Missing Loch Lomond

Summer camp has started on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond... and even though it has been four years since I've made it to that part of the world (and let's face it -- I have one of the most legitimate reasons on the planet for missing it this year) I'm still a little nostalgic for that field and the view. 

Last year, I wrote about what brings me back there year after year, here.  

Many of my foreign friends have converged on the field by now and are giving a slew of young people the summer of their lives by introducing them to new skills, new friends and a new environment. Someday, I hope to take the Peanut there to show him or her the place where I first fell in love with travel and foreign experiences.

To my friends there now, may the rain be sparse, the midgies* be few, and may you take the time to enjoy every single stunning sunset Loch Lomond has to offer you in the next few weeks. 

{*The most awful little bugs on the planet... 10,000x worse than mosquitoes in my book. They are so tiny you can't see them coming until one bites you on the face. They will not be missed...} 

Cloth Diapers

I always knew if I had a baby, I'd use cloth diapers. Perhaps it's because I wore them as a babe and my mom swore by them (and I still have one of the old-fashioned pins in my sewing kit) or maybe it has to do with the fact that I was a bit of an environmental freak back in high school. 

Then I discovered that cloth diapered babies generally get less rashes, are exposed to less chemicals and on average seem to potty train quicker than those in disposables. Even more reasons to go with them! 

I'm betting though the real reason I set my mind on it though was once I saw the monetary savings. A few hundred bucks versus thousands over the years? You bet I'm going to cloth diaper the Peanut. And, having lived overseas and witnessed the lack of disposables in many of those places... I perhaps have an easier time than others imagining that cloth diapering is totally plausible, especially in this world of convenient washing machines. 

Over the months, I've gathered enough supplies from online vendors and even Walmart and when people ask if we're ready for the baby to arrive I tell them we have a place for the wee one to sleep and we have diapers. I'm pretty sure those are two things that are high on the list of necessities. 

The convenience of washing machines aside, for the first few weeks, the Sailor and I decided to cash in on my winning streak and use my coupon for a free diaper service. We'll still be cloth diapering, but we'll simply be letting someone else wash the dirties for us for a few weeks. 

(Even if you're convinced that disposables are the way to go instead for convenience, who can resist the cute owl pattern on the cloth diaper cover above?)

TV Freedom

Yesterday, the Sailor and I canceled our TV service. After a year of subscribing on a special, we decided that it wasn't worth our time and money to keep both the TV and the Internet once the price went up. So we canceled the TV and kept the Internet. 

Frankly, it wasn't much more expensive to continue with the TV service, but we stopped it out of principle. It's so easy to just channel surf and watch mindless TV in the evenings.

Now don't get me wrong. We love our TV time. (How do you think I get so much knitting and crocheting done?!) But we realized that most of what we watch we can find online. We also realized that we were just wasting time watching stuff that we weren't all that interested in.

It's not the first time we've gone without TV. Before we moved, we only had our DVDs and the Internet. And for half the time I lived in England, I didn't even own a TV. There, you pay an annual TV license, even if you never plug your TV into the wall. After a year and a half, I decided that paying a few hundred bucks a year wasn't worth it for the four channels they offered back then. 

This past year was a little bit of a luxury, but now we've decided that cable TV is a luxury we can live without. Yesterday, after canceling our service, we felt a certain sense of freedom.

I have a feeling with the Peanut on the way, we're not really going to have time to veg in front of the TV in any case. At this point, it seems better for us to veg out watching the flowers grow... maybe we'll even spot another hummingbird.* 

{*The same day I published this post, the Sailor saw a hummingbird on our porch! I missed it, but apparently it was hovering around the red flowers. Hooray!} 

Weekend Knitting

What's a weekend without a little knitting? 

The Sailor and I are enjoying the quiet time at home before the arrival of the Peanut (every once in a while we say things like 'Do you hear that? That's the sound of silence...' usually right before one of us erupts into laughter.) 
 
 

I bought this green Berroco yarn at the Local Yarn Store's annual sale and I decided to make this hooded jacket for the Peanut. (I also made this cute cardigan with yarn acquired from the same sale.) The Peanut will be warm in all seasons.

There's definitely something sublime and fulfilling about knitting small things for a baby -- it's so easy to finish a mini-sweater in mere days! Or... maybe even over a weekend.

Hummingbirds

I am not a big bird fan (ask my mother...) and while I do love the sound of birds in the morning, I didn't want to deal with the mess of cleaning up seeds on our porch from a conventional feeder.

Earlier in the Spring, I noticed that hummingbird feeders seemed to be in all of the garden shops around the area. Enter my perfect no-seed solution to bird watching: I bought a hummingbird feeder. 

The Sailor promptly installed it for me and I planted some red flowers nearby to attract the birds. 

So far though... nothing. Not a single hummingbird. A few weeks ago I saw one out at our garden, so I know they're around here, but they don't seem to want to frequent my porch. 

I'm a total hummingbird novice... but I did buy hummingbird food and I did plant red flowers. I'm thinking the air conditioning units that are so close to the porch might be scaring them off. 

Any other bird people out there... what other tips can you offer to attract hummingbirds?

The Literary Library Baby Shower

Summer definitely seems to be both wedding and baby season. I'm not sure if it's the heat (and thus less layers of clothing, revealing bumps...) but I've certainly noticed more pregnant ladies out and about in town.

A few weeks ago, I shared with you my Skype non-shower baby shower. This week, I'd like to tell you about the Book Shower my local friends threw me here: B is for Books, Babies and Brenda! 

The hostess knew I didn't want a traditional shower with goofy games, although we made an exception for the 'game' part and actually watched the US play Portugal in the World Cup during the shower. How non-traditional is that?! Sadly, none of us managed to get a photo of the TV in the background as proof! 

The invitation asked everyone to bring a book, and specified that thrifted ones were absolutely fine. In fact, several thrifted books were used to create super fun vintage-like bunting, and many of the thrifted books were classics that are difficult to find these days. 

In keeping with the theme, the food spread matched the books.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit inspired veggie crudites, complete with hummus on bottom of the 'planters'. 

The somewhat infamous Orange Marmalade Poppyseed cake even made an appearance. This has been my no-fail cake for years now and I agreed to make it for my own party. (I'm hoping to finally share the recipe with you if I can get permission from the magazine publisher!) 

And Blueberries for Sal gave way to a delightful blueberry drink concoction! (I'm super excited about this book. I loved Make Way for the Ducklings as a child and I never knew that the author, Robert McCloskey, wrote this one too!) 

Of course books were also involved... 

I loved the library as a child (and I still do!) but there are a number of these books I'd never heard of or read, so I'm excited that the Peanut already has quite a stash of reading material for the years to come! 

I don't remember ever reading The Sailor Dog -- a Little Golden Book about a dog named Scuppers who wants to sail on the sea. 

But as soon as I got home that evening, I read this one aloud to the Peanut before bedtime. And as silly as I felt reading a book to my belly, I'm pretty sure this might become one of my favorite books to read to the Peanut, especially when the Sailor is away to sea. 

I'm super thankful for friends far away for the Skype Shower, and the local ladies who know me well enough to host a Book Shower for Baby. 

(And an extra special thank you to my friend and the evening's hostess, Tianna, for making the latter happen! She and I shared creative spaces together while working onboard a hospital ship many moons ago... and it's super fun to live in the same city as her now. Most of these photos were taken by her.)

Watermelon Summer

The Sailor arrived home a little earlier than expected this week. I'm certainly not complaining, but my already sporadic schedule was thrown off slightly by a happy homecoming! I know I promised a post here on my recent Library Baby Shower and I promise it's coming soon.

In the meantime, since I didn't have time to make a milk tart for the Sailor, I bought a watermelon. (I actually think I still have some milk tart in the freezer from the last time I made it, in any case.) The watermelon caught my eye, because let's face it, my belly is about the same size at the moment, and probably weighs the same! 

Besides, nothing spells summer like a good dose of watermelon, and bare feet -- even if I can't actually see mine at the moment.

Newborn and Mama Vertebrae

What's nicer than a little cardigan (that actually fits in with the current state of my belly...) to ward off the chill?

A wee matching one for a newborn. 

 Cuteness overload.

My local yarn store just had their big annual sale... resistance proved futile. I managed to only buy a few skeins of yarn -- one of them being a German sock yarn for this little newborn vertebrae. The newborn pattern is free, although the baby version is not. I'm thinking that I will need to invest in the baby version though... this thing was so fast to make and I'm sure the Peanut will outgrow it about the same time he or she finds these baby jeans too tight. 

(Yarn: Regia Angora Merino / 50 grams / roughly 200 meters and I had plenty leftover.) 

My cardigan is the Mama Vertebrae pattern found here. I mentioned that I was making it here way back in March, but never showed you the final project. While summer is in full throttle at the moment and I have no use for a cardigan at the moment, I know I will wear this all the time as soon as chillier weather rolls in. And let's be honest here.... I want to make one in my size in the same luxurious angora merino blend as the Peanut's! 

Happy Fourth & Fireworks!

My city missed the memo that today is the Fourth of July and instead planned their fireworks for last night... along with a free concert at the park.

When we first moved here last year, the fireworks got rained out, and the Sailor and I spent the Fourth of July watching old movies, while I crocheted this red rug for the bathroom. This year, I had full intentions of going to the concert with a group of friends, but sleep called my name louder than the firecrackers. 

I was in bed by 9 pm.

Over the years, I've missed out on a lot of Fourth of July celebrations since I spent so many summers overseas.

One year, I found myself in Budapest, Hungary during their own national holiday. Budapest is a combination of two former cities, Buda and Pest, on either side of the Danube River. I had planned to meet some new friends across the city to view the fireworks, but I found myself stuck in Buda, since the bridges were closed due to the fireworks display. 

I climbed up the hill and headed back to my hostel, somewhat dejected. I had looked forward to simply experiencing a little bit of Hungarian nightlife with the locals and now I was stuck on this side of the river. Instead, I steeled myself for a night in with a 25 cent cup of a coffee from the vending machine, hoping that I might catch a glimpse of the display out my window.

One of the hostel receptionists saw me and asked if I wanted to go up onto the roof to view the fireworks. (We could climb onto the roof...?)

Sure enough, a group of us clamored up the access ladder to the flat roof of the five-story building with no railings, where we had one of the best views of the fireworks that night. 

I have since forgotten the name of that hostel and the names of the people on that rooftop. But I'll never forget that night, or the view. It reminded me a little bit of being a kid again.. of the anticipation of nightfall and the excitement of simply holding onto sparklers. 

I wondered last night if there was perhaps a Hungarian or two in town who would be missing their own fireworks display in August. Hopefully they made it to the park last night to at least see ours. 

Happy Fourth of July! Be safe... and invite someone out to see your town's fireworks with you this year. (Unless of course, they'd rather be asleep before dark.) 

  

Simple Crochet Bag

Understandably, I have a ton on my mind at the moment. The Peanut is due in about five weeks... so in between my nesting compulsions, and reading 874 (slight exaggeration...) pregnancy, birth and baby books, I'm giving myself some down time in my comfy chair, in front of the TV to catch up on a few series.

That of course means I end up crocheting or knitting something at the same time. 

At the moment, I've been working on this super simple (read: occasionally boring to hook...) crochet handbag. 

I've had the free pattern for a while, and on a trip to the yarn store a while back, I decided to buy this cone of yarn on a whim so that I would have a simple crochet project to do on the evenings that my brain felt especially foggy. 

Like tonight. So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to going to have a seat in that chair and work on this summer tote so that I can actually finish it before the end of the season. (And forget what I said about this being a boring bag to crochet... tonight's episode of 24 should bring enough excitement for the evening.) 

Non-Shower Baby Showers

I have never been much of a baby shower person. Have I been excited when my friends had babies? Absolutely. Was I ever as excited when I've received a baby shower invitation in the mail? Not so much. 

I could never understand someone cooing and oohing and aahing while opening gifts that they already picked out and placed on a registry. It's not like it was a surprise or anything.

And then there are the games: weird ones like melting chocolate bars, putting them into a diaper and having guests take a bite of the brown goop to guess the type of candy. 

GROSS. 

Admittedly, as I've gotten older and so have my friends, the showers have become much more mature and tasteful... beautiful brunches, fun favors and let's face it, less goofy games. 

I'm happy to report that my friends both near and far know me well enough to throw me non-shower Baby Showers. These past few weeks have been busy with friends and family visiting from afar, with a few non-showers in between. 

My school chums from childhood threw me a Skype shower first; my local friends hosted a library shower next. I'll tell you more about the library shower in a later post, but first, let's talk about Skype. Skype is incredible. It's how the Sailor and I get to chat basically for free whenever he's near enough to an Internet connection overseas. We usually just voice Skype, since the video takes up too much bandwidth where he is.

I was a little skeptical when my friends offered to host me a Skype shower, though. What fun would that be, I thought? They all get to eat brunch together while I sit here on my own opening gifts in front of a screen, probably with a bowl of cereal for company? 

However, it was a total success! The gals sent their gifts ahead of time and even arranged to have cupcakes delivered right to my door in the middle of the shower, ensuring that even I had a tasty treat to indulge in. 
 

Giraffes were a prominent feature in the gifts!

They gathered around the laptop hooked up to a giant screen TV, while I opened gifts (and cooed and oohed and aahed...) and modeled my larger than life belly for them on the screen.

While of course it would have been fun to be in the same room together, Skype was a great alternative. 

Maybe you want to have your own Skype shower for a friend who is far away and expecting? Here are some tips: 

1. Test your Skype connection first! Luckily we did this a few weeks before the shower. My friend had a weird dancing cat on her video feed thanks to pre-installed software from her Dell laptop. (If you have iPhones or Macs, you can always use FaceTime instead of Skype and avoid the dancing cats all together.)

2. Mail your gifts to the recipient so she can open them during the shower. I knew not to open any gifts with my friends' return addresses on them until the shower; luckily another friend alerted me to incoming packages from Target. I had placed so many online orders from various places, I may have inadvertently opened her package early if she hadn't warned me. 

3. Send some food goodies to your friend! Seriously, those cupcakes made all of the difference. I love to eat and I especially enjoy eating with this particular gang of gals. I was actually feeling a little bummed that I didn't get to share a meal with them, until the cupcakes arrived!  

4. Give yourself plenty of time to mingle together before you arrange a time to Skype. I knew my friends would be late to the party (I know how long it takes us all to order our brunch when we haven't seen each other for months...) Plan to leave an extra few minutes buffer while everyone catches up, THEN make the Skype connection. 

5. Once the connection is established, make sure the recipient can actually see you! If you can't see yourself in the computer screen, there's a chance the person on the other end can't see you either. If it's a large group, then take turns chatting to the person, rather than having everyone talk at once. Sometimes conversation gets lost over a connection. In my case, there were only five gals on the other end, so it worked out to have everyone on at the same time. 

Another bonus of Skype showers? If you are not a tactile person... there's no chance anyone will touch your belly.

Later next week I'll share with you the local literary love I received at another non-shower, shower! 

Pyrex Not-So-Pretties

My vintage Pyrex collection has definitely taken a backseat to the amount of stuff we are acquiring for the Peanut. While I'm not storing baby clothes in the kitchen (yet), I have still been clearing out the cupboards to simply make some breathing room. I managed to sell a few pieces of Pyrex a while back, and there's a stack of dishes waiting at the door for their chance to make someone else happy. 

Understandably, I've limited my 'hunt' for more Pyrex. I have still searched for Pyrex whenever I'm out and about, but I haven't found many pieces worth writing about, let alone purchasing. However, a few weeks ago, I went to a thrift store and spied these three little pieces. 

They were (and still are) in rough shape. Someone either scrubbed them too hard or ran them through the dishwasher. And they cost a little more than I wanted to spend on not-so-pretty Pyrex. 

And yet I found myself at the checkout, with these three little less-than-perfect bowls in my hand. 

You see, I found a lonely little yellow bowl ages ago... just the right size for a small serving of fridge milk tart.

The bowl is also the right size for a small serving of M&Ms. (Because let's face it, if the bag is out, I'll eat them all...)

 
Later, I found the matching larger hostess bowl, along with the even larger hostess bowl and four square dessert cups. 

But the rest of the little yellow bowls still eluded me. In all of my thrifting and antiqueing adventures, I had yet to even see another tiny yellow bowl just like the one I had.

So you can understand then why I ended up paying $6 for three tiny bowls that weren't in great shape. 

After all, they are simply perfect for that tiny bit of ice-cream I like to indulge in fairly often. The Peanut seems to enjoy the ice cream too... although I'm pretty sure he or she doesn't care which bowl I eat it out of. But perhaps these less-than-perfect bowls will be perfect for when the Peanut is old enough to eat his or her own little bowl of ice cream. 

Fabulous Friday Flowers

These were last Friday's flowers... And they are still going strong, so I had to share. 

I know I haven't posted much this week... But I promise I have plenty of upcoming goodies to share soon including thrifted Pyrex pretties, seriously successful Skype baby showers, and a few new fun fiber projects. 

Stay tuned! 

Early Bean Bounty

Our humble little garden decided to sprout suddenly overnight. 

Last night's pickings... the first of the green beans! (In vintage Pyrex, of course.)

What's even more exciting than this? There are several other bean plants that got a late start and should be just as abundant as this one in the next few days. 

AND, I've seen multiple tomatoes and peppers peeking out from their respective plants. Last year at this time, we had just moved into our new location, and we only began planting the garden well into the summer. This year, I'm thrilled that we got such a head start.   

How's your garden growing?

 

Project Life Plunge

For years, my friend has been showing me her beautiful Project Life layouts. As intrigued as I was by so much fun paper in one package -- I remained reticent to splurge on such a purchase, especially when I had plenty of other stuff to keep me occupied. 

Project Life is pricey. Plus I really like my 8x8" scrapbook albums. 

But months ago I received a gift certificate to an online store and I finally took the plunge. I figured with the Peanut coming soon, I might need an easier incentive to capture the memories, rather than full-on scrapbooking. Besides, I used up the last of my 8x8" albums on this rampage. 

It worked out that I had just enough pages left to end off that last 8x8" scrapbook on our moving day.

I figured with our fresh start in a new location, it was time to start a new project. Project Life. So this week, I did just that. 

Oddly, I didn't find scrapbooking 'super easy' with Project Life. Don't get me wrong... everything is pretty much laid out for you -- all you do is insert photos and choose the cards to add into the other inserts. 

I just found it a little restrictive in the creativity department. I wanted to add embellishments, flowers, and pieces of string to my page. 

Instead, only having certain sized pieces of paper kind of put a damper in my 'layout' process. 

I ordered an assortment pack of the pages, and it seems like there were a LOT of pages that only had room for one or two photos and then the rest of the spaces were for the small journal cards. I printed a bunch of my photos wallet-sized and used the actual pictures in many places instead of the Project Life Cards.

That being said, it was pretty awesome to whip out nearly a year's worth of events into a book of memories in less than a week. I still have to journal some of the details... but for me that part goes super fast. 

Nevertheless, most of my favorite scrapbook pages have been born out of creative mistakes. I glue something too fast and it looks funny, but instead of ripping it off the page, I work with it. I add pieces here and there to finally make the page stand out, even if I don't have all of the right shapes and sizes to fit into the 'puzzle'. 

So maybe I need to rethink this whole Project Life deal... and get some creative ideas on Pinterest, despite my earlier post about not bothering with that site.

I'm secretly hoping a glue stick is involved somewhere. And in the meantime, I'm keeping an eye out for more 8x8" albums on sale.

A Winning Streak

I've had a lucky few weeks on a winning streak. No, I didn't bet on the Triple Crown... in fact, I'm not much of a betting person. But free raffles and giveaways? I'll take 'em! 

Several months ago a local hospital offered a 'mommy-to-bee' event (complete with baby shower bumblebee decor...) For a small fee, a bunch of us pregnant gals got lunch, a tour of the labor and delivery rooms, photos with our bumps, and a chance to chat with vendors selling all manner of baby goods (most of which I was blissfully unaware of before I discovered I'm having a baby... many of which I'll still stay blissfully away from.) 

Bees I knit for a friend's
baby shower a few years ago.

However, in the whole process of meeting and greeting and chatting with the vendors I was actually interested in, I managed to win myself a gift certificate to a local baby consignment sale, as well as two free weeks with a diaper service! 

That same week, I also won a digital copy of this neat 'Knit the Alphabet Book' through a giveaway on iMake's blog. 

(I hoped that my winning streak would continue with one of the Pioneer Woman's many Kitchen Aid mixer giveaways that she often offers on her site. Alas, I still haven't won one, perhaps proving that I need diapers more than a giant mixer at this point in my life in any case.) 

Nevertheless, the alphabet knit book got me a little excited about making something personalized for the Peanut. When I first learned to sew, I made myself bed cushions in a weird pink floral print that spelled my name. I loved those cushions. And I loved the fact that they were personalized because I got to sew my own name AND I got to pick the fabric (I only wish I could find the photo to show you how tacky the fabric was.) 

But since we're not sure yet if the Peanut is a boy or girl... I'll refrain from knitting any names. I may have to start on some ZZZs though, simply to put on my bed in the meantime to remind me to stock up on sleep while I can.

 

Scrap Stash Squishies

Scrap yarn can drive me a little bonkers. I'm not talking about half skeins of yarn that are actually useful... I mean the few yards you may have leftover from a project that aren't really worth much except for gift wrapping. 

Like this mess of leftover spaghetti.

However, I've recently made use of my mess of scrap yarn, by crocheting a bunch of small squishy balls. 

I basically used the same sphere pattern as I did for these meatballs, minus the eyes of course. Some of the balls had more or less rows than others, depending on the amount of yarn I had left. My color combos are all random since I was trying to use up scrap yarn. 

Not really the most exciting project, but I know that when the Peanut is old enough to start throwing things, these aren't going to knock over a lamp or break anything else.  

And of course, if you're using up your scrap yarn, these won't break the bank, either.