Once upon a time, way back in March, the lovely Claire asked me if I would be willing to face a crocheting challenge for her. She wanted seven crocheted balls, in varying shades of red; and one ball crocheted out of jute twine, representing the city of Dundee, Scotland, where she lived. (Dundee is famous for, among other things, its jute mills.) I assured her that I loved a challenge! I could do it!

Yeah, did you notice the part where she asked me in March, the month during which we were moving into a new house and hosting a variety of houseguests at the same time? That was also the month during which I unknowingly became pregnant and started requiring 14 hours of sleep per day and not wanting to drink coffee. I was also working on a million other crochet projects at the same time. I got the red balls done by mid-April, and then…just…came to a stand-still. I looked around locally for the jute, but couldn’t find what I needed. I ended up having to order it online, then went out of town, blah dee blah, etc. FINALLY I finished all seven of the red balls and the jute ball. I emailed Claire to tell her it was done! I had completed her order!

Naturally, Claire (who was extremely gracious about my slowness throughout the spring and summer) and her husband were about to move away from Dundee. She assured me that the balls would be a lovely memento of their time there, and that she still wanted them. That was when I realized I’d forgotten that one of the red balls was supposed to be striped in the six other shades of red.

Sigh.

I scrounged around through my yarn bins and found most of the red yarns I’d used originally, and made an eighth ball, red and stripey. And now, finally, five months later, THE ORDER IS COMPLETE.

Claire, the red and jute crocheted balls are in my Etsy shop, waiting for you! I have no idea why this order took me so long, other than the obvious reasons of (1) moving cross-country, (2) being pregnant, and (3) not finding jute locally. Those things should have made this order take two months, maybe, but not five. Thank you again for your kindness and understanding.

(I saw we take my banner’s advice and just blame it on the baby. She won’t mind.)

I painted this mug way back in April, when I was in Omaha and I went painting with Katrina and Kassie. This mug is notable because it’s the first time I tried painting in script rather than printing. It turned out better than I thought it would. The quote is from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. It’s one of my favorite lines from a good play that was made into one of my favorite movies. That line has always struck me as a sweet and hilarious sentiment at the same time. I found myself thinking, Someone should put that on a mug! So I did. And then I put that mug in my Etsy shop.

I was trying to branch out from my typical brightly-colored dottery when I chose these colors. It turned out to be one of my favorite things I’ve ever painted. I love this color combination, so cheerful and summery with the sky blue and lilac and violet and apple green! And a little bit of gray for summer storm clouds. Perfect. It’s in my shop too, if you like it.

This is the red-white-and-blue plate I painted as an example when I taught that dottery class in June. I used a speckled paint for the white dots, so it has tiny bits of blue, red, and yellow paint in it that help the white dots stand out a bit more. I also used a larger paintbrush than I normally do, so it looks a bit different from most of my dotty plates. I really like it! If you like it and want one, I can paint another one for you—just ask.

A couple of months ago, I painted this green dotty mini bowl for no one in particular. (I don’t think I ever blogged this…it’s been a while since I’ve blogged any pottery-painting.) Brenda saw it on Flickr and asked if I could set it aside for her to buy. Instead, I set it aside to give to her for her birthday. Then I forgot to put it in her birthday care package. So now it’s going to be her thank-you-for-letting-us-come-visit-you-in-California gift.

Sonja saw the first green dotty mini bowl on Flickr too, but Brenda had already claimed it. She proclaimed her love for it, and asked if I could paint her another one. Alas, this is not exactly the first bowl’s twin; it’s slightly larger and has a couple of different shades of green in it, since I painted this one at a different studio. But I think it’s just as adorable in its own way. So this bowl is going to be Sonja’s thank-you-for-letting-us-come-visit-you-in-California gift.

Last Christmas, Melissa saw the star ornament that I painted (the one that now lives in Bex’s cubicle at work year-round), and said if I ever came across another star ornament, she’d love it if I’d paint her one. Unfortunately my pottery studio in San Diego had already run out of stars, and I’d never run across any more. Then when I painted with Anna at the beach, they had star magnets. I threw caution to the wind and painted one for Mel in bright colors, adding the word ‘hope’ just because it seemed like the right word to use. Mel might have thought she was going to buy this magnet from me, but I decided I just wanted to send it to her as a gift. Because isn’t hope always a gift, really? Mel, it’s already on its way to you!

Here’s the dotty ‘be happy’ mug I painted in Omaha last month, thinking of citrus fruits when I chose the colors. Not sure what I’ll do with it. Anyone out there want it? Let me know, I’ll throw it in my Etsy shop for you. (Gently! I will gently throw it since, as Sonja pointed out to me, it’s breakable.)

Finally, here’s something I’m really proud of. I’m kind of throwing caution to the wind posting it now, because a blog reader asked me to paint this as a birthday gift for her mom. She assured me her mom doesn’t read my blog, so it’s most likely okay to post photos here, but I’m not going to mention who commissioned it just in case.

I wasn’t sure how this one would turn out, because I rarely paint with the “right” end of the paintbrush. In my head, the dotty center looked good, and the shades of orange and golden yellow I chose for the sunflower’s petals were just right, and the true blue color I chose for the outside of the bowl and the dotty pattern inside complemented the colors of the sunflower perfectly…in my head. But once it was painted and I was waiting for it to be fired I got nervous. What if I was wrong about the colors? What if the petals were totally brushy and amateurish? What if I was too freeform on the blue dotty pattern and it looked like crap!?

But when I saw the fired bowl, I breathed a sigh of relief because I loved it. I hope my reader’s mom loves it too! And I hope I remember this lesson and branch out of my painting comfort zone a little more often because sometimes the end results are worth the nail-biting.

Outside my window the sky is a weird orange color, thanks to the thunderstorms that have been moving through our area all afternoon and evening. It’s rather beautiful.

I am thinking about baby names, but not so obsessively any more. Troy and I have narrowed the list down to a handful of possibilities and we’ll roll those around in our minds for a while.

(Thank you, by the way, for all of you who commented with your favorite girls’ names. My goodness, we all certainly do like talking about names, don’t we? And I learned, from reading all your suggestions, that I have a complicated system of rules for naming my children that I wasn’t even aware of having. Which maybe explains why I was going so crazy for a while there.)

I am thankful for perspective, which makes my life so much less difficult than it otherwise might seem.

I am wearing a Gallifrey t-shirt and Wal-Mart maternity shorts that I purchased in 2004. (First person to know what Gallifrey is wins a crocheted coffee-cup cozy.)

I am remembering how uncomfortable all these baby kicks can be. I’m thankful that the baby is active and healthy, blah blah. But I can honestly say that once this kid is born I won’t miss all the internal pummeling one little bit.

I am going to California in 18 days! Yay!

I am currently reading an issue of Touchstone Magazine.

I am hoping that I can figure out this whole homeschooling-a-first-grader thing without going crazy or scarring me or Annalie for life. (Pretty confident I can. Just, y’know…fingers crossed.)

On my mind: the movie Inception, which I’ve heard praised to the skies from so many different quarters that I think it’s impossible I won’t be underwhelmed by it. I’m still avoiding spoilers, though.

Noticing that Annalie has probably been watching too much TV lately. But I like my midday naps, so for now I’ll let it slide.

In the kitchen there are a few cookies left. I’m trying to ignore their siren call.

Around the house is plenty of evidence in every single room that a 6-year-old girl lives here. My attempts to have her clean up after herself are failing to keep pace with her ability to spread her belongings about.

One of my favorite things is the color of the yarn I’m using to crochet this baby her own cuddle blanket—sort of a pale yellow-green.

From my photo archive: this photo of Annalie was taken in March 2007, when she was two months shy of her third birthday. I’m very interested to see if the baby will look as much like Annalie as I look like my brother.

Post inspired by Beck.

7 Days – Day 1

I originally crocheted a bunch of these rainbow balls for Bug’s 4th birthday party as party favors. Brenda promptly christened them “rainballs” which is really fun to say.

I just finished making a whole mess of rainballs for a blog reader who plans ahead. She asked me in March if she could put in a custom order for 15 rainballs for her daughter’s birthday party…which will be in November. It took me three months to get around to making them, and I still finished the order five months early. Oh yeah, I rock.

They’re in my Etsy shop waiting for you, Kim!

I’ve been on a major crocheting kick lately. It seems like a weird time of year to spend hours working with warm fuzzy yarn, but this happened last year at this time too. I think the common denominator is that the spring TV season ended and I found a new show to watch compulsively online. Last year it was Chuck; this year it’s Bones.

The first blankets I finished this spring were actually done a couple of months ago. The big blanket above (which was greatly inspired by this beautiful blanket of Colorbook’s) was made for my dear friend Angela’s baby girl, Kate, in April. The two smaller blankets were for Kate’s big sisters Gabby & Annie, two of Annalie’s best friends from our old playgroup in Maryland. I thought that Gabby and Annie, who are 6 and 4, could use the little blankets for their dolls or stuffed animals, but Angela tells me that they’ve both been cuddling with them while they sleep. That made me melt into a puddle of goo and feel very loved. (We miss you too, girls!)

The next blanket I finished was for another playgroup friend, Rebekah, who just had baby Ashley last week! Bek had mentioned that she really liked my flower scarves, so I looked around until I found this neat flower-hexagon pattern (found in the comments of this photo). I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, except looking at this photo I decided it needs three more flowers to be symmetrical.

Ashley doesn’t seem to care that the blanket isn’t symmetrical, though. So I guess it’s fine as it is.

Bekah snapped this great shot of me and Ashley. Isn’t she cute?

No surprise there, though. All her older siblings are adorable too.

After making those four blankets, I had lots of pretty yarn left over. So I whipped up this little nine-patch blanket for another friend who just had a baby. I can’t say who, though, because I have not actually mailed it yet.

Then I made another little blanket with leftover yarn, this one done in a pattern that I’ve known for years. I’ve started several blankets in this style and never finished any of them, so I was especially pleased to actually complete this one. The blanket is sort of reversible, see?

The body of the blanket is just rows of single crochet, but every row is done in the back loops only. It makes the yarn lay differently so that one one side you mostly see the white rows, and on the other side you mostly see the rainbow-colored rows. The border is done the same way, except I alternated which side you see the white and colorful rows. (If you’re really interested in this pattern let me know, I can elaborate more clearly.) This one is for a friend who hasn’t had her baby yet, but I can’t tell you who because it’s a surprise.

Finally, here’s a small granny-square blanket I made with more scraps. I totally winged it, as you can see from the couple of spots where I suddenly changed color mid-round.

I made this with no particular recipient in mind, just keeping my hands busy while I watched TV. Annalie had remarked on how pretty it was several times, so I gave it to her. She was happy.