BFF crafty goodness

Last week, my gorgeous (and gorgeously pregnant) BFF Lisa came to town. This is a big deal, as she lives in freaking Alaska. (Freaking because it's so so so far away, not because it isn't great. I heart Alaska!) 

Is she not gorgeous? Yeah, I know.
(Her Papa took all these pictures, hence the watermarks.)

There were a few particularly awesome highlights from her visit, not least of which was our combined dreaming of a cute pair of grey corduroy maternity pants, only to hours later find TWO pairs of the exact same (you guessed it) grey corduroy maternity pants at the thrift store, in our two respective sizes. (We were relieved not to have to fight over the first pair we found.) We have a thing for grey corduroy. Awesomeness.

Dorky and unflattering (yet oddly endearing) picture of us hugging, in which you can see said corduroy pants on Lisa. Total score! (It's not very easy to hug when your baby bellies are bumping.)

Lisa and Jacob's baby, Little P (also known as Piebald), is due on Leap Day 2012. As in, February 29th. Only my best friend is cool enough to actually have a baby due on Leap Day. That makes her about 20 weeks (or at least she was when she was here). I was 31 weeks during her visit. Apparently, 11 weeks makes a big difference:

We'll blame it on this being my 2nd. (Or not, for those who saw me pregnant with Annabel.)

Anyways, you all should know that this girl is responsible for teaching me to sew. Everything I know, I either learned from her or from some blog tutorial (but mostly from her). And she is my total inspiration. If she ever gets around to opening her Etsy shop, y'all better look out, because she's going to dominate. Her creative prowess and craftastic skills are something to be feared. (Seriously, Lisa, you are a phenom.) On shows like Project Runway they're always talking about "taste level." And honestly, I think that's got to be one of Lisa's greatest creative strengths: her taste level is off the charts. Every time I see something she made or picked out or designed, I think to myself, "How did you get to be so much cooler/smarter/hipper than me? Why didn't I think of that?" ...For reals, whenever I am making any decision about what shirt to buy or what fabric to use or anything at all designy, the number one question I ask myself is always, "What would Lisa pick?" ...And it's always (ALWAYS) the right choice. 

All that to say, I was super excited to take advantage of Lisa's crafting genius and leverage it toward the production of awesomely hip baby projects. Being pregnant together turns out to be super fun when it comes to co-creating. Our aspirations are always about 174 times loftier than our initiative and time management, but I think we came up with some pretty freaking awesome projects for our baking babies. (Apparently I'm really excited about the word "awesome" today.) Behold:

Two halves of a tandem bike for our babies-to-be. (We didn't agree on the colors, but Lisa (in her awesomeness) says she can photoshop them to be the same when we photo-stitch together pictures of our babies wearing them.)

We dyed the onesies grey first, and then freezer paper stenciled. I'm proud to say the tandem bike idea was mine, but not that proud, since Lisa turned me on to the whole tandem bike idea in the first place by owning one and adorably riding it around small-town Alaska with her husband. Anyways...I love the onesies! Amazing as a pair, and on their own.

And here's some more baby fashion goodness (also dyed and freezer paper stenciled):

Little sprouts! Got this stencil inspiration from Pinterest. Lisa, of course, made it into reality.

Lisa doesn't know the gender of Piebald yet, so she stopped while she was ahead (but took a couple of the dyed onesies home for future embellishment). I made the most of my crafting momentum and came up with a few more for Pepe:

Another Pinterest inspiration ripoff. Love it!

More Pinterest love. 

Making the most of my BOY stencil. At least it's in a different size from the other one. I love it!

Seriously...she draws the best out of me (and not only in crafting). I LOVE how all of these turned out (though we were a little disappointed with the dyeing unevenness - we'll use liquid dye next time instead of the powder). If I saw slightly more professional versions of these on Etsy, I'd totally be pinning and wanting-to-buy them. 

Obviously these onesies were not the best part of being with Lisa, but they are the only thing we actually photographed (we're super bad at taking pictures when we're together). But man, I miss her already. It felt so normal when she was here (the best part of long-term friendship). It feels lonely without her. Until next time.

Best friend, it's fun being pregnant with you. Even if your 20-week bump looks like my not-pregnant bump. I love you even when I'm jealous of your hotness.