ellebee

looking up

i'm learning that as a new mom, things almost never go exactly as planned. or according to schedule. and because of this, a whole new level of flexibility is required of me. which is good, but takes some getting used to. it also takes some getting used to that i can't finish every project that i want to, when i want to finish it, and that productive is not always a word that is conducive to motherhood. so, instead of productively churning projects out of my little studio today, instead i will simply stop to enjoy the little things like smiles and toes, and be happy with the tiny slice of 'productivity' that was posted in my shop today.

the valentines that almost were!

i've always liked the idea of valentines... a little mailbox full of pink and white and red sentiments from the heart. if they are handmade, as is true with most handmade things, they become even a bit more sweet and special.

i haven't frequented my little craft blog much since the birth of my baby girl in november. i really would have loved to have taken the time to make some kind of little love-note to send to my closest of nears and dears. instead, i managed between snatches of naps and random moments as a car passenger to make a little love packet for a good friend who came over for dinner with us. she had mentioned a liking for crocheted dishcloths, and that her kitchen usually has a red and white theme once she puts away her winter snowmen, so i made two dishcloths and a set of red and white fabric button magnets for her. i tucked them into a black and white patterned take-out box, and had them waiting on her plate at dinner. of course, knowing me, i had literally just finished the dishcloth that day and the glue was still wet on the magnets as our friend was arriving through the door!

in a perfect world, there would have been lots of lovely handmade valentines, such as some sewn-paper ones or some crocheted or peekaboo fabric hearts. maybe next year! or maybe i will send out random i-love-you-in-march-too hearts.

but not to worry, there was plenty pink and white around my house, and it didn't have to be heart-shaped.

mountain hat

we decided to run away from home for the day on saturday, with the dog and a few projects to work on in the car in tow, and went up to the mountains for the afternoon! the fall leaves and colors are so gorgeous this time of year, i can hardly stand it. i've been trying to be better about using my time to finish up projects no matter where i am, and i've noticed that i've had lots of car time recently that is not being put to good use! so, instead of working on embroidering several quilt squares i brought with me, i finished crocheting a scarf for the shop and then got inspired to make a hat for myself.

i started off about halfway through the 2.5 hour trip, very ambitiously thinking it would be great to have a cute little new handmade hat to wear for the pictures we would be sure to take when we got up to the top of the parkway. if i hadn't been winging it on the pattern, and made it much too wide like a not-quite-right beret, and ended up pulling literally half of it apart and redoing it, i might have finished it on the way there!

as it was, i had almost finished it when we got back to the house that night, and all it needed was a finishing chain stitch around the edge. i do almost everything i can get away with in a double crochet stitch because it is twice as big, and i tell myself twice as fast, but i think a nice little chain stitch around the edge just gives it a finishing touch. i also did a darker brown stripe along the bottom to contrast the really pretty taupe of the hat.

next up is a matching scarf with the leftover yarn of both browns, and of course, some green thrown in the mix and another hat for my husband in a dark brown with a green stripe! i have no idea where the pattern originally came from, but this is the simplest hat i've ever tried to make, the same one i used to make a baby hat a few months ago (i just added the giant flower on top for fun). to make it adult sized, i just upped the thickness of the yarn and the crochet hook size.

so, if i can just hurry up and finish matt's hat, we will all three have matching hats for the winter!

constant companion

since i still have about 10 weeks to go before official mommy-hood, it's been a big transition for me from working full time to stay-at-home mom... luckily, i've had my constant little companion to keep me company through the move, the unpacking, the organizing, and the lazing around thats simply must happen some days, especially as the belly gets bigger and bigger.

i don't know where we could have found a sweeter, snugglier little faithful friend than pontouf... definitely my constant companion (and spoiled puppers, yes, that is my bed she's in!). she seems to have taken a liking to the carefully constructed shroud of pillows i make each night these days. being surrounded by pillows on all sides seems to be the only way to sleep semi-comfortably between a big belly and lots of heartburn!

a little mental break

it's been a few weeks and i am just now emerging from beneath some really busy times! it started with switching to a new doctor in greensboro, and starting to go every 2 weeks instead of every month now that we're at 29 weeks pregnant with our sweet girl K! It's completely ubelievable and exciting that we only have about 12 weeks to go! (well, 13 technically, but i'm trying to think positive... sleeping at night is becoming an olympic event!).

follow that up with a new nephew last week! he was born september 10th to very happy parents and a very excited 4 year old big sister! of course, matt and i drove into raleigh for the day to be on hand for lots of love, snuggles, and pictures.

 

this weekend brought matt's ordination as youth pastor at our church, and the happy but big job of hostessing a lunch at our house for lots of extended family! it was great to have about 20 folks from both sides of the family gathered to celebrate matt and his accomplishments!

in the fray of it all, i had given up on trying to make the designer's downtown market happen on saturday as i had planned. i had to forfeit my entry fee, but after all the stressful planning all week and having a cold on top of it, i decided it was better to be able to stay home and get some rest rather than trying to make the second trip to raleigh. it ended up being a good call since we had so much more to do than we thought to get the last minute touches on the house and the food for the lunch party.

even though i felt like this would be the last craft show i could participate in (and definitely would have been at this point) and was very disappointed to miss it, i know that there will be some time in the future once i've adapted a bit to being a momma for more craft shows, and for the creative juices to keep flowing. in the meantime, i did make a sale to a family member for her christmas list... a necklace and a pair of earrings... and she picked out a lovely little pendant for herself as well! (i'm being a bit cryptic here to keep people's christmas surprises a surprise!) here are her selections:

 

 

 

my  mission this week is to get all of these lovely items i had stocked up for the show posted in the shop and available for more christmas shopping pleasure! soon the shop will be all-new and i'll get petite bee nice and filled as well!

now that i'm having a "k"

now that i have found out i'm having a baby girl whose name is going to begin with a 'k' i'm seeing all kinds of really cool things all over the place with that letter! now in addition to all the adorable handmade baby stuff i'm going to want to buy her, i'm finding lots of cool handmade things to buy, all with the letter k! i like the idea of hanging a bunch of different types and sizes of the letter k all in one place on the wall in her room.

bracelet by kapcity

wire letter k by kristinemays

alphabet revisited by 8mmideas

little mary janes by babybugdesigns

and maybe a little something for momma to wear until baby k gets old enough to enjoy it!

silver letter k pendant by silvergarden

petite fille!

i guess i will have to put this in the back of the closet for now:

since the ultrasound yesterday morning says i'll be needing this:

that's right, i'm having a little girl!

i've been trying to keep myself from buying too many gender-specific things until we found out for sure, but to be honest, i was so convinced it was a boy that i have a couple more boy things than i do girl! i didn't really have any basis for thinking it was a boy, or maybe i just didn't want to get my hopes up too high about a girl, but now it is just so nice to finally know one way or the other!

as you can tell, not much crafting has gone on around here recently, mostly because i am still swimming in a sea of fat quarters in preparation for my show this weekend (finally!). we also close on our house this friday, which means everything has to be out (and cleaned!) by then, so that is causing no small amount of stress. add those two things together with a half-packed-up and completely chaotic craft desk, and yeah... not much crafting getting done at all.

a new home... a new studio!

ok, after i drooled over my imaginary store-to-be someday, i decided i can at least start small by completely reorganizing and redecorating my studio... which i will get to do anyway since we're moving in the next month or so! i've had so many ideas for this for so long i'm not even sure where to begin, except that one of my big priorities will be getting the loads and loads of fabric i inherited from my mom completely organized (and probably color-coordinated, knowing me) enough to really use it well and easily. she had mountains of fabric, several lifetimes of projects worth, and it seemed to be a constant frustration for her to never quite have them organized enough to really access them easily, according to the projects she needed them for. i can't imagine the factory warehouse of amazing projects she could have cranked out if she had been able to walk in and find exactly what she was looking for right when she needed it and had time to work on it.

SO! that is my goal. in honor of mom. i will make your fabric findable and i will use your fabric.

i have a big white bookcase (also thanks to mom) and i've had something like this in mind, maybe with wire baskets to keep all the different colors together, so that i can pull them off the bookcase like drawers:

i like the old, vintage stole-them-from-my-grandpa's-chickenfarm feel to them, but of course, i might have to spray them with a little polycrilic sealant or something to keep from damaging the fabric in them. i used to work at a little jewelry and craft store that used these in the bathroom to keep extra toilet paper in, and i though they were too cute. then i saw a magazine all about organizing your studio (which i wish i could find now!) and it had a big bookcase with fabric in these on the cover and i thought yep, that's exactly what i'm thinking.

the other thing i've been obsessed with for the longest time (and even more so now that i have several colors of thread from my mom vs. the 2 or 3 pitiful little ones in a jar i had by myself) is one of those wall-hanging boards with pegs for each of the little spools of thread. i found an absolutely gorgeous one at glassbeach's studio that apparently her husband made for her (how cool is that!) and then was lucky enough to find a tutorial at mantua maker that i think is completely simple enough for me actually make:

(*photo also thanks to mantua maker!*)

it's basically a large board (shelf, whatever you have on hand) with nails to make the pegs. and of course, these will have to be color-coordinated as well. i'll probably also end up needing a little something to hold larger rolls of paper in, although i think i'll use a planter instead of a basket for a bit more sturdiness.

ideally, maybe i can find a way to give it a little peacefulness and a relaxing feeling, since i can tend to put myself into crafting frenzies, and possibly some homey charm thanks to paper lanterns and/or twinkly lights! and if you're creative at all, i don't see how you could not get excited twitches when everything is organized just so. 

(ps- if you're looking for some studio inspiration, i highly recommend browsing through the craft rooms flickr pool. make sure you have a couple of hours to waste if you do!)

i love crocheting

i've been crocheting off and on since my great grandmother taught me how at the age of nine. it's something i love to do because it's so relaxing, and for the most part, a finished product (depending on the project, of course!) can be accomplished in an hour or two... almost instant gratification, but still with the pleasure and enjoyment of saying look what i made! i'm the type of person that always has something "on the needles" (though that's more of a knitting term since crocheting only takes one at a time, and i haven't been brave enough to try to learn to knit yet). i have so many half-finished crocheting projects that i've attempted to make the proverbial basket full of yarn part of my home... this one, for example, has been sitting by my couch full of a half-finished baby blanket and underneath it, the squares for patchworked couch-snuggling blanket:

because i usually work on it while i'm watching a movie, i just let it live on the end table beside the couch and hope it adds some charm and warmth to the house. at least the blue matches everything else in the room!

so, of course, my crocheting has taken a baby theme recently! i spent a really relaxing saturday afternoon today sitting on my made-up bed (something that rarely is done) just crocheting and letting my mind wander. i started a granny square baby blanket on a car trip to the beach a few weeks ago, similar to the one i made my baby nephew last year, and i decided to do something a little different and just play around with it as i go.

for baby nephew:

half-finished project number three:

(and a skein of pink, just in case! doesn't hurt to have both!)

my one big downfall in improving at all in crocheting is that i'm terrible at following any kind of pattern. i'm much more an explore-as-you-go type person. i'm working on it though... trying to pick out patterns and really work on focusing enough to follow them. i felt very accomplished when i followed not just one, but two patterns to make this super cute little baby hat:
it was the first time i'd used the baby hat pattern, found after a quick google search of "easy crocheted baby hat patterns" and it actually was very quick and easy! the flower i'd done before and is one of my favorites. the hat itself turned out a little smaller than planned (almost preemie to newborn rather than newborn to 3 months as planned with the pattern) because i had to go two hook sizes smaller, since i have a very random selection of hooks from over the years. i also found it's really hard to get a good picture of crochet work!

so in celebration of my 111th day of pregnancy today (yay!) i now have a pink hat and an almost finished blue blanket! just a few more weeks until we can hopefully find out which one we'll need. i think until then i'll go work on some matching pink booties, just in case, of course!

of course...

i'm still a believer that the most beautiful graphic quality of a home still has to be a sleek little black puppy:

now that's great design... those sweet little feet and big soulful eyes have got the little black dress beat every time!