Needle and ThREAD / First Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real!

Two linkups I've had my eye on for a while now and I'm joining in...

{pretty} 

Aren't these flowers lovely? Jen got them for me as a homecoming present! It was a lovely way to come back after over two weeks of being gone. 

{happy}

If I had one, I would put a picture of me reading this book in my husband's childhood bedroom, which is how I spent a good bit of Zuzu's naptime over vacation. But instead this lovely cover of it will have to do. I read it and wept and loved it - I still feel parts of it beating in my heart. Understand, koritsimou?

{funny} 
As I'm getting more into my creative side, I realized my mother thoughtfully gave me a great deal of her quilting stash for reasons unknown (it's not as if she's stopped being wonderfully creative!). I decided to tear through it and see what it contained. Well...now it's contents are all over my living room, but I'm really feeling the creative juices flowing!  {real} 

I wanted to put this under happy, even though it isn't. I've been working on a blanket for a friend: 

It's just a small baby blanket - sorry I'm not the best at taking pictures! Just about 45 x 60, basically a big pillow case with some batting in there too. 

Rose fabric for a sweet baby named Rose, then the other side is a brown Fall type pattern, since her spring and summer season has already ended and she has gone home to Christ. It's happy to be able to make something for a mother missing a baby, happy to be able to do something with my hands for someone else. But it's so real - so many lovely babies coming into the word, and others only being held by Mary and not their earthly mothers. 

O Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!