How is it possible that I haven’t blogged any crocheting since October!? Oh, wait…I guess I did blog about some cup sleeves and crocheted golden snitches back at the end of February. But still! The lack of blogging about it certainly does not indicate a lack of crocheting. Let me show you.

This rainbow blanket is one of the most recent things I’ve crocheted, and I love it. It’s probably one of my favorite things I’ve ever crocheted. It was made it for my friend Joanna‘s sweet baby boy, but Elliora tried claiming it as her own. First she came over and plopped down on the blanket when I was trying to take photos. (That was only two months ago. Now she runs if I point a camera at her; forget her voluntarily inserting herself in a photo she wasn’t asked to pose for in the first place.)

Then she stood, gathered the blanket into her arms, and walked off with it. She climbed into the blue chair still holding the blanket, and hugged it, grinning at me, daring me to take it away from her. The goober.

A photo of the rainbow blanket before Elliora tried staking her claim.

Photo taken two months ago. It’s bigger now, since the blanket is one-third done!

Have I told you all about the sky blanket I’m crocheting? You might have seen the sky scarf on Pinterest. I liked the idea, but decided I wanted a blanket, and went with my trademark spiral squares instead of stripes. I started just after the first of the year. Each day, I look at the sky around noon (or whenever I remember; or unless it rains or snows anytime that day, in which case the day’s square is sparkly gray or sparkly white), and that evening I spend about 20 minutes crocheting one three-inch square out of the appropriate color yarn and then attach it to the blanket. I’ll end up with 360 squares arranged in 20 rows of 18, and maybe a six-round border for the last six days of the year, which will make a decent-size blanket in shades of blue, gray, and white. It’s a totally different color scheme than my usual palette of brights. I’m surprised by how much I like it and look forward to cuddling under it at the end of the year.

My sister-in-law Dana sent me this bag for my birthday. I love it.

These two little nine-patch blankets were made for our friends Lynette and Med’s twin girls.

I didn’t notice till after I’d started working on the purple one that the colors were very Mardi Gras. Good thing Lynette and Med appreciate (and throw!) a good party.

This photo was actually my Day 6 photo from 7 Days this past December. (You know, that 7 Days week I never finished blogging about because (1) it was Christmas, and (2) I got sick on Christmas Eve. Sigh.) Summer complimented a similar coffee-cup sleeve in Mandy’s Day 2 photo, so I offered to make her one.

Queta, another 7-Dayer, complimented the same coffee-cup sleeve. I made one for her too. (Apparently, all it takes is a compliment and I’m falling all over myself to make you stuff.)

Erin peeking over the blanket I crocheted for Indira Jane.

Two-month-old Indy, sleeping under her blanket. She’s EIGHT months old now, and I have not seen her since this picture was taken. That’s so sad. Once we’re back on the west coast, I think I’m gonna be visiting Oregon a lot more often. How else are Elliora and Indy going to become best friends?

Last but not least, some yarnballs! I’ve made a bunch of crocheted balls for my friend Rebekah’s kids over the years. Her husband Jason loves them (balls you can play with relatively safely IN THE HOUSE) and periodically puts in an order for more. Not long ago I made these three for them. And I just remembered, I need to make them a few more! I should add that to my crafting queue…

Mystery yarnballs! For the life of me, I cannot remember who I made these for. Was it more balls for Bekah’s kids? Did I make these for Jen‘s Preston? Did I perhaps make them for you? I honestly can’t recall.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get cracking on about three baby blankets, including one for a baby who is already several months old and another one for Sonja‘s baby who will be born any minute now. (ANY MINUTE, Sonja. I’m sure of it.)

What kinds of crafty things have you been doing lately?

*I have never actually crocheted any ketchup. But now I kind of want to.

We very much enjoyed the long weekend last week. Did you? We didn’t do anything special, just relaxed, tried to catch up on housework and errands, all that stuff. Then on Tuesday, Troy turned 42. His birthday was rather meh, since he had to work late (as usual) and we didn’t get to have a birthday dinner. I made coffee cake in mugs, at his request, and we ate those while he opened a few presents after he got home from work. Then we did baths and put the girls to bed. Not exciting, but not a bad day.

Thursday afternoon, we had the house cleaned which was utterly wonderful. We decided it’s worth it to us to pay for a professional housecleaning about once a month. It makes such a difference and is worth every penny, and every movie we don’t see in a theater and every coffee we don’t buy at Starbucks.

Thursday evening, we picked up our friend Rebekah and her kids at the airport. They were flying back from visiting family, and since one of the kids had an appointment with her eye doctor just up the road from us (they live in the same small Southern Maryland town we used to live in, which often means going to D.C. for specialists) they stayed the night at our house! Bek said she couldn’t believe it took them two years before they finally got to stay the night with us. We’ve tried several times before but illness or weather or something always messed with our plans. Annalie was over the moon to have her friends stay the night.

Friday morning we enjoyed our friends’ company. The kids took advantage of the mild weather and played outside. After lunch Bekah and her kids headed home. Since it was raining, and I was in a good mood and Annalie was a little sad to say good-bye to her friends, we stopped at the bakery for cookies. That evening, it took Troy almost two hours to get home from work thanks to horrible traffic. I spent those two hours feeding the kids and getting them ready for bed, silently reciting to myself the list of reasons I am thankful that we aren’t leaving D.C. till August. If I remind myself often enough, think I’ll start to believe it?

I think I mentioned before that Elliora’s sleep habits had become atrocious since we were in Omaha. She was teething something fierce when we first got there, and being in a different place and a different bed was not okay with her. She spent about an hour or two in the middle of the night EVERY SINGLE NIGHT we were in Omaha and Texas, all 25 nights, letting us know how upset she was about it all. It was stressful and exhausting and it got so I dreaded nighttime. In Texas things were a little better because Troy was there to help out, but she was still awake and mad in the middle of the night. It suuuuuucked.

We thought things would improve sleep-wise when we got home, but they didn’t, not really. And nothing we tried helped—not back-patting, not singing, not cuddling, not nursing, not sitting in the room with her. After a few nights, we realized we were going to have to leave the room and let her cry. When she woke up in the middle of the night, we checked on her and reassured her and then gritted our teeth and left her alone. We’d go in and check on her every few minutes, but only stay a minute or two and then leave again. The first night, she cried for about an hour before going back to sleep. The second night it took about a half-hour. Every night since then, if she’s awakened, she’s gone back to sleep within a few minutes.

I’ll be honest: it’s a relief that she’s not up crying for hours anymore. I still hate listening to her cry knowing she’s in the room by herself, even for a few minutes, even though her crying is clearly pissed-off, not scared. For heaven’s sake, when we ask Elliora to pick up her applesauce pouch and take it to the trash can in the kitchen and throw it away, she does it. If she can follow three-step directions, I know that she understands us when we tell her that it’s nighttime, time to lie down, time to close her eyes and go to sleep. She’s 15 months old, not 15 weeks. Knowing all of that still doesn’t make the crying any easier to listen to, but I’ll live. It’s easier to live with guilt when you’re well-rested, apparently.

Free pattern for crocheted golden snitches. Thanks, Deborah!

You know that whole do what you love philosophy that I talk about from time to time? Apparently right now I love crocheting and cooking meals and taking photos and watching Downton Abbey with Troy more than I love blogging. I do miss blogging, though. I write posts in my head all the time. I look forward to having the time to actually type those posts out again someday, and then actually edit and Flickr photos on the same day I take them so they’re not three weeks old by the time I post them. Sigh.

How did it get to be almost March already? How is 2012 treating you all so far?

The crocheting around here, it never ends! This batch of balls was a custom order. I was only asked to make nine, but I made a bonus black-and-white one, so there are ten. They’re listed in my Etsy shop whenever you’re ready, Karen.

These balls were a custom order for someone who was going to use them to make a baby mobile.

My mom was telling me a while back how my 20-month-old niece loves this metal butterfly ornament of my mom’s, but she doesn’t really like to let Aurora play with it because she’s afraid she might cut herself on it. So I offered to crochet her a butterfly toy. It was fun to figure out how to do it!

Of course when Annalie saw Aurora’s, she asked if I could make her one too. I was expecting the request so I just told her to pick out the colors she wanted and I’d get right on it. Aurora’s is the dark purple one; Annalie’s is the light purple.

I crocheted this green-and-gold baby blanket at my mom’s request, for her godson’s baby boy. They’re big Packers fans.

Would you say I’ve crocheted a PLETHORA of coffee-cup sleeves?

I crocheted this potholder a while back just for fun. Then when my friend Deborah came to visit rather unexpectedly, I knew it would be the perfect gift for her. Then I completely forgot to give it to her while she was here. I mailed it to her with the mug she painted while she was here.

Her first dottery! Didn’t it turn out nice? I love how every time I teach someone how to paint dottery, they run with it and make it entirely their own.

While we were in Oregon, Erin picked out the yarn I’m using to crochet Indira’s blanket. I used it to make a little sampler to give to her at the baby shower, which happened while we were there. And then I forgot to take a better photo of it. That’s okay, because I’ll take a better photo of the real blanket when I’m done with it.

Annalie is going to be a peacock for Halloween this year, and she was musing that none of her trick-or-treat bags will match her costume. She was delighted when I offered to crochet her a new bag (because it’s not like I have enough to crochet, what with the half-dozen baby blankets I’ll be working on in the coming months). We found this lovely peacock-colored wool on KnitPicks which should felt up nicely, but when it arrived I realized I don’t own a winder and swift, and it’s kind of a long trip to Jen‘s just to get her kids to wind my yarn into skeins for me. So I found another way to do it, using a paper-towel roll. I was pretty proud of my finished skein.

Now that it’s autumn and temperatures are falling, I expect I’ll find myself crocheting even more. Crocheting and knitting always seem like such fallish crafts to me. What about you? What are you working on these days? If you don’t craft, are you writing a novel? Perfecting your apple pie recipe? Training for a marathon?

You ready?

Here we go…

Where’s the baby?

Peek-a-boo, there she is!

Now repeat that sequence 47 times in a row. But you won’t mind, because your partner is so cute.

Yes, I crocheted that little blanket she’s playing with. It’s a work in progress, using scrap yarn.

I’ve been crocheting a LOT recently. I’ve been almost compulsive about it, and certainly a wee bit obsessive. In my rare free moments, I can usually be found sitting in the corner of the couch with my yarn and hooks and a caffeinated beverage, watching Drop Dead Diva on Netflix, crocheting away. That’s why I have not blogged lately, or uploaded any more of my Oregon photos. I haven’t even edited any of them. I’ve been too busy yarning.

Recently I’ve been working madly on a blanket for Erin and Rocco‘s sweet baby girl, Indira Jane. Indy surprised everyone by arriving on September 1st, a month ahead of schedule! Even though there’s not a desperate need for me to get the blanket done in a rush, I want to finish it quickly anyway. I only wish I could deliver it in person.

Before I started on Indy’s blanket, I finished up this modified Babette in pinks and browns for my friend Sarah’s first baby girl, who was born a few days ago.

These two balls I crocheted as big-brother gifts for Sarah’s two boys.

I crocheted these black and gold balls at my friend Bekah’s request. They’re actually cat toys. See?

Crocheting aside, we’ve been keeping busy.

Elliora has been hard at work standing. Standing by the couch like this is her new thing to do. I’d estimate she spends 50% of her waking hours standing right there.

Of course, about 48% of Elliora’s waking hours are spent eating. Here she is gobbling up some sausage, black olive and onion pizza.

And as you can see, my mom is in town for a visit! She was tentatively planning to come see us in early October, but then my niece’s mom got some time off work and it was easier for my mom to get away now (my mom watches Aurora while her parents are working). We’ll happily take her whenever we can get her!

In case anyone’s curious, the crib thing is going much better. We had a few rough days at first, but I think that was partly because of jet lag. Now, Elliora sleeps as well or better in the crib than she did in the Amby. Unless she’s teething—then all bets are off.

As long as I’m uploading a bunch of photos out of order (which I kind of hate doing, but when I have not blogged for a week drastic measures are called for), here is my new favorite photo of Annalie and Elliora. I think this one might be a framer.

A few days ago I did the mean parent thing of offering a lemon slice to Elliora, expecting her to pucker up and make hilarious faces.

When will I learn my kids don’t ever seem to do the thing I expect them to do? She loved the lemon of course, and got mad when I took it away from her.

Troy likes to eat the lemon slices from his drinks, actually. And Annalie doesn’t care for them now, but when she was a baby she used to suck on lemons with gusto.

I think mostly Elliora is still in that fun phase where every kind of food is something new and wonderful to her. Today we went to lunch at a place with a salad bar, and Elliora ate an amazing variety and amount—applesauce, bits of hamburger, fries, beets, black olives, cheese, cucumber, edamame, peas, and bacon—and seemed genuinely pleased with every bite.

Earlier this week we spent the night in Southern Maryland, hanging out with old friends. I love this photo of Annalie and Christa each holding her little sister, and how Ashland is looking over at Elliora.

We got the chance to hang out with Angela and her girls for a little while, which was so lovely. I enjoyed getting to know Miss Katie (who is seven months older than Elliora) a bit better.

I hadn’t seen our friends’ dog Daisy in almost two years, but she remembered me immediately, wagging her tail and shoving her head under my hand.

A bunch of balls I crocheted for my godson and his sister. I actually crocheted the red, white and blue one and the rainbow-striped one first as birthday gifts for the two of them, but their dad liked them so much he asked if I could make a few more for them to have around.

The night we stayed at Rebekah and Jason’s, neither Ashland nor Elliora could not be convinced to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. Bekah and I wanted to visit with each other, so we gave in and let the babies play on the floor, figuring they’d soon be tired enough that we could get them to sleep. They played contentedly for the better part of an hour. Woohoo, late-night baby playtime party!

It’s both surreal and awesome that a friend in Maryland (Rebekah) was able to check Attachments out from the local library and read this book that a friend of mine from high school wrote.

Vintage Muppets glass from 1981 (haaa, I accidentally typed “1891″ at first) is a total WIN. I loved the Great Muppet Caper as a kid, and I still love it as an adult. You all have heard about the new Muppets movie coming out this November, right? I’m super-excited about it. The trailers look incredibly promising, and I can’t think of a better person than Jason “Vampire Puppet Rock Opera” Segel to write and star in it.

Playgroup friends! Several of our old playgroup‘s families have recently moved back to the town where we used to live, so anytime we go back down to visit now it’s like a mini-reunion. Not everyone is there—Sarah and her family still live in Texas—but it’s still good to get together with old friends, and their new siblings.

Whoooaaaa, trippy.

As we were leaving lunch with to-go cups of soda, I offered one of the million coffee-cup sleeves I carry around in my purse to Bekah for her cup. She’s not a coffee drinker, and she said it had never occurred to her to use a sleeve for her cold drinks. I happened to have a few finished coffee-cup sleeves with me in a bag of crocheting, and I told her she could pick one out. She liked a pink-and-white striped one, but it was a little small for a typical soda cup. I added the blue at Bek’s request and I really love how it turned out. You’ll probably be seeing this pattern again.

One afternoon this week we had thunderstorms with crazy heavy rain. Jennifer commented on Flickr that this photo of Annalie looks like she’s peering into an aquarium, and it kind of does.

“See, Ellie V? This is how you make the picture TWIRLY.”

I wasn’t able to make it to the Ladies’ Night at my usual pottery studio tonight as planned. With me and Elliora both getting over colds, I wasn’t sure we were up for the 90-minute round trip, especially so late in the evening, so I reluctantly decided to stay here. Troy suggested I just go to the local pottery studio for some painting therapy by myself, so I did. When I picked up my fired pieces from the last time I painted there, the girl working said, “Oh, you’re Bethany Actually? I love your stuff!” Then when I got home, Elliora was asleep! She only stayed asleep for a half-hour or so, but hey, it was an extra half-hour. Extra half-hours are in short supply around here these days.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go cough another thousand times or so. Have a good rest-of-the-weekend!

I haz a ball!

I shall ignore all the toys and play with the ball.

Hey, did you see? I got a ball!

Rainball, you say!?

Nom nom. Taste the rainball. (Hee!)

What happens if I shake it?

Oh. It got away from me. Ball, where are you going?

I can…almost…reach it…

Grrrrr!

Did you see how it got away from me?

Ball, stop getting away from me!

Hmm. It got away again. Maybe if I yell at it.

Ball! Get over here!

Reeeaaach.

Almost.

Got it. I must become one with the ball.

My friend Bonnie decided on her birthday this year that she would take a picture every day of something that made her happy, to remind herself in the midst of a difficult time to Find the Happy. She decided to create a Flickr group so her friends could share the happy too.

Finding a bit of Happy each day.

The rules:

1. Find some Happy and photograph it each day. You could choose to do it less often if that works better for your life but my theory is that the more often you look for the Happy, the more the Happy helps.
2. Do it for a year. Or less. Or more. Or as needed.
3. No Unhappy allowed. That also includes self-abuse if you miss a day or lots of days. Hippie voice: Go with the flow, man. Everything is as it should be.
4. Rules are for breaking. Except Number 3, it’s best not to upset Hippie Voice.

My heart has been heavy lately, thinking about Samantha. So I’m reminding myself of some happy things.

I don’t know about you, but homemade black-and-white cookies make me very happy.

So does the cool way the sun was reflecting off this dotty coffee mug. Like little bubbles of sunlight!

I happened to glance at Annalie’s calendar a day or two before Troy’s birthday and was tickled to realize that she had drawn a miniature portrait of our family on that date, complete with him in a party hat.

I love it when I get a teeny painting of a harried-looking coffee-drinking cat in the mail. Thanks, Brenda!

French toast with powdered sugar on a sunshiny dottery plate.

Keeping a baby alive and homeschooling a 7-year-old are both time-consuming pursuits (duh), but while I barely have time to shower and I don’t seem to have time for housework, I manage to cook dinner almost every night and write emails and blog posts (sort of) and I’ve been crocheting a lot. So I guess it’s true that you do make time for what you love. And crocheting makes me happy.

I’m sure that in a year or so I’ll be hearing many cries of “Mo-ooom, make her stop touching my stuff!” So I try extra hard to enjoy the sweet moments like this, when it’s clear how much Annalie loves her little sister.

On one of Troy’s Navy deployments years ago, he happened to go to a wine festival in Cyprus, and he brought back two of these little glasses. They’re the perfect size for a shot of juice or taking a packet of Emergen-C, and it makes me smile each time I use one. It’s such a random thing to have in my cupboard, small wineglasses from a Cypriot wine festival, yet there they are.

I went to high school and college with Rainbow Rowell. (I know, awesome name!) She wasn’t someone I hung out with, but we knew each other. We had mutual friends, and when we went to the same university we occasionally ate lunch together. I’ve been reading Rainbow’s writing for two decades now, mostly in newspaper-column or blog-post form, but now I’ve read something way more exciting: Rainbow’s very first novel, a romantic comedy called Attachments. The night I started reading it, I actually got out of bed at 3:30am, feeling compelled to send Rainbow a message to let her know I was loving her book and was genuninely happy for and proud of her. (I’ll be interviewing Rainbow soon and doing a giveaway of her book in a blog post, so stay tuned for that!)

The sun was shining into Annalie’s room just right one afternoon so that her bright fuchsia sheets were reflecting a pink glow onto everything else in the room. A few days later, Annalie picked this bouquet of wildflowers, leaves of grass, and a wild strawberry from our yard for me and arranged them in an old vanilla bottle.

The first Saturday that Sonja was here, Karyl & her girls came up to spend the day with us, which was super fun. We started with brunch—aebleskiver and home-fried potatoes and bacon and fruit—which made me very happy because I love brunch. Also, I made the aebleskiver with almond milk and coconut oil and maple syrup (in place of cow’s milk and butter and granulated sugar) so Sonja could eat them, and they were totally as delicious as usual. It was a Very Happy Thing indeed: brunch everyone could eat!

Sonja-safe brownies, made with coconut oil instead of butter and honey instead of sugar. And they tasted good! Yay! I had fun meeting the challenge of cooking without ingredients I usually rely on while Sonja was here.

I love it when naps end like this, with Elliora waking up in the Ergo and smiling when she sees me.

If I have to put up with hot and humid summer weather, at least I get to eat perfectly summery meals like this: grilled mini burgers, strawberries, and marinated cucumber salad. Yum.

After seeing Lauren’s Doctor Who necklace on Flickr, I stalked this Etsy shop until she listed more so I could buy one for myself. I like how the high-top sneaker is a reference to the Chucks habitually worn by both the Tenth Doctor and Chuck Bartowski.

We often make popcorn with the very air-popper that I used when I was a kid, and eat it out of the exact stainless-steel bowl I used to eat popcorn from. (My mom was getting rid of the air popper and asked if I wanted it; I basically swiped the bowl because I loved it so much. Both these things are 30+ years old.)

Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bar with caramel bar and black sea salt. Enough said.

We live near a good bakery and stop there on a regular basis for treats. Every time, Annalie carefully surveys the variety of lovely, fancy cookies and pastries…and then requests a plain butter cookie. I love that.

I believe we’ve mentioned before that our neighbors across the street actually own a bounce house? They put it up for birthdays and parties and random weekends just for fun. And they are happy to share it with the neighborhood kids.

Rain always makes me happy.

Neon aquamarine polish, and bare feet outside, and green grass, and bits of sidewalk chalk. Basically, summer’s here!

Remember my friend Stephanie‘s little girl Samantha who was sick with meningits, the one I crocheted the blanket for? Well, the latest news is not good, which is an understatement.

The infection ate away most of Samantha’s brain tissue before it was under control. About a week ago they met with all their doctors and specialists to go over what was in store for them. They decided it was time to take Sammy home, to just enjoy their daughter as much as they could, and let as many of their friends and family meet her and hold her as possible. They have hospice nurses helping them out at home, and they are administering medications to keep Sammy as comfortable as possible during these final days.

These past weeks I’ve spent a lot of time thinking of and praying for my friends and their sweet baby girl, whom I will likely never get to meet this side of heaven. I’ve thought about how excited I was for Stephanie and Travis to watch their daughter grow up, how I thought it was cool she was born a day after my birthday, how fun it would be that our babies were close in age and how when we visited them this fall on our way to see Troy’s parents it would be neat to introduce our girls to each other. I think about all those things with grief now, and I know that my grief is so very tiny compared to theirs.

I remember how scary it was when Elliora was first admitted to the hospital last December, before we knew it was RSV and they were doing every test under the sun, including a lumbar puncture to check for meningitis. Sometimes when I’m thinking about Samantha I look down at Elliora as she nurses or sleeps on me, and know it could have just as easily happened to her. There but for the grace of God, I think, and breathe a prayer of thanks at the same time I am crying for my friends.

Loss is a fact of life. I know way too many people who’ve lost babies, and they’re all awful, tragic losses. This one is hitting me harder than most for some reason. Maybe because of Elliora’s time in the hospital and my own brief, terrifying glimpse of what it would be like to stand at the edge of that chasm of pain and grief. I think this is part of why I’ve been having such a hard time blogging lately, actually.

I’m so thankful that Travis and Stephanie are people of deep faith. I’m grateful that they’re being supported by so many loved ones and comforted by the many, many people praying for them. And I’m so glad I sent the blanket when I did. I won’t get to hug Samantha or hold her but something I created has kept her warm and brightened her bed.

If you want to read more about Samantha or leave a message for her parents, you can go here, to Samantha Pittock’s CaringBridge.

This is Annalie when she was 13 months old, lying on Cuddle Blanket—the blanket I crocheted for her.

This is Elliora, six months old, lying on Green Blanket—the blanket I crocheted for her—wearing the same outfit as Annalie in the first photo. This is why, whenever random strangers comment on how small Elliora is, I just smile and agree. She is on the small size, yes. But she’s HUGE compared to Annalie at the same age.