a day spent shopping in Sweden

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We bought a pool for pup. Don't roll your eyes at me! He loves to splish-splash in the water!

There was a food break at the Sushi place in Norrtälje, looked really yummy! Almost regretted I couldn't eat. Weather was gorgeous!

Instead of just heating the jar like everyone else, they heated and then plated the food (it looked nicer, pup wasn't complying with waiting for food until mom got the camera out)

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In the background Babyproffsen. I love their staff, they're amazing! We found a parasol that fits the pram. It was perfect at lunch, since pup wasn't happy when kept in my shadow or at least from looking in directions that would place the sun on his face.

Some clothes... from the left: Edit:: Picture removed due to lack of space
HM: shorts+tank top set and short sleeved/legged pajama
Lindex: body with sheep, shorts (picked by D), jeans, striped and green pants
Coop: navy/light blue striped body

McDonalds had funny chairs, those balls were mighty interesting

But the real, and main reason for the trip was buying this. A big car seat. Not that pup will outgrow the one he has before the summer is over, but they were having a sale, and we need one any way.
We weren't sure, mainly considering Britax Multi Tech and Akta Graco Cosmic Comfort.
We ended up with the Britax after trying them both in the car, because it left room for someone to sit in the front passenger seat.

shopping spree...

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I'll start by showing the last purchase made, a new bottle. Do we really need another one? Not during the day, no, but when it's 3 AM and the puppy is screaming his brains out and the one you need is still dirty 'cos you forgot it somewhere (and can't find it) you really, really wish you had an extra...
And since I'm no longer breastfeeding, it's not just a sweater-lift and everything's good.
cost: 5,05€


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If you've been around, you know I've been looking for this. I even placed ads in the local newspapers weekly market pages. And on the back-hatch sale today I found it. Sure, it needs a round in the washing machine, but that's OK. I was passing this stall for the 3rd and final time, and just casually looked in the box, since I had seen it before. Then the Lamaze-tag caught my eye (it was laying face down) and I was so happy!
cost: 1€

This also came home with us. And it's a find because after the last mommy-group-date, when W's mom M told how he wanted to sit on his own, but kept toppling over, I've been considering sewing one of these.
This constructor was however way more clever than me. My thought's stranded on what to fill the edge with, that would be soft, but not too soft and so on. They just put in a swim-ring (an inflatable O ), so it actually becomes really small when you need to put it away. Puppy liked it, the toes became so accessible =)

After 3 seconds of thinking I realized what the 4 elastic hoops were for, and anchored it inside the baby-gym. mighty fun =)

and apparently it was great for TV watching... Pup seemed to like the movie Selena (well, she do spend half the movie in her bra...)
All in all, it's already made itself worth the money payed.
cost: 2€

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And lastly, what I should be doing...
I'm sorting the baby-clothes, the preggo clothes, the nursing wear and the still too big puppy wear, since it was all haphazardly cast on the dresser in the bedroom. I still haven't opened the bag with the smallest clothes, that I packed away before Christmas. Wonder how incredibly small they will seem =)

pup in hat/pram

I made a sunhat, from the same pattern mom used. It's available online from Ottobre, however the instructions are in Finnish. Not that you need them, at least I didn't. Maybe that's why I had to cut up my seams... (I forgot to mount the cords to the ear-flaps)












We've upgraded the pram from the bassinet to the seat-part, because after riding around in the Trekko for a week with great view even when laying down someone wasn't particularly happy to lay down in the Edge and don't see a thing *eye roll*

the last meal...

Yesterday both me and pup had our last meal.
Pup 'cos yesterday was the last time I breast-fed him *sob* but that's just facts of life.
Me 'cos I'm dieting using food replacement (aka powder) to get a start and a bit of motivation.
When I've lost 12 kilos (and therefor weighs the same as when I got pregnant) I will cut my hair. I love the dark hair, but it needs re-coloring often to look good, and since I don't want solid color, but stripes or such, I need to go to the salon, because it takes more effort than it's worth to do it yourself. I've tried a few times. So I'm cutting it at the color edge... Meaning it will be really, really short.
My goal for the summer is to get in to the clothes below (without it looking like I'll bust the seams any second) while it's still warm enough to wear them outside.

grand(mad hat)mother

Don't have much to write, posting some pictures instead...


Yesterday this was the sight that greeted me in the bedroom when I went inside to pick up Pup... Teddy-bear wrestling, puppy style...

Sleeping oh so sweetly in the pimped out pram =)

Dragon wrestling (he seems to be quite the little wrestler...)

And not only does his mother entitle herself with "mad hatter" (currently prepping fabric for some more hats) but his grandmother likes hat-making too. She's made this one and also sewed herself some surgery hats to wear at work, admittedly they look a lot more fun (kiddy prints) than the disposable ones.

Pimped My Pram!

I don't mean to gloat or be conceded, but I am so fornicating good that I amaze myself!

It all began with a major mess in the living room, since I 1) needed to continuously measure the Trekko and 2) needed the floor to cut the big amount of fabric. This is however not even close to the mess there was when I was in the middle of production...
You cut a square, you put it there, you see where it needs to change shape....And suddenly it looks this good =) This was easy fabrication, though I am proud since I've never created something (that turned out good, or even useful/usable) from scratch. And I felt it needed something, so there was flower applications. But I've done applications before, just not with the method I used here.
As for the bedding, I've been wringing my head inside and out to find a usable design that's still easy to remove. Finally yesterday (Saturday) when I was at mom's I asked her. While she was draping an old cover sheet over the pram to illustrate her thinking, the corner ended up over the bar and we suddenly saw the light. The handlebar part is lined with both foam and padding since pup's head rests against it. It secures through the back with two buckets that are turned so they lock it all. Mom helped some with the sewing, since we were there she sewed around it with the overlock.
The bag...
And this is the reason for my Mars-sized ego. I took inspiration from a handbag I have, and used a tray to make the pattern. It was tedious, it was a lot of work, cutting, ironing, pinning (and thus stitch wound injuries) and most of all; a lot of thinking. There were no description to follow, so I needed to think before doing. It took some extra time, but I think it saved some that I didn't have to remake more than one mistake (mis-measured for the side pieces).
I had a thought about making a tutorial, but scrapped it quickly. There wasn't enough room in my head to remember to take enough pictures, and halfway in I realized that if you posses the skill and determination to be able to create a bag (somewhat) like this, then you very likely don't need the tutorial any way.

Details...


the inside. Yep, I lined the raw edges from the assembly.
I tagged it too
why I need a smaller bag...

with 4 diapers (two size 3 and two size 4), 2 bottles, a pair of pants and a body there's still room left. Not much, but that's the intention. I don't need to bring all of the household while using this bag.
It's perfect to carry
and hangs nicely on the pram, both above the knee joint...
...and below
So, I don't care what you think of me. I think I am amazing for making that bag. The other stuff is good useful things, but they were in no way challenging other than coming up with the shape, but the bag took all the skill I had. So many things on I have never done before, and some (zippers) I haven't done in over 10 years. So I'll continue to be proud of myself, 'cos I'm so damn good!
And I bet you'll never find a Graco Trekko with this awesome accessories!

competing, again...

OK, so I'm a sucker for competitions/give aways. But there's so much great/beautiful things out there. The latest one is from Nikita, who's working with Vincent Shoe Store, and browsing their page I fund these, aren't they gorgeous?
Well, I'm hoping to win, there were three prices; sandals, a bag or a sun-hat. Go check it out!

about the give away

A very creative lady who calls herself KroKKoFin have decided to start up a blogg-webshop, mainly selling kids wear, made by her. She does amazing stuff, I really think you should check her out!
There's a link to the right on your screen, click it and you'll end up on her page!

just a sewing update

Today me and pup went outside in the afternoon when he woke up after his nap, so there were quite a few hours that could have been spent sewing that was spent doing something else. Oh well. I have until the middle of June before this stuff have to be done.
Now all the pieces are done for the bag =)
That means the hellishest (that is so a word, Becca) part is to come, aka mounting a few inches thick of fabric together, and making it look good while you do it...

slow and steady

that's the progress of the bag. Though it halted this morning when I realized I had mis-measured the side parts. But that was an easy enough fix since I had a lot of fabric left.

Our dinner table doubles as sewing table. The flowery bag is the one that has been model/inspiration for the bag. It's one of my favorite handbags, has about 500 different compartments.The front side (I have yet to decide if I want a lid) all done and I'm amazed that I made that...

Be dazzled! 'Nuff said!

Pup 'n pram

So, I've been sewing. It's not progressing fast, but it's coming along.
I decided to show you what is done, though I first had decided to not show until all 3 pieces were done.

This actually snaps in place further down, but the pup was wild so I attached it a bit higher up. You can also see the applications that I hated very deeply yesterday, not sure I'm entirely OK with them, but oh well. I think I did a fab job at color matching since I didn't bring the pram when buying the fabric.

and don't tell D about the hat...

revealing the mystery

So... What was this, really?
A few guesses that it was child related, which it was. But I was a bit sneaky and folded it =)
No one was right, but then again, it was really tricky.
The recipients favorite color is purple, and they have two cats (there's also a cat on the back piece). This was really fun to make, and turned out better than pup's, since I made changes due to what I learned making his.

preparations

I'm alive.
But D's home, which means he occupies the big 'puter and that gives me time to sew (since I'm not loitering the net) and I've actually gotten some stuff done.
The plans are a nursing/diaper bag, a sun cover and a sort of hammock/footmuff. All for the car pram. It takes some time though, since I'm creating everything from scratch. Well, the bag I'm copying, with some changes, from a handbag of mine.

Just found out that the day I'll be going home from Neva is the day of the Royal Wedding in Stockholm. Lovely... Hopefully it won't affect us, since we're just leaving town. Mom has decided to come meet us.

Now dinner, then more sewing. Will post pictures when it's all done

corn hooks and heat wave

Yesterday pup tried something intriguing...
Everyone with babies talk themselves blue about the amazing corn hooks, so I bought someAt first he had a bit of a problem figuring out how they worked...

but then they went down faster that roadrunner escapes one of coyote's traps

and of course I brought some for him to munch on at the birthday party. Nom nom.

Today we got a taste of summer!
25ºC (~77ºF) in the shadow...
after our 2 hour walk me and pup slipped into something cooler and stepped out on the balcony. I look really tanned next to him =) but I guess I burned myself silly whilst walking, 'cos I had to strip down to my tank-top.

food

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This is what puppy-food looks like in our house. Well, the color differs, but the skapes are cubes and triangles. Here peas and carrot, thawing and later microwaved a bit.
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But those cubes and triangles don't make themselves, so yesterday (peas and carrot) and today (pear and plums) was spent slavin' by the stove =)

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 why do blogger flip my images every now and then? *growl*

Using the hand-mixer to create a smooth purée.

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 And then pore it into molds and jars

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 and taste it, of course.
it's beyond me why he looks so darn guilty by the way.

getting crafty... ish =)

I want a smaller, not so bulky nursing bag for the Graco Trekko. Not that there's anything wrong with the Emmaljunga bag, far from, especially since I renovated it (did I ever blog that? I don't think so. I should!) but...
As seen below is one of three available colors, the others are black or orange where this one is blue. Yep, ugly as hell.
That is however not the biggest issue, as you see below I might have found it in matching pram colors after some digging. But...
The size! I thought it looked a bit on the smaller side and that the name "Sporty Bag" was referring to the style, boy was I wrong. It's a full size sport bag, it's actually bigger than the one I have.


So what did I do?
I went to the fabric store, and came out with too much fabric (better safe than sorry) of the right colors, for just about the same cost as one of the bags above costs. But mine will be just the way I want it.
So now I just have to figure out how I want it =) I'm fairly sure on the inside, I'm just going back and forth over the outside looks, and how to place the zipper.

Happy 15th Birthday A!

15 years ago a very loved boy was born. He was the first to ever steal my heart completely. So happy birthday baby boy, you've grown a bit since...
and yes, that is me at the age of eleven

new stuff

On mother's day pup turned half a year old and his granny gave him this gorgeous overall. The helmet is a hand me down.
Yesterday we took the biking premiere. Yep, that bike-seat is extra special, it reclines. Yep, it costs a lot. Is it worth it? Hale Yeah! I have been fretting over how to survive without biking this summer, I don't use my car unless I have to normally, but there are places to remote to be practical to walk to, this helps me a lot. The recline makes so that pup don't have to sit so up-straight, and he actually fell asleep during test run.
Though D thinks we should get him a new, a bit more neutral helmet... What do you think?

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The days trove! Sweet lord of other people's trash, I love second hand stores!
Green Plasto floaties shaped like dolphins 0,50€
Huge bag (duffel bag) that can be transformed to a backpack 8€
3 ice cube molds (one Tupperware) 1,20€
Rubber boots with no wear underneath 3€
total: 12,70€

The duffel bag is something I tried to get my hands on years ago, a big (sports) bag, that you can pull a harness out of and use as a backpack. The only resembling thing I found after 10 minutes off googling was this, it looks kind of eh and costs over 80€. Yeah, I'm happier with mine, even though some washing up to get the cabin smell out of it won't hurt =)
So now I know what to pack in when going down south next month. I had issues earlier since I'm taking the pram, so it really needs to ba a backpack solution...

the balcony, at last...

The muffins from the last entry was supposed to be here, I used them to bribe myself to get my lazy behind out and hang the curtains

BEFORE!

AFTER! There's some stuff left to do, but this do make a heck of a difference. Will be interesting to see how much sun it blocks the next sunny day!
and how much insight it hinders...