I HAVE A CARD READER!

Because UPS is full of brilliance lately, I had to buy one from Target for more money than I should have paid but I was dying here, okay?

So now that we've moved past this unfortunate incident, let's talk important stuff.

My pudding pop is one year old, yo!!

It was a dark and stormy birthday. Yes, yes, I'm working on the new camera thing, I promise. Anyhoodle, isn't dis behbeh da cutest behbeh you ever did see? And he's not such a baby anymore either. Booooooooo to growing up, yo!

But he does look rather cute in his little hat, does he not? It was my Sew Simple for the week along with the embellishment I did on the long sleeved onesie and corduroy pants he wore to church that morning. I'll supply pictures of that later.

And here's a very blurry pic of him side eyeing his cake. But boy tells lies. You see what he did to that beast, yes? 

His cake turned out awesome, if I do say so myself. It was a chocolate buttermilk cake with banana icing because what's a monkey cake without bananas, amiright? 

Look how big my boy is getting??

He can sit up all by his lonesome now and he crawls.

::sob::

Where does the time go?

When will he get a job?

Snug as a bug

Watching Jimmy Neutron as you do.

My poor pudding. He's already a tv casualty.

Fiddles!

My kids ought to be grateful I love them. Even though it was hot as bacon grease and I was feeling equally salty after dragging dirty clothes back and forth to the laundry, I dragged my behind down to the local library as promised and willingly sat among squealing small children for some story time brought to us by Fiddlin' Dan, the Mountain Man. As an aside,And for some reason, everytime I read the phrase Fiddlin' Dan my mind says, "Lieutenant Dan, I got yer ice creaaaaaam!"

I'm not going to lie and tell you it was the most entertaining experience of my life, particularly given that I saw Daniel Tosh perform live just a few months ago, but for the setting, it was actually pretty cool. Fiddlin' Dan is really great with kids. He even took note of what a handsome, strapping little man my favorite bowl of pudding is. Yes, I can be won over with flattery. Ain't no shame in that.

And my, wasn't he handsome and strapping in his little striped onesie? He was also rather enthralled with Fiddlin' Dan's talent for playing the spoons as evidenced by his rapt attention.

Of course pinky wanted in on the baby holding action and on the rapt attention action. It seems the girl behind pinky was less than thrilled with Fiddlin' Dan but the reality is poor girl was too busy giving a hearty dose of the side eye to the three hot mess little boys she hissed at for the majority of the time we were there.

And here's another shot of my youngest because my mama reads my blog and grandmas can never get enough pictures of their grandbabies.

This is his "did-someone-say-food" face.

And since I mentioned the successful, rain free laundry mission, now I can show you my latest completed sewing project, the Happy Animals t-shirt and the Bubble Stripe shorts both patterns from the Summer 2011 issue of Ottobre Design.

I really love how this turned out. I used interlock jersey from Joann's for both pieces. The top is a hunter green solid with lime green top stitching while the shorts are a split pea soup and green bean stripe. The embroidery is a design from this book which just might be my favorite embroidery book evah! ( And pick a chick, she's got another one! I'll just be adding that to my card now.)

And isn't this just the sweetest little lederhosen wearing kid in the world?

Next time, I'm gonna use a lighter brown color for the little dude's hair and eyelashes. Lord knows I don't want it looking like I dressed my kid in blackface. I think pudding might faint dead away from embarrassment.

How's that for pictures, grandma?

Let's talk about what I did right today

See, what you do is ya hold dis
thing in your hand like so . . .

So the pudding is hitting the glorious stage of discovered movement. He can not only grasp things but he can wave them around with abject glee. What he can't do is move his face even though he knows that thing is coming for his little cheeks like a freight train. So basically, he just waves his little retinue of plastic rabbit links and winces when they get too close for comfort.

And shake it like a polaroid picture

This is much cuter than it sounds, I swear.

What is also cute is the way he frantically kicks his legs in a way that makes you think he's about to fall out of the damned thing and then when you look over to see if this if he's going to go all Humpty Dumpty on your ass, he pauses, mid pudgy leg waving and smiles like he's just seen the sun.

I'm savoring these moments for when it's time to do second grade homework and he informs me he doesn't feel like I love him because I make him do things he doesn't want to.

Wut? I would never!

We'll see whose the sun then.

And We're Off!!

If you recall, today is the start of Me Made May and to get the ball running, may I present my yard sale revamp?

I really need to learn to take better pictures. Guess it's time to start reading up on photography.

In any case, I started off with a standard ladies dress shirt in a size 12/14 that I picked up from my church youth group's yard sale in October. I'd planned to convert it into a maternity top but never got around to it. Turned out to be a good thing as the existing shirt would not have accomodated a babyfat belly for very long. My crappy photography skills don't show the colors very well but it's a white shirt with chocolate, tan, and maroon stripes.

The conversion was pretty easy and only took me about a day. I cut off the sleeves first then cut out the side seams. I used the Sorbetto top pattern to cut the proper armhole shape but cut the neckline just a bit lower. I added darts at the armholes and the back yoke to fix the gaping. Then I made some bias tape from the sleeves and used it to bind everything up.

 I know that I'm really not supposed to be making up a lot of stuff for MMM and just going with what I already have however, I realized belatedly that most of my handmade items are dresses that won't be convenient for nursing my kid. So I could either make a few extra things in addition to all the sewing already on the books or amend my challenge parameters.

I chose the latter because I enjoy making my life more pressure than it has to be.

Such an inconvenience, these baby things. Also, they spit up, a lot. As if sensing the drawbacks to dealing with their fussy little behinds, they often make a concerted effort to be extra cute, as if it somehow makes leaving wet spots all over your shirt less annoying.

Who am I kidding? I'll totally deal with grody patches if it means I get to dress the kid in adorable feetie jammies. See that spot of gray adorning my kid's toes? Those are rhinoceroses/rhinocerooses/rhinocerice, yanno, something.

And just to bring it home, they say "I'm in charge" on the tag.

Do you die? I die.