Sewing Buddy

As I'm taking a break from sewing this afternoon I remembered that I wanted to share these pictures of my good friend, Monica. She is a midwife that I've known for a long time. We have become better friends these last couple years, but especially in the last year as we've taken a series of sewing classes together. It's been fun to share our sewing progress together and watch each other gain confidence with our sewing skills.

Monica left this last week for her hometown of Los Angeles. She will be working at a birth center there and I'm so happy for her opportunity to move near her family. I'm going to miss her a lot, but I'm looking forward to visiting her (and the SUN) in the near future!

Baby Quilt

This picture was taken almost two months ago, so both of these mama's have bigger bellies now!

Drea is carrying Ryker, due in about a month.

Can't wait to meet him!

Now that I've given her Ryker's gifts I can share what I made him.

I just fell in love with these soft flannel's when I saw them.

I was looking for a baby print that wasn't typical and these met that criteria.

I loved the colors and they seemed a more contemporary baby fabric.

I have some fabric left over and I am working on a couple of smaller baby blankets right now.

I almost always love my job. Not today.

I was going to put that as my status update on facebook this morning. I was feeling overly tired and a little bit angry. For the second time in the last three weeks I spent the night with a "laboring" mama, who wasn't really in labor. 

I'm not sure why I was feeling angry, other than the fact I was too tired and wondered how I missed that she wasn't really laboring. I guess it didn't help that after a few hours of sleep I was woken up by the school calling because my daughter didn't make it to school this morning, despite my stern emphasis on telling her as I left for the birth last night that she needed to get herself up for school in the morning.

I was pretty angry at her when I had to get her out of bed and take her to school.

I usually love my job. Really I do.

But when I endure all the less than desirable aspects of my job....and there wasn't even a birth and adorable baby at the end of it, those less desirable aspects become pretty annoying. I knew that I would be tired all day. I knew that it would be difficult to eat well, as I crave bad food when I'm overly tired. I knew that I essentially I would lose an entire day to tiredness and lack of motivation.

Not to mention I worried "what if she really goes into labor tonight and I miss another night of sleep?" Because you see, I'm still on call.

For me, losing sleep and being on call are the most difficult things, and no matter how long I do this those things do not get easier.

On the plus side one of my clients didn't get my message that I wanted to cancel appointments today so I got to play with these cute guys!

I got to be at Savannah's ultrasound and see my little grandchild. She is halfway through her pregnancy, and unlike my client's pregnancies, hers seems to be taking for.ev.er! Seeing the baby was amazing, thinking about this beautiful child growing within my own beautiful child. They decided to not find out the sex of the baby which makes it even more exciting....like waiting for Christmas!

Just some random (Mostly Unflattering) pictures of my family before the wedding

Wedding Day

Savannah originally wanted to just go downtown to the courthouse and get married. 

I talked her out of that. 

Then she wanted to have just immediate family and have a dinner. 

I talked her out of that. 

Then we decided to include a little more family

and I put on a small wedding.

Here's the thing....

I think it takes just as much work

(but maybe a little less money)

to put on a small wedding as it does to put on a large wedding.

Same details.

Same stress.

So the day of the wedding I repeatedly asked myself

"Whose Idea WAS This?"

Then I saw this:

How could I deny those sweet happy faces

a beautiful wedding day.

And it was BEAUTIFUL!

the weather

the bride

the ceremony

the decorations

I'm so happy it's done!

Savannah's Bridal Shower

"I wonder if anyone will notice if I eat all this candy"

The Bride to Be

A fun activity:

Each group had a roll of toilet paper and crepe paper

and they had to design a wedding dress on a model

 

The Model Brides

Savannah with the brides

Opening presents

Kelly's Quilt

Estrella

Savannah, Estrella and Tracy

Melissa and Jesica

Miki, Carol, Amanda and Lori

Maddy

Lori and Miki

Aila and Jennifer

Laying the squares out and planning the pattern

Snipping the seams

Finished!

My dear friend Kelly has been diagnosed with a serious illness. I hate the feeling when someone you love is far away and there is nothing you can do to help them. I decided to gather some of her Portland friends together to put together a quilt for her. Friends decorated quilt squares and I put them together in this rag quilt. It felt really fulfilling to work on this project and think about our love being combined and sent to Kelly in this way. And it was beautiful to see how each square was different and amazing!

My daughter is having a baby!

And Grandma Kelli is the midwife!