In the Middle.

I'm in the middle of a lot of things over here.

I'm in the middle of changes.

(my dad will probably be freaked out by this pic... he's absolutely certain that I am actually shrinking.)

Not just physical ones, but every kind you can imagine.

I'm going from 1 daughter to 2 daughters.

Pregnant to delivering.

Sure to unsure.

Unsure to sure.

And then sure to unsure again...

And I cry about everything.

I shouldn't say everything. I cry about unimportant things.

Like commercials.

And Disney movies.

And any little anything that makes no sense to cry about.

FYI: I am so not a crier... so I find this whole crying thing very ridiculous.

At least Parenthood is over for the season... that would've been bad.

And then there's this little girl:

She likes to dress herself in tutus, furry boots, and winter vests to play soccer in the front yard.

In Summer.

And I love it.

I keep finding myself wondering about what she thinks of this whole thing.

She's going through changes, too, you know.

Only child to Big Sister.

Our baby to our first born.

How much does she understand?

I'm glad I don't know everything... that would be way too much to handle.

As much as this new chapter amazes me, it's got to be pretty big for her too...

Right?

I can't wait to see her face when she meets her sister for the first time.

I wish I could record what my eyes see.

That would be cool.

Somebody should get on inventing that.

***

I'm in the middle of moments.

She was mesmerized by this water...

I'm trying to sear every possible little detail I can into my brain lately.

I don't want to leave anything out.

I want to remember what it was like with her.

With just one.

My first little girl who had me all to herself for 2 1/2 years.

I've had my camera attached to my side these last few days,

trying to capture every last snippet of time,

but even then,

I find myself just watching instead.

I just snap a few

here and there,

hoping the rest will stick with me...

I think I like it better that way.

***

I'm in the middle of making memories:

***

I'm in the middle of projects.

A gaZILLion projects.

But good ones.

Ones that I'm glad I'm in the middle of.

There's the Big Girl Room/Nursery, of course.

Almost done.

Really.

And then I will share.

I'm so proud of the patience I've showed by waiting until it's all done...

so you have to be patient, too.

Deal?

Ok then.

Hint: these are for the above-mentioned room.

And then there's these beautiful fabrics that have already been

cut and semi-assembled into a

quilt like this one.

It will be fabulous, don't you think?

I love making quilts for other people and seeing what they pick and choose to reflect themselves.

It's just as much fun as the actual making of the quilt...

And of course there's a couple custom nursery sets in the making...

for friends, family, and strangers alike!

The fabric shows up in the mail every day!

SO much fun I get to have over here.

The UPS man says things like,

"Just a small one today."

or

"Wow, this one's the biggest so far."

***

Changes.

Moments.

Memories.

Projects.

Basically,

I'm in the

middle

of Life.

And that's right where I think I'm supposed to be.

Sickos.

Willow and I are sick.

It's crappy.

All she wants to do is eat popsicles.

We don't have any popsicles.

I happen to look like death, so I doubt we'll be venturing out for popsicles any time soon.

We just have some pretty bad cough/cold situations.

Thank goodness we don't have the flu.

That would be way crappier.

Oh, and I sound like a 80-year-old woman who's been smoking since her teens.

Not pretty.

And, Willow keeps tricking me.

I think she's coming in for a hug, some nice momma-lovin' with her said little sickie-face...

and then she just uses me as a snot rag.

Not nice.

I've gone through several shirts today.

Despite the sickies, I've got some fun things to share.

These cute little pants for my soon-to-be nephew, Cash:

Aren't they so much fun?

And each pair is reversible... so it's like she got 8 pairs of pants instead of 4!

I can't wait to make them in little girly colors for my lovie...

I used the Quick Change Trousers pattern from AMH's Handmade Beginnings book.

Let me tell you... SO EASY!

SO!

I didn't plan on making so many pairs, but I did.

That's how easy/quick/fun they are to make.

And then I made little onesies to match all of them:

I don't have the best pictures, I know.

I was in a crazy hurry to send these to Texas in time for my sister's shower.

I had to harass her for a week for an address...

and then when I finally got it from her, she gave me the wrong zip so the box didn't even get there in time :(

I was bummed.

I'm missing my sister... ever have those days?

Especially right now, because we're both preggers... due less than 4 weeks apart.

Which would be totally fun IF one of us didn't live in Texas and the other in Michigan.

And, since our due dates are so close, I can't be there for Baby Cash's delivery, she can't be here for mine.

Double bummer.

I'm totally jealous of my mom.

She's going to Texas for 2 weeks.

She gets to be there.

Not fair.

Yup, I'm gonna whine about because I want to and I'm sick so I can.

Ok, on with it.

I've also got this little pillow cover to share:

It's actually on its way to Rachel of p.s. i quilt as we speak...

She needed one.

It's similar to the Happy Pillow I made earlier this year.

Rachel's on the left, Happy Pillow on the right

And, I added some hand-stitching like I did on the Happy Pillow as well.

I'm slightly addicted to hand-quilting these days.

And I must say, practice does make perfect.

Not that my stitches are perfect... just saying I definitely see a difference from my first projects.

If anyone is looking into trying out hand-quilting, I suggest checking this out.

It's oh-so-helpful and Anna Maria Horner is the bomb, obviously.

However,

I seem to be finding other things to hand-quilt instead of my big huge projects that I should be working on... namely the girls' quilts.

I need to get on those.

Time is running out.

Oh, other fun news!

My Hunting Camp Quilt was featured over at Modern Day Quilts!

Go check out all the other super-cool quilts, there's LOTS!

And if you haven't entered already, go enter yourself in the

LAZY SUNDAY GIVEAWAY!

I think that's about all for today...

Changes.

So, I have to share this.

It completely cracks me up.

It appears as if I am getting shorter as my baby 'bump' is growing larger.

Like my body's just taking away

from my height

to make extra room for the baby.

And my hair gets progressively lighter and longer from picture to picture.

It looks like one of those evolution diagrams... but backwards.

I'm taking these progression pics of the 'bump' because I am terrified that I will only have

1 or 2 pics

of me being pregnant with Baby #2.

I'm trying to cover my a**, really.

Purely selfish reasons over here.

And, honestly, I don't want to have to explain why there aren't as many pics of me with her as there were with her big sister.

Because I remember my sister

going on an on about how

"there are so many more pictures of Mom pregnant with you than me"

and

"see, she loves you more than me"

and

blah, blah, blah... typical middle child crap.

(FYI, I'm being totally sarcastic...

I'm trying to get a rise out of my sister and she'll probably be doubly mad after she read the 'middle child' comment and then this italicized part- I hope.)

I love you CJ :)

(did it work?)

Oh, and don't forget to come back tomorrow for another

Lazy Sunday Giveaway.

It's going to be awesome.

So awesome that I probably shouldn't even be doing it...