my new do

this weekend i made a change.

after 5 plus years of growing and living the long haired life, i did it. watauga medical was having a cancer awareness event and nelson of nelson's salon was volunteering his time and skills to gather donations for locks of love. i've been thinking about making the chop since maple was born. over 2 years. and when i heard about this chance i just jumped right in.

now, i have always enjoyed growing my hair long and then cutting it super short. in the past i have always been so ready i actually took the scissors to my hair myself. i was not quite so ready this time.

the experience itself was a little strange. i didn't really know what i wanted. and it was definitely weird to get my hair cut in an auditorium with a bunch of people watching. there were no mirrors so i couldn't even see what was happening to my head. afterward everyone told me how good it looked and seemed so happy.

then i got home and looked in the mirror.

you know, i never took myself for the type of person that would cry over a haircut. but i did. i cried. i hated it. it was not me. it was horrible. breath, breath, breath. obsessively look in the mirror and wonder what i was going to do until it grew back. i was happy to have the chance to donate my hair and truly appreciative if nelson's time and the fact that i got a free cut. but i just was not accepting what was on my head. it was bad and i was sad. then i slept.

it was easier to look in the mirror yesterday and i started working on a little acceptance. today i gave it a good washing (yeah, i don't shower everyday) and got all that "style" out. and you know what? it worked. its actually not bad. and i'm starting to remember all the fun things you can do with short hair. and i'm totally digging my new look. i really needed a change.

so here is the before and after:

this is me with long hair.

oh yeah, thats the stuff.

but now its short.

its pretty cute.

and i am oh so happy!!!

my first sweater!!!

i finished my first sweater last night. this was a really simple pattern, right up my alley. it was knit all in one piece and then seamed up the sides. i am not very good at seaming. its a little bigger than newborn size and fits alaska just right. no, he doesn't really need a sweater in july. but i wanted to see how this patterned turned out.

this is the sweater in progress

and here is my little man modeling the finished project

4 months

13lbs 5oz

24 inches

super stander

super smiler

discovered the hands and the feet

sensitive tummy

bundle of joy

LTK pilot cap

by far the cutest thing i have ever seen on my kids head! i made the smallest size with some yarn from my cotton dishcloth stash. i just wanted to try out this pattern and make sure i actually got it before using some nicer yarn. i have to say, it turned out SO GOOD!!! i love the color patterns and it kind of fits alaska, though i'm sure he'll have it outgrown by the end of the month.

this is a pattern from little turtle knits. it was so well written and explained everything so well. i can't wait to make these for our winter hats. and i can't wait to try out some more LTK patterns.

wisdom, cabled hat.

i am learning some important life lessons as i knit. like this hat. cables are something that i have always just assumed would be really hard and not worth the effort of trying. major intimadation factor. but i just got some guts, tried them out and you know what? they were so unbelievably easy! i'm proud of this hat, for the fact that i took a chance in doing something i wasn't comfortable with, and in my opinion it turned out great. it even fits my head. so i've gained a little confidence and learned this lesson: don't say you can't do something until you've actually put out the effort to try it. and when we go for the things that scare us the most we can become better stronger people (and knitters).

my momentous day

yesterday was a BIG day. some really awesome things happened.

to start out, i put on a pair of pants that WERE NOT maternity pants. HELLS YEAH!!!! at long last! i came home from the hospital weighing about 40 pounds more than i did before i got pregnant and i have been hard at work over the last few months to drop drop drop that weight. major milestone here. now i still have about 20 pounds and three sizes to go before i get to wear my pre-pregnancy clothes, but seriously it feels so good to say goodbye to those preggo pants.

and the whole reason i even got dressed yesterday?

say goodbye to my cheap crappy dead battery old cell phone and HELLO to my amazingly awesome super dooper new iPhone!!!!

oh yes. i am the very proud owner of a new iPhone 3G. definitely the coolest techy electronical thing i've ever owned. these suckers went on sale at 8am yesterday morning and yes we stood in line with both kids to get one. luck was definitely on our side. ben drove by the at&t store at 6am on his way into coyote and saw no line so we made no rush getting to the store. we got to the mall a little after seven and saw a line had formed but it wasn't that big so we went and got some coffee and mosied over to stand and wait. then we found out our store only had 20 phones to sell. thats right, 20 PHONES. what!?! i mean the line wasn't long but it wasn't that short either. were we screwed? holy cow!! our numbers in line? 19 and 20!!!! i couldn't believe it. seriously lucky. our kids were total troopers too and did so well as we waited from 7:30 until just past 9 to get into the store. you may have heard about the apple server crash which is why we waited so long and then never even got our phones working. we finally left the store at 10:30 and got our phones working sometime after 2 in the afternoon. so worth all the trouble though. i LOVE my new phone.

after setting up and playing with my new toy for a few hours i got down to business and finished seaming the second of the two cowls i have been knitting.

yay!!! another finished project. these were really fun to make. i think i will keep the blue one and gift the green. for my next project i am going to try to knit cables in a hat pattern i really like with yarn that i don't like so much but really need to use up.

and so concludes my momentous day.

CUTE KIDDO ALERT!!

gotta love a weekend

the project is coming along quite nicely. i have two skiens of this yarn to use up so soon i will have two finished "cowls". cowl is a funny word, i don't think i had ever heard it used before i saw this pattern. i guess its like a mini scarf or open hat ear warmer thing. anyway, it looks nice and warm and is knitting up quick.

our weekend has been nice but busy. ben finally had a couple days off. he made a yummy egg and sausage breakfast and then we went to the farmers market. enjoyed some bald guy coffee and got lots of delicious produce. beets, yellow squash, blueberries, canteloupe, peaches, and our favorite 5 seed bread (that i can't eat right now! poo.) then off to the mall to get pre-approved for our i-phones. oh yes, i said i-phones! next friday. oh yeah. at the mall we got sucked into a big clearance sale at old navy. came home and freaked out at all the clothes we bought that we really didn't need and then i went back to the mall to return half of it. and then to the dreaded walmart to get dofood, batteries, a few other supplies. after that i needed a glass of wine. and after that glass of wine i was so tired i just had to go to bed.

this morning i got out of the house on my own and went grocery shopping. i love a full fridge and pantry. it is so comforting. ben is out playing disc golf and all is peaceful in the house as both kids sleep. love it.

and here's my finished hat.

hat #2

yay! another hat. i finished this yesterday but my camera is dead so no picture of the finished project. yet. these pics of the work in progress will have to do for now. i LOVE this color. i'm feeling a little obsessed with knitting at the moment. it is my escape. whats helping fuel this obsession is my new favorite website, ravelry. its like crack for needlers/hookers/yarnies. i feel so inspired. there are a couple other projects i have in mind to help eat up some of my stash before i start working on a sweater (gasp) for alaska. i'm starting on this one tonight.

charitable crafting

high country mommies had their third charitable crafting meet up on monday. we've been working on a large set of reusable pads to donate to the goods 4 girls campaign. our first meeting was just a trace and cut fest. that was a lot of work cutting out all the layers for 50 pads and after 3 hours we all had more cutting homework to take with us. at our second meeting we started putting things together. we layered the absorbant inards and stitched them down onto one side of flannel. we got all 50 pads done in this stage (yeah, this was the easy part) and pinned for the almost final sewing stage. which is where we were monday. sewing all the layers together. it was extremely tedious making sure everything lined up correctly and we only got through about half the pads. cayce did the majority of the work, being the lucky one without kids that day. the rest we divied out as homework.

next comes turning all these pads right side out (another tedious job), doing the finishing stitching and adding snaps. i will also be sewing wetbags to go along with our donation. these are some pictures from our 2nd meet up.

niki (our site administrator) hard at work

allison was trimmin' and pinnin'

nichole, jen, and cayce stitch away

melanie was our pinner and toddler wrangler

pads in various stages