Mainely Mama: Craft Belly

Evidently my nesting instinct has kicked into high gear. I'm thoroughly obsessed with scrubbing things lately. Really, it's weird! I get great satisfaction from scrubbing the kitchen sink, the bathroom sink and the tub. Like really, I do dishes just to empty the sink so I can break out the Comet and the blue scrubby pad and go to town. What the hell is the deal with that?! It makes me feel good for some reason, but it's also a compulsion, like I HAVE to do it, I NEED to do it. The dumbest thing about it is that it really doesn't help a whole hell of a lot. Especially when you consider that I have an entire apartment (and a good sized one at that) that is in need of cleaning. There's laundry to fold and put away, clutter to get rid of and organize, toys to pick up, curtains to make for the porch. Baby clothes to sort through and wash and put away. None of that interests me in the slightest. I want to scrub damnit! I want to Windex the windows and I want to bleach the floors - which is beyond laughable because we have linoleum from 1960 I think and it's impossible to ever make it look like it's really clean. But that's not going to stop me from trying! I went to Target yesterday and when I came home I victoriously announced to Tim that I had found the carpet cleaning solution for our steam cleaner for $5 and a huge six pack of paper towels for $3!!! This from the chick who has family cloth in the bathroom. Yeah, I suddenly need 6 double rolls of paper towels.

Anyway, the point of this confession is that today I decided to try to change my nesting and put it to a different use. I knew that cleaning the sink would feel good but it's an empty reward really because it just becomes full of dishes within a few hours of being clean and, like I said before, it doesn't really do anything to improve our quality of living or the boys' general happiness or anything. So, today I put the nesting energy to crafty use! I made a pair of pants for the baby here thanks to the pattern from here. It's not a great pattern because they don't give you the measurements for different sizes, but I get around that by just tracing a pair of pants in the size I want and making them a little longer and wider for seams. So far I've made about 4 pairs of pants for the baby and last year I made Nate a pair of pants out of a cute flannel that held up well. They aren't going to be sold anywhere that's for sure, but they look cute and I felt good after I finished and I had something tangible to show for it!

As you can see, the crafting with a belly at almost 33 weeks (tomorrow!) is posing some interesting dilemmas. I can't get as close the sewing machine as I usually like to and my belly now serves as a repository for scrap fabric and thread - just in case I need it you know? All in all, I think this attempt at tricking the nesting, compulsive scrubber in me worked pretty well. I am totally planning on breaking out that carpet cleaner later today though. Everything in moderation right? (except laundry, those piles will be there when this baby goes off to college)