Being Free

Crafty Canary, the site will be moving on. I've felt unable to post anything relative to my current state knowing who could possibly read it. For a while, I was providing the site for myself and for family members to get regular updates on what's going on. Lets say drama, contention, and now fear have led me to curtail my real life wants and needs to post. Believe me, the drama is ripe.

This caged bird is about to be freed!

My next art quilting project is going rile up a number of people's feathers, but I need to be freed.

For more information and moving location:
Contact me at ragingcanary+movingon AT gmail DOT com
(replacing the AT and DOT respectively)

Good news

We just went and got the ultrasound scans. Despite being incredibly ill and losing lots of weight from the enigmatic mystery of "functional bowel disorder", the baby looks perfect. Everything is where it is suppose to be, and even better my attachment to a gender specific name is well founded. I've been obsessed with the idea of having another little girl and have become extremely attached to one name. So much so, the name has been used by daughter in referencing her baby doll.

Enough dreaming of taking two girls to the mall to go shopping. Sewing wise, things are bleak. I'm thinking about taking up some hand appliqué for my couch potato days. The new, super restrictive diet is working wonders digestively, but I have a few difficulties along the way, hypoglycemia and calcium deficiency. Every day, I'm working towards keeping things in line. Hopefully soon my sewing machine will get a work out.

Best wishes!

Sleeping Snoogles

One of the hardest things for me about pregnancy is sleeping. Heck, I had trouble sleeping all my life! Pregnancy just makes everyone more uncomfortable. Before Cordelia was born, I probably averaged three hours of sleep a night. When she joined the family, even less sleep made me more of an irritable person and lets not forget over emotional and useless.

In that last week, I've been waking at 1AM and am unable to get back to sleep for hours. Half the reason is with sleeping with 4 to 5 pillows and continuing to cosleep, I check her breathing constantly. (She's a pro at cosleeping, if a pillow gets anywhere near her she's the first to hop on top of it or the person using it.) After much researching, I decided to go with the easy purchase at the local BabysRUs.

The new arrival, the Leachco Snoogle pillow. I've slept better in that last two weeks with this pillow than I've had in over a year!



Has a great shape for supporting many side sleeping in multiple positions and reduces the pillow footprint. Sleeping is great. On the minus side, the cover is scratchy and difficult to get on and off for cleaning. The company sells a number of covers but they have the same problem with getting them on and off. I will say most reviews overstate the time to get the cover on and off by double (or more). Only took me about 10 minutes max in front of the tv, but ten minutes is too long when you've got a toddler wrestling with one end of it while you try to get it covered. Of course, turning out sewn straps and stuffing pointy kitty might have given me a leg up.

Monthly Goals? Never going to happen now. I call this my things to try to get done before the end of June.

Snoogle Sewing Plan #1:
Make a zippered cover for the pillow for easy laundering use. Cut enough fabric to make two or make a paper pattern.

Snoogle Sewing Plan #2:
Make a zippered cover for the pillow that includes an attached blanket to use the pillow as the bump for cosleeping. Reference, Humanity Family Bed.

Sewing Plan #3:
Make new baby very first quilt.

Sewing Plan #4:
A mei tai baby carrier that feels better than the last one I've made.

Diagnosis Coming Soon

Most of my life has been lived with the expectation that I'll always be in pain or uncomfortable. After working with a nutritionist, I found that a certain food gave me headaches. So we pulled it out, headaches went away, my allergies to other foods disappeared, my cognitive abilities came back, I became happier. Even the constant pain in my stomach that had me zantacing my life away from the age of 10, finally disappeared. The culprit, wheat/gluten products. Life was wonderful. Then my nutritionist mentioned I might want to get tested for celiacs, but after being wheat free for months, my husband and I decided that going back on the wheat to test positive was not worth it.

With my first pregnancy, I craved items with gluten and a little bit wouldn't hurt. So indulgence pursued. No negative consequences, or so I thought. The worst of the worst responses arose after Cordelia's birth. A return to gluten free living returned, but flare ups still occasionally occurred, sometimes when eating safe made at home meals. The flare ups were few and far between, life is too busy to worry about things like that.

Now, in my second pregnancy, the flare ups are constant. Feeling poorly five out of six days, losing weight, and having no energy, I've been to many doctors. My OB gave me magic medicine intended to keep chemo patients from vomiting, but it fails to help. My GP said, "I think it's time for you to see a Gastroenterologist". We'd talked about it before, but decided we would wait it out. Now with my losing weight, fighting to keep healthy and from hospitalization - referral made.

My GI doctor was nice, but I was in pregnancy haze. Half of what was said, I missed. Thankfully, I brought the family along to keep me on track. All I retained was "biopsies". More than one? Yes. Both ways? Yes, but we'll wait until after the baby is born. Do I have to eat wheat? Yes. I cried (a lot) and started babbling about my brain function. She wrote a note for the next blood draw to have a Celiac panel done. She then showed me a book. A book that will later scare me senseless later while giving me hope. The book details the Simple Carbohydrate Diet, which targets the main audience of those with ulcerative colitis and crohn's disease. Paul indicates she used the words "functional bowel disorder" and "IBD" a ton. Enter the fear.

Yesterday, my nutritionist stated she thinks I should eat only meat and veggies until the book is delivered to see if my symptoms subside a little. I don't enjoy meat much but given my 'diet' the baby needs it. I haven't been sick since meat and vegging myself. Hope, hope, hope. The book is waiting on the porch for me. I am happy that my GI doctor wants to work on diet before running to the meds.

In the next few months, I may know what's wrong. Even better, in the next few months I'll feel better and be able to start some of the projects I've had time to day dream about. Overall, I hope everyone else is doing better than me.

Just when it can't get any worse..

it does!

Cordelia and I have been ill the bulk of January. My normally unbudging weight has been dropping when it's suppose to be increasing. We've been hanging around doctor offices so much, I might as well work there. I've been exhausted, unable to keep up with things and have barely been into the studio. So much for the feel good second trimester. Hopefully, things will let up and I'll be able to start on the little one's first quilt. Would be great if it was completed before his/her homecoming.

Resolutions.

I'm currently on the sofa watching my toddler sleep restfully. A nice change from the crying and clingy behavior that started at 3am this morning. Delia has a fever.

I've had very little time to post with illness, busy schedules, and home improvements. Even less time to get in the studio which some how became a dumping ground for displaced items.

Now that I have a few moments to reflect on my resolutions for the year. My resolutions have been thought of for a long time.

1 - Spend less time frivolously online. I use to read my news online but that time was later absorbed with LiveJournal, no more new or current events. I've been weaning myself off that over last year and have not read on LJ post since Christmas. Realtime world is too time consuming. Still reading quilting/knitting blogs, but cutting subscribe lists occasionally. Updating this blog keeps me on track craftwise, so that will not be dropped.

2 - Be more active as a family. Pull out the bicycles and skates to hit the American Tobacco Trail. Since the three months of running gave me the worst migraines of my life, activities with less bounce are required!

3 - Dedicate my crafting hours and budget intelligently. Time is limited. Stop dreaming of new projects or adding to lists of want to dos, just do. With another little one on the way, this resolutions will be even more time consuming.

Whoops! Someone just woke up...

Coming out of the hole.

Some nasty virus came my way, getting me and Cordelia sick all week. In addition with some other health concerns which my doctors say are *normal*, I was really out of it. On Tuesday, I had Cordelia in my care as we tried to recover, I passed out for almost two hours only waking for brief moments while she played in the room with me. Never in my life have I fought the dredges of sleep and lost like that. A quick email to Paul and he motored home.

Suffice it say, there are no more ornaments on the lower part of the tree. Cordelia removed each one of those precious balls, with great, giggly reverence exclaiming "Ball, Ball, Ball" as she laid them in circles around her sleeping mother. Thankfully, she left the wrapped presents alone.

Before the viral entrapment, I was able to get a quick quilt done for a White Elephant gift exchange. The constraints, under $5. The materials going into the quilt quickly overcome that constraint but each fabric used was bought years ago before I realized my dislike for overtly, Asian fabrics. What's that rule? If you've had the fabric for over 3 years, whatever you make from it is free.

Still not sure why I dislike Asian fabrics, which have a faithful following. Being half-Asian, they make me feel kind of sketchy.

A quick picture of Almost Asian when I was turning the binding. I use a giant clip to mark where I am sewing and to hold the needle for easy and safe traveling. Instead of using pins, hair clips are easily visible if dropped and not sharp. I enjoy the hand work of the binding when I can take it out on the road, to church, or easily around the house.

Cordelia's first Christmas present from a gift exchange! Wasn't the best toddler gift, but she loved it.


A completed Pointy Kitty, Flora, checking out the Christmas tree. Pointy Kitty is one of the many free patterns available on wee wonderfuls. A quick and easy project completed in a short time.