Dig That Crazy Fabric

I've been looking (and looking, and... oh, sorry) for fabric to make a crib skirt for the nursery. I tried to find something of the crib set variety that was already made, but out of all the things available on the web, nothing was doing it for me. So, the search began. I knew, or thought I knew, what I wanted. I was going for pink corduroy as the main part of the skirt with a cute stripe and/or border added. That's when I discovered that on the bolt, the cords of corduroy run horizontally and not vertically. Sure, it could still be done, but not nearly as easily as buying 45" wide fabric and cutting it down the middle for the 20" drop and sewing it to a sheet. So, I started looking for something else that could be done easily and still be cute.

Here is what I've bought. Since I surprised myself with the choice of the bunnies on the wallpaper, I guess it should make sense that I chose fabric that kind of surprised me too. Are you ready??

The first picture will be the main part of the skirt. The second will be a 4 or 5 inch stripe around it a few inches from the bottom.





Now, of course, the colors don't come across very well. Well, the pink does. But the, let's call it plaid, is actually brighter than it looks. And the bits that look like cat-sick-yellow are actually close to the color of a Wal-Mart price tag, but lighter and not quite as bright.

I think I bought enough fabric that I can also make a window valance. Because, if you're going to go, you have to go all the way!

The Jewelry Website Is Open

Well, after quite a steep learning curve on building a website, I am happy to announce that my jewelry website is now up and running. The address is littleshopofbaubles.com . I have high hopes that someone, somewhere out there on the world wide web will stumble into my little shop and find that perfect necklace that they didn't know they needed.

We shall see.

C

Referrals Are On Their Way!

After all that talk of being surprised by the arrival of referrals, our agency sent an email today saying that referrals are on their way. So, they did get a warning this time before just receiving them out of the blue. When I first read the email, I was REALLY depressed. Our agency is getting referrals for parents whose documents were logged in through July 29, 2005. Que? As you may or may not recall, last month's referrals were for documents that were logged in through July 22, 2005.

Now, what actually makes this slightly less depressing is the following information: The actual cut off date for this batch of referrals is August 9, 2005. So, China did do more than one week's worth of LIDs, it's just that our agency doesn't have any LIDs after July 29 until August 24.

So, congrats go out to all of those families who are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the referrals. I can't wait to see all the pictures.

Referrals Are On Their Way?

As it turns out, the surprise referrals last month were not the fluke they seemed to be. Apparently the CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs) informed our agency that they would no longer be giving any agencies the advanced notice that referrals were on their way. So from now on, it seems, we (parents and the agencies) are going to be surprised each month by the arrival of those packages of good news.

All of that being said, there is a rumor today that referrals were mailed today. I'm not sure what the usual travel time is once referrals are mailed, but if they were indeed mailed today, they should arrive some time next week. Of course, I'm sure lots of people will be watching for the CCAA website to be updated with the cut off date for this batch. Repeat it with me... "more than 9 days", "more than 9 days", "more than 9 days".....

Checking In

Well, the calendar on the wall says that I haven't posted in 2 weeks! Two weeks?! You'd think a lot would have happened in that time.

There hasn't been a whole lot going on.

Rumors are already swirling around about the next batch of referrals. Everything from "they'll only cover a few days" to "they'll go well into August LIDs. We'll see when we see.

Meanwhile, our fingerprints that we had to have taken to adopt expire today. We have received a letter allowing us to go get re-fingerprinted, and we will probably do that on Saturday. It kind of makes me laugh that we even have to be re-fingerprinted... As if I've become Jimmy Hoffa in the past 15 months. I understand that taking the fingerprints generates an FBI criminal check and that they are really just seeing if we've been naughty, but it seems like there should be a way to do that without taking the fingerprints again.

It's strange that each office of the USCIS (Immigration) has different procedures. I was expecting to have to pay the $70 per person fee for fingerprinting again, but apparently in Dallas, that is not the case. Thanks to a woman on one of the yahoo groups that I'm on, I was able to email our request to be re-fingerprinted on 9/7/06, and we received our letter on 9/9/06. Yes, that's a 2 day turnaround. That's the quickest action I've seen on any of the paperwork we've received during this entire process.

While I haven't been blogging, I have been working on getting a website up and running to sell handmade jewelry. I've become addicted to making jewelry over the past several months, and I have high hopes for others actually liking it, too. Blogging is much easier than e-commerce. I will post when it's actually up and running.

And finally, since I've been thinking about it all day, I have to make mention of today's date. I can't believe it's been 5 years since we were all glued to the TV in disbelief as those insane people took down the towers. Today, I watched a little bit (only a little bit) on CNN.com as they streamed the broadcast from 5 years ago. It was still unbelievable. It was very surreal watching the reporters talking about events as they unfolded, knowing that they didn't know what was coming. It was like knowing the future and watching as everyone else found out what I already knew. I remembered the disbelief, the confusion, the sadness. I remembered all of the flags that flew for days and months afterward. Then, I took a little drive to the grocery store and I was a little annoyed that I didn't see many houses with American flags out front. I didn't see flags at half staff in front of businesses. I know with all of the media coverage going on this weekend and today, that it's not possible that people have forgotten.

But, have they remembered?