7 Quick Takes Friday

1. My house currently looks like I'm getting ready to set up a bar. Liquor boxes everywhere!!! But they are truly wonderful for packing heavy objects, since they're made for transporting booze. Their smaller size also makes them ideal for sorting clothes! Hopefully, it will be many years before Baby D figures out that "XX" is, in fact, not his clothes size.


2. Can anyone recommend a good (or cheap :-D) Mac-compatible webcam? After nearly two weeks of separation, my hubby is getting rather antsy to see his wife and child!


3. Baby D turned six months last week! In one way, it doesn't even seem possible he's been around that long, but in another way, I kind of see my entire past life through a Baby D lens now, like he has been there all along, and my life was just waiting for him to appear at some point. Are there any other moms who know what I'm talking about, or am I just batty?


4. I have been fantasizing about making a back carrier like a mei tai or onbuhimo for... oh, six months now. :-D All the tutorials I've seen on the web are TERRIBLE, so I'm just going to have to muddle my way through and make a better one for y'all. :-D Have you tried a mei tai or onbu? Which do you like better?


5. I'm also supposed to sew a sling and nursing cover for a friend who's TTC-- she will buy the materials, and I will do the sewing! I'm eager to see what materials she chooses, because I know her sense of style. FYI, this is what I like to tell people choosing a sling fabric: many women like to choose colors based on the gender of their baby, or the colors of their nursery, but I recommend that you take inventory of your wardrobe and choose a color/pattern that complements what YOU usually wear. When you wear a sling, it's like wearing another piece of clothing, so you want something that matches the rest of your outfit!

I have since redone the shoulder seam, but here's my sling.
A friend actually recently recognized me solely from the sling. Ha!

6. I have actually thought of making up business cards for my sling-making, because I get TONS of comments on my sling at the supermarket. Would you be weirded out if you struck up a conversation about a stranger's sling and got offered a business card?

I've put this picture up before, but I could stare at those pleats forever.
That sling was a bugger to make!!

7. It looks like I have let sling talk hijack this Seven Quick Takes. Whoops! One more quick tip: if you are looking to make your own, do NOT use the tutorial that the Maya Wrap store provides. You'd think a sling store of all places would give a good pattern, right? WRONG! It gave instructions for a really funky, uncomfortable shoulder; I eventually ripped mine out and started over with a much more comfortable "floating rings" style.

I got a lot of ideas for constructing my sling from Jan Andrea's site, which also has tutorials for a zillion other baby carriers. Well, I think this has sufficiently taken care of my baby carrier itch for a while! ;-)


This post is linked up to Conversion Diary's Seven Quick Takes, which are actually happening at Betty Beguiles this week!