The Heathen Housewife

Back in August we had a little photo shoot with our favorite photographer. Jeff Dunn did our wedding for us, then a set of photos after Julie was born, and now another one with Sophie as well. I have nothing but nice things to say about our experiences with him – and anyone who reads my blog knows that I like to complain! He takes great pictures, he is a pleasure to work with, and I think his prices are probably fair considering what we’ve gotten for our money.

Today I picked up our package of photos from this last trip to his studio, and they are…well, you’ll have to see for yourselves. Jeff generously gave me permission to post them here on my site. I think they’re pretty great, but I may be a bit biased.

This first one was the only decent one we got with the whole family. Julie was a giant pill that day, and did not want to cooperate at all. It took everything all of us had just to get her to sit there and smile for a nanosecond, and I credit Jeff for getting a shot this decent given the circumstances. I have to admit that looking at this photo is a little tough for me since I’m a little rounder in the face than I’m used to thinking of myself. I’ve lost a few more pounds since this was taken, but even so it’s a big contrast from even just the photos we took after Julie was born.

I love this picture. Joe and Sophie look so alike.

Couldn’t you just eat those little hands and feet? I tried to get some good hand and feet pictures when Sophie was tiny, and found it impossible.

Sophie still loves to lean back on my lap and go upside down. It’s fun for me to see it from the “other” point of view.

Gummy grin immortalized.

This picture speaks for itself. She’s laughing here. The timing for this shoot was perfect because she was sitting well on her own but hadn’t started crawling yet.

This picture happened during our attempts to shoot the family. Julie kept trying to sneak off and was being incredibly naughty. Jeff turned it into an opportunity, though, and it’s a great one because the smile is natural and she’s not pulling a face or screaming “CHEESE!” the way she so often does when I try to take her picture.

This is another example of perfectly naughty. She was climbing around like a little monkey, but look at the pretty picture!

Awww…I love nekked baby skin. I’m still guilty of smooching and raspberry-ing Sophie’s little rolls every chance I get. She’s laying on the blanket I knit for her.

That’s it. I hope you enjoyed them half as much as I do. Thanks, Jeff! We’ll see you in a couple more years. Also, I want to thank my friend Jen who gave us the dresses. Somehow, two different sets of people gave them the exact same two dresses, and since we both have two girls the same ages, she generously gave one set of the dresses to us. They are beautiful!

I’m off to bed, but tomorrow there will be another FO to report!

I’ve finally been buckling down a bit on the Christmas stuff the last couple of days. The next step in the critical path to Christmas is getting all the family photos from the past year sorted, enhanced, and uploaded to Shutterfly. These pictures are going to serve a couple of purposes. One, they’re part of our holiday card, which is woefully behind schedule, and two, gifts for the grandparents. As much as I love taking and looking at photos, I don’t enjoy messing with them on the computer all that much. Last night I spent about an hour and got about half of them done. Tonight I’m going to aim for the second half. Tomorrow night, I get to do something a bit more fun and try to make a mosaic of our favorite pictures in Photoshop so I can stick them on the holiday card.

All work and no play makes for an insane Heathen, though, so I’ve found a few minutes here and there to work on the new projects. The Malabrigo hat takes a bit of concentration since not only is it two-color stranded knitting, but there is no rhyme or reason to the color sequence in the row. Normally, with traditional colorwork patterns, there is almost a musical rhythm to the pattern like “two and three and two and one” repeat around. No such luck here. You have to pay attention to the chart almost constantly. Even so, it is SO fun to work on this hat, I lost track of time last night and stayed up later than I’m going to admit working on it. The yarn is I think the softest I’ve ever worked with. The color pattern is so much fun I keep starting one more row before I realize what I’ve done. Big Bird is just hanging out there. I took the picture before I finished picking up the living room.

The Morehouse Merino fingerless gloves are coming right along, and I’m feeling pretty confident that there will be enough yarn. I split the skein in half by weight before I got started, and it’s looking like there will be plenty to finish this first one. Until I started knitting with the Malabrigo, this was about the softest yarn I’d ever knitted. It’s a close second. This pattern is much easier to knit while the kids crawl around and play, so I managed to get some done this afternoon.

Just so you don’t think I’ve been entirely neglecting them, here’s Julie working on our current arts-and-crafts project during Sophie’s naptime. It involves cutting construction paper and squirting glitter glue. What could possibly be more fun than that? Those big blue scissors on the table? I was using those. Julie was using plastic safety scissors.

Alright, Joe has been upstairs with Sophie for almost half an hour. I’ve got to go rescue him.

Oh, dear. This afternoon, I was feeling a bit at ends. I had finished the hat, and I’ve recently finished two different pairs of socks, and the third pair is at the cuff right now. All I had left on my needles was the blankie (which, yes, does need more attention and I promise is going to get it. Really.) and that godforsaken Bavarian Twist sweater, which I am passionately ignoring. Because I am in procrastination mode, I felt a strong desire, nay, a need to cast on some other small, instantly gratifying project.

I looked around. I touched a few skeins and pulled out the little Morehouse Merinos wristwarmer kit from my Secret Pal. I can not begin to describe how soft this wool is. It is SO soft, so lovely. It is just the tiniest little whiff of a skein, I figured it would be the perfect dose of putting off the inevitable Christmas chores before I really dig down and get serious. I found a few moments in my afternoon, and I cast on for a cuff. By the way, I’m using my friend Jean’s pattern and hoping for the best even though I think I may not have enough yarn. I have a plan, so it’s okay.

Then, tonight I went to the store to teach a class, and started talking to my fellow teacher and knitter extraordinaire Mary Lou Eagan. Mary Lou has designed the cutest little hat you ever did see, and she knit it out of Malabrigo. I have been itching for an excuse to buy up and knit with some Malabrigo. I only needed two balls – that’s not much of an investment! This hat – well, it’s a tiger hat. My Julie has been walking around for a couple of weeks now talking about how she is a kitten.This hat will not match Julie’s coat or other outerwear, but that doesn’t matter really for a three-year old. Julie is getting this hat for Christmas.

Oh, and Mary Lou is selling her pattern – you can go to her new blog for the details. All the proceeds from this pattern are going to support Heifer International. It’s a triple-whammy of feel-good goodness. You get to knit with the Malabrigo, you get to make the most cutest hat ever, and you get to support a worthy cause.

I took this picture 15 minutes ago, but now the yarn is already wound up and waiting for some action. Maybe after I get that laundry folded there will be a few minutes to cast on.

I have to tell you what an awesome time I had today at the craft fair. It was great. I don’t even know where to start talking about it, there was so much to see and talk about. First, I’m glad I got there early because the first hour or so was just the right amount of people milling around. After that, it was super-crowded and I know I wasn’t the only one feeling a bit claustrophobic. But there were tons of really good vendors, maybe a few too many good vendors for my poor checkbook’s taste even. We’ll get there in a minute.

First, I have to mention that I met up with some new acquaintances who I hope will grow into friends. There’s this group that calls themselves “Urban Farmgirls” and they do crafty and cooking and other stuff together – they seem a rather hip granola mommy-type lot. Sort of like I’d like to fancy myself, only mostly cooler. It was fun walking around with them chatting, seeing the stuff through their lenses. I love shopping with other people because they always pick out different things to look at than I do.

So anyway, I bought just a few things today. Probably more than I should have, but I did restrain myself on one major purchase. I got the woman’s card, though, because if Joe doesn’t come up with a better present idea for himself, he’s getting it for Christmas. Here’s an overview:

A wild, flowery bag for myself. Do I need another bag? Um, No. But I had to have it, and it cost less than the last bag that I bought for myself. And I was supporting a local artisan!

A pile of handmade soaps. These are for Christmas gifts. I’ve been thinking about making washcloths for Julie’s teachers, and I can bundle them with these little bars for a small but complete gift. Not too expensive at all as far as handmade soaps go, and also another local artisan.

Hard to see in the picture, but a packet of handmade hair ties for Julie. Julie loves cute things to put in her hair, and these will make great stocking stuffers. From Hezza-Made.

At the bottom, three skeins of yummy wool from Aisha Celia Designs. I had such a hard time at her booth because I didn’t want to have to leave any skeins behind. This is handspun yarn, and all of it was super-yummy-licious! I may have to attempt to justify this purchase by quick knitting up some Christmas gifts out of it, but honestly I’m not sure. The people for whom I think we’re planning to buy gifts probably wouldn’t appreciate a hand knit enough, and I’m not giving something made out of these yarns to someone who would toss it in the back of their closet. We’ll see. I also need to think a bit about what I’m going to do with all these single skeins of yarn. They may have to get paired with something else from the store.

Finally, four little note books with covers made out of vintage kid’s playing cards. These were not very expensive at all, and I was attracted to the somewhat dark feel to some of them. The caption on the giraffe one says “My long neck,” wails Joe Giraffe, “Someday might just snap in half.” The turtle one says Snapper Turtle left one day Where he went, I cannot say. So strange! But cool. These came from Booksbyj-me. I think I may find a way to give at least one or two of these as gifts.

By noon, I had seen everything and the crowd was overwhelming. I picked up a couple of sandwiches for lunch and brought them home to eat with the family. I didn’t even realize how badly I needed this morning out until I saw them all again and felt happy to have missed them. I love my girls, but I need to do things for myself sometimes too!

Now to answer a few questions and comments from the last day or two.

Lee – Yes, Julie turned three in September, and she is tall for her age. Last time we checked, she was in the 90th percentile I think. But I’m 5′10″ so that’s no surprise.

No-blog-Rachael mentioned that my archives links were broken. I know! I’m so frustrated. I think I got them fixed again, but Blogger Beta keeps breaking them. I don’t like to overly badmouth a free service, and I’m excited about some of the new features available on Beta, but there are a few problems that are giving me headaches in the mean time. Also, you wanted to know about that fabric paint from the clogs. Michael’s does carry it. Look in the aisle near where they sell the blank t-shirts and tote bags. One brand name that I’ve used before is Scribbles. It comes in little squeeze-bottles.

About the Christmas card labels…I just want y’all to know that I don’t judge others who use them – I know that other people have busy lives and different priorities than I do. And maybe fewer hangups. If you’ve chosen to use printed labels, that’s your choice. Good lord, we all have better things to judge our friends and loved ones on than how they distribute their Christmas cards! At this rate, I’m not going to get mine out this month if I keep procrastinating. I swear, I’m going to get my act together this week. Really. I hope.

Katy – no, Sophie hasn’t had a haircut yet. That’s why it looks so scruffy in back. I’m not planning to get it cut till she’s at least a year old. It’s so much fun walking around in public with her because people comment on how much hair she has. I can’t believe that she never lost what she was born with, and that it’s growing still. Julie was pretty bald at this age after having lost most of hers.

Stacy – yes, I was washing my handknits with the dirty diapers. When I wash diapers, they go through two cycles. A cold-cold one to get rid of the chunks and rinse out all the poo, then a hot-cold one to get them really clean and sanitized. In this case, the stocking was riding along for the second cycle only. However, when Julie has an accident, if she happens to be wearing a washable handknit (like those leggings I made for her), it goes right in the diaper pail and gets washed with the diapers. I haven’t regretted it yet!

Country Mouse wants a pattern for the Christmas stockings. I don’t have a pattern written up per say, although I’m sure if you did a bit of Google searching you could find a pattern for machine-knitting a sock. It’s just that on a larger scale. I knit mine over 72 stitches from the top down, paused to do a short-row heel over half the stitches, continued knitting on only half the stitches for the length of the foot to the toe, then short-rowed again, then knit the other half of the foot. You then have to seam up the back of the cuff, the two sides of the food, and do a little kitchener where the foot meets the heel. You can hardly see the seams at all after felting.

I think that’s it! Joe and I have promised Julie that we will decorate the Christmas tree tomorrow. And before anyone starts asking questions about a Heathen putting up a Christmas tree – you know, evergreen trees were part of pagan solstice celebrations long before the Christians adopted them. I’m just sayin’. So tonight we have a bit of furniture rearranging to do, as well as setting up the tree and getting the lights on before little fingers get involved tomorrow. Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll have enough time to finish up that hat tonight as well. I am so totally loving working on all these small projects! Instant gratification!

I have so many things on my to-do list, I don’t know where to start. Well, I do know where to start, I just don’t want to. What I want to do (and what I think I actually am going to do) is plop on the couch and watch a Netflix video while knitting myself a new hat to wear because it is freakin’ cold outside! I need a hat to match the wild glittens I knit myself over the summer. And I’m still chronically sleep deprived, but can’t go to bed yet because I need to unwind first.

Here are just a few of the things that are going to have to wait another evening:

Organize and upload all the photos from the past year to shutterfly for printing. We’ve been giving Joe’s parents and brother little photo albums of the kids for Christmas each year, and they haven’t complained yet so they’re getting ‘em again this year. Plus, I need to print copies for their baby books.

Design and implement the holiday card thingie I have in mind, handwrite all the envelopes and get them in the mail. I have a thing about handwritten Christmas cards. I don’t like address labels on personal mail.

Get out the sewing machine for a little Christmas-related project that also qualifies as home improvement.

Finish Sophie’s stocking.

Prepare notes and handouts for a new class I’m teaching in a couple of months – the store wants more info like yesterday.

Research cookie recipes and craft ideas for Christmas/Holiday tradition activities for me and Julie.

Oh, and I really should finish packing up the box for my SP9 pal and get that puppy shipped off as well.

There are only about a million other things on the list, but they’re all going to have to wait. I’m going to go spend a little quality time with my couch.