Fish Dreams

I've always had 'fish dreams' - where the fish are dying, or the water is running out etc... and I can't do anything about it. They always upset me, and in college I had a good friend finally analyze them (she later got a PhD in psychology). She suggested the fish were my hopes for the future - and that the dreams were a sign I was feeling a loss of control and inability to protect those hopes from outside forces. Eriu hit that nail on the head, in my opinion.

I don't get the fish dreams as much anymore, but I still look hard at them when they do appear. I'll always remember a beautiful fish dream, the first where they weren't in danger, and didn't die - and that was after I had made my decision to come here with Mark. Tanks covering an entire room, full of beautiful goldfish, and he was standing there talking to my stepfather. Neither of them knew each other yet, and that dream made a very powerful image. Someday, I'd like to put that image into a painting.

Last night I dreamt Mark and I were moving fish from one tank to another - but the second tank had carnivorous fish in it, and they wouldn't be safe there. We were talking about setting up a third tank (we have been, in real life, as well - it's on the porch), but it wasn't set up yet and we already had four fish that really did need to come out of the first tank. I ended up putting them in a small jar while we kept talking about what would be a better place for them. Again though, they didn't die - they were just in a holding area, waiting to see what we would do with them.


'Expansion of the Universe' (birth of a child)
artwork Oct 21, 2007 11 pm
I hadn't done one of my random-line drawings in a while now, and last night seemed like the time. Some of you might find the above drawing a little explicit - but hopefully not, as the symbols are pretty obscure and hard to distinguish from one another in general. To me it's explicit - but in a good way. It talks about our baby being born soon, and about the growth, life and responsibility coming from that event.

Third Diaper, a little closer to a winner

Even simpler, and this fabric is much easier to pin
It was a little gappy in the legs, so I tried some elastic.


I'm really not good at elastic yet!
It needs to be on the inside of the construction (not like this),
so it doesn't catch Bazooka's skin.

Found this fitted diaper tutorial, that has elastic in the legs. It shows how to make a casing for the elastic, but I wish it was more detailed.

Somebody on an email group I joined suggested this wool diaper cover tutorial. The leg elastic instructions are a bit clearer here (and the contrast on the pictures is better, too). I'll try this on my current pattern and hope I've got the winner.

Materials used in this diaper: prewashed mid-grade muslin (not tightly woven) for less than 2.00 per yard, and one of the pack of cotton shop towels Mark's mom gave us. The shop towels were about the same size as 'prefold diapers', and are folded once-over and sewn in the center for the 'soaker' part of the diaper.

Jennifer gave me a treat!
Thank you Jennifer!


This is a tag, here is the info!:
The Trickortreat treat giving orginated with Anni, who's been giving out Halloween treats this month on her blog. The idea is if you are given this treat, that you post it on your blog, pass it along to others, but also provide a link back to the source, Anni!

I'll pass this treat along to Jeanne at K3tog, and the always sweet Mrs.Pao!

folk festival

We are in Milan, TN at a festival hoping to sell some puppies today!

The parking lot at the folk festival was a huge mudpit - and they wouldn't let us inside with the puppies. Oh well - we spent the afternoon at the WalMart parking lot there in Milan trying to show off the puppies to passerbys. We handed out a few cards, and we'll have to go again to the flea market on Tuesday.

So we didn't actually go to the folk festival at all :( but it would have been neat if they didn't have a 'no animals on the grounds' policy.

Attempt at a Cloth Diaper

If this doesn't work, it was only a half hour, a single cloth diaper and some muslin wasted -- but maybe you other mommies, aunts and grandmas can tell me if I've gone crazy with this one.

Mark and I were talking about the potential of using some of the cloth diapers Mark's mom gave us when Bazooka is born. I was telling her (in my tummy) 'You'd better hurry up so we know what size to stock up on!' Well, I cruised around and found this site DiaperSewing.com. I used one of the diaper samples that was in my bag from the childbrith seminar for a template. I stretched the diaper sample out to it's max and added a little bit for sewing allowance. A half-hour later I had the following...


Two layers of cloth diaper with an extra bit that was left over sewn into the center.

Cut two muslin covers, one for each side.

Cut some very simple 'tabs' and sew the two covers around the inner lining with the tabs on one side. I think the tabs have to be a more permeable fabric next time, this poly/cotton is hard to put a pin through!

Fold it up like this diagram site showed

Secure with a pin or some other closure.

Think it will work?
I've got to try some different closure techniques, pins, velcro etc... not sure what will work the best.
My mom says the 'kite fold diaper' was the only style of fold she ever used with cloth diapers. She used the kite diaper on my older brother, and he was a very small skinny baby when he was born.

2nd Attempt!

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Now I know that Bazooka will be bigger than our model here, Alien Baby toy - but she gives a moderately good example. I made the second diaper much simpler, with long tabs on both sides for wrapping and tying. There are two layers of birdseye diaper cloth inside the two woven surfaces that you see (but not in the tabs). The tabs need to be even longer and thinner for nice tying if I make more of these. A small safety pin keeping the back ties together will eliminate the baby lying on a knot, I hope. It seemed to work well with the doll.


Fold diaper around doll

Tie back ties together in front, fold down front, secure front ties around back with a small pin or tie together.

I can see this working well over a flat-folded birdseye cloth diaper as a cover, and it would be much quicker to change in and out? I'm shooting in the dark here, but hoping that my instincts will be right about construction if not size.

37 weeks and more sock walruses

37 weeks
Doctor said it can be any time, or up till the middle of November - very obtuse, you think? I hope it's sooner, as she is putting a lot of pressure on my pelvis now! I look so huge - and yet most of the time, I only feel slightly awkward. Getting out of the bathtub is still fairly easy, although getting out of bed quickly is a thing of the past...


More Sock Walruses

The original LOLrus the sock walrus was sold quickly! I'm working up a few more in a different style. No button eyes on this one, so a fairly little kid (3 and up) could play with it. I hope to send one of them to the art show next month.

Halfway to Halloween

Vampire Bat soft toy
Currently for auction at our Ebay Store

Halloween approaches!

I had some awful back pain last night, like someone had jabbed a dull needle right where the spine goes into the pelvis. I was worried because of how my mom described her labor with me - but she said her back labor was 'she couldn't sit down, then she couldn't stand up, and back and forth like that for hours.' It definitely wasn't that bad - although I didn't want to sit still during it. My first instinct was to lie down until it went away, but walking it off (around the room) actually helped better. We see the doctor today and the ladies on my pregnancy emailing list said it is definitely something to ask about.

Bazooka

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I've said before that Mark came up with the nickname 'Bazooka' for the baby, until we meet her and are sure what her name is going to be. We're pretty sure, but still it might change when we see her. The name came about twofold. First, we had watched the movie Children of Men and the pregnant lady talks about naming her baby 'Brazuka.' Later when Mark and I were going through names, both 'wild' names and more normal ones, Mark remembered it and said we could call a little girl Bazooka - and maybe she would be a short labor and shoot out like a Bazooka. The nickname stuck after that, between us and later on the blog. Mark's parents watched the movie lately and told us they were surprised to hear such a coincidence with the similar sounding name.