Adjusting my mindset a bit

My dad the-boy-at-heart, is a second child. My sister Em had a girl first, and then her second was a boy. Merritt had a boy first, and their second was also a boy. Eirene, as most of you know, just had her second child, baby boy Ike. Cory's wife Katie is pregnant with their second, a boy due in February. Allan's younger brother is the second in his family. His dad's family had a boy second as well. Due you see a pattern? As Allan pointed out to me before we found out, the second child in our families were 100% of the time boys.

And we are no exception.

I've gotta say, I'm O-2 now. I was convinced Josie was a boy, and well, she wasn't. And then with this one, I THOUGHT it was a girl ( I NEVER claimed to have any sort of real feeling guiding me) and again, I was exactly wrong.

But of course I'm thrilled! I'll just have to adjust my mindset a bit. And Allan couldn't be prouder of course. When I told my dad the news he said, "tell Allan he's the Man." And I did, but I'm pretty sure I didn't have to. He's walking with a little bounce in his step today.

So that's it. IT'S A BOY!

And PS to all those who wondered whether or not I'm showing?.........Yeah. I am. This is my best attempt at a profile shot.

AHHHH!!! It is FINALLY Christmas!!!

I've had a skip in my step ever since we put up our tree. I don't know what it is. Actually, I know EXACTLY what it is. It's the smell of the pine, and my clean house, and the way my ornaments actually dangle from the bows, instead of just resting on the branch. It's my little birdy ornaments, and the bright colored wool balls, and my Christmas tree skirt, and the MAGIC of the lights...

Allan says he doesn't understand my fetish/obsession/utter delight with Christmas Trees, (especially our tree this year) but you know what? He digs it. It's mysterious to him, and I think he likes it when I bring a pillow and blanket out and just lie next to it like a seven-year-old. I think he thinks it's really weird and a little bit cute.

Here's the Christmas tree skirt I just made. I sort of made it up as I went, and used what fabric I already had. Aren't the pom poms cheery?




Ok, and here's my new ornaments. I saw some similar ones at Ikea, and I just recreated these from some craft wood at Jo-Anns. They were really a pain in the elbow to make, but I love how they turned out. I made some in green too, but I forgot to take a picture. You get the idea.



I tried to use a method of wet felting on these ornaments, but it really just didn't work like I thought. I ended up giving them all a glue bath. I think the effect is the same in the end--I love the vibrant colors! I made them in this turquoise, periwinkel, red, orange, purple and yellow. And also I made this wallet cause I wanted to. Isn't that selfish of me to make something for myself during Christmas season? Yeah, I thought so too. I had to though. This fabric forced my hand. I found it at an estate sale, and well, you know...I really had no choice. I found the tutorial here, but I added a coin purse instead of the middle section of card holders. A significant improvement, I think.

And, funny story, I went up to my mom and dad's for Thanksgiving, and forgot to bring Sundy clothes. What I did remember to bring was stuff to make a dress. I had seen this picture in a book at the library (I wish I could show you), of this SUPER cute maternity dress on some really cute short-haired woman from the 1960's. And then I found the perfect pale pink linen-y fabric at DI for $4 bucks, and decided to bring the stuff up there just in case there was a boring moment. There was NOT a boring moment, but nevertheless I say unto you that I was FORCED to make it before Sundy, which was incredibly challenging considering there were 7 kids ages 4 and under running around. I definitely had something in mind when I started, but it kind of evolved as I went along. That's a good thing, because at one point it really looked like a 5-year old's birthday party dress in 1984. I didn't get to the sleeves done yet because a) it was ridiculously late, and 2) I can't decide what kind of sleeves really fit this dress. Any ideas? Puff? Puffed capped? Just capped?
Ok, I all the sudden got really tired. Good night, ya'll. I think I'll curl up by my Christmas tree.