Emma Olivia Staples

At 3:19pm, September 6, 2009, Chelsea gave birth to a beautiful baby girl at New York Hospital / Cornell Medical School (6 lbs 14 oz, 19 1/2 in. after 37 weeks). Mommy is doing great and our newest family addition is perfectly healthy.

Enjoy the pics...we're going to get some sleep (it's been 40+ hours).

The first bun is in the oven!

So, I know this comes really, really late! But I'm prego and due September 26th. We are having a girl, which those of you who know me, know that I couldn't be more excited! I am having all kinds of fun shoping for clothes, making dresses and have even planned out a cute little cocktail hat for the baby blessing. It's going to be tons of fun! So, I'll try and keep some updates coming to you. As of now, I'm feeling great. Just tired all the time...but that's normal. She kicks like crazy, so I've started calling her Mia (Hamm). But we are both very excited!

Mitzy Gaynor...need I say more?

I know it's been a while since I posted in general, but it wouldn't be a New York update without my latest Barnes and Noble celebrity book signing! My mom texted me about this one, so thanks mom! Mitzy Gaynor was at B & N to celebrate the Blue Ray release of South Pacific. All I can say is that she was fabulous! I don't know if you've ever seen some of her variety show from the 70's, but she was just as bubbly, energetic, and funny. She cracked jokes and made fun of everyone. I enjoyed listening to her tell stories of filming the movie. So here are pictures!

Ms. Gaynor answering questions and telling stories. You can tell my her coat and hand on her hip that she definately has personality!

We then got to hear the current actress of Broadway's current run of South Pacific sing "Happy Talk". She couldn't stay and sign books though because she had her stage call time 30 minutes afterwards. Luckily, it was just across the street. But power vocals!

hehehe! She signed my DVD cover and a book for my mom. I really want that coat!

These were the two actors that originated the role of Jerome in the 1949 Broadway cast. They were twins...and couldn't be more different. But they also signed my mom's book!

This fabulous lady originated the role of Ngana in the same cast. All had wonderful stories of working with Mary Martin and Rogers & Hammerstein.

yes...in this picture, you get to see the start of my prego belly!

There for the question and answer portion, were other members of the original Broadway cast and some of the revivals. It was fun to see them all.

Twilight Madness!

So I think everyone knows about my obcession with Twilight by now, but if you don't...I am addicted! It's really quite sad, but I don't care. I love the books! I just get engrossed in them and can't seem to get enough of them. I know I am 25 years old...and married...but I have embraced my Twilighter heart and proclaim is proudly! Yes! That means that I wear my Twilight T-shirt to Twilight movie premiers!

hehehe

Bryant was a great sport and went to the movie with me! Actually my friend Becky managed to get her husband there as well. We married great, understanding men. I think they may have even enjoyed it...a little.

Anyway. Loved the movie! It was a great adaptation of the book. While there a few things I missed, I left very satisfied with the way things turned out. When I went home over Christmas, you could see it for $5 if you went before 4:00...so we did...5 more times which brings my total to 6. That's kid's stuff compared to my mom and Michaela, but I tried. Plus it just made for great mother-daughter-sister bonding.

Final Projects for FIT

So as many of you know, I am taking classes at the Fashion institute of Technology (FIT)! I love every moment of it. Well, before Christmas we finished our final projects and I thought everyone would like to see my creations. The first is for my Draping class. Think Project Runway. We basically take a flat piece of fabric and pin it to a dress form and create a piece of clothing. Here is a dress I did. It had to be a dress out of striped fabric with a fitted bodice and flared skirt. I got an A!

Here is the front view. It was an empire dress with a white sash to cinch it tight. I tried to make it modest. That was hard. It's hard to get creative when a sleeve is involved, but I think it turned out great for my first attempt at draping an entire garment. The rest of the semester, we only draped half and out of muslin and not a stripe. This posed some difficulties, but I think it turned out cute.

With the up close view, you can see the center stripe. I had to sew all the white portions closed so you could only see the green color. It took forever! It was supposed to go all the way down the back too, but my eyes were crossed about 2 am so it ended at the waist.

Here's the back view

And me with the dress. I was so glad to have it over and done with.

This is my millinery collection. I also took a hat making class. We learned to mold and shape the wool felt on hat blocks. My collection was based on the colors pink, black, white, and grey. Can you tell? I loved my hats! This was my favorite class, by far because of all the creative juices that got flowing through my fingers. Each hat fits my head and hopefully I will get to wear them around for a while. They are all hand shaped and sewn...no machine was ever used, much to my chagrin sometimes. But they turned out beautiful. My teacher went through each collection and talked about where they would belong in the retail world. Mine fell into the couture hats that would be sold at Saks 5th avenue for around $1,000-$2,000! I about died! But what a compliment, so here is my moment of bragging.

My very first beret. It was an easy hat, but cute and goes great with my black pea coat.

My second hat. It was a great cream wool and then I hand beaded pearls all over. It look so elegant.

My very first draped felt hat. It started out looking like a domed piece of wool felt and I shaped it over a block and then pulled in the folds. I sewed the brim on separately and tilted it down in the front. It is bound with sating and has feathers and a cute rhinestone broach in front. I love this hat! It's chic.

This was hat project number two. We had to drape two hats simultaneously and cut out the same shapes. Then sew the cut outs into the opposite hat. So this one got the black flowers and the black hat (below) got this one's gray flowers. I then added 3 dementionalness to it by sewing another flower on top of it.

This is the sister hat to the gray one. It took a long time for inspiration to strike on this one, but I really like the end product. I beaded the white flowers and the band so it has a ritzy bowler feel to it. The feathers and beads just make me smile.

This was just a random extra hat that I wanted to do. This is the back view. Bryant thought it looked like a pug nosed dog, until he found out it was the back! I love him dearly...but I love this hat too.

This is my happy hat! It's totally me, but I don't know that I have the courage to wear it out yet, but I love it none-the-less. It's a wide brimmed fabulous hat!

This is the back view of another hat that is a big statement. It has the wide brimmed front and short back. I love this one too! Ok, I guess I love all my hats. Its just such a fun talent and skill to have. I really want to take a shoe class too, but I don't know if I will ever be able to. Next semester I am going to learn to work with straws and buckram frames.

This is my white blouse from the Pattern making class. This was what originally got me to FIT. I always wanted to learn this and I am going after it.

For this project, my teacher bought a blouse and we had to create an exact replica of it. This is my attempt at that. It actually fits me too! So I wore it home for Christmas. I want to make a black and white Hounds tooth skirt to match it, but that will take a little while.

Here's the back view.

So...stay tuned for next semesters exploits. I am taking another pattern making and millinery class and starting the Haute Couture classes. I can't wait!