Secrets, Secrets

     This time of year is so hard for me in this space (and Instagram and Facebook and Pinterest.)  I am hard at work and excited planning new projects, but I can't show any of them off!  And by the time I can show them off (December 26th) I am more or less over the excitement, and it is too late for tutorials or shop links to be any good to all of you in your holiday planning.  Maybe I should blog some of last year's projects... I will try to get my excitement level up and get back to you all on that one.

    In the meantime, I realize that I have been totally absent here for awhile.  There has been traveling.  Five days in DC for the beautiful wedding of my beautiful cousin!  Lots of walking, sightseeing, eating, catching up and, as always, lots of laughing with lots of cousins, aunts and uncles (and of course, Nanny, Grampy, Auntie Lu, Auntie Em, Uncle Andy and Cousins Jack, Norah and Shelby.)  28 of us, I think, from California, Texas, North Carolina, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Connecticut and of course, Washington, D.C., trying to do as much together as possible in such a short time.

And so many more beautiful moments and shots (all blatantly stolen from the FB pages of Mom, Lucy and Laura!  Thank you photographers!)

There was also the sewing of that penguin outfit.  Taken mostly from this very well written and easy to follow tutorial!  Instead of plain white for the belly I used white with pink polka dots, because, in life, I mean, in sewing, I think that if polka dots are ever an option, they should not be passed up.  Also, the tutorial has a zipper down the back and a little penguin head hat. I chose to make a hood instead, which meant no zipper (oh, darn!)  Having seen Annie "wear" hats, I was pretty sure an attached hood was a much better call.  With the help of a texted picture of a hood pattern and some measurements (from none other than the bunny costume seamstress, herself!) the hood was born.  

    There has also been the small matter of the time change/ travel recovery/ I don't know what on Earth is going on with Annie's naps.  I am going to let my Santa Cruz side show a little here, and say that with the end of Mercury's retrograde (I am not entirely sure how much I am kidding here, I know it is at least a little bit), her nighttime sleep has been amazing the last few days, but the naps are only getting worse.  I am also trying really hard to practice non-attachment to the nap times schedule we were so used to.  Sleeping for an hour or two, twice a day, consistently three hours after last waking up, I could schedule our day.  When we would eat.  When we would do errands and chores.  When we would play around the house or at the park or go to moms group outings.  When I could do sewing or blogging or Facebooking.  The last week and a half there has been no schedule, no long naps, no predictable times. The last two days there have been seven hour stretches of AWAKE, at times slightly grumpy or deliriously goofy.  I am pretty sure the lesson I have to learn here is that, in the words of my very wise big sister, "kids are weird".  Our life can not be so scheduled.  I am trying to roll with it.  Having more success some moments than others.  And I know that we are so, so lucky with the great nighttime sleep, and I am so grateful for that.  And we are so, so lucky with such an amazingly cool little girl to love. And that is really and truly what is important.  

But just sometimes (times when it is 93 degrees outside in mid November and you have a cold and the barking neighbor dog abruptly ends a nap 20 minutes in) I have a few minutes of feeling a little sorry for myself.  

But then, by the miracle of an amazing husband and a second chance at nap time, I have a second to sit and write here and I realize how ridiculous the feeling sorry for myself is. 

So for now, back to working in secret, and wishing I could share my excitement here, who knows how long this quiet moment will last!