Number Two

Okay, so yeah, it's February and I could have conceived and birthed a child between now and my last post. Fortunately, that didn't happen. Not that kids aren't awesome. Especially mine, and I'm not just saying that. But I really REALLY REEEEALLLLY hated being pregnant. Talk about Crazy Time Jill. This was a whole new level of Crazy. I think people were actually planning an intervention.

Anyway, a brilliant segue way into my friend Logan's baby shower, which is tomorrow. As in, the first-born's birthday. I don't remember if I was asked if the date would be okay, or if I was just told the date in a sort of apologetic manner. But it doesn't matter, because SHE's the one having the baby, and for that, I am eternally grateful. My eldest son will only be 4 tomorrow, and he'll believe me if I tell him his birthday is Sunday. (Yes, Superbowl Sunday. Gosh, it's the kid's birthday. Give him a break. It's not like I can have his party on a day that's NOT his birthday - that wouldn't be right. Sheesh.)

So, Logan's baby shower. This is a special event. I mean, besides the obvious impending birth and all etcetera, it's a Mad Hatter Tea Party delightfully themed shower, and guests are "encouraged" to wear a crazy hat and vie for a prize!

When I got the invite a few weeks ago, I asked around work if anyone had a crazy, outlandish hat I could borrow. Charlotte (Yes, the titular Charlotte and that's not off-color, okay?) has a Kentucky Derby party every year and I thought for sure she'd have something. Or Jenn, who knows everyone, has everything and would surely be able to come up with something. Or Yvonne, who keeps everything, wins useless contest crap and likes foofy dress up. This request turned up nada. Then I searched online for crazy hat ideas and saw some pretty interesting stuff, but I didn't want to spend alot of money and I didn't think I was coordinated enough to make one myself, so I decided to just wear the cowgirl hat I bought for last year's Cattlebaron's Ball. And here I thought I'd never find another opportunity to wear that! Won't win me a prize, but at least I'm participating.

4/30/2010 Me and Husband #1 headed to the Cattlebaron's Ball

Then yesterday, as I was getting dressed for work, I started thinking. This is a bad habit of mine and can get pretty scary.

I saw the cowgirl hat and thought, Hmm. I could put a wedding veil on it, wear my faux ostrich boots (also bought for the Ball and worn only once) and go as a cowgirl bride. Oh! Then maybe I could put some *extra* padding under a white dress and go as a PREGNANT cowgirl bride. It's a baby shower, right? And I could borrow a toy shotgun from the neighbors' kid and call it a shotgun wedding! YES! This is a perfect idea....I knew Normal Logan would get it, and Normal Logan would think it was hysterical. But what about Crazy Time Logan? Um...(!)...not sure. So, after some careful consideration, I decided on the veiled cowgirl hat with a toy shotgun attached to it, dubbed the "Shotgun Wedding Hat". (Not too stereotypical, I hope. Everyone knows that you don't have to be a redneck to have a shotgun wedding. Thinking that's just ignorance.)


(Copied from Google Images.)

Anywho. When my T-minus-1 day four year-old son was born, someone gave me the cutest gift of baby sock roses and I thought Logan would like them. While searching for them online, I found instead the best baby gift idea ever: Sock Sushi! HOLLA! What sushi-lovin' woman doesn't miss sushi while she's pregnant, right? I really wasn't impressed, though, with the sock sushi I found for sale online....and then the one whose rightly given Indian name would be "She Sews with Safety Pins" imagined she could make them. And so one night last week after a trek to the nearest craft store to buy the goods, I spent about an hour making these babies:

The smaller ones are the socks and the large ones are hats. The hats came out better, but I put "roe" on the socks to make them more interesting.

I'm SO pleased with them! The success of the sock (and baby thug cap) sushi reminded me of a hat that I saw online during my initial search a few weeks ago....and I decided that She Sews with Safety Pins just might have the ability to throw something together for the party.

(Found on another blog)

This is the inspiration hat. Sweet, creative but not large enough to pay tribute to Shotgun Wedding Hat and her "Everything's Bigger in Texas" mentality:

Now THAT'S a sushi hat!

I can't wait for the Mad Hatter Tea Party baby shower tomorrow!! I'll let you know how it works out. That is, as long as my next post isn't on a Superbowl Sunday when the Dolphins are playing.

UPDATE: 2/7/2011 - I won the contest for the most creative hat! Woot!! :)