the smirking bootie

We leave for Maine tomorrow to finally visit my brother, his wife and their firstborn Emily - the little one who made me an aunt on January 28.

I am so excited, and so unprepared. Laundry still needs to be done, and I haven't even put 2 seconds into thinking about what to pack. Oh yeah, and we are going to a hockey game tonight. But we are driving, which somehow takes a lot of the stress of traveling out of the equation, even though it means 11 hours on the road. Thankfully Evan likes to drive, and I get to catch up on some Food & Wine, Martha, and my first issue of Imbibe.

Our trip finally being just days away, I had to bite the bullet and begin the sewing stage of the baby bootie project.

I wont lie, picking out the fabric and ribbon and cutting out all the pieces was a lot more fun than the sewing part. I think deep down I knew that would be the case - which is why it took me months to actually sit down at the sewing machine.

These babies (or baby's booties) were tricky! Turns out small sewing project does not mean simple - quite the opposite in fact.

Things were going along fairly smoothly until it came time to attach the 3 layered sole to the top ...

... and then things started to get messy.

Very, very messy. Oh dear. I can't even believe I am showing this to you.

After the sewing on the first bootie was complete, I turned it right side out, thinking, Oh yeah, this is pretty cute. 

And then, turning it around - there it was.

The unintentional, awkward pleat.

I know you see it - but let me ask you this, my friends, was your first thought Oh my god! Its got a snaggle-tooth! And its smirking at me!

Maybe it was the two glasses of wine and the late hour? But that's what went through my head, and I lost it.  Belly laughs. Tears rolling down my cheeks. Hah hah hah hahhhhhhh!

Evan thought I was laughing hysterically at something Anthony Bourdain had just said on the television. I should have just gone with that - because when I tried to explain how the bootie was laughing at me, he  furrowed his brow, looked at the bootie in my hand and said, "It looks like a bootie."

So he didn't get it. Do you? Have you ever had one of those moments in your creative endeavors where you just have to stop being frustrated that what's in your head or on a pattern in front of you simply cannot be executed by your fingers, and just have a really good laugh at yourself?

I sent the pictures of the first completed bootie to my mom and told her that sadly, I would not quitting my day job to get into the baby bootie business anytime soon. In the way that moms have, she convinced me that it was still adorable and that I should finish the other bootie.

I got the impression that if I didn't come home to Maine with her first grandchild's baby booties in hand, she would be very, very disappointed. I can live with myself for making less than perfect booties, but cant live with myself for disappointing my wonderful mama. So I sucked it up and made the second bootie, which went a little better, but ended with another, though less mocking, unintentional pleat.

But imperfections and all, they are still pretty stinking adorable.

in their most flattering light

And without even realizing it, I made the (im)perfect companion accessory to this adorable cape from Plum Bunny that I forgot I'd bought a while back (I ordered it in Charcoal).

So long friends - I have a couple of other posts in the works, including a PSA about liquid mercury oozing from an antique mirror, but they'll have to wait until I'm back from Maine, hopefully smelling like I've spent a few days cuddling a baby (in the clean baby hair kind of way, not the someone-needs-her-diaper-changed kind of way).