Finished Projects

I made and finished two whole projects for myself.

I'm a little tired of winter, so this bag looks nothing like winter. The fabric is Amy Butler from a couple of years ago. The pattern is Bows and Tucks--it was an okay pattern. Although the instructions are a little confusing and way too wordy. But overall, it was a rather quick little project and it turned out pretty cute.

This apron design is similar to one in A is for Aprons--except that the book thinks you should pay a blueprint printing service to blow up the pattern for you. I ended up drafting a pattern by creating a scale, and then altering that pattern. So now it is really my pattern. It was rather time consuming, but the actual sewing was rather quick and easy. I've really wanted an apron for awhile, and right now with a belly that manages to get everything on it, it is very helpful. The fabric is leftover from a different project.

I never sew for myself. I'm always making a gift, or something for the kids or a new baby. It was a rather new experience to enjoy something myself when I was done.

The Truth

I was looking back through blog posts, and thought that I would write one to correct any appearance of put-together-ness that previous posts might have alluded to. I like posts that have pictures, therefore I only post about things that have pictures. And in the middle of our regular chaos, I don't usually have time to pull out the camera. This was a hard blog post to write because I work pretty hard to convince people that I am capable of all the tasks I have, and then some. So here is a behind the scenes look at truth, with no pictures:

There are 12 weeks until the restaurant opens, and 15 weeks until this baby is due--Pretty much my life is constant chaos. I am always finding someone who will take the kids for an hour, or trying to maintain a professional look on my face while my kids terrorize whatever conference room we happpen to be in. Everything is on my blackberry because I can't seem to remember a thing, yet I can't sleep at night because I'm doing math problems in my head figuring out the restaurant's budget, probable labor costs or the possible gain/loss of profits if I change types of tables. I killed my last blackberry by throwing it at the wall when Jeff refused to make food samples for the wedding show. The new one is encased in the most hideous plastic and rubber contraption to prevent it from damage the next time it happens to run into a wall at any considerable velocity. I made my midwife's on-call nurse laugh on Friday by insisting that there was nothing wrong with having contraction every 4-6 minutes, that I would rest on Saturday and check in on Monday. I was right, but I think I convinced her that I am also crazy. Besides, I had to get to the pediatrician's--who cancelled Lucy's appointment because I was 11 minutes late and Lucy then spent the next hour crying because her doctor doesn't like her anymore--finish my taxes, move 72 chairs and 36 tables from Costco to another wharehouse, and have a complex business meeting. I didn't really have time for them to put some monitor on me and tell me that I was having contractions, which did stop on Saturday, no harm done. So manic? Yes. Crazy? Yes. Put-together? Hopefully in appearance, but in reality--not at all.

The other side to this truth is that it isn't likely to get any better. I will probably be even busier when the restaurant opens and the new baby gets here. The funny thing is, that in Church, I don't have a real calling because they thought it would be nice if my life calmed down. But it won't. So on Sundays, I have serious questions about my capabilities and how I measure up as a "mormon mommy" and church member because I am very busy and I work. Last week, a very mormon mommy said when I listed a few of my responsibilities in the restaurant, "You can't. You know you just can't do it all." So beyond being more crazy than I hopefully appear, the deeper truth is that I doubt myself and I wonder if after all this work, I'm failing at the important things.

New Pictures of the Baby

We had a second ultrasound of Baby Henry (that name is pretty much stuck now) because the first time he was hiding and wouldn't show his entire spine. This time he was head down and in a much better position for seeing his spine, and his profile.

I love this picture of him hiding his eyes. It looks like he is playing peek a boo, or telling the tech to stop bothering him. He is pretty possessive of his space, so he doesn't much like the ultrasound probe or the heartrate probe at regular visits.

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He looks pretty cute, I think. A lot like Lucy and Jack. The 3D pictures are kind of strange to get used to compared with the more normal black and white ones.

The pregnancy is going pretty smoothly. I think it is a lot easier having done everything twice before. I've been working out a lot more than I did with the other two, and I've gained about half of what I would have normally gained by this point. I wasn't really sick, and I wonder if working out had anything to do with that. It definitely helps with feeling cuter while pregnant.

I found the cutest fabric the other day, and brought it to my mom's only to find that she'd bought the exact same fabric in blue instead of green. We both just thought it looked like "Henry" fabric. With the other two, I made quilts and bumper pads. This time, I think I'm just going to make a quilt, with the cute fabric we found--but I haven't decided on a design yet. I do not want to make another set of bumper pads, so I think I will just buy some that coordinate with the quilt. The making of things for the baby has become a ritual that I have to do in order to feel ready for a baby to come.

Pictures from Lucy's Birthday

I'm about a month late getting the pictures up from Lucy's 4th Birthday on January 29th. We really had more of a birthday week than a single day, with three separate cake and candle occasions.

Birthdays are a really big deal in our house. The kids have a play wooden birthday cake that has velcro on decorations and candles. At least one morning a week starts with Lucy and Jack taking turns singing "Happy Birthday" and knocking down the candles. So when we have an actual birthday, one day just isn't enough.

First, the Sunday before her birthday--the same day as the wedding show--John and Peggy watched the kids during the day, and when they brought them home that night we had cupcakes and opened presents. I'm sad to admit that I wasn't fully conscious after the wedding show and forgot to pull out the camera.

Then, the night before her birthday we had a party at my parents' house because they were leaving the next day for Hawaii. Lucy opened presents. Adorned herself with stickers and changed outfits multiple times.

She also treated us all to quite the ballet performance with many jumps, pirouettes and arabesques. I've heard my dad re-enacted the performance for several patients, a couple of which are my piano students at the office. It made quite the impression.

She also was entirely delighted by her Tinkerbell cake. My mom convinced the lady at the store, who must have thought my mom quite insane, to trade out the Superbowl or Hawaiian decorations for the Tinkerbell. If she hadn't told me, I would have never known.

On her birthday, we took very cute flower cupcakes to preschool. You frost the top, roll in sanding sugar, stick in a lollipop and make leaves from green laffy taffy. I've made them a few different times before, and they are both simple and adorable. She was pretty excited about giving out the treats. That night, we went to ice cream and I made Lucy's favorite, homemade macaroni and cheese.

Then on Saturday, we had her little "Fancy Nancy" party. We just invited a few friends, nothing overwhelming, because I didn't have time to put together a whole big thing with the wedding show the week before. But, I did have all the leftover decorations from the wedding show. And, the roses from the wedding show kept very nicely in my van, which was convenient because I was too preoccupied to empty them out during the week. So we put up streamers and the tissue paper balls, decorated the table with a table cloth, the runner, and flowers--all from the wedding show. The girls each came dressed up and we added a feather boa to their attire. We made crowns with glittery foam stickers because clearly everything is better with glitter.

We ate butterfly crackers, with little polka dots of cheese and apples. We read a Fancy Nancy story, danced around and played with all of Lucy's barbies and kitchen stuff.

I made the girls (and Jack, who enjoyed the whole thing with a crown and boa on) individual cupcakes with big pink frosted tops.

They each got a candle--Jeff and Shane helped keep that under control--and we sang "Happy Birthday" a few times so that we could fully enjoy blowing out our candles.

And then, all the girls went and played with Jack's cars until their moms and dads picked them up. It really was pretty cute, although Jack wasn't so thrilled, to see all these princesses end their time by playing cars.

It was the strangest feeling throwing Lucy's birthday party. A year ago, it would have completely stressed me out and taken over my life for at least a week. This year, I honestly didn't think that much about it until the day before. It just seemed so small and simple compared to all the caterings, the wedding show and everything else that we have been doing. And it went smoothly--I taught dance to this age for years, so this wasn't that much different. I guess, I hadn't realized how much I had changed and learned until the birthday party was over.

So Lucy had plenty of birthday celebrating--although this morning, a month later, she told Jeff that I was going to make her a cake for her birthday. I think playing with her wooden birthday cake is a much better idea!