A New Project

So for a while now I've been working on a new project that I've been reluctant to let out of the bag. I'm just so excited about it that I don't want to let fly into the unknown and then get rained on and me be sad. Well, I'm going to take the leap tonight.

I decided that I'm going to sew my own baby/little girl dresses and sell them. I decided this because I went to a children's boutique here a few weeks back and was shocked to see the prices on baby clothing that I knew I could make just as well for a whole lot less money. Ever since I committed myself to the idea it's pretty much taken hold of me. I take this as a good sign. I came up with a design that seems really cute to me and I love it. Now I'm stuck. For the past three nights I've been unable to sleep because I need to chose fabric and accents for the first dress. I have so many ideas and I just don't know what I want to do. Then it's a matter of matching my ideas to my available materials. I lay in bed just thinking about what is a good idea and what isn't and how I'm going to get things done. I have found that planning things takes much longer than actually doing them.

Another thing is in the past few days my eyes have been opened to the seemingly limitless possibilities of fabric that can be found at the click of a button. What to do, what to do. So now it's 11 pm, my husband went to bed a half hour ago, my baby went to bed 4 hours ago and she will get me up at 6 am whether I spend more time at this computer or not. I really should go to bed. Charlotte and I have a big day tomorrow at the Botanical Gardens. Plus, with this cough that she has now developed I know I wont sleep very well tonight. I should get to bed now so that I can jump start my sleeping. I can't though. I know if I go to bed I'll just lay there......thinking.

This really should be an easy decision. It's not like it's going to be the only dress I make. I should just go ahead and chose one and then move on to the next. It's just that I want to chose the best one. I want to fall in love with the one that I'm making and not think that I could do better.

Well, there it is. My new project. I am so excited!

Six Months

Happy Six Month Birthday! Oh she is so big!

Differences

Lately I have been discovering many differences between my husband and myself. Mostly I think these are funny and interesting. Here are a few:

I was measuring something to sew and I only wanted to round the measurements to the nearest 1/8 inch where the math came out 3/16. I told him I was rounding it and he said, "You can't build a house off 3/16 an inch." And I thought I was picky about being exact!

Last week, just after I had changed the sheets my husband asked, "How often do you change the sheets?" I just had to laugh when I told him, "We've been married for two years and you haven't noticed that I change the sheets once a week?" We both had a good laugh over that one.

The creative process is so much different between the two of us. My husband's process is completely inside of himself. He loves to create things, all on his own. I am the opposite where I love to have the creative process be collaborative. I know I have some ideas, but they get so much more defined and refined when I share them with others. Also, when others share their input I think it gets so much better.

My husband is so great at understanding this difference. He will always be my collaborator when I want one with my projects. Keep in mind that most of my projects include sewing. He is so awesome. Although he does tend to want gingham and plaid, for everything.

Just In Case

In case I ever fool myself into thinking I'm a tidy sewer:

Now I have to go clean that mess!

Last Night's Dinner

Last night we had pepper steak with a blackberry glaze. I broiled the steaks because we don't have a grill. This was my first attempt at broiling meat all by myself and I am so proud of myself because they turned out sooooo good. Plus, it was super easy. So now I know a good easy recipe that's impressive to serve people when they come over.

Yuck!

It really stinks when you and your baby both catch your husband's "allergies" at the same time. Luckily she's sleeping. I should be doing the same.

Jinxed

Well, I was sure I jinxed myself because the night after that last post she woke up five times! I don't want to jinx myself again so I wont tell you whether or not she slept the beautiful sleep of bliss last night. I wont tell you if I got a whole night's uninterrupted sleep and woke up well rested and happy this morning. I really don't want to jinx myself again.

Speaking of things that change when you have a baby I realized a few days ago something that I never thought would change. I actually run now! I was taking a two mile walk everyday, but the baby would always start to cry about 4 blocks from the end of the walk. So I adapted. Now I walk two blocks and run one for the whole two miles. It's great because she doesn't get mad about being there too long. Today I realized that walking two running one was getting pretty easy for me. I guess I'll have to switch things up a bit. I can't believe how much having a baby changes things!

In A Row

Now I don't want to jinx this, but I'm just so excited about it I have to say something. For the past two nights I have been able to go to bed at 10 and sleep uninterrupted until 6! Isn't that super exciting?! Charlotte has gone down to bed around 7:30 in the evening. She does wake up on and off before we go to bed at 10, but after that she stays asleep! For two nights in a row! Anyway, now that I've said something about it I'm sure she wont want to sleep at all tonight, but I'm excited at the progress she's making.

On another note, my husband is so funny! If any of you know him in real life you wont believe me about how silly he is, but he just is so silly! The other night he spent the whole evening talking and singing in a french accent. And by the way his french accent isn't really very good. He's just so funny! I just love being around him! I sort of love that he's only really silly inside his own home with his little family. It's like a secret awesomeness that Charlotte and I are let in on.

My New Favorite Photo

At least for today.

Isn't she awesome!

On another note, thanks for all the encouraging comments. I feel much better now. The freak out has passed.

Charlotte Sweb

I love my baby's name. It was my husband's idea to name her Charlotte, but when he suggested it I loved it so there you have it. I pretty much figured we were having a girl since we could agree on a girl name and would have had the fight of the century over the boys. Now I'm a little worried though. Every child that hears her name responds, "Like Charlotte's Web?" Now I know they're just excited to make the association and it doesn't bother me one bit. I'm just worried that eventually it might bother my baby. So what I'd like to hear from anyone that would like to tell me is something along the lines of, "It's OK, her name is awesome and she'll love it!" If you have any disparaging comments please keep them to yourself. Thank you for your support.

Pooped

My husband is so cute! He came home early from studying today because he said he just couldn't study any more. When I feel that way before a test I usually enjoy it and just give in and stop studying for good. I found that studying past my terminal capacity never really helped much anyway. Not so for my hubby! This is what he looks like right now:

And I'm sure he'll get up and review more before bed tonight!

Rainy Day Reds

Well today is day number two this week that I've spent the day completely in my apartment. The first time was becuase USPS took until 3PM to deliver something they told me I had to be present to get. Then they just threw the box onto our front porch without even knocking on our door. Maybe they knocked on the door to the people below us. Today it's been raining on and off all day. YUCK. Although with all the heat we've had I guess the rain is a good thing and I shouldn't complain.

On the plus side my baby learned two new "tricks" yesterday. She found out that she could pull herself up. Kind of awesome, kind of really scary. I don't know if I'm ready for a mobile little one especially since we haven't figured out what we're doing with the front steps to our place. The other trick is that when I'm holding her hands she figured out that not only can she raise and lower her feet individually, but she can move them forward to step. She would look at them as they went forward like it was so surprising that her feet were doing it. The success rate of this one is still very low, but it was something fun to show Dan when he got home yesterday.

Speaking of my husband his first test is tomorrow. He is working himself to the limit studying for it too. His drive to excell amazes me. I'm confident he'll do well on it, but you should all think good thoughts for him tomorrow.

Talents

All I can say is that it's a good thing my husband isn't vain at all. When we got married he suggested I buy clippers so I could cut his hair. I bought a set of clippers. I proceeded to be the sole person that cuts my husband's hair. I have absolutely no training, but I got a video tape with the set. (You can easily see where this is going I'm sure.) After watching the tape (which was produced in the 80's and had little to no value in teaching me to cut my husband's hair, that is unless he wants a flat top) I started in on his head. The first year of our marriage was a bad hair year for my husband. On the plus side we did find out that about a week and a half to two weeks later his hair looks just as good as if it were cut by a professional.

Now I would like to say that I think I'm pretty ok at cutting my husband's hair. I have developed my own system that I use every time. My idea is that with repetition I might just perfect the system. Here's how it goes:

1. Use the clippers on the bottom 2/3 of his head.
2. Get his whole head wet.
3. Realize that I still haven't shaved his neck and around his ears so towel dry is head.
4. Use the clippers on his neck.
5. Get his head wet again.
6. Get out the scissors.
7. Accidentally scrape the comb across the top of both ears while combing it out.
8. Cut a T to divide the top of his head into 4 quadrants. This I will use as a guide later so that it's all even.
9. Lose where the T was and make another one.
10. At this point I get sort of confused about the two different T's because of course one is shorter than the other. Since I can't make hair longer I use the shorter of the two T's.
11. Fill in the rest of the four quadrants so that the hair is longer on the top of his head than on the sides.
12. Proclaim the job finished.
13. Spend the rest of the night looking funny at him because I cut one side longer than the other.
14. Decide to do something about it the next night and cut the other side even with the first.
15. Spend the next two weeks finding spots that I didn't cut as short as others.
16. Call them "texture" when husband asks me about it.

All I can say is it's really good that my husband isn't vain. He honestly thinks I'm good at cutting hair! I think I'm better at cutting hair than I was and one day I might be good enough to get it right on the first try. By then though, he'll probably just go to the barber again. Sometimes I just have to laugh at myself!

Red Delicious

In case you didn't grow up in the apple state permit me to let you in on a little secret: Red Delicious apples are the worst kind of apple you could buy or snack on ever. If anyone tries to tell you that they love red delicious apples, they just haven't had any other kind before. Let me introduce you to the braeburn:





Or perhaps the gala:


Or really my favorite the pink lady:

I'm only showing you these three because they are my personal favorites, there are many, many different kinds of apples out there.







This little fact makes me think that there's got to be the same type of thing out there with all kinds of fruit that I don't know about. What about bananas I only know of two types, the regular yellow type and the plantain. Are there others? Would anyone recommend a different type than the classic yellow banana? What about oranges? Are navel oranges really the best type of orange? What I would really like to know about is grapes. After learning a tiny bit about viticulture I know there are about a bazillion types of grapes and the ones I usually buy in the grocery store don't really cut the mustard as far as fruit snacking is concerned. Any ideas on what the best type of grape is? How can I get my hands on them?