A Few New Changes

A couple weekends ago, my wonderful husband organized 8 of our friends to come over and paint the second bedroom so we can start to convert it into a nursery.

(please excuse the mess; this was only a couple days after painting)

As a bonus (and because we were ready for a change in the living room), they also painted the living room a cheery yellow.  :)  I love how it looks when the sunlight pours in with its bluer light.  The table lamps are a little warmer in color so I've been on the look out for bluer LED bulbs to swap them out.

So far I have a handful of hand-knitted baby items made up (mittens, socks, hats, one blanket and one sweater) but I feel like a slacker that I don't have more sweaters and more longies made up.

A few of the smaller items I have collected for Baby.

These bibs + washcloths are from BeastiesBabies

Lots of knitted socks + mittens

I also keep thinking I need to make a few outfit pieces (sweater dresses/jumpers and sweater vests).

What item(s) would you most recommend I make a priority to knit before baby is here?  Is there something that you are so happy you made and use all the time or highly recommend now that you have a little wisdom under your belt?  Please let me know!  

A New Challenge & Project: Embroidered Curtains

My husband and I came across these curtains at World Market back in July, a month before we had even put an offer a house (so why are we going to buy curtains when we don't have a house to hang them in, right?).  Well, it turns out we can't get these curtains out of our head.  And I couldn't choke down the idea of paying $35/a panel when we needed 4 panels for the living room, so I decided to embroider them myself.  A fun challenge, right?  I've always wished I could embroider like every other "proper" lady anyway, so why not finally take the plunge? -- (all of this was decided late October/ early November 2011 - well before I had even picked up embroidery for the first time).

The last time I cross-stitched I was 9 years old in Alberta, Canada for a family vacation and my dad was teaching me the craft (he's a surgeon and needle-points & cross-stitches as a hobby).  So I thought it was high-time I resurrected this talent.

My designs, drawn with crayon on printer paper while babysitting late last year:

While searching for patterns (because who knew it was so hard to come up with your own pattern, not to mention the color combinations because we want to have about 5 or 6 colors present in these curtains; they are to be the focal point and jumping-off point for the rest of the living room), I came across Design*Sponge's entry about doing just this!  I'm glad I'm not too crazy in my undertaking, but she doesn't embroider the whole curtain... so we'll see how far I get as a novice.  ;)

Knitted Cuff Anyone?

This was originally suppose to be my next scarf project so I could attempt a "braided" look using cables... until I got bored with the scarf idea... Next thing I know, it's laying across my wrist & my brain screams: "what a cool bangle/bracelete/cuff?"

AND its really warm!  I normally have ice-cold fingertips ALL winter--but not this time!  Soon after finishing it and trying it on, I could feel the heat return to my fingertips :)  A new twist on the wrist warmer?!