Better late than never, right?

One of my friends and my cousin-in-law both just had babies recently. I had good intentions of making them adorable gifts and getting them in the mail quickly, but it just didn't happen. I did make them gifts, but they did not turn out quite as adorable as what was in my mind. And I did get them in the mail, just not exactly in a timely manner. Running behind? Seems to pretty much be the theme of my life these days!

Rick's cousin and his wife welcomed their second baby boy at the end of July. We've only seen pictures of sweet Austin, and can't wait to finally meet him in person! I decided to make him a few burp cloths since, you know, me and burp cloths are pretty tight. I made Harrison some before he was born without a clue how much use they would get. I sure hope Austin's parents won't need them nearly as much as we did!

I also made him this cute onesie that reads "Baby Boy." It reminds me of the opening credits of the Simpsons where they scan Maggie at the grocery store. I remember trying to pause it at exactly the right milisecond to see how much she rings up for but never could figure it out. Mind you, this was when I was a child and actually found the Simpsons amusing. Fast forward to today and not so much. But I'm married to an 8th grader trapped in the body of a 33 year old who very much still likes the Simpsons (and Family Guy, and Futurama, and King of the Hill, and American Dad, you get the idea) and just a few weeks ago I saw that they updated the show's intro and Maggie now rings up for $847.63! After a little bit of internet research I learned this is the figure for the average cost to raise a baby for a month in 1989. {I know this is a huge digression, but once I start I can't stop...}

Anyway, here is a picture of the onesie. At least I was lucky and had bought the 6-9 month size. I think I was subconsciously anticipating my tardiness.

My friend Ann welcomed her beautiful baby Olivia back at the end of August. I sort of have an excuse for my turtle pace in getting her gifts to her though, because Miss Olivia arrived 5 weeks earlier than expected. In fact, Ann and I were supposed to have lunch that week and had been emailing back and forth wrapping up the scheduling details, and then next thing I know I got an email not confirming our plans but instead announcing her surprise arrival! 

I was very excited to make something girly for a change. I decided once again on some burpies and also thought I'd try making my first set of bibs. I love, love, love the minky dot fabric but it is not very sewing-friendly. It stretches A.LOT. Combine slippery fabric and my beyond novice skills, and the end product was not so pretty. I almost didn't send them, I was that embarrassed of my work. 

When I say novice skills, I'm not exaggerating. It had been so long since I had used my sewing machine that I actually had to break out the instructional dvd and re-learn some of the steps (like how to even thread the dang thing). And then (and I can't believe I'm even about to admit this) I ran out of bobbin right when I was wrapping up the project. This frustrated me because it meant that I had to wait to finish up until I could get to the fabric store and buy more bobbin. I didn't feel like going all the way to JoAnn's, so I tried CVS. No luck. Walmart was right up the street, so I reluctantly headed there. After all, I needed some more bobbin! After fighting the crowds and finally finding what I needed, Harrison and I returned home. I sat down at the sewing machine and after getting the stupid bobbin case stuck in the machine I realized that I bought the wrong size. It was when I was 10 minutes into trying to dig the lodged case out that it finally dawned on me. I had just wasted an hour going to 2 different stores just to buy the wrong size bobbin when I never needed to leave in the first place because, DUH! You just re-thread the empty bobbin case. To say that I had a complete blonde moment is quite an understatement. Can we say FLAKE?

Anyway, after all of the drama, here are the end results. Just squint your eyes and pretend the seams are straight:

And now I need to get busy working on a few projects I have in mind for Harrison's big birthday right around the corner. I'm going to try my best not to stain the fabric with my tears...