Knitting Update

I've been in a knitting slump the past few weeks. If only my little one would show up and inspire me. <3
38 weeks pregnant tomorrow...

Garrett's Stocking - 75% done
Emerald Sheepy Sack for Finn - 40% done
Newborn Santa Hat - 95% done
Spring Rainbow mittens for me - 50% done
Christmas/Winter longies for Garrett
Snowman longies for Finn
Extra Mittens
Levi longies for Finn
Birthday Boy hat for Finn
Yellow Purewool w/Woodland In Spring heart/drawstring for Finn
Blanket for Shaun

For spring/summer....
Dragons Lair shorties for Garrett
Rockland shorties for Garrett
Rockland shorties for Finn

Something for Abbie - Done! Will post a picture after Christmas.

Jacobs Ladder longies for Finn - Done! I finally added the drawstring this week.


Spring Rainbow mittens for me progress picture

Knitting Update

Got a lot of loose ends tied up this week (pun intended). I'm going to wimp out on doing the heal of Garrett's stocking so it will be headed to my mom's for her to do it this week. Slowly but surely knocking items off the list.

Something for Abbie - 75% done
Garrett's Stocking - 45% done, almost 10" long now...need to finish this up this week
Jacobs Ladder longies for Finn - 75% done
Christmas/Winter longies for Garrett
Snowman longies for Finn
Extra Mittens
Levi longies for Finn
Birthday Boy hat for Finn
Emerald Sheepy Sack for Finn
Yellow Purewool w/Woodland In Spring heart/drawstring for Finn
Blanket for Shaun

For spring/summer....
Dragons Lair shorties for Garrett
Rockland shorties for Garrett
Rockland shorties for Finn


Gaia II longies for Finn - Done!


Birthday Boy Soaker for Finn - Done!


Jacobs Ladder Hat for Ben - Done!
Jacobs Ladder Mittens for Ben - Done!

Knitting Update

I got a lot of knitting done this week but not one project finished. I've become a hoarder of almost done projects. So sad. My job for this week is to finish everything that has been started before casting on anything new. This includes Garrett's stocking.

Gaia II longies for Finn - 95% done - needs a drawstring
Birthday Boy Soaker for Finn - 95% done - needs a drawstring
Something for Abbie - will be casting on later this week...haven't made it to Halcyon yet for trim yarn
Garrett's Stocking - 45% done, almost 10" long now...need to finish this up this week
Jacobs Ladder Hat for Ben - 90% done - just needs tassels
Jacobs Ladder Mittens for Ben - 50% done - one done, one to go
Jacobs Ladder longies for Finn
Christmas/Winter longies for Garrett
Snowman longies for Finn
Extra Mittens
Levi longies for Finn
Birthday Boy hat for Finn
Emerald Sheepy Sack for Finn
Yellow Purewool w/Woodland In Spring heart/drawstring for Finn
Blanket for Shaun
Dragons Lair shorties for Garrett

Ben's hat and one mitten:

Finn's Birthday Boy Soaker (back)

Thoughts of the day....

<3 Getting up at 5am sucks. It's still dark out even with daylight savings time.

<3 Draining a can of tuna packed in oil is disgusting. We always buy the packed in water kind but apparently two cans of packed in oil were grabbed by accident. Instead of a fish water spot on my shirt I now have an oily fish spot on my shirt. Lovely.

<3 If you buy your children a box of 50 munchkins from Dunkin Donuts, a gallon of chocolate milk and let them pick which cereal bars they want "You are the BEST MOM EVER!" according to a 7yo.

<3 Redbox is the best invention ever...and the fact that Wallgreens has one outside completely made my day today.

Knitting Update

Gaia II longies for Finn - 95% done
Something for Abbie - will be casting on later this week
Garrett's Stocking - 45% done, almost 10" long now
Jacobs Ladder Hat for Ben - 10% done
Jacobs Ladder longies for Finn
Christmas/Winter longies for Garrett
Snowman longies for Finn
Extra Mittens
Levi longies for Finn
Birthday Boy soaker for Finn
Birthday Boy hat for Finn
Emerald Sheepy Sack for Finn
Yellow Purewool w/Woodland In Spring heart/drawstring for Finn
Blanket for Shaun
Dragons Lair shorties for Garrett

Gaia II - need to weave in the ends, add a drawstring, wash & block


Stocking - making progress

Christmas Ornament 2009

Every year we buy an ornament from a small shop in Bar Harbor when we visit in October. This year we didn't go to Bar Harbor so I ordered one from their website ( http://www.christmasspiritshop.com/ ) and it arrived today.

Sunday with The Riley's

Mama and four of her five boys...Billy, Ben, Logan, and in the belly (33wks 4 days) Declan Finn




Daddy




The burn pile




Grandpa Longley and Winnie




Maple tree in the backyard..flagged so it doesn't get cut

Knitting - To Do List

To keep myself on track and accountable I'm going to post a weekly list of what I have ahead of me to knit. I'll post work-in-progress pics as I go and finished object pics with each weeks list.

Gaia II longies for Finn - 50% done
Something for Abbie - will be casting on later this week
Garrett's Stocking - 45% done, almost 10" long now
Jacobs Ladder Hat for Ben
Jacobs Ladder longies for Finn
Christmas/Winter longies for Garrett
Snowman longies for Finn
Extra Mittens
Levi longies for Finn
Birthday Boy soaker for Finn
Birthday Boy hat for Finn
Emerald Sheepy Sack for Finn
Yellow Purewool w/Woodland In Spring heart/drawstring for Finn
Blanket for Shaun
Dragons Lair shorties for Garrett

My finished objects from this week....

Finn's Bananafish Longies



Finn's Earth Soaker

A dream come true!

I will be posting updates as we go....we're going to be building (well ordering...we want to do a modular to speed up the process) our dream home.

Shaun, my father and grandfather have been hard at work cutting trees so we can get the road in and the real site work (septic/foundation) can begin. It's going to be a long road but one we've been praying for and dreaming about for a long time (10 years).

The soil testing was done yesterday and where we wanted to put the septic is exactly the spot that will work for it. Yay!!

No post is complete without pictures...these were taken a couple weeks ago.

Ben's Hat Update

Oh the horror!! I was 8 rows from being finished when I realized it was just way too big. *cry* So I had to rip it out and will be re-casting it on soon.

Here's a before frogging pic....




and after...

Eight years....

Eight years ago today we met and said goodbye to our little boy Gabriel. The pain of loosing him has lessened as time has gone by....but the enormity of his loss is still very real.

A Work In Progress - Ben's Hat

101_0037, originally uploaded by Laurel Love.

I started this hat last night. It's for Ben, to match his new LL Bean coat.
Yarn is Jacobs Ladder by Mosaic Moon (on Cestari).

It's time to start blogging again.

I lost the habit of blogging and didn't miss it until I recently clicked the link to it by accident in my favorites list and realized how much I missed going back and reading about what we had done.

Updates...

Well I guess the biggest thing to update is that we are going to be having another family member very soon! I'm 30wks 6 days pregnant with a little boy. The pregnancy was a shock as we had talked about having "just one more..." but had decided to wait until Ben was in Kindergarten. Apparently our timeline wasn't what someone else had in mind. So Declan Finn Riley will be joining our family on or around January 12th, 2010.

The boys are doing fantastic. Billy and Logan are thriving at Woolwich Central School and we got glowing reviews of how their year is going at their recent parent teacher conferences. Of course we know they are brilliant and well behaved but to hear it from others is extra special.

Ben and Garrett are doing well too. Both are still into everything and high energy little guys. We've had to put poison control on speed dial thanks to Ben. First it was a bottle of Tums...then a bottle of chewable Tylenol. Apparently childproof does not mean Ben proof. Both resulted in a bit of diarrhea but otherwise he is fine. (Thank God!!). Garrett is growing so big and really starting to talk a lot more now that he's almost two. We just had his sweet baby curls cut off last week and I miss them dearly but love his new big boy look. He reminds me so much of Billy at this age.

Shaun...well nothing has changed there. Still a great daddy and hubby...and still working his butt off.

Me...I'm still a stay at home mom. Laurel Love Boutique is still going but I am stocking more knitting these days as I am without a sewing machine. I hope to be back and running with bibs and all next Spring, after I have time to snuggle and love on our new little love.

Life's been busy...

the blog..not so much.

I've been sewing and knitting pretty much every second I get so there hasn't been much time for posing to the blog.
And on top of that Garrett had/has pneumonia so it's been a long couple of weeks. He's finally on the mend but the meds they have him on make him irritable and then super tired.

It was sunny for the first time in several days so we (read: Ben and Bella) were outside most of the day.

We picked up Sea Basket for dinner this evening and drove to the waterfront to eat. Ben loved looking at the big boats. Garrett was happy when the wheels started turning again. The big boys are spending the night at my parents...ahhh peace and quiet.

Billy's New Smile

Billy lost his first tooth today!! He was eating a banana at snack time and swallowed it. He will be writing the tooth fairy a note to explain what has happened so she knows to leave him money.

Our little Billy is growing up.

Booger Man

otherwise known as Garrett




Gotta love spring.

Logan and Ben

The happy news....

I'm 30!! My birthday was this past Tuesday.

The sad news....

My Great Grandmother past away on March 29th. She lived 93 wonderful years and was a huge inspiration to me and everyone in our family. Her strength, kindness, and giving nature will live on in those who were lucky enough to know her.

We visited with her about two weeks before she passed away. She was so excited to see the boys. Garrett was hungry so he laid in her lap sucking on a cup while she sang him lullaby's. Moments like those are priceless. I mean how many children get to be rocked and sung to by their Great Great Grandmothers?!

*I'll add pictures to this post when I get them scanned in.*

Sneak peek.....

...at Laurel Love's new product.



Due to popular demand (well really a handful of requests lol) I've decided to produce a few bibs backed in bamboo velour in honor of Earth Day. They will be stocking at Bitty Fluff on Friday, April 22nd.
Hopefully my new labels will be here in time so I can tag these beauties!

Custom for Erica

Custom for Aubrey

One instock and two custom bibs for Aubrey:

It never fails.

When I have nothing to blog about....I got TONS of time to blog. Then like the past week when I have TONS to blog about I can't find the time to write. I'll be back later today with some sad news, some happy news and a few pics of recent custom orders, knitting projects, and a new product.

Cesarean Awareness Month

April is Cesarean Awareness Month. So for the entire month of April....I will annoy you all with links pertaining to the subject. Here's the first installment:

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- When Barbara Stratton of Baltimore, Maryland, looks back at the birth of her son, Charlie, now 7, she's angry -- angry she had a surgery she believes she didn't need.

Stratton said her obstetrician induced labor a week before her due date because she feared the baby would be too large to deliver if they waited for Stratton to go into labor spontaneously. But even after being induced, her labor still didn't progress, and Stratton ended up with a Caesarean section. Her baby weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces -- far smaller than the obstetrician had predicted.

"I never needed the C-section in the first place," said Stratton.

The U.S. government and many obstetrical experts are working hard to reduce the number of women having C-sections. In 2004, 29 percent of babies in the U.S. were born by C-section, an increase of more than 40 percent since 1996. Since it's major surgery, C-sections involve risks to the mother, including infections, bleeding, and pain. Babies born via C-sections have more breathing problems right after birth, according to the Office on Women's Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Many experts think as many as half of all C-sections are unnecessary, the women's health office said.

Stratton said that because of surgical complications she was in pain every day for a year and a half after her son was born. She became depressed. Interactive quiz: Test your pregnancy knowledge »

"I was in pain every time I rolled over, every time I got out of bed, every time I got out of a chair," Stratton said. "It affected the quality of my mothering. I had trouble bonding with my son."

Here's how to avoid having a C-section unless you absolutely need it -- in such medical emergencies as umbilical cord prolapse, which cuts off the baby's oxygen, or placenta previa, when the placenta blocks the cervix so that the baby can't be born naturally.

1. Don't get induced unless medically necessary

Years of study have shown that inducing labor often leads to a C-section.

"If you decide to have an induction because your obstetrician is going out of town, or because your husband is going out of town, that may seem like a bona fide reason, but you'll pay the price with an increased rate in C-sections," said Dr. Michael Klein, emeritus professor of family practice and pediatrics at the University of British Columbia, who's studied C-sections.

Klein says studies of first-time moms show that 44 percent of those who are induced end up with a C-section but that only 8 percent of those who go into labor spontaneously end up with a C-section. Doctors say many times, inducing women way before the cervix is ready can lead to unproductive labor, which then necessitates a C-section.

2. Labor at home until you're approximately 3 centimeters dilated

Dr. Elliott Main, director of obstetric quality at Sutter Health in California, said encouraging moms to stay at home in early labor is one way his hospital has been able to keep C-section rates steady while nationally the rate keeps climbing every year.

Why would laboring at home help fend off a C-section?

Part of it has to do with the way mothers feel. "Anxiety can slow down labor," he said. "And nobody likes being in a hospital. It's a strange room and there are lots of strange people and some of them are coming at you with needles."

Hospitals themselves are often to blame, he said. Too often medical staffs intervene unnecessarily in early laboring with pain medications, monitors, and other techniques, which can slow labor down, according to Main. "Even in the best-meaning hospitals, these kinds of practices happen," Main said.

At Sutter hospitals, "We say it's totally fine to come in and be checked, but that you should understand why it may be safer for you to be at home for a while," he said.

3. Choose your hospital, and your practitioner, carefully

If having a vaginal birth is important to you, shop for a doctor and a hospital with low C-section rates. "Let's say one hospital has an 18 percent C-section rate, and another one is 45 percent. Which door you walk into will have a profound effect on what happens to you," said Carol Sakala, director of programs at Childbirth Connection, a nonprofit group. You can find out the rates by checking with the doctor's office and the hospital.

4. In the delivery room, ask questions if your practitioner says you need a C-section

Some situations are true emergencies, and a C-section is necessary within minutes to save the baby's life. "That's not a time to negotiate," said Dr. Timothy R.B. Johnson, chair of obstetrics at the University of Michigan.

But in other situations, parents should ask questions about whether a C-section is absolutely necessary, he says. For example, if a doctor says the baby is too big to deliver vaginally, "There's a conversation to be had. You can ask, 'Doctor, are you sure the baby's too big? How big?'" Johnson said. "Our ability to guess size is not absolute. I've had babies I thought were 11 pounds that turned out to be 7 pounds. Doctors get humbled on a regular basis."

5. Get a doula

After her own disappointing birth experience, Barbara Stratton became a doula. Doulas, or birth assistants, can help advocate for a mother when she's in labor.

Quoted from: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/08/23/ep.csection/

Customs Update 4/1

All bibs are cut out and are just waiting to be sewn. I will be sewing them tomorrow and shipping them asap. My printer is hooked back up so I can ship from my house once again. Woohoo!!

Custom for Purlidalyn

Pink pears and rainbows can be boyish.

See.....

Ben's wearing a Cuddlebuns from The Diaper Drive Thru
G's wearing a Goodmama

OTN 3/24

Here is what I have on the needles right now. They've looked like this for about two weeks now.

Custom for Angela

Custom for Sandra

Custom for Julie

Customs Update 3/21

I'm finished! I will take and post pictures of the orders tomorrow as my pictures tend to look the best when I take them using natural light.
I even got an extra bib done for Friday's stocking at Bitty Fluff.

Added new fabrics...

I added new fabrics to the fabric galleries this morning.

Woven Gallery: click HERE

Knit Gallery: click HERE

Customs Update 3/20

I got a lot done today. I pressed and then pinned all of the fabric this morning and was able to sew two burp cloths and a bib up this afternoon, thank you Garrett for taking a long nap!

Customs Update 3/19

All bibs have been cut out and are waiting to be pressed.
They will be pressed and then pinned tomorrow.
I hope to get most of them sewn up on Saturday and the rest done on Monday.

Update: Sicker than sick.

Ben is feeling a lot better.
Garrett not so much. His Dr. is going to be calling in the morning to check up on him. He's not dehydrated to the point of needing an IV yet, but it could turn into that if he doesn't start getting better soon.
Me, I'm doing a lot better than I was and actually able to get some work done this evening. Hooray!!
Hopefully our little Gare Bear will be feeling better soon so we can get some normalcy going in our house again.

Sicker than sick.

Ben, Garrett, and I have been sicker than sick the past couple days. I'm just now starting to feel better but Garrett and Ben are still under the weather and could use lots of get well soon thoughts and prayers.
~ Melissa

LaurelLove.com

Laurel Love is now the proud owner of two URL's!
Both point to the HyenaCart storefront right now, with plans to become a stand-alone boutique by this time next year.

Want to try them out?
http://www.laurellove.com
http://www.laurelloveboutique.com

Exciting business announcement!!!

Snowflakes is now known was Laurel Love Boutique!

After much thought and consideration, I've decided to rename my business. Long story short....there is another Snowflakes business in Canada that sells baby items. Thinking for the long term...I really needed something that fit the feel of my items better so I chose a name that is near and dear to my heart. Laurel Love.

I hope you will support me through this transition as it will take a bit to get readjusted.

My new contact email is laurelloveboutique@gmail.com
NOTHING else has changed. Same great bibs, embellished burp cloths and hand knits. Just a new name and pretty new graphics to go along with it.

~ Melissa

Ooga Booga Garrett

OOTD/RTG

OOTD (out of the dryer)


RTG (ready to go)

Snowflakes: New Fabric

Just arrived today....