Alex's Quilts {Part 1}

While his grandma requested an "all Alex all the time" blog, and while I take about a dozen photos of him per day, I'm going to show some restraint and just sprinkle him in among or regular posts. For example, your Alex shot of the day ::

He's laying on the amazing transportation quilt my mom made for him. Just like Monday's cradle post, I'm sure my photos aren't doing this quilt justice {and don't let my mom try to point out the silly flaws she may see}. Each of the nine squares shows a different vehicle {Little A is covering a tractor, submarine, sailboat, and school bus}. I think my favorite is the tractor ::

How perfect are the fabric choices for that square? From the batiked tractor body to the paisley field to the smiling sun.

I really love the little details in each square. Check out the mustache and bow tie on the cyclist below and the little yellow fish with big red lips swimming with the sub.

And yes, there are more awesome quilts to come!

Alex's Cradle

My pop made a beautiful cradle for Alex {he gets to sleep in it during those rare occasions when we're willing to put him down!}.

I don't have the original source for Pin that inspired this cradle, but the execution was all Pop's. He cut and bent the sides making a little boat for Alex to dream in, and cut little anchors out of the rockers ::

The cradle is truly a work of art {I know my sub-par photos are not doing it justice}, and it's going to be so much fun to see it passed from grandchild to grandchild and photographed through the years as our family grows! Speaking of growing, on the left is Alex the day we brought him home from the hospital and on the right is a photo taken just yesterday ::

I'm really going to make an effort to get back to some regular blogging. We've had quite a few family visits, and we've been doing a whole lot of this ::

Which leads to silly photos like this ::

And this ::

But I can't wait to post some garden updates, and there are a few more handmade gifts to share!

Hey baby!

Excuse my long absence, I can't stop staring at this little guy::

Alex was born on April 25th at 8:25 AM.

A few vital stats:
Weight ~ 7 pounds 2 ounces
Length ~ 21 inches
Likes ~ eating!
Dislikes ~ diaper changes

We'll be back with more soon. There are more baby pictures to share, the garden's growing, and our farm-share is about to start!!

While we wait...

Still no baby in the house!

We had nothing on our schedules except "have a baby", so when that didn't happen, we took this past weekend's free time as a bonus. I know that we're out in the woods every other day or so for a hike, but Sunday afternoon rolled around and we were just sitting in the living room, we decided to hop in the car and drive to a different state forest for some hiking {me} and mountain biking {Calder and Ca$h}.

It was fun to get out on a new trail. This forrest is about 45 minutes south of our house, and it seemed like it was just a bit further along in budding out.

Every time I'm out on a hike I think it could be the last one before the baby, and then it isn't. So I'm sure I'll be back in a couple of days with more pictures from the woods*

Baby {Sweater} Watch 2013

No baby yet! And I have to say, I'm glad that it doesn't seem like he has plans to arrive today, although we thought a tax-themed first birthday would be hilarious, I'm sure it would get old by the time he's twenty.

So before you run off to mail your taxes, check out the sweater and socks below. After knitting the other sweaters, I made up this one without a pattern. It has a seamless circular yoke that opens on the left shoulder to fit what I'm assuming is going to be a big head.

The yarn is just a combination of bits from the craft room

Baby {Cocoon} Watch 2013

No baby yet! We're just patiently waiting for this little guy to make his move, and with the extra time, I was able to quickly knit up some more props for the gazillion newborn photos we are sure to take.

Pattern :: Baby Cocoon
Yarn :: Lion Brand Homespun
Cuteness Factor :: Off the Charts

Baby {Blanket} Watch 2013

The circles blanket is done! If I wouldn't have put this aside for months at a time it would have been a really fast and easy project.

Pattern :: Sunny Spread
Yarn :: Lion Brand Amazing {colored centers} & Pattons Wool {white borders}

My crude notes on the adjustments I made to the original pattern :: Added an extra double crochet border around each square, by double crocheting 17 along the side, then making two double crochets into the next three stitches at the corner {resulting in 23 stitches along each side}.

I then whip-stitched the squares together. Once all of the seams were sewn, I singled crocheted around the entire blanket, doing two single crochets into the two stitches where each square meets. I then finished the blanket with what I’m referring to as a “crocheted blanket stitch” around the edge.


Cash was super happy to be included in this photo session, can you tell?

The Amazing yarn was a great choice for this project ~ just four or five skeins gave me this much color variation, making it really affordable for a large, colorful project like this...