Valerie's Baby Shower

But first...this is for Penny and Michael. :D


So, anyway, my side of the family is going to be a little more girly in a couple months because my sister is having an as-yet-unnamed girl in April! One of her friends gave her a shower last weekend.


I had to teach aikido on Saturday so I ended class a touch early so I would be able to get my uniform folded (seriously, it takes longer than one might think) and I could get out of there. I was 20 minutes late anyway. Why? My mom got lost. After two tries of calling her and trying to get her to pull over so I could retrieve her (one time she was all, "I saw some cars turning right and followed them." Wait, what? How do you even know where those cars are going?), I found her and we made to the party. Funny enough, my mom did the exact same thing before one of my showers! Mike's mom had go get her that time. Anyway, technically my mom is already a grandma and I'm already an aunt but we wore these buttons:


It was a very shower-y shower complete with presents,


juice,


and friends. Here's my mom with Mrs. Janis who was our youth pastor in high school. In the background is the super cute diaper cake that Liz's sister made for Valerie.


Autumn and Liz got some quality time...Autumn was showing Liz her booboos and her pretty nails, haha.


The ladies of my family. Even the unborn one. :)


And, now. For my pièce de résistance...Valerie's party shoes:

:D

Of course, I had to make Valerie a few things. Since they aren't choosing a name until after the baby is born, I decided to hold off on any labels or bag tags although Christy and I do have something special planned. :D I gave her some regular gifts but I also included some baby leg warmers. I don't remember how I found the original baby legs but they are so, so awesome. It was great to be able to just throw a onesie and these legwarmers on Autumn. Or to use them instead of pantyhose or as an extra layer, depending on the season. Made for easy diaper changes, for sure. And even better? Autumn can still wear all of her leg warmers, both store bought and mama-made.


I also made her a diaper clutch with this rock star fabric I bought as soon as I found out Valerie was having a baby. I've found that the diaper clutch is nicest for holding diapers, wipes, and the changing pad and I can just put the clutch into whatever big bag I am carrying. So when I need to do a change when we're out, I can leave my big bag with Mike and just carry the clutch. Of course, now that Autumn is potty trained, I use mine to carry a "just in case" pullup and wipes case that I can carry or put in her backpack or into whatever bag I'm carrying. Eventually I'm guessing it'll become just a bag that either I carry or Autumn carries--which is one of the reasons I chose this pattern. It's so versatile.


I've got one order for a houndstooth diaper clutch. :D If anyone's interested in a clutch (which comes with a changing pad and optional matching wipes case), let me know. I'm not selling them on my site yet but if you'd like one for yourself or for a gift, I'd be willing to do a special order for not much more than cost of materials since I am still practicing and I can't guarantee you'll get it in 2 days. This one was my best yet...I solved a couple of problems I've had making past ones (Michelle, I wish I could do yours over!) so I'm guessing it'll only get better from here!


So, that's all! If anyone wants to see all the photos from the shower, click here!

Spotlight time :)

A few of you have already heard or seen this, but in the family section of the newspaper, I'm this week's Spotlight on Mom.


Commercial Appeal
Longer version on midsouthmoms.com

There was also a 5 minute radio interview this morning. I think it went pretty well. I got some feedback from several people that said it was fine. I actually don't remember anything except that I forgot to say the name of our dojo (memphis judo and jiu jitsu) and that I didn't "um" much. Their questions were also kind of random. But I survived! If you actually make it through the longer version on midsouthmoms, you might find out some amusing things like my mom's worst advice and how I got into martial arts to begin with.

Thanksgiving Highlights

I'm a little strapped for time (you can see it's midnight, haha) so I'm going to keep this a little short. Thanksgiving will probably come in two posts! I should have done this earlier but it's just been craziness. I'm trying to get a couple Christmas things in the shop before the weekend...here's one thing (more coming tomorrow). I wasn't going to put any of this here but I took a picture I like!


Actually, from now on, most of my etsy updates are going to be on my new blog, sewandscribble.com. It's still under construction but it is functional and I'll probably update about once a week. I'd love it if you'd add me to your reader! If you have a craft blog or business, let me know and maybe we can network a little. Also, if you look in the sidebar of this blog, you can see a widget I've added that will update automatically.

Anyway, to Autumn! And Thanksgiving! This holiday was disconcerting to me because it really highlighted that Autumn is, in fact, a Big Girl. She sat at the Big Girl Table with her second cousins (cousins once removed? how does all that work??) Avery and Gia:


She helped Aunt Lindsay make a dessert.


Totally loved on and played with her cousin Tyler with no prompting.


And absolutely made friends with another second cousin (we're going with that for ease) Brooke.


Autumn romped around and snuggled with all the little ladies with almost no shyness. Occasionally, she even went to a totally different part of the yard than mama and papa!


This picture is out of order but goes with the making friends theme...but Autumn even made friends with some ::gasp:: male relatives! Hahahaha. She's normally a little afraid of tall people, especially if they are guys, so this moment was somewhat epic.


That's it for tonight! More to come, I am sure.

This is it!

My new shop is live!! Take a peek, if you would!




I've got a couple more sets to list and next week I'm going to release some family/calling cards which will be added into some of the sets. Also, we're working on new artwork, like letters! It'll likely be after the New Year before anything sewn shows up in the shop. It took a lot longer than I would have liked to edit the art and actually build the shop.

Definitely let me know what you think!

Also, if I don't get on here before Thanksgiving, I hope you all have a great holiday!

Here are a few things I am thankful for:

Dances


Naps


Friends


Knowing how to fall


Kisses


Giggles


And, really, a whole lot more! :) It's a good life. And I am thankful to you for being a part of it!