New to First Comes Baby?

A few quick things... first of all, nice to meet you!! This is my first sincere attempt at blogging in about 8 years or so. I used to be quite the LiveJournal addict and had a pretty solid following and made some great friends. I'm so glad I have all of those memories in print and some of those friendships are still going strong to this day. It's strange to look back at your life or your writing in particular and see how far you've evolved as a person. Some of the things that meant the world to me then are just foggy memories today and events that seemed devastating to the 18yr old me would just roll off 31yr old me's shoulders. I thought briefly about paying to change the name of my old blog (name change was definitely a MUST!) and just picking up where I left off but I guess life ran away with me and I've definitely outgrown it. So on to this new chapter (and blog) of my life and new friendships that will hopefully be going strong years from now.
I actually started this blog about a year ago when I discovered I was pregnant with my perfect little peanut but insecurity about this huge blogger community kept me from going live with it until a couple months ago. But I'm so glad I did!
It seems that my commitment to diving headfirst into this mommyblogging community has started to pay off! In just the last three days I not only went from a meager 5 followers to more than 20 but I'm also in the top 50 over at TopBabyBlogs! This has already led me to a small ongoing freelance gig that I can add to my growing list of stay at home work that I can do to support me and the bean. I really couldn't be happier about the support I've gotten so far, not to mention the amazing comments! I mean, I know my kid is cute... but it's always good to hear that other people agree!
Anyway, thanks for following and helping me feel comfortable with this new endeavor!! I look forward to reading your blogs and getting to know each of you!
<3
~Angela

**UPDATE- I've decided to set this up as a welcome page of sorts for people who are new to my blog.
So... welcome!
Here's a few links so you can catch up if you'd like!
About me.
About the name.
My views on 'The great mommy wars'.

Aura's latest firsts!

Prepare yourselves! The last two weeks have been full of giant leaps and firsts for my little bean. I tried to pare down the photos a bit but it was so hard to choose! Here's what we've seen and done this month so far:

We took our first trip to the Zoo!! 

Aurora liked the egret.

She also seemed to like penguins.

However, did not care for the flamingos.

Or the giraffes. 

She's learned to sit up big and tall!!!

We visited out local creature shop!

Big Nazo Studios. So creepy but in an awesome way!!

Slowly learning to feed herself...

But as you can see still making BIG messes!

We've graduated to a big girl carseat!!

And played in the big box it came in!

AAANNND... we've got belly clearance!! Crawling is next!

DIY baby sandals by yours truly!!

We had plans to go to our neighborhood farmers market today but the weather in Providence has been wacky lately and the heavy thunderstorms left us housebound. Of course today Aurora decided to take the longest naps ever so I actually had time to do something not internet related! I stumbled upon a How To for fancy lady sandals using a pair of cheap flip flops and scraps of fabric. While I'm not sure I dig the style for grown ups it gave me a great idea! Old Navy has little baby flip flops like these:

My only issue with these is that I feel like the plastic bit that goes between the toes is a little too thick for such teensy tootsies and I already don't dig shoes on babies so feeling like they'd be uncomfortable to boot killed them for me. That being said, I thought they were so adorable that several times I considered going back on that decision. Once I saw this DIY flip flop trick I knew this would be the perfect use for it!

So I made this double handy by getting the flip flops on sale (not a huge deal since they're only $3.50 normal priced) and using an old onesie that Aura had outgrown. Genius, if I do say so myself. I can give a step by step but I think even minimally crafty people will get the basic idea, so I'll keep it simple. The first step was to cup off the plastic straps and pull them off along with the little plugs on the bottom that keep them in. Then you take four strips of fabric (I knew I'd need two longish and two shorter ones... but you can always adjust and trim later) for each sandal. Two get threaded through the middle hole and knotted underneath (the knot will tuck into the hole created by the original plastic stopper) Then the other ends and one end of the longer pieces  get threaded through each side and knotted. I put her foot in for this step so I could make sure the tops fit perfectly before tying the knot. So now they looked like this:

Makes sense so far right?
So after that all it took was a little trimming, a finish V cut to prevent fraying and a little bow added to the tops just because and those original cute but boring flip flops turned into these:

So there you have it, a cheap pair of flip flops, some scraps of cloth and about 20 minutes and you have awesome one of a kind sandals for your wee one! Best part is there's no sewing required unless you are super  picky about rough edges (I like them) or you are using a very delicate fabric that you need to layer. I left the straps in the back long enough to tie either behind or in front of the ankle but that's personal preference. I haven't gotten a picture of them on her yet but I'll attempt to rectify that soon as well as try to dig up the link for the adult version.
I've got to say, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself right about now...