Please excuse me while I take a moment to come to terms with the fact that I most assuredly deleted the one and only first-day-of-Kindergarten photo that I took of my first-born child.  There was only one shot taken, candidly, because he was not in a paparazzi mood that day.  It was adorable, and now it’s gone.  I can’t believe I did that.  I thought I’d already uploaded it, and just erased it from my memory card… for good.

*Exhale*

Okay, well, here’s Avery on her first day.

I’m a terrible mother.

Back to the blog…

Holy back-to-school, blog-on-the-backburner bloggers we are!  I think after a month in, I have finally adapted to this elementary school schedule.  6:30 am used to be an ungodly hour for this night-owl gal!  Fortunately Jet and Avery were not super early risers either.  But I have to say, I am really thriving with all the morning clock watching, lunch box packing, and bus stop dashing!  It’s forcing me to be more alert and organized. (Edit-I wrote this paragraph before the above stated disaster took place.)  Of course with 5 more weeks of pregnancy to go, there is a bit of nesting going on, and conscious need for more sleep.  So, yeah, not a whole lot of sewing going on these days.  I can proudly say, however, that Jet is killin it in Kindergarten and Avery is perfectly pleased with preschool!  And for 8 hours a week, I am worshiping my free time!   Still, no sewing, but no shortage of ideas buzzing in my head, and half-finished projects lying around.  I’m sure you all know how that is!  You know you’re a crafter when corners of your house look like this:

Are those raw edges?  Yup.  Still figuring out if we can commit to yellow chevron cafe curtains.

Awe, how cute, a baby boy sweater just hanging out for months on the needles.  (Also a random paintbrush chillin on some Marthas that I just can’t let go of.)

Oh and look, there’s an acorn wreath that I swear IS GONNA HAPPEN!

Anyhoo, while those projects might actually, one day, be blogged, for now, I will have to share a finished product from over a month ago…

I have made these slip-covers, or “cozies”, for Baby Bjorns before, but was psyched when my BFF from highschool, Kelly, registered for the type of Bjorn that I do not own.  It gave me the chance to draft a pattern for Bjorn’s original style (mine is an “Active” Bjorn Carrier, which is bigger and slightly different shaped).  I snatched it off the registry immediately and got to work on my design.  Kelly’s daughter, Hazel Ellery (gotta love that name!), was born ahead of schedule, by 11 weeks or so, giving us all a good scare.  She was so teeny and fragile then, but she’s packed on a quite a few by now and is probably close to taking her first Autumn Bjorn ride!

Here is my prototype (and no, that is not Hazel, it’s a doll!) :

I really wanted to see how an all-fleece construction would work.  Even though my first pattern attempt was a little too small, the fleece was able to stretch to fit.

After I adjusted the pattern a bit, and found some adorable Hazel-colored fabric, I went for it, with fleece only on the inside for warmth.

Perfecto!  I even had the opportunity to meet sweet baby Haze in her Boston NICU apartment last month!   I just had to be there for that shower, and to encourage her mom and dad, who are such special friends of mine, to keep up their fierce parenting.  Its been a long road, but she will be home soon!  And she will also be a cutie-pie girlfriend for my future little man!

As for my Bjorn cozies, I still have romantic visions of an Etsy store full of them.  One day people, one day.

~Caroline