Two Things:

I have two things to share with you. I'm putting them both in one blog post in case I don't see you for a while. I feel I will have a baby very, very soon. At least, I'd better, because the pressure on my pelvis is much worse than it was before, so for my own comfort and sanity, she needs to come soon. Anyway, the two things are:

1.) Yesterday I picked and ate the season's first strawberry. Mmmmmm.... There's nothing quite like a sun-ripened strawberry right off the... strawberry plant. It was very tiny, but amazingly tasty.

The weird thing is, I didn't plant strawberries. I didn't plant anything outside this season. I'm pretty sure that plant has just been there all winter since last year and decided to do some more growing and give me some strawberries. Cool.


2.) I made this stuffed guitar for a friend's baby shower. She had mentioned that she hopes her daughter plays the guitar/is a musician, so I thought I'd get her started on the right foot.

It turned out pretty much exactly as I imagined it in my head (and believe me, that doesn't always happen).

I love it. I really wanted to keep it. But they need it more than I do.

Taggies!

The Nesting Instinct is strong in this one...

The other night found me browsing Etsy for a wet bag for my diaper bag. (A wet bag being a bag with a waterproof lining for keeping used but unwashed cloth diapers, pads, etc.) Well, there are some very nice ones on Etsy, but the cute ones with zippers were a little pricey for me, especially when I realized I have:
1.) waterproof fabric
2.) cute fabric
3.) a zipper (OK, so I have several hundred zippers...)
And I've gotten to where I can sew a simple zipper pouch in my sleep. This epiphany came at about 11pm. So of course I thought, "No time like the present! It won't take that long to make anyway." And it didn't. I mean, I was in bed by midnight. But still. Yikes.

Here it is. The lining is old-lady-poncho plastic from the thrift store. We'll see how well it holds up.

Oh, and I also went all fancy and sealed the edges with an iron. Cool.

Diaper Bag!

So if there's one thing every parent needs, it's a diaper bag, right? A giant bag with multiple pockets for transporting all the gabillion things that a baby/toddler needs to survive in public. And though it's possible to survive using a plain tote bag, or a plastic WalMart sack, or (as my brother does) by just carrying an extra diaper around with you and telling parenting conventions to screw themselves (not that I have a problem with that), I thought I'd probably want a diaper bag.

So I looked at Target (where we registered) and saw nothing even remotely appealing. Then I tried searching Etsy, but the search was so overwhelming (not to mention full of things that weren't diaper bags) that I gave up. Then I said to myself, "Heck, I can sew. I sew all the time! Bags, even!"

So I decided to sew my own diaper bag out of an old pair of corduroy pants. Reasons:
1.) Pants already have some pockets in them.
2.) Pants are sturdy.
3.) Part of it would already be sewn for me.
4.) I LOVE corduroy.

So I went to the Sally Ann's and found a suitable pair of pants. (And I've just noticed that every single one of my paragraphs so far has started with the word "so". Hm.) And over the last two (three?) weeks I've been slowly working on it in fits and spurts. But now it's done! Hooray! Here are more photos:





See, it's secretly girly on the inside. So hopefully Norman won't feel too weird carrying it around. Even though it looks more like a purse than a diaper bag. Oh well.

Mmmm...

Is there anything prettier than a big stack of fresh, fluffy, never-been-soiled cloth diapers?


OK, there are probably plenty of things prettier, but they are really nice.

Reasons I'm cloth diapering (from someone who has yet to actually change a diaper of any kind in her life):

1.) "diapers" will not end up on my weekly shopping list

2.) I like reusing things
-- Cloth diapers make great dust cloths, etc. when you don't need diapers anymore (not that I ever dust... Hey, that's what kids old enough to not wear diapers are for!)

3.) They're so comfy. I mean, I'd rather have soft, soft cotton on my bum than plastic. Oh yeah, that's why I wear underwear instead of Depends!
-- Possible TMI alert!
Some months before becoming pregnant with Lucy, I switched from 10 years of using disposable menstrual pads to using cloth ones that I made myself. I'll never go back. They're much more comfortable, cost effective, conscience-mollifying, and nowhere near as disgusting as they sound. I would encourage all you young ladies out there to try them.

4.) Babies who wear cloth diapers have cute, chubby bottoms.


Oh yeah, and there are all these reasons, too.

Handmade Baby Gifts Roundup

This last weekend I had my second (!!!) (and last, I assure you) baby shower. In addition to some necessities that I registered for, some necessities I didn't register for, and some fun stuff, I received quite a few handmade items. So of course I felt the need to share them with you. Here we go -- the best of the best! (Or the ones I could get decent photos of...)

First up, this lovely crocheted blanket from my good friend and former roommate, who, believe it or not, drove in from MEMPHIS for my shower. Wow.



Next, way cute burp cloths with Lucy's name(s) embroidered on them! I especially like the one with her initials.




A dear lady in my church asked me what my nursery colors are. Well, we don't have a nursery, and we don't have colors, but she really needed something to craft off of (I understand!). So I pulled two colors out of mid air -- purple and yellow. She totally came through! That's (L to R) a travel wipes case pouch, a burp cloth, a bib, and a onesie. Cuteness!



A fellow new "crunchy" mom made me some cloth wipes (in addition to starting off my cloth diaper stash and giving me a Snappi). (By the way, that's that she has recently had her first child, and she is crunchy, not that she is newly crunchy.)



A girl from church (how old are you, Rachel? 15?) crocheted both of the following. The blanket is made out of four GIANT granny squares (awesome). And the snail! Love it! (Unfortunately, I think I'll be replacing the button eyes with black embroidery thread. I love the eyes, but I want Lucy to be able to play with it.)




And last but not least, the mother of my friend (who I would also consider a friend and a mentor) made this gorgeous blanket. The colors are so lovely, and she knows me well enough to have added random smatterings of lace and trim and rickrack all over the quilt. I love random trim smatterings! I have drawers full!



I also received this, this, and this -- handmade by Etsy sellers and purchased by my dear friends.

I am so blessed! Y'all, this is only the handmade stuff! Perhaps a mere third or fourth of everything I received that day. Amazing. Thanks, everyone!