March goals

Alas, a new month is upon us. One that includes spring break (yea!) and time change (boo!), lots of visits of family (yea!) and warming of the weather (hopefully not too warm). And I must consider and decide on my new set of goals for this month.

Goals? I've achieved my goal of sleeping in comfy places, says Hank.

So, far, the knitting goals have fallen through for the most part. The February Lady Sweater still isn't done, though the crazy colored Dr. Who scarf is hopefully providing joy for someone (sold at the auction Saturday evening).  The household oriented goals have gone better. The kitchen looks nice almost every night and the bathroom is staying cleaner. I really haven't spent all that much time in the yard, but with warmer weather and more energy, that should become easier*. These results say.... keep knitting goals simple (one goal), household goals could use some challenge and yard goals should be simple.  So, thoughts for March?

1. Finish the February Lady Sweater. Spring break will help.
2. Declutter office closet. The office is becoming the nursery in a week or two, so its all moving somewhere. I know there is plenty in there we don't need, use or love, so I'd rather relocate it out of the house, rather than taking up space inside the house.
3. 5 minutes a day working in the yard. This might include pulling weeds, planing herbs or easy veggies, or just sweeping off the back porch. The vitamin D will do me good, also.
4. Put a picture in each blog post (random, I know)

What are you goals for March? How are your yearly goals coming along?

*Turns out that with the onset of the 3rd trimester, I was anemic. It took nearly a week, but the iron supplements seem to be kicking in. Its 830 pm and I'm not in bed. That's a good sign.

Yummy White Sauce

A good friend shared a simple white sauce recipe a while back. Its so very yummy on spaghetti with a red sauce (with sausage) to mix it with. Ah, almost to die for.  However, the white sauce isn't so "healthy" and neither Hubby nor I need a lot of extra calories or fat, would rather get those from the dessert! Here's the original:

Melt 1/2 stick of butter and saute 1 Tbsp of minced garlic in it till honey brown. Stir in a small carton of heavy cream and 8 oz of cream cheese (cut up is best). Stir until all is melted and blended. Add any desired herbs and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese until melted. Do NOT boil. Serve fresh from stove.

I adjusted it a bit to make it more "healthy" (though who knows that means, really...) I used a spoonful of butter to brown the 2 tbsp garlic and I left out the heavy cream and used about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of non-fat milk. It made a bit less, but it came out just right to give me enough left over for lunch tomorrow.

I'm all about adjusting recipes to fit our needs, and this time it worked. Very nice!

Why I love Saturdays

Why do you love Saturdays so much, you might ask me.  Because you aren't going to work? Because you have the chance to create your own day by what you want to do?  Somewhat and yes.  I love Saturdays because I get to be homemaker on Saturdays; I get to putter around picking up, doing laundry, cleaning a few things, perhaps making bread and doing some sewing or knitting.

At times, I think about spreading out the various chores over the weekdays so that Saturdays will be more free for my hobbies. But by the time I get home in the evenings, get some dinner ready, eat, and clean up, its time to start the bedtime routine and head to bed. Plus, I'm often so tired that I want to do nothing but go to bed. Thus, everything gets pushed to Saturday.  I don't bemoan this too much, as its fun to have a full day of things I enjoy (mostly) doing. [I don't really like to vacuum or hang up laundry.]

Then, at times, I think about what it will be like after Samuel is born. I'll be working much less, if at all (that's still up in the air), which means more time at home. But Samuel will need lots of attention.... so I wonder. I hope to have some semblance of a routine to run from that keeps the house looking relatively nice and still giving me the time to further develop the hobbies (sewing, knitting, gardening). Ah, the big unknowns.  If only we could peek into the future and know what is coming, if only to adjust our expectations.

February Goals, Update

The "Crazy Colored Dr. Who Scarf" is finished. Well, it had to be cast off and end woven in as the Gala is tomorrow night, and the auction is then. Its not as long as I wanted it, but its been hard to get much knitting done. I'm quite tired by the time I get home in the evening, and often still have real work to be done (like cooking, cleaning, grading, etc). But its done now!  I didn't get a picture before giving it to the Gala organizers.... imagine the previous picture ...

...just about 4 feet long.  With only 3 days of February left, I doubt I'll finish the February Lady Sweater, though it would wholly appropriate. Ah, well.

Things that surprised me about pregnancy

Getting clothes to fit is a fair bit of work.... the belly size is changing regularly.

The "I gotta pee" sensation changes and you have to re-learn what it feels like.

The "full" and "hungry" feelings also change and you have to re-learn what those feel like.

Eating many multiple small meals is totally different from "grazing". And it takes effort to learn how to do it well.

Baby Blankets

There are lots of baby's on the way in Hubby's department at school. It seems we are a relatively fertile group!

My standard baby gift has been blankets; an item I can make and always useful.  In fact, after my sister had her baby and we got to talk about all sorts of baby things, it become apparent that many blankets are not big enough to swaddle a newborn, and everyone loves a blanket with a warm side and a cool side -- and that's what I make!

If you have a sewing machine and about 2 hours, you can make this greatly appreciated baby gift.  Many of my blankets are a bit fanangled, making due with what I've got.  This is a style of blanket that is simple and easy to resize to fit the need. I'm generally of the opinion that bigger is better. I have started making mine about 3' x 3', give or take a few inches.

Material: Most recently I used cotton flannel and flannel-backed satin for the two layers. I generally go for a patterned cotton flannel and a single colored satin, aiming to have the satin a color that matches one of the minor colors in the flannel.  Thread? Something matching.

Instructions:

1. Cut the flannel to size. Don't be too worried about getting exactly 3' x 3' or 4' x 4', as the fabrics tend to stretch and shift. Use the flannel to cut the satin to size. (As often as not, I take the short size of the fabric, fold it diagonal and cut to make a square with which ever fabric is smaller; use that to cut the other fabric to size.)

Pin the two pieces of fabric so that right sides are together.

2. Stitch around the edge, leaving a 3 or 4 inch gap in the middle of one side to flip the blanket right side out after sewing.  The flannel will stretch and the satin will slide; finishing with the corners exact has eluded me so far. It seems that the flannel stretches less if it is on bottom as you stitch. But anyway about it, when the four sides are stitched (with the gap left for flipping), clip the corners, flip the blanket right side out, and poke the corners out so that they are as sharp as you can get them.

3. Iron lightly to smooth the blanket and get good edges. Pin the edges such that the flannel and satin meet right at the edge, even if your satin doesn't lie completely flat doing so (looks nicer and satin never really lies all that flat).  Pin the gap closed.

4. Choose a decorative stitch, or a simple zig zag stitch, and stitch around the edges. Keep the stitch close to the edge, within 1/8 to 1/4 of a inch at the most. This will stitch the gap closed and set the edges. All done!

These aren't hard to make and once you get the hang of it, you might be able to make one in about an hour (or less if you are doing several at a time). I don't remember where I got the idea, but it isn't original with me.

Have fun making baby blankets!