Our World Flipped Upside Down

Six weeks ago our beautiful baby girl was born.

Olive Rose born March 24, 2014 at 6:57 pm

Hours later we began a very unexpected journey. Blogged about here: http://ollielujah.blogspot.com/.

I plan to return to this blog now that life is, somewhat, settling down!

xoxo, Andrea

Counting down to baby

30 years ago, my mother pregnant with me. I arrived 10 days late, weighing in at 9.5 pounds.

It also just happens to be this beautiful woman's birthday! Happy birthday Mama! Thank you for bringing me into this world, and raising me in a way that prepared me to become a mother myself!

Here I am, 36 weeks pregnant with our own baby girl. (Photo by the very talented Stephanie Bassos)

17 days until the due date and counting...

A Blanket for Olive Rose

Photograph by the very talented Stephanie Bassos

Her blanket is ready, and eagerly awaiting her arrival...as are we!

Olive's Blanket

(adapted from the Purl Bee's Super Easy Baby Blanket)

//Ingredients//
US 7 circular needles (I suggest 32" or longer)
10-50 gram balls worsted weight superwash yarn, 110 yards each
I used... KnitPicks:
Wool of the Andes Superwash in Fairytale, Rouge, Brass Heather, Delft Heather, Pampas Heather, Noble Heather, and Almond. 
And Swish Supeerwash in Sugar Plum, Dove Heather, and Marble Heather
A darning needle for sewing in the ends

//Method//
Cast on 150 stitches in the color of your choice.
Work the entire blanket in garter stitch, knitting every row.
I hate to waste yarn, so I knit as far as I could with each color of yarn. The only thing you need to make sure of is that the yarn you have left will get you thru so you can change colors on the edge (not in the middle of the blanket) and that you always change colors on the same side! When working garter stitch, there will be a "stripe" on one side of your color change. I always thing of this as the "wrong side." And you want it to be uniform for the whole blanket.
I also slipped the first stitch of each row knitwise (except the rows that I was changing colors), so that I have a really tidy edge.
These little steps take the simplicity of a garter stitch blanket and keep it looking really neat and well put together, instead of too "homemade."

Use up all 10 skeins and then bind off! Weave in your ends. Wash in a baby friendly detergent and lay flat to dry.

On My Needles: Onward, Climb, and The Baby's Blanket

Sunrising over our backyard

It is currently -7F here in our little part of Michigan, and that doesn't include the -30F windchill. The only proper thing to do is to surround myself in yarn, tea and maybe turn the oven on for some baking later.  I actually really love winter. But the winters you can participate in. Not so much the days where they warn you to not go outside for more than 5 minutes and your heating bill sky rockets to almost $300. Full of ice storms and wind sheers, power outages and dangerous roads. This kind of winter I would like to hit the fast forward button on. Thankfully though, I knit. And knitting really does make winter worth it. The cold air continues to push my motivation button, and I wish there were more hours in these short days.

So on my needles, keeping me busy as I am trapped inside...

Baby Girl Mowry's Blanket

The baby blanket is almost finished! I had to order more yarn because of the custimizations I made to the pattern, and those last 3 skeins arrived this afternoon! All of my notes can be found on Ravelry, but I will also do a post here with finished instructions for my alterations. I can't wait to finish it and have it all washed and cozy for her arrival in just 6 weeks! We attended our first birthing class last night and really enjoyed it. We are so happy we found a class that really seems to touch on everything that is important to us.  The excitement builds everyday as we get closer to meeting her!

Onward

After finishing the Spate mitts from Journey, I couldn't wait to get more of their projects on my needles. First off, I cast on for Onward. This pattern by Shannon Cook is simple, yet so satisfying and interesting. The shawl works up fairly big and in the book they have pictures of the model wearing it wrapped around her. So cozy! I thought it would double nicely has a nursing cover, and so I got to move it up higher on my priority-to-knit list.

Climb

This is the pattern I first really fell in love with from Journey. Jane Richmond  produced an incredibly simple pattern with such perfect accents (and color choices), that pretty much everyone on Ravelry has followed the pattern exactly, including the yarn choices! Simplicity makes these socks timeless and perfect.

And just for fun...I did turn on the oven! So I could make a batch of these granola bars from Isa Does It. They are vegan, gluten free and refined sugar free.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

Recipe from Isa Does It

//Ingredients// makes 8 bars

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup brown rice syrup

1 Tbsp. canola oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup crisp rice cereal (aka Rice Krispies)

1/2 cup roasted peanuts

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

//Method//
Preheat oven to 350F. Prep an 8-inch square pan with parchment and cooking spray.
In a medium size bowl, stir together peanut butter & syrups until smooth. Add in the oil, vanilla and salt and stir again. Mix in the oats and cereal. She suggest using your hands to knead it all together but I found my sturdy spatula worked just fine! Work in the peanuts and chocolate chips.
Pour mixture into your prepared pan and use wet hands to firmly pat the bars into the pan in an even layer. Bake for 22-25 minutes. Let cool completely before depanning and cuttting. Can be stored by wrapping the bars individually in plastic wrap.

The Joys of Pregnancy

12 weeks

As you may have heard-pregnancy can make you pretty emotional. Hormones raging, giant bellies impeding everything you try to do, loss of grace, balance, and self control. Sure, it's a beautiful, life changing, magical, birds chirping sort of life event-but that's not what this post is about. No, this post is about the darker side. The side maybe your mom and friends don't warn you about. (Or maybe they do, but those damn birds are chirping so loud you didn't even hear them.)
Anyways...this evening I felt what has become a regular occurence these days, the sting of tears in my eyes.  Even my gentle, patient, nurturing husband isn't safe from them.  A less than enthusiastic response, and there they are. Blurring my vision. Chapping my face. Filling my nose with even more snot. Feeling foolish about my inability to not be a weeping mess, I tried to make a dash for the bathroom where I could run a bath and cry to my hearts content and then return to some feeling of normalcy. But my husband, being the sweet man he is, followed me in to give me a hug and reassurance.
And that is when my body decided to really defy me. To remind me I really have lost all control over what it does and when it does it. As he looked down at me, deep into my eyes, wiping away my tears and telling me gently that it was okay and I shouldn't feel foolish....

I tooted. Honestly. Right there in front of him and the dog, without any sort of warning to the rest of my body, it just slipped on out. And with no attempt to be quiet either.

My husband laughed. I cried. And the dog left the room.

32 weeks

**Upon revisiting this beautiful moment with my husband, he declared "I think it just perfectly sums up your pregnancy!" And then I laughed so hard I cried.