Tighty Whitey Trainers...

Connor is already 15 months old and seriously outgrowing his diapers. I did make him a handfull of diapers for night but his daytime collection is getting pretty sad looking (and pretty tight). I had made Emily a pair of fleece covers to wear with her regular underwear and decided maybe it's time to switch Connor into a more 'big boy' style of diapers....something that he could maybe wear from now until he potty trains.

I made him this cover...

But knew he needed more than just a fleece cover. Well, it is pretty cute but he's not even remotely interested in potty training. I didn't want to make fitted diapers because that felt like I was going backwards. I wandered into the bathroom - what a place for inspiration - I noticed the 2 foot pile of prefolds from when the kids where little little.  Hmmmm, someday I should really do something with those...what...something...hmmm. Take a prefold out to the dining room table, lay it out flat, and stare at it. Tap my finger to my lip and stare some more. A-HA!!! I love those moments where all of a sudden you start digging through fabric bins looking for things you know you have SOMEWHERE! 30 minutes later, this is what I came up with...

I should have used blue thread...then it really would have looked like a pair of tighty whiteys!!

Little Em's Necklace

Em loves to "help" me while I sew, usually it's holding onto the elastic anytime I'm trying to sew it into a seam. The other day I really had to get some orders out and Con was sleeping and she wanted to help. So I remembered some bags of buttons I'd picked up one day at Walmart and got out a blunt needle and some yarn and Em sat right up next to me at the sewing machine and made this...

 

...a sweet little button necklace in spring colors.

She loves it so much that it's been part of her daily wardrobe. The dress she's wearing was one of her Valentine's Day dresses. This one I made so she could wear it with jeans, used ribons around the neckline and made a keyhole opening in the back. I get so mad working with knits but she loves it so I'm happy! :)

Being lazy...

I've been lazy. Shane is out of town and I always feel blah when he's gone. At least this is a short trip and he'll be home early next week. I also have tons of pictures on my camera that I'm just too lazy to download and put up. Maybe tomorrow.  :)

To show how lazy I've been...yesterday I read the manual for my sewing machine (which I've never done). I'm not a directions kind of girl, more of a swing it and let's see what happens kind of girl. A lot of the information was really neat and I even ended up ordering a new foot that does invisible zippers. But I did have to laugh because in all of the pictures, it shows a woman sewing in high heels! I can't even sew wearing socks so I couldn't imagine how it would turn out if I had high heels on.

And since I see so many people say on blogs that every post should have a picture, I'll put one up from last summer (I haven't even downloaded pictures off of my camera for a couple of weeks). This is Emily and her uncle Mike having a race down the driveway (yes, Uncle Mike is 26 years old on a toddler bike).  :)

 

Lisa

The flu can bring out the best in motherood...

Reading through blogs the other day, I read this blog from V and Company. I laughed so hard I had to leave the computer halfway through to compose myself. I loved it that she was sharing a normal part of every family's life (those stories we normally don't want others to know about how normally weird we all all!).

Emily had the flu this week and didn't settle down the other night until 4 o'clock in the morning giving me about 2 hours of sleep (and I'm a girl who needs her sleep!). When the alarm went off at 6 a.m., I came downstairs to use the bathroom, washed my face and dragged my toothbrush and toothpaste out of the drawer. Being that it was still dark and I was still half asleep, I left the lights off to not blind myself into being fully awake and only had the light from the kitchen shining in. Once I started brushing my teeth, it only took me about 15 seconds to fully wake up and realize that I was brushing my teeth with DESITIN.

It's probably a good thing that the kids were still sleeping because after some of the words that came out of my mouth, I probably should have washed it out with soap. And like all good, compassionate, empathic partners, Shane laughed his butt off at my spitting and choking and told me at least I wouldn't have to worry about anything sticking to my teeth that morning. I now have a new toothbrush also....

Sewing Skirts

I've been sitting on some yardage of Amy Butler Lotus Wall Flower Cherry material for quite some time and not quite sure what to do with it. For Christmas, I got the book, "Heather Ross Weekend Sewing." I absolutely love this book, there are so many fun projects in there. I finally decided to make the yard sale wrap skirt and was very happy with the results.


My little one, who is in LOVE with skirts and dresses right now, kept bringing me the finished skirt and saying, "ME TOO" so I made her a little drop waist twirl skirt. I'm very proud of myself as they was an original pattern by me!

Homemade Christmas

Time has really flown and I can't believe that it's the end of the year already. Connor turned one earlier in December and Emily turned 3 yesterday. Both kids really really enjoyed christmas. Emily is such a wonderful present opener. Even when she was opening Connor's gifts she would squeal with delight and state "OH WOW." Below are some of the gifts I made for the kids. Three pairs of new jammies for Connor, one gown for Emily along with a dress with leggings and a new purse. The purse is probably her favorite gift since before we leave the house, everything that is important to her at the time goes into the purse!





The pajamas are a pattern from Ottobre 6/2009 book. I'd never worked with ribbing before but love how they turned out...so did Connor and Emily. The dress and leggings I couldn't find a pattern I liked so I sketched out a quick bodice and added a skirt to it and the leggings were super simple to just draw out, cut, and sew.

The purse is reversible with a coordinating pocket on both sides. I also made some grocery totes but didn't get a picture before they were all given as gifts.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It snowed!!! It is absolutely beautiful outside. Actually it's still snowing this morning. Schools are canceled and that really freed up our day. This afternoon we had an appointment at the school to write Emily IEP, a meeting with our pastor regarding Connor's baptism and the kids birthday pictures. The meeting has been rescheduled along with the pictures. Will have to call Pastor to see if he's still coming into town today. That gives me an entire morning to sew...at least in between refereeing the kids!

I really need to get Christmas sewing finished. Still have jammies to finish for the kids, Emily's new dress and gift bags for everything to be put into. Yesterday I finished a pair of jammies for Connor and am not sure what I was doing while putting on the ribbing around the collar but it is really stretched out and curly. So I will get to spend a while this morning pulling out all of those stitches...NOT fun to do on knit material.

Connor's baptism is also this weekend and I need to make his baptism gown...nothing like waiting until the last minute! I had hoped he could wear Emily's but my little bambino is quite the big little boy and is a little bigger than his sister was.

Blessing to all and I hope everyone (at least in our area) is enjoying the snow!