A Quilt for Eloise

I started this project a long time ago, but morning sickness, exhaustion from pregnancy, and life in general prevented me from finishing it. The project sat in my closet as a lonely quilt top for a good six months. When I heard the news of our friend Linnaea's new baby girl, Eloise, I pulled it out of that "to do" pile. I tried to make it as gender neutral as possible, which becomes more complicated when you stray from the traditional yellow/green combo. The big question was whether I should include blue? It was a tough decision, but ultimately I'm very pleased. This quilt also marks the first time that I used a dark color as the background. I played around with a few different colors, but decided that the slate fabric compliments the color palate much better than plain white sashing -- also, white and babies usually don't mix. 

Given that I was recovering from birth and settling into new parenthood, my mom was gracious enough to offer to finish it while she was in town. She finished the back, quilted the layers, and sewed on the binding. I have to say it's kind of nice having more than one person involved in a baby quilt's creation. Just that much more love has gone into the gift. While Miles was napping on Monday, I finally got a clear window of time to take it over to the post office and send it down to Santa Cruz. The quilt was packed with entire package of newborn sized diapers that Miles, my jumbo baby, outgrew at two weeks old. Eloise was just shy of seven pounds at birth, so I'm thinking they'll be useful for a while.

Welcome to the world, Eloise!

Organization: Making Progress

This morning I was up before the sun at 5am. I'm not sure if it was because I'm still recovering from east coast time, or my hormones are so out of wack that it will be physically impossible for me to sleep in ever again. In my head I started going over all of the things that I need to do: write two papers, finally work on our taxes, and of course finish organizing the apartment. Since organizing the apartment is much more fun, I started making a list of the things I need to tackle next. If I continue to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, I should at least have some things to do before Jesse (and the sun) gets up out of bed.

Before leaving for Florida, we had a great weekend of organizing that left me feeling pretty good about the state of our living space. We shifted around the back bedroom to make space for the guest bed mattresses and ordered perfectly sized boxes to hide away his hundreds of cds (ahem a thousand and some change). I also worked on that shelf in our bedroom that was causing me so much stress. It's still not perfect, but if you shield your eyes from the very top that is still pure chaos, I am pretty pleased with the progress.

I lined all of the shelves with dotted shelf paper and have implemented a strict towel and sheet folding policy so that everything stays compact and tidy. Jesse has embraced the towel folding, since he is also very particular about the way his t-shirts are folded and stored. However, I think I'll have sheet duty for the rest of my days, since his method of folding fitted corners is rolling them in a ball and shoving them out of sight. The middle shelf is half empty (except for the gender neutral baby items), but I plan on using that for clothing items that don't quite fit in our drawers. Maybe that would be a good way of showcasing Jesse's t-shirt folding talent.

However, if my mom keeps up at her current pace (full speed ahead), we may have that middle shelf filled in no time. Can you tell that she's just a little excited about being a grandmother? A couple of weeks ago, I got a package in the mail addressed to the baby and inside was this amazing quilt. Apparently, she started on it just days after she found out that I was expecting. Recognize the pattern? My mom knows me too well! When we arrived in Florida for our recent visit, another set of baby items were waiting for us in our room -- a giant pile of receiving blankets, burp pads, and a couple of bibs. All were made by mom and much better looking than anything that I could find in the store. She even hand-stitched the back side of the blanket and burp cloth binding! We are going to have one spoiled little dude or dudette in just a few more months. Hopefully s/he will have a somewhat organized apartment to come home to!

Hello June!

Thursday morning we were up before the sun and on the way to the airport. This was the first time we've flown down to Santa Cruz in the morning and thought it would be a nice change. However, getting up at 3:30am for our 6:30am flight had the same effect as when we would fly all day across the country and arrive in California tired, grumpy, and jet-lagged. We dragged along most of the afternoon and then I finally relented and passed out for an extended nap. The rest of the weekend was awesome though (hence my lack of posting). I took my vacation time so seriously that I only took three photographs -- two at Daphne & Ben's wedding and one of Jesse's eye that became swollen and red from allergies on Sunday night. He's better now, but it was fun to joke that I had socked him in the eye, causing it to nearly swell shut.

We saw lots of friends while we were in town, including Larson & Serena. It was great to catch up, especially since I haven't seen either of them since we found out that they are going to have a baby. Serena is an adorable pregnant lady with just a little bulge in front. We all marveled at her appetite, wondering how on earth such a small person could manage to eat so much! She must be doing something right, because she's healthy and happy and glowing. I finally got the chance to give them the baby quilt that has been sitting in the closet, taunting me for several weeks now.

As for today, I'm planning on getting back into a normal routine again. I have a few errands to run and some new projects to plan. One of my favorite food blogs, Pinch My Salt, has embarked on a mission to bake every type of bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice. I've been following the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge for a couple of weeks now. I picked up the book at the library, just to have a look, but I think I'm going to try a recipe or two before I have to return it. I'm particularly intrigued by the bagel recipe, which is slightly different than the one I tried a few weeks ago. I also would like to try the marbled rye. New baking projects will certainly mean a more regular blogging schedule again!