Blackberry Salad Blanket

It is finished.

As soon as I found out I was pregnant I began thinking not of how I would decorate a nursery or what I wanted to buy rather my mind was immediately taken to what I wanted needed to crochet for this new life. I have made countless number of baby items, many for friends, and some for complete strangers. I have taken over 250 hats/boot sets to a near by local hospital and just shy of a dozen afghans to a local nursing home. There is something sacred for me in creating something with yarn, something so soft and tender, something to be wrapped in, to be held tight by, to be reminded of the ways in which we too were knit together. (However, I crochet and have zero knitting abilities and zero desire to gain said abilities)

I knew I would make a hat (or many a hat over the course of baby's life), booties (seriously, it doesn't get much cuter than crocheted booties), probably some other miscellaneous things, but I wanted to create a blanket for baby. Something that I could use with baby right away, not too big (I can make a huge one once baby is no longer a baby but more of a kid/teen/adult) but also not too small, that baby would outgrow in a matter of days. Here's hoping for a tall child who wants to play basketball with mom.

There was a strange set of pressure to create something for baby. I wanted it to be just right. I didn't want it to be pastel, I didn't want it to be too baby, but I didn't want it to scream grown up either. I didn't want to fly through it as if it took no time, I wanted there to be a little complexity (which once I got the hang of the pattern the only complexity was counting and remembering to switch colors), I wanted it to be unique, and nontraditional. I looked at patterns on ravelry for days, weeks really. I hemmed and hawed, I made test swatches, 14 of them to be exact. The 14th one won my heart. Blackberry Salad Baby Blanket from Moogly Blog got my final stamp of approval, Marc even liked it.

Then I had to pick yarn, seriously, this is a much harder task then it should be. I stood in the isles at Hobby Lobby, I felt yarn, I thought about experimenting with new yarn that I hadn't ever used, I thought about using fancy yarn, but in the end I came back to "I love this yarn" brand. Then I had to pick colors, "I love this yarn" comes in more colors than I ever imagined and my list of possibilities for color combinations felt nearly endless. I held the colors in my arms, I switched colors out, I added colors, I debated how many colors, I wrestled with my options.

Due to the ridiculousness of this winter this blanket was my winter project that followed my previous winter project (the large afghan for myself). I worked on it while we watched movies, while we drove places, while I sat in silence in prayed for the dear one who will be wrapped up tight in the blanket.

It is finished and I am getting anxious for the small one who will occupy this blanket.

ONE YEAR as a MRS

Holy Cats Batman. It has been a year since we got married. (This will be the last of my monthly updates as a Mrs. and am hoping to move to every six months or so, we'll see how that develops, for sure every year there will be an update) I think I am still in shock that we have been married a year. A TON has happened in that year and it has indeed been a wonderful year, I won't complain. It is surreal to think that we are crossing the one year mark.




The Wonderful Things:

• We made it married a year - onto year 2
• we have successfully surpassed thousands of couples who don't make it through the first year - although that isn't much
• and it was a WONDERFUL year as well
• We bought our first house together
• on that same note we survived selling a house - house showings suck and that they want to come in at any given minute with less than idea notice that they are coming - however - despite the stress our house sold
• we moved on what has been labeled as officially the coldest day of this past winter

• don't move on the coldest day of the winter - it sucks! Thank God for friends who where willing to be bought off with some pizza
• we LOVE our new house - we love backing up to one of Minnesota state parks - now if only we didn't have to bath in mosquito spray to enjoy it this time of year
• We have a great routine for the most part - thank God for a ridiculously flexible husband who is really good at communication - my schedule is ALL over the board and he does well dealing with chaos and be being here and there an a little bit of everywhere
• Dakota has Marc and I wrapped around her little paw - it is funny to watch Marc and Dakota together - I imagine with a baby this will only be better
• WE HAVE CHICKENS
• seriously, I LOVE having chickens
• Due to baby on the way our basement is WAYYYY more finished than we anticipated it being this time of year - we need a guest room - our family is too far away to not have at least one guest room

The Things No One Ever Tells You About:

• I am still getting used to cooking for two
• Marc eats way more than I ever anticipate - it just takes some adjusting 
• House projects sometimes suck the life out of you
• we did really well working on house projects - however, sometimes they suck the life out of ya when ya just want them done
• thankfully this year we learned to set small goals and if we reach them just to chill and take the night off - it will get done at some point
  
• Laundry is doubled - yes, this too is obvious - but until I was doing laundry for two I didn't realize how much it was - thankfully I have finally fallen into a routine that seems to be working for us
• just to complicate it - let's throw in a third person this year with a third set of dirty laundry - bring on the baby
• sometimes I feel bad for Marc being married to a pastor - it has a life of it's own - he does REALLY well with it though - however, I am sure there are moments he'd trade it 

The Miscellaneous Things:

• We are still a little freaked out that we will become parents in our second year of marriage - ahhhhh - so much transition coming soon
• yes, we are totally jazzed and can't wait but still slightly freaked out
• Thank God for our amazing friends and family who are along this journey with us
• We still don't love that both of our families are a solid six hours in either direction from us which makes visiting family hard

Reclaimed Rocker

This past weekend (during the monsoons of northern Minnesota - okay so it wasn't really monsooning however, it was raining a ton and there is only so much one can do inside before one goes nuts) Marc and I finally reclaimed this old rocker. Several weeks ago (right after Easter) my mom and a dear friend and I were walking through a local thrift store and we found this chair. Both of them instantly knew it would be perfect if we cleaned it up and replaced the cushion/base to it. So we bought it and brought it home.

Marc was skeptical at best at first. After a good polish with Murphy's oil soap the chair portion itself was looking pretty good. We tightened some screws, moved two screws whose holes had become stripped and were no longer serving their purpose and the chair itself was golden. The bottom of it however, had seen better days.

I disassembled the base and realized that even the wood under the chair had been beaten up, so we got some new wood and recut the base. Took off the old foam (which was pretty beaten up and thin) - replaced it, and bought some new fabric. Probably WAYYYYY too many staples later the chair looked good as new.

I am jazzed with how the chair turned out - it is a beautiful piece of furniture that I all too quickly wanted to overlook.

How do you feel about thrift store finds?

Do you like to replace/refinish/fix up old things and make them look new?

June & July Bucket list (Summer)

I am choosing to ignore August due to the arrival of baby and instead am opting for a June and July summer bucket list, which while on one hand seems like it could be minimal at best on the other hand seems totally do able.

What is on your summer to-do list?
Are you enjoying the snow free time?
What are your favorite foods in the summer?