The neurotic cleaning side of me really started on January 1. I remember going around the house pulling things off shelves and decided if I really needed it. I got rid of all my clothes that no longer fit and many other items that were just kicking around the house just in case. I decided that everything in my life was going to have a storage space, it was going to be useful and I was going to like it.

As soon as I hit the 3rd trimester, it became abundantly clear that I was running out of time to get my house sorted out. My belly is getting bigger by the day, and I still would like to neurotically clean a whole lot. Enter Nico. Nico is a friend from high school that I haven’t connected up with in several years. She just finished her degree, and she is traveling around connecting up with old friends. She came on Tuesday and has been a huge help. I committed to spending time getting things in order with her help so that I can start to relax a little bit. My goal in nesting and organizing is to get my house in such good order that it will be easy to maintain when I have a 2 year old and a newborn that need lots of attention from me.

I got up this morning and resolved to get a bunch of things done. I started by going out to the garden and prepping the soil in 2 of the beds so that I could transplant some veggies into them soon (the veggies are getting very big to stay inside). Turning the soil was a lot of work because I had added in some sheep fleeces, some shredded paper and some rabbit manure that was mostly composted. I mixed it in really well. Things look great, and I am excited to plant, I just need to figure out a way to secure the chickens in their run so they don’t escape out and eat the seedlings.

I then moved on to shear a rabbit. I got some new clippers recently to help me get the rabbit shearing to be easier. They have been working wonders. I got one rabbit done yesterday, and I got another rabbit done today. This used to take me hours and hours to do, so the fact that I got it done in under 3 hours was fantastic.

I even then was able to take the bottom off one of the rabbit cages and replace it. I was worried about losing a rabbit through the bottom. It’s repaired now, and in better shape than ever, which makes an incredible bonus! No more rabbit related work, other than shearing, for some time.

I then managed to get back inside and helped Nico do a little work on cleaning the inside and outsides of the windows. She did the window work, and I took the screens out and cleaned them up really well. I can see out the windows of the house, and it is SO nice!

Jared then returned with the pressure washer we are borrowing and things went into a completely different gear. We cleaned out the garage and moved the freezers out. We pressure washed out the part of the garage that has been stained with chicken poop, blueberries and other things over the past few years.

Nico then moved on and pressure washed part of the driveway. We had moss growing on part of it, and it looked really bad. The pressure washer really made a huge difference. It is so nice to have a clean driveway again.

Nico is now out pressure washing the deck so that it can be stained. I wasn’t sure that it was going to make much of a difference, but I really do see the difference now. The deck looks amazing, and it will be really well taken care of with a coat or two of varnish on it. The bonus is that we have about 4 gallons of varnish that we got with the house when we moved in, so this project isn’t costing a ton, and it is really improving the house.

I even managed to get back out in the garage and sweep the floor and move somethings to new locations. We are hoping to park the car in the garage this summer with a new baby to deal with. We are very, very close to being able to do it at this point. I’ve just got a bit of photography stuff that needs to be gone through first.

I remembered amongst all of this that the ham for Iron Chef needed to be brined, so I got it in a brine now. I’m excited to cook it tomorrow.

The garbage man needs to come so that I can throw some other things out (our can is full), but I can manage doing other projects until Tuesday.

Tomorrow the stain will go on the deck, the rest of the driveway can be pressure washed, another rabbit or two will be sheared and the house will be cleaned. Iron Chef starts at 6, and it’s going to be hopping around here until then!

So you judge, has this pregnant woman neurotically gone off the deep end of the nesting and cleaning? I think so.

When was the last time that you were bothered by the dust and muck on your baseboards? That’s something that’s been driving me nuts lately.

I finished my own room and made it to Daphne’s room for cleaning. This involved organizing and going through all our clothes from newborn clothes through the clothes that don’t yet fit. I sorted through the clothes that I am going to keep and I washed and tagged the others and got them off to a consignment sale for the weekend. I still have 7 smallish tubs full of clothes and diapers for a baby, but it is more than enough wonderful clothes to fit any sex of baby that comes into our life in the future!

I then went through all the toys she has. I rotated some toys out and put them in the closet. I organized everything in the closet and put toys and other things in plastic bins. The only thing that is not yet really cleaned or set up is the car seat and the baby swing. With at least 3 months left to go, I’ve still got plenty of time to worry about that. Until, it is snug in the top of the closet.

I washed and bleached the sheets and the comforter, so everything is actually white again. White is not a good color to have around kids, that’s for sure!

I made it to the floor and scrubbed the baseboards and steam cleaned the floor. It looks wonderful, and I’m so proud of it. I am excited that yet another room is ACTUALLY organized.

I got it all done in time for my friend Nico to stay.

Yesterday I was rifling through some bills that needed to be paid. We pay our garbage every 3rd month, so the bill only shows up once in a while.

Daphne saw the logo at the top of the garbage bill and said enthusiastically, “GARGABGE MAN!”

I am so impressed at her ability to take something like a garbage tuck and relate that to an abstract logo on a bill.

No wonder it’s possible to teach kids to read early in life!

I’ve been putting together these skirts for Daphne for quite a while now, but I just completed them all and managed to get photos on them. I developed the pattern for these skirts based on a wrap around skirt from another blog I read. Each of the skirts are reversible, and most of them have the “bubble” look to them. I developed that technique by simple putting elastic along the bottom of the skirt before I turned it right side out for the last time.

I get compliments about them ALL THE TIME when we are out. I love when people ask me where I bought it from. I take pride in saying casually “oh, I made it!”.

I purposely made the skirts VERY big. They wrap around Daphne 2 times now, and they almost fit me. With a snap closure, the skirts will grow with her and will only disappear when they have been worn out beyond use. It’s a brilliant, frugal, darling way to clothe a baby girl.

There are lots of fun flower prints.

This is a good view of the “bubble” effect.

This skirt is a shorter version than many of the others.

Another shorter skirt.

One of the few non-bubble skirts.

This is the first one I made. It is a wrap around skirt that is double sided, and it ties closed. It won a blue ribbon at the fair this year.

This is Daphne’s Easter skirt! She got it in her Easter basket. I love the colors on it. It is made out of a lightweight jersey, so it is not as poofy as some of the other skirts, and I really love that about it.

Everyone needs a farm print skirt.

I got this fabric from my grandma. I think it will be a definite fair entry this year.

A 1998 Joe Boxer print. Cows playing golf. Classic!

After plenty of worry and tears, I figured out the pattern for these pants and managed to make a good stock of them in relatively short order.

These are the pants that you sad Daphne modeling in yesterday’s post. I plan to make more of these in the future if they are needed. They only take about 5 minutes to make if you read the instructions correctly, and they look darn cute.

The colored fleece pants were all made in 3 different sizes: small, medium and large. The large fit Daphne now, but the small and medium will fit the baby when the weather is cold next fall.

I love the color of these pants, it’s called Aegean Blue.

A nice little green.
This is the back of the pants. You can see the crescent in the bum. This allows of diaper space.
This is the front of the pants.
I am making a lot of things brown for the baby, so this was just another brown item to add to the collection. Additionally, the pair Daphne wears get taken outside in the mud all the time, and you can hardly see the dirt all over them!
The pair Daphne was modeling. They look so much better ON a baby.
Some cute woolies made out of a recycled sweater.
These are made out of 20% rabbit hair, and they sure are soft!

I made Daphne these tutu’s for her birthday. Of course she totally loves them. One is light green and the other is pink. The pink ones were featured in the photo shoot from a week or two ago.

They were pretty simple to make. Just tulle cut into strips that were then tied onto a ribbon. brilliant!

It looks so well done around the waist.

There is no lack of poof here.
Pretty in green!

I have two meat rabbits that I have raised since they were 8 weeks old. My intention is to breed them and use them as a household meat project. Rabbits are very easy to keep, and you can feed them without giving them corn and soy, which is a big problem with raising chickens for meat. Corn and soy are genetically modified, it costs a lot, and it tends to not be the natural feed for chickens. Rabbits can be raised on rabbit feed, oats and alfalfa pellets. They are much cheaper, and you can easily get it without corn or soy in it.

Additionally, the rabbits are raised by their mothers, so no brooding lights or anything. They finish as fryers in about the same time as chickens, and it seems to be a smoother project.

I bred my rabbits last month hoping that they would kindle in time for me to take both the rabbits and the chickens to the butcher at the same time (when I am 36 weeks pregnant). I was being incredibly optimistic thinking that they would kindle large litters just fine. I forgot that it is very common for rabbits to lose their first 1-2 litters before they get the hang of being successful mothers.

The meat rabbits are both Californians. I named them Thing 1 and Thing 2 because they do cause as much trouble as is found in the Cat and the Hat. Califonians are not generally known for their good temperaments.

Thing 2 had her first litter last night, and big surprise, none of them made it. I had noticed that she had been off feed for 2 days. That is common when they are about to kindle, but 2 days is a bit long. I went out with a syringe last night to feed her some pineapple juice to make sure that any GI stuff got handled and she actually kindled the first baby right there. I’m not sure that either of us noticed (it was pretty dark at that point). The first 5 kits she had were extremely premature and underdeveloped. The rest of them would have had a pretty good chance if she had bothered to put them in the nesting box, but even though they were inside, it was too cold to not be protected. I put her out with the buck this morning, so we will see what her second litter looks like in about 30 days. I’m thinking positive.

Thing 1 should have her litter any second now. I’m hoping the kindling gods are looking favorably on me after this last week.

First time rabbit moms can be a pain, but they should be worth it in the next breeding.

I have been working to get the idea through Daphne’s head that there is going to be a newborn baby around soon to take care of.

The “word movie” (Your Baby Can Read) has an intro with some small babies in it. Every time it comes on Daphne yells, “Tiny little baby.”

Apparently, babies are incredibly exciting. I’m glad.

I couldn’t resist posting the entire series of these photos. I have been teaching Daphne how to model in front of the camera lately, and I think she is really getting the hang of it. It helps to show off clothes and things I have made when I have a good model. I like using a model rather than the black background I have been using. The black background gets old.

This is the pair of pants that I made and posted about before. I had a great deal of trouble with the pattern, but after a bit of perseverance, I found what I was doing wrong and I cut them up and started over. It worked out wonderfully. They are the favorite pair of pants that I have ever seen on anyone, and I love when Daphne wears them. They are made out of 100% wool interlock! They make lovely diaper covers for the younger baby.

Check out the way Daphne models the pants.

A bit of a blooper!

Her tiger face (a useful modeling tool).

I really do think I’ve got a model on my hands, at least for my own personal exploitation.

I have spent a lot of time recently getting all the loose ends up with sewing. I had a bunch of extra knitted fabric in my closet that I had no real use for, so I decided to make something called tie nappies. This pattern has been around for at least 100 years. It is a one-size fits all kind of diaper that you can tie on. They are especially great when used at nighttime because you can put them over another fitted or prefold. I made a few with the fabric that I had available. I LOVE them.

They just look like square blobs in the photos, but you can at least get the idea of the fabrics and the ties.