17 Weeks

I wanted to do this a while ago, today it seems I have the time space and energy to finally take some "bump" photos. P.S. I am a belly dancer, and therefor I am not shy about my choice of outfit. ;-) 

 

Trying different photo effects

 

And all of a sudden, hello!

Baby trying on his or her t-shirt...still a bit big! ;-)

 

 

A close-up of what I am holding up. Look closely. I love this!

Some of my favorite baby items acquired so far.

4 Months Pregnant! And loving it

With a belly finally starting to look less like I just haven't worked out in a while (Shhh!) and much more like a belly with a growing baby, I've started looking into things for the future and considering all of our options. I've had so many wonderful and caring friends and family offer things and ask what we need/want, and the easier thing for us would be to post something on our blog and start a registry.

So here are some of our thoughts put in a central location to help with any confusion. 

First of all I looked all over the internet to find something that one could shop from more than one source. While I love Target, there are MANY other sites that have great, more natural items. Also, we needed something reflected our values and beliefs.

Enter "Baby List!" 

I came across Baby List the other week when I wanted to include Etsy in my registry and wasn't sure how to go about doing so. I love handmade items, particularly since I am an artisan myself and it is wonderful to support fellow hardworking artists and crafters. 

Here is the link to our own registry:
http://babyli.st/meg-and-eddies-little-miracle

As a couple, and soon to be a family, we believe in all things natural, pure, and practical. We can't handle harsh chemical smells, dyes, and other toxic every-day items that  are on the market these days. Things that are in plastic toys, diapers, toiletries etc, and though we are on a budget, we try to only surround ourselves and the growing little one with wholesome surroundings and nutrition. It is far worth it, whatever the cost. (This goes for my animals as well. They need the same respect in giving them pure and natural anything.)

With that being said, here's a little list of our tastes and our distastes. This is in no way shape or form meant to sound snobby, because I am not a snob! Just opinionated. :-)

One important thing about us is that we are we are absolutely not TV watchers or radio listeners and are happy to stay this way. (We have Netflix and watch movies, but no traditional TV set up.) Therefore, we are not fans of popular characters seen slapped all over a lot of children's clothes and accessories.

(**Note**For quick and easy reading (because I am in a particularly loquacious mood!) I am also a Virgo and divided our "Safe List" and our "Pass List" into Red for Pass (thanks but no thanks) and Green for Safe.)
For example, we usually pass over items with the following graphics:

TOY STORY and its characters
SPIDERMAN
BLUES CLUES
VEGGIETALES
TRANSFORMERS
CARS
SPONGEBOB
DISNEY PRINCESSES
DORA

HANNAH MONTANA...You get the idea. Though I do love a lot of the classic Disney movies even Toy Story and a lot of the princess movies, I don't want to look at it all over my kids clothing. There will be plenty of time for all that when they are teenagers and want to wear whatever emblem or ugly band t shirt they want! God knows I wore that at a lot at one time. ;-)

Along the same lines, we also pass over anything with CAMO, MILTARY, or PATRIOTIC to name a few.

We are also trying to buy things in neutral colors, (even though I adore pink), thank God there are some wonderful new options out there in other colors I love in a lot of Earth tones such as greens, browns, burgundys etc. One reason for the neutrals is that we have opted not to find out what gender baby we are having, - not that we (at least I!) don't want to know! - it just is a decision to not put such a tender being through any un-nessacry testing for our own benefit. I don't really care how "safe" the status quot will tell you it is, I never listen to that anyway. Second reason being, if we have a boy, we're not fans of the stereotypical blue, blue and more blue for boys with Thomas, John Deere, or shovals all over their clothes. Bugs are great! So are animals and things to do with nature. If we have a girl, there are things that are really cute without the opposite stereotypical themes, more so than with boys clothes, that I've noticed anyway.

OK, now I guess I should start writing things on our safe list!
Basically, we love natural fibers such as:
COTTON
WOOL
BAMBOO
LINEN...again, you get the idea. Even FLEECE is good, though it is not typically natural.

Since I made a list of characters that I don't like, (ok some I almost despise!) here are some "safe" characters I don't mind, in fact, I rather love:
101 DALMATIONS
WINNIE THE POOH (especially the classic Pooh!)
BAMBI
LADY AND THE TRAMP
BEATRIX POTTER (adore, adore adore!)
HARRY POTTER
SHLEICH TOYS
LORD OF THE RINGS (because we are both proud dorks.)

Other animals or themes we love and can definitely be gender neutral are:
SHEEP
OWLS
LIONS
COWS
RABBITS
CATS
WOLVES (Though typically not seen on baby items)
HORSES, DONKEYS, MULES...
DOGS
MICE
I am usually drawn to more woodland type animals than jungle or safari, but really I love all animals.

P.S. Target has some really cute clothes right now in the Disney Artist Collection. Figaro, Ah! So CUTE!

Another thing I felt like adding and think it is an important point to make, thrift stores and consignment shops are AWESOME. Seriously. I would much rather poke through places like these to find exactly what we like. It is MUCH cheaper especially since babies outgrow things so fast, and quite honestly, I find a lot things in there cuter than in most stores these days.
Babies don't have to be as expensive as everyone makes them out to be! 
One other thing I forgot to add is that I have a sewing business, therefor sew all the time. I'm going to be buying lots of my own fabrics to make a few things instead of purchasing them, and flannel fabrics in 1 - 1.5 yard increments are always welcome to make more newborn baby blankets and sheets! My baby is going to be be born in the winter, and we heat with a woodstove.

Wow, that was a verbose post, did you really just read all that?!

I am so looking forward to being a natural mama and watching and learning to see who my new little one will grow into. While I have plenty of my own beliefs and values, I am also a firm believer in letting my child grown into the soul he or she is supposed to be, even if he or she grows to be someone who is my complete opposite, I will still love and cherish my child and enjoy every conversation with him or her for the rest of my life.

Cheers, everyone! To life!

No more Shire Tree

Sad news and an even sadder sight was venturing out last Saturday morning after the viscous storm that demolished our area Friday night. I drove up our road, past the familiar sight of the Shire Tree (the image that has been our blog's banner for 5 years now) to see that it was completely demolished.
I cried.

Baby Projects!

I can't believe its been 2 years since I posted anything here. Damn Facebook!

Much has happened in that time span, most exciting of all, is we are expecting our first child in December of this year! Now that I am at the 3 month mark, I've started out making some cold-weather projects for our little ball of Winter. Our house can get mighty cold in the winter, as we only heat with a woodstove in the kitchen and a small space heater in the living room.

We have also decided that we are going to wait until December to find out what the sex is, something I can't believe I am doing as I always thought I wanted to know if ever I conceived!That being said, as much as I *really* want to make everything in hues of pink (just one of my favorite colors, not a gender preference) I'm trying to go as neutral as possible, which is tricky. Somehow, I have landed on a Sheep obsession - I can't imagine why as a knitter. ;-)


My first project was an adorable hat I had saved in my Ravelry profile for about 2 years. Its amazing to have finally knit it for MY baby! 

 

My second project was a baby blanket inspired again by my love of sweaters and cold weather and our beautiful rural surroundings. I have been collecting many different sweaters for several years now and felted them for various projects. While falling asleep one night, this particular idea and design came to me, and I had to work on it as soon as possible the next day. I'm super thrilled with how this came out!! The entire front is made up of felted sweater squares, and is lined in the back with a cozy green flannel. At the center of the quilt is an applique sheep made from an Irish swath. This is going to be the first of many as I plan on using up the rest of my sweaters to make more and put a few on my Etsy shop, though they will all be one of a kind. 

1.) Pieced together, now to finish...

2.) The lamb in the center, isn't he cute?!

3.) All done!! I love how it turned out

4.) Cozy Flannel Backing                                     

4th Weekend at Revel Grove

A Beautiful 2nd Anniversary & Camping Trip

July 7th, 2009 was Eddie's and my two year anniversary. :-)

Unfortunately, I had to work in the morning, but the rest of our day was spectacular.

We had planned to go camping and had even talked about going down to Mt. Rogers, but that was almost 6 hours away and for goodness' sake, we live at the foot of the Shennandoah mountains.

I got off work and began to prepare our dinner for the evening; which consisted of tasty baked chicken with bar-b-q sauce and rosemary (SO YUMMY!) and a cold rossini and tomato and cucumber pasta salad. We were preparing to live it up even though we were camping, so we brewed our favorite coffee from Central Roasters and baked a banana bread to take along with us for breakfast the next morning.

The day before, Brynn was still out staying with us, and the three of us went berry picking in the morning. Between the three of us, I think we gathered about 6 pounds or more of raspberries! Naturally, we took a bunch of those with us as well to go with the banana bread. :-)

We were off!

Camping gear, blankets, food coolers and the two dogs loaded up in the Explorer and head out to Skyline Drive. We made all the way, a daunting 7 miles, to the entrance of the park, when smoke began to pour out of our hood! The ranger in the booth then informed us that we were gushing fluids and best pull off straight away.

Nice.

Eddie and I watched as every drop of coolant fluid cascaded all over the parking lot of the National Park. Of course, cell phones don't work there. We decided to wait about half an hour, then dumped tons of water in the reservoir and said a prayer that we could get back down the mountain to the garage without anything happening. But we couldn't just drop off the truck with the dogs and all our gear in it. So much for a romantic evening.

We then kept going and went home. The truck didn't appear to be leaking anymore, wouldn't you know, so we decided to take two cars and go camp out at Riversong, my family's cabin in the woods, not far from us and very secluded.

A view of the place's namesake

At first we were going to just sleep out on the back porch of the cabin, but once we got there we realized that there were about five hornet nests scattered under the furniture out there. Not terribly inviting.

We were starting to run out of daylight, so we set up our tent in the the little meadow by the river surrounded by forrest. It was so wonderful!

Our little home for the night

Time for dinner!

We settled down on the ledges in the river to watch the sunset and enjoy our hot chicken and cold pasta with our Lake Anna wine, which was the wine from the winery that we met at some 3 years ago. I must admit I was a little disappointed at first that we wouldn't be camping up in the park, but once we got to Riversong, I was even more excited and it turned out to be SO much better than had we actually made it into the park! Where else could we have such pristine beauty and not see a soul, and drink our wine in peace from the legality of ABC laws??


Eddie looking mighty content

Yummmmm.......


Enjoying the wine


Lake Anna Wine, Sunset

After dark, we settled into our cozy little tent expecting it to be much warmer than we had planned for. The weather we have been having in Virginia has just been amazing. We were actually cold in the middle of the night! There was a full moon out, and clear skies so we left the fly off of our tent and lay watching the moon and stars through the blanked of black leaves against the sky.

The next morning, we woke early and were surprised to find that our coffee was still warm! We sat in the lawn chairs by the river for hours sipping coffee and eating banana bread and our fresh picked berries.

It was heaven. I was with the man I am crazy in love with in such a beautiful and peaceful setting. I couldn't have asked for a better anniversary. Thank God!

Changing Seasons at Red Oak Mountain

We were surprised with a beautiful early Spring snowfall that covered the blooming dafodils and all the other blossoms just a couple of weeks past. It was very pretty while it lasted.
Then, in total contrast to that weather, Spring arrived, and I have already begun arranging our front garden and it's now time to get the two rear gardens ready for the season. 

Welcome Spring!

There are leeks, strawberries, rosemary, dafodils, and phlox so far...
soon to have sunflowers, basil, cosmos, etc. :-)

My little plot o' land in the front yard...
Looking Irish against our stone foundation.

Looking out the spare room into our bedroom on the other side of the house


Looking out the window of the spare bedroom...

Our next-door neighbor's cabin