THE Sewing Project

I’ve said multiple times recently that I’m trying to finish up a sewing project. And I finally did. And I mailed it out. And the recipient received everything yesterday. And loves it!

So what was it?

Well, way back in the Spring, Lili asked me to make a bib set for her best friend. I couldn’t find the fabric she requested, and given that it’s her best friend since high school – a bib set just didn’t seem like the right thing for me to make for her. So I offered an alternative- a quilt for the baby.

Lili and I went out when I visited in June and selected fabrics. I was going to use the same quilt pattern that I used for Little C’s quilt, but I was going to change up a few things.

The end result? I love it. If it wasn’t for this particular friend, I’d totally keep it for myself!

How cute!! I just LOVE it! Some detail pics:

Top left corner

Top right corner

Part of the middle

Bottom left corner

Bottom right corner

I’m so happy with this quilt. These nifty squares that I made really turned out cool! And it was my first attempt at trying to make them! I made some of them “technically” wrong, but they still worked out – and combined with the other bigger squares, they totally gave the quilt the look I was going for!!

Yay!

Six Months. Two Weeks. One Post.

Wow. Little C turned 6 months old yesterday. Seriously. I can’t believe it. I haven’t seen her in just about 2 months. But pics are sent about once a week. And each of them make me want to run, yes, run, to Florida to see her.

I’ve missed just a few things – she’s sitting up all by herself. And apparently she’s standing with help a little bit… And she took her first ride in a swing. Ok, yeah, that’s a lot. And it kills me.

How can you not want to RUN to see these:

Yep, that’s a 6 mo old with PIGTAILS. Super, awesome, amazing, crazy PIGTAILS!!! I can’t wait to see how crazy her hair gets as she gets older. Ok, for now I can wait. With my sister and I as reference, anything is possible… I know it gets worse if she really does have our hair… But for now, OMG. Laughing by butt off. Such a cutie-pie. And she’s getting bigger and older by the nano-second.

I’ve missed just a few things – she’s sitting up all by herself. And apparently she likes to stand, with some help, of course. And she just took her first ride in a swing.

Ok, yeah, that’s quite a lot of thigs to miss… And it kills me.

Hold on. Look at those pigtails…. Everyone smiling? Me too!!!! Ok. We’re good to move on.

I realized that I have 14 days till I see My Little C again for Turkey Day. I’ve got to put that at the back of my mind while I deal with 84 beers at Brewfest, but oh-my-goodness FOURTEEN DAYS till I see those pigtails?

I can’t wait to read to, talk to and play with her. That will be the best time in the world…

But really, all I will need is to hug her and breathe in and out, and all will be right in the world. I have a feeling that a hug from that little girl will always make everything ok, no matter what is going on in my life or anywhere else…

Why? Because she’s My Little C, and if you’re lucky enough to have seen a picture of her 5 or 6 mo. old smile? You know it can melt you into a tiny little puddle of love.

She rolled over!

Today’s guest is my wonderful sister, Lili. What can I say? I love her. I also respect her, her opinion and her input. Truly. She has become one of my best friends in the world (which is amazing, considering the way we used to fight…). Lili and her husband, NE, gave me the incredible honor of being Little C’s godmother, the impact of which is something I think about before every decision I make lately.

When I asked Lili if she’d like to write a guest post, I didn’t think she’d accept, as I know she’s very busy taking care of Little C. She accepted and I told her she could write about anything… I’m honored that she found some time to write this for me, and given what she could have written about me, maybe I’m glad she didn’t have the time… (just kidding!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first 6 weeks of my daughter’s life is kind of a blur.  From exhaustion from not sleeping well to getting a full body infection, things flew by so quickly.  I’m happy to have photos from those first couple weeks as a memory.  But wow, starting at 6 weeks, thing start to become vivid and the memories bring warm fuzzies to my heart It was around that time that she started smiling.  She didn’t really know she was doing it, but it was such a great reward for me, her mommy!  From that point on, the enjoyment of being a mom really set in and the joy and excitement of seeing my daughter progress day by day became greater.  Random smiles became intentional smiles.  Then the smiles became focused on faces, mine especially.  There is nothing better than your little baby smiling every time you come near!!

From smiles, things progressed to holding her head up for long periods of time to moving her arms and legs wildly when there is music playing.  I think we have a little dancer on our hands!  She then started pulling herself up so that her little shoulder blades are off the floor and her legs are off the floor too.  She has become what every woman wants to be.  The girl who has rock hard abs and can hold that crazy Pilates hold for several minutes!!  Finally, after weeks of pulling her feet up to her face and rolling over to the side, we kicked it up a notch and rolled over last week!!  I realize that it is only one way, from back to belly, but she did it!  She practiced and practiced and did it!  I was so, so proud of her when she finally got that arm out of the way and made it.  As a parent, I knew that I would always want the best for my daughter.  I wasn’t expecting the inner turmoil of being so proud and excited as she develops and grows and also being a little sad that my little baby is already growing up.  I guess this is something that all parents go through.  On the outside we are super happy and proud and on the inside, a bit of sorrow is creeping up from your little baby becoming a big girl.  I’m only 5 months in…

Ed. Note: Aunt AnnoyedAngel is incredibly proud of Little C for rolling over! And incredibly sad I can’t be there to see it for myself! Lili, you are a great mommy. And I know I’m supposed to spoil and you & NE are supposed to be the rules & regulations committee here, but when Little C is whatever age and mad at her mom, and comes to me, I will NOT hesitate to tell her what a great mommy you are.

A little bit of happy…

This hasn’t been a great week. At all. There’s a lot of things that make it that way, but we’re not going to get into those right now.

Thankfully, my sister is the best sister on the planet and sent some her monthly email today with pictures of the 4-month old Little C.

And I smiled. I smiled every time I looked at each picture. She’s so damn cute. Her smile melts me. But since I won’t show you that here, you can see these things:

That is our lovely Little C in her christening gown.

That gown was also my sister’s christening gown…

And it was my christening gown. Which means it’s way over 30 years old. And it still looks gorgeous, and obviously Little C look even more beautiful than it would be on its own. Of course, right? (side note: NO CLUE how my mom managed to preserve it so amazingly well!! But she did an amazing, fantastic job with it!)

And do you remember this?

Yes? No? It’s one of the little toys I bought for Little C before my trip earlier this month…

Well, this picture is from the email sent today…

Obviously this Aunt knows how to buy an awesome toy… because nearly three weeks later, there is our little buddy the elephant, hanging out with Little C. And yes, Little C is wearing an adorable Red Sox onesie, since she’s such a big baseball fan! (Reminder: we totally support Little C endorsing the Red Sox. That is all.)

*sigh* she’s so cute, My Little C… I’m so glad that I get these little glimpses of her that make me smile.

I’d much rather see her every day, but since I can’t I’ll appreciate what I can see of her.

Now excuse me while I go stare at these pics and melt myself a little more.

not missing…

I’m not MIA folks. I promise. I’m just not feeling like myself this week. At. All.

And there are some things that are weighing on my mind that need more explanation from other parties. I hope to have these explanations & clarifications over the next week or so. Hopefully.

And there is Brewfest burning a trail right for me.

And there are things that are making me sad and not things I’m willing to talk about here. But most things will end up okay.

And there is a zillion things I should be sewing that I’m not.

And I miss my Little C. Especially the giggles caused by this:

Just a random “raspberry” to her tummy… See where her left hand is? Holding my thumb?? Vice grip. Important…. You’ve seen vague appearances of her chubbiness. How could I not want to snuggle/cause giggles all the time? And then you have this:

Besides a big old Little C grin, that you can’t see – and making me smile bigger than ever, she’s also going to hold my left thumb – see it in the pic? I’m pretty sure that the vice grip thumb holding is one of the best things ever. NE would agree. When he holds her a certain way, she goes right for his thumb and holds on tight. It’s the cutest and most reassuring thing in the world that Little C loves you, at least in my opinion.

Wow do I miss that little girl. Wow.

Weekend Win…

I actually managed to get a ton of things done this weekend, and have a really good time as well. Absolute win.

I stayed in on Friday, most of the night on the phone dealing with rugby stuff and started in on the bib sets I need to make. I have 3 partial bibs ready to be put together and two and a half sets 99% done (just need the snaps on the bibs!) I also worked on finishing the stitching on the Little C and Me sewn logo. It’s almost done!!

I also went to Joann’s on Saturday and did some additional fabric research. Good things.

I’d say that sewing wise, I did pretty well. There’s still more to do, but I’ll get to it soon.

I checked my email on Friday night to find a picture of this:

That little almost-chubster is Little C in her new “My First Red Sox Tee” shirt, sent from her Aunt & Uncle in New England!  Isn’t it cute? She’s got a gigantic grin on her face in the full picture. It’s awesome.

After my Joann’s adventure on Saturday, I went and watched my boys play rugby. I didn’t travel with the girls – they won, by the way, 44-0 against Buffalo! The guys won against Toledo. 45-17, which means they get a bonus point in the Midwest standings! They played really well, against Toledo and the Developmental side. I was really impressed by all of them and happy they are doing well.

I left the game with a bag of Pitt rugby shirts that are in dire need of some repair work. I’ll start on those tomorrow night. I fear one of them is beyond my help. Basically the entire front of the jersey is ripped. Wahoo! A challenge!

Saturday night, I went to the drive in. Sans alcohol and armed with more than enough candy (Twizzlers, BottleCaps, Mike’n'Ike Lemonade variations.) Our double feature started with Sorority Row…

which we spent most of the time making fun of, especially Rumor Willis, whom we nicknamed Horseface McSomething-or-other (I don’t remember!)

The second movie was The Goods… Soooo funny.

It was awesome. Hysterical, even. Too many one-liners to remember. I actually think I might add that to my tiny DVD collection in the future.

It was one of the most fun nights I’ve had watching movies in a long time!

I hope there will be more trips to the drive-in  in the future. The website says 9 will be there soon and I can’t wait!

Pirates n’at

So I really, really don’t get it, but September 19th is “Talk Like A Pirate Day.” Normally, I would never, ever bring this up, but I’m working on a special project of bib sets right now, and one of them happens to be related.

Who can’t love fabric covered in pirates? I need to find something else to make with it. I’m going to another JoAnn’s tomorrow in the hopes of finding more.

A dress, maybe? How funny would that be?

I went to one of my fave Joann’s the other day. Looking for new, interesting fabrics for this project. I found a few, but one caught my eye because it was kind of ridiculous. And there was only about 1 yard left of it… I sent a picture message to this guy:

And I received a big ol’ YES. So I bought the yard or so that was there.  And it’s just so over the top & crazy that I think it might work out.

I managed to also finish this tonight:

Yep. A bib covered in skull & cross bones.

I would say I’ve truly lost my mind, except I know what fabrics I’m planning to buy over the next few weeks. It gets stranger and more bizarre. I kid you not.

Do it, do it, do it…

Upon reading this, you should immediately click on THIS LINK RIGHT HERE and go vote for the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh to win a $10,000 game room (including flat screen LCD tvs, X-Box systems, etc, etc, etc,). Microsoft & The Children’s Miracle Network joined forces for this, and really I can’t see a reason not to do it.

And guess what? For registering your super basic info? You can vote 10x per day. I just did it (again) and you vote, wait for the page to re-load, it tells you that you have 9 more votes. You click vote again, it tells you that you have 8  more and so forth. So ruggers, I’m looking directly at you – you know you are good people, right? So let’s help out the little folk, ok? And you’ll make me super happy and maybe less likely to scream at you at Brewfest. Good things all around.

And besides, if our Children’s Hospital doesn’t win this, Ginny is going to go for Option #2, and you KNOW I’ll be hitting you up for donations for it…Yes, yes I will.

Come on. Do it. It takes less than 5 minutes. Yes – rugby guys – I mean you as well… Don’t make me talk to you at My Living Room and show you pictures of the adorable Little C to motivate you, cause she’s so cute it will just end up embarassing you. I kid you not.

(And I’d just like to remind you that I just saw my Little C this past weekend, and god forbid anything ever happens to her, but if anything ever does, I pray that there is a fantastic Children’s Hospital like ours nearby to care for her.)

Your choice, a few mouse clicks or many emails from me demanding $$$.

Come on, what else makes me smile this much, in this way but my tiny Little C????

At this point, she only has my hair, as you can see. In about 6 seconds after this, she was screeching, laughing and pressing her face up to my cheek (I think she was trying to eat my cheek.) and grabbing my shirt. It was adorable and hysterical and a little painful (the hair pulling) at the same time. And I’d do it again without even thinking.

So go VOTE. Do it now. Think about how happy My Little C makes me and then think about how happy those kids that use Children’s Hospital of Pgh make their own families!! If you know me, and like me even a little, you’ll do it now.

Thank you!

Gifts.

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to get My Little C for her baptism. I mean, the gift wouldn’t just be from her Aunt. It’s now from her Godmother too. (Yes, take a moment and let that sink in. I’m Little C’s Godmother. I haven’t hyperventilated. Yet.)

Baptism gifts seem for the most part to be crosses, rosaries, and other religious gifts. But while I wanted something a little bit on the spiritual side, I wanted something that would somehow show her that I was here for her & loved her from so far away, especially when she’s older. And I think I found the perfect gifts. Three Willow Tree figures:

Angel of Caring "Always there, listening with a willing ear and an open heart."

Thinking of You "Keeping you close in my thoughts."

With Love "You are loved."

Yep, I think these were the perfect choices.

Arrived.

I’ve arrived back home to the ‘Burgh.

And I’m incredibly sad. Tearing up many times at leaving My Little C…

I’ll have a post with whatever pics I can manage to post here soon – a day or two.

For now:

• There’s a great deal of fantastic contained in a 4 month old giving you a toothless grin every single time you smile at her and say hi when someone else is holding her. Every. Single. Time. It’s amazing. Thankfully, My Little C gave me enough smiles to maybe last me till Thanksgiving. Maybe.

• And the giggles and screeches that said 4 month old will let out when you play and tickle and talk? It’s better than anything else in the world.

• And when that 4 month old grabs your shirt in one hand, and your hair in the other, and giggles, screeches and presses her face to your cheek and kinda crawls up your side while holding her? It’s hysterical.

• And It’s really hard to let her go and say goodbye. Really hard. Really.

I think she likes me… No, loves me, My Little C. And you know what? I love her even more than I could tell you.

Thank you, Lili and NE for this past weekend. I am incredibly blessed to be a big part of her life. It makes me even happier than I am sad right now. She’s freaking fantastic.