Progress

Mina's Halloween costume is moving right along.  I posted some pictures on Facebook of the costume and of Mina's second costume fitting.  Here is my process of making a little costume.

I made a tiny sketch of the finished costume.  I think this is really helpful because sometimes it is really hard to keep a handle on the final product.  I usually make a few notes of how long certain measurements are or other logistical things.  

After that I draft a pattern based on the costume piece.  Here is a picture of the skirt pattern piece traced on to the interfacing fused to the gold fabric.  The fabric wasn't very sturdy so I added a layer of interfacing for integrity without making it uncomfortable for Mina.  Even though it is a robot costume it is still a baby's costume.

All of the triangular skirt pieces came together to form the skirt.  I'm glad I always understood fractions in school because I use them a lot!

Mina's first costume fitting!

This was a shot of the costume around the time of the fitting.  I was trying to figure out if the spacing for the pom poms would effectively mimic the hemispheres on the Dalek.  I think it worked even though the color is a little jarring.  I remedied that with a few layers of gold spray paint.

After I sprayed the pom poms I hot glued them on to the skirt.  I only burned my fingers a little bit.

And another fitting!  Sorry the picture is blurry.  2 month old babies don't have the best leg control.  Or anything control.

All that is left is the hat and a few last embellishments on the onesie.  It's going to be great!

Hello October!

October marks the official start of fall, for me at least. I think the actual official start of fall was a week or so in September but it doesn't matter. October is a wonderful month, it starts with General Conference and ends with Halloween. It gets the holiday ball rolling, the leaves continue to change, the weather cools down and I get to break out the cute fall clothes.

I have some big plans for October...

• I'm going to make Mina's Halloween costume
• We're going to have family pictures taken
• I'm going to get my butt in gear and exercise for reals and not for fakes.
• I want to make a coat for Mina

While James and I were shopping for fabric for Mina's blessing dress he had an idea for Mina's Halloween costume.  We decided then and there that we would decide every other year for costumes until she's old enough to choose her own.  James' choice?

 A dalek.

Yes, a dalek.

It's an alien from Doctor Who.

We brainstormed it out and I'm going to make it into a dress and a hat.  I'll use stuffing so it will be soft instead of rigid.  She's a baby, after all. I think I'll make the dress more of jumper so if she gets too hot (or annoyed) we can take it off without having to totally change her clothes.  I think she has some plain long sleeved onesies...

In honor of a new addition to our family and employment, we are having family pictures taken.  I am so excited but also a little nervous.  My body is different now and I'm still trying to come to terms with it.  I'm incredibly grateful that I was able to deliver a healthy baby but it would be nice if my old clothes fit again.  Maybe I just need someone to dress us for our pictures...Ugh.

I got my butt off the couch this morning and took Mina on an hour walk.  She slept through a good chunk of it and only cried once.  I thought it would be a lot colder so I wore my windbreaker.  I was so sweaty by the time we got home.  It was gross.  But, sweat is a good thing.  I should do it more often.  I figure if I document my progress I'll be more likely to stick with it. I figure I'm already off to a good start because I remembered to wear my track pants and not my scary stretchy pants.

Last up, Mina's coat.

I realize she will grow fast and won't get much use out of it but I still want to make a cute coat.  Here are some of my inspirational images:

Baby Gap

J. Crew

J. Crew

baby Dior

baby Dior

My plan is to combine all the coats into one cute, classy coat.  I'm going to follow lead of my friend Delia and use an old sweater for the coat.  She is amazing...Maybe I can finish it for our family pictures...

FYI, these coats retail for  $49.99, $188 and $845!

The lining of the baby Dior coat, I love the fabric and pleats:

Catching up

We moved into my parent's house this weekend, a week after Mina's birth.  James did all the work plus he had a pre-defense presentation to give the day after we came home from the hospital.  He is amazing!  Did mention he started his new job on Monday?  We've had a lot changes in the past two weeks.

As promised, here are some pictures of our anniversary date.  We ate dinner at Cafe Sabor (it was disappointing) and then went to Willow Park Zoo.  I had never been and I wanted to walk around in an attempt to bring on labor. James was really excited to see this animal:

I think it is an albino...something.  I can't remember.

It's just chilling out.

Not to be outdone is the racoon, looking really lazy.

We took a picture of ourselves to document two years of marriage.

I was secretly hoping that it would be the last picture of us before we became parents.

Joke was on me, Mina didn't arrive for three more days after that.

Here is the super unflattering picture of me and James right before we went to the hospital.  I wanted to document how massive I got.  Mission accomplished.

And a picture of us from Sunday.  Our little family.

The weekend we became parents....

http://jamesandlindsaybeardall.blogspot.com/2012/08/birth-story-lots-of-pictures.html
Here is the link to my other blog with Mina's birth story. I'm too tired to write it out again.

She is so loveable, I almost don't care she is practically nocturnal. How could someone get mad at that cute face?

Holy cow! We're parents!

This lovely lady arrived Saturday morning. We love her SO much!

I'll write more about her when we are home and not in the hospital.

Happy Birthday James!

James turned 29 on Friday and he was happy to not spend the day moving somebody. Last year he moved us in to our current apartment and the year before that he moved me into our first apartment. (He joined me after our honeymoon.)

On his actual birthday I got up early and made him breakfast in bed:

I made too much sausage...

Later that day I made a birthday banner and started on his birthday pie (strawberry rhubarb.)

  I finished the pie on Saturday because I knew we weren't going to eat the pie until then.  James' birthday present this year was time in the recording studio with Mid 6.  They recorded that evening so I stayed in Logan and James went to Provo.  It wasn't ideal being apart but I was able to get a lot done around the apartment and take it easy.

On Saturday I had a baby shower thrown by the ladies in my ward.  I was totally surprised by the generosity of the women in my ward.  They were so nice!  My Mom and my Grandma Keller came up to attend the shower that morning.  It was a really fun shower.

The tower of diapers and wipes

James got home as we were unloading the gifts after the shower.  We went out to lunch and then to the water lab.  Because we were going to the lab right after James suggested we try Herm's Inn because it is on the way to the lab.  I was very impressed with the decor, it was so cool!  (The link is the architect's blog and it shows off some of the building and the food.)  Once we were at the lab James got to work and I did too.  I wrote thank you notes.  All of them.  It was a pain but WORTH IT.

I also rearranged our spare room and put away most of the gifts.  We sorted the baby clothes by size and I boxed up anything larger than 3-6 months.  I have no idea how big Mina is going to be!

Less than 10 weeks to go! Yikes!