Since this is a knitting blog, I thought I ought to post something about knitting.

Unfortunately, I haven't knitted much of anything in the past week or so. I've been reading instead. Of course, that's partly because I created a "reading corner" for myself. I may need to make it a "reading and knitting corner"...

Currently on my needles but not hibernating: a lace tank top for my oldest daughter, Angel. I'm using the same lace pattern I used for the shawl I knitted for my sister. And, actually, only the bottom half of the tank top will be lace. I'm trying to encourage her natural modesty; she doesn't want anyone to see her "nips", as she calls them. :) I'm using recycled turquoise cotton. It's worsted-weight, so a little heavier than what I'd like to wear in the summertime, but Angel assures me that it'll be perfect. I think the lace will keep it from being too warm. I'm knitting it in the round, because that's how I like to knit. Everything I design is knitted in the round, in one piece. And if I use a published pattern that isn't written that way, I modify it to make it that way. I'm weird like that. I like sewing, and I like knitting, but I also like to keep them separate...except in the case of those precious "Summerlin" dresses I made for the girls. And the very similar "Jane Austen dress" I have in my list of future projects.

I pledge to do some knitting today, in between laundry, dishes, ironing and reading. ;)

I have a new niece!

Allyson was born last night (on Mother's Day, how appropriate!), and she's 6 lbs, 3 ozs. Which is pretty big for being 6 weeks early. My Dolly was the same size, and she was less than 4 weeks early. Allyson is breathing on her own, praise God! And seems to be perfectly healthy! I haven't seen any pictures yet, but Rebekah said that she'll send some as soon as she can. She's doing great; thrilled to be off bedrest. Thank you to anyone and everyone who prayed along with me. I'm praising God this morning!

It looks like I'm getting a new niece today.

My sister Rebekah is in the hospital today. She's been in labor for over 24 hours, and I guess the doctors decided that they couldn't hold it off any longer. So it looks like Allyson will be born this evening, or tomorrow at the latest. She's 6 weeks early. They did give her steroids to mature her lungs, but even so it's likely that she'll have to spend a week or two in the NICU.

So if you are the "praying type", please say a prayer for Rebekah and for Allyson. I'll update as soon as there's news. Thanks.

Before and After, Part 2

Okay, part 2. This is the former studio. I planned ahead and took the pictures before I cleaned it up. It was a disaster area. Looked like the aftermath of a tornado.
Here's the desk, covered in papers and junk. I'm still working on getting it all organized. I just shoved it all in boxes so we could get the desk moved over the weekend. It's amazing how disorganized I've been lately. But I'm working on it! That's got to earn me some points somewhere.

Next pictures...here's the same room, after moving out the desk, painting the walls a medium purple, and bringing in the toys. I tried to convince the girls that we should go with pink, but they wouldn't hear of it. One color they all agree on, though generally in differing shades, is purple. So purple it is. Angel wanted lavender, Princess wanted dark purple. Dolly(seen in the following pictures) just loves this in-the-middle shade. It's hard to tell, but she was dancing when I took the pictures.

The room looks twice as big now, without the giant desk. But even so, it's less than half the size of the old playroom, so cleaning it should seem a lot easier to the girls. At least, that's my theory. I've made a new rule that they have to tidy up each time they are ready to leave the room. It doesn't have to be perfect; it just has to be decent. We'll see how that goes.

"Purple! Happy!"

Before and After.

As promised, here are the first pictures of my latest projects. I forgot to take "before" pictures before we cleaned up the former playroom, so here it is, cleaned up and prepped for paint. It was lavender before.

I painted the room a nice medium blue. This next picture shows my new reading corner in the new studio. I haven't got a chair yet, but it will go right there in the lower right corner of the picture. And I still have a lot of books to put on the shelves. I also hung a few inspirational pictures on the walls this afternoon, after I had already taken the pictures.

Here is the enormous desk that was in the smaller room before. Yes, that is a standard-size computer desk chair. This desk is about 6 feet long on the tall side of it. The part that is at a right-angle to that is even longer. I'm glad I took this picture right after we moved the desk, because at this moment it is surrounded and covered with office supplies and sewing supplies. I'm still in the process of organizing all of it. I made a lot of progress today.

Coming up tomorrow...before and after pictures of the new playroom. It's purple!

Home projects...

I'm not ready to post any pictures yet, because the camera is upstairs, and my muscles hurt too much right now to walk back up there. So here's an update. I painted the former playroom/new studio on Saturday. Then I spent yesterday afternoon arranging furniture. Had to get Hubby to help me take apart, move and put back together the desk. Today I'm planning on painting the new playroom. This one will probably take two days, because the girls want stripes. So I'll paint the base coat, then wait for the paint to dry overnight before taping off stripes and painting them tomorrow.

Also on the schedule for today: cleaning, laundry, and a trip to the eye-doctor to pick up Angel's glasses. My to-do list grows by the minute. Better get to it.

Getting ready to do a few projects at home...

We currently have a very large, very open, very very messy playroom. We also have a very small, cramped home office/schoolroom; we call it the "Studio". And in the studio, we have an enormous desk; it literally takes up the entire room. So we are going to switch the two rooms. The huge desk is going in the big room, and the kids toys are going to be pared down and organized and put into the smaller room. I actually had this idea a long time ago, but never mentioned it because the desk is huge and heavy, and a real pain to take apart and put together. I figured it would never happen, so I just put the idea out of my head. The other day, Hubby had the same idea. And since it was his idea, it will happen. I'm moving forward on it quickly, before he changes his mind.
So I'm picking out paint colors. Might as well paint the rooms since we're moving furniture anyway. I'm a little tired of the lavender that is in the current playroom/future studio. So that room will get painted a lovely light blue, and will have navy blue accents. That way, it will be obvious to the girls that it's not their playroom anymore. I'm thinking the current studio/future playroom will go pink, but they might insist on lavender again. We'll see. I'm taking all three girls with me to the store today to get the paint, so they'll have at least some input regarding their playroom color. I should also go ahead and get paint for Princess and Dolly's room; it's still green from when Angel and Princess shared it. And Princess has informed me that she does NOT like green. So that room will go light purple, with dark purple accents. Princess would like it to be all dark purple, but I've vetoed that idea; I don't want it to look like a cave. I'll try to remember to get some before/after pictures taken and posted.