Time to heal. Maternity 5 days in bed prep

I have seriously learned to love the idea of being prepped. Something I didn’t know anything about previous to the health emergency that shall not be named.

My current prep is for baby time as the time comes so very near to deliver

I’m preparing for the baby, for labor, for maternity. On this post I’d like to focus specifically on my 5 days in bed healing time postpartum. I mentioned I’m giving birth at home with a midwife (best decision ever) and for once I’m listening to my health professional. I’ve never been one to listen really. My mom will be proud when she visits and sees me actually resting postpartum. I’m excited to spend 5 days in bed!

My plan for 5 days in bed postpartum

  • Obviously I’ll be bonding with the new baby, updating family members, and taking adorable pictures and videos with the baby and my children
  • When I’m not working on that number one: Finish ongoing crochet projects
  • Work on new embroidery projects. I have a large collection of embroidery floss that I have not used at all and I haven’t embroidered anything in years so I’m excited to work on some simple projects that will make a big difference
  • Reading, reading used to be my favorite thing to do as a teenager and this time has passed, I’ve stopped completely for some reason now I don’t want to spend my time reading. But I have picked up some library books that I would like to read, and I plan on picking up more books, and reading with my children
  • Blogging and podcasting
  • I would like to make some videos too

Healing is so important and I want to work with my body and give it the love and the time it needs. Certainly though, I don’t want to just be in bed sleeping which is why I want to work on projects when baby is calm.

My midwife ordered 5 days in bed and 5 days around the bed.

Eve

Things to do before the baby arrives

My baby arrives in less than a month and as you can guess I have been nesting for a while. I am now in the process of creating a list of things that I need to do prior to the arrival of the baby as well as things that I’ve already done. Since I could find no better way to do this, I am blogging about it, hopefully somebody else will benefit from this but if not then know that I am doing this as a reminder to myself.

Things to do before the baby arrives:

  • Buy wipes
  • Set up the crib and bassinet in my bedroom
  • Install the car seat
  • Pay midwife fee in full
  • Get breast milk pump and storage bags
  • Finish packing hospital bag with my stuff (for when I spend 5 days in bed/ giving birth at home, not going to hospital, it’s really my healing bag): work in progress
  • Pick out baby’s first day outfit
  • Decide on newborn photo ideas and pick out outfits: work in progress with my daughters
  • Have ready to eat frozen foods for first 5 days
  • Fill pantry with essentials for first 2 weeks
  • Waiting for delivery of few more essential oils: arrive in 2 days
  • Get rose 🌹 essential oil (because I’ll love it and have never had it before and the baby’s middle name is Rose, it’s meant to be) I have a doTERRA membership and get free points I can turn into free oils, have 50 points, getting another 50, track when 100 points are available and get oil (might happen after baby arrives but during newborn stage)
  • Get my older children ready: chores for baby’s arrival and mommy healing time, getting ahead on school work, cleanup and organization of their room before grandma visits, who is taking what pictures and videos? They want to be involved in the home birth so I’ll give each jobs such as taking care of and helping their toddler brother: work in progress
  • I obviously need a massive burrito from Chipotle after giving birth (doing this for years), arrange for delivery or pick up probably food for the entire family
  • Clean and sanitize bathroom where baby is to be born, do changes need to be made to decor? How does the vibe feel?: Work in progress
  • Create a sacred baby birth space (tied to item above but slightly different)
  • Go through midwife giving birth items needed list and source all
  • Prepay bills so I don’t have to deal with them during the first two weeks of birth
  • Place vitamins, supplements, essential oils and other self-care items of mine in my healing bag (hospital bag)
  • Plan ahead for 5 days in bed
  • Prepare diaper changing station
  • Get ready for breastfeeding: breastfeeding tea, breastfeeding pillow
  • Ideally finish additional baby DIYs but not needed and I’ll be on it during 5 days of healing in bed, yet work in progress
  • Stock up on single-use items such as paper plates, plastic forks and spoons, paper cups so we don’t have to do the dishes during first two weeks
  • Set up a budget
  • Write a birth plan: I have a lot of things in my head but it’ll help to actually write it down and go through it with my midwife and family
  • Clean my carpets
  • Take maternity pictures
  • Choose birth day outfit: in know I’m going to wear my magical yellow dress in this date but no blood please. I usually birth totally nude 😉 lol but this time there’ll be birthing pictures and videos and since I’ll be showing my butt (and who knows what else) I won’t show my boobs too. I’ll probably get some coconuts and fashion a bikini top!
  • Do special things with my children until the birth day: work in progress
  • Garden and leave the yard looking nice: lots of work yet work in progress
  • Enlist family members to take pictures of the newborn baby: children are on it
  • Get older children ready: do their laundry, get their favorite snacks, and favorite foods, review school schedules, inform teachers of expected delivery day, register for next school year this week
  • Clean up phone memory and my phone and my husband’s for all the cute baby pictures and videos
  • Who is cutting the umbilical cord?
  • Prepare for toddler boy: enough diapers formula and activities, have his favorite toys
  • Prepare for movie night for when the children need to take a break: daddy got this
  • Get library books for the big girls who love to read for when they need to take a break, prepare crafts and activities for them
  • Set up 2 essential oil diffusers: 1 in my bedroom, 1 in my bathroom and fav essential oil station
  • Get visitor room ready for mom to visit: clean, organize: work in progress
  • Finish cleaning and disinfecting downstairs “visitor” bathroom: work in progress
  • Do all laundry

Things I’m grateful I have completed before the baby arrives, as of now, this list is growing and the first one shrinking:

  • Ensured I have enough baby clothes for a newborn and in a basket in the closet 3 months old clothes: collected little outfits that my other babies worn that are still good, received gifts, purchased items. I have enough. I also have older baby clothes in a bag in my closet and a storage of toddler clothes in storage under my bed
  • Finished 4 baby DIYs, working on 3rd
  • Washed and organized the baby clothes
  • Washed baby blankets and crib sheets
  • Bought diapers
  • Decorated matching boxes for baby nursery storage, separated folded newborn clothes, stored socks, bibs, burp cloths, etc
  • Chosen a baby name
  • Bought baby bottles and bottle brushes
  • Packed baby clothes, blankets, diapers in “hospital” bag which it’s really my healing bag (no hospital for me)
  • Bought favorite essential oils
  • Have hospital plan just in case and because my midwife said it was time
  • Prepared postpartum care items for myself: my Midwife already delivered a Care pack and I have a stock of pads and oils, and lotions I love for this time
  • Chosen a pediatrician
  • Set up hypno birthing playlist and getting used to the meditations
  • Spending all the rest of this time learning about labor and hypno birthing which is helpful and soothing
  • Set up a diaper station downstairs. I did this for my last baby and it was a huge hit everybody uses the drawer including the baby who’s now a toddler. The way I did it was clear a drawer lined it and filled it with diapers, diaper cream, baby clothes so that the baby could easily be changed and little socks I did the same for the new baby next to the last baby’s drawer which is still in use
  • Reviewed discharge and care information packet from midwife and will discuss with her on today’s appointment

At a glance I can see it he done list is much smaller than the to do list. I’m excited to work on these things which is the great part and now that I have this in writing and publicly, I really love to be here editing this post. I love it when I come read my lists and there are a lot of items that can be moved from the to do list to the gratitude list. I’m feeling great also.

Plarn coasters

Hello friend,

I shared with you a post about the making of my plan coasters. Below, I linked the post in case you want to know what plarn is (recycled plastic bag yarn) and how to make it.

https://lovelightandlife.art.blog/2022/02/08/crocheting-coasters-out-of-plastic-bags/

Here are the pictures of the two I’ve made so far, I love them and my entire family uses them. I like that I get to leave them on the table unlike my fabric ones, which I have to keep in a drawer, put them out on special occasions and wash after most uses.

Crochet plarn coasters

The background of the picture is of the fabric napkins I made. I’ll show you pictures of them eventually.

Note: if you’re crocheting these, count your rounds very well so as to make a perfect circle. I messed up and added an extra stitch, and it created a ruffle effect, rather than a perfect circle, I use the ruffled one for dish washing.

Next, I’ll show you my plarn baskets. I made 2 nesting baskets to house our rock collections. I will make another basket of the same kind, then I found a cute heart basket and I want to make a plarn one. Again, not for storage but for display of our rock collections.

Other projects I’m working on (I usually have a few going on at once and I embark on super easy and short projects like coasters and baskets that take an evening or a day to make:

  • Pillows, I have been recycling old pillows into new fancy throw pillows, I have one I’m about to finish, everyone loves them. (Finished 1)
  • Girly blanket: this is long term project. It’s for my youngest daughter. I plan on finishing it when I am healing from having my baby. (Added new color)
  • Plarn bag: this is a super long term project. It’ll take a lot of bags and I’m using super tiny stitches.

Thanks for reading and if you’re so inspired let me know what are you working on?

Eve

7 Sewing projects but first fixing my sewing machine

It was an amazing weekend! Well, only after I was able to fix my sewing machine. My new sewing machine, which I received as a Christmas present from my dear mother came up with a lovely error code during my second project, it would not sew. I’ve not been able to fix my sewing machines before, I have a broken one in a closet (reason why mom generously bought me a new one) and a kid size one I bought for my girls is also broken, both broken by the children who want to learn but act like they’re toys.

Well, I could not let my new sewing machine go to the closet, broken, so I went to YouTube university and couldn’t find any info on my particular machine but watched a great video on how to fix this error on a similar machine. I had another problem, I had to open the sewing machine, something I’ve never done before, I’ve never even oiled my machines! There was no help so I had to teach myself! Needless to say, I felt like a sewing machine superheroine and now, I intend to fix my old machine and perhaps, even my children’s machine. The weekend took a turn for the best after I was sewing again!

7 Easy sewing pojects in 1 weekend

2 princess cat skirts for my youngest daughters.
2 princess cat headbands
3 burp clothes for my baby who arrives soon
1 altar cloth for myself
3 napkins for my red kitchen (forgive the blurriness please 🙏)
1 cloth for daddy for whatever he would like
And a lovely 😍 new tote bag for me. I’m in love 💕💞
I loved it and I’ll be making charms for it (fabric matches dad’s cloth and I didn’t post this until I had an awesome picture of it)

Of course I have told you that I like fast projects and these are all fast projects except the fixing of the sewing machine took me two days, not all day… I was pretty much crying LOL, I had to take breaks but I fixed it on the second day, so most of these projects were finished in one day.

I have more projects that I want to work on, one being another magical item for myself, a purple skirt (OMG I have not talked to you about my magical yellow dress), also 3 matching bags (that match my new fav tote) for my daughters, my youngest girl asked for a shirt, I want to make something yellow for my baby matching my beloved dress, and I have more awesome fabric I want to use before March. My birthday is in March, and as a birthday present I always buy lots of arts and crafts materials and typically, many of them last me the year and many of this awesome fabrics are from last March.

Dear reader, I do craft much more than I post on this blog and I have lots of newly made items I have not shared with you. See the list of things below that I need to picture and share:

  • 4 throw pillows
  • 1 floor poof
  • 1 t-shirt yarn crochet mini rug
  • 2 adorable plarn crochet baskets
  • More hats and scarves that I’ve made for my children
  • I decided to learn macrame and learn easy ways on YouTube University to wrap heart crystals one for me and one for each of my daughters. I learned how to make a sliding knot for jewelry which is the most exciting part!
  • 4 decorated storage boxes for my nursery, I love to look at them already full of baby diapers and baby little clothes. This is all I can remember for now, I’m sure there’s more…

How’s your creativity keeping you busy friend?

Thanks for visiting,

Eve

2 crochet scarves. One afternoon crochet projects.

Friend,

I do like to start larger than life projects that take lots of time and materials and typically have one of those going, right now I have two in progress. But undoubtedly, my favorite project is one that can be finished in one afternoon. Today I’ll show you 2 scarves I made in one afternoon. Please I made as gifts for two girls, daughters of my Midwife who invited us to her home for a midwife and moms that are due party.

Here are the lovely scarves. To make a fast scarf project, choose a lacy stitch, a thick yarn, and a larger hook. Also a long skinny scarf is an awesome fast to finish project.

Crocheting coasters out of plastic bags

Hello friend,

I’m back with some crochet. I’ve been working on my home’s decor and specially crafting items for my home. I love a red kitchen so I’ve made red napkins and coasters but with 4 children, I learned quickly that I can’t have enough napkins and coasters and that my beautiful fabric ones need to be washed almost after each use. So I made the decision of making plarn coasters. So far I’ve made 2 and I’m happy to say I’ve not had to wash them and they’re very stylish too. They’ll last much longer than my fabric ones.

What is plarn and how to make it

Plarn is plastic yarn and it’s made out of plastic bags. It’s a great way to recycle plastic bags and with it can be made sturdy items that will last a very long time for free. See my pictures below for an idea of how to make it. Let me know if you’d like a video of the making of plarn.

How to make plarn 1

Step 1: fold the plastic bag carefully so that all ends are even.

How to make plarn 2

Step 2: cut the bag strips of the same size ensuring to cut as straight as possible.

How to make plarn 3.

Step 3: tie the strips by passing the new strip through the one you’re already using.

How to make plarn 4

Step 4: fold the new strip over

How to make plarn 5

Step 5: now, on the new strip that was weaved through the first one, pass the large end through the small end.

How to make plarn 6
How to make plarn 7

Pull on the long end of the strip until it’s as tight as the picture shows.

Plastic bags used for 1 coaster

Plarn coaster in progress. 1 plastic bag
Plarn coaster in progress. 2 plastic bags
Plarn coaster in progress. 3 plastic bags
Plarn coaster in progress. 4 plastic bags

5 bags used total to make a coaster.

How to make the coaster

If you already know how to crochet 🧶…

  • Row 1: make a circle. Magic circles don’t work with plarn.
  • Row 2: treble crochet X 20
  • Row 3: treble crochet. Increasing every other stitch
  • Repeat row 3 as many times as desired. My coaster has a total of 4 rows.

Thanks for reading and I’ve finished 2 baskets using this same pattern as the base. I’ll show you those next.

Thanks for your support,

Eve

Crochet Hats. Learning to make them.

If you don’t know how to make a crochet hat, watch a YouTube video about it, said my mom when I told her I was not good at it. So I did and I have learned! Yay

Now I’ve finished 4 hats, one for each of my children. I was already really good at making scarves but it’s different, scarves are flat and shaping a perfect hat takes some knowledge but the good thing is once you learn, you know and this knowledge can be applied to other items. For example, now I know how to make a perfect circle which I already used to make coasters (made of plastic bags yarn or plarn) and I plan to use the skills I learned from learning to make hard to make baskets, first a small circular plarn basket and then I’ll experiment with different sizes and materials, this is very exciting for me and again, I started this blog because I’ve made so many things since I closed my last art and crafts blog which I had for years and I missed the sharing!

I’d love to make a video about this, let’s see. Maybe I have to practice and learn more. I want to make a hat for my new baby and one for me. Of course eventually I can make a second hat for everyone and once I’m en expert hat maker, I’ll make a hat for my beloved, he will accept nothing but a perfect hat, he is so picky, he can’t wear something uncomfortable or scratchy, and it would have to look as though I bought it and have tiny stitches which will take longer to make. Once I manage this (I’ll probably do it for his Nov birthday) I can then say I’m an expert hat maker, I’ll buy a nice, soft yarn too and for once, ensure I’m using the right size hook for the yarn size.

Crochet Hats and scarf.

The story of these hats is cool because I went to Good will looking for something very specific and found to hey ha DC as nice collection of yarn. This was exciting because I but to lots and it can get expensive. I decided to buy yarn in my children’s favorite colors, green, purple, pink, and blue for to he toddler boy who doesn’t have a favorite color. Some were small balls of yarn, of the purple there were 2 and I made a hat and matching scarves. The pinks was small and I made a fashion scarf so I used another pink yarn I’ve had for a long while to make my oldest girl a hat.

Thanks for reading friends,

If you want to read more from me, you can visit my spiritual blog, though disclaimer, I talk about twin flames, manifestation, and starseed topics, loveandlight888.art.blog

Your crafty mom friend,

Eve