Speaking of which...
shirt courtesy of my friend www.hellowars.com
I'm 19 weeks along at this point with my second. We are thrilled to say the least. I'm finally out of the first 15 week bed rest phase, (someday I may publish a book will all of the details, but I will spare you for now). It's just great to feel like a person again and move around and do things. I have felt especially productive the last few weeks.
Still very much unemployed for a staggering 15 months and counting, I am fortunate enough to have a trickle of freelance work coming in. Anything right now is income, and every little bit helps. One thing my 'dry spell' has shown me is just how lucky I am to have the family that I have - immediate and extended. I've never appreciated my marriage or my son so much as I have especially these past few months. We have a bond that I'm sure some can only dream of.
With bringing a new life into the world come a plethora of thoughts (and worries). We are in no way shape or form financially stable, and that is scary. I have spent years single and married stressing out over money and debt. While I do still have my woe-is-me, errr -us- days, it isn't enough to keep me down anymore. No matter what happens to our jobs, our cars, our house...I know that at the end of the day we have each other and a love that is unconditional. (I'm sorry if this is a little too 'sappy Sally' for some, but it is the honest to God's truth).
Veering off on a different path now - all of this time has done wonders for my creativity. Though there may be a lack of professional design in my life, there is no void of constant inspiration and creation. I've never been one to be short of ideas for a barrage of projects, and luckily I have the time and materials to bring many of them to fruition. I may have had to give up my favorite Monday night sewing classes and some good friends in it, but I am fortunate enough to have that skill now. The same goes for crochet. I took one class and loved it. I crocheted lots of fingerless gloves and scares, because that's all I had the knowledge to make. Case in point:
the chunky green neck warmer,
what I call the self-contained scarf &
the fold over cowl
While there is a lot of variety to be had in linear crochet I still desperately wanted to learn in-the-round techniques. I tried lots of times to do it from looking at pictures and ended up with what looked like, for lack of a better term and I apologize in advance, penis cozies. Needless to say they were all trashed. I rented some books from the library and downloaded some tutorials and still struggled a bit, but still I kept flailing/trying...
Finally the other day I found a really cute pattern on the Lion Brand website for an amigurumi lovebird. It looked damn near impossible for my skill set, but I read on anyway. Looking through the pattern there was only one abbreviation/stitch I was not familiar with. I said what the hey and decided to give it a shot. No joke, the first time I tried to do the 'magic ring' I got it. I also learned how to legitimately decrease using sc2tog and not just 'dropping' of stitches. This may sound ridiculously meaningless to some, but it empowered me. These days if I have a reason to shower and put on clothes, it's a celebration - so picking up a new skill falls into that category as well. Here is the result of my first 'round' project, the lovebird.
If you enjoy this little guy, here is a link to the free pattern:
I now feel obsessed with all things crochet and amigurumi and have a very growing folder on my desktop of things to make.
At that, I think this has been a good start to the rebirth of the blog for now. Considering it's been about 6 months I'd say more than one paragraph is an epic leap forward. Hopefully this hasn't been to long-winded; I just felt the need to catch up a little bit. I will forewarn you that postings may seem a bit schizophrenic at times. As passionate as I am a crafter, the same goes for cooking and baking. So if one day recipes start popping up here out of seemingly nowhere, yes, it is still me. Food in my belief also gets classified as a handmade good.
:)
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