Long Overdue

My fabulous friend Ashley, who just made her photography business official, spent the day at our house so she could take photos of Dean, who was 16 days old at the time. She would have come over when he was even younger, except that she was in Europe for 3 weeks and just couldn't get away. Brat.

Anyway, her photos are fantastic. I should have posted these long ago, but dragging eyeballs (and various other body parts) and spotty brain function have hindered me. We would have made one of them our Christmas card this year, except he looks sooooo different now. Lots more fat.

Without further ado, here's our latest masterpiece.

This next one was a result of us trying to get him to smile. Babies that young don't usually smile unless they're gassy, but Dean had smiled in his sleep several times, especially when tickled on his cheek. So we were tickling, tickling, cooing, etc, but only got this:

But eventually he came around:

This next one is one of my favorites. I crocheted a swirly scarf the night before because I had this image in my mind, but on the day of, the scarf didn't look right, Dean wasn't cooperating, and that poor cake stand was mighty chilly on a newborn despite the space heater that was causing me to sweat through everything on my end. But thanks to Ashley's ingenuity and a little help from Photoshop, she pulled this off:

That one was for me, and this was for Ted:

We'll see which parent he'll take after more. Then we can say he always had it in him, and just hide the other picture. :)

And I love this one. She called it "Little details."

Thanks so much, Ashley. I know he was a bit of a stinker for you (at one point, quite literally), but you made magic, once again.

I'm too olde for finals

I'm in the middle of finals, and I'm too old for them. Tests are really something that should be in my rear view mirror, but I'm a glutton for punishment, or I'm addicted to school . . . or whatever. It will make the holidays all the more enjoyable though once they're done. At least law school isn't like my high school where we'd get homework over the break . . . what kind of "holiday" is that? I'm a little anxious to see how the flying-home-for-Christmas is going to be with a 22-month old and a 4-month old. We'll just keep our fingers crossed that Tessa doesn't set anything off in the millimeter wave scanner. This trip just might reveal how old I really am.

Creation: Stitched 'Scream

A friend of mine recently had an adorable baby girl. She requested no gifts at her restaurant baby shower because this was her third baby and second girl, but come on - even third children need a few new things, right? As a 6th child, I understand how annoying hand-me-downs can get (esp when they're from one's brothers), so along with a little outfit (bought, not made - I'm not that good yet) I crocheted a toy ice cream cone. It's got little jingle bells in there for extra fun.

I used the pattern from this book but added the picot stitch around the bottom of the ice cream so it looked more like a scoop.

Welcome to the world, Lucy! You've got a rad family who will take you for real 'scream when you're old enough!

Creation: Hair clips

In preparation for a friend's craft fair, I made these to sell. Y'know, in my spare time. I'm pretty awesome like that.

"But Allison, if you're so awesome, how come you haven't blogged in forever?"

Because, dear friends, I like to spread my awesomeness around. Blogging awesomeness will be forthcoming.

If you're wondering if the goldfish are puffy, the answer is yes. I wanted them as close to the cracker as possible, so I stuffed them. I made the prototype for Tess a while back and let's just say she's tried to eat it on more than one occasion. That's not saying much, but I'm taking it as a win.

And now my awesome boobs have to tend to my awesome baby.