The North Remembers

We spent this past weekend in Miami for our friends Joe and Natalie’s wedding! (You may recognize my friend Joe from this blog as my occasional guest photographer… in actuality he is one of my best friends from college.) The wedding was so much fun and we were overjoyed to be able to celebrate with them! Congrats Joe & Natalie!

Will, Julius and I flew into PBI since flights were cheaper and direct, then drove down to Miami. On the way to Miami we stopped at a Walmart to pick up some disposable diapers for Julius (first time we’ve used disposables in months!) while Will & Julius sat in the car. There was a grandmotherly looking woman in the diaper section sitting at a podium advertising Pampers Pure. I thought she might be giving out samples or coupons, which would be fortuitous for the one time I buy diapers in 4 months, so I sidled over. She must have thought I was a creeper without a child because I had to ask her what she was advertising. She handed me a fact sheet of paper (great…) then asked if I had a child. I said, “yep, he’s in the car, I just came in to grab some diapers quickly”. I swear her jaw dropped, and a look of horror spread over her face. I could almost see the gears turning; it was 86 degrees out and she must think I left Julius in the sweltering car. So I quickly amended, “he’s with my husband, in the air conditioning”. I kid you not, she almost fainted from relief. Her only response was, “can you even imagine?!” Clearly I could not imagine any such thing, or I wouldn’t have said to her “I left my son in the car” with no follow up. After that incredibly uncomfortable conversation I didn’t even get any free diapers. On the bright side though I also didn’t have to discuss my phrasing with the police.

On a lighter note, my co-worker Roger requested another project. Unfortunately he requested this project about 5 days before my maternity leave ended, and if you’ve been reading my blog you know that the days aren’t as long as they used to be. So 5 months later I finally finished it! One of the managers in our group works on a part of a product that made her declare in a meeting “I am the manager of the North”. That sparked a lot of discussion among all the Game of Thrones fans in my group. Roger then asked me to make a “Manager of the North Banner”. After a few iterations someone asked me to add a pineapple (that’s a longer story).

Here’s what I came up with:

This is actually the most complex embroidery pattern I have designed. In addition, I started over several times due to computer issues and suggestions from co-workers. I’m pretty happy with how it came out though. If you want the pattern, feel free to send me an email or write me a comment and I’ll send it your way. Otherwise, you can screen print, stencil, or embroider whatever you want on your banner. Below are the instructions on how to construct it!