Loving our Luxe

I was pleasantly surprised on Monday to get both my snap press (HOORAY!) and my Luxe cover in the mail. I was totally blown away that I got the Luxe that quickly seeing as how I bought it Thursday night and we don't have mail service on Saturdays here. anyways I tried the Luxe on right away and I love it. We got the s/m (I had second thoughts and almost also ordered a m/l) and it is actually almost too big, but because it is so stretchy it still fits great with tons of room to grow into it. I can't get over the softness of it and how beautiful it is. I actually am so scared to use it and ruin it but we used it today and I just love it so much that I'm just gonna have to get more *hehe*
I was also sooo excited to finally get the snap press. It only actually took a week to get here but I've been wanting one for so long now that I feel like I was waiting forever. I haven't had a chance to play with it at all yet but I think I'm gonna have a lot of fun with it. I've already been thinking what I can possibly add snaps to for fun. Oh and to top off the speedy shipping I got a bunch of extras thrown in with my order so that was another nice surprise.

one thing I've learned

...is that I really do not enjoy dying fabric. I should have known this because I took a fibre arts course in college and I didn't like it then either....sometimes I'm a slow learner. I dyed some stuff a few weeks ago, including a few prefolds. It's not that I didn't like the colours or how they turned out...I can't really explain why I don't like dying stuff I just don't ever wanna do it again haha. Oh well at least I gave it a try and now I know. Funny thing is I'm sure I'll try it again at some point and probably have the same reaction.

YAY!!

I just ordered a snap press *gulp* I'm so so SO excited about this!!! It's something I've wanted to do for months now and I've just decided to bite the bullet =) This does mean no more diaper buying though (I snuck in one more SOSdiaper last night before going cold turkey ;)) I can't wait to get sewing, sewing, sewing and then hopefully selling, selling, selling!! Just had to share my excitement =)

Fluffy Week

It's been a good week mail wise here. Out of the 4 packages I'm expecting I've gotten 3 of them. On Monday I got another HHOS in the colour butter, and then today I got some PUL and Aplix and then the sling rings I was waiting on. I'm gonna have to order the fabric I think because all my local shops either a) don't carry the type of fabric I want until spring/summer or b) carry it but not in the colour I'm looking for *sigh* Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to find it online. Anyways this is just a short little update. I've got one more diaper coming and then I'll have to do stash pics again.

someone stop me!

I shouldn't be left alone with money to spend =) a friend told me about Baby Hope's Cloth Diapers (thanks Tanya ;)) and I just couldn't pass on the free shipping so I ordered a Baby Beehind Bamboo onesize. YAY! this is a diaper I've bee dying to try so I cannot wait for it to get here. it just shipped today so I have a while but still this is something I'm really looking forward to getting. I got it in the blue if anyone cares ;) once that gets here that's it for me. I have to make the rest of my diapers. I'll have to take some stash pics once everything is here. And can you believe I already can't find one of the snappis I just got *sigh* I swear I need a tracking device for those things.
Well dh had the day of today so we went hunting for fabric...specifically grey chambray for the ringsling I'm making, and it turns out that all the local stores don't carry chambray...at least not the grey color. I'm not impressed. I guess I'll have to look for it online which isn't really an issue as long as it doesn't cost too much in shipping.
That's pretty much it from here other them I'm still working out some kinks with my testers...I'm a little frustrated but I'm gonna just go at it tomorrow and hopefully get it sorted out....otherwise I'm going to plan "B"
Anyways I'll leave you with a babywearing pic from our trip to the pumpkin patch this weekend

a little carried away

ok well I'm inlove with our Happy Heiny's one-size diaper!!! I'm really, really impressed with how dry he was this morning even though he had completely soaker 2 microfleece inserts and with how well he slept last night. I have to admit that my ds is a horrible sleeper, I mean terrible!! But for the first time in quite a few nights (maybe even weeks) he slept a good solid 6.5-7 hrs and then another 4.5 or so before he woke up. This is huge for me!!! I think I can count on one hand the number of times he has slept through the night :( Anyways I'm totally side-tracking here. The first thing I did this morning after I had changed my ds was order another HH OS =) I started dreaming about having a lovely stash of pockets all the colours of the rainbow and quickly realized that if I wanted that many pockets I'd be broke faster then I can blink ;) So then I went to verybaby and ordered some PUL in ocean, celery, and light brown and some aplix (I already have some microfleece) so that I can just make my own pockets, haha, after that I promised dh that I wouldn't buy anything else for a while. Hopefully they turn out because then I can justify buying more colours ;)

a little taste

I got other fabric last night as well but this is just a little sampling of the "pretty" fabrics I picked out. I also have other prints that I've collected into my stash but these were all neatly folded and accessible so I thought I would share =)

it's all in the 'Gnome'

I have an awesome book out out of the library right now called nature babies which has lots of fun organinc knitting and craft/toy ideas. Anyways while O was down for his nap yesturday I made him this

He seemed to love it right away and way happily carrying it around =) it's a little smaller then the pattern called for but I didn't realize I was suppose to enlarge it until I was trying to tie the knot hands. Needless to say this gnome is now without hands but I'll have to make some adjustments next time

i heart babywearing

my son has been going through a particularly trying time right now. He is only napping once a day now, and it is a struggle to get him down, his night sleeping is fretful and restless and in short little intervals all night long....needless to say I'm incredibly sleep deprived with a little boy that is not only fussy and tired all day but he's really testing us right now to figure out his boundaries, he's teething some molars, and I think he is frustrated because he's not really talking a lot yet; he has quite a few words he know and even more he understands but he just can't always express what he wants which leads to fits on his side and lots of hair-pulling on mine ;) anyways I wanted to get out for a walk this evening to work of some of the many turkey dinners I indulged in this weekend (gotta love thanksgiving for that) so I strapped my ds into our mei tai on my back and headed out for a brisk walk around the neighborhood with my mom and about half way through our walk he was out. I managed to get home, get upstairs into his room, get him untied and off my back (with help from my mom) and into bed) all at 7:40 pm!!!!! WOW!!! that is sooooo early for him. I'm hoping he has a good night and stays asleep for me. I'm thinking I may have to make this walk a nightly routine now. Not only will it be nice to get him in bed a little earlier it'll be nice for my waistline too ;)

latest project

Well this was something I was working on last week but I didn't have the pics uploaded to the computer that I usually blog from. Anyways, I bought a second-hand wool sweater and chopped it up to make a pair of pull-on soakers for my ds. they turned out alright...there are a few things I'll change about the pattern before I'd try them again. Also I need to felt them a bit more because they are too big. her is a pic of O in it for the first time (he was helping his grandma reorganize the cupboard so please excuse the mess ;)

Feeling Inspired

lately all I've been wanting to do is make stuff. A couple days ago I made a flat and a prefold out of some cotton fleece I have. I'm still snappiless so I haven't really got to try either of them but my first impressions are that I love the pf but think I'd like flats out of something thinner.

flat diaper (28"x28")

prefold (2x4x2, 15"x15")

then today I went to a thrift store looking for wool sweaters to turn into soakers and longies, I did manage to find a sweater (only one though) and also found wooden knitting needles and the knitting gauge that I've been wanting. I was soooo excited!! even better is that I got it all for $2.75 (the sweater was $2.00) so I felted the sweater up a bit and have started to take it apart, and I have also made up a pattern for the soaker so hopefully I'll whip up that soaker and a pair of longies tomorrow while O is napping.

Also on my list of things to do is embellishing some of our pf's and maybe make a couple pouches and maybe a ringsling. I'd also like to make another fitted diaper and maybe make the outer fabric a print. Oh and now I am totally lusting after this fabric for something for O. I saw someone make the cutest coat out of it and I think a diaper would be adorable out of it as well. I'm on an owl kick right now and love anything that has owls or other "o" thing. I'm also wanting to make a corduroy soft structured carrier but I'll have to hunt for the perfect fabric for that. well I should go get some sleep because I know my ds will be waking me up nice and early tomorrow ;)

Can't Wait!

I'm going to be making some bamboo pf for a friend and I am soo excited!!! One, because I can't wait to feel some bamboo fabric IRL and Two because it's something I haven't tried before and I love making new things. Have I mentioned I'm excited because I really am ;) ok well that is pretty much all I have to say tonight. this blog is boring even me!! I'll try to think of more exciting thing to write about I promise LOL.

progress

well I haven't been on to update in a while but I haven't really had much to talk about I guess. I'm still slowly working on my first soaker....I'm a little over half done now. one thing I can say about knitting is that it is a craft of patience....something I'm gonna have to get more of if I ever wanna finnish a project. I haven't done any sewing lately either. I guess I've just been enjoying my summer and trying to keep up with my ds who has recently taken up walking (and sometimes running) I'm off on vacation to the beautiful Oregon Coast in 3 days so hopefully I'll come back refreshed and inspired for some new projects.....either way I'm sure that we are gonna have a fabulous time there ;)

OK let's give it a whirl!!!

I've started my first soaker!!! HOORAY!! I'm so proud of myself, I even made changes to the pattern like making it a little smaller and using stockinette stitch instead of garter...these are somewhat simple changes but this is my first project to I'm pretty stoked. anyway I'm using a free vintage pattern I found online so it's knitted flat instead of in the round but I was having a hard time finding the right size of circular needles locally and was too impatient to wait so I figure these are my practice and then the next ones I do will be in the round...anyways here is how far I am so far (it's hard to get the time to knit with a busy 1-year-old but hopefully I'll continue to get faster)

(the colour is a much deeper earthier orange then it looks here, it's called Paprika so that gives you an idea)

Busy week

I've been busy last week and over the weekend teaching myself to crochet and then yesturday I taught myself to knit. I'm super stoked to try making shorties or a soaker or something. it was actually fairly easy and I'm totally hooked (no pun intended :)) anyways just wanted to share some pics of my progress this far.

this is my first coffe cozy, crocheted in the round

my second attempt at a cozy, I crocheted this to look like ribbing and added the scallop on the top edge

my knitting so far, I've got knitting and purling down (I think I may find purling slightly easier)

hooray for crochet

I couldn't sleep again last night so I taught myself how to crochet...I already new the basic concept but I totally understand what I'm doing now. Alright so I've only mastered single crochet so far but I;m still pretty proud ;) Here's what I've got so far

single crochet; 100% cotton yarn

dreaming of diapers

ok well this pic is kind of darker then I like but it's the only one I have right now. I drafted up a pattern and sewed up a sample of a fitted the other night. over all I'm pretty pleased with it although I'm still trying to work out the whole trimness vs. absorbency thing but that's just gonna be a matter of trial and error I guess. the edges were just serged on this and I'd love to try one that is turned and top stitched next and possibly with a cotton print but still able to be snappi'd....so many things to play around with, and too many ideas floating around. I've been up at night thinking through diapers the past few nights....man I think I need a coffee just typing about it....Oh I'm also waiting on a beautiful wool Thumbelina pull-on cover from a friend (it's our first experience with wool so I've got my fingers crossed that it works out for us) I'm hoping it'll be here tomorrow as it didn't come again today. :( hopefully I can post pics of our stash once it arrives as well.

A couple more

ok so I caught the prefold fitted bug and made a couple more...I was planning on making some changes to the pattern but jumped right in before I really thought about it....no big deal I'll just have to try again. Anyways they also turned out great! I'm really happy with the prints I chose (another Heather Ross print and a Hawiian print) I just can't get over how trim these are. ok what more can I really say...on with the pics

my first fitted prefold

I got up when Jeff left for work the other morning to take advantage of Oliver still being asleep and managed to try sewing a prefold into a fitted. it turned out so much better then I expected (although I'm still planning on making a few changes next time) I love the print that I used for this one. it's by Heather Ross and it has VW bus' all over it (I've always, ALWAYS wanted to do a big roadtrip in one) so I thought it was perfect for my first one.