A bridge

You can't go anywhere in Pittsburgh without crossing several bridges on your way. I'm not sure exactly how many bridges Pittsburgh has, my very scholarly research (googling "bridges Pittsburgh") claimed anywhere from 450 to 1900. So lets just say there are a lot. Some of them are stunning, my favorite is the Smithfield Street Bridge (I know everyone was just dying to know that tidbit!).

Proclaimed "the only city in America with an entrance" by the New York Times, the city skyline and rivers of Pittsburgh pop up out of nowhere as you enter the city via the Fort Pitt Tunnel, and onto the Fort Pitt Bridge. I've been meaning to get back to this bridge for a good 7 or 8 months now to take pictures, and I finally did. Don't be fooled by the bright sunny pictures. It was about 20 degrees. I took these pictures from the city side of the rivers, so I would like to get a good one sometime from the other side of the bridge, of the in your face city-scape you see through the Fort Pitt Tunnels.

Original photos

This is why it's taken me so long to come back. I was a little uneasy going to this spot on my own, and these little signs are exactly why. They look like the same person wrote them, so maybe this is some homeless person's regular hangout, which is both sad and unsettling to me. Hence I have made sure to only go here with a big man by my side.

I took this picture from the same spot back in July, but with a cruddy point and shoot camera. I wanted to recreate it with my good camera, but now in comparison, I see I didn't quite get it right. I should have looked at this picture before hand or brought it with me. Oh well, I have either 449 or 1899 bridges to try and get one that's just right!

Baby A

I took some pictures of my friend Megan's little girl. Isn't she beautiful? And I am coveting that pink flower headband. I am still bummed that my little girl learned to rip her headbands off so young!

We had a hard time getting a picture of her in her tutu because she was trying to eat it the whole time. I gave in with this picture, but I like it still. Imagine that instead of eating her skirt, she's being coy and sassily peeking out at us!
Again, pretend she's smelling the flower, not eating it!

Really, such a cute baby! And I love her little bracelet too.

Just playing with some textures here. This is the baby's blessing dress, which has special meaning because her mom was also blessed in it.

I'm in love....

Now don't run off, this is NOT a recap of all the cheesy lovey sweet nothings that my spouse and I surprised each other with for Valentine's day. It's about a new infatuation in my life...FABRIC! For someone who really doesn't know how to sew, I am quite obsessed with fabrics and now own yards and yards and yards. My friend Amy recently wowed us with a diaper bag she had made so several of us girls are on a quest to make our own. Since this project is way over my head, I've directed the time and energy that I could have used to learn more sewing skills towards picking the perfect fabric.

Little did I know, there's a whole world of cuteness out there. This are just some of my favorites of the hundreds of swatches I looked at.

After days of pondering and consulting with friends, I finally ordered this fabric in corduroy for this diaper bag that may or may not actually be made.

So if you do want a recap of our Valentine's day, here it is. Zach spent the day on several guy dates, first a gun show, and then a basketball game, then some ping pong with his friend, while I shopped craft stores and attempted to sew, then unpicked everything I had just sewn. Then around 10:30 that night Zach and I finally got together and watched a movie. Actually Zach fell asleep and I watched the movie. What can I say? We are just a pair of hopeless romantics.

a very pittsburgh weekend

When we first decided that we were moving to Pittsburgh, I remember feeling a little embarrassed that it wasn't a more exciting exotic locale. It wasn't overseas or a hip city, it was PITtsburgh. On first glance, it's not the most attractive place. Dirty and crumbling are good descriptions. There are areas that I thought looked scary and unsafe when I first moved here, only to realize that those were actually the nicer areas. HOWEVER....there is so much to love about this place, some of it is harder to find but it's there. This is not a superficial place. People don't really care about appearances, which can be obnoxious when your neighbor has a broken hot tub on their front lawn or uses their front yard as their personal garbage can, but it's also refreshing. The people here are gritty, but they're real, and I love it.

We had a good "pittsburgh" weekend, which is why I'm on this train of thought. Zach and I haven't spent lots of time together lately. We've been busy, we've had our own agendas each night, so I decided early in the week that we would spend the weekend together and not make plans with anyone, whether separately or even as couples. I prepared myself to graciously fend off all the party invites that were sure to come our way :) Seeing as there were no invites to fend off, my family weekend or bust decision didn't end up being quite so noble... my friends must have known we were having a family weekend, yeah, that must have been it....:)

We swapped babysitting with friends and Zach and I went out to eat at a Thai restaurant, my favorite food in the world. Something about having to go up an old stairwell to get to a restaurant lets me pretend that I'm trendy and urban, and I love pretending that.

The North Side is one of my favorite areas of Pittsburgh. There are amazing historic Victorian homes, as well as Heinz Field, PNC Park, Carnegie Science Center, The Children's Museum, the Andy Warhol Museum, and the Mattress Factory (an art museum, no mattresses!) But it's also one of the more dangerous areas of Pittsburgh. It seems like most of the shootings I read about happen in the North Side, during the day. Someone shot and robbed a mailman in the middle of the day not too long ago! Which is sad, because it really has so much to offer, I wish it was a safer area.

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Saturday our agenda included the Mattress Factory and Children's Museum. On our way there, we passed this home....Little discoveries like this, that's what makes me love this city. I feel like I get out a lot here, but I'm always finding something new that adds to the uniqueness of this place.

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So the Mattress Factory....Zach took some convincing to go, since he was pretty sure it was a mattress store (that would be The Original Mattress Factory). It was a very, um, interesting place? I like to think I'm open minded to the whole pushing the envelope of what is and isn't art, but I had a really hard time knowing what was supposed to be an art piece and what was a garbage chute. Turns out it was an art piece, oops, not a place for Aubs dirty diapers....On each floor we had to read instructions and study a map to know what the "art" was, and to know how to "experience" it correctly, because some things you couldn't just look at, you had to pause and turn just so. Some of the art. Notice Zach trying to experience one of the pieces. Notice also the red light one. That was a pitch black room, the floor was covered it water, with a red door opening at the end that was glowing red. Not scary at all. Another one of the exhibits was completely dark, no lights at all. We walked down several black hallways until it opened up into a room that had at least 2 chairs in it. I could only tell there were chairs by feeling my way around. But after finding the 2nd chair I turned and ran, because what if there were more chairs that WEREN'T EMPTY? It was definitely a go once for the experience kinda place for us. Aubrey wanting to hold a decapitated mickey mouse head that was part of an exhibit helped me make that decision. While it was a weird place, I do love that there are artsy people here that are into that, that Pittsburgh is diverse enough to have that sort of crowd, I just don't care to be in that crowd :)

The trip to the Children's Museum after was a more wholesome experience. Aubrey had a blast and Zach had a blast watching Aubrey have a blast. And I loved watching Zach have so much fun seeing Aubrey having so much fun.

Oh Pittsburgh, you're a funny place and you've been good to us.

(I just liked how this house looked all smashed between it's neighbors)

So if owls were my last fixation, pears are my current. It probably started when I bought these fabrics off etsy. I like them so much I'm afraid to actually try and make something with them. I'm thinking a little dress for Aubrey, but I want to make a practice one or two first, so most likely the fabrics will sit untouched with the gads of other fabric I've purchased b/c guess what? (I don't actually know how to sew anything but a burp cloth) The author of a crafty blog that I visit, Lollychops, also has a thing for pears and created this paper, which you can download for free here on her site. I have no idea who's behind the blog, but she does all sorts of free patterns, tutorials, and downloads, like cute recipe cards, gift tags, etc. It's worth checking out!

Here's my attempt to make my own pear paper, blatantly copied off of the Lollychops one of course. I like how she staggered her pears better, but I didn't think to do it until too late.

And apparently others are also feeling the pear right now. Check out this wall hanging someone made out of a large piece of fabric.

And these Pear Pin cushions. I want to make these next! Right after the pear dress ;) I snagged the picture below from someones blog and you can get instructions on how to make these here.

And my one pear sewing attempt, a shirt for Aubrey. The shirt is from old Navy, and I used that iron on interfacing to get the pear and leaf on there and then stitched around it with embroidery floss.

Lastly, does anyone know how to change the background in the minima template? I know how to in Mr. Moto, but wasn't clear on how to in minima. Just in case I want to venture away from white!

And the winners are.....

THE STEELERS!

Oh, and LINDA for the hair clips and CARLY for the diaper wipes case and burp cloths.

Linda is a good friend of mine that moved away last year. She has a little girl just 1 week older then mine. I miss watching them grow and change together!

Carly is the sister-in-law of a good friend of mine, Libby, and I got the chance to meet her a few years ago when she was visiting. Libby won the only other giveaway I've ever done, maybe the two of you should start buying lotto tickets!