Drawing a day #1

Here it is:
Alas, I am rusty, in art and photography. I don't know if you can tell, but the above is a rose. It's not a real rose, but a cloth hair clip rose that I snagged off my dresser at 8:15 in the rush to get something drawn. It may have been a little too ambitious, because it took me until I was nearly finished to be warmed up. Just how long has it been since I have drawn anything? I know I was pregnant at the time, and the baby is now four months old. So at least four months, if not longer. Oh, my. Well, hopefully tomorrow I plan ahead a little more and draw something I am a bit more proud of?

A drawing a day

To keep some sense of motivation going, I'm beginning a new scheme on this blog:

A drawing a day.

This daily drawing will have certain perimeters:

1) it will be exactly 3"x3", because I am hopelessly anal and anything larger would take me a couple days (Ok - I exaggerate slightly, but the gist of it is I need to not paint myself into a corner here and shoot for something attainable);

2) it will be completed and posted by 9am PST;

3) it will be drawn, of course.

I had the baby

As you can see below. I had maternity leave, I used it, and then on the third day back I got laid off.

On a positive note, now I have more time to knit. With the baby. :P

Knitting Away

Before it's too late!

I'm a lap knitter, so it's only a matter of time before the lap becomes a hindrance to my knitting. Much crocheting has been ferreted away for such an emergency.

Yesterday, I:

• had to make myself breakfast, because the boyfriend was up and down all night with stomach pain (we have no idea why, but it's mysteriously gone now);
• as a result, I ate half of a piece of cold vegetarian lasagna with about 1/4 cup of milk;
• but I did manage to pack lunch, which I ate all of: a piece of lasagna, a Muenster cheese/mayo/ sprouts sandwich, and two carrots;
• brought a box of instant organic maple oatmeal to work for emergencies;
• ate a serving of it right before going home;
• had more lasagna upon arriving home;
• cast on a baby sweater;
• told the boyfriend the fetus is named Bubba.

Today, I:

• rousted the boyfriend out of bed to feed me at 6am (He is supposed to make sure I eat right! No shirking!);
• ate a two egg omelet with spinach, mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, two slices of wheat toast, and a cup of cafe au lait (you see why I get him up? :P);
• supervised the Packing of My Lunch while I did dishes;
• implemented the Grocery List on the Fridge Plan;
• had two carrots and two pieces of celery, basically all morning;
• drank a cup of doctored Earl Grey;
• drank a glass of water;
• had 1/4 of an avocado/sprouts/Muenster cheese/mayo sandwich (I think those carrots and celery may have done me in!);
• am contemplating having a boiled egg before leaving work;
• was pleased to hear at lunch that the Grocery List on the Fridge Plan is working.

In a way, I am training a stay-at-home-dad, because that is the sort of guy my boyfriend is. He cleans much better than me, and he's good at (and seems to enjoy) doing all the grocery shopping, with some direction (which I am hoping to slowly remove so that he will act independently), and he's not as equipped to deal with structure imposed from external sources as I am. He agreed that part of his participating in this pregnancy is looking after my nutrition, because I am terrible about remembering to eat, etc., but I am finding that I am having to gently impose this half of the time, or else he tries to sleep. I think that after a couple of months of this, he will have a pattern worked out and will be on automatic. That'll be handy if I am practically useless myself from nausea, fatigue, etc.

Knitting

The baby knits are under way. In fact, I must confess that they were begun before I was actually pregnant. The following items were knit the month before:

KnitPicks Crayon beanie in what I thought was a newborn size, but turned out 3 month old size. Oh, well. Good thing I knit this:
KnitPicks Comfy beanie in Blackberry colorway.
I still have half a ball of yarn from either beanies, which I will probably make socks or mittens from.
This is a baby jacket knit with Reynold's Odyssey. I am in love with it. It needs blocking and buttons. I figure I have... 8 months to get that done?

I also started a maternity sweater.

All I have left on the front is the right neckline. It's the Mommy Shrug from Interweave Knits. I bought this yarn about a week before I started the project with the intention of making a maternity sweater, but I had totally misjudged how much yarn I would need. Imagine my horror when I cast on and saw I was about two skeins of Cascade 220 Heathers short! However, I am one lucky knitter, because I went back to the store A MONTH LATER and got three more skeins in the SAME DYE LOT. Whew!

I also bought a shitload of yarn for baby stuff, including my first baby cashmerino:
Seamless baby booties! Size 6 months, though.

Well. This is hit-or-miss, I'm finding. Fortunately, babies grow, so all is not lost! This should just be a lesson to me on the unpredictability of gauge when you think it's not worth swatching for a project that would take as long as the swatch to complete.

Nevertheless, I made a matching hat, which is definitely not newborn size, may be closer to 3 months than 6 months, but oh well again. (I should not make matching sets, but mix-and-match things.)

I'm pretty pleased with it.

Next up - a wrap cardi! In blue! Because I'm not going to find out the sex, and dammit, I will put the baby in whatever color I like!

The Dilemma

Yesterday, I:

• had to get up early to go to some course for work at some hard to get to location;
• only had a sandwich made of two scrambled eggs with mozzarella on top, between two pieces of buttered wheat toast with a cup of coffee;
• thought I’d only get to eat the two boiled eggs that were hastily packed for my lunch (because of aforementioned course required me leaving for work early);
• got lost on the way and had to be rescued by my boss;
• spent about nine hours in a lecture on Cathodic Protection that was occasionally interrupted by 15 minute intervals of eating and peeing (I know, I make it sound soooo exciting!);
• nearly went into a fit when I saw the food spread had little packets of peanut butter;
• had a decaf coffee;
• ate a croissant with peanut butter and honey, some melon slices and berries;
• ate a sandwich made of wheat bread with mayo, lots of Monterey Jack, lettuce, and tomato;
• ate a BIG sugar cookie;
• had most of a large dill pickle;
• ate some egg salad and some more fruit;
• and then ate some more fruit and more decaf and an orange juice;
• was hungry enough when I got home to make myself three pieces of French Toast;
• went to bed.

I am just a tad hungry.

Okay, this is kind of perpetual problem for me – small stomach, fast metabolism. A couple hours without eating and I don’t exactly feel faint, but I do feel like I’m far from being a happy camper. For instance, right now.

Today, I:

• had about a cup and a half of oatmeal with milk and honey and half a cup of coffee with milk;
• went to test for yesterday’s course;
• had two cups of decaf, a slice of banana bread (no croissants! :O), and some melon and berries again;
• ate two hard boiled eggs with nutritional yeast and salt about an hour later.

And now it’s a couple hours after that and I am dying. Dying, I tell you! I ate one of those peanut butter packets I scored from the course smorgasbord (who’d notice?) but that only staved off the hunger for a very, very short while. I have set the boyfriend via instant messaging to making split pea soup, but I won’t be having any of that for at least three more hours.

I’m not sure whether this has anything to do with being about 5 weeks pregnant or not. But the boyfriend has been placed on Feeding Duty. It is now more his responsibility than mine to be sure I eat when I need to eat, with a special emphasis on packing my lunch. (I am notorious for not eating all day because I didn’t bring a lunch, and then being a wreck at the end of it.) There are plans for me carrying a freezer bag of chopped raw veggies to work every day, as well as a couple hard boiled eggs, and discussions have begun about making oat cakes from scratch on a regular basis for snacks as well. And I am taking vitamins. All. Day. Long. (Or so it seems – my multivitamin is not a one-a-day, but a five-a-day.)

I finally got a call back from local midwives. Interviews are being scheduled.

But the real thing on my mind is:

What to knit?!?!?

I take that back

Yesterday, I:

• had oat bran and a cup of coffee for breakfast;
• was too tired/lazy to pack lunch;
• really, really regreted it;
• took a pregnancy test as soon as I got home;
• reheated some eggplant parmesan and scarfed it down;
• sent this photo to practically everyone's cell phone:

That's two lines which are (believe me!) not nearly so fuzzy in person. So last month I wasn't pregnant, but this month... I am.

Not Incubating

As far as I know, that is... I'm back at that limbo zone where I am not late or feeling funny (or perhaps, funnier than usual) where it's impossible to tell either way.

Yesterday, I:

• had two eggs scrambled with mushrooms with buttered toast and coffee for breakfast - almost! (I had the boyfriend eat half of it after he finished his. He is garbage disposal.);
• drank coffee with it;
• had coffee at work, and an apple for lunch, along with some chips and some oatmeal cookies I made Sunday as a mood enhancer for the boyfriend;
• had a scrambled egg sandwich with avocado and sprouts on toasted bread for dinner;
• and a chocolate Pocky;
• cleaned my guest room.

Today, I:

• had one scrambled egg with toast for breakfast (boyfriend prepared this time), along with coffee;
• missed my subway stop! (And I wasn't even asleep!);
• had an apple and some pre-Halloween candy for lunch, along with my second in-office coffee;
• just discovered an oatmeal cookie I overlooked yesterday, which I am about to decimate!

(Note to self: Pack lunch, damn you!)