and toes.  

We are also in the middle of building the dream house that my partner has been planning and scheming about for the past three years or so at least, and this is a completely new type of project for me.  I mostly nod and smile while he talks about square footage and plumbing, but it is amazing to see a whole new house materialize next to the one we live in now.  The only really frustrating part of the process (other than the self-inflicted austerity measures) is that we lost access to the attic of our current house as part of the project, and every day I find something that I need for a cooking or crafting project that is packed away neatly in some inaccessible corner of the attic.  This means that, although the plum tree is bursting with ripe plums, there will be no plum jam this year!!  There will also be no bundt cakes and no cookie cutter shaped cookies and I will have to buy new ribbon to festoon my friend's bridal wreath.  Somehow, things like this are much more frustrating during pregnancy.  Luckily, I made sure that the sewing machine was downstairs before the seal-up happened, which has saved me (and my partner) from hormone-induced rage.

Frittata

The number one thing I love about frittatas is that they aren't quiche.  A frittata takes one look at watery quiche in a bland crust and thinks, "I'm the man!"  Because it totally is.  It has all the things that make a quiche great (eggs and savory vegetable combinations) and none of the gelatinous ooze.  Tonight, as I was cooking slightly more ambitious food to eat for lunches and dinner this week, I whipped up a 20 minute frittata out of half a leftover onion, a couple of big cremini mushrooms pilfered from another recipe, and a red pepper.  Most of my actual time was spent roasting the pepper in the toaster oven!

I sauted the mushrooms and onions on about medium heat until the onions were brown and the mushrooms were soft, then added the chopped up roasted pepper.  I mixed it around a little in the frying pan, then poured six eggs beaten with a little salt and pepper over the top.  I made sure everything was spread out evenly, then let the mixture cook in the pan for about three minutes, then I popped it in the oven and broiled it for about five more minutes.  Right now, I'm eating a slice of frittata with a slice of buttered and toasted focaccia, as I browse other people's food blogs for inspiration.  Yum.

Cooking Day!

The morning started with a fluffy focaccia baked in the brand new stainless steel pan my mom gave me for Christmas.  She searched everywhere for a pan that wasn't coated in non-stick coating (which, when you abuse your pans as much as I do, tends to start flaking pretty quickly, and also killing you with its non-stick toxins).  Apparently, only super high-end cooking stores are carrying this type of pan these days, and they cost a mint.  I was particularly pleased with my mom's find because I found out that she found it on sale at T.J. Maxx for ten bucks!  Anyway, it conducts heat so much better than my old pan (purchased as part of a "going off to college" set a million years ago) and makes the fluffiest focaccia out there!  Plus, the bread doesn't stick to it at all and I don't have as many petrochemicals in my breakfast.  I win!

After that I slacked off for a while, but next up I'm going to be trying out some recipes from Smitten Kitchen to last me through the work week.  I love Cooking Day.

New Sewing Project

I've been spending my valuable non-work hours working on this fantastic dress for a masquerade party I hosted a few weeks ago.  I learned some valuable lessons for when I (n)ever attempt a project like this again.  1) Boning is for tension in the garment, it mostly doesn't need to hold you up on its own.  So . . . you don't need ridiculously rigid material for it.  I actually read somewhere that twist ties will work.  In this dress, I used commercial featherweight boning, and it was still to rigid.  After wearing (and dancing in) the dress for 6 hours, I had bruises and abrasions where the ends of the boning rubbed into my sides.  2) Don't cut corners with the nice fabric.  My pattern said that I could use cheap lining for the underskirt where it didn't show, but I found that the underskirt showed at surprising times, even when I was walking vigorously.  3) Do cut corners with extra frills and braid.  That crap is only useful for hiding mistakes.  In an over-the-top dress like this, you don't need extra frills.




Here are a few more photos from the amazing night: