Knitting the Arches Baby Blanket and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I got the yarn untangled finally this week! I was untangling as much as possible and then I decided to just cut what I couldn't untangle anymore. I thought the yarn might be weaker in those spots and don't want to affect the blanket once it is done. I am so happy to be knitting again. It felt so silly that I was spending my valuable knitting time just untangling! I missed knitting and following the pattern. I am continuing on with the Arches baby blanket and I am getting so close to being done. I feel like it is so long since I started knitting it now, last November right before I had Evan. I have knitted during his short newborn naps and then through his longer naps now as an infant. I have more time now during his naps for cleaning, preparing food, knitting etc. It is a good feeling. I wanted the share some photos of the blanket now I have about 2.5 repetitions left to go. I am on the 12th repetition of 16 row repeat now of 14 repetitions of the pattern. So the end is in sight! then I will bind off for the final row.

I am still reading Every Summer After by Carly Fortune. It is really good so far. I am looking forward to starting to read It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover hopefully next week. I have been reading Self- Care for Moms by Sara Robinson here and there and I like the advice so far. It is so important to work on self-care all the time especially in the busy times of being a new mom.

I bought a cute pumpkin mug from Indigo recently that I have been enjoying drinking from in the morning. I am so happy it is almost Fall and I am thinking of decorating soon.

Joining along for the link up over at As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope that you enjoy the rest of your weekend. Let me know in the comments below what you are working on and reading this week! Take care :)

Untangling Yarn, Baby Updates, and Summer Days

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. It has been over a month since my last post! Time really flies by so fast and I think especially in the Summer. I can't believe that we are at the end of Summer now even though it goes until end of September, it feels like end of Summer once it is back to school for the kids and it is getting colder outside. Nights are also getting shorter around 8 pm now it is getting dark. I am happy though, because I love Fall the most of the seasons. Pumpkins, pumpkin spice lattes, sweater weather, and Halloween! It is Evan's first Fall and Halloween this year and I am thinking of costumes already. I found a cute outfit for Thanksgiving and want to get some onesies and clothes to wear that are more fall colors. I just ordered him a couple of the Karen Katz lift the flap books one is Baby Loves Fall and the other is Where is Baby's Pumpkin. I can't wait to read them to him.

In knitting, I unfortunately ran into the tangled yarn problem once again so it has really halted my progress on the baby blanket. I work on untangling a bit during baby's naps and make some progress on getting it untangled. I have cut and weaved in new yarn before but I am trying not to this time to just avoid having to weave in more ends.

In reading, I started reading Every Summer After by Carley Fortune. I restarted reading it because I had put it down to read book Lovers by Emily Henry. I ordered It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. I hope I like it and will ask for the next book for my birthday if I do.

I have been making some solid foods for Evan. I mostly have given him pouches and jars of food and have been working on making more for him to have variety. I made peach puree that he wasn't a big fan of. I also have made sweet potato, and cherry. He didn't like the sweet potato on its own so I found a recipe in my organic baby food book with a cherry and sweet potato combination that he liked yesterday. I bought some mangos to also cut up for him to try in little pieces for a meal today with banana. Now that he is 9 months he will be having chunkier purees. I find lots of ideas in the Big Book of Organic Baby Food by Stephanie Middleberg. I like that in this book there is some guidance on what to feed your baby at each age. This gives me an idea of what I can feed him based on his skills and age. There are also recipes once he is toddler and older for meals we can have together one day.

Evan is growing and learning and he is getting big! He is 9 months old as of yesterday. He loves to stand assisted now and he gets on his hands and knees looking ready to crawl. He is so sweet and laughs at peekaboo and when we blow our noses. I made this laundry basket activity I saw one day on Instagram account. He enjoyed it I had it up for a couple of days. 

My plant outside is doing so well. It really expanded since my last pic! It definitely thrives out on our rooftop terrace. I moved our plant from our front porch up here too and it is doing better getting lots of sun and water.

I got this sign for Evan's nursery on Etsy from OliveBranchHomeDecor and I have been loving it above his change table. The day I put it up, Millie had to be there to investigate and see what I was doing. I have a few other pictures to hang in his room and a rug I want to order still a work in progress.

I have been enjoying my Maternity leave and it ends in May 2024. I have been having busy days with Evan. We have our routine and we spend time nursing, trying foods, going on walks, playing, singing songs, practicing new skills, and just having a good time together. As he gets bigger there is so much more to do with him. I want to go on more walks to stores with him and more visits to family and friends. Maybe check out a program at the library for babies. 

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday. 

I will try not to be a stranger this month. I am planning on posting weekly on Sundays again in September. I really miss blogging when I have been away. I will catch up on your blogs now too. I hope that you all are enjoying your summers too!

Have a great day!

Knitting, Reading, and Plants Update

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This past weekend was busy with family plans so didn't get to posting. The past two days have been nice, Liam has been off work Monday and Tuesday for Canada day weekend. It has been nice having more family time and always great to have his help with the baby. The past four days we have been sleep training Evan using the Ferber method. We took the Taking Cara Babies course. It has been working so well so far. He takes some time to go to sleep but then does settle after we go and reassure him. I recommend it so far if someone is thinking of taking the course.  Our baby is 7 months now and we feel he is ready at this age for the training. I took this photo below on the first night. He was crying in between pop ins, so I was knitting and journaling while I waited. It helped me to feel calmer and deal with my stress. My Arches baby blanket is getting closer to being done. I have been knitting more at night now while we are training Evan. I am almost done this 11th repetition, then there are just three more to go! I have some other projects in mind, so I am looking forward to finishing the blanket to get started.

I did some reading outside during Evan's nap last week. We had a few days of bad air quality so it was nice to finally be able to sit outside and read and get some air (not sure how fresh). I am still reading Book Lovers by Emily Henry. I am really wanting to finish it soon to move onto Every Summer After by Carly Fortune. I did start reading it, but will wait now until finished this one.  

I have this plant upstairs on our terrace and it is doing pretty well now. It gets a lot of sun and rain being up on our roof. I love this kind of plant II also got it a couple of years ago for the terrace. It survived while my poor marigolds struggled.  The plant I bought originally started off pretty low in the planter, and now it is really growing out and even more since this photo I took last week. 

I bought this beautiful arrangement from Canadian Tire a few weeks ago, and I am really loving how it looks on our front porch. There are a couple different plants and flowers. I love how the flower in the middle is blooming now. I have a water bulb in the back that helps me to keep the plant watered. 

I still have my African violet and my bamboo plant inside that are doing okay. The African violet isn't flowering but keeping the plant alive, the bamboo is down to one of the three stalks now also keeping it alive. Hope to maybe encourage them to thrive soon. I will try getting more soil for the African violet and not sure what to do for the bamboo plant but just keep watering it. 

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope you are having a good week. There is a heat warning here in Toronto today, so I am just getting things done around the house. 

Have a great day!