Bobble Baby Blankie!

I love making things, so naturally this has kicked in even more as I'm "nesting" for my baby now. I've got a nice queue on Ravelry and a whole board on Pinterest just for things to make for him. My first & biggest project is a crochet blanket. I found the design from Pinterest and immediately fell in love.

 This was the image I first saw on Pinterest.

 

Here's the pattern.

It looked really complicated but the pattern is actually really easy - just extremely repetitive (& boring! Crocheting always puts me to sleep). Each row kind of takes a while but at least my blanket will be small because it's for a baby! I'm not doing it exactly like the pattern, I'm carrying the yarn from each row since I'm only using three colors. It's twisting on itself & I'm hoping that stops as I go on; it was already less after the second row. I just started a couple days ago & here's my progress so far...

I've only got two rows but like I said each one takes at least an hour or so. It's already getting a little faster as I get more practice so hopefully I'll actually finish before the baby is born :)

I've had these three colors lying around for a long time waiting for a good blanket pattern. They're all "I Love This Yarn" which was from an old neighbor. I think I'll have some left over to make some matching hats or booties.

 Wish me luck finishing this blanket! Thanks for reading

Goodbye, Carmen!

Yesterday I had to find a new home for my ball python, Carmen. I had no idea how emotional it would make me (but maybe it was my hormones).

Carmen wasn't originally my snake. She was purchased by an ex-boyfriend of mine about two years ago, and honestly I did not like her at first. I'm more of a dog person, and snakes are about as far from dogs as you can get (besides fish, I guess). But when we broke up last year, he could not take her & I stepped up to keep her. I didn't think it was right to make a commitment to another living thing & then give it away when it's first inconvenient (what a hypocrite!). So I had been trying to be a better pet owner for her since then & without really knowing it, I grew pretty fond of her.

Trying to get a good picture with the webcam

So when I moved into my current boyfriends house and brought Carmen, I was really upset when his mom said I could not have her there. She was scared and scared for her youngest son too. Honestly I thought it was kind of ridiculous to be scared of a tiny snake but hey, that's not my place to judge. I thought about it for a couple days (also waiting for her to forget about it or change her mind - but she had something (snide) to say almost every day) and realized it had to be done.

With a baby on the way the last thing I need is another living thing to care for & provide space for. Already we didn't have enough room for the 10 gallon tank Carmen was in, but she was getting too big for that & needed a 20 gallon. So I put an ad on Craigslist & set up a time to exchange her & all of her things on Sunday. My boyfriend helped me pick the person, a nice guy in the military (he lives on base). It was kind of a silly way to pick, but it turned out great. He had his full name as his email and used proper grammar and spelling, unlike a lot of other people who were just like "hey do u still have him?" (It's a girl! They couldn't even remember that from my post... definitely not choosing you!)

But he was a great choice because later last night I got these pictures in an email with the simple message "We gave her some room to stretch" I love that she is out & exploring her new tank. In the smaller one at my house she mostly stayed under the grey rock.

So I was sad (yes I even cried a little) when I first gave her away, but these pictures cheered me up a lot and I'm happy that she is in a better home.

Thanks to him for taking Carmen, & thank you for reading!

New Years Accidental Resolution

I had no idea things from Polyvore were sent here! I've been posting on accident but it still hasn't been a lot. This blog gets no love but maybe that will change with the new year... I've got a lot of things that I'll be able to write about coming soon. Sneak Peak: I'm having a BABY! That's the biggest one. But before that...

The number one thing that has been on my mind since just before the new year is the 100 Things Challenge, originally created by Dave Bruno. I can't even recall how I found his site, or maybe someone else's writing about it, but it immediately caught my eye. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since! The only thing that has helped has been... well... to try & get my possessions below 100!

This seems like a perfect New Years Resolution: Gala Darling even had simplifying as one of hers for "Bad Girls and Geniuses". But it was all so serendipitous! I had, before finding this challenge, no intention of having a resolution at all. It seems like it was meant to be...

I recently moved in with my boyfriend and this helped a lot in chopping down the number of things I have. Already I had left a lot at my mom's house, & so most of that was taken to donate on Thursday. That included three trash bags of clothes (& shoes! No!) and several boxes. There's still a little more to sort through there before I am officially finished & officially at 100 things.

Here you can see my "wear out" clothes (not PJs or workout), jewelry, hats and a couple boxes of mystery items...

The bottom doesn't have much except my now empty hangers, backpack, diaper bag, suitcase & 4 shoes (plus bags of stored clothes waiting for a final decision)

I've got about 30 pieces of clothing now, just to wear out, and already getting dressed has become way quicker & more enjoyable these last several days (I did the major cleaning on Wednesday, 1/2/13). I've actually started to wear MORE jewelry than before, because I have all the pieces out & they are ones that I truly like. I've noticed my wardrobe is basically black with several brighter pieces in pink, green & teal. I have a way better idea of my style now, and this will help me avoid purchases and also make the few I might make much more valuable. Even though I am almost 6 months pregnant I haven't had to change my wardrobe too much so far which helps a lot; we'll see what changes I need to make in the coming months.

After I sort through the rest of my things at my mom's house & make my final choices, I'll put my own list right here. I really like reading other people's even though it's a little voyeuristic...

Thanks for reading!