Hello Old Friend

Ok so my commitment to blogging was rather short lived and quite pathetic.  It was kind of like a craft project to me.  And I often start them and then not finish them.  I've got a grocery bag full of half finished projects.  Very sad.  O well.  Anyways I'm going to try and start things up again.  This truly could be a great outlet for me!  I try to talk about my projects and my love of sewing with people but lets be honest.  Most people don't sew anymore!  So its hard to find someone else who can relate or are as excited about it as I am.  So here I can talk(write) about it as much as I want to!

First I am going to start with a little update on me and my family.  Six months ago we moved.  We moved right down the street from my sister.  And I've loved being so close to her!  I don't know what I would do without her.  But unfortunately things haven't worked out here.  I am very sad about that!  I won't go into details because I've already been a pretty poor sport about it all!  Thankfully our landlord is AWESOME! He had another home open up and he offered it to us.  What a great guy!  So we have spent the last couple months fixing it up and will be moving in soon.  Hopefully within the next week or two!  Its all been so overwhelming and I am so sad that I won't be right down the street from my sister anymore but we are looking forward to a bigger yard, awesome hardwood floors(thanks to my husbands handywork) and a bigger kitchen and more space to store stuff.  So I'm sad and excited at the same time.  Despite the stress of this my family is doing pretty well.  We are all healthy(well christian broke his finger).  My husband and I recently celebrated our fifth anniversary! 

Despite all of the craziness around here I have manage to fit in some sewing.  Not much but a little.  I have yet to take pictures of the finished products so I will try to do that soon and then put the pictures up.  Mostly I've been working on clothing for Maggie.  A couple dresses and skirts for the spring and summer.  I did make a pair of pants for Alex which he loves.  But boys are hard to sew for! 

And I've started a couple projects fromthis awesome book!  If you are at all into sewing I would check it out!  It has some really adorable patterns.  I made a doll from the eddie pattern in the book.  Here is a picture of hers.  Its like a thousand times better than mine but Alex loved it anyways and took off with it before I could even finish his face.  Maggie calls it the naughty doll because in the book it shows eddie sitting next to some crayons in front of a drawn on wall. 

Well hopefully next time I post I will have pictures to show you! 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

New

I haven't written here in a while.  I'm not very good about this I guess. Oops.  And the problem is that when you wait so long there are many many things to talk about and it is really hard to choose what you want to talk about.  I don't want this blog to be all scatterbrained and crazy.  So I guess I will talk about just two things.  Here goes...

Has anyone here ever been on a diet?  I just started one this past week.  And I must say that I mostly hate it.  Sorry.  I guess it will take some getting used to.  I really want it to be a life change but dang it I miss my mac and cheese and mashed potatoes so bad.  And sadly its only been 4 days.  I really thought chocolate and ice cream and stuff like that were going to be the hardest stuff to give up but no.   On the positive side I have lost weight.  I'm pretty sure that if I had stepped on the scale and had seen no changes I would have said SCREW IT and went to KFC.  Thank the Lord that is not what happened.  Instead stepping on the scale was motivation to carry on.  Oh and in case you are wondering( I would be if I were u)  I have at least 40 lbs to lose.  Almost takes my breath away when I say it aloud.  But that would bring me back to pre-kid weight.  If I am feeling really ambitious once I get there I will go for the extra 10 lbs.  Hmmm.

Oh and Also I've started to exercise!  Woo hoo!  Guys this is really sad though.  A three mile WALK is HARD for me.  Ugh!  Honestly I cried after the first time because I was sooooo mad at myself for allowing myself to ever get this overweight and this out of shape.  But then I picked myself up and told myself tomorrow would be better.  AND IT WAS!  lol A little positive thinking goes a long way I suppose.  And... even more exciting than that was that I spoke to my neighbor that lives two doors down from me for the first time EVER while out for a stroll.  We've live this close to each other for about 3 yrs now but I'm hopelessly shy and have a hard time small talking with total strangers :(  Wish I was better at that.

And for something fun...  I made a dress and a baby doll diaper bag for my friends daughter's birthday(whew that was a mouthful dontcha think?)  I hope she likes them.  She even posed for me so that I could get a nice picture of her hugging her gifts.  I so badly want to post that pic but I have yet to ask her mommy and daddy if that is OK.  So for now I will just post pics I took pre-party.

This is the diaper bag(obviously right?).  And as you can see I used 2 different denims.  I could lie and say it was on purpose.  BUT nope.  Totally accidental.  I ran out of the first denim :(  But luckily I had some pre-washed denim.  And although it didn't turn out the way I had hoped it is 10 times better than the horrible walmart ones that are teeny tiny and useless. 

And this is the dress.  I used the same tutorial for this one that I used for Maggie's dress that I already blogged about.  It was windy and therefore quite difficult to get a good picture.  But that thing in the middle of it is a cupcake applique with ruffle frosting and red button(for the cherry).  I was quite in love with it and wanted to keep it for Maggie.  O well.

And Maggie wanted to keep the diaper bag... Poor Elyssa almost didn't get birthday presents from us.  ;) 

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week!  Pray that I can keep up with my diet and exercise and that I lose more weight!  Thanks

Bri Bee

Christmas in July?

So I'm starting to make Christmas gifts already. Sounds crazy but when you want to do a "handmade holiday" You need to start early. Last year before Christmas was insane for me! Way to many projects going and not nearly enough time. And who wants to be sleep deprived and stressed out during the holiday season. I'd much rather enjoy myself. BUT I keep getting distracted :( While I should be working on all of the other projects I'm working on something fun for Maggie. She told me she wanted a baby carrier. So I started and finished it today.

OK well not completely finished but almost.  I made the straps REALLY long.  I always go overboard with that kind of thing.  But anyways I'll have her try it on tomorrow and then cut the straps accordingly.  The color scheme is blinding.  I know.  But I let Maggie choose and this was it.  She knows what she wants!  It is made like a Mei Tei carrier.  And it is a bit rough as I didn't use a pattern and Have never made one of these.  And I padded the straps so that it would be a little more sturdy and despite the crazy colors I think the padding makes it look more like the real thing.

This is a started project.  It will be a newborn gown.  I can't finish it yet because I don't have enough fabric for the sleeves.  I cut these pieces from a t-shirt of mine.  I loved this shirt but it was way to small for me. Anyways hopefully it will be a nice gift for a little boy. 

And the other Christmas project I am working on I don't have any pictures for :(  But I'm using this tutorial for a fabric alphabet magnets.  I love this one and will probably make 2 sets.  One for my niece and one for my own daughter.  It is a great way to get rid of some scraps of fabric.

And one more exciting thing happened.  Grandpa Ed(Maggie calls him Grandpa head)  Brought these books for me.

They came from Snook :)  And I'm so grateful for them.  I'm sure that I will put them to good use!  I'm especially happy about the needle crafts book. 

OH and one more thing!  I need to take a moment to praise my hubby.  Last night I went to bed REALLY late.  Much later than usual.  And then the kids woke up REALLY early.  Go figure.  And I was just having a rough day in general (we all have those right?)  Anyways I think he could tell that too from talking to me on the phone.  While he was at work he found babysitters for the kids so that we can have a date night tomorrow.  Isn't that sweet?  He knew just what I needed.  

I am so blessed to have such a great husband and family :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Bri Bee 

Edit:

Here is a picture of Maggie with the carrier.  Please excuse the bed head.  We just woke up :) By the time I got the camera out I couldn't get her to smile nicely. But when I showed it to her and let her try it on this morning she was smiling from ear to ear!

She tells me she was smelling her babies head.  Two pictures later she informed me that she was done taking pictures like a spoiled model or something.  Gees.  Its a good thing she is so cute.  

Baby brother is now demanding one.  I get to pic the fabric this time :)

Another day, Another Dress

My daughter LOVES dresses.  We have a dress for just about everyday of the week and when given a choice 95% of the time she will pick a dress.  And to mix it up a bit she might throw on a pair of jeans or shorts or maybe even a skirt underneath it.  Her "sense of style" is a constant source or entertainment for me. 

Just recently this lovely tutorial became available.  I love making stuff for my little girl and this dress was irresistible.  Seriously!  And I used all stuff that I had on hand!  So no trip to the craft store (actually I'm a little sad about that)  I just raided my hubby's t-shirts.  And I found a lightly used t-shirt that he had 3 of!  Who needs three of the EXACT SAME SHIRT!?  No variation in color or anything...  I cut into it and immediately felt guilty.  I should have asked my wonderful husband.  But in the end he is such a great guy.  Turns out that they weren't all the exact same.  I unknowingly picked the one that was not the right size.  But even before figuring that out he was not even a tiny bit mad at me.  He is much nice than I because I know that if he just went digging through my clothing and cut up one of my shirts I would be upset! 

SOOOOO I have two pictures of this dress and neither of them are very good.  One is a rear view because Maggie was in no mood to stop long enough for a photo and the other is after it was worn and it is all wrinkly.  Also I haven't quite figured out how to embellish it.  Any suggestions?  Fabric flower?  A splash of fabric paint??  Some embroidery?  I Just can't decide.  I picked this particular shirt not only because there were 3 of them but because it was be so "easy" to embellish but now there are too many options and I like all of the options :(   Typical me... I can't make up my mind. 

Here it is from behind on an ugly Sat morning on the way to the Myerstown farmers Market.

And here it is from the front :)  The pictures do not do it justice.  It is quite cute on her.  But oh well.  I will try bribing with candy the next time so that I can get a better picture.  I plan on making several of these!  Perhaps even some as gifts.  Even if I have to buy a shirt to make it I can still do it for well under $5.  Gotta love that.

Quick note about the farmers market that I previously mentioned.  It is new.  And how very disappointing!  The produce was very expensive!  and there were only 6 or so vendors.  Even so my husband couldn't resist this lovely jar of yummy goodness.

I will admit that I was excited because it is local.  I'm kind of a sucker for local goods and handmade stuff.  Can anyone blame me? 

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week!

Bri Bee

Result of changed plans

So as I was saying earlier... things never go as planned.  Sometimes they go mostly as planned but not exactly as planned.  Tomorrow night was supposed to be girls night out and it was to celebrate some birthdays.  I was going to spend tonight making birthday gifts.  Unfortunately girls night was cancelled. 

So the good news is that because girls night was cancelled I have more time to work on birthday gifts and could therefore push that off for another day.  And so tonight I made this instead.

I got to make the baby shoes after all.  :)  What is awesome is the very small amount of fabric needed for this project.  So I was able to use some scraps for this.  Some deliciously soft cotton inside and some cute but more durable canvas on the outside.  :)  I wish that my top stitching was a little more straight but I can live with the results.

Hope everyone enjoys their Friday!  I'm thinking about getting my nose pierced but I can already feel myself chickening out...

God bless!

Bri Bee

Babyshower gift

Anyone that knows me knows that I love babies and all things baby.  So I get all excited and giddy when I get invited to a baby shower because it means that I get to make a baby gift!  And every time I go to make a gift for someone I have this grand idea of what the gift will look like and how elaborate it will or won't be and how many pieces etc etc... 

 This time I bought "The Happiest Baby On the Block" DVD because it is awesome.  I watched it when my second baby was a couple weeks old and I swear by it!  My oldest son who was 10 at the time watched this DVD and it was so simple to follow that Christian was able to follow the techniques too.  And not only were the techniques easy to follow but THEY WORKED!!!!  I can not say enough good stuff about it!

Anyways...  I got the DVD and was going to just give her that but then I thought about how hard it was for me to find a proper swaddling sheet.  You couldn't purchase them in any stores near me and the ones online were VERY nice but no affordable.  Not for me anyways.  So I decided to make a swaddling sheet to go with the DVD.  And then while I was shopping for the fabric I thought that it would be nice to make a matching set...  SOOO I decided to make burp clothes to go with it.  And THEN I thought wouldn't it be wonderful to make a nice pair of tiny baby booties to go with it!!!!

As usual nothing goes as planned.  Because the swaddling blanket is fairly large it took me longer to hem than I thought it would.  I went with 42" by 42".  You probably think that is huge for a baby blanket but you will have to trust me.  A couple weeks after your child is born the only thing those napkin sized receiving blankets will be good for is well a napkin or maybe a changing pad...  But you probably already have a changing pad...

So then the burp clothes were easy but when it was all said and done I just didn't have enough time for baby shoes.  They are tiny but tedious :(  I really wanted to make them but I will have to save it for another day.   I did have about another hour so I decided to make a nice pouch to put it all in.

Here is the swaddling blanket and the DVD with my shadow.  lol I don't see professional photography in my future.  O well.  You get the idea though.  The blanket is folded twice.

Here is the burp cloth.  I got the idea here.  She has a tutorial which was very kind of her!  This was easy peasy and practical and cute.  I wish I had thought to do this instead of carrying around my boring plain cloth diapers.  I had cute ones from the store but they weren't absorbent enough. 

 

Here it is all next to each other.  And here is the tutorial for the pouch thing if you need one.  This is the second one that I made and I love it.  But its just a tote with one handle lol so if you have some sewing experience you probably don't need a tutorial.    I like the whole  one handle idea because it is a nice pouch to hang on a door knob or a hook somewhere.  You can use them to collect your kids little toys or books or whatever.

And here it is all tucked in the pouch together.  Although I'm sad that I didn't have time for shoes I am very happy with the pouch which will be used instead of a gift bag.  And it has a cute pocket which is just the right size to hold the card :)  Now I hope the mommy to be will enjoy it.

What do you think?

Have a great evening everyone!

BriBee

Birth Story (a day late)

Let me start by saying that this post is off to a rough start.  I am thoroughly irritated!!!  I started off looking for the pictures on my computer and then freaked when I couldn't find them.  Only to remember that I had them all on a Kodak Picture cd.  So then I located that.  Then I had to figure out how to use the dang pictures.  I ended up having to download software because I couldn't figure out how to do it without it.  GRRRRR!  I am so annoyed with it all.  But in the end I'm thrilled and I have really enjoyed browsing all of the lovely pictures of my darling Maggie when she was a newbie :)

Ok so I'm not going to write my whole birth story because it is really long but I would like to share some pictures of the day my life changed.  :)

Ok this is not actually the day.  This is the day after a failed induction.  Yep you heard me right.  Failed induction.  Until this day I did not even know that there was such a thing.  Yikes.  That sucked.  This is my REALLY dissapointed face.  It is no fun sleeping all not in the hospital hearing other babies being born  and knowing that you are going to have to go home the next morning still pregnant.

This is moments after she was born.  I have other "better" pictures but they well all rather inapropriate.  Well honestly I don't mind if everyone sees them but I know that not everyone wants to see that.  lol.  ANYWAYS... Look how happy my husband is!  That is the best part of this picture :) 

And here she is!  Awwww  The first thing that I noticed was her dimples!  lol.  I still remember how she felt when they handed her to me.  So warm and a little wet still but so very soft. 

Its hard to see her all bundled but this is one of our first breastfeeding sessions.  I'm so glad my husband took this.  It was such a beautiful moment.  BUT can you see how freaking swollen I was.  Gees.  I felt like I would pop.  I remember being in the hospital and thinking that even my eyelids and eyeballs felt swollen.  That was aweful.

And this is my absolute favorite picture of Maggie as a baby.  It was her first night and she was laying in her hospital basinet and she looked right at me.  It was perfect.