Getting restarted

I have been writing lots of blogposts in the last couple of months, but none of them suited my needs on telling you guys about my life. I became a Mama on August 25, 2011, and I have been loving every second of my life, since. I wanted to tell you guys everything, give you updates on the ups and downs, tell my birthstory, and show all the lovely things I made for the nursery and my precious little girl.
But I just didn't know where to start, and the longer I waited, the harder it got. So I decided that I should get the weight of my shoulders and just write a post as if I had written one yesterday. I can always show snippets of my life from the blogging-gap, right?
So that's just what I will do. Tomorrow....
First, I'll show you some of my BabyBliss.

 1 week old

 sigh....

 8 weeks old

5 months allready!

Nursery D.I.Y. part 2

No baby yet, she apparently decided that she likes here hide-away, and I don't feel like she's planning on showing herself soon...
So lets get on with the nursery projects.
The crocheted t-shirt yarn rug was merely the beginning of the DIY's for the nursery. The next thing I made, or actually restyled, was the main light for the room. We bought this old thing a couple of years ago through Marktplaats (which is the Dutch version of Craigslist) for 20 euro's.

It was a complete light, but in a terrible style. We had it in our bedroom for several months, but eventually we took it down, because it was just tooooooooo wrong... It went into storage until I decided I could give it a new life with some spraypaint, some shades and a little love. I went to the market on a Tuesday afternoon and bought some fabric and trimmings.

I used primer basecoat spraypaint to give the entire thing a matte white finish, and glued fabric and trimmings on the shades. This is the result:




I really adore how it turned out. The first shade was a pain in the  >uhm< rear to do, but after 4 you get a routine, and by the time I finished all 8 I considered myself a pro. (sidenote: I notice some of the ribbon let loose, and the fixture is a bit off.... But I fixed it.)

No Longer a WIP!

Yay! I managed to transform a WIP from being a WIP to a FFI! (Fabulous Finished Item! don't know if it's an existing term, but I like it!)

Ive blogged about this rug a couple of months ago', when it was still a WIP. I was struggeling with the edges of the rug, they were curling up like a mad man! I finally sat down, ripped the last 4 rows and decided that the curling was probably caused by the thicker (or broader) yarn. I fixed this by cutting it in half lengthwise (yes, it was a lot of work) and using the thinner yarn for the new rows. It worked like a charm, the rug stays perfectly flat on the floor.

I added some more rows, because there were some more shirts discarded for recycling in our home, and because Bigger is always Better.

I finished the rug with a cotton thread scalloped edge, which gives the rug a nice and smoother finish. I absolutely adore this thing! The best features? It's Major Recycling, it's sort of a keepsake, because there are shirts from a couple of family members in it and it's the very first thing I finished for the baby...

The last days with the baby-bump

The last couple of months have flown by... Just one more week before my due date! We are anxiously waiting for this little one to arrive. I guess she will probably be late, because her Papa & Mama never seem to manage to arrive somewhere on time too.
We have done so much to get the nursery ready, I have made a lot of things myself. I'm looking forward to show you guys around, and maybe tell a little about the projects.

A little bit absent

Hi all,


Just a little update to tell you all that I’ve been a little absent from my blog. Because I am tired, but mainly because my camera is Kaput and I haven’t had the time to take it back to the store to get it fixed. About the tired thing: yeah well; doing your household chores, decorating a nursery and working fulltime isn’t done easily, I find myself sleeping often in the car (not whilst driving it myself, mind you), and wanting to crawl under the blankets of our very big bed at 9… BUT all is well and I guess that after a Saturday filled with a little celebrating – Mr Dull turned 32 on March 1st – and a Sunday spent relaxing, taking a short hike and some DVD-time I know I’ll be feeling fine again on Monday.

Now to find the time to go to the store…

maternity clothes shopping.

I went out and bought me some maternity pants last weekend. My regular jeans just didn’t fit anymore, and I figured I might as well take the jump and get on the preggotrain. I am wearing one now (a maternity jeans, that is) and I can tell you all, it feels soooooooo much better than the stressed seams on my favourite regular jeans. I had been planning on making my own maternity jeans with some tutorials I found online and some thrifted pants, but I just haven’t had the time to thrift (the openinghours are pretty tight) yet! But I got the jeans and tops on sale, a good sale! 2 pairs of jeans, a pair of corduroypants, a skirt, and 3 tops for EURO 63,- I was thrilled, not only because I went to a store earlier that week and found out that the cheapest jeans were 50. I don’t even pay that amount of money on regular jeans, let alone a pair I only get to wear 6 months!

I went online to search for some basic patterns/tutorials on maternity clothes, but pickings are slim! Pretty strange, because I would love to make my own (stunning, ahem) maternity dresses, instead of paying 100 for a silly polyester black thing that’s called a dress. I mean, you can get lovely cotton(blend)s for a mere 5 euros per metre/yard. You can make the most fabulous things for around 20. But the big patterndesigners just don’t seem to get this. Burda, Simplicity, Mcall. They all have about 2 or 3 designs in their collection and they are not the most fashionable ones. Can’t pregnant girls look pretty? Are we destined to walk around in tents and dresses from mum? Look at the big undies that we have to wear, we want something cute to cover those up! Oh, no wait, you CAN look cute, but it’ll cost you! Big time!

Someday. I am going to be an amazing patterndesigner, and design some fabulous maternityclothes! It'll take some time though, I have only sewn 3 dresses...
In the meantime I will be lounging on the couch in Mr. Dulls tracksuits, eating my daily doses of Ben & Jerry’s, not wearing any make-up, grey uncombed hairs and a hormone rage!

Please note; Me and the Shrimp are doing fine, all is well. I am just on quite some hormone-waves lately. Ask Mr. Dull, he will be happy to share some amazing stories.

Fabulously Finished Friday!

Don’t you love these kind of theme-weekdays? I think I love it… And I am sure going to try to use these themes to make my postings here more regular.
So, after the WipWednesday, I’ll give you the Fabulously Finished Friday! This will be the day to show you what I’ve made during the week. It can be something from the Wipbasket, a quick little project, or something I have been working on for a little longer.

I am going to warn you, though: this post will be about babies. Or better said, the little shrimp that’s growing inside of me… I don’t know why we start calling it The Shrimp, it doesn’t sound that cute, but somehow it feels fitting.
But, back to the Fabulous Finished Item of today: The Elf Hat. (I can't seem to find the Ravelrylink at the moment).
Now I am not a fabulous great knitter, I know how to do cables, I can do a little lace, and I think I know the words for every technique better in English than my own language, but hey, that’s the side effect of using the WWW to get into - or reacquainted to - a new craft. My tension usually varies during my projects, creating a not so uniform end result. I like to use mohair, angora, or any other fluffy yarn to disguise the slight difference in stitches. That usually works pretty well.



This hat was knitted in the round on dpns. The only sufficient dpns I had were 25cms steel needles. The overall tension I work with is pretty tight, so when I have 20 stitches per needle, everything is okay. But then the decreases start; fewer stitches on the needles and the stitches were a bit stretched due to the weight of the needles. As soon as I finished off I scooted over to Ebay and ordered a large set of bamboo dpns. I think that will make knitting these more easy. Because I would love to make some more babyhats. Maybe not newborn, since the shrimp is due in August, but there are a lot of patterns for 3mo old as well. Don’t you just love Ravelry?? I know I do..

I used a mohair yarn in bright turquoise. I think this colour could go well for both sexes, once we know the sex I can make it more girly by adding some crocheted flowers, or more boyish by adding a little patch of a boyish something (I absolutely have no idea what I mean with that). I love the way this yarn looks, however, I might line it with a soft cotton knit, cause mohair tends to be a bit itchy sometimes.



This is the very first item I finished up for The Shrimp, I have so many other things I want to make, but I guess it’s best to wait a while so we know if it will be a He or a SheShrimp!