a little inspiration

Today it was my civic duty to sit at the court house all day and wait to be called by a judge. Luckily they realized that we were all just hanging out for the movies and no one got called for a jury all day. Yay! I rode the bus home which was fine, once I got on, because it was damn cold out today and downtown where the courthouse is the streets make little wind tunnels. Brrr! Tomorrow we leave and that pillow goes to it's new home. I think it is going to fit right in. I got the idea after looking at a book my dad gave me for the holidays. It turned out perfect. I really like and plan to make more... Maybe a few more and I could open up the etsy shop with them.... hmmmm... In baby news we laid in bed for a couple hours on Sunday feeling the baby move around. I got it to move enough that Senor was able to feel it once or twice. The belly keeps getting bigger! Senor started reading it the Series of Unfortunate Events books last night. I love getting read to sleep! We a...

for a day. Click here to get you your free carbon neutral day.

So here we are half way to making a baby. In about as long as I've been pregnant I will have a baby to bring home. It seems so short and so long. It was warm when we found out we made a baby! Now it seems like it is snowing everywhere but here... I am hoping to wrap up some projects I have going in the next week or so. Perhaps the sun will come out and I will be able to take pictures!

In pictures: This was a busy weekend fun of winter delights: First, to Fells Point for Gingerbread House Making (GHM) Mine turned out to have a face Others had funny chimneys and carports Then onto the Small Foods Party where creativity and imagination ruled the house: There was making (sweet potato pies) There was displaying (tiny stuffed tomatoes) There were yummy things (itty bitty fried ice cream) There were strange things (marshmellows stuffed with any of twenty different things from anchovies to caramel- think bertie botts any flavor beans) There was music (provided by the new ensemble, Deep Tree Mantra) There was judging There was spectating And of course, there was winning Special thanks to Dag, for taking all the small foods pictures!

Posts are getting farther and farther apart... Part of the reason is I can't post about things I am making right now for for fear the person they are being made for will be watching. Holidays are great for getting the crafting in gear but not so great for showing it off. What I can show off is what is in the oven: Hello little micro-'by! Keep up the good work and we'll see you again in about 21 weeks!

How can you not love this fabric for all things baby?

Sometimes, especially recently, I find myself without words. Not lost, just very quiet. So here you go, interpretation is up to you:

I am a full basket. Or I have a full basket. Or something. My good friend Dawn once told me about this basket theory in counseling. Everyone has a basket that they carry around and they choose what to put in it. Maybe you put your husbands love in there or maybe you put that lady who cut you off this morning in it. Maybe you are still carrying around fifth grade teasing or maybe the way the sunlight comes into your bedroom in the afternoon. The point it is, you choose what goes in the basket. Today in my basket are special coconut macaroons made for me because someone knew I liked them, excitement about seeing my family and friends at Thanksgiving and a few unfinished projects which aren't stressing me but are motivating me for the first time in quite a few months. Also in my basket is a tiny growing baby which is, I understand from reading, about the size of a baked potato. It is funny how something so seemingly full of anticipation is making me calmer and more focused on t...

This is someone I'd like to introduce you all to. I believe her name will be Gertrude but we will have to wait to see the face Seńor paints on her. I starting making her last week just because I wanted to make her a sweater dress. Because I want sweater dresses... I know, weird, but true! We've had an eventful weekend. This has been the first full weekend off for me in a long time and boy is it great! We ran lots of errands and even got to go to the Holiday Heap craft show at St Johns where I found a fantastic bag. I will have to take pictures later... Last night we went to the New Haven and saw Lafayette Gilchrist and the New Volcanoes . Jeremy came along as well and it was a great show. I got two more pairs of pregnant pants since I realized that having only one pair is only a good plan until you have to wash them... And then you are stuck. The belly has been pulling an interesting trick. In the morning it is pretty flat and fits nicely in normal clothes but then b...

So, years ago, Seńor and I used to go to yoga every week. We did this for a long while, pretty consistently as I remember. The we went on tour, driving around in an RV for months followed by living in hotels for months and then we came back to Baltimore. Since returning we often say, "We should go back to yoga." or "I felt so much better when we were doing yoga." But weeks and months and life slides by and we hadn't gone. When I got pregnant I knew I had to go back to the studio. I knew that as I got bigger and my balance got wonky it would be important. And I figure labor must be easier if you are in shape... Of course, then I was so sick for the first bit. Tonight, however, all the excuses were used up. I have been looking forward to going all week. Seńor went to the regular hot vinyasa and I went to pre-natal. I did fairly well but realized my legs are really weak. I am used to weak shoulders and arms but I have always had strong legs. I am glad I...

From Fox News! Yay!!!!

There are amazing things that happen everyday in our world. There are also terrible things that happen and we just ignore them and let it all slide by. I am the first to admit that I have rose tinted glasses. I avoid the news and almost always turn away from the horrors of the world. I think I do it because the news gives no hope. There is almost never a chance to help or change these things, just to hear more and more and more. So I shut it out. There are two things that I want to say about this today. First, go VOTE tomorrow. I don't care who you support. Go VOTE. Second, and oh so close to my heart, is this project that Amanda Soule has taken on. This is the way I need to hear about the horrors of the world. Here is this thing going on, and here is what you can do to help. If you are crafty or mama oriented you probably already know about Soule Mama . She inspires me everyday to think and create and also to experience the world around me. I know she is an inspirat...

It is a rather literal title... I am not feeling terribly imaginative. Now that I think about it, I am not really very creative about the whole title thing normally. I often want to leave it blank... All this is completely beside the point. So, hat: This it the hat that I crocheted most of when we went to Mass. I felted it over a couple weekends and have just been waiting for it to be cold enough to wear a wool hat without being ridiculous. Which I am anyway if you click on the picture and go look at the other out takes from last nights photo shoot... Now, pants: These are my first pregnant pants which I had to buy this weekend after being so uncomfortable in my other pants that I had to leave work and go change. They are super comfy but were way to long. I didn't have time or interest in going to any place else so I got them and came home and hemmed them. Even though they are stretchy. And it came out just fine. I was nervous, but nothing bad happened. No weirdness of an...

A few weeks ago my parents were in town and we went to Loch Raven Reservoir and wandered about. It is really pretty there but I always forget about it so we don't go often. It is almost creepy how reflective the water is. Click on the pictures to see them bigger and you might get creeped out too. Then this week, in the middle of hectic-land work my boss and I went to the Baltimore Conservatory which I had never been to in all the years I have been in Baltimore. Next time any of you are in town we will go. I think it just a donation or whatever to get in and then it isn't very big, but it is oh so cool. While we were there we also got to eat strawberry guavas and take home a ripe papaya. Can you believe? Talk about eating local!

I just got in from work and there is no one else here. But there seems to be a crib in the hallway... where it came from, I have no idea...

Thank you all for the well wishes, we are so thrilled to finally be sharing all of this with you! You know, it is chilly here! I am so unprepared to be cold all the time... I know it is almost the end of October and I should be grateful for a long summer and everything but, meh. I am also blaming the cold on my baking failure last night. I just can't seem to get bread to rise... Well, this time was, arguably, the best try yet. It rose the first time... Luckily the pesto I made last night is pretty banging so at least I didn't dirty every dish in the whole house with no good result... And the loaf may be salvageable with enough butter and honey. At any rate, it confirms again for me the need to stay out of the kitchen, especially with bread baking. I am just too disappointed with the failures. And I used up almost all the flour we had in the house. Maybe I should get a bread maker.... Then you can't mess it up, right? I do so miss having fresh bread in the house....

This tree is on my walk to work and is now totally yellow. Only four days later... It proves that time is moving on. I find that I have been so self-centered in the last month or so that I haven't really noticed anything outside my head or home. I don't mean self-centered in the bad way that most people use it. I have been focused inward by the pregnancy and the sickness and my foot's infection. Just taking care of myself the best I can. Luckily, I have had quite a lot of help. Senor should be renamed Saint Senor. Between dinner and breakfast and letting me just lay down all the time. Wow, not to mention all the normal things he does... Really, if it hadn't been for the tea and oatmeal every morning I think I would have never gotten up except to be sick... Today I decided my stomach really is bigger. It is all so strange. I am feeling better. You know, eating again. I feel like I might be regaining the use of my brain as well. Feeling terrible is a full...

This summer I was working so much that I never really worked on any of the sewing I like to do. I have a quilt languishing and a project for a friend that have just been waiting for me. The other week before the foot thing became all consuming I finally cut out the bits for Nicole's project and started to put them together. Last weekend I also finally felted the hat I crocheted weeks ago. And then on another night when I could not sleep I finished tying my quilt because I could not stand to make one more stitch in it. So now I am down to the trimming and binding step... akk! Of course, in order to avoid this I have started something new. I don't have to call it avoiding either. It is crochet, so really, I can say, "this is my mobile project." Because everyone needs something to do when you are waiting or riding or sitting. So I have started this blanket by the lovely Alicia Paulson. You may notice that it is a baby blanket. Our next WIP will be here sometim...

Well, the foot is still not good. I can't tell if things are getting better or worse. It has spread and I have spent some time in the doctors office on iv's of antibiotics. I am back to oral medication now... We'll have to just wait and see. This has been really frustrating for me so keep your fingers crossed, good thoughts flowing or prayers up. I really appreciate it. On a different, funnier note I was working a wedding last night and everything was going perfectly; we were on time, we had everything we were supposed to have, the staff was all there despite a few hiccups. But then I looked around and thought to myself, "Wow, that table over there looks really empty... what goes there? Oh right! The CAKE! Where is the cake??" The cake should have been delivered by then but it was nowhere in sight. I knew there was another wedding going on in the same venue so I went over to find out if they had the cake. When I went to the kitchen no one had seen the ...

I stayed home today in an effort to convince my giant foot that there is no reason to be growing a lemon for an ankle. I have some kind of ridiculous staph infection that is making it damn near impossible to walk... Not being able to walk makes everything else much harder. I can certainly understand why people like single level homes. The weirdest thing about this is I have had the same thing happen in the other foot. Who gets two of these kind of strange infections? In other news, Mr Wheezey (the kitten formerly known as "Tiny Kitten") is still living in our basement bathroom. Are you people advertising this kitten to friends or what? No comments at all on a post with a picture of a tiny kitten! Heartless fiends! The lot of you! Pretty soon Mr Wheezey is going to need a committee to help find it a home- please spread the word. Just to make sure you understand the need of Mr Wheezey for a new home I will place pictures of him again as soon as I hobble all the way do...

Someone brought us this Tiny Kitten this morning thinking it might be Sydney... It isn't. It is a very Cute Tiny Kitten despite the scummy appearance. I would be willing to wash it for you if you want it. Any takers?

Have you noticed the squirrels? Everyday on my walk to and from work for the last week or more there have been squirrels rushing and digging and hiding. They are so busy with the preparations they are making that they hardly even skitter away when I come by. Just keep digging and rushing. Because things are changing you know. The night coming earlier and a little chill in the air gives us the reminder that we should be thinking of sweet potatoes and pumpkins. Also warning us is the constant twittering. The crickets are playing non-stop, chirp, chirp, chirp. I am not sure what they are saying, maybe just staying warm with the constant motion. And the birds are talking! About migrations and weather and stupid humans, no doubt. So that is what I have noticed. Change is coming.

Things seem to be moving at the super fast rate instead of the normal one. I feel like I can't keep up. I have been feeling a little wonky anyway and then add on top the fast forward feeling... I finished the crochet part of my hat project and just have to throw it in for felting... I am nervous to do the felting part but I think this weekend I will just get over and try it. This weekend I also have a crochet class in Hamden where I should learn to make little creatures out of yarn. How cool is this whole crochet thing? Next I will make a car. In other, very sad news, I believe we have lost our cat Sydney. We have put up fliers and made a report with the SPCA but I think he slipped out with us on Friday and we were gone all weekend. I just don't see him coming home if he hasn't already... Sebastien is sooo sad. He cries and cries and cries. I don't know what to do.

uggg. I feel like I never have the time to put up things that I think are cool and then I forget what they were in the first place. So here it is in abbreviated list form. 1. It is love thursday so here you go: I found it at a gas station in Connecticut I think... 2. Greenfield is lovely and so are these people. We all had a great time. 3. Zo especially liked coming along! Thank you she says! 3a. We had to stop for the perfect photo op: 4. We also picked up a new friend on the way out of town. Say hello to Sadie, she's shy. 5. My hands were busy most of the time too. This is my new hat... can you tell? Look here if you are into ravelry . 6. Adios amigos. It is too hot for any more computer stuff today.

I've been hooking away on buses and in waiting rooms and I am almost done with my first ever crochet project... Can you tell I am a little obsessed with this marine blue color?

I just can't focus long enough to get all the pictures from Nica together. They are all on flickr- just click and you'll get there....

a while ago I bought this light blue t-shirt. I just grabbed it because it was my color, had a few cute details and said size small. When I got it home I realized it was huge so I thought I would just be wearing it for bed. I liked it and it was super soft but after going through the wash it came out much smaller, very close to the right size in fact. But there was a new problem- I found a few stains on it. I was sad because now it fit nicely but was ruined... And then I thought of something to cover up the stains. So I called my mom and asked if she still had any of the yo-yo doilies my grandmother had made. She had made a huge "quilt" and pillow shams from yo-yos that I always remember seeing around the house that I can't think of using any other way but there had always been smaller pieces that I was wondering about. So mom sent them and dad gave his permission for them to be used and the other day I came up with this solution: And of course, I love it! Yay!

We spent way more time in the airport than we expected to... but at least we made new friends. We finally arrived late at night and we thrilled and surprised to have someone waiting for us who had arranged a room to stay in and a ride where we needed to go. In the morning we explored a bit. We interviewed the natives. We were taken to Matagalpa for the civil wedding which took place on a roof top deck from which you could see this lovely view: And this lovely couple got married: