"The Pig Bald Grandpa Wouldn't Let me Buy"

Last summer we went to the Bargersville Flea Market while we were visiting my husband's family in Indiana.  They have lots of fun booths full of junk and treasures to comb through, but by far, our favorite booths are the ones selling animals.  They usually have chickens, rabbits, and kittens, but this particular time someone was selling piglets!  Jesse and I were equally smitten. 

Sweet little piglets!

Jesse asked if he could buy a piglet and Gigi told him to ask Bald Grandpa.  Bald Grandpa was a few booths behind us, so Jesse ran full-speed to ask for the money to buy his new pet.

"Bald Grandpa, can I have fifty bucks?" asked Jesse.

Bald Grandpa reached into his wallet and gave Jesse the money then asked, "What are you going to buy?"

"A BABY PIG!!!!" he called out over his shoulder as he ran off, money in hand, back towards the pigs.

We all got a good laugh, but Jesse was a bit disappointed when he found out he really couldn't buy his piglet.  We did get to pet one for a while, though and that made Jesse happy.  He never mentioned the pig again, until one day, months later, he drew a picture of Bald Grandpa with the piglet he had wanted so badly.  I loved it so much, and I knew the Grandparents would love it too, so I turned his drawing into an embroidery project, framed it, and gave it to Bald Grandpa for Christmas.

(Please forgive the quality of this photo. My computer wouldn't let me adjust it.)

 And I wrote this on the back (in Jesse's own words), so we can all remember the pet that almost was....

Charlotte's a MOMMY!

It was my freshman year of college....

12 hours away from home, in a basement dorm room, with 3 other girls I didn't know, placed together by the college.  It was one of the craziest years of my life.  And the strangest part of it all, was Charlotte.  Charlotte was one of my 3 roommates, and she was definitely peculiar.  Oh, the stories I could tell!  OK...I'll just tell a couple...

We went to a very conservative Christian college, and here is this girl, who would run to the shower naked, using her towel as a cape, shouting, "SUPER CHARLOTTE!"  She used to prank call this poor boy, Bob, every time she got a cold because she sounded like a crazy old man, but she called it her "sexy voice."  And she had this stuffed Ernie (you know...like Bert and Ernie) doll that would suspiciously start singing at 3:00 am.  (((Needless to say, Ernie had some surgery to remove his batteries pretty early in the semester!)))  HAHAHA!  I can laugh about it now, but really, we could barely stand each other then.

I don't know how it happened, but after we left school, we became pretty close, talking on the phone a couple times a month.  She was a single, wild-child radio DJ, professing her undying love for every musician she met (HA!), while I was busy getting married, becoming a nurse, and having kids.  But, despite our differences, and her crazy radio DJ lifestyle, big moves to California, Arkansas, then Florida, we have kept in touch.  And this girl who used to drive me crazy, became one of my dearest friends!

Then, in just two short years, Charlotte lost her job, moved back home, broke up with her boyfriend, reconnected with her high school sweetheart, went back to school, got married, bought a house, and got pregnant.  (I told you...she's crazy!  HA!)  She didn't want to know the sex of the baby, so she called the baby "Wilbur" from Charlotte's Web, and decorated the nursery with pages from the book, and black white, and baby blue.  And in late July, Charlotte and her husband, Justin, welcomed Andrew into their family.

So, I knew that I needed to make Andrew (a.k.a. Wilbur) some piggy love for his nursery.  I scoured the web for a cute piggy picture that I could embroider, and found the cutest little piglet drawn by illustrator,  Aaron Zenz.  (Check out his newest book - Chuckling Duckling.  It's so cute!)

Welcome to the world, Andrew!!!!

(((P.S.  Thanks to Aaron Zenz for allowing me to borrow his sketch to make this gift for my sweet friend!)))

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

On April 3rd, my Mom, Mother-in-law, and best girl friend, Lizzy, threw Micah and me the most beautiful baby shower.  The theme was a jungle tea party (jungle for Micah, and tea for Mommy!), and it was simply lovely!  My Mom made the fruit salad, gathered and wrapped a number of fun prizes for the games, and made the gift bags filled with a homemade goodies - tea holder, Baby Micah Blueberry Lemon Marmalade, and a photo album for each guest.  My Mother-in-law hauled all of her beautiful tea wares from Indiana to South Carolina, and made a huge assortment of baked goods, sandwiches, cheese balls, and tea.  Lizzy put together and orchestrated the games, and hosted the party in her lovely home.  And the whole party was a perfect!  I'm only sorry I didn't get more pictures of the event.

The lovely tea settings

Gifts for the guests

Tiny baby hats

Little lion bath towels

I wanted to do something special for these three awesome ladies - for making my shower so special and making me feel so loved.  Little did we know that I would go into labor just 22 days later, with two months of bed rest to follow...  So, buying presents was out of the question, and crafting was limited due to amount of time I was allowed (or not allowed and took anyway....ahem....) out of bed.  I did a lot of embroidery during my time on bed rest, including these three pieces:

  

For Lizzy, I embroidered this little bird in grayscale from a picture of an embroidered bird I found online and matted it in an embroidery frame, using fabric and rickrack, inspired by this little guy.  

My Mom just redid her bedroom in browns and yellows, with touches of cranberry, so I whipped up this little cutie from this pattern for her, and framed it in a frame that looks like old barn wood.

And for my Mother-in-law, I made a little brown and gold bird from the first pattern, edged in yellow rose reproduction fabric, and framed in the same old barn wood frame.

So, ladies, thank you, thank you, thank you, for making Micah's shower such a special day (a couple of months late)!!!

Baby Project #4 - Vivian

Vivian is the beautiful baby girl of a friend, Natalie, who lives down the street.  Up until she was 36 weeks pregnant, Natalie was told that her baby was going to be a boy.  So, like all good parents, Natalie and her husband Aaron, painted the baby's room blue, and had a host of little boy things to welcome their son into the world.  Needless to say, Natalie and Aaron were shocked when the ultrasound tech told them their baby was going to be a girl, and they scrambled to get their home ready for a daughter!  They changed the nursery to pink and brown, and brought their baby girl home to a grande girly welcome!

My choice for Vivian's embroidery was easy!  It needed brown and pink, and when I found this embroidery pattern, I knew I had to stitch it up for her.

I trimmed the embroidery with some  of my reproduction 1930's fabric I received for Christmas from my Mom and Dad (by the way, it is THE BEST Christmas present ever!!!), and placed it in a frame, so that Vivian can always remember that she's surrounded with love!

Baby Project #3 - Josiah

When my sister and brother-in-law had difficulty having a baby, and desperately wanted to be parents, they searched their hearts, and God's will, and started the process of fostering to adopt.  Their journey to parenthood is chronicled here, and it is amazing - please check it out!  So, to make a long story short, Josiah entered our family a little over a year ago.  He is still in foster care, and we don't know if he will be a permanent member of our family, but we love that little piglet!  And, so he didn't feel left out when his younger sister got something from his Aunt Amy, I made him a little embroidery, too.  It's not as elaborate as Molly's, but I have plans to make him a wall hanging like hers if/when my sister adopts him, complete with "gotcha day" date and adoption date.  Until then, this little giraffe will have to do (found here)!

Baby Project #2 - Molly

I started a wall hanging for baby Molly a couple of weeks before she was born (almost a year ago now!).  Molly is my sister Megan's miracle baby.  Megan, and my brother-in-law, Justin, had a very difficult time having children, and had 4 miscarriages before God blessed them with Molly.  They have an incredible story about becoming parents, both through foster care and birth, and the lessons God taught them along the way.  You can read about their story and see pictures of my gorgeous niece (and nephew - more on his project later) on Megan's blog.

I wanted to give Molly something super special to welcome her into the world, and record the important facts about her birth.  The teal linen circles are hand appliqued on a piece of vintage linen, and then embroidered.  (Side note: if I ever do this again, I will embroider the circles before appliqueing them.  It was very difficult to embroider through two layers of fabric.)  The little designs are adapted from a book I found at a thrift store on Victorian Stencils.  I layered the vintage linen with cotton batting and another piece of linen, machine quilted around the circles, then applied the vintage bias tape binding I inherited from my Grandmother's stash, using this great tutorial from Oh Fransson.

I can't wait to make one of these for each of my boys!  I'm waiting for Jesse's adoption to be finalized before I finish his, and Micah's will have to wait until he graces us with his presence.  Oh, and by the way, I'm officially 2 months away from my due date today!  I'm so excited to make it this far with this pregnancy, but I'm praying for just a couple more weeks of "baking time."

Baby Project #1 - Grady

I cannot believe that it is already Thursday!  Where has the week gone?  You'd think the days would go by slowly while being on bedrest,  but I really have been busy crafting.  (Promise!!)

Since I became pregnant, I have been so tired.  It was all I could do to get up, go to work, pick up and take care of Jesse, make dinner, and climb into bed.  Weekends were reserved for playing with Jesse, and catching up on housework and naps!  (Hooray for naps!)  Since then, we've had a bunch of babies enter our little corner of the world.  I'm sorry to admit that since basic surviving took the place of baby crafting, baby presents are now sadly overdue.  Well, now I've had a bunch of time to catch up, and here is the first project, made especially for baby Grady.

I embroidered this sweet little elephant from a pattern I found and tweaked a bit from this blog, and free-hand embroidered his name.  And since Grady's nursery is all blue, green, and brown, I added a blue and green patchwork from some scraps of fabric I had left over from other projects.  Baby project #1 - done and done.   

Busy, busy, busy...

I have been so busy being crafty the last couple of days, and I haven't had a minute to blog.  I've been sewing in very small intervals and felting, but mostly, I've been embroidering.  Embroidery allows me to stay in a reclined position while I create - the perfect bedrest craft!  :o)  Over the next week, I'll be posting a project every day.  So, make sure you check back to see my progress.  Maybe this bedrest thing isn't so bad afterall!