Jungle Crochet

I feel like I've been knitting a lot lately, and with warmer weather (hopefully) around the corner, I'm ready to start crocheting more. There's something about cotton blends and hooks that make crochet more conducive to warm weather fiber fun. 

I don't remember having a single crocheted or knitted toy when I was a kid, although I know I had some hand sewn dolls in the mix. (I'll introduce you to Topsy Turvy Laura and Nelly one of these days...) As soon as I learned to crochet and knit though, I realized how much fun it was to make little gifts for my friends' children.

I made a slew of amigurumi animals long before I ever started this blog; sadly there's no photo proof. Amigurumi is Japanese for the art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and the like -- even food, like a burger, or meatballs. 

Amigurumi a great way to make tight stitches so that your stuffing doesn't fall out. I never seem to get such a tight stitch when knitting, but I can sure achieve it with a hook. 

We're not finding out the baby's gender until the Peanut wants to make his or her appearance. We're all for surprises these days. I'm anyways a huge fan of neutral and natural colors -- so when I saw this Into the Jungle pattern, I knew I had to make it. I also didn't want to buy yarn for it since the pattern cost more than I would usually pay, so I've decided it's the perfect way to use up my stash. (For more ideas on stash busting yarn, go here.)

So far I think I have enough of the right colors for the animals. The tree however, was a different story. I had just enough green for the leaves, but in all different shades. I crocheted it anyway. I don't think the Peanut will mind.

And for now, the jungle tree seems quite at home amongst the living plants.

Life: Expecting

Today, after cleaning the apartment and making lunch, I said to the Sailor that I didn't know what to blog about. Oh, I have a slew of DIY and craft ideas scribbled in a notebook, but none of them seemed appropriate today. He shrugged and said, 'Blog about life.' 

I moaned back, 'I do blog about life...'

He rattled through the list of things I blog about, cooking, crafting... and said I needed to add a bit more about life in there. (This, from the man that I wasn't even sure knew what I wrote on here.)

The Sailor was onto something. 

I have always been able to express myself better through writing than any other method of communication. I can pour out my soul in journals and with stories in ways that I've never been able to share verbally with friends or even family. It's funny to me that although I have included some of my life on this blog, there is still so much that I've left out, often intentionally.

I am a particularly private person. I may know a ton of people and have a bunch of friends on Facebook, but very few know the ins and outs of my life. I tend to not air my proverbial laundry (whether dirty or clean) in public. 

I have enjoyed writing about bits of my life on Typing Sunflowers -- even if it's all about cooking, crafts and crochet. But there's a lot more going on at the moment, an event that I can no longer hide -- at least if you met me in person. It's quite evident by my growing belly, and it's not just because I have a weakness for Five Guys cheeseburgers. 

I'm expecting.

My initial reaction to the news of this event, was to simply ask the Sailor just how much we trusted a $1 pregnancy test made in China. And then I panicked a little. A baby?! 

Over Thanksgiving, I briefly visited a friend and her four-month-old baby. I held the wee one for a few minutes and when he started squirming and cringing like he was about to cry, I promptly handed him back to his mother. I told her I didn't know what to do with babies. I actually heard a gasp from across the room -- and another friend looked at me quite incredulously, then proceeded to tell me how much she loved babies.

I never said I didn't like babies. But I've never been a 'baby person'. You know the type -- the ones who swarm around a newborn and beg to hold it, wanting to know every little detail about the child's eating and sleeping habits. The ones who dream of being pregnant and having children and feel like life will never be complete without them. 

That was never me. 

The Sailor and I have always loved our life together -- just the two of us. Not even a year ago, down on the farm, a dear friend asked me flat out my position on having kids. Not many friends could ask me that and get an answer out of me, but she could. I'm still not sure what I actually said, but I know I hesitated long enough for the other gals there to chime in and let it be known that perhaps I wasn't ready to have a baby.  

Whether or not I'm ready to have a baby is irrelevant. (The more I think about this, is anyone ever 100% ready...?) Clearly God had other plans for us, because here I am, 21 weeks into this adventure. I haven't turned into a 'baby person' overnight. But I take great comfort in knowing that my own mother was the same way as me before she had kids -- she had hardly held a baby until she brought my brother home from the hospital, and she was and still is one of the most amazing mothers I know. She may not have been a 'baby person' but she still fiercely loved her own babies.  

It's a little crazy to think that I'm now a mama to this tiny being growing inside of me. I've found myself smiling whenever I feel the Peanut kicking, and more than once I've gotten a little emotional when I've heard that heartbeat. 

And even though I panicked a little that first day I heard the news... I also starting knitting baby socks. Because really, knitting socks is about the calmest thing I can think of when life gives you some unbelievable news -- especially when that news is something worth expecting. 

And that, my friends, is life.

Ringing in Another Anniversary

The Sailor and I got to ring in another anniversary together this year. Depending on his sailing schedule, we often spend our holidays separated by a sea, but we've managed to celebrate our anniversary together fairly often. 

We're not very typical when it comes to anniversaries... there were no gifts or cards exchanged between the two of us, and not much in the way of wining and dining (unless you count those burgers we ordered at lunch while we were running errands.) 

Last year, we looked through our wedding photos. This year, we simply spent the day together, puttering around garden centers and home improvement stores, and then finally stocking up on groceries. I made soup for dinner. We would have also had chocolate cake if we hadn't already eaten it all by the weekend. 

Today, the Sailor put up the curtain rod we picked out together for the living room. He even vacuumed up the mess afterwards. Then he looked for a good sunny spot to keep our tomato plants in until it gets warm enough to transplant them. I guess some gals need flowers and the works on their anniversaries, but me? I'll take my Sailor any day. Whether he's in the same country as me or not, he still reminds me to live, laugh and love. And that's worth far more to me than any greeting card.
 

Cast Iron and Pizza

A few years ago, when the Sailor and I moved into an apartment downstairs from my mother, I slyly tried to manipulate her into letting me 'borrow' one of her many cast irons pans. We were still building up our kitchen arsenal and I didn't yet have many of the things I needed for my tiny kitchen. We were already borrowing several other things from her in the meantime, so I didn't think she'd noticed if I added one of the cast iron pans to the list.

She cleverly retorted, 'The cast iron stays upstairs.' 

That week, we bought ourselves our very own cast iron pan. A few months later, a brand new round griddle pan (minus the ridges) made its way into our kitchen collection -- courtesy of my mother, who said that the Sailor could now have his own dish to fry up bacon. 

Sure enough, that griddle has seen a lot of bacon grease. 

This weekend, I discovered that it's also the perfect vessel to use to bake a pizza. 

We eat a lot of pizza... and going out for the stuff isn't cheap. We haven't found a great place that delivers here, and some days, you just want pizza now. Plus, the Sailor is picky about the amount of sauce on his pizza. The only way around this is to make our own. So, in an effort to get out of my cooking rut, and also to try a new recipe every week, I decided to finally make pizza.

Whole Foods here sells fresh dough for $3 -- cheaper than a slice! (I know, I know... I could make it even cheaper, but let's go the convenient route for now, shall we? If you want to make your own dough, I found this great recipe with detailed instructions here.)  

Once I got the dough home though, I realized I didn't own a pizza stone, or even a chintzy pizza pan. After living in such a small kitchen for years, I dislike having things that are only good for one or two dishes, even though I now have more space to store them. Pizza pans are right up there. But a cast iron griddle? You can make a lot more than bacon in that thing. Like pizza, for instance. 

We halved the dough, since the skillet isn't that big and proceeded to bake a homemade pizza in our oven. It was the perfect size for the two of us and we still had a leftover slice to split later. 

The crust didn't cooperate with us on one edge, and I think I probably should have put the spinach below the rest of the ingredients. Never mind all of that -- the pizza tasted delicious and it didn't stick at all to the cast iron griddle. Best of all, who needs a pizza stone? Win win.

Embroidered Details

I will admit that while I'm generally crafty and creative, embroidery has never been my thing. I don't know why I have such a hard time with it... I can hand stitch a hem that looks fairly neat, but when it comes to embroidery, I struggle. 

Nevertheless, I like a good challenge, so I made these baby blue jeans. Months ago, I checked a book out of the library that had the pattern, discovered that Rowan Denim has been discontinued, ordered Den-M-Nit instead from Elann, and then found the pattern for free on Ravely. Thankfully, the latter happened, otherwise I would have most likely exceeded the number of library check-outs before I finished these. 

These are so, so cute, and will apparently fade even more with every wash -- just like a pair of jeans. They are also a royal pain to put together. I never mind seaming garments together. As I previously mentioned, I know how to sew. However, these jeans needed to be embroidered with the pocket and fly details first, before sewing them together. 

I had a hard time figuring out the placement of said pockets. Then, the in-seams and crotch are actually put together with this visible embroidered seam. I don't think I did too terribly, but then I ran out of orange yarn right when I got to the last part. 

Well, it gives me an excuse to redo that part to make it look a bit neater, I suppose. 

Speaking of neat embroidery... my mother was always outstanding at it. As a child, I loved horses, and my mom made me a giant quilt with hand-embroidered horses in every square.

I've never been super sentimental about stuff in general, but this blanket has been an exception. It traveled to college with me and then to England, and even though it never made it to Africa, I missed it while I was there. 

One of these days, I'll have to redo the edges, because they're starting to fray, but thankfully the embroidery is all intact. Otherwise, my mom would have a lot of work to redo, because there's no way I'd be up for that kind of challenge.