The Garland is Done, Man

It's all done. And I think it's puuurty.

So, before I give you the details, let me first apologize for the pitiful photos. They were taken with my phone on a rainy day (there was minimal natural light...and I hate taking flash photos).

Here's how part two of the garland project went down (click here for part one). First, I decided how long I wanted the garland to be. This was dictated by the number of hearts that I had made (16) and how far apart they would be on the twine (6-8 inches). I pulled the twine to the right length according to my estimation (this wasn't a precise process), but before I made my cut I decided that a single strand of twine wasn't going to work. The twine, as is, didn't seem substantial enough to do the job. My plan became to braid three strands together. With this in mind, I cut three pieces of twine substantially longer than I had calculated because I wasn't sure how much length I would lose in the braiding process.

I knotted the three strands together and used a binder clip to attach the knotted end to a chair. I intended to stand up, pull each strand taut and braid. It didn't really work because the strands were crazy long. I ended up winding each strand in circle and securing it with it's own binder clip, making each strand shorter and easier to work with. When the base of my braid hit the binder clip I would unwind some of the twine and re-clip. Am I boring you yet? Just know that this part was unexpectedly difficult and took a while.

Here's the end of my knotted twin clipped to a spindle on a chair.

Here is the finished braid.
It's a pretty lose, which was intentional.
You could certainly make a tighter, more defined braid.

Once the twine was successfully braided, I began to attach each heart. I used red thread and sewed by hand.

Above shows the twine attached to a pink heart. I chose a back side of each heart and sewed the twine on that side rather than on top (where the heart indents). I experimented with sewing it on top and I didn't like seeing the thread on the front. But, I'm a total amateur at this sewing bit so a more seasoned pro may choose otherwise because they can stitch more neatly than I.

That's what it looks like from the front - you can't see how the twine attaches. I didn't use a ruler to make sure each heart was exactly the same distance apart, I just kind of eye balled it. The imperfections add to the charm.

After about an hour of work, bringing the total project length to three hours, it was ready to be hung. Truth be told, I hung it up for your benefit and took it down shortly after taking the photos, so don't be freaked out by the fact that it looks like my daughter could reach out, grab the twine and seriously injure herself or her teddy bear. My current digs are temporary, hence the extremely sparse decor. I will give you an update post when this beautiful creation finds a permanent home in my soon-to-be permanent home.

Thanks to the low quality photographer photograph, you can't see the color gradation between the hearts, but it does exist. There are four colors in total - pale pink, coral, bright pink, red.

And that's that. 

Any crafting projects planned for your near future? I'm in the middle of a quilt - that's right a quilt. It's my first and I'd love a few insider tips if you have any. Have a great weekend.

A Quick Morning Vomit

Before I get to today's post, a quick update from last week's DIY heart garland post: I finished it yesterday and it came out pretty great! Woohoo! But, I haven't had a chance to hang it up and photograph the finished product, so you'll have to wait for Friday's post.

It is officially the year of the baby. About fifty percent of my friends are pregnant. 5-0. Word. It's been so fun to hear announcement after announcement. I'm losing my voice from the constant screams of joy.

With all this exciting news comes reminder after reminder that the first trimester is hard. And, by hard I mean filled with food aversions, nausea, seriously sore boobs, exhaustion and some upchucking. I have some lucky friends who have experienced minimal symptoms, but the majority have suffered to some extent and one unlucky pal suffered the entire nine months.

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I had moderate morning sickness. I woke up every morning feeling nauseous. Sometimes, if I got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night...which was another symptom because I'm not someone who gets up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night...I would start to feel nauseous right then, at 3 am. In addition to the daily morning nausea, I also had random reactions to certain meals. It wasn't any one kind of food and it didn't happen every day, but once in a while I would be sitting down for lunch or dinner and need to call it quits before I began. One time, My husband and I were at a nice restaurant in our neck of Brooklyn and two bites into my entree and felt suddenly and fiercely sick to my stomach. My husband kindly asked the waiter to pack up his meal (not mine) and get us a check.

OH YUM. Talde is the restaurant that we left in a hurry.
I was grateful to dine there several times after the incident (when I was no longer pregnant) and before we moved.
(image source)

Thankfully, the nausea only lasted a bit beyond my first trimester and, thankfully, I never actually vomited. Though, I'm not sure what's worse - nausea that doesn't quit or puking that gives way to a settled stomach. Sounds like a "grass is always greener" comparison.

I wonder if my morning sickness will be worse the second time around. Are there statistics on this stuff? If so, can someone share? The thing about your second pregnancy is that you know what to expect, you know what you're signing up for. It seems ridiculous, but I almost forgot that nausea and vomit are included in the package. Thankfully, all these pregnant friends have reminded me. Now I just need a quick course on how to deal with nausea and vomiting while tending to a singing, climbing, diaper-filling toddler.

How was your morning sickness? Was it better or worse your second time around? Any remedies for combatting the nausea?

 

Watching Lindsay

A quick shout out to Bostonians and all those who ran the Boston Marathon yesterday. What amazing athletes. What an amazing event. What an amazing city. Boston was most definitely united as one and stronger than ever.

At the moment, I'm sitting on my couch (that same Ikea couch that I referenced in a post back in January) and watching episode seven of Lindsay. If you don't know what Lindsay is congratulations for having much higher standards in television watching than I. Lindsay is a documentary series (read: reality TV) on Oprah's OWN Network about Lindsay Lohan. And it's a warmed-over, gooey, grimy mess (read: riveting).

This is Oprah and Lindsay before the series was filmed. I don't think they're so chummy anymore.
(image source)

I can't stop watching. I'm consumed by Lindsay's inability to wake up before noon, inability to go more than ten minutes without a cigarette and inability for self awareness. Complete inability for self awareness. It's an incredible show, but, arguably, a huge waste of my time. The episodes are an HOUR. A whole hour. 

I have much more productive things I could be doing for that hour. Things like the laundry, which is becoming it's own warmed-over, gooey, grimy mess. But, I let myself indulge because it keeps me level. Doing something totally unproductive and selfish makes me feel like my own person. Whether it's a jog or reading a magazine or painting my nails or watching Lindsay, it's so nice to do something just for me. I don't always get a full hour (or a full minute) but it's amazing when I do.

Of course, changing my role from mother of one to mother of two will make these daily personal moments harder to achieve. Will I be able to waste an hour on Lindsay when I have two children? My guess is no, not at first. My personal moments completely vanished when I first became a mother. But over time, as life settled into its new routine, they gradually returned. I suspect a similar fate for baby number two, which means it's a temporary and manageable loss. Especially with DVR.

How much personal time do you get as a mother of two? How long did it disappear when you first became a mother (mother of two, three...four)? How pumped were you when you realized it returned?

DIY Felt Heart Garland

As promised in this year's Blogiversary (aka blogging anniversary), I'm crafting again. Wait! Before you immediately click out of this post because my last crafting attempt was so painfully weak that you can't stomach the thought of suffering through a similar embarrassment, please give me another chance and keep reading. Everyone deserves a second chance. Novice crafters included.

A while back, I was inspired by an image of felt hearts that I came across on Pinterest. I'd love to share this image with you, but I believe it's against blogging rules (here is the link if you're interested). My idea was to make the felt hearts and string them together in a garland or, if you're British, bunting. I wanted to tweak the hearts a bit...well...I'll just show you because months after finding this inspiration, I actually did it.

There she is, my first felt heart. Not too bad. But, let's back up.

I got all my supplies at Joann Fabric because there's a store really close to where I live. These supplies are super basic and you can get that at any craft store or Amazon.com or even Target. The supplies include 8 sheets of 9" x 12" felt, polyester fill (that gauzy material inside stuffed animals) and a roll of twine. For the felt, I chose four colors (pale pink, coral, bright pink, red) and got two sheets of each color. I own a sewing machine (this one) and white thread.

My first step was to cut all the felt in half and then half again.

Above is my pile of felt and to
the right is a sheet of the pale
pink cut into four pieces.

Next, I made a heart template because I wanted my hearts to be roughly the same size. I didn't have any cardboard laying around, so I used a Carter's mailer. It was card stock, not quite as thick as cardboard, but worked just fine.

Starting from left to right (above): I used the piece of felt to cut a rectangle in the mailer, then I cut a heart (free hand) out of the rectangle. 

Next came the task of using my heart template to cut all the quartered, rectangular pieces of felt into hearts. It took a while to cut all 32 hearts (8 sheets, each cut into 4 rectangles). I got lazy halfway through and cut two hearts at a time. I now know that I could have been even lazier because having a perfectly shaped heart from the start isn't necessary (more on this later).

The plan was to pair off the hearts, sew the twosomes together and somehow stuff them with fill in the process. But I was a bit stumped when it came to the stuffing part - I didn't know how. My first thought was to layer the felt with fill, pin the whole thing together and then sew. Within seconds, that idea fell to the wayside because it seemed too difficult and too time-consuming.

Above is the layered heart and fill. Not a great plan. My next idea was to begin sewing the two felt hearts together, leave a small gap before finishing, stuff the heart while it was still on the sewing machine, then finish out the sewing. Below is a photo of this method...I admit that it's not a masterful idea, but I'm neither a masterful craftsperson nor a masterful seamstress...so it was fine by me. And, most importantly, it worked.

I would just push the fill into the small whole at the bottom until the heart was full and then finish sewing.

Above is an action shot for ya. Don't worry the sewing machine was off...I think. There were definitely bumps along the way. I'm still not great with my sewing machine (see below), but overall they came out pretty well.

I chose a zig-zaggy stitch setting on my sewing machine (#3 if you have the same machine) for a little flare. Also, after I completed each heart, I trimmed the outer edge to even out the shape - hence why it didn't matter whether the heart was perfectly shaped from the get go.

Above is my final batch - all 16. The low-tech photo taken by my iPhone doesn't show the range of color (at all), but in person it's a true spectrum of pale pink to fire engine red. The first 8 hearts took me a little over an hour to make and the second 8 hearts took me about half that time. In total, it was a two hour project. 

My next step is to use the twine and string them into a garland. If you've been relatively more impressed by today's crafting show - thank you and stay tuned for a post next week on the finished product. If you are, again, saddened by my attempt, you have my full permission not to read the follow-up post. My apologies.

What crafting projects have you embarked on lately? Ever followed through on a DIY project inspired by Pinterest? Oh, and what DIY/Crafting blogs do you read (and love)?

Hiding Pregnancy From Your Boozy Friends

Two and a half years ago, I wrote a post (here) about trying to hide your pregnancy during a cocktail infused social situation. Over the past two and half years, I have had the experience of being that pregnant woman who tried to hide her business. I've also had the experience of witnessing pregnant women try to hide their business. I say "try" because, honestly, I've never seen it work. Not for me and not for anyone else.

So, I thought I'd go back over the methods that I listed back in June 2011 and see if I could provide some pointers now that I have actual experience under my formerly pregnant belt.

"I'm on Antibiotics"

Okay, I've never seen this one used, which may mean that it actually worked on me or that it's complicated, awkward and not a crowd favorite. There are two important considerations with this option. First, if you're sick enough to need antibiotics, why aren't you home in bed? Second is the details. What are you sick with and what kind of antibiotics are you taking and are you sure you're not suppose to drink on them? This one needs to be thoroughly thought out and you also have to be comfortable telling a full on lie.

"I'm not feeling well"

Please. You're not well enough to have a Mimosa but you're well enough to get up and out for a Sunday morning brunch? No one is buying it.

Enlist the Waiter/Bartender and Order a Drink Look-a-like

This is a popular method, but more complicated than one would think. Hence, I've seen it fail on multiple occasions. First, make sure the waiter charges you for a vodka soda even though he's only bringing you soda. When you're splitting the bill at the end of the night, a nosy friend is going to give you a shout out when your "cocktail" is listed as "seltzer" and it cost $2 instead of $8. Second, make sure that the waiter/bartender uses glassware that's intended for alcohol. If your gin and tonic comes in a pint glass instead of a high ball glass, your cover is blown. And make sure the bartender doesn't mark your non-alcoholic drink with a double straw or extra lemons or a handful of cherries.

Fake Drink

Some people are decent at it, but no one is great. Other than the fact that the level of wine in your glass doesn't go down, fake drinking is actually harder than you would think. Poor form can leave liquid dribbling down your chin. If this is your method of choice, I recommend a bottled beer - they're the easiest to not actually drink from and they are the hardest for someone to look at and determine how much liquid remains.

Partner Up With a Booze Bag

This method was not included in my original post and probably for good reason, it (too) doesn't work well. I say this having tried it myself. Here's the plan, you sit next to someone who knows that you're pregnant. You both order the same drink. You strategically place both of your drinks next to one another. Your booze bag partner alternates drinking from both of your glasses. Sounds like it has potential. For me, it failed miserably because my partner got wasted and pulled both of our glasses directly in front of him and double fisted. If you guessed that my partner was my husband, you'd be correct. We should have practiced.

House Party Fake Out

A commentor on the original post told a story of her friend who emptied out a bottle of Coors Light, filled it with water and drank water out of the bottle all night. Clever. I've also seen this one in action and only figured it out because I was already suspicious. Unfortunately, this is really a house party method...you can't bring your bottle of beer to the bathroom with you at a restaurant and women tend to take group bathroom trips at bars.

I wonder if Kim Zolciak-Biermann fake drank wine during her first trimester?
(image source: Kim Zolciak Instagram)

What method did you use? Did it work? Did you ever catch anyone using one of the above methods? Any methods that I missed?