f.o. baby cocoon, fuzzy tandom bike blanky, and practice diapers for big sis.

 It is hitting me that my kids have pretty much two weeks left of school, then I will have my hands full, When you figure fire monster only has school two days a week that makes it even less!  So I decided I better get busy on some projects and take advantage of my last few kid free days. I whipped out a few quick baby projects I have had on my list for a while today.

First off last night I finished Max's owlie cocoon. It is a great free pattern that can be found here.  I used one of my favorite soft easy care yarns berroco comfort.  It took less then one ball.  Happy with this and can't wait to see our little bug all snuggled up in it :)

 Next project I went on to was some practice diapers for Fire monster.  I used some scrap fabric and left over terry cloth from making burp rags.  I went off this tutorial  It doesn't give you much for a pattern So I winged it on my own and cut it out of a piece of freezer paper.  I made it to fit her baby cabbage patch dolls.  I still have to make the diaper wipe container and wipes but I think I will have one happy little mother hen for sure!

 Next project I finished was a baby blanky.  One side is tandem bike flannel the other side is soft furry stuff (I wouldn't call it minky it is more of a Sherpa type material)  I love this I might add a satin edging I might not.  These are soo simple you just sew it together wrong sides out leaving a gap big enough for your hand to fit through then flip it right side out making sure to use a pencil (or in my case knitting needle) to push the corners out and sew around the edge again. 

 I also knit this stegosaurus hat for the little peanut.  It is grey and robins egg blue berroco comfort and the pattern I used is roar  which I have knit quiet a few times before It always makes a cute baby boy gift and I look forward to seeing max in it. 

I have quiet a few other projects lined up on a little queue for  myself to get done for baby Max.  Right now it is time to throw something together for lunch for myself, then start my next knitting project :)

nursery projects and progress

 Okay so I wanted to make some cute little wall art with the babies name.  So I ran to my good ole stand by the dollar tree.  I grabbed 3 pictures (sorry if you disagree with covering pics of the virgin mary or um..not sure who these are but they work perfect for wall art and at a dollar a piece can't beat it!)

 Then when I was in Sioux falls for a endo apt. I grabbed some fabric and some wooden letters at hobby lobby.  I opted for the pre-glittered letters (save me a step and some mess)  I then covered each pic with some mod podge.

 Then place the fabric over and smooth it to make sure there is no bubbles.  Then cover the top with at least one nice even coat of mod podge.

 Once that was dry I cut a square out of each corner and busted out my trusty hot glue gun.  I glued the fabric to the sides and back like so..

I centered the letters and glued them on.  and there you go some cute wall art for my baby boys room.

Here is the finished product hanging behind the rocker.  Fire monster is practicing reading baby books that she is handing down to Max.  She is very excited to read to him ;)

 I also changed out the girl colored poms for some that fit the color of his room and moved them over so they will hang over the crib (when we get one lol)

 That is all I have accomplished so far on the room since last post.  We took most of the non baby stuff out this weekend.  Next weekend my hubby is going to build me a nail polish rack to mount my nail polish collection out of the way.  :)  I have how ever been working on baby knitting projects.  Here is the progress on Max's baby owl cocoon. :)

 The pattern is owlie sleep sack by Teresa Cole.  I followed Perches alterations except I don't think I will make it longer (she states her babies are long and well fire monster will be 6 and she is still wearing 4t if she is lucky and things run small its a 5t lol) 

So far happy with the progress and just a nice easy mindless stop and go project you can leave and pick up as you please with out any confusions.  Hope you guys are having a good one :)

make up must haves from drug store.

We all know I love make up and I try pretty much everything out there.  I have some high end and drug store but I am one that if I can find a awesome product that is on hand at the drug store and way less $ I am all about that.  So I thought I would share with you guys my drug store must haves.

FACE

the soho make up sponge is great!  It is soft and cushy like the beauty blender (where as some of the other knock offs can be more dense and hard) it costs around 5$ where as a beauty blender is around 20-30$.  They can be found at walgreens.

 Revlon nearly naked powder.  This is very finely milled which means that it won't be cakey and powdery but blurs things and sets you make up and foundation fabulously.  I wear this EVERY day.

 cover girl olay concealer.  I have some pretty nasty under eye circles.  Between not sleeping well, allergies, and genetics there are pretty hard to cover up.  I don't like something drying or creasing so this is perfect.  It covers well  while brightening.  I always apply this in a triangle shape from the inner corner of my eye down my nose and out to the outer corner of my eye.  It brightens the area and makes you look more awake.  I blend it gently with my finger then dab it with a sponge to pick up any excess and prevent creasing and set it with my powder.

 BLUSHES

nyx blushes are great.  I have two and thy are reached for quiet a bit they are 5$ at ulta and usually bogo the left is bourgeois pig (a nice matte) and pinched and (shimmery pink)

 wet and wild has amazing quality and at 3$.  I always wrote them off because they were so inexpensive but the quality of some of there products just can't be matched in the drug store and is right up there with mac, nars, and some of the other high end high price brands. the left is mellow wine (nice matte) and pearlescent pink (a shimmer pink dupe for nars orgasm) these are mega pigmented so barely touch your brush to them then tap off access.

CONTOURING AND BROZER

I have two great affordable options for contouring or bronzing your face.  I love nyc sunny it is a great matte bronzer available most places and is around 3$

 This elf blush bronzer duo is a dupe for nars luguna/ orgasm duo which is 41$ but this is just 3$!!!  Can't beat that.

HIGHLIGHT

Loreal magic lumi primer. This is great to get that dewy glow to your skin.  It is a primer but I rarely use it as one I usually put a tiny amount on the back of my hand then dab my make up sponge in it and tap it along the top of my cheek bones, on my cupids bow, then blend it out.  It gives a great glow.

EYE BROWS

I have very sparse light eye brows so I fill them in every day.  I have tried lots of things but these two are my tried and true.  I love my nyc brow kit.  I don't use the wax. I go through with a pencil I use the powder and a angled brush and it gives a softer more natural look.  the color on these is a good neutral brown and has lots of staying power.

Eye

 The pencil I prefer is the remmil bow pencil.  The color is a great neutral with not a ton of red in it and not too dark.

 EYE PENCILS

My favorite must have drug store liquid eye liner is loreal 12 hr infallible super slim liquid lacquer eye liner.  It is nice and dark and has a very pointed tip.

 This is a new must have Nyx jumbo pencil in milk.  I run a line of this under my brows and blend it out giving them a perfectly looking groomed brow :)

 remmil londons scandaleyes liner in nude.  It is a great soft liner and used on lower water line brightens your eyes and makes them look larger and more awake with out the harshness of a white liner.

 EYE SHADOWS

I have been super hooked on my loreal infallible shadows for months now.  There is rarely a day goes by I don't wear them.

  I have iced latte (a champagne color dupe for stellas kitten on the right) and blinged and brilliant a nice rose gold color on the left.  I love these they are a pressed pigment.  They are best applied over a base with your fingers.

 any of my wet and wild shadow pallets.  There quality is unmatched for sure.  I love all of them I chose a few of my favorites.  the drinking a glass of shine comfort zone and sweet as candy.  They are all amazing and mega pigmented.  You have to try them the largest pallets go for 5$.

 Maybelline 24 hour tattoo shadows.  These are great I mostly wear them as bases for my shadow but sometimes in a hurry they are a great crease free swipe of color.  My fav lately is this pink but bad to the bronze is well loved too

I love lots of lip colors but I can guarantee not a day goes by that I don't put on some baby lips.  I have tons of these around the house.  :)

 Here is a typical every day face lately  I used nyc sunny for my contour (a bit washed out) wet and wild pearlesant pink for blush, both eye brow products = nyx milk, on my lid I have blinged and brilliant crease is the 3rd left on wet and wild comfort zone and outer corner is bottom left , My highlight is the lumi primer.  I

 This is a average go to look for me lately.  :)  I hope you guys enjoy the tips and give some of the products a try they are for sure worth it. :)

friday f.o. windrows

Time to actually share some knitting seeing as this is a knitting blog..right? This week I finished monkey butts socks.  The pattern I knit was windrows by Cat Bordhi..  It is in the book  personal foot prints.  I love the way these socks fit.  I have made quiet a few patterns from this book.  I think it throws people because you knit the foot in one piece while placing some life lines and then once the heel is closed you cut one stitch and pick up the stitches from the life line while unwinding the one row.  It is not as scary as it sounds and your socks fit amazing.  they don't have that star shaped hole at the corner like some can too.

 She loves these and they were knit out of on your toes bamboo.  One of our favorite yarns. I knit my summer flies shawl out of it and also monkey butts owlie socks.  They are her favorite pair.  I think it is in part because of this amazing soft buttery yarn.

So hopefully she will get just as much wear out of these pretty spring like socks.  Now that I am done with my last project I started before finding out the sex of the baby I am moved on to baby knits.  Currently working on a owlie sleep sack for the baby boy.  I worked on some new projects for the nursery today between that and the stuff I have on my hubbies honey do list for the weekend I should have more updates for you on that soon ;)

Have a good day guys

nursery progress

 I wanted to share some of the progress on the babies room.  I am working on slowly doing the make over from girl cave to baby boy room.  I made new curtains changed the bar with cubbies and a few other things.

Her is the before..

Here is the after.  The curtains are grey yellow and blue. The white desk went to monkey butt and I will be keeping the drafting table here because I need somewhere to do my stuff and this is really the only place for it.

.

 The pictures to the side had their fabric changed to a boy fabric and will have some less girlish saying wrote in. right now the things below will stay there until I order a nail polish wrack or something to house them on the wall out of the way.

 This wall has changed allot.  I down sized all this and bought a book shelf for my room the house all the books.

 Now it looks like this.  It will be a changing table area.  I need to get a changing pad but I have to baskets and cubbies below for diapers, blankets burp rags and crib sheets and what not. The nicknacks on the shelve will be changed out with boy things when I find ones I like.

 this wall is completely empty right now.  I moved th yarn shelve to butt up to my dresser in my room .  The bar above it is the one above the draft table.  I took down all the will art.  (the heat and bond fabric wall art came off great except for the flannel humming bird left a bit of fuzz but I think it will come off with some soap and water) This wall is where the crib will go when we get one.  I have some ideas already for wall art above it. 

This was our first baby purchase.  I had them put this particular one on hold at target because I wanted this one in this color and it was the last one.  It is a rock and play.  It is sort of a cradle that is portable and rocks head to toe instead of side to side.

Here is the inside.  the colors are ones I am going to use for the nursery (grey, bright blue, and pear green).  I was excited for this. 

 Another things that has been displaced was my purses.  I don't have any that are pricey ones.  I most have t.j. max, khols, and target.  I trade back and forth depending on what I need at the time.  I got a hanging shoe wrack from walmart and rolled them up and stuck them on the inside of my closet door.

That is the progress so far.  I will keep you guys posted as we get new things and add them in :)

21 week update

This week has been a roller coaster.  I did my gender reveal got a ton of stuff going around the house, lots of cleaning, de-cluttering and reorganizing, which are all good things. I have also hit that part of the pregnancy where you feel about as sexy and as big as a macys day balloon!  There for I had my first (I am sure hormonally driven) cry about feeling huge and in general hideous. 

We have had two more snow storms, which I for one am absolutely sick to death of.  I finished knitting a pair of socks for monkey butt and started a owl cocoon for the baby.  We made a purchase for the baby which will be up in tomorrows blog post showing the progress made on converting the girl cave over to a nursery.  I also spent last night with zofran and a bowl.  I don't know what happened but I got super sick at bed time :(.  Those were the happenings in the last week.  I am exhausted today and going to read for a bit before I have to start cooking dinner to feed all these people who live at my house lol.  Have a good day guys

weekend haul

 Over the weekend in the cities I had some things I needed to grab (and some that I got whether I needed them or not)  So here are the things I picked up :)  I stopped in Sallys because I needed some combs (mine were on their last legs, and a new top coat.  Polish's were buy two get one free.  So I got out the door top coat (which seems to be awesome and doesn't have the bad chemicals my beloved seche vite has) but it works just as good from what I could tell.  The two orly colors I got are okay but the problem is the formula is not good.  It takes more then two coats to be opaque. I haven't tried the china glaze yet.

 We had a eyebrow waxing mishap with my sister (sooo not my fault my niece and her friend were making her laugh and she wouldn't sit still) but anyway we were looking for a good brow pencil for her.  Our first stop was khols because I had heard the american beauty one was supposed to be amazing but the testers were old and totally dried.  When I would try to swatch them on my hand they crumbled and fell apart and they wouldn't put a new one out to try so...we went to ulta instead.  We found a few different ones that seemed to work.  (the best of which for her blond hair was essence in blond) 

But here is what I picked up.  I had two 4$ off coupons for almay and they were b2g1 so I grabbed a brow pencil for my sis (which she has it was decent too) a eye makeup remover (mine is almost out) and a almay get up and grow, a nyx dewy finishing spray and a nyx jumbo pencil in milk.

 I also grabbed a tangle teezer which I have heard great things about.  I am glad I did because my girls love it.  Fire monster is normally a monster to get her hair done but she doesn't fuss at all when I brush her hair with this.

Then only other thing I grabbed that was beauty related was this soho makeup sponge from walgreens.  It is supposed to be just like the beauty blender but is more like 7$.  I have to say I LOVE it.  It holds more water and is softer and more pliable then any of the other ones I have tried.  Totally recommend this.

That is all I bought beauty related.  The only thing I am not happy with so far is the orly polish's I will stick to a different company from not on (besides my holy grail bonder base coat)

family dinner gender reveal.

 Okay so this weekend we drove up to the cities (twin cities) to have a gender reveal for my side of the family.  After a long day calling all over the place I finally found someone who I could order cake pops from.  I didn't want to make them go through all the steps of making them myself here and try to get them 3 hours away to the cities in one piece.  I ordered from Kendras cakes and creations I wanted them to be very neutral on the outside and they were to be blue on the inside.  She did a great job and they weren't the kind that were just cake inside they had the frosting mixed in so they were not only adorable but delicious.  I loved it.  I had lunch with a few of the knit gurus and shared the news with them then headed back to the family.

 Before dinner everyone ate their pop and found out it was a BOY. 

 I intagramed some pics to share the news.

we ordered a big dinner from gesippes and chowed down and then sat around doing nothing at family dinner like always lol  Here is my sister melissa screwing around with her phone.  (I am not 100% sure she will ever know fully how to work it lol)

 Here is my brother jeremy and amber my soon to be sister in law. 

this one doesn't look like much but calvin is inside the box.   Him and Fire monster played in that box all day.  They had holes poked out for eyes and ran around all day playing in the box (under the watchful eye of zoey the mother hen Weimaraner of coarse)

So there we have it the family knows and I have started planing and purchasing and making things.  I will share as things go but I wanted to make sure and share the rest of this story.  I finally have a day with no kids Even though we had another day of this yesterday..

They did not cancel school for once which is fabulous because fire monster has her field trip today and it has already been canceled once! So she gets to have a fun day and  I can take some pics and throw up some posts as well as bake and try to work on my little boys room and get mine cleaned up a bit, finish my book, swing over to the library and pic up the book I have put on hold that finally came in and start a new knitting project for the baby..  :)  (I have big plans we will see how far they get me lol)  Have a good day guys.