Little Sister

Earlier this month in the midst of an East Coast blizzard, my friend Kristin gave birth to her second, beautiful daughter. I imagine that they have spent this last month hunkered down at home, staying warm and getting to know each other as a family of four.

I wanted to welcome baby Harper with a tiny Flutter Sweater. This is the same pattern that I used for my niece Freya's sweater, but much tinier. It's made from a finger weight yarn from Turkey (Ice Yarns) gifted from my mother. I'm really pleased with how the variegated yarn resulted in such nice striping. It's very soft and lightweight - hopefully Harper looks good in earth tones!

I added a little pair of crocheted socks to the package as well - just like the ones I made for my niece, Elle, but again with a lighter weight yarn. These still have a little stretch to them, so I hope they'll fit Harper in the next couple of months.

For Annie, Harper's big sister, I included the book BIG SISTER and LITTLE SISTER.

This book was written by Charlotte Zolotow in 1966, and my big sister Susanna received a copy of it in 1979 when I was born, from our cousins, also a big sister and little sister duo!

It tells a story of how difficult life can be for the big sister who has to look out for little sister, and how trying it can be for a little sister always being looked after! 

As both a big sister and a little sister, I can really relate to the story. In the end of the book, the sisters learn how to take care of each other - and realize how much better off they are for it. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have sisters for my best friends, and I hope that Annie & Harper will be similarly blessed.

Dancin' Socks

How cute is that girl? Try to look away from those pretty eyes and focus on her feet.

Over our Christmas holiday Sara mentioned that Elle could use some socks that will stay on her feet. Elle takes after her auntie and loves to dance. Since she can't stand up yet, she has to make do with "air dancing", which looks a whole lot like rubbing her feet together. As a result the majority of her store-bought socks eventually fall off. She has one pair of long white socks that seem to stay put, so using that pair for a size gauge I adapted this crochet pattern and whipped up a pair of baby socks. We got the yarn from a local yarn shop in downtown Mount Vernon - I can't recall the brand but it has some elastic in it making it perfect for socks. They are a little long in the foot, but they go up to just below her knees, so hopefully they'll hold up to her dancing feet!

Sewing & Crocheting for Lucy

Just before Thanksgiving my friend Katie gave birth to a baby girl - Lucy. She's a dark-haired, sweet-cheeked little thing. I was finally able to meet her over my Christmas holiday, and share some little goodies that I made.

Using the other half of the owl minky fabric, I made a "taggie" blanket much like the one I made for my friend Stephanie's daughter last spring. This one has larger turquoise ribbon tags, and it's overall size is slightly larger as well. I figure it could double as a changing pad blanket too.

I crocheted her a carrot rattle as well. I used the "Sleepy Sarah" crochet pattern by Mia Zamora Johnson at Owlishly. It's a free pattern, and I've used it a lot. For this one I just altered it by tapering the body and crocheting in the back loops only for the orange parts. I put a little rattle inside - and left off the face because the faces I make are always a little creepy looking.

I made her this layered skirt over the summer when I learned that Katie was expecting a girl. It was whipped up from the fabric scraps of a nightgown top that I made my mom and never blogged about. I used this tutorial from Made and downsized it for a baby.

Lastly, I crocheted her a flutter sweater just like the one I made Freya, but in a smaller size and in a different yarn.

Katie has always been such a supporter of my crafting (she got me started on the baby mobiles!) that I wanted to share a little something for her daughter as well. Hopefully Lucy will get interested in crafting and be able to join us at the table in a few years!

Flutter Sweater for Freya

I can't believe it, but my niece Freya is 1 already. Where did the last year go?

To mark the occasion I crocheted her a little sweater tunic in my favorite color (I'm attempting to make it Freya's too). The pattern was published in Bev's Country Cottage but I found it here on Ravelry. It uses the shell stitch and it's meant to be worn over a shirt or onesie.

Mine has a few variations, most noticeably is that I didn't use buttons on the front, but rather a tie on the back. It could also be the front is one if so inclined. I thought the tie would allow for it to be worn longer, while the buttons would constrict it more.
 
Also, since Freya is 12 months old, I used a thicker gauge yarn and larger hook to make the sweater fit. It turns out I went a little too large...

The girl still looks super adorable! 

Captain Cat, the Canadian Caped Crusader

Captain Cat casually awaits the call.

The call has come in! 
Captain Cat flies into action.

Successful Delivery!

 Congratulations Coen, you're a big brother!

Amineko Cat has found a new home in Canada, with my first-cousin-once-removed, who has recently turned 2 and become a big brother! I hope the two of them have some fun adventures together.

Oh My, Ohio

I've just returned from two big trips, most recently from Austin, TX, but most importantly from Marietta, OH, and an amazing week with my sister, brother-in-law, and our new niece, Elle.

Our trip got off to a bumpy start when our flight from Portland was canceled due to mechanical failure. After flights to Salt Lake City, Minneapolis (including an overnight stay at Delta's expense), and Columbus, followed by a 2-hour drive to Marietta, we arrived!

A day late and a couple suitcases short. No worries once we saw this sweet face.

Elle was born in September, and it's been torture not to meet her until 6 weeks later, but we made up for lost time. We spent most of it hanging out at the house, dancing to Bobby's incredible music collection and figuring out what that nasty smell outside was (turns out it was a dead deer). 


 

I taught Sara the basics of crocheting so that she could start whipping up cute outfits for Elle. And to give her something to do on long car trips (when you live in South Ohio everywhere is a long car trip away).















We  made a batch of soft pretzels (they didn't last long).






And Mike even picked up the guitar again.


 

Bobby has a great collection of guitar, ukelele and banjo, and rocks them all.

Since Bobby and Sara also run a business (Just a Jar Design Press) out their house, we got to spend a little time in the studio. Last time we visited I got to play on the letterpress, but this time Mike had some fun. He helped print up birth announcements, then tried his hand at wood carving and printing his own piece.

While Mike carved I held Elle. She was very indulgent of me - letting me take lots of photos.

 

 

Until she'd had enough.

While we unfortunately missed trick-or-treating due to the plane delay (Marietta schedules theirs for the Saturday before Halloween), I did get in a little carving too, of a different variety.

Sara, Jamie and Mike's jack-o-lanterns.

Bobby & My jack-o-lanterns. Recognize mine? It's from this post.

When we did get out on the town, we were extremely impressed with how well Elle did (Sara did great too).

We introduced Elle to the Marietta Brewing Company. She was quite taken with the PawPaw Porter.




 
We took her shopping at Easton Town Center in Columbus, to dinner at Betty's on High Street, and for dessert at Jeni's!

It's worth noting that Sara and I had two great beers at Betty's:

Founders Porter & Southern Tier 2X Milk Stout

And four great ice cream flavors at Jeni's:

Goat Cheese with Roasted Red Cherries
Salty Caramel
Root beer
Yazoo Sue with Rosemary Bar Nuts














While we ladies were out indulging, the boys headed to Athens to catch a Ohio University Football Game. Mike brought back a video of the halftime show. As a person who's seen a lot of sports games, I can say that I was thoroughly impressed with the band!





I think it goes without saying that we were really sad to leave when the week was up. This is how Elle felt about it. Sorry baby girl - see you at Christmas!

Veggie Garden Baby Shower

On July 14th we threw Sara a baby shower at Mom's house in Bow, Wa.
The theme was "Veggie Garden" in honor of Sara's nickname, Bean, and our nickname for the baby, Sprout (it also tied in nicely with Sara's book theme, Soil Mates).

Me, Sara, Susanna & Mom

The centerpiece of the party decorations were vegetable cake pops. Susanna paired her cake decorating skills with her friend Heidi's cake pop expertise, and they created a masterpiece. The carrots and sweet peas were lemon cake and the eggplant and tomatoes were red velvet. They all had cream cheese frosting.

 

Susanna put a lot of work into the details, including dry-brushing color onto the tomatoes and carrots for highlights. The pops were stuck into styrofoam, which was then covered with All Bran, Cocopuffs and mini gummy worms.

Sara thought they were delicious

So did Alexis

In addition to the cake pops, Susanna made mini duct-tape flowers as centerpieces for each table, and then we gave them away for party favors.

Additional party favors (can't have too many favors right? everybody loves a freebie) were jars of homemade strawberry jam (another creation by Susanna).

We decorated the food & drink tables with garden-themed children's books and crocheted vegetables and berries (also made by Susanna - she was busy!).

 

 

We didn't do too many "activities" but we did prepare some just in case.

We set up a table as a baby block decorating station.

I made the bunting out of paper and bias tape, and I sewed it up on the sewing machine.

To create the blocks I purchased a 42" x 1.75" x 1.75" wooden banister post from Woodcrafters. Mike cut them down into 1.75" square blocks and Sara and I sanded the cut edges.

I sorted through Mom's extensive stamp collection and picked out a bunch of easily recognizable shapes, letters and lots of fun patterns. We used permanent ink stamp pads that were formulated for wood surfaces.

I hope to finish decorating the blocks (only a few people decorated them) and then coat them with melted beeswax.

Tia & Susanna makin' blocks

Another activity I pulled together were baby shower Mad Libs. I found two types online and reformatted them to fit our party, but unfortunately we didn't really get a chance to do them. We did get almost everybody to fill out a "wishes" card, however.

In place of "advice" cards for Sara and Bobby, we had "wishes" cards for Baby Bean Sprout.
While I created the layout to match the invitation, the "wishes" are from Suzie's Cards on Etsy. There are lots of people on Etsy who will create these for you if you don't have the software to do it yourself.

We had a lot of fun reading through these cards at the end of the party and we have plans to incorporate them into a baby shower photo album.

The rest of the party was dedicated to eating, chatting, wandering around the gorgeous property, and opening presents!

Sprout will be a Springsteen fan, for sure!

Alexis picked out some of her toys to give to the baby

Sara seemed to be pleased with the baby mobile I made...

It was a great celebration for Sara and the soon-to-arrive baby. We're excited to meet you baby bean Sprout!