Happy Blog Day!

Happy Blog Day to me! Happy Blog Day to me! La la la!!! Today is the one year anniversary of my blog! I know you've been reading me talk about it for a while now but today is the actual day. I'm one of those people that celebrates my birthday for a week so forgive me if you find it annoying. I can't believe my little blog is a year old. Isn't this cake beautiful? It's from PinkCakeBox. What a gifted lady!

The other reason for this Stripes and Polka Dotted cake??? Check out my new felting design company, Stripes-N-Polka Dots, Web site. Please visit! I'm so excited about it. I hope it goes well. Let me know what you think. If you're a felter, tell others! And if you aren't, still tell others! Ha ha. I'm not a marketing guru so this is new to me. Now that all the work is done it is just sit and wait and see if people like my designs. It is scary actually.

And so far as I know, my Zoe pattern is still supposed to be featured in the April issue of MagKnits. I haven't heard otherwise so I'll assume it is a go.

How exciting. Now if I can just keep this baby from coming early, I get to see the Yarn Harlot in Denver on Thursday.

Kids Say the Funniest Things

This is a non-knitting post for the most part.



My daughter just makes me laugh so much sometimes. I'm just so happy to be her mom. She has a black eye in this picture from a little chest of drawer mishap. Anyway, I was in the grocery store with her and we stopped to get grapes and she waved so excitedly at a lady and said, "Nee How!" (which is hello in Chinese for you non-Chinese speakers). I'm sure she got this from a Dora cartoon. The woman (who happened to know what this meant!) was so impressed. It was hilarious to me because I was such a shy child but my daughter is so the opposite.

Isn't it funny how kids only think on a certain level and you have to really explain the basics sometimes? My daughter was crying so hard after she went to bed the other night. My husband went to comfort her and try to get her to explain what the problem was. All she could say was that her covers were broken. She didn't understand that they were just twisted and could be untwisted. Too funny.

I just wanted to write about my daughter because she really has brought so much joy to our lives. I'm so grateful for her. I get sad lately when I think of how having another baby is going to limit my time with her. I know it is normal but I still feel it. Last week was the 17-year anniversary of my mom's death. We had cupcakes for dessert just because. My girl loves the Happy Birthday song. We sang Happy Birthday to my mom just to remember her somehow. Of course I start bawling and my daughter and husband came over to give me love. It was a sweet moment and I've never been so grateful for my family. I'm a lucky woman. My husband and girl went outside to plant a cherry blossom tree (my mom's favorite) to honor my mom. When the came back inside I was folding clothes and my girl ran in saying, "Mommy still sad? Still crying mommy?" I had already moved on but she didn't forget and was still sensitive. What a sweet girl.

BLOGIVERSARY

My one-year blogiversary is this Friday! I've had so much fun blogging and getting to "meet" some of you. I wish more of you would post. I do get emails though. I'm so surprised when I see the stats of how many daily visitors this blog has. There are a lot of you, unless my hosting software is wonky. Anyway, I encourage you to post. I want to read your blogs too!

KNITTINGNEWS

And now for a tiny bit of knitting-related news..... T minus 6 days until the launch of my company's new web site. I've been looking at the site as it goes up and content is getting posted. Trailhead Web Design is doing a really nice job. Definitely more to come by the end of the week. And, I should be able to fill you in on the MagKnits pattern that is supposed to be published by April 1.

Craft Room Update

We're almost there! Slowly but surely though not fast enough for me. The basement is slowly transforming into a living space and an area for our guests once the baby comes. Of course my favorite room is the craft room. To have all of my stuff in one location! I can barely imagine.

Anyway, as I said in a previous post, I was looking for a way to do the magnet board thing as you see in Pottery Barn but not pay the PB price. It turned out so well, I wanted to share. First you buy a stainless steel sheet from Lowe's or Home Depot. Mine is 2 x 2'. Then you buy some of these wooden circles and some baseboard material.





I painted mine black and used caulking to stick the metal to the wall. My husband cut the baseboard material to the appropriate length and used the nail gun to get everything up. It is stuck on the wall for life. But I like it. You can buy the little magnet cups at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $1.99 per cup. And ta da!



The white boards are helping to make sure the caulking portions don't slide. I still have to touch up the paint. There is sawdust from the cuts. But I think it is a cheaper and cute solution. I can put a lot of notions in the cups!

We also hung two of my pictures I had framed for the room. This weekend the contractor is finishing my yarn shelves and we can move stuff in! More pictures to come.



And a quick update on my "company" launch. We should have a site up by April 1. I'll have a lot more to report then. Hopefully the baby stays put and doesn't surprise me.

Waddling Along

I have no cool images of projects to post. So instead, I'll just post a pic of my handmade tag sign within a purse I made. Does that count as crafty?

I'm officially waddling. I feel so very uncomfortable! Only 5 weeks to go. This kiddo feels like a toddler inside me--surely he's ready to come out sooner! I really don't like this stage. Last night in the middle of the night my hands felt so swollen that I opened our bedroom window hoping the cool air would help. My poor husband probably chattered all night. That is weird for me because I'm one of those people that is ALWAYS cold.

I've also officially decided to go the c-section route. It was my hope to go naturally but it seems like I'm having a lot of problems that I had with my daughter AND our little guy appears to be breech thus far too!

Because I'm so far along, I've mostly spent any spare time trying to get the nursery done and help where I can to get the basement finished. I think I've found a cheaper (and cuter) way to make those stainless steel magnetic boards they feature in Pottery Barn. You know the ones with the round metal cups you can store crafty items in? I've been taking pictures to post a tutorial on my blog. I hope to complete that tonight. I'm just so excited to almost have the craft room done. Our contractor is coming next week to finish the shelves for my yarn! Yippee! Pictures to come SOON!

And I know I keep hinting to cool news about my felted purses. I've been scared to write it down for fear of it not happening but I now have two exciting things to report. First, a MagKnits editor said she would like to feature one of my patterns in the April issue! I hope that is ok to say. If it gets cut for some reason, please don't tell me I jinxed it. Second is that my other patterns are in the tail end process of being produced/printed and a Web site is being created so I can officially say I'm launching a company!! I'm trying to get everything wrapped in the next two weeks so that is why I have not knit (on top of everything else!). I had my purses photographed last week by Reeta and Daniel, my good friends at Verge Photography. They were so supportive and offered so much praise. It made me feel good and excited. And we went all around Old Town Fort Collins taking some cool urban shots. I LOVE how they came out! I can't wait to report more but that is it for now.

I guess I had more to say than I thought! Oh, two more things I just thought of. The Yarn Harlot is coming to Denver on April 5. Yahoo! Horray! Hello, first in line even if my water breaks (I say as I do a little happy dance). Second, my blogiversary is coming! Time flies!

Baby Room

Iwanted to post some pictures of the baby's Yellowstone-themed room. Check out the quilt that our dear friend Becky made! She did such a lovely job and put so much love and care into it. It's a fun room. I got much more into our girl's room but I think simple is better for a boy. All I have left to do is to reupholster some pillows for our glider (I'm a bit scared by this task so I've put it off), get the rest of the letters for the wall to spell out his name, and purchase some faux white wood blinds. I can't believe it is March! He'll be here in a month and a half.

I have some victory to report on the bath front. My sweet girl has rediscovered her love of baths and no longer believes the boogers will get her. Now she is convinced that if there are bubbles in there that the boogers eat the bubbles instead because they disappear. I know it isn't advised to give little girls bubble baths. But for now it seems the lesser of two evils to me.

My new battle is that she wants to wear her Ariel outfit ALL THE TIME. Even to the grocery store. Last week we went to the bank and she had it on with her pj's underneath. I can't persuade her to even change the clothes underneath because she fears she isn't a princess without the dress. Oy! I might let this battle go on a bit longer. It is still cute enough to me to make me laugh but will probably not be so funny in a week. I can get her to take it off to sleep only because I told her it will wrinkle. I did convince her that we couldn't wear it to Target because I didn't have the time to deal with all the people that wanted to talk to a real princess. I'm running out of ideas...

I have some exciting news on the knitting front. A good friend is laying out my patterns so I can have them printed professionally. I have been hard at work editing them and am having five of my bags photographed next week. I will have more news on this soon I hope. I've also purchased a URL and have another friend building a site for me. Ok, more later!