Good Morning

Good Morning, Macie. It's going to be a long couple years.

... pic is blurry because she is dancing...

lessons learned

I have been very inspired recently by Alexis at My Mama Made it. Everything she does is just amazing! I decided to take a chance at it myself, and this is my inspiration top, a woman's summer tank from Anthropologie:

What I ended up with is a lot of knowledge... I would construct this so differently if I did it again. Wow, I learned a lot.

1 - think through the steps... attach ruffles before you bind the arms
2 - cut the arms at a curve, not a 'v' - for comfort and easier sewing
3 - bias tape is a must for armholes. Already knew that one, but learned the lesson again anyway.
4 - remember that you lose 1/2" of length when you turn something under twice... ruffles are a lot smaller than I anticipated

5 - use a larger elastic for the 'bubble' effect at the bottom of the dress

6 - sew in a color my child will wear HAPPILY

All that being said, I am happy with the end result, and Emma thinks it's okay if she can wear tights with it. No objections here. I am really loving sewing with no patterns, not sure why, but it's sort of liberating in a way.

LOVING the little model pose!

I also love the color for the fall... now I just need to find a nice long sleeve shirt she can wear under it that matches the tights...

Also... thinking about separating family blog and crafts... I guess my holdup is what to name the darn thing. Any ideas? I am at a total loss!

happy girl

When Emma was born, I got a boppy nursing pillow... and she still sleeps with it. I had to buy a new one when I had Macie because Emma was NOT going to share hers. When she first started sleeping in bed with us, I thought it would be a good idea so she was a little protected from rolling parents. It then moved to the crib with her, and eventually her toddler bed. The only problem with it is the cases are so darn expensive, and she gets bloody noses at night that just ruins them. I hate that. So, when we were at Wal Mart, she saw some Dora fabric and begged me to take it home to sew it for her. Perfect for a pillowcase at $4 a yard - saving me a lot of money. It has made her a happy, happy girl!

She is in Macie's crib here because Macie got up earlier than her and Nick thought it would be a good idea to put her somewhere out of reach. Emma loves it because she can find Macie's binkie, so it works out for the both of them.

Lagoon

We went to Lagoon last week with the WHOLE James family and it was a really fun, long day. Macie was too little for most of the rides (we did take her on the Magic Kingdom train) and Emma refused to get near any, so they rode in the stroller most of the day. The highlight was the water, and we had a great time there!

Macie is a water girl - she would have stayed there all day if we let her.

Nick, Cavet and Jane all did the Sky Coaster together!

We didn't ride many other rides - Nick and I had to take turns so somebody could watch our girls... it was a great day anyway, and fun to be with the whole family. Again, just imagine we got a family picture together. I need to be better about that.

It's sew time...

I am so excited for this! My life is complete now...

Dinosaur Park

We got down to Ogden on Saturday evening and we went to Dinosaur Park with Matt & Jami's family. Emma loved to pick out what made each dinosaur special (long neck, tail, spikes, etc.) and Macie loved to eat the sand at the playground. I could have guessed that... We had a great time with the 'kids' Kynlee and Ambria.