So a few months ago I dropped a big bomb of joy on you guys, announcing that Dave and I had gotten engaged, but since then I haven’t really talked about any of our plans, have I? Rest assured, they are well under way. In fact, we’ve decided to document all the ins and outs of our wedding planning over on our Wedding Blog!
In fact, I posted over there today, all about how we came to pick our wedding venue. So while I may mention some wedding-y goodness over here from time to time, most of the big details will be found over there. Don’t worry, though. I’ll always let you know when I’ve posted something good. So go on over and check out the details of our amazingly gorgeous wedding venue!
As it usually goes when the weather gets cold, I yearn to knit. And I’ve actually been knitting up a storm recently. Baby blankets, to be exact. I’m planning on doing two of them, and am about, oh, 40% through the first.
I really love the checkerboard pattern I chose for this first blanket, though I’m not sure if the suggested yarn really is the best option for knitting it up. Perhaps next time I’ll use one that’s less nubbly. It may be soft and organic and lovely but its unique ply does distort the pattern a bit. Maybe for the second one I’ll use something with a more standard ply. And I’m thinking I should probably switch to metal needles as well, rather than the bamboo ones I’ve been using. Bamboo+cotton seems to cause too much friction to gain any knitting speed or momentum.
I’ll have to see what they have when I make another run to the yarn store today. I’m hoping to have both blankets ready to go by the beginning of March, since both new arrivals are expected in April and I do have a bit of a due date to stick to. (Some pun intended.)
Details for the first blanket are ravelled here.

Did you know? “Melissa” is Greek for “honeybee.”
You know that movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, where he gets stuck in a repeating loop and every day is the same? That is a little like how I felt last week. Every day I’d get up, work, eat and print. And print, and print, and print. It took me a week to finish all these, but I successfully printed 50 baby shower invitations for my sister’s upcoming showers.

Floating in a sea of baby shower invitations.
I’m actually hosting two showers for her, one for family and one for all her friends. But it was definitely a lot of printing. I’ve done much smaller print runs on my Gocco before, but this was a lot. And after every step I needed to let the cards dry before moving on.
So what did I do? Well, for the front I used two older prints I had and combined them to create the image you see here. Then I custom printed two different insides, one for each shower. Then, as some extra cuteness, I printed a little message on the bottom of the back of each card in a tiny font (just like real greeting cards do). And to top it all off, I printed more grass onto the envelopes and hand addressed all 50. A week’s worth of work but so worth it when I saw the final product.
I hope all the guests like them, because I put a lot into these. And I can’t wait to start planning the rest of the details for the shower. I’m thinking sunflowers and pink roses. Because babies and parties, two very excellent things. But when combined? Pure magic.