This past week...

This past week was a lot of fun...it was part of my "Birthday Season" and thus involved hanging out with people I really cherish. And a lot of dessert.

In addition, a friend of mine was being honored at a baby shower so that meant a little creativity was in order. I took the challenge seriously.

Shortly before my birthday, Ryan and I went to Golden Gate Park and had tea at the Chinese Tea Garden.
On Saturday the 11th we celebrated my birthday with friends and I made a French pear tart for dessert. It was the 2nd time I'd ever made a tart (I'd created a "practice" earlier in the week so I wouldn't serve a failure) and it was quite good. I'm excited to try some of the fresh fruit tarts next.
Then mid-week I started working on the gift I'd make for the baby shower on the 18th. Wow. Talk about working under a deadline. I enhanced some cute baby shirts with the same fabrics I made baby shoes out of. That's right. I sewed baby "shoes" as part of the gift. Believe it or not, it was easier than making a baby quilt. And less time consuming. I finished the baby shoes around 2 AM the day of the shower. The shower took place 10 hours later.
The onesie and matching shoes. The real difficulty in all of this (and something I have yet to figure out is:
1) What size of foot will this shoe actually fit? The onesie is a 3-month size but what about the shoes? I need to figure that out before I make another pair so I can ensure that the onesie and shoe fit at the same time.
2) I need to figure out how to make a nicer interior for the shoe. You can see some of the seams at present and I think it would look more finished if I had some kind of insert.
The other onesie and accompanying shoes:
After the baby shower, my parents came over to celebrate my birthday. They brought a delicious carrot cake and gifts. You can see the table cloth they got me as a gift on the table. It is antique/retro and hand stitched. I love it!