so yeah, i’ve wanted an iphone since there were rumors of its development.. and finally i have one!

it’s here!

can you see the excitement? i’m taking it slow and savoring every moment! but i already sat down today and sewed up two cozies for it (the first one didn’t work out so well.)

this is the winner (the loser is here.) one seam to lessen bulkiness. tight but not too tight. the lining is flannel to protect the screen (i have a screen covering protector on its way.)

the lining

can you believe that i actually have two different skull and cross bones prints in my stash? how fortuitous of me! here’s the quick stats in case you want to make one.

two pieces of fabric, 6″ tall by 6.75″ wide. the lining should be cut with pinking shears to 5″ tall (it will not be seamed on the bottom. seam up both the outer fabric and the lining on the shorter side the rectangles using a 0.5″ seam allowance. pink off the excess fabric on the seams and press them open with the seam in the back. sew across the bottom of the outer lining with a 0.5″ seam. put the lining inside the outer fabric, right sides together, and seam up the top opening at 0.5″ seam allowance. press open that seam and turn right side out. tuck the lining in and press again. done.

works great.

and here’s some other crafty news. i started the frock camisole! (ravelry) i’m using the artfibers zodiac (now called zoe) that i bought in san francisco last year. so far i’m chugging along. i didn’t do a gauge swatch but i think that it’s going to work out ok based on what i’ve already knit.

and i also have a knitted toy in progress (ravelry). this one is for sharon’s newly birthed bean.

it’s coming along SLOWLY. all those limbs are becoming tiresome. i’m thinking about making it a cat instead of a bunny. smaller ears and a tail! will be cute, me thinks.

and remember this?

this is going to be my summer olympics project (ravelry). gods help me, i’m going to finish it, i swear.

again with the hat!

she must have known that i was going back to work today and needed the sleep because for the first time in over a month, she slept well. we put her down for bed at 7:30PM with one arm out of the swaddle and her new blankie and we didn’t hear from her until 3AM. i actually woke up at 2:30AM and thought, “is she alive?” i had to go look at her on the video monitor to make sure she was still breathing! for the past month she had been waking up at 11PM, 12AM, 3AM, 4AM, 5AM, and then around 6:30AM. it was grueling doing that every night. i wanted to cry every morning when i realized that i got a total of 4 hours of sleep and not even in a row. maybe she’s turned a corner? i hope it’s not a fluke.

tummy time

we’ve been trying to give her as much activity time as she can handle every day and tummy time is my favorite. why are they so darn cute during tummy time? she’s rolled over once on her own and i think that it surprised her because i started cheering so loudly. she hasn’t done it since.

mommy and peanut

she’s my girl and i already miss her! (before anyone comments on how i look, please know that i photoshopped myself heavily. today is the first time i’ve worn makeup in a long time. what you see in the photo is .. let’s say it’s a digital fib.)

more photos in this flickr set. and of course, it wouldn’t be a peanut-related post without a little video.

more darn cute videos on vimeo.

ok, on to the knitting! i now have 10 miters complete. i know, big deal, right? 10 miters. but the good news is that i already wove in the ends on them. yep. i’m industrious.

miters on the couch

i keep them in a pile on the couch and just add to them as i go along. i start miter #11 tonight and when i’m done with #12 i’m going to decide how big to make this thing all together. i’m thinking 3 large miter blocks across and 4 large miter blocks in length for a total of 48 miters. i need to look at my colors and decide if that’s the best approach.

and i’m making progress on my charade socks. i knit on them on the ride into work this morning. wow, i forgot how much knitting i can get done on the train! notice how they are sitting on my 25th anniversary VK? the “collector’s edition” that the post office decided to mangle? yeah. i hate our post office. bunch of lazy bastards. the same lazy bastards that delivered my harry potter book at 5PM on the day of its release. man was i in a bad mood that day!

there are other pictures i need to post of the spiders’ bbq but that’ll have to wait. gotta get back in the swing of things here. ugh. so many changes in the five months i was gone!

daddy and peanut, same expression

she’s getting bigger everyday and hitting all of those milestones that are making her into a real human being.

sitting in the corner

she just started stretching her vocal cords recently. if your heart doesn’t completely melt while watching this video then you must be made of stone (click through from RSS to see.. it’s cute, i promise)

anyway, i’m uploading more videos to vimeo now. i’m so done with youtube. it’s full of crap that teenagers put up there and then comment and say the stupidest things. not only that but the comments are full of spam too. who needs that? it’s as bad as myspace now and i swore i would never get a myspace account (and i still haven’t!) so why stick with youtube. vimeo is much better. you can find my videos here and they will always be in the sidebar as well.

i love this hat

so besides playing with the peanut and trying to extend her dreaded 45 minute naps (45 minute naps are the very worst. what’s the point? you might as well stay awake!) i’ve been doing a little crafting. the mitered squares are still on the plate. i’ve finished 8 squares. i plan on knitting another 4 and then weaving in all the ends before continuing.

possible square

possibly?

these are only possible color combinations.. we’ll see!

i tried starting a pair of charade socks and have only managed to knit a few rounds of ribbing. i’m just exhausted in the evenings! by the time the nut goes to bed, we eat dinner and then there’s an hour of downtime before we turn in. i have a feeling that’s going to get better though. the peanut is starting to play more independently now and her routine is getting more predictable.. and she’s sleeping better (touch wood). so maybe i’ll feel better about getting more done in the evenings.

in the meantime, it’s all nut all the time while i enjoy our last few weeks together.

p.s. i got my hair cut. couldn’t stand all that hair when it’s so hot.. and it was falling out anyway.

ew!

we’re also finding that getting her to go to sleep is tough as well. i haven’t resorted to feeding her to sleep since she was 5 weeks old but she definitely doesn’t self-soothe herself to sleep yet. we have to rock/sway/bounce her until she passes out which thankfully isn’t a long time but still too long in my opinion.

fun in the mirror

she doesn’t suck her thumb or take a pacifier so i’m at a loss at to what to do for her. we swaddle her in a miracle blanket for every sleep period so she doesn’t have access to her hands. i’m going to try switching to the aussie swaddle method this week and see if that doesn’t help things. it’s all a gamble.

mmmmm

but she’s as cute as can be! each time she smiles at me or gurgles or follows me with her eyes, i know that i’m in love forever.

so smiley

for more photos check the gallery or this flickr set.

ok, enough about the nut. during the all-too-brief naptimes i’m able to get a few things done around here. i’ve managed to put blackout curtains in both the master bedroom and the nut’s room. i bought the fabric on ebay and sewed them up myself rather than pay $50+ for each window which is ridiculous. no photos, sorry. they are very ordinary.

while the sewing machine was out (here’s a good reason why it almost never is these days) i decided to make some headbands from heather bailey’s awesome pattern.

these are super simple and fun and, wow, actually stay on your head! i love them and want to make more but i already put away the sewing machine because the clutter was driving me bonkers.

from the front

from the back

in other sewing news, i want to draft my own skirt pattern and whip up a few skirts that fit my post-baby body. i DID have a few skirts that fit me well until the nut decided to spit-up all over them and now they can’t be worn in public anymore. sigh. oh well. i got the sew what! skirts book and am reading it through now. just need to get some large paper (maybe i’ll just use some of the crappy christmas wrapping paper from last year) and get going.

the miters are coming along too. i now have the pattern memorized so i knit them much faster.

pile o miters

and i started a pair of socks but i don’t have a picture yet because it’s a total of 5 rows. as you can see, the knitting is coming along but not too quickly. just slowly but surely.

now referring to the post title, in the times when i have time to write, code, or blog, i usually don’t have my brain with me. i’m not sure where my brain goes during these times but it’s surely not in my head. this moment here is brought to you by sunday and the hubby taking the peanut for a walk. i was very happy when he volunteered to take her out! but wouldn’t you know it that the instant she disappeared out the door i missed her. of course!

by the way, less than a month and the new harry potter book is out and in my hot little hands! i can’t wait! i’ve been reading the half-blood prince aloud to the peanut whenever i’m feeling a little too silent and i get excited with each passing page. i can’t wait! (oops, already said that. where’s my brain? don’t know.)

ETA: i did some hard thinking about why the peanut wasn’t falling asleep well and realized that maybe she’s just not soothed enough when i put her down. in walks itunes and my trusty ipod with jbl soundstage and i’ve got lullabies going for in no time! what would i do without an internet connection? surely i would perish. she’s been sleeping well since i got the music going. also, she’s started taking a pacifier to sleep! i can’t tell you how happy that makes me!

and for all the nursing mothers out there that have had to give up milk/dairy, almond milk is truly the nectar of the gods. if you’re not allergic to nuts, i highly suggest you try it. i HATE soy milk and rather dislike rice milk because they have such horrid aftertastes, but almond milk is really yummy and creamy. tastes great in my coffee!

a quick peanut update: she’s sleeping much better these days. after my last blog post, she, of course, bucked all that good sleep in favor of late nights and early mornings but now we’re back on track. she’s only waking once each night for a feeding and sometimes will sleep as late as 7:30 (but usually she’s up between 6:30 and 7:00 which is god awful early as far as i’m concerned.) i’m hoping that with time, she’ll sleep later. she goes to bed around 9:00PM so the hubby and i have about an hour and a half each night to enjoy the peace. i usually spend it knitting or returning email.

her gastrointestinal issues are also getting better now that i know what bothers her. i can’t eat dairy which sucks big time. i really miss my morning coffee and ice cream. i’ve also realized that i can’t eat chickpeas which is a weird one but they really do give her bad gas. bummer. no hummus for me!

anyway, she’s really turning into a full-fledged baby! she bats at things with her hands now and interacts more with her environment. it’s pretty amazing.

here she is loving her new mobile.

wow! a mobile!

some rings…

practicing hand/eye coordination

the giggle ball…

this ball is silly!

and her gymini.

yawn

oops, she looks a little tired in that photo! more in the gallery.

ok, now onto knitting. i’ve decided to make a mitered square blanket (i can thank cara for this one.) i figured that each square is a small accomplishment in and of itself and gives me something to achieve that’s reachable. i got a grab bag of tahki cotton classic on ebay and bought some elann sonata in white as well (these two yarns are almost identical.)

these are the colors i’ve chosen. originally i wasn’t keen on the light purple but now i kind of like it so i’ll go with it.

my first try with US6 needles was too loose which i find strange. i did knit kyoto last year on US6s with great results. i guess i’m becoming a more relaxed knitter! so these two squares will not be used in the final blanket. i also decided, after looking at these, that i will always use white as the stripes (color B) and the tahki color yarns as my background. should be fun!

here are the first two squares i’ve knit and am going to keep. the stitches are much tighter, as are the decreases. perfect. gonna move onto a new color now so that i don’t get totally bored though i’m pretty sure i’m going to knit four squares with each color i have picked out.

i also started a pair of socks for the peanut much like the pair that i made for her in february but now that i’m almost to the toe of the first one, i realize that i should make them bigger for her for the fall. so i’m going to rip out this first one and cast on more stitches.

KP’s socks are hibernating. i started them before the peanut was born and now i don’t like the pattern that i chose. i’m thinking, actually, about making charade in a man’s size for him. whaddya think?

one more thing, ravlery is kicking ass. whenever i have a hand free while feeding the peanut, i’m on there surfing patterns, adding them to my queue. or looking at the yarn in my stash and seeing what other people are making with it. it’s really addictive. i have to stop! especially since i have a secret project of my own that i was working on heavily before the peanut was born and now haven’t touched in two months. crap. i’ve gotta get back on it so that i can have it live by the fall. please send good working vibes my way. i need them. i can’t seem to concentrate.