It's time for another installment of:
IT CAME FROM PINTEREST...

​This time I neeeeeeeded a creative project to take my mind off of the fact that Ryan and I had just adopted a baby. From out of state. It was two solid weeks of running on adrenaline and living out a very weird reality. Add to that missing nearly a month of our D&D group and I was itching for a project. My new character wasn't fully fleshed out yet, so I didn't want to make anything related to her.

I kind of? had time? A new baby means no regular sleeping at night, but as adults Ryan and I were trying to keep a daylight = awake and nighttime = sleepy routine. And we were both home on maternity leave/summer vacation. I found a link for a little dice bag in the shape of a D20 that promised a kit to start from!

Well, like most pinterest links, that was outdated information. The kits were no longer available, but luckily for me the website also offered the pattern for free if you wanted to make it yourself. I had the materials from scraps and I have sewn stuffed animals before so another 3D shape shouldn't be too difficult, right?

Well, call it baby exhaustion or not fully understanding the instructions before I dove in, but this little bag took EFFORT. It was worth it, but when Ryan asked why I didn't make and sell these on Etsy, I just laughed hysterically. Here's my finished product:

The original kit had you iron on felt numbers. I traced the numbers directly on the fabric and filled it in with magic marker. The inside is blue cotton, I think. It was thin, cheap fabric of unknown fiber content I couldn't make myself get rid of because I liked the color. I'm glad I found a project to use it on!

​It holds the 10 sets of dice I own (so far) very comfortably and hasn't fallen apart yet. At this point I'm thinking maaaaaybe I'll make another for a Christmas present for someone. Although successful, I'm not repeating this again soon. ;)

Throughout my adult years one of the reasons I've been able to nurture the creative side of myself is because my husband and I were DINK's. First the reason was settling into a community, then grad school for both of us. 

After that life happened, but kids didn't. Not that I minded terribly - being a regularly employed person gave me pocket change to spend on creative hobbies, and being a coaching widow four months out of the year gave me the time to pursue said hobbies. 

However, after 13 1/2 years of wedded bliss Ryan and I finally got serious. The slow(er) pace of our previous life disappeared in what seemed like an instant! We submitted the interest forms to our chosen adoption agency last September, were listed as a potential adoptive couple in December, matched in January, and met our birth mother in March. The little one is due in July. 

I put this poster on Facebook for our "birth" announcement.

As you probably know, private infant adoptions (our chosen path) is not cheap, but after considering the other options open to us, this was the best fit. As a fundraiser my husband wanted to sell those debossed silicone wristbands, which did not appeal to me. We did find a no-minimum supplier and ordered a few, but never quite got around to an actual fundraiser.

However, I was on the hunt for something I could wear that would symbolize adoption and not be quite so... tacky. I stumbled on this symbol on Pinterest of a heart with a triangle inside. The heart is the child, the triangle the birth mother and adoptive parents. Or the triangle could represent the child, birth parents, and adoptive parents all surrounded with love. 

But, like so many Pinterest links it took me forever to track down the source. This one happened to be an expired Etsy listing, but the picture had been picked up by an adoption blog. By this time I. wanted. this. necklace. 

Good thing it just appeared to be made out of copper wire! And I knew how to solder. I experimented with a few life-size sketches to get the ratio of triangle to heart where I wanted it. Here is the end result. I was pretty pleased with myself!

As mentioned last week, our friend Heidi was getting married, and Kate and I were both bridesmaids and hosting her bachelorette party. Did we also mention Heidi wanted to do something '80's themed? Heidi is younger than Kate and I by a little bit, so for her the style aesthetic of the 1980s is not her early childhood.  It's somehow "cool" I guess.

Heidi wanted matching tutus. She had seen a bachelorette party somewhere wear them. Kate and I don't fit into party store cheap tutu costumes.  To the sewing table!

We ended up with a pretty cute costume. The skirt was just a bunch of tulle gathered and basted to an elastic belt. We wore black leggings underneath.

It turned out pretty cute, if I do say so! We wore our tops during the day and put the skirts on for the tea party itself. I even kept the sequined top in my closed for a few months after the bachelorette weekend, but did eventually try to take the sequins off. I sewed it too well and left holes in the stretchy knit undershirt. Oh well - I still have a few scraps of the sequined tiger print!