What We've Been Up To As of Late

Hello again. 246 news update for this past week:

• Mr. 246 has started training his mustache to be a curly cue type mustache. (I don't know the proper term for it.) He's been growing out his hair since October. When your employer is a 6 month old baby, they don't really get picky about what kind of crazy you look like. Haha.
• I've been letting Boo Radley sleep in our bed again the past couple nights. We trained him to sleep on the couch in the living room before Luna was born because we knew she'd be in the bed from time to time in the middle of the night and Boo can get snappy when he's tired. Luna's been very good about sleeping through the night though and Boo is just so gosh darn cuddly. It's been so cold lately it's been nice to cuddle up with him. He sleeps with me like a little teddy bear.
• This happened about a week ago, but I think it's really neat -- Luna can work a zipper! What kind of 6 month old does that?! Whenever I'm wearing my zip-up hoodie she will take her little pointer finger, put it in the hole of the zipper pull and pull it down. Repeatedly. So neat. She's amazing.
• I've been quite busy crafting but I don't have too many finished results. I've been working on a couple large projects that will take a little while. I did manage to finish two things, though:

Matching hats for Luna and I! I just loved the yarn and I didn't know what to do with it so I decided on the old stand-by: ear flap hat. My ear flaps are a little mismatched. That's what I get for no actual pattern, and no counting. Haha. Luna's was made with this pattern. I just kind of adapted it for big people size.

One of our Christmas boxes came this past week (We got so much stuff in Ohio over Christmas we had to ship a lot of our gifts home.) Included in this Christmas box was a bunch of yarn that Mr. 246's sister had gotten me: (I noticed that I have red, pink, and white in there and I have plans to make Luna a Valentine's Hat)

Had to make something with it, didn't I? I came across this pattern for crocheted glove mittens and decided to give it a try. (Go here if you're on Ravelry for better pictures.)

I think I'd like to tweak the pattern and use a smaller gauge yarn. I don't know if I want to finish the glove or not. It fits snug, but crochet always stretches after a bit anyways. At least I think so. I don't know if I want to finish it because I think I could make it better. I think the fingers need to be longer and I need to pay better attention to counting my stitches.

And, for my crafting crowning joy this week. Here's what I've got so far on the quilt I'm making. 5 rows done! I had done the rows done and I couldn't wait to sew them together to see what they'd look like.

I decided against the "random" pattern of colors. I started laying it out and it didn't look quite right. I started laying it out with diagonals and loved it instantly. So there we go!  Granted, lots of the corners don't match up, but they're pretty darn close. And a lot of them are surprisingly spot on.

I don't know if I'll finish it in quite a while though. There is a Mini Art Quilt Swap I joined and send out is by 2/22/13. I have a pretty good idea what I'm going to do, but I think I need to practice some techniques first so it might take me a while and some of my crafting time. I can't exactly say what I'm up to since this is a public blog, she may be reading this and I'd like it to be a surprise!

Anyways, that's about it for now. I'm off to have a lazy Sunday afternoon. My favorite! Can't decide whether to nap, crochet and watch something, or read. Hmmm...decisions.

- Ms. 246

Project365: Week 2/52

My pictures from the past week. I was a bit lazy toward the end and I didn't even take one on the 11th! I'll deal with it. Perhaps I should rename it Project364? No, I've decided to cheat and use a picture I took on the 6th. It's not as bad if I fess up to it right away is it? Haha. Here we go:

6/365 (01.06.2013)


7/365 (01.07.2013)


8/365 (01.08.2013)


9/365 (01.09.2013)


10/365 (01.10.2013)


11/365 (01.11.2013)


12/365 (01.12.2013)


I'm thinking next week I might look up one of those lists for 365 projects. It will list something like "wood' for the daily theme and you have to photograph something that involves wood. We shall see. I think #7 is my favorite!

- Ms. 246

Weigh-In Day Week #2

Goal I'm doing well on: I lost another 1.6 lbs this week. Pretty good for eating out 3x this week. (Chili's, Applebee's, and McDonald's). All three times I planned what I was going to have ahead of time so it stayed within my points and it was a success. Woo!

A goal I'm not doing well on:
Looking nice - I've been wearing make-up, but I haven't been doing my hair except maybe twice. It's just so hard in the mornings: Put my hair in a pony tail and cuddle with Luna for my last 5 minutes before work, or ignore Luna and go do my hair? I choose Luna every time. I could wake up earlier, but c'mon....like that's gonna happen.

I'll make a post tomorrow on the craftiness I've been up to as well as what Mr. 246 has been up to. Clue: he's changed up his look! Hope you're all well.

-Ms. 246

Project365: Week 1/52

Hello! This is my first weekly update for my 365 project. Here's what I've realized about this goal already:

• I don't have as much time as I'd like. I haven't had time to study up on my camera/photography yet. Eventually I will. I'm not going to fret about it though. I will when I get to it. I have about 3 large crafting projects I'm working on at the moment.
• I probably won't have amazing professional photographer-quality pictures and I have to be okay with that. This is something to do for fun.
• I am terrible at finding interesting things to shoot at the moment so I get lazy and just take pictures of Luna. This is okay too. I want a bajillion pictures to remember this time in her life and create things that she'll be able to look back on. She's a great model. With working full time and being on a rigid time schedule there isn't a lot of desire to go out into the world to find the best picture ever. (I'm exclusively pumping, that's a whole other post, but let me tell you -- it is a time killer, but at least Luna's getting the best food!) At this point in my life, the best pictures might as well be taken in our cozy little home. Ultimately, these pictures are for me, and no one else so there's no need to impress. As long as I'm satisfied, that's all that matters.
• I need to check my Flickr more often. (Here's the link to my 365Project.)  I went to upload today and I had comments! How exciting. I've been submitting my pictures to a 365 group a found on another blog.

Okay, enough talking. This is supposed to be a picture post. Without further ado....

1/365 (01.01.2013)

2/365 (01.02.2013)

3/365 (01.03.2013)

4/365 (01.04.2013)

5/365 (01.05.2013)


Next Sunday I'll post this weeks' pictures. Hope you enjoyed them!

-Ms. 246

Victory Over the Scale! Week One!

Look what I did! 7.2 pounds my first week. (Only 42.8 more to go!) I'm quite proud of myself. This was with taking off New Years' Eve in the worst kind of way. Haha. (Let's just say there was a family meal involved and there are only two people who eat solid foods in our family at the moment.) I am proud of myself. Four days in and I think I'm off to a good start! I'll be sure to post my progress every Friday (my weigh-in day).

Not too much else to say here. Friday night -- we're going to put that Bean to bed then I'm going to have a hard cider and perhaps cozy up to do some crafts and watch Doctor Who.

Cheers!
-Ms. 246

Mr. 246 and a New Friend!

I've been posting a lot recently about what I've been up to, but you may be wondering what Mr. 246 has been up to...

He's been eating baby feet and that's okay.

Mr. 246 is currently a "stay-at-home-dad." Although I'd love to stay home myself, financially it works out much better right now if I'm working and he stays at home. (I really want to stay at home, but truth-be-told, he's probably better at it than I am.) He does a wonderful job. He really does. I come home, the chores are all done, Luna is super happy, and dinner's on it's way to being made. He even makes my lunch for me most days! (I know...I may just be the luckiest girl ever.) You know how some women say they were born to be mothers? I think he was born to be a father. He is the best dad I could have asked for for my little bean.

So anyway, he's been taking care of Lunabean, but recently he's made it one of his New Years' Resolutions to read 50 books this year. So far he's read one and a half and started a third. He's using GoodReads which seems to be a pretty awesome website. You rate books and then they give you recommendations. He says his recommendations were all pretty spot on. (I did it as well and all the results came back as children's books. Maybe I read far below my level or they think I should, haha. I might reevaluate the rating process, do it again, and see if it changes.)

I read some of the book he already finished and it is awesome. It's Lost at Sea by Jon Ronson. He's a investigative journalist and the book is a compilation of short stories of people he's met during his work. The first chapter was about the religious "coming out" by the band members of Insane Clown Posse. The author sits and talks to them before a show and it's pretty hilarious (although the ICP members are quite serious). It also includes such instances like: the silliness of Indigo children, AI robots you can (mostly) have conversations with, and "a pop singer whose life’s greatest passion is the coming alien invasion." I might be reading this book myself in the very near future. (Be warned, however, Mr. 246 says that the later chapters are about bit more serious and possibly depressing topics toward the end so it's not all silliness.)

Mr. 246 is also into little trees:

More specifically -- bonsai trees. He's been shaping them with wire and everything. He puts them in the window every morning and turns the plant light on in the evenings (as pictured) to make sure they get enough light each day. There's also apparently a complicated watering/humidity tray process I know nothing about, as well as fertilizing. I think they're cute though! (Especially the Juniper, on the left, which I got him for his birthday last year.)

Hopefully I'll have a project soon. I've been kind of lazy and just working on my Mario cross stitch. I think I may work a lot on my quilt this weekend. (And possibly make a tea wallet - I've wanted one for a while to take to work, we shall see.)

Have a lovely evening!
- Ms. 246

P.S. I almost forgot! I am on my way to accomplishing New Years' Resolution #8! I've got a pen pal! She lives in England! I met her on the HP Craftalong boards at Craftster.org. How exciting, right? I've written her a letter tonight and I'll be mailing it tomorrow!

Happy Half-Birthday Luna!

Not only is it the first of the year, it's also Lunabean's half birthday. She's a whole six months old today. I can't believe it. Her current interests and accomplishments include: sitting up on her own, sucking on her toes, and yelling at the cat and dog.

I did forget to include a "resolution" on my list: to be the best role model and mother I can be. I have one simple guideline for this: Do what you would want your daughter to do.

Sometimes I don't feel like cleaning up after myself, but then I remind myself that if I want Luna to clean up after herself I need to be doing it. Sometimes work gets me down (or anything really)...how do I want Luna to react when she's in that situation when she's older? Do I want her to sulk and whine about it? No, I want her to figure out what needs to be/can be changed and make the best of a situation.

I've got a lot of growing up to do and Mr. 246 jokes that we have to raise Luna and myself. Well, if anything, it'll be an adventure.

I hope everyone is having a terrific New Years Day and I wish you all a happy, fulfilling year.

Love,
Ms. 246.

P.S. Here's 1/365 on my photo project!