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...

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!

Babystories

-(Non)Parental Warning- This is a very “seventh heaven-we-are-getting-a-baby” themed post, if your not up for that, please come back on Wednesday for the WIP!

Yesterevening we went to the midwife for our twelve week check-up. Both of us were very, very, very nervous. We had to wait 15 minutes before we could go in, but then she really took the time for us. We had the whole how-are-you-feeling-are-there-any-diseases-in-your-family-and-do-you-take-your-vitamins-regularly talk during which we couldn’t sit still. Then she checked my bloodpressure and took some blood.

Then it was finally time for measuring and listening, the thing we were a bit nervous about. She checked the size of my uterus, which was right ‘on schedule.’ Then she took out the listeningthingy. While she warmed it up a little she said it could take a little searching to hear the heartbeat. I held my breath when she put the thing on my belly (Mr Dull was doing the same thing, holding his breath that is, not putting the thing on my belly) and straight away we heard a firm and regular beat. So all is fine, all is well and we are very happy!

We bought all of the furniture for the nursery last weekend. We got a good deal on a lovely teak crib. Almost all of our furniture are made of teak, so we were very thrilled with this find. But there was only one left, so we had to buy it, because you never know you can find the same great thing in 3 months. Of course there was a lovely dresser that matched up and 2 days later I found a great wardrobe-cabinet through a secondhand site. I just love those finds.

So now the decluttering starts. We need to get rid of so much stuff. It’s amazing how much 2 people can hoard in a couple of years.
I have so many ideas for decorating the nursery… I could fill up 5 nurseries with all these plans!



So there you have it, please be back tomorrow for this weeks WIP!

The Return....

After a long, long, loooooooooooong period of absence I decided to take another go at this little blog of mine. This little-big-blogbreak of mine took almost 5 months. So much has happened and I have a lot to share.

Let me start by telling you the real reason for my blogbreak… Me and Mister Dull have been trying to get pregnant for a very long time. I am not going to bother you with all the details, but it has been a period of many hospitalvisits, and emotional rollercoasters. We decided not to tell anyone about our babyplans. I did tell my sister and best friend, but it was all hush-hush.

In the beginning of our BabyAdventure we thought: well, a couple of hospitalvisits and we will get pregnant and happy. I didn’t gave it much thought and had a lot of other things going on. Things I liked to chitter-chatter on and on about on this little nook of mine in Blogland. However, as time progressed, without a growing belly, I noticed a change in the way I blogged. My head kept wandering around everything babyrelated and I found myself pressing the Backspace key on my keyboard whenever I finished up a new message for the blog. When I read the words I typed, I noticed they were drenched in all kinds of emotions I picked up on the rollercoaster-ride of getting pregnant. And since my Mum reads the words I sent off to the WWW, I decided I had to rewrite the post and try to do so without thinking about babies and such. That worked for about 15 posts or so. Then it started to feel like work, it took a lot of energy to block out the thoughts, wonderings and anxieties and I just didn’t want to do that anymore. So I bought my self a paper diary and shut the blog down. It was a hard decision, I really loved my little space, but I just had to do it. Hope you all understand, and I certainly hope that the sweet souls that were reading my words will start doing so again.

But please keep in mind, this blog is going to change… Instead of beads (I haven’t touched them since a year ago..) I finally will be talking about babies… Because in the end it all worked out and we finally got a growing belly!

So happy to be back!

-xo- Mrs. Dull