2011 Christmas Makes 1: Mammamade Goodness

When I first found out I was pregnant, I couldn't wait to start making things for my baby.  I was thoroughly impatient to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl so I would know what color yarn to buy.  At 18 weeks, I saw Judah for the first time and instantly fell in love.  But Jason and I had only agreed on girls' names.  So right after the ultrasound, we went to Panera, and I said we weren't leaving until we agreed on 3 boy's names that we both liked.  We decided on Jacob Alexander, James Richard, and Judah Benjamin.  Once that was settled, we headed to A.C. Moore for some yarn.  I picked out a few and started crocheting blankets.  I wanted to experiment with variegated  yarn because I love colors but hate having to weave in the ends when I switch yarns.

The first one I started remains unfinished because I ran out of yarn and can't decide what to do with it.  But even in its unfinished state, it came to the hospital when Judah was born back in March, and it was the first mommamade goodness that ever wrapped him up:

The hat was made by my lovely friend Heater, artist and crafter extraordinaire.  You can check out her blog here.

The second blanket I started for Judah presented several challenges:

1. It took me forever to decide on a pattern. I searched and searched: google searches, ravelry searches, crochet book searches...but nothing was quite good enough for this yarn that I was so in love with.  So I decided to make up a pattern of my own: just a simple shell stitch.  It was perfect for how often my yarn switched colors.  In the end, I decided to add a half-double crochet border, which also worked nicely with the rate of variegation and gave it a nice finished look.  Problem solved.
2. I ran out of yarn.  (I've learned my lesson, and now I know to buy way more yarn than I think I need for a project.)  It took several months and several desperate trips to A.C. Moore before they stocked it again, and when it finally came in, it was a different dye lot, so the colors were slightly different.  But I dug through the bin to find one that was close enough that I don't think anyone would ever notice.  Problem solved.
3. My new skein of yarn had the colors in reverse order.  So I had to pull from the outside of the skein instead of the inside.  Granted, this is not a big deal, but it did result in some nasty, time-consuming tangles.  Luckily, next to my impeccable hand-stitching, untangling is one of my most advanced skills.  Problem solved.
4. My beautifully variegated yarn was naturally creating a perfectly randomized spattering of color.  But then, out of nowhere, for No Good Reason, it started patterning!!  Looking down at the blanket, I was horrified to find about six inches of very distinct stripes.  I pulled it out and did it all again.  Same thing.  I tried varying my tension.  No difference.  I pulled it out and tried again with even weirder tension tricks.  Still striped.  I walked away and tried again a few days later.  Stripes stripes stripes.  I must have pulled it out and tried again a good half dozen times.  Maybe more.  I finally settled into defeat.  The blanket would just have some stripes in it that I would probably be the only one to notice.  Problem accepted.
5. Judah was born, and I ran out of time to devote to crocheting.  But I decided that 9 months was long enough to wait for a complete mammamade present, and I determined to finish it for Christmas.  And I did.  Problem solved.

And here it is:

Do you see the stripes?  Even now they drive me a little crazy.  I have to force myself to not think about them.

Half double crochet border.

(For those of you who are not crocheters, I am not being redundant--half double is different from a single crochet.)

And here's Judah opening it up on Christmas morning:

Momma, you made this for me?

Yes, Judah.  Yes I did.  It only took me about a year.

That's great, Mom.  But this box is ever cooler!!

Where's Judah?

There he is!

Cozy up, little man.

 And there you have it.  Judah's first completed mommamade present.  I don't think he's very impressed, but I'm quite happy with it.  I love how the shell stitch shows off the colors.  And it's a good size for the crib and for a little playmat.  Despite all the issues it presented, I really enjoyed making it, and I've decided that it's going to be my go-to pattern if I ever need to make another baby blanket.  And now that I have it all figured out, I just might be able to finish another in less than a year.

Happy New Year!!

The past two months have been a frenzy of making...a veritable smorgasbord of craft.  My apartment was in a constant state of creative chaos.  Every waking moment that Judah was kind enough to spare me, I was sewing, felting, quilting, crocheting, painting, or embroidering.  It was by far my most handmade Christmas ever, and even in the midst of the constant stress of the ticking calendar and having SO MUCH TO DO, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.  Obviously, I couldn't share anything with you before Christmas, but now that Christmas is Christmas past, I am happy to have a little daily show and tell party with all my Christmas makes.  There are at least ten that I can think of off the top of my head, so my goal is to share one for each day until I run out.  And then my goal is to start making Christmas decorations for myself for next year (before I pack up this year's decorations), and when that starts happening, I'll share those, too.

But tonight, I'll just leave you with the anticipation of it all and a "Happy New Year!"  Because really, I think the best part of New Year's is thinking about all of the good things to come.  :o)

Lumberjudah

I've REALLY been wanting to get back into blogging.  We moved into our new apartment over a month ago.  It's a rental, but I love it anyway...despite our really noisy upstairs neighbors, who are listening to Christmas music this morning...not cool, people.  It's November 9th.

I admit that I've been thinking about Christmas and trying to get into Christmas production since August.  I wanted to go mostly homemade this year.  There's no good reason not to.  I'm home with Judah all day, every day, and he is usually a very good napper.  Judah finally has his own room, which means I get a crafting space again.  And I had all these great ideas and all these great intentions of starting early...

But now it is November 9th.  Occasionally Jason will say things like, "There's less than 7 weeks til Christmas," or "Yes, Robin.  It's November," or "I get to see my family soon" (it's his family's year for Christmas), and my response is always "I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!!!"  I think he started saying those things to get me excited about Christmas.  Now he just does it 'cause he thinks it's funny that he can make me panic on command.

So not only are my neighbors annoying because they are Christmasing WAY too early--which I HATE.  (I have very strict rules about holiday traditions, one of which is that Christmas does NOT start until AFTER Thanksgiving.)  But they are also reminding me that I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!!!

(I generally think that writing in all caps is really annoying, so I try to avoid doing it whenever possible, especially when I have emphasizers like bold, italics, and underline available.  That just goes to show you how EMPHATIC I am about this.)

So...all that to say, I actually have gotten started on Christmas crafting.  And I've wanted to share some makes with you, but...obviously, I can't do that...because they're for Christmas.  But today, my sister Amy posted about some AWESOME Halloween costumes she made for her boys, and that reminded me of the costume I made for my boy, which is much less impressive but nevertheless warrants a post because of how cute Judah is.

So, without further ado, here is my Halloween post:
(Actually, just a little more ado...every time I write Halloween, I sing in my head a song I learned in 3rd grade from our terrible music teacher, who used to throw books and desks at students.  It goes "H, A, double L, O, W, double E, N spells Halloween."  Without that song, I cannot spell Halloween.  I wouldn't even know where to start.)

I debated for a long time whether or not Judah would get a Halloween costume this year.  I wanted to make him a lion costume, but I knew I wouldn't have time in the midst of the Christmas crafting I am SOOO behind on.  We could have bought one, but we were waiting for this perfect costume at Target to go on sale, which it never did, and then it sold out.  My indecision took me to the morning of Halloween.  I wasn't going to take him trick-or-treating because: 1) we got 6 inches of snow that weekend--which I think was just another way Christmas is trying to remind me it is coming whether I am ready or not--and Halloween night was a toasty 35 degrees, and 2) people would have known that I was way too old to go trick-or-treating and was just using my adorable baby as a way of getting free candy for myself.  And Jason was taking the youth group trick-or-treating, so I wasn't going to host a costume party by myself just so Judah could have something to dress up for.  And we live in an apartment building, so I knew we weren't going to get trick-or-treaters.  So why bother, right?

But in the end, Halloween morning rolled around, and I felt that not having a costume for Judah's first Halloween meant that I was a terrible mother.  I decided that I needed to make him a costume so I could take pictures of him in it and prove my love for him so that years from now, he couldn't say, "You don't love me, and I know that because you didn't dress me up for my first Halloween."  Taking inventory of Judah's wardrobe and the portion of my craft supplies I have unpacked, I had to ruled out lion, lion tamer, Daniel in the lion's den, and a snowman (in ironic memorializing of the unseasonable weather).  And I settled on a lumberjack.  Why?  Because his flannel shirt, jeans, and boots happened to be next to each other in his pile of clothes that are still awaiting a dresser.  So no cute cleverness to celebrate his name.  No important reason or hidden meaning or funny story that I would remember forever and tell his future girlfriends.  Just general messiness and chaos yielding uncharacteristically helpful results.

I had a hat I'd crocheted for his cousin.  I had the shirt, jeans, and boots.  Now all he needed was a beard and an axe, and I could call it a day.  Mission motherhood accomplished.  I had some brown jersey fabric that would do for a beard.  I'd never sewn with jersey before, but I used a zigzag stitch, and it did the trick famously.  And I threw together an axe in about 5 minutes.  And here are the results:

And the money shot:

I decided to give you the whole photo shoot, since that was the point after all.  Judah actually did really well with the beard.  He didn't mind it at all.  He was much more interested in the boots.

And...just for good measure, here is the song that was in my head all day on H A double L O W double E N:

This is my 6th attempt to write a blog post worthy of displacing Judah's birthday.  This won't be that blog post, but maybe it will take the pressure off a bit to just give a quick update to what's going on around here:

1)  Judah is awesome.  He's really the best ever...best baby, best person, best thing to ever happen to me.  He's just the best.

 See?  Isn't he the best?  Yes.  Yes, he is.

2)  Jason finished his master's degrees!!  Hooray!!!  He's also down to 2 jobs instead of 6.  He's keeping his youth pastor job and also teaching high school and junior high Bible part time at a Christian prep school.  We tried really hard to get out of Massachusetts...to no avail.  But now that it's decided, we're excited to be here, and Jason is really looking forward to teaching.

3)  So...since we're going to be here (and since we soon have to vacate student housing owning to Jason no longer being a student), we started looking at BUYING A HOUSE!  I was really excited about it.  I thought it would be fun.  But it turns out that house hunting is not fun when your budget would get you close to your dream house just about anywhere else in the country except right where you need to be.  We haven't found anything in our price range worth buying, so we're most likely going to rent for at least another year and see what pops up on the market in the spring.  *boooo*

4)  In the mean time, I am in limbo like never before.  I'm hoping that once we find a place to rent, I can utilize Judah's impeccable sleeping skills to start getting disciplined about making stuff again.  I've started here and there to get in the swing of things, but our apartment is so overrun with Judah's stuff that it's hard to talk myself into pulling out the materials to make an even bigger mess of our tiny little shoebox lives.  I started to rearrange furniture to better maximize our space, but then I found out that we would have to move soon, so I stopped mid-rearrange and haven't been able to motivate myself to finish the job...or to pack...or to care enough to do anything but state in no uncertain terms that I AM IN LIMBO, and I DO NOT LIKE IT.

5)  I don't really have a 5th point, but we all know how I despise the number 4, so there you have it.  Instant list of 5, and finally, a new--and altogether anticlimactic--post.

Judah Benjamin

The very hardest and one of the very best days of my life. Enjoy!

My water broke at 2:15am. About an hour and a half of repacking hospital bags, and we were off!

We got to the hospital around 4am, which is when my contractions started to be more regular. As you can tell, this picture was taken very early on.

And this picture was taken much later. After about 10 hours of labor (including about 2 hours of pushing) and zero pain mediation. Isn't my baby boy the sweetest?

Here's Judah picking his nose.

8 pounds .5 ounces, 21 inches long. It's a good thing he was 10 days early!

The proud papa and very best labor coach ever.

And here he is!!

At this point, Jason said, "This is one of the greatest moments of my life."

Judah is almost smiling here!

Trying to get a good family portrait with a baby who would much rather be sleeping.

The happy Lawrenz family of three!

Supernatural Self Control

I did it! Friday night when I signed off, when I was sure I would fritter away hours playing bejeweled, I actually popped in a Christmas movie and made something. I made this little guy:
And here he is with the new birdfeeder we just put up.

Keep in mind that he is a prototype. His mouth coals are too big, and his button coals should all be on his middle bump. But otherwise, I'm pretty happy with him. I debated about how to do his arms for quite a while. I jut don't like felting appendages, and I wanted him to have branch-like arms but figured that pipecleaners wouldn't be the right scale. So I settled for wire, and although it isn't brown, I think the silver gives a nice festive effect and may just be my future snowman arm solution.

As to the Christmas movie dilemma, I've decided to throw caution to the wind and just start watching my Christmas movies. It's not easy to fit 20 movies into a month. Last year, I was saving Year Without a Santa Claus for last and didn't even get to it. No Snow Miser. No Heat Miser. Unacceptable. So this year, I'm starting early. I don't know how I feel about my departure from tradition, but I'm trying not to think too much about it.

In other news, I stumbled upon a site with over 1500 free crochet patterns from Lion Brand yarn. I skimmed through them and found 15 new crochet projects I want to try. I think this might be my next crochet venture. As my baby bump begins to make an appearance with promises of bigger things to come, I'm starting to realize that I need a few more sweaters so I don't stretch out my entire current wardrobe. And I can wear it after my pregnancy because it's open in the front so my bump won't hugify it. Win-win. I'm a little nervous about crocheting clothing, especially in a "one size fits most" pattern. But it's basically just a rectangle, so if it doesn't work out, it can just be a baby blanket. Win-win-win. Speaking of babies, if our little turnip is cooperating, we should find out if it's a boy or a girl a week from today!!! Woohoo!!

Inconsistency, excuses, and the like

Well, so much for consistency. I guess it's just not in my nature. For instance, Jason and I were talking a few weeks back about scheduling. Jason is a teaching assistant for Greek this year, which means he has to be at an 8am class every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So he's been waking up early every single morning so as to have a consistent sleep routine. This does not seem at all logical to me. If I had to wake up early three days a week, you'd better believe I would be sleeping in as late as possible on the other days to help my body catch up for the glorious morning sleep I'm missing.

Consistency, discipline, routine...just shackles for a boundless imagination, right? I know that in order to be a serious artist, I need to work on that. At the moment, I could blame it on the little avocado growing inside of me, turning my days into an endless cycle of eating, being hungry, feeling sick, and eating again, but I was no more consistent when I was not pregnant, so it seems unfair to cast the blame on my unborn child. Let's just say that unemployment has not corrected all my shortcomings as I had hoped that it would. I keep telling myself I'll get serious as soon as I start to feel better, but that is a very subjective deadline.

Last week I did have a better excuse. Jason had a week off from school, so we planned a quick trip to Jersey, just Monday to Wednesday. Now, in order for this story to have full potency, you need to understand something about me and roadtrips. I. Do. Not. Stop. The only reason I permit a pause is because the car has run out of gas. Then it's fill up, grab something quick to eat from the gas station, and--if you must--go to the bathroom, but do it quickly, and we're on our way. Normally, Jason and I do the approximately 6 hour drive from Boston to the Promised Land with one quick gas stop on the Garden State Parkway, never leave the car, eat only the snacks we've packed for the trip, and we're there. But then I got all pregnant, which means that little apple baby was pushing on my bladder, and I just could not take it. So we pulled over in Connecticut, which is about 3 hours sooner than I generally permit a stop. I ran into McDonald's, took care of business, and when I came back out...the car would not start. Would. Not. Start. So we called AAA, watched helplessly and mournfully as the Wiggler was pulled onto the bed of the tow truck, checked into a Connecticut hotel for the night and sat in said hotel room watching Sports Center, Gator Hunters, and American Chopper until 3:00 the following day, when finally, with a new fuel pump, a large sum of money evaporated, and a very frustrated Robin, we went on our way. That will teach me to stop for a bathroom break. Never. Again.

Well, being that we didn't get to Jersey until Tuesday evening, it seemed silly to just stay the night and head out the following day after all that trouble. So we said we'd leave on Thursday instead. But then along came a Nor'easter, which is just no fun to drive through, so we ended up happily stranded in Jersey until Saturday, which meant that I got more time with the fam, and Jason got another round of golf with my brother-in-law Justin. Win-win-win.

But...that also meant that I didn't blog last week. I figure it's a pretty solid excuse. Except that Friday night brings my first post of this week. But what you have to understand is that blogging for me is not just about posting. I also have a HUGE blogroll that I read, and if I get behind, it's quite overwhelming, and the blogosphere becomes a dark and dangerous place that I avoid at all costs.

Nevertheless, I have begun a few new and exciting projects, which I will now reveal for those of you who championed this very long prelude.

This lovely little work in progress is going to be a cuff. Cuffs have been pretty big in the crafting world for a while now, and I have never gotten on board. I think they're kind of silly. But I found a pattern for one on ravelry that I fell in love with--probably mostly due to the color, harvest gold, which is my current color-crush--and I decided to suspend my prejudice for a chance to have a harvest gold crocheted cuff and to learn a new crochet technique called broomstick lace (I followed the tutorials found here.), which I simply adore but makes me quite nervous, which is why I haven't finished my cuff yet. Yup, we'll say that's the reason.

Here is a yard sale find from a few weeks back. It is a copper helmet ice bucket. I saw it, and I said to Jason, "How likely is it that someday we are going to throw a medieval-themed party and need a helmet-shaped ice bucket." Jason: "Um..." Me: "Pretty likely, right? We can't not buy this!!" Jason: "Yeah, you're probably right." And it was only five dollars...a total steal for something that most people would find completely unnecessary and odd but is now on display in our apartment as a victory and a treasure. (Sidenote: I have the most wonderful and obliging husband in the world.)

Here are a few felted projects that just require a few finishing touches. The holly is going to be a hairclip, and the little ball will be an ornament once it has a hook. The star was an experiment in felting with a cookie cutter, and I'm not entirely sure yet what it will be when it's done. I felted these pieces in preparation for the seminary Christmas bazaar that I did last year. I decided that this year, I really want my inventory to be all about Christmas. So I plan on making all sorts of Christmasy things from stockings to nativities to ornaments to aprons complete with Christmas cookie recipes to Christmas accessories like holly hairclips. I even took the time to list out everything I want to make, complete with pricing plans and special deals and everything I need to buy for supplies and display. And that's as far as I've gotten for five reasons:

1) I'm going to a wedding the first Saturday in December, which is when the bazaar was last year. And if I'm not going to be there, motivation becomes more difficult. I should just prepare anyway because I don't know when the date for this year's event will be announced, and it's not like things like stockings and felted creatures go bad. But still...no deadline = no motivation. Such is my way.

2) I don't have everything I need at my fingertips. I desperately need pipe-cleaners and just haven't gotten my act together enough to get dressed and go to the store.

3) I've found that my compact little crafting arrangement in my one-bedroom apartment is just too crowded to be a happy space. And before I can get down to sewing Christmas stockings and Christmas bunting and other miscellaneous Christmas cheer, I need to clean the bedroom, which has become the shove-zone for all things left homeless in the move from two bedrooms to one. And let's face it...brainstorming about all the wonderful things I can make is WAY more fun than cleaning.

4) I really don't like felting that much. But I know that people would buy felted nativities because they're unique and adorable and a person can't have too many and this is a Christmas fair on a seminary campus and I've figured out the perfect pricing model for them if I can make them simple enough to be cost effective. Win-win-lose. Win: I sell stuff. Win: People get to buy something that's handmade and high-quality and unique and affordable that they will use for years and years to come. Lose: I have a lot of felting to do.

5) I am a staunch traditionalist. My family would tell you that this is a gross understatement. For example, one year my family had to delay Thanksgiving dinner for 2 hours because I threw a holy fit that there was no cornbread and how could it be Thanksgiving if there wasn't any cornbread and I don't care that stores aren't open let's just figure out a way to make some cornbread. (My magician of a mom somehow pulled it together, and I think I ate only cornbread that Thanksgiving dinner to complete my emphatic principled stand.) All that to say, I desperately want to get in the Christmas spirit in order to jump-start my Christmas production. In order to do so, I would love to pop in one of the 20 Christmas movies in my collection and felt up a winter storm. But I do NOT start Christmasing until the day after Thanksgiving. Ever. And it isn't even Halloween yet. So I'm having quite the ethical dilemma here.

So there you have it. Excuses, excuses. But now I'm going to quit my whining and actually get something done. Because it's about freaking time, yes? I couldn't agree more. But maybe I'll just find something for me and little avocado to eat first. And then maybe I just might turn on the tv to make sure there's nothing on. And then I will probably just finish reading Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time before hopping on facebook and bejeweling myself into a stupor. You know, self-knowledge can be kinda dangerous when not paired with supernatural self-control. I'll let you know how it all turns out.