Here I am!

I'm thinking that I should just officially declare a vacation from blogging as my current post rate is about once every two months. :)

If there is anyone left reading this, I'm here to report that all is well.

Just a few quick photos to share

This was taken on my birthday, Nov 15th when I was 16 weeks along.

This one was taken at 20 weeks.

I am now 24 weeks and it's time for another photo! I'll probably get Doug to take one tonight, but I'm much rounder than that last one.

On Dec 23rd we had an U/S and discovered that we are expecting a little BOY on May 2nd (or thereabouts). I don't have any u/s pics to share though, forgot those. That night my husband decided to celebrate by totalling his car.

No, he wasn't drinking and driving or anything like that. He swerved a deer that ran out in front of him and drove through a fence. He's totally fine, but the car is obviously not. Ugh. It turns out that the day his mom found out she was expecting a boy his dad drove his car into the side of a mountain by falling asleep at the wheel. He is fine now too, but was pretty badly injured back then.

Anyhoo, all is well and hopefully I'll get a few more posts published before I have pictures of a real live baby to show you! In the meantime you can probably find me at my parents' house playing with my little brother's awesome Christmas present....Guitar Hero World Tour. SOOOO much fun!

Mystery Solved

Over a month with no post! I know, I know....last time I promised a fun post and then radio silence for almost two months. Well, a few months ago.....

I must have taken about 6 tests over the course of a week just to "be sure". We decided to wait for the three-month mark to tell anyone at all, including friends and family. We just wanted to be sure that this time was going to be different than what happened last time. I had an initial doctor's appointment around 5 weeks to determine the approximate due date, then another appointment at 13 weeks for our first ultrasound.

(*Note: I have tried about a dozen different ways to get these u/s pics to show up better, but finally I had to resort to just taking pictures of the u/s papers. The scanned pictures wouldn't load properly into blogger. As if that wasn't headache enough, the darn things keep coming up sideways....I give up! Tilt your head to the right and enjoy!)

So that should about sum up by absence. I didn't trust myself to blog without slipping up about our HUGE secret. Not to mention the first few months were a little trying. I was nauseous mostly in the evenings, so dragging the laptop to Panera, the land of a million smells, was pretty much out of the question. Add to that the intense fatigue that comes with the first trimester, and well, there you go. I am feeling MUCH better now. I have just outgrown all my regular pants and I'm starting to show a bit, but only if you already know what to look for. My baby bump isn't quite noticeable as a baby bump, just a little extra weight around the middle right now. As of Wednesday I will be 16 weeks along, due date of May 2nd, 2009!

Now that my secret is out I'm sure I will be posting more regularly, so feel free to stop by and say hi!

Anyone still there?

Holy moly! I can't believe it's been more than a month since I last posted! There hasn't been a whole lot going on over in my world. I haven't really knit anything. (I opted out of doing the Knitting Ravelympics that I posted about last. Too much pressure.) Doug got a new job and I've been adjusting to his very weird schedule. By weird I mean, he is working a M-F 9-5 job. He is home EVERY evening and weekend. That is so bizarre by our standards. It's been a real treat to have him home in the evenings, but werid to not have any weekdays with him. That used to be our errand-running time, and it's been an adjustment to do all that stuff on my own.
No pictures for this post, sorry. I hate posts without pictures, but I just happened to be near a computer when I realized how neglectful of the blog I've been lately, so I had nothing planned. The reason for my long-awaited (ha!) return to blogging? I just got an email that notified me that my SITS day in the sun was coming next Wednesday! I need to do some blogging between now and then so I will be back with pictures and all later this week/weekend. Hopefully.
I have a really super-cool post planned, but probably not until sometime late next week. (That should keep you clicking back, right?)
See you soon!

Link-o-licious

Most of you have at least heard of the Knitting Olympics that are hosted by the Yarn Harlot. They coincide with the winter olympics and only happen every four years. I participated two years ago and didn't quite finish my project. (Although I did FINISH it eventually, a rareity round these parts.) For the summer olympics another group (Ravelry) is hosting the Ravelympics. Same idea....cast on a project during the opening ceremonies and finish before the closing ceremonies. No fair using already cast-on projects, it must be brand spanking new. So I had debated about joining in with this round and I intended on it, but I let life catch up with me a bit and now it's already been two days and I haven't cast on yet. I'm torn. I'd really like to start a project but I have done none of the legwork, ie. picking out a pattern/yarn, etc. I have plenty of yarn to choose from at home and books and books worth of patterns, so that's not the issue. But I'd need to figure out what is actually knit-able in 15 days. So what should it be?

A sweater? I have three of four that I'd really like to make that I already have yarn for, like the
Tangled yoke Cardigan, or the Hourglass Sweater (rav link), or Buttony, or Rusted Root. But I don't think knitting a whole sweater in 15 days is really that reasonable. I mean, maybe, if I had nothing else going on and it was a slow time of year at work. But I am going out of town, celebrating my hubby's bday, and work is c-r-a-z-y right now. I guess Rusted Root could be forced off the needles fast enough, but it would be a huge stretch of my abilites.

So maybe some socks?
There are so many choices. How am I supposed to choose from all those wonderful patterns? Plus there is the problem that all my sock needles are a little tied up at the moment.

Maybe I will just sit this one out. Hmm. I'll have to decide today if I'm going to so I actually have time to knit something. ::scratching head:: Tough decision.

Thank you all for your supportive comments about my jewelry! I really appreciate the advice. I think I will give Etsy the ol' college try, but it will take me a bit to get some stuff together and get the store up and running. I'm sure I will plan some big post to celebrate when I open my Etsy store for real. So keep your eyes peeled for a big party!

Not knitting!

A few weeks ago a friend of mine came over to make dinner with me. We went down to the downtown mall before shopping for the ingredients and happened to wander into a bead store. They had a cute display set up with ready-made pendants. I took one look and thought "I can make those!", so we each picked out a few cute focal beads and some leather and brought it home to be crafty. (Sorry for the blurry pics...not sure why my camera wouldn't cooperate.)

We mostly used accent beads that I had in my *ahem* sizeable bead stash. I don't know why I don't make jewelry more often. I think I lose my patience with all the tiny beads, but I have soooo many beads I really should do stuff like this more.

I wonder if I could post stuff like this in my Etsy store (if I ever get around to setting it up properly). What do you think? Would someone buy these? How much do you think I could ask without over or under selling? This is why I don't have an Etsy store....I wouldn't have a clue how much to charge for things.

I know that the cost of the materials should be some sort of factor in the price, but some things, like jewelry, are hard to calculate the cost. For instance, if you buy something in bulk, like a string of beads, how do you know exactly what the cost was in making one necklace?I really like the way this round green one came out, it's a shame there isn't a better picture of it. The stone is that cat's eye kind of stone, where the light hits it and makes little rings and lines in the stone. This brown one is one that my friend made. I really like her design. The flower is made of shell and the brown round beads are wood. Very beachy

So what do you think, do I have a promising future in jewelry-making? (Assuming I can learn to take better pictures, of course.) It certainly has a higher finished object ratio than my knitting does.