I am selling almost all of my quilting books, except for about 4 that give me true inspiration. That is because I want my art coming from MY heart, not some derivative from some other artist. So I'll be working on my own, and seeing what happens. I've started dyeing my own fabric, and love that experience. It is extremely satisfying, but I need more experience with it.

It Is Going to Be a BOY!!!!!!!

Well, I haven't posted anything here in a while, for I have been so busy with LIFE, that I have just not had time to do anything!
Emily had her ultrasound done, and they determined that the baby is a boy! Chris, her husband nearly did a cartwheel in the room, he is so excited! He wanted a boy so bad! They've picked out his name - Anthony Richard Smith, so he'll be our little Tony. His due date is Nov. 27th - Thanksgiving Day. Now we can start buying clothes for him, and I've started knitting on a pair of overalls and a sweater to wear over the pants for him. I'm going to go looking today for a red striped t-shirt for him to wear under the overalls. Or a red t-shirt if I don't see a striped one. Or dotted one. Something with red on it. Because I am knitting this up in denim blue yarn, and it is going to look so adorable. I'm doing it up in newborn size, so it will actually fit him to come home from the hospital in. Unless he turns out to be a huge baby. The OB told Emily that she was big enough to be able to handle a 14 pound baby being born, and she hopes he didn't jinx her with that pronouncement! Me too!!!!!!! Everything else I have knitted, clothes-wise, I've made in the 3-6 month size, except for the baby booties. And they are all newborn size. Or 0-3 month size. At my local yarn shop, one of the best knitters I've ever seen works there, and I timidly asked her what she would charge me to knit the overalls part of the pattern, while I knitted the sweater, and she said she wouldn't charge me a thing. She said she would do it as a gift for the new baby. I could have kissed her. So she is doing up those, and I'm working on the sweater, and she'll have her part done in no time, she is so expert, and it will take me the rest of August and all of September to make the sweater. Due to my Parkinson's Disease, which slows you down so much. So I am extremely grateful for her help with this. It will allow me to start on the knitted blue jeans pattern I have bought the yarn for. This baby is going to be a well-decked out baby!

And I have started another blog = http://anniesweightlosstrail.blogspot.com detailing the drama of weight loss at a snail's pace. I hope to reach my goal weight by next Christmas.

I got my hair cut off the shortest I've ever had it in 35 years. I like it, and would actually like it just a little shorter. I go in on Tuesday (tomorrow) for a trim. I'm going to tell her not to hold back on cutting it. Never thought I'd hear thoughts like that coming from my brain. Guess I'm just getting older.

Well, I'm going now to Yahoogroups and dropping some of them out of my inbox. Don't want to have so many to sort through every day. More important things to do.

I get all my paper at The Paper Temptress:

Boy or Girl?

We don't know yet if the baby is a boy or a girl, so everything I make has to be green or yellow or a neutral color - no pinks, no boy blues. Thus the hand-dyed green yarn for the sweater and booties. It is much prettier in person than the scan shows. Hopefully she'll be far along enough soon, to be able to tell if it is a boy or a girl. Meantime I am knitting for either, with greens, and creams, teals and yellows. I am so excited about this baby! Mom is doing well - hungry all the time. Better than the opposite.

Knitting for baby

I've put other projects aside and started knitting for the baby. So far just a sweater and matching booties. Also on the needles is a little hat. And in the bag are 3 skeins of blue denim yarn by Rowan for making knitted jeans, and another beautiful teal yarn to make a baby blanket out of. I do need to make more baby booties, though. They can go through alot of them. I'm enclosing two pictures - hopefully, one of the sweater I finished and one of the matching booties.

Ultrsound

I went with Emily and Chris on Tuesday to see her obstetrician, and he did an ultrasound of her baby, and they called me back to see it. Oh my, I teared up, seeing the wee one. You could see its heart beating, and Emily said I had just missed seeing it dance - it did a little shimmy dance for her. The doctor said it will grow about a mm per day, and her next appt is May 29, so it should be a good bit bigger by then.

I had to rip out part of the sweater I am knitting for the baby, due to an error I made back aways, and caught. So I worked ysterday and got it back to where I was, and plan on working on it today also. I also got tempted by another yarn in a very pale pastel teal color for another sweater, so bought the yarn for that. That baby will be well clad. I'm going to have to make the baby some hats (I've already made one) since it will be a December baby. Dec. 2nd is the due date. We are all so excited about this. The doctor gave us each a picture of the ultrasound and it will go in the baby's scrapbook as its first picture. Won't that be amazing for him or her to look at in 21 years?