When folding laundry doesn't suck . . .

Question: When does folding laundry not suck?

Answer: When it's this cute:
It's been so much fun sorting through this freshly washed plethora of adorableness. Really, enough clothes for twelve baby girls! Opening gifts at the shower, I felt so greedy and hoggy. I kept telling myself, "It's not for me. It's okay. It's for Professor," because I felt so guilty about the quantity of loot!! This is just a little bit of it, and that stack of blankets? Just a portion!

I mentioned I would show off some of the amazing handmade stuff our super-talented friends gifted us with. Well, here's a little bit:

Does your baby have a plush chainsaw? I bet not. I bet Professor will be the only baby with one of these!
(Made by the daughter of Portland picture book illustrator Carolyn Digby Conahan, whose work I love. Here's the card Carolyn made us, which is so getting framed:
Ready? Errr . . . Well, we'll see! So very soon :-)
This totally awesome tiny pink skull sweater was and hat set was made by Heather, a blog friend I met for the first time in person when she drove all the way down from Canada for the shower! We first *met* when Heather made me this incredibly awesome gift which you might remember, completely blowing my mind, and have become friends via email, blog, and phone since. Well, this sweater is really only the tip of the iceberg of baby bounty that Heather brought down with her. Besides another gorgeous sweater, she also made a slew of snugly awesome swaddling blankets and cloths and bibs and MORE. I was - and AM - floored by the bounty! Here we are:

And look at THIS DRESS!!!
Oh my god. Love love love it. "Robots love me"!!! Here's another thing that no other baby in the world will have besides Professor :-) And the best part? Jim has a shirt that matches it!!! How cute are they going to be? Gee, I wonder if that will be photographed when the time comes. This was made by my dear friend Chary, who I met when we both used to sell our artwork at the Portland Saturday Market. Here she is:
Yes, that is a chick sitting on her head. Don't you have a chick on your head, and if not, why? And the necklace? That was a shower game. See, it's this giant ridiculous necklace made out of baby toys, and whenever someone said the word "cute" they had to wear it. So it went from person to person, and here it's Chary who's got it on. The little shirt she's holding up had just been painted by another crazily talented local crafting friend, Jenn (more later). Chary made Professor another dress, this one out of vintage fabric and for when she's bigger. It's the one on the left:
>So cute! (Yes, I'd have to wear the necklace for that!) Here, it's posing alongside a handmade dress my friend Lori found at a flea market in Provence, and a dress my sister got in Honduras a few weeks ago (right in the middle of the coup, no less). Oh my goodness, the cuteness! Can you handle it?

And there's more. For example:
These were made - I think - by Jenn, though it's possible they were made by her partner Jenny. Both of them are AMAZINGLY talented and make a bazillion awesome things from plush toys to lacquered coasters to clothes and purses and more more more, many of which can be purchased here or here and here. Wow. They also have the most adorable house and the most adorable mini chickens which, no shock, have an adorable house of their own.

Speaking of chickens, did you know Portland is the capital of urban chicken-keeping? Other crafty-goddess friend Maggie also keeps chickens (and also in an adorable coop that she and her boyfriend built out of salvage). Ducks, too! Maggie made Professor the most awesome of all mobiles, which I showed already, but here it is again:
You might have seen the incredible one-of-a-kind monkey-flower necklace Jim got from Maggie for me for my birthday last year (it's about a quarter of the way down the post).

Okay, I'm going to show off just one last gift. Here it is:

I loooovvvve this quilt, made by Kim (in the middle, below) who came all the way from Seattle with lovely SCBWI cohorts Jaime and Sara. Jim and I [heart] these ladies, and I didn't even know Kim was crafty! I knew she's really funny and that she's a writer, but not that she's a quilter. Aren't those fabrics incredible? And the colors are perfect for the nursery, which is fabulous because I haven't seen a lot of orange & turquoise baby stuff in stores. Stores? Bah! With friends like these, who needs stores? :-) I'm so lucky.

See why I felt so greedy and guilty at the shower? And that's only a fraction! Man, it's total cuteness overload.

Thank you, everybody!!!