Step Into My Thimble

I have given this blog a different look, so if you feel like it, step out of your RSS reader and take a peek! It’s the Connections Reloaded theme for WordPress, with my own tweaks. I imagine there may be a bug or two but the best things are: I made my own header graphic! (with a picture I took in Indianapolis–that’s a real street there), I got rid of the giant sidebar Archives list and moved it to its own page! And generally there is a little more style going on here than with the old Kubrick default. Still, I have never found a theme that is 100% my favorite, so maybe I’ll change it again later, who knows. I’m just slow about it because I don’t know that much about CSS or PHP among other scripty things. If you have any comments about the appearance, do tell.

Yesterday Rodney and I took a walk in our neighborhood because the weather was so nice. We have this giant hill which, when I first moved there, I could walk up at a fast pace no problem. A few months ago, it became a slow pace, then a slow pace with breaks, and yesterday we reached the “have to stop halfway and breathe heavy” point. Mitten is getting big, maybe 6 or 7 pounds now according to one midwife. I should be happy, though, that I made it all the way to week 37.5 without any real back trouble or other limitations. Yay!

I am pregnant! It’s strange how suddenly now, at nearly 9 months, people keep asking me if I am. Mostly it’s little kids in the YMCA locker room, but random adults too. Isn’t it obvious? I mean, having a tapeworm would not distort the body that much, and if I were a Pygmy I think you could tell the difference too.

Anyway we made it back from Indianapolis as a still-childless couple. Our trip was nice and relaxing though. We just kind of noodled around, and while Rodney was at his conference I did a few fun things like stocking up at Trader Joe’s and meeting some blog friends in a yarn store! Left to right, Jeni, me, and Jena. As suspected, they were both just as smart and interesting and crafty in person as they appear on their blogs, maybe more. Jena will be having her own baby later this year, and Jeni has three of her own already, so we had fun talking about motherhood. I’ve never been disappointed by a knit-blogger meetup in so many years of doing this. Thanks Jeni and Jena, for making the time. Oh and the 30% off or more on everything at Mass Ave Knit Shop didn’t hurt either.

Mixed in with little treats from Jeni and Jena, I give you a picture of the package that was waiting for me from Monica when I got home. If you click it it will take you to a Flickr page with notes so it’s easier to figure out what is what.

I have some more stuff to say about my Indy trip, a little bit on thrift-shopping there, and also about my general feelings on the Motherhood Maternity store chain, but those will wait for another day. I’m planning some site maintenance (and maybe, finally, a new look) around here, so thanks for your patience the rest of this week.

Giving up sugar is so last year. I got a little package from my Candyswapper pal today! She’s in Rhode Island, a state I have never visited, and there’s a distinct east coast theme going on in these treats.

We’re taking the treats on the road with us tonight, plus a picnic of things less hard on the teeth, on the way to Indianapolis for our final weekend adventure as childless people. Cross your fingers that we are still childless all the way until Sunday when we drive home! (Just in case, the car seat has been installed and checked by a fire dept. guy though…)

Can you see the pigmenty spots under my eyes? That’s a normal side effect of being pregnant especially in people with dark hair, so I think it will go away. And it’s pretty easy to cover with the concealer I already use on my dark undereye circles. But for now, I’m thinking of it as my war paint. At last Friday’s midwife visit, I was already 1cm dilated, and she said it would be anywhere from two to five weeks before labor. Oh my! I’m feeling large, and ready, I just have a little more laundry to do, a bag to pack, and some birth plan stuff to write down.

Insomnia has been the one side effect of being pregnant I have struggled with most. Last week, finally, I had three good nights in a row followed by three happy, active days. And then on Friday night I got hit with probably the worst cold I’ve had in five years! It was so maddening, especially since the kinds of medications you can take are really limited. My whole weekend was ruined, and I’m still coughing and sniffling, surrounded by a pile of used tissues and a cloud of menthol vapors. Bleh. Maybe I’ll blame it on all the little kids who were at last week’s La Leche meeting. I hate how slow time goes when you’re sick, and how it’s hard to concentrate. All that time spent lying around would have been much better if I could have finished up some crafts. And today in my attempt to get back into things, I screwed up the right front of my Trellis several times and finally had to stop. I still don’t have the mental energy to follow the pattern…

But I’m definitely getting better, and I’m sure I’ll be fine by the time we go to Indianapolis this weekend for a conference (for Rodney). I’m looking forward to it because I get to meet Jena and possibly Jeni at a yarn store while I’m there. Jena has a bun in the oven herself, and just found out it’s a girl too.

P.S. Some pictures of all the currently available bibs on my Etsy shop are in Flickr now: fronts and backs.

I have just finished a breakfast of Nutella on toast, even though I am not European. It was delicious, and I suggest you try this sometime yourself.

Lately I’ve been busy getting my Etsy shop set up. I wanted to do this before the baby gets here, because after that who knows… So, it’s ready. Please take a look here: stepintomythimble.etsy.com. I still have a lot of other things I want to make and add (anybody remember my days of selling stitch markers? oh there will be more), but at least there’s a framework there and the really lovely banner seen at my shop made for me by seller WiseRabbit. Her work is so swell, if I can ever get my act together I’m going to hire her to help dress up this blog too.

A word to those of you I know either in real life or by way of blogs–if you are having a baby yourself don’t buy anything! Chances are quite good I’ll be mailing you something similar to what’s in the shop eventually.

And to everyone, if you have comments on any aspect of the shop I’d love to hear them. Are the photos good enough? Does my bio give you enough information? Do the prices seem reasonable? Etc. etc. and thanks.

Another thing we’ve been doing is inkjet transfers on onesies. I have received to date a total of 24 white onesies, only four of which are larger than newborn size, so of course we must personalize. Here are a couple of them:

Onesie with pretty vintage Absinthe Rosinette poster

Onesie with spiral-cut ham and words “Daddy’s Favorite”
Because daddy the carnivore loves this meat the most.

*I’m reading Paul Theroux’s Collected Stories. That phrase “Memo to Goldpork” was in one of them last night right as I was dozing off and it sounds funny. I have no idea what the story was even about except something vaguely Nazi-ish.