In the Midst

I've about had it with feeling like the Bubonic Plague has descended.  But this morning I feel a little better, so I'm going to call that a win.  My own eye is a bit suspicious, though.  Wouldn't it be great if I have pink eye, too?  Yep, everybody loves pink eye.

Despite the germfest, I've had a bit of creative inspiration.  It's been all needles and thread and words!! over here, I tell you.  What a wonderful thing to be working again.  The irony of this blog is that I never mention that in real life, I'm a writer.  I never mention it, partially because I feel like in many ways, I do my worst writing here and partially because my relationship to creative writing has been tenuous at best since the baby came (and probably since way before that if we're going to get all honest).  The past few weeks have witnessed a turn-around.  It's probably the weather, the intoxicating levels of sunlight, rereading some Margaret Atwood, something like that.  Whatever it is, whatever grace I've stumbled upon, I'll take it.  I've been doing "real" writing again (and what, all of my other work is just imaginary??) AND I've also been quite crafty.  All of this while playing nursemaid and patient in quick succession.  It's gotta be the sunlight!

Inspiration comes in many forms, but lately I'm loving these blogs:

The lovely Kelly Rae.  I've been familiar with her work in a general way for awhile, but recently have been reading her blog and really studying her paintings.  I love the layers, the texture, the richness of each piece.  I like that her pieces look like they arise organically from the process, which is how I work best, which is what inspires me the most.

Calamity Kim.  Again, someone I've known about but whose work is speaking to me loud and clear lately.  Vintagey, textural, full of colors, and utterly yummy.

While baby naps, I'm going to try to get some stitching done.  If I get to the battery store, I may have pictures for you by later tonight.

Healing

So once E's pink eye cleared up, Sarah was all scummed up with a sinus infection and ear infection.  Add that to my own fears of swine flu and I'm about to call the CDC.  It's tough because the winter has been so very long and we're all really just freaking out to get outside and play and have fun with our friends and now I feel like we're quarantined.  And once we're healthy, there's the possible global pandemic to worry about.  I know it's likely not as big of a deal as, say, the 1918 flu, but for a toddler, any flu is too much flu.

In other news, I did sneak over to a garage sale across the alley this morning and picked up a plastic singing tea pot for the E.  So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Pictures?  Not today.  Something is different in my photo menu and I can't see the pictures before selecting them.  Which is obviously not a good thing.

Pink Eye and Dishcloths

So the baby has pink eye in both eyes.  Believe me when I say Yuck.  I'm hoping I don't get it, but it's really contagious and E totally doesn't understand about not spreading germs.  I don't think I can wash my hands enough times to make up for him smearing his face all over me all day long.

In the meantime, I'm going to share some of my dishcloth pictures as I work towards a most perfect dishcloth image!

Spring At Last

We officially took the plastic off the windows, so it must be spring. Meanwhile, I haven't blogged all month. We did have a brief internet service interruption, but mostly it's been busy town around here.

There's been crafty goodness.


And Easter fun.




And today, there was a long walk in the warm weather, with a quick stop at a toy store to see what they had in the way of tea sets for the little E. They had some really cool sets. Like this and this. But what he really wanted was this. That's right folks. Went in for a girly, flowery tea set and got a Chicago Bears-style football. Ah, the heart wants what it wants.

Too Old?

Am I too old to have just discovered the library? Probably. Truth be told, it's a rediscovery. But these days, the library is like Amazon, except you have to pick the books up. No. I'm serious. I order them online and just go get them when they're ready. Currently reading:

Bend the Rules Sewing
Mamma Zen
Doodle Stitching
200 Crochet Blocks

Plus, when you're done, you don't have to store those pesky books yourself. Nope, the trusty library takes care of that for you. Also, and this is the best part, it's free.

The library. Who knew?

Tiny Socks and Other Stuff

A close friend of Sarah's is having a baby soon, so of course we needed some baby socks. Knitting for babies is such an instant gratification experience. This is a modified basic sock pattern knit in Artyarns Supermerino in colorway 105. The socks themselves are turning out really heavy, so hopefully this May baby will be able to wear them. And sock number two is turning out a touch smaller, which is kind of a bummer. Hopefully they'll end up being close enough. I always have a few false starts and ripping back with the first sock, which results in it being looser and generally more stretched out. Then I sail through sock two. Sock two is a lot more fun to knit, but it would be nice if my socks would match ever.

Last night was our first official Pizza Night, wherein we made pizza that were not at one time frozen. It's going to be a weekly thing, though it'll normally be on Friday. We used store-bought dough from Trader Joe's and it was quite yummy. I do plan to make dough from scratch eventually. In the meantime, though, TJ's is perfectly good. It gave us an opportunity to use our baking stone--a gift from Sarah's mom that we rarely use. I did suffer a kitchen injury when I sliced my finger on my Cuisinart blade while looking for something in the knife drawer. Clearly, that was a very bad location for the blade. It has now been relocated. Luckily, the cut wasn't too bad, just kind of gory and upsetting.

We also brought up an old dresser from the basement for E's room. He's getting so many clothes they weren't fitting in the desk we've been using as a dresser. Plus, as he gets bigger, his clothes get bigger, so the same amount of clothes take up more space. It's nice to have everything where we can find it now instead of crammed in here and there and wherever it would fit. E celebrated by skipping his afternoon nap. We were not amused.

Discovery

I was putting a sleeping E down for his nap today and was struck hard by how much of a person he is. He holds together now all on his own. He doesn't need me to support his head to keep his neck from breaking. Doesn't need me to restrain his arms to keep him from blinding himself (though he does have a huge self-inflicted scratch on his nose--oh, well!) Doesn't need my presence to have his own identity. It's miraculous, truly. This is how people find religion, I think, deep in the well of something they never imagined.



People told me, of course. I mean, it's no big secret: becoming a parent changes everything. And it's true. At the same time, what I didn't understand was how it would change the little things. I knew would change the big things: my body, my sleep, my daily routine, my relationship with my partner, my relationship with myself, my house, my ability to lift a car off of my child. But it also changes the way I look at the sky, traffic, television, food, time.


And what I really didn't get was the fact that I would have created a person. I knew I was going to create a baby, obviously. But that baby is a real person. And someday he'll be a man. Which is crazy. I made a man.

The responsibility of this could crush me. But I can't ever go back to not having it.