Cabin/Cottage update

 It's been about 2-years since we purchased our lot, and we still have not started building. But I have been busy with many "projects."

• The RUE-Our first filing of the Reasonable Use Exception (RUE) came back in November 2022 with a request for us to update a few things, including a mitigation plan from our Wetland Scientist. In March 2023 I returned the updates to the County, so we are playing the waiting game with them again. Hopefully, everything will be approved and we can move forward with the next step in the process (Getting approval for our septic plan and attending a public hearing to voice our desire for the RUE)
• Work-Something else I've been doing for the past 2-years is a job as a proposal coordinator at Cavalry Consulting. I recently stepped away from my position so I could focus on our family move for the summer and consider work options in our new location. I am looking for something with a work-flow that will be better suited to my personality and our family's needs. I learned so much during my time at Cavalry and enjoyed building relationships with co-workers and clients. I learned that, with older kids now, I do enjoy working. I think it is healthy for our family as a whole when I am focusing on more than just family life, needs, and dynamics. Stepping out of the homemaker role while the kids are in school helps give me more perspective when they come home, and I put my homemaker hat back on.
• Knitting-I had been feeling a lot of stress and began seeking an appropriate balance between work-life and home life. Each night, I was jumping on my computer after dinner in order to get ahead of the game before a new can of worms was opened in the morning. Even when I tried to spend time with the family, the stress was really overwhelming, and I could only think about what was waiting for me with work. The kids just wanted me to sit and watch a favorite show with them each night before tuck-in. So I decided to start knitting a baby blanket to keep my mind busy while we watched the show. It turned out to work wonderfully. I shared a show with my girls while Sam tucked in the boys, then I shared a show with Sam. By the end of it I was ready to go to sleep and was fresh for whatever work had to through at me in the morning when I came back from school drop off.

I cast on about 130 stitches

Knit every row for 14 rows (slipping the first stitch and pearling the last one)

Put stitch markers 8 stitches in on either side. These first and last 8 stitches were always knit (to continue the garter stitch border (Save the final stitch that was always pearled)

For the stripes, I alternated between knit rows and purl rows (so all my V's were on the same side.)

Each color had about 8-9 rows of V's before I switched to a new color.

For someone who had not knit very much, I think it turned out great. To build my skill, I am starting on a pink blanket using the same border but with Entrelac stitch in the center. (It will give a basketweave effect)

We will see how it turns out.  

• Move Prep-Right now, my focus is on prepping our house for our move in June. In my first week off of work, I tackled the Laundry/craft room and my office.

Batman cap for Halloween

For Halloween this year I made a few costumes.
I used this tutorial to make myself a candy corn costume. Make sure to sew the fleece so that it stretches from side to side and then you don't have to worry about a zipper or buttons to get in and out of the costume.

And since we already had a batman costume for my toddler I fell in love with this idea for a cape.  I made mine out of fleece so that it would repel rain and possibly offer more warmth.  Plus, I didn't have to worry about hemming everything or the fabric unraveling.

Toby thought it was the best peek-a-boo toy EVER because it never fell off.

 Hope you all had a great Halloween too

I finally finished my first knit sweater :)  I've been working on it off and on since about Thanksgiving time.

I am so excited about it.  Like I've said before, it has taken me a lot of teachers over the years to give me the skills to do it and I thank you all.  

It is called a Raglan Sweater, I used a pattern from a book my teacher Ginger had.  But I think there are a lot of raglan patterns out there.  It was an easy stockingnet stitch for the whole sweater.  So now that I've had plenty of practice with that I think I'm going to try a seed stitch cowl or scarf to go with a hat that my pervious teacher Aimee made for me.

I can't wait to put Toby back into it for church on Sunday.  I think it will be so cute with a shirt collar poking out at the top.

Toby's Blanket

I am done with Toby's Baby Quilt!  I know I said this about the last boy quilt I made, but I think this is my favorite quilt ever.  I love how the blocks sort of play tricks with your eyes so it looks like 1/2 the blocks have a red frame and the other 1/2 of the blocks don't.  

I think that it is perfect for a baby who is due to be born between Memorial Day and the 4th of July.  And I think it will go with a wide variety of bedroom themes like: cowboys, military, all American...

He will get lots of use out of it as a play mat while he's little.  (I never keep my floors clean enough for a baby, so I like to have big blankets to sit my babes on to play with toys before they are mobile.)  And then when he is a little older it will be a perfect bedspread for his toddler bed.  

Another thing that I LOVE about the quilt is that it will always remind me of my baby shower.  The ladies at church wanted to give me a baby shower and I told them that I really didn't need a lot of stuff.  So we tried to come up with an idea of how we could still celebrate the baby's arrival, without people bringing me a bunch of gifts that I would have appreciated but honestly didn't need.  So I figured we could have a quilting circle for the shower.  It was great, especially because actually quilting the quilt is my most hated part of making a quilt.

I made sure to bring the binding I was going to use for the edge of the quilt and passed it around with a washable marker and had everyone sign their name on it.  Then when I went home I embroidered over the names so I can always remember who helped me make the quilt.  I even let my daughters sign their names to it and had them help me with a few stitches.

I got the quilt pattern here and found all my plaid fabric for my star squares at the thrift store.  A boy's long sleeve shirt gave me just enough fabric to make about 6-8 squares from each plaid.  I don't know if I'd go any smaller than a size 5T, but the size 6-12's had enough and they were less expensive than the men's shirts.  So I just searched the racks for red or blue plaids that were cheap and felt like strong fabric.

I'd love to make one of these again.  Who's going to give me an excuse to make one?

Fitted Crib Sheet

I followed a tutorial I found here to make a fitted crib sheet.  We have some friends that gave us some boy baby bedding that is going to go great with Toby's new room.  But I knew that 1 fitted crib sheet was not going to be enough.  So I browsed my thrift stores for a sheet that I could use as fabric and found one for $2.  Then I got some elastic at the fabric store for $1.49.  So that, plus a little bit of my time, I now have an extra crib sheet for only $3.49.  Not bad if you ask me.  

I wanted to take a photo of the underside to show you that yes, it actually does fit and fit well.  When I attached the elastic to the first corner of the sheet I was seriously doubting if the tutorial was going to give me the results I wanted.  So the second corner I came up with my own system and made a casing out of bias tape and threaded the elastic through the casing.  When I compared the 2 corners, I realized the first one was just as good and stretchy.  So I stuck with the fast way that is shown in the tutorial for the remaining 2 corners.  So if you doubt like I did, continue on and trust in the system :)

 And just for fun, here is a shot of Toby's room so far.  It is still basically the office/guest room.  But I do have the rocking chair in there along with the new toy box/attoman and thick chair pad.  I'm hoping the new pad will make it more comfortable to nurse in.  Otherwise, I think the chair is finally going to be donated.

  In the past we have set up the crib and all the baby stuff before our helpers come to the house after baby's arrival, and I hate that I am always going into the guest room to get out the baby clothes and I'm sure they hate that between the crib and the airmatress they are sleeping on, there is no floor space left in the room.  So this time I'm going to make setting up the nursery part of my helper's job.  I hope my dad doesn't mind that little item on the to-do list for the last day of his visit :)

But I figured the baby stays in our room for the first 3 months anyway, so what's the point of setting the room up months ahead of time when it would be so much more comfortable for our guest without the crib.

Camo Diaper Bag

We had a very busy week, so today was a lay around the house kind of morning.  The girls were behaving better than usual and entertaining themselves, so I got something on my "getting ready for the baby" to-do list checked off my list.

I made a diaper bag by following this tutorial.  It was fairly good, but I was glad there were photos along with the words so I could try to interpret some of the steps that were a little confusing to me.

It ended up begin much smaller than I thought it would be, but I was able to make it completely out of scraps that I had laying around in my craft area :)  I think it will be a great bag for Daddy to use because it is actually made out of the official dessert Camouflage uniform fabric that they use on Daddy's uniform.  I had picked it up at Wallmart several years ago for $3 a yard.  (Don't ask me how Walmart got the same material as the military.) I think I might even make my way over to the Navy exchange the next time I'm on base and see if they have any Sea Bee patches that I could put on the front pocket.  

In my excitement I forgot to wash it before I took the photos, so there are a few red lines on it from when I was putting it together, but I will wash it and it will look great.  

When I was in my hooter hider making frenzy a few years ago I made a camo hooter hider out of this same fabric, so now I will have a matching set :)

I made my first neck tie onesie today:)  I think it is so cute, but there are a lot of puckers.  I obviously need to work on sewing with knits/stretchy fabric.

I a fusible webbing on the back of the tie, but I think if I make another one I need to use a double back fusible webbing so that I can iron it onto the shirts before I sew it into place and that might solve my problem.  If not, I might just sew it by hand instead of on the machine.

I used this tutorial and pattern found here, but I had to reduce the pattern to 70% it's original size to make it fit on to my tiny onesie.

I can't wait for this little guy to come, but something I've noticed it that there are not a lot of projects for boys.  Does anyone have any favorite baby boy projects?
-Bri