baby sister's baby blanket

Big news: my baby sister's expecting!!!

Well, it's old news around here. Big news! But my family's known since Christmas Eve, very very early on in her pregnancy, and we're only about a month out from the due date now. I haven't said anything because it ain't really my news, and I live in fear of stepping on toes or stealing thunder or something. But it's tremendously exciting because it's the first grandchild for my parents. And of course, my first little niece or nephew! (In this case, it happens to be a nephew!)

You know I went into baby blanket mode this spring, with the fave ol' ripple pattern!

The colors were inspired by my sister's pregnancy announcement -- there was a cute jungle animal print with blue, green, and orange.

This was my first time putting a border on a ripple blanket, and I really like how it turned out! I decided to only do the sides instead of a full border. I imagine next time I do a ripple I'll try out a full border, which means compensating for the ripple on either end. I'm sure I can do it, but... baby steps! Right, my quickly arriving nephew?

Anyway, the border's just treble crochet! I like the way they worked out because they look chonky but are decidedly not frilly or fussy.

Last summer I joined a knitting club (I don't think I've mentioned... it's just me, my mom, and some little old ladies at my mom's church) and I worked on this blanket during many a knitting club meeting. Another woman in the club also crocheted a blanket for my sister, or I might have made another one, myself. But I thought there might be such a thing as too many crochet blankets for an infant. I guess. Her blanket was pastel yellow, so at least they have super different vibes.

My sister's baby shower was today, so now I'm in the clear to post these pics without her seeing! (She follows this blog!)

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doll stuff haul video

Hello! Been working on a doll stuff haul video these past few days! Amongst some stuff I've blogged about here already (like these benches and my beret obsession) are some new items like this yellow knit beret and these green daisy applique bellbottoms!

I really do try to keep it posi here, but CURRENTLY, I am so sick of my face/voice/personality/everything that I wanna barf. I almost trashed the footage for this video because I felt so awful about myself. Eventually I got over it and decided to just soldier on, because I had been waiting and wanting to film it for weeks. By the time I was done editing it and doing the subtitles for it and got it all thumbnailed and posted, I could not make myself post about it to Instagram. I almost didn't, but forced myself to do that, too. And now I am forcing myself to blog about it. What am I gonna do, spend days making this and then not post about it?

In therapy a few years ago I hit upon the idea of neutrality, especially with regards to myself. I can't do self-love or self-positivity. To me it's nothing short of delusional. But, what I can do is say, "While I'm not the best, I'm also not the worst." So right now I'm telling myself, I'm surely not the most irritating person on YouTube.

OR AM I?? Bonus Litten pic:

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well,,,

Look, I sorta don't know what to say because it is wild, but... I can't... not... post about this...???

I got a birthday box in the mail today that was literally stuffed to the brim with Littens. Canny and dedicated readers might be able to guess this, but the culprit was L. As I posted about the other day, we've been playing Pokemon Sun together, and Litten's my Thing right now. I routinely watch an arc of three episodes of the Sun and Moon anime about Ash's Litten and become Emotionally Compromised.

Seeing so many Littens at once, I thought of my birthday list -- "Litten anything" -- and was like, "Whoa. Ask and ye shall receive." But a) I didn't actually ask anyone for Litten anything, and B) I put so many Litten things on the graphic for visual symmetry, mainly. Emphasis on "anything," not "everything." Yet!! The coterie of plush Littens manifested!!!

And there were things besides plushies! Little figurines, from both boxes and, I think, gachapons? Because they came in those little plastic egg-type containers. And a necklace!!! And an origami book! Neither of those things pictured, but oh my god. I asked L:

Hahaha! Here's a better picture of the figures. They're all soooo cute, cry emoji.

I'm boggled yet tickled beyond belief. I believe this is technically a collection?? Like, all at once I now have a Litten Collection??? I think I really will need to collect more little figures, at least. They're so small I might conceivably be able to fit them in my doll-crowded bedroom. The plushies, well... I'll make room!

ALTERNATE POST TITLES:

• LISTEN
• an Abundance of Littens
• Litten to your heart
• Emotionally Compromised By Litten
• Aly & AJ - Litten!!!.mp3

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