Zooming through April

I thought I'd start this post with a picture Left-brain's cousin took of Someone Small and I on Easter. She is the same photographer who did our wedding pictures and she captures something really special with the baby and I, even in the simple moments.  Even though my hair is . . . interesting . . . I love this picture. I was zooming her around the backyard, since she couldn't look for Easter eggs with her big cousins. I may not take the best formal pictures, but these are the ones I will cherish.

Anyway . . . the saga of the sewing machine continues. We are on to winding bobbins now, which one of my co-workers at the theatre is supposed to help me with, but I may just suck it up and attempt to interpret the picture-directions on my own. I'm ready to start using the machine, and tired of waiting for other people's schedules. I am going to try to embellish a onesie on my own for the baby's birthday party, and I can't wait any longer.

I did find a new craft I would like to try. Mom and I went to one of those kids' consignment sales last weekend at the Ag Center in town--our version of a fairgrounds. I could go off on how strange it is that Metro Crazyville is a very rural place, at least for Maryland, and we have no county fair, but we have a fairground where they hold horse pulling and the 4-H fair, but that's another time. The sale itself was OK. We found some really pretty dresses for when she's 2 or so, and some clothes for daycare, since I have a constant running battle with them to get her things sent home (Mom says it's OK if they lose clothes that she buys her, since she enjoys buying things and she likes the idea of sending her to school in something pretty. I love it too, I just don't want her clothes jacked-up and lost. We don't bust our butts to pay for things to clothe the under-1 crowd in town).

But one of the vendors was selling sculpted hair bows.  This is not her work, but it's the same idea.
I realize I'm new to the kid-having set, but I've never seen anything like these before. I bought her three. Two with heart shapes, and one with a  set of cherries. The lady even fixed them for me so they'd grab Someone Small's hair--she did a thin line of hot glue along the alligator clip and let it dry. For the first time, my daughter wore a hair clip for more than 5 minutes. We told her she was pretty. She smiled.

But I got to thinking, they'd be pretty cool, embellishing a finish. I mean, from what I've seen, googling sculptured ribbon hair bow, you can pretty much make anything. How cute would this be in place of a bow on a ladybug-themed ornamant? Plus, lots of these sites have directions for making bows, and, really how different is hair flare from the bows we use to top no-sew cubes.  I know they're not everyone's cup of tea, but the talent out there is impressive.

What I did on my Spring Break

1. Got my sewing machine out of the box. It was a lot of box for not much sewing machine. But it's out of the box. I plugged it in and turned it on. And pressed on the pedal. It works like other sewing machines. Now to wind the bobbin. I'm doing this under the watchful eye of a seamstress to be sure it's done right. (The sad thing is, remember, I made a button-down shirt in college, with a pocket and a contrasting collar and cuffs that was a thing of beauty. And it was functional--I got an A in the class. This is not my first time at the rodeo. However, I look at that box, see that it has multiple quilting stitches available, and I want to run, screaming, from the room. Technology is wasted on me). But I know, once I figure it out, I'll be OK.  I already was telling myself I could make Babygirl an "I Spy" quilt. Or work on a couple artsy ideas I have in my little pea-brain.

2.  We went for Someone Small's 9 month pictures. She wasn't feeling her best at the start and had been sleepy all morning, but she perked up at the photo studio. Not at first--we had a minor meltdown in the middle of the first shots, but when I popped on the blue dress, she got happy:

Babygirl is 9 months old.


I do want to send a shout-out to the photo studio we went to. If you're in the Maryland suburbs, or know and love someone who needs some photos taken, they do a great job at the JC Penney's at Lakeforest Mall. We had the same photographer, Christina, who did her 6 month pictures, and Katie really responds well to her. And their prices are reasonable. These are pretty special times, and I like that they do such a great job.

And her dress is gorgeous, if I do say so myself. Crazyville has a Belk (I always laugh at the idea that they say they are Southern and you could pretty much jog to the Pennsylvania line, but there's a reason this is Crazyville). We saw these when she was 2 months old, and thought it would be nice to get one for her. The company is Petit Ami, and they do smocked dresses with hand-embroidery. Well, as a needleworker, I wanted something special for her, vintage-y, but not overly frou-frou. This company makes a nice baby dress. I don't know if the store carries their designs for older kids, but I'll be looking for more like this.

(And none of these places paid me, I'm just really pleased with how it turned out. Though, I won't lie here, if Petit Ami wants to hook us up with some clothes, we'll take them! Someone Small likes to look 'pret-ty')

I can't believe 9 months has gone so fast and that we've managed to survive it. When they handed her to me, when she was 20 hours old, after being in the NICU that first day, I was so scared I was going to really mess this up, since I'd never changed a diaper, never held anyone that new, never really had experience with little people, but she's been such a good baby.  And I am amazed every day at just how wonderful having this little person in my life is. She's a pretty cool kid!