Since the Fall of 2007 I’ve changed clothing  sizes a few times. I guess having a baby can do that to you. We recently got a nice size tax refund and a small portion of that was set aside for the procurement of nice work clothes that fit & were appropriate for summer. Most of the items I found will be year round additions to my wardrobe.

The first shopping day I went to Upscale Consignment, Goodwill & Kohl’s

Upscale Consignment:

Dress: $16.00

Gray short-sleeved cardigan: $7.00

Black lacy bolero: $5.00

Red & Black top: $8.00

Total: $36.00

Goodwill:

Ann Taylor dress pants: $5.99

Kate Spade purse: $4.99

Total:  $10.98

Kohl’s:

Clearance black dress pants: $9.60

Clearance gray skirt: $17.60

On Sale mint/brown top: $16.99

On Sale magenta floral top: $16.99

Total:  $61.18

Total for day 1:  $108.16

Day 2 shopping trip I went to Walmart & a different Goodwill.

Walmart (all on clearance):

Black Suit Jacket: $9.00

Gray Pants: $9.00

Gray Skirt: $9.00

Black Top: $9.00

Total:  $36.00

Goodwill:

White/Black Top: $6.99

Blue/White Top: $4.99

Gray & black Jacket: $8.99

Total:  $20.97

Total for day 2:  $56.97

Average Price Paid —— Total Items Purchased

10.49 —— 6  tops

9.00 —–  2  jackets

6.50 —— 2  “over” items

8.20 —— 3  pairs of dress pants

13.30 —— 2  skirts

16.00 —— 1  dress

4.99 —— 1  purse

I think I did pretty well and I didn’t even use the whole allotment! I found some great deals by looking places I hadn’t considered in the past. Next time I go out I’m going to think about the prices I pay even more.  If I hadn’t shopped at Kohl’s my averages would have all been below $9/item.

Kohl’s was the most expensive even by only shopping sales/clearance.

Goodwill was the cheapest but I had to look much harder to find some really good stuff. But the stuff I found (especially the 1st day) was REALLY good!

Upscale Consignment had  great deals and everything looked really good. I will probably stop back there in a couple of weeks to see if they have anything new!

I finished this pair of socks (Rav link)on March 3rd for my brother Jon’s birthday.  This is his second pair from me and I can see how I’ve improved since his first pair 2 years ago. I used under one skein of Dream in Color Classy in Cocoa Kiss bought at 3 Kittens.

This is the Offset Wraplan (Rav link)I knit for my friend Eunice’s yet to be born baby girl. I would have to say that I think this turned out even cuter than I imagined. The more I look at the pictures the more sure I am that this is my favorite project finished object. I think part of the reason is that I reknit the buttons bands until they were done right and it made all the difference! I had to reknit the first one 3 times before I got it right (because I didn’t feel the need to read the directions). I finished this on March 14 using Wisdom Yarns Poems in colors 553 (2 skeins for main body-with 1 yard leftover!)  & 564 (about 1/2 a skein for the ribbing & button bands). I got this yarn at the Purple Iris & knit the 6-9 month size though I’d say it’s probably bigger than that.

I’ve actually started a second version in a larger size using Twilleys of Stamford Freedom Spirit in color 515. I picked this yarn up on DizzySheep.com.

The final completed project this month was this sweet little bonnet (Rav link). I used The Unique Sheep Pima Petite in Silver bought from Eat.Sleep.Knit.

Cross posted on AbigailPearson.com.

Our sweet Abigail is 10 months old today.

In the last month Abigail has become increasingly mobile.

• She now crawls, climbs & cruises on the furniture.
• She can get off her toy car by herself.
• Go from crawling to sitting to standing in a matter of seconds.
• She walks along our new furniture and the kitchen chairs at daycare, even getting stuck under the table one day this week!
• She discovered the “circle” in our house and has taken to doing laps with daddy in the evenings. On Wednesday night she made it around 7 times before getting tired (or was it daddy that got tired? )

This post will have a very small amount of knitting in it since I only finished one thing this month! A pair of socks.

These were knit using Knit Picks Felici in Mixed Berries. Knit Picks changes the colors of Felici it offers and I picked this color up on closeout.

I managed to get the stripes to basically match on both socks besides at the heel and toe but I’m pretty sure that is because the the stripe length was different and not anything I did. I started these January 3rd and finished them February 21st. They are a basic 64 stitch sock knit on size US 1′s. The recipient  requested shorter cuffs so I obliged with a total cuff length of 5.5inches. I did an eye of partridge heel (at least I think so–I didn’t look it up I just did what had previously been described as one) and took a quick glance at the Yarn Harlot’s basic sock recipe so I didn’t have an uneven heel turn.

I have been working on another pair of socks that will be finished this week. I had hoped to get them into this post but last week was not great for knitting progress. I think the rest of this month will be relatively quiet.

Next weekend we will be spending some time with my family for a birthday celebration and then at the end of March daycare will be closed for a week while her family goes on vacation. Terry & I will be covering a couple days and then Terry’s mom is going to help us out too. I’m sure Abigail will think it’s great fun to have mom & dad stay home and have Grandma over too!

Before:

After:

There isn’t a spot on the couch. Apparently the camera lens is dirty!

Terry relaxing after a long night of moving!

We knew our sweet Abigail was growing and her doctor’s appointment on Friday (2/13/09) confirmed just that!

Abigail weighed 26lbs 11ozs and measured 29.75 inches tall! She’s also got at least 6 teeth. When we stick our fingers in there to count they usually get bitten/chewed on so it’s not  safe to check very often!

Sorry for the blurry/grainy picture but it is a good representation of our evenings. Abigail loves to crawl off our laps and explore everything!

And here is a preview of our green President’s Day weekend! Can you guess what the theme was?

This post is part of “Hi/Lo Thursday” on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else’s “Hi/Lo” posts and for a chance to win $100.

Our HIGHS for the week:

Terry & I got to spend a few hours out by ourselves for our anniversary on Sunday while Grandpa Mike watched Abigail.

Tuesday night’s Ticket to Ride connection group was awesome. I got to hold a new little baby and meet a couple brand new to our church.

Our LOWS for the week:

The auditors were at work this week. I felt very stressed because it was important to take care of them before doing my normal work because they are onsite for such a short time. I’m so glad I got to come home to the smiling faces of Terry & Abigail every night!

Cross-posted on TerryPearson.com and AbigailPearson.com

Abigail turned nine months old yesterday. We are very excited that she is growing so fast.

The last three months have brought many exciting changes in her life, including:

• New Daycare – She began going to a daycare in Eagan, and she loves it. There are two other kids that are close to her age and she adores them. One of them is older and one is younger. Everyday she comes home with a smile on her face (As a side note, she often also comes home with dirty clothes from some pretty amazing diaper blowouts!).
• Solid foods – Not too long ago, Abigail had barely eaten solid foods. Three months ago, solid foods were somewhat of a novelty for her. Now, she has three meals a day that are solids. She loves the pasta baby foods like “Lasagna in meat sauce.” She is also a big fan of Pizza crust (she shares with her daddy), Pancakes, Kix, and Crackers.
• Crawling – Yep, that’s right. She is now moving around the house. She began crawling like a normal crawl on Wednesday, February 4th. Before that, she opted for the “scoot and roll method.”
• Church Nursery – Abigail is now spending Sunday morning in the church nursery. Now that she is becoming mobile, this is a great location for her.
• Weekend away from mommy and daddy – She got to spend a whole weekend with her grandma (Kathy Pearson) while her mom and dad went up to Two Harbors. This was the first time that both of us were gone overnight from her. She did great.

My Finished Objects during January: 2 pairs of socks, 2 hats and I sewed the buttons on a sweater for Abigail that has been otherwise finished for a year!

My mom’s socks using Vermont O-wool:

The pattern is the Padded Footlets from Favorite Socks but without the padding.

My niece’s socks (if anyone knows her please don’t tell her I knit her socks!)

I used less than one skein of Lorna’s Laces Shepard Sport in Sweetie for a child’s shoe size 1 (an 8 yr-old).

Our “Thorpes“:

We’ve been wearing them constantly in this cold weather so I haven’t had a chance to take a picture of them without a model. This picture is a little preview of our weekend–more to come soon!

I used Cascade Eco for Terry’s and made the large with no modifications. I did one extra crown increase (past the large size) on mine since the Nashua Vignette seemed to be knitting up a little smaller than I planned (what’s a swatch? ) and I was determined to finally have a hat that would cover my ears!

Sorry no picture of the sweater with the buttons attached! The buttons are little white flowers. Abigail was napping while I worked on this and I decided I had better measure it to make sure it wasn’t going to be too small for her to wear. I knit the 6 month size (according to my prior post) and the sweater measures bigger around than the 12 month and in between the 6 & 12-month for the length. As soon as I finished I put it on Abigail and ran out the door to a Sunday afternoon party last week. I had to roll the sleeves up a little and it is pretty big around on her too. I’m so glad it will fit her for a while longer!

Friday night (1/16/09) we brushed Abigail’s teeth for the first time.

After Terry was done he let Abigail drive for a little bit–she thought it was pretty cool!

Here’s my sleepy baby just before she slept for 14 hours straight! I woke up at 9am and had to check and see if she was breathing!

A 3.5 month old baby started at daycare on Tuesday (1/20/09) and Abigail was so curious about her! She kept her eyes on her all day! Maybe Abigail will teach her how to roll over!