Surprise! I'm a week old!

And my name is Sawyer Lee. I'm keeping everyone entertained by my funny faces and the cute little things I do. Mom and I are figuring out this whole feeding thing and I am tolerating being changed. She always wants to change my diaper. I hate it. I don't understand why she won't just leave me alone.... anyway, off to sleep again. It's one of my favorite things to do...

Baby and I did it....

Baby Boy Bennett (name TBD, hopefully this weekend) was born 10-20-2010 at 10:49pm. It was a bit of a rough labor (for weird reasons... I only pushed for 2 hrs and was done, so I was very lucky in that aspect, but I was fully dialated and never really felt any pain, so I went from 0-60 on the pain scale pretty quickly...) but Baby and I both made it and we are fine. We were able to stay at the birth center, so I was home at 4 am the next morning and we have been figureing each other out ever since. He's a pretty good baby, not too fussy. The dogs are getting along with him as well. We are one happy family. Oh, and he weighed 7lbs 9oz and was 1'9.25"tall (21.25 inches long :) )

Stashing

Anyone who crafts probably has a stash. (I say probably, because I am sure there is one person who only buys for one project at a time, and then finishes that project... crazy) I have a very large stash. My strategy for stashing up to this point has been "if I like it, I buy it". Well, this leads to a lot of things that don't go together, single skeins of yarn that sit there, and just a lot of STUFF. I have decided to change my stashing strategy. I am now going to try and only buy for projects (and hopefully projects I plan on starting soon) and actually finish things. I'm not so set on the finishing part (because, let's face it, you know me...) BUT I am set on buying with a purpose so that I can go through my stash and make things not just admire it. Along with this new plan comes a large DESTASH. I have started to go through my yarn and fiber and anything that I don't LOVE or have a project for, it going in my destash pile. If you are on Ravelry, my destash page is here.  If you aren't on Ravelry, I have the pictures of things I am destashing on Flickr, here.

Here is a small sample of things I'm destashing....

 

If you see something you like, let me know. I may be willing to negotiate on price. I have projects I would like to start, but no room or extra $$ for the supplies.... There are no prices listed on Flickr, so just shoot me an email of leave me a note here and I will get back to you. Also, keep checking back for more stuff... I have only made it through my fingering weight yarn and part of my fiber....

What is your stashing strategy?? What do you do with things that you have outgrown??

Oh, news....

So Justin Beiber is in the news. For "assaulting" (in quotes because the story kind of sounds like he didn't really do it, and if there was any encounter it was accidental) a 12-yr-old boy. First off, I don't really care. Secondly, I'm a bit disappointed in America that this story was actually in the NEWS hours of the Today show. Gross.

And of course, Joe Miller is in the news again. This time for having a blogger "arrested" (in quotes because he had his private security put the man in cuffs, once the police arrived the man was set free) at a town hall meeting for trespassing. I was unaware that you could trespass at a public event.  I also think that he is a bit confused on what is his private life. I don't consider my work history private. If I were running for public office, I would kind of expect every bit of dirt to be uncovered about me. That is what happens... not saying it is right, but it is what happens....

I just hate watching the news. And I can't wait until November 4th when all the political ads are off the air. There is ONE that I really like, it is put out by GCI (our local cable company (that I actually dislike... )) and it just encourages people to get out and vote. It reminds people that this election is important for Alaska and no matter what you believe in, you should voice your opinion. Which is one belief I can get behind. VOTE.

Baby, baby, baby

I'm about as ready for this baby as I think I ever will be. The new washer (remember, the washer broke... I think I mentioned that...) was delivered on Monday and I finally prepped all of my cloth diapers. I have kind of been finding excuses to do laundry because the washer is so awesome.  It is a whirlpool duet and just amazing. The clothes are washed, sorted by size, and put into the changing table. My bags are packed and ready to head to the birth center. (I think I have everything.... who knows...) My room is still a mess, but oh well. Our bedroom, where the baby will be for at least a while, is clean and ready to go. The midwife said yesterday that the baby is head down and pretty low (which I kind of guessed, because my stomach is in my way and I haven't really gotten any bigger)... any day now. Of course, Baby could still be late, but even late, it is the middle of October, so two weeks... CRAZY. Here is what I look like now.

It's very weird to see myself in pictures... I don't feel like I look that pregnant. I guess I'm just used to it... 

We decorated for Halloween early this week. Which means my fall quilts are out! I find it slightly amusing that I have two quilts for this season and none for Christmas.... I do have all the fabric for two Christmas quilts... it's even all cut out... maybe next year. :)

The scottie dog pillow is a new acquisition. I bought it at the Friends of Pets quilt auction. It matched my quilt perfectly, so I knew I had to have it! 

I had some other things, but they have already slipped my mind. I have an exciting day planned today... lunch with my former teaching team, and then selling my wares at a craft fair. Fingers crossed that I make some $$ so I can treat myself to something nice! :) I will try to remember to take pictures of my booth so you can see it. Off to my busy day!

Dinner

Weston and I don't eat out a lot. We both would rather buy "things" (like, yarn, bullets, washers, DVDs, etc) with our money than fancy meals. Along with that, often when we eat out, we feel that it wasn't worth the money because we could have made it ourselves for far less AND better. So, eating out hasn't been a large part of our life for at least a year. When we do eat out, it is at Bear's Tooth, Spenard Roadhouse, or some other local joint. 

Lately, I have been trying to plan dinner. While we often have been cooking at home, dinner has been this THING where we both open cabinets, him and haw, and then determine there is "nothing to eat" and wind up with something disappointing. Plus, even when W suggests things that I normally like, sometimes I'm in a whiny mood and don't WANT that and get cranky. Especially when that is what we wind up having anyway... So, I have taken it upon myself to sit down once a week, make a menu, write a grocery list, go grocery shopping, and cook. Yeah, that's right, I have been cooking dinner. I think last week I cooked 3/5 nights during the week. That is pretty much unheard of. This has improved dinner time in our house ten fold... I know what I am going to eat, I can get it ready when I'm hungry (and not have to wait until W wants to eat), and I go to the grocery store once a week instead of multiple times.... which saves us $$. Every time I go to the grocery store, I buy things I don't intend to, so the fewer times I go, the less money I spend!

Another thing this has helped is our meat intake. We have been trying to eat less meat for a while, for a few reasons. 

*It is better for the environment. A lot of the greenhouse gases are caused by meat production.... plus, shipping it a far way, etc. etc. 

*It is better for us.... If you aren't eating meat, you replace that with something else in your meal, such as a hearty vegetable...

*It is cheaper. For example, today when I went to the store and bought 34 items and I spent $58.69 (I saved $29.91 with coupons and stuff) and $14 of that was meat! I bought a pack of chicken breasts for two meals this week and a tube of sausage so I can cook it up and have sausage biscuits for breakfast. That is crazy. And I spent more $$ than I normally would for a week of groceries because I had to buy popsicles and other snacks to take to the birth center, which I normally wouldn't buy... and that was probably about $10-$12 total as well. Blows my mind how much meat costs... and I find that I don't actually miss it... I'm not a huge meat fan, mostly because we always have leftovers and I have a big THING about leftover meat. I HATE it. If I wasn't forced to eat leftovers, I probably would be more pro-meat... but as it stands, gross. 

W has a hard time coming up with dinner ideas that don't include meat, so I'm glad that I have taken over this task. 

I have a ton of cookbooks, but I have found that the best and easiest place for me to find recipes to use is a site called allrecipes.com.  You can store recipes you like, add recipes to a grocery list, and change the quantities of recipes, so that it yields more or less than the original. Amazing. I love it. OH! And almost everything has pictures... I need that. This week we are really branching out and I'm trying 4 new recipes. On the menu this week: Black bean burgers, chicken and dumplings, spinach and black bean pasta, buffalo chicken sandwiches, and spaghetti. Oh, and I might be making cheesecake, chocolate cake, or pumpkin bars... still undecided on which one (or all) of those I will be making.

So, that is our new dinner plan. Of course, now that I am in the groove of this, Baby is going to come and things are going to go crazy again. :) Oh well.... maybe I can convince family members to come over and cook....

It's all downhill from here...

I've made it. I'm officially 37 weeks (well, 37+1 actually) pregnant. Baby and I did it. Whew. So, who knows when Baby is actually planning on coming, but I will get to start at the birthing center, so that is nice. :) I am going to my birth center orientation today....

Monday my washer broke. Oops. I may or may not have been felting some sweaters at the time. Ok, I was... but it was just bad timing. I did not break the washer. Weston has assured me that it wasn't my fault. So, now we are getting a new one...

It's PFD day!!! Whoo hoo! Who doesn't love free $$. For those of you who don't know, Alaskans get what is called a permanent fund dividend every year in October. Here is the wiki page telling you all about it. This year the PFD is a little over $1,200, I'm not sure how we will be dividing up our two PFDs, but any $$ that I get to spend on whatever I want (probably 1/3 of one of them) will be going to my Sock Summit fund... I plan on going crazy while down there. Need to spin/knit down my stash to make room (which I have been doing...)...

I'm sure there were other things I had to blog about, but who knows. I have terrible baby brain (which, sadly, I've heard is one thing that doesn't go away once Baby is born... I would love to remember things for more than oh.... 5 seconds....) lately. And my legs are swelling now. Whoo hoo. :) Can't wear my dansko shoes anymore because my feet are swollen (which is actually probably a good thing, as I tend to fall in them). Oh, the joys!

Squirrel Mittens 101

What I learned while knitting my squirrel mitten....

1. I love picot edges. They are dainty, girly, and pretty slick. I don't enjoy knitting them.... BUT it was worth it and I'm glad I did it. The jury is still out on the braids... they look ok. I think maybe just one would have looked better....

2. When working color work, it is best to hold your contrast color in your left hand (if you hold one yarn in each hand like I do). I actually have done this subconsciously most of the time, but the pattern recommended it because it helps the CC "pop".

3. Working decreases on size 0 needles is not fun. I bent my addi turbo needle doing the decreases which made me even more annoyed.

4. Charting color work is a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. I'm sure there is probably some slick computer program that would make it a bit easier, but as I was charting my initials for the mitten, all I had was graph paper and a pen. It took me four tries to get it the way I wanted. The third time I was on the last row of stitches and messed up ONE. Ugh. The little bit of altering I did to the chart was much easier.

5. Even though it was a challenge, it did make me want to chart something for my own designer mittens. Not sure what yet. I also really like the idea of having two mittens that don't match, but coordinate. Like, maybe one mitten has a dog and the other has a fire hydrant or a bone or something...

6. I love knitting color work. I already knew this, but figured it was worth mentioning. Watching the picture appear keeps me motivated to knit. It is often called "potato chip knitting" because you can't just knit one row. :)

7. When marking off rows on my chart, I prefer to use something see through, like a highlighter or a marker, rather than a pen or a magnet. Why? Because I like to read the stitches in relation to the ones in the previous row rather than counting. :)

I like when I learn new things about knitting or myself while working on a project. The other color work project on my needles (the Baby Christ-ma-kah sweater) is going to be a learning experience as well because it is steeked. Ahhh. But, I have a wonderful friend who has done it before and I'm sure she will help me out. :) I am working on the second sleeve and then I have the body to do, but it has been going faster since I started marking off rows on my chart with a marker as mentioned in point #7. Not sure why this makes such a huge difference, but it really does for me. I think another thing about it, is you can really easily see how much you've knit. If you wanted to be even more crazy about it, you could switch colors for every time you worked on it to see how much you got done in a day... just a thought. Alright, off to walk the pups and get ready for my day... considering it is 11:15 I guess I should get on that....

Drive By Picture

My first thumbless squirrel mitten!! I might do the thumb today, but who knows. :)