Hallelujah!!!

A couple of months after I found out my sister was pregnant, I bought a cross stitch baby blanket kit and set myself to cross-stitching a blanket for my new niece. My sister made quilts for both of my boys and for me so I wanted to do something almost as awesome. Especially since I have a feeling I won't be as cool of an aunt as "Aunt Lori" is to my boys. I mean, seriously, I work when i go to work. I don't dress up like a wild animal and talk to kids all day. But anyway, back to the blanket. Originally, i planned on having it done before her baby shower, about a month and a half before Emily was due. I always forget how time consuming it is to cross-stitch an entire blanket...so the day of the baby shower came, and after spending all of my free time over the previous 2 weeks and the blanket was NOT done. Have no fear, I still had gifts...actually i filled up 2 gift bags with the other stuff I had. However, I wanted her to know I was working on a blanket for her. So I took the picture out of the front of the package and wrapped it in a gift bag. I put a post-it note on the outside of the picture that said "work in progress. i promise it will be finished before the baby is born." so, I knew I had given myself approximately another month....then the month of october hit...i spent the first two weeks basically confined to bed with a migraine that would not go away. now, when I have the flu I usually can still read or cross stitch or watch tv or something...however, this wasn't the flu. and so i lost 2 weeks of working on the blanket. Although any time I remotely felt better, I worked on it for as long as I can...October 27th, I got the e-mail that said I was going to be an aunt the next day...It was then that i finally admitted that the blanket was not going to be finished before Emily arrived. I still worked on it in all of my free time but I just wanted it finished before Christmas, when they will be down to visit. So now, a month and a half after my niece was born...I finished the blanket...I finished the cross stitch and I finished the backstitching. I gave it to my mother to put a backing on it (I do NOT sew...). And so I was so proud of myself...but I forgot to take a picture of it...so now, you'll just have to take my word for it. :-)