Friday, October 28, 2011

Why, hello there!

It's funny, whenever I take a spontaneous unintentional impromptu break from the blog, I continue to think of blog posts while I'm on break, I just somehow don't accumulate the activation energy necessary to actually write them. 

Probably the worst part about not blogging for awhile is that I end up not commenting on other people's blogs because I know there will be a link to my blog and I don't want a month-old post to be what people see when they click the link.  That is Bad Form, people.  I firmly resolve to eradicate that bad habit because commenting on other people's blogs should be about giving them some comment love, not about what people will see if they click the link back to my blog (and, really, I can always not include the link, right?).

Okay, now that I have that confession out of the way let's get on to what I have been doing since the last blog post, lo those many weeks ago.

First, there has been baby stuff.  Birthing prep classes, a baby care class, and a breastfeeding basics class (because breastfeeding, while natural, is not necessarily intuitive).  Doula interviews (birth and postpartum).  OB visits.  Nursery stuff.  Reading books about giving birth and babies and how not to go crazy in the first couple of weeks.  So, yeah, lots of baby stuff.  I'm a little tired of baby stuff, really.  Yesterday, I read an entire Sherrilyn Kenyon book from cover to cover and man it felt good.

There has been a little crafting but it has all been--you guessed it--baby crafting.  Here are two simple hats I made for my about-to-be-born-any-day-now nephew:



Do you like my little model?  Here he is sans chapeau.


What is he?  He is a Saccharomyces cerevisiae plushie.  S. cerevisiae is a species of yeast that is commonly used to make bread and beer.  It is also a species that is very commonly studied as a model system in biology and one that I used during my thesis work.  This plushie is a crafty rendition of an electron micrograph of a S. cerevisiae cell (OMG guys, I just found that link and now they have mini yeast plushies in a petri dish--squee!).  There are other microbe plushies, too, along with various cells of the body (ie a nerve cell).  Perfect for your friendly neighborhood science geek.  Or anyone with a rather eccentric sense of humor.

I have also almost finished the bonnet for baby Cate's coming home outfit (I am in the midst of casting off!).  I think it, like the sweater, will be a little too big for a newborn, but that's okay.  There has been almost no sewing whatsoever and rather than finish the clothing projects I had started I need to get going on some curtains with blackout lining for the nursery!  They will be very, very simple curtains (basically large rectangles with some ric-rac trim) because I don't really have time or energy for anything else!

So, that's it for now!  The baby is due in 30 days (more or less) so I've only got a few weeks until the craftiness stops dead in its tracks for a maternity hiatus (hopefully not a very long one!).  There's probably no way to get everything done but here is my list of things I'd like to accomplish before Cate appears:

1.  Curtains for the nursery
1.  Booties for coming home outfit
2.  Dress for coming home outfit (which will necessitate a muslin/practice dress before I cut into my real fabric)
4.  Maternity Sorbetto
5.  Maternity denim skirt that I already have 3/4 done (seriously, I just need to hem it).
6.  Sewn knit baby gowns that I have already started.

Wish me luck!