We did it, we did it, we did it - HOORAY!

Anyone with young girls will appreciate the Dora reference in the title. That is how I feel today. I made it through my first week home alone with both girls and here's the kicker... I managed to get a shower every single day! In the morning, too... not waiting until Scott got home like I had to do to get a shower when I had Taelyn. I feel very accomplished in my career as a mom! The past two nights have been BAD with Lillian, but I've managed not to zombie around the house. When you have a precious 3-year old for motivation, it's easier to conjure up that strength for her sake. I've implemented "Taelyn-time" this week, which is just set time that Taelyn has to play by herself in her room. This gives me a little quiet time during my day. We have also taken walks around the neighborhood with our new handy-dandy sit and stand stroller (more to follow). This morning we made homemade pancakes (or pancircles as Taelyn calls them), we gave the baby a bath, we caught up on the ever-famous royal wedding, and we gave Doughnut a bath. Giving the dog a bath is the last thing on Earth I wanted to do after not getting much sleep last night, but Taelyn REALLY wanted to so I gave in. Now we will have naptime in 2 hours and a little play time this afternoon and then daddy will be home for the weekend!!

I am excited because I am going to see Water for Elephants tomorrow. I think that I will probably be going by myself, but I don't care. It will be 2 hours of pure bliss where I can get lost in a movie! I talked my BFF, Haylie (previously mentioned), into reading the book this week so that we could go see the movie together in a few weeks when she and her family come to visit. So she read the book in about 1.5 hours (which is typically how she reads books) and then called and said that she couldn't wait that long to see the movie and she was going without me this weekend. What a friend, huh?! So I figure I'll go see it by myself this weekend too and will enjoy every minute of the alone time!

Okay, now I want to do a follow-up to yesterday's "I'm not a fan" post. This is the "I'm a HUGE fan of:" post! So, here it is. I'm sure this will be an ongoing list as well.

I'm a HUGE fan of:

#1: The Joovy Caboose sit and stand stroller - We found this at Hudson's a few weeks before Lillian was born for a great price. I had decided not to get one and that Taelyn was just old enough to walk when we go somewhere, but this was such a good price so we went ahead and purchased it. And I am so glad that we did. I used it yesterday for the first time to walk around the block and it was wonderful! Taelyn could sit on the bench seat in the back, or stand on the platform. She was able to jump on and off as she wanted to and it really was wonderful. It is also very easy to steer. I haven't folded it up yet to go in the car, so I'll have to keep you posted on that aspect. Everything else I really liked about it though.

#2: The Boppy lounger. I had the regular Boppy pillow (the intertube looking thing) with Taelyn and I never used it. I pulled it back out to use with Lillian and I still haven't used it. Scott has used it more than me! But the Boppy lounger I love!! Haylie let me borrow this (as well as a whole myriad of other items) and I have used it so much. It is great to prop Lillian up in. She likes being able to sit in it and look around and what is going on around her!

#3: The Snuggle Nest: which Haylie also let me borrow (okay, I guess all of this stuff that I am using of hers makes up for the whole movie bit). This is like a little bed that you can take with you. I think the real purpose of it is if you want your baby to sleep in the bed with you (which we don't), but I have this inside her bassinet and she sleeps really well in it. It also has this wonderful nightlight on it. The first few nights we slept with Scott's closet light on, but it was way too much light. I realized that I could just turn on this little nightlight when I needed to change and feed Lillian during the night and it was the perfect amount of light. Love it!

I'll keep this list going! I have to find some laundry to do or something else to keep me busy now or I am going to fall asleep sitting straight up.

Things I am not a fan of...

This is a list of things that I am not a fan of:

#1: Baby Grunting - Lillian is a grunter. I'm not talking about the occasional grunt when she is pooping. I'm saying this girl is a hardcore grunter. Last night she grunted constantly from 1am until about 4:30 am when she finally fell into a deep sleep. Then began grunting again at 5:15am. Not a good night for us. I've been googling baby grunting and there is a myriad of reasons why she may be grunting, including: gas, immature abdominal muscles, not knowing how to work muscles together at the same time to pass gas correctly, constipation, and on and on and on. She has regular dirty diapers so I know that it isn't constipation, but I guess it could be one of the other ideas that I mentioned. That is what I've narrowed it down to at least. I tried everything I knew to try last night: nursing - she finally got to the point where she just wouldn't open up anymore! She didn't want to eat, I tried mylecon and that didn't seem to help, I swaddled and reswaddled (see below), I rubbed her back and her belly, I tried to get her to take her pacifier and she wouldn't, and finally I just stared at her. The solution for grunting (according to the all-knowing internet) is that there is no solution. They just have to grow out of it. GREAT! So no sleep for me until Lillian learns to use her muscles in sync to be able to pass gas. Fabulous! If any of you readers have a grunter and have any advice, I'm all ears.

#2: Babies busting out of the swaddle - I consider myself to be a good swaddler. When I swaddle Lillian she is wrapped up tightly like a little baby burrito and I think to myself, "Huh... see if you can get out of that one." And 20 minutes of grunting later I look over to see that little hand waving all over the place in a very uncoordinated manner. So frustrating. I used the velcro "swaddle me" blanket with Taelyn and that worked well, but Lillian isn't big enough for it yet. Her legs barely make it into the pouch. And my BFF, Haylie, let me borrow her miracle blanket, which I decided to try last night, but she isn't big enough for that one yet either. She sleeps fine during the day when she isn't swaddled. Those arms just lay peacefully up near her face or by her side. But boy, when it gets dark outside, its like the arms grow minds of their own. They won't just lay peacefully and let my baby sleep. They are all over her face, in her eyes and mouth... it truly is amazing!

That is all I can think of right now. As of now, everything else "baby" I am a fan of. This child is so incredibly sweet. I'll keep you posted if any other things pop up on my "not a fan of" list!

Taelyn and Lillian

Okay... everyone keeps asking if Taelyn and Lillian look alike. One of the first comments I made after Lillian was born was, "she looks nothing like Taelyn." Then when we got home Scott pulled up these pictures! See for yourself:

 

Taelyn

Lillian

I definitely see differences between the two, especially with the hair and their size. Taelyn was almost a full pound larger than Lillian, which makes her look more filled out. However, I see a lot more similarities than I initially gave them credit for. 

I can already tell that they are different in personality. However, I feel that a lot of this has to do with me. I was so tense with Taelyn that I'm sure she fed off of that. I am MUCH more laid back with Lillian. Taelyn cried a lot as a newborn... and infant. Lillian barely ever cries. When she does she just cries out once or twice to get someone's attention and then it's over. Once Taelyn got started crying there was nothing you could do to pacify her. You just had to wait it out. Taelyn also didn't want anything touching her hands. She wouldn't hold your finger the way most infants will. She would draw her hands up in a fist and hold them close to her if you tried to touch her hands at all. Lillian is really cuddly so far. I am hoping that she will be my cuddly baby!

One very neat thing about both of my babies... Taelyn was born exactly a week and a half before Easter in 2008 and Lillian was born exactly a week and a half before Easter this year. This is why they are both wearing the bunny outfit above during our first week home with them! Sweet Easter babies! I'll continue to post pictures as we get a little bigger!

Changes in our household!

So... the big news here is that we added a new little mouth to feed to our household! Lillian Noel was born on Tuessday, April 12. I went in on Monday for my regular check and had some good progression and was a tad low on amniotic fluid. So my doctor asked me if I wanted to meet her the next morning at the hospital to have a baby! Did I want to??? I could have hugged her I was so happy. So the next morning we went in early and had a very good day that ended with a sweet angel being born! Things went very quickly, thank goodness, and Lillian was born at 12:26pm. She was 19.5 inches long and weighed 6.5 lbs. April 12 was the perfect day for her to be born. First, she shares a birthday with my mother-in-law, who is just thrilled about it! Also, Taelyn's birthday is March 12 and my birthday is August 12, so it will be easy for my husband to remember!! As long as he can get the months right!! Here is a picture of her right after she was born.

Sweet eyes! We are still shocked that she has dark hair!

Meeting Lillian for the first time! Love this moment.

Taelyn seeing her new little sister for the first time!

BEAUTIFUL girl!

My sweet girls! I am so excited that Taelyn has a sister!

Since we got home, things have been GREAT! And I do not use that word lightly. Any of you that were around when I had Taelyn know how completely crazy I was. Crying all the time, feeling mentally unstable, and not having a clue how to take care of baby were just a few of the things that I dealt with. I had never been around babies at all and I was really overwhelmed by all of it. Taelyn was not a good sleeper, so I was also having to deal with all of that on top of no sleep. I was worried that those same feelings would present themselves this time around.

However, I have felt like a completely different person. I know that it is just feeling more comfortable being a mom and knowing what to do with a baby. But it is nice not having the fog to deal with. Lillian's nights and days are a little messed up, but I feel like I have dealt with it really well. I know going into each night that I am not going to be getting much sleep and that helps. It makes me thankful for any amount that I get. I've been praying at night, not for sleep, but just for the patience and strength to deal with no sleep. Meaning: Not being mean to my husband in the middle of the night. Or thinking ill thoughts toward him as he is able to sleep soundly through all of the baby noises!! I have seen that the newborn days do pass. I've been through that before. So now I know that it will get better! And I can try to enjoy these days instead of just wishing them away! 

Taelyn is being a really sweet sister. She has adjusted so well. I know that we will have up days and down days with her as we learn to deal with shared mommy/daddy time, jealousy and all that... but so far it has been fine! She loves being a big helper! Taelyn helps with diapers and putting clothes on. She is still trying to figure out nursing though ... it has been a little comical! Taelyn put one of her teddy bears up to her belly button the other day and said that she was feeding the bear her milk. Pretty funny. I can imagine that would be a little difficult for a 3 year old to wrap their mind around. She is starting to just accept that is how Lillian eats though, so hopefully the questions will drop off about it soon!

I'll end this post with Lillian's life verse and our prayer for her:

"But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds." 

Making Things...

Guess what??? Taelyn actually wore the dress that I made for her to church on Sunday!! And I got compliments on it. I was so excited. I, of course, thought it was cute, but you know how partial you can be when you spend time on something like that. Here is a picture of her in the dress when I was trying it on her at home:

I have some of that blue flowered fabric left, so I am going to make a matching something for Lillian. I hope to get it done before she is born, because I'm pretty sure it won't get finished if I wait!

This is something else that we threw together recently. My sister-in-law gave us this frame about a year ago and it has been in our storage room. We painted it red with the same color that is in our kitchen and I backed it with this cute khaki paisley fabric and hung it up to serve as a dry erase board. My husband has a love/hate relationship with his "to do" list! It definitely helps him get things done when he has a list glaring at him everyday, but I'm not sure that he likes it so much! Anyhow, it turned out cute and it goes well in our kitchen.

I'll keep you posted on when we have a new baby in the house!

Ready!

I finally finished Lilli's painting. I kept adding and covering and touching up until I finally just gave up and called it "finished!" Still not completely satisfied with it, but if I'm being honest I would have to say that I just don't care as much about the nursery as I did the first go around. When I was having Taelyn I felt like her nursery had to be perfect. I think because I didn't know what the joy of actually having the baby would be like and the room was something tangible that I could prepare for. However, this time around I know what to expect. And I have to say that I am much more excited about getting the actually baby out of her current living quarters and into our house!! The nursery has been in the back of my mind this entire pregnancy. She has bedding, a place to change/store diapers and clothing. And a glider rocker. We are set. And I am ready - physically and mentally! So... not as concerned with a Pottery Barn look-a-like for a nursery this time. This is a picture of the painting.

This weekend I am going on a women's retreat with my church. I am really excited about it. Hopefully getting away for a day and immersing myself in God's word and surrounding myself with His people will rejuvinate me! I am pretty worn out mentally and physically at this point.

Did I mention that tomorrow is my last day of teaching... not just for this school year... but for awhile. I will definitely return to teaching one day, but we are planning on me being a stay-at-home mom indefinitely at this point. So, after school tomorrow, not only do I get to turn my alarm off, I get to delete it! I am really excited about it. Unless we have a baby before then I have plans to attend the bible study at church that I used to go to when I was staying at home after Taelyn was born. I also plan to take Taelyn to preschool story time at the library. Oh, and hair cuts! I'm so excited to get my hair cut (not that I couldn't do this while teaching, but I've just been putting it off!).

Counting down the hours at this point until I return to my previous status of "stay-at-home mom!" So excited!!!

NOT A PAINTER

Okay, so I'm not a painter. I had fun doing it, but I'm not good at it. And I am big enough to admit that about myself. I posted a picture of Lillian's canvas (to hang above her bed) earlier this week. It looked too... solid... to me. Does that even make sense? The colors were too bright and the lines were too straight. There was just something I didn't like about it. So a few nights ago I decided to go through and add some white to it. I did what I have always done when I have attended classes at Easely Amused - I made it "whimsical" as the teachers there like to call it. In short - I messed it up. BADLY! See for yourself:

So last night I attempted to fix it. I wanted that stark white gone... so I went over a lot of it with brown. And continued to just make the thing worse. Now I wish I had never touched it and left it "solid." I liked it much better that way than how it looks now. Here is the current view:

 

I can't decide if I should just leave it alone and put it on the wall how it is, or if I should continue to mess with it in an attempt to end up with a decent finished product. I was thinking of taking some brown tonight and trying to make it less "whimsical" and more "solid." It seems like the more I add to it the worse it looks. I have several options at this point - #1: Say that Taelyn painted it. Or at least that it was a painting project that we did together (since, you know, she can't write or draw actual shapes - well, except a "T" and a circle). Or #2: Trash the whole thing and be out about $14 and a couple of hours of time. I really want to use the canvas since she needs something on the wall and I can't really pay anyone to paint anything for her room. So I need some help!

If you are a painter and have any advice for how to salvage this thing, please send it to me!! Please!!! Help!

Spring Break Recap

Ahhh... spring break. I already miss you! However, I have realized that I am not a good blogger when I am at home. That is what I've come to rely on my planning period at school for! I only have 2 weeks left of school before I start my maternity leave and my stay-at-home-mom-ness, so I guess I better learn to blog from home. I'm sure I'll quickly find a time that is good for blogging.

We didn't do much last week and it was wonderful! Taelyn stayed with my mom for 3 nights, giving me some time around the house to get things done. On Monday I did a lot of cleaning, laundry, painting and baby preparation! I got Lillian's canvas painted, but I think that I am not done with it. I am planning on adding some embellishments as soon as I get the time and energy. This is where we are so far, though.

On Tuesday, I didn't do much... and it was wonderful! I read a good bit, watched some tv, and stayed in comfy clothes all day long. It was a really nice day for me! Wednesday I met my mom to get Taelyn. We had a nice lunch together and then I headed home with my girl! I was glad to have her back home with us! Thursday and Friday, Taelyn and I basically just spent the days running errands, making good meals, playing with toys and trying to enjoy the beautiful weather outside as much as possible! On Friday morning I had a doctor's appointment and it's looking like we should be prepared for baby #2 at any time. I can truly say that I am ready! And I feel that her room and the house is prepared enough for her arrival! I go back to the doctor on Monday, so I'll keep you posted.

Saturday I went to a free sewing class at a local library. I was able to completely finish an apron during the length of the class. It was fun having someone look over my shoulder and give me pointers and suggestions while I was sewing. I think it increased my confidence level tremendously. So, last night we went to my in-laws and I started Taelyn a dress. It is only half-way finished at the moment, but in my mind the finished product looks adorable! I hope to finish it up in the next few nights and I'll post a picture of it! Hopefully the picture I post here will match the cute picture in my head. And I hope that it fits her correctly and that it doesn't fall apart in the first wash! My mother-in-law said that she has never seen someone just sit down and sew a dress without any sort of pattern. That's typically just how I do things though - I've never taken cake classes - I would just look at other people's cakes and think, "I can do that." Then I would go home and try it. So now I've gotten in the habit of paying attention to clothes that other children have on and seeing how they are sewn. And in my head I'm thinking, "I can do that." I guess we will see! Like I said - it may be all crooked when I actually get the dress on Taelyn!

Pregnancy: 8th Month Evaluation

Sigh. What to say about the 8th month of pregnancy? I feel like the life has been sucked out of me and all I can focus on is April 20. Oh - and my adorable daughter! She makes the third trimester blues all go away... but not the third trimester tiredness! Lately she has picked up a common phrase from me, "My back hurts." She uses this on a very regular basis (like maybe more regularly than I do.). Can't put away my toys... my back hurts. I don't want to go to Bonsai for dinner... because my back hurts. How do you explain to a 3 year old that back aches are reserved for the 8th and up months of pregnancy?

I worked up the energy last night to make Taelyn a birthday cake for her friends that she stays with when I am at school everyday. I decided to do a bear cake because, as you can tell from my blog, I've made plenty of those and knew it would be easy. Ha - nothing is easy when you are 8 months pregnant! I baked the little guy last night and the entire bear fell apart when I took him out of the pan. Well, his head was still intact, but the body crumbled. I knew that I didn't have the energy to rebake this guy so I just headed to Kroger and bought her some pink cupcakes. What a disappointment.

And I haven't done any sewing in over a week. I want to add straps to that grey shirred top that I posted a week or two ago, but I haven't brought myself to be able to do it yet. Maybe next week I'll get motivated to sew some more ... since it is Spring Break and all. I am so looking forward to next week. We aren't taking any trips this year, and I'm kind of excited about that. I would love to see the beach right now, but was a little nervous about being that far away from home. So... we will be home all week and hopefully I can do all of the last minute things to prepare for Lilli's arrival (did you notice the spelling?? That is what we decided on!).

I have some crafty things planned, so hopefully I will be able to find the energy to do them! The following items are on my to do list for next week:

-Paint Lillian a canvas for above her crib

-Possibly paint 3 small canvases for her room and 4 small canvases for Taelyn's room to go above the head of her bed. These are just hopeful... probably won't get to them.

-Sand and paint this old antique desk that we have had in storage awhile. I am planning on it being the home to my sewing machine.

-Cover Taelyn's monogram on the crib bumper with either Lillian's monogram or some sort of applique.

-Get Lillian's crib raised (this is actually a to do for my husband. My involvement will be nagging until it gets done.)

-REST... as much as possible!

Wish me luck!

Birthday with Yogi Bear

We are back from our weekend at Yogi Bear Campground and it was so much fun! It did end up raining pretty much all day on Saturday, but Taelyn still had the best time! We just put her in her rain jacket and boots and tried to enjoy the outside as much as possible! Her favorite part of the whole weekend was splashing in rain puddles! I am so glad that we decided to do a trip instead of spending money on a birthday party. I think she enjoyed this so much more.

Here is a recap from our weekend!


Friday night: Excited about her cake!!

When asked what she wanted for her birthday she would answer "candles and cake!" Well, being the stellar mom that I am forgot one of those two items... candles!! Scott improvised! We called this our "redneck birthday." Hope that doesn't offend!

What a HUGE bite! I think she liked it!

Opening Presents! Loves her Dora book.



A little scared of Yogi!!

Putt Putt

Playground

So cute in the rain jacket!!!

Taelyn loved splashing around in puddles!!

Making a craft in the activity center.

On the pier with Bebe

Playing in the arcade

Arcade... we realized quickly that she enjoyed playing without money in the machines as much as she did with!



Taelyn drinking coke! She gets coke on her birthday. She loved this!

Scared of Yogi!!!

My baby is turning THREE!

Taelyn at about 8 weeks! She was NOT happy about bathtime! She wasn't happy about most of her infancy!

Taelyn last weekend! Almost three and such a happy toddler! Definitely a "girly girl!"

My "baby" turns 3 next week. It's really difficult to wrap my mind around. Last year we did a birthday party at the church and had the bounce house and the Mickey Mouse theme and all of that. And I realized through all of this that Taelyn could have cared less. She just wanted to eat cake!! She didn't really play with any of the other kids. She wouldn't go near the bounce house because she was scared of it. So the 2nd birthday was definitely more for me than it was for her.

This year, being 8 months pregnant, I decided that I didn't really want to go to all of the trouble of a birthday party. I knew that the planning, and decorating, and baking and cooking would be exhausting for me. So Scott and I decided that we would take a trip for Taelyn's birthday this year. The amount of money that you put into a birthday party, even when trying to do it "low scale," is fairly substantial, so we decided to put that money towards something Taelyn would really enjoy and some fun memories that we could make as a family.

We started with New Orleans and planned to do the zoo and aquarium. However, my doctor scared me a little when she said that she was going to give me some numbers for  very specific hospitals and doctors - just in case something crazy happened with my pregnancy while down there. She was pretty adamant that you can't just deliver a baby anywhere in New Orleans!! I haven't had any scares of pre-term labor or any complications whatsoever, but just for the sake of playing it safe, we decided to stay a little closer to home.

A month or so ago, Scott got a coupon on groupon (haha) for a 2 night stay at Yogi Bear Campground in Pelahatchie. We decided that we would just go there for Taelyn's birthday weekend (don't judge) since it is only 30 or 40 minutes away. He called to book it, but groupon sold over 800 of those coupons, so of course, they were booked straight through June when the coupon expires. Except she did find one single cabin available for the weekend before Taelyn's birthday, which is this weekend, so we booked that one. So this weekend we will be heading to Pelahatchie to celebrate the third birthday! And the forecast is calling for 100% chance of rain all day Saturday. Fun times. I'm going to take some games and puzzles and we will just make the most of it and hope Taelyn enjoys her birthday celebration!!

She said she wanted a chocolate cake with white icing and candy all over it for her birthday, so that is exactly what I did. It is a simple cake, but exactly what she wants. I was going to do a candyland theme on the top of it, but decided just to make it easy since no one would be seeing the cake except us (and all of you guys since I am going to post a picture!!!).

I'll let you know how the weekend goes. Maybe the rain will let up a bit on Saturday so we can enjoy some outside time. I'm not getting my hopes up though! One question I do have for those of you that have done birthday parties before the actual birthday - Next week, when her actual birthday is here, how much attention do we give to it? I don't want to confuse her. And - we are doing the cake and presents and everything this weekend, so I don't want her to expect another "celebration" on her actual birthday. But I'm not sure that we should ignore it either. I need your advice, moms!!!

The Simple Life

It's such a trendy thing to talk about these days: Simplicity. It seems like I hear about this topic everytime I open a magazine or read blogs. And I will admit... I've bought into it. That was my New Year's resolution, to simplify my (our) life. Now is the quest to figure out exactly what this means to me and how to accomplish this. I guess I should have done all of that before making the resolution!

I've read some blogs about this topic and I know what I've decided simplicity does NOT look like for my family. One blog describes simplicity for them as being: living debt free, living close to nature, working from home, living green and without the use of harsh chemicals, cooking from scratch and on and on. Well, all of this kind of stresses me out a bit. It seems like work to me to try to live up to all of those standards - so this does not translate to simplicity for me. The definition of simplicity, according to Wikipedia (DO NOT tell my students that I have used Wikipedia - after all of my ranting to them about this not being an adequate source for research!!!) is, "the property of being simple. It usually relates to the burden which a thing puts on someone trying to explain or understand it. Something which is easy to understand or explain is simple, in contrast to something complicated."

The list that I've given above seems like just that to me - a burden. And to be honest... I like my house to smell like bleach when I clean. I know, I know... the environment. My children's health. I get it. But I want my towels to smell CLEAN. Really clean. Bleach clean. And during my first pregnancy I tried to use some green cleaner in my kitchen and bathrooms, but I have to be honest... It just didn't clean like I wanted it to. We eat in a kitchen and I want it clean. I want it to look clean and smell clean. And I want to know that those harsh chemicals are killing all of those little germies that like to hop onto our food!

Also, I do not like to cook to begin with. So the thought of cooking everything from scratch - doesn't feel simple. And isn't that what I'm going for?

So this is my question... how do you live simply? Especially in this culture with our excess of materialism and our excess of activities and busy-ness. But I think that is just it - what I'm trying to get away from. I don't want to feel like I NEED all of the latest trendy clothing or the latest gadgets. I don't want my kids to feel like they NEED every electronic known to man or every toy that the neighbor down the street has. I also don't want to have to attend some sort of practice or game 5 nights out of every week... which is the reason I started dwelling on this whole simplicity thing. I am watching all of these families around me live in their cars or at the field/court. Don't get me wrong, I think that children being involved in activities is a good thing. I think that it helps them establish that sense of competition and sportmanship and I think it teaches them good social skills. However, I truly feel like they should have limits. They are children. Let them choose one or two activities and then spend the rest of their time playing at home or in the yard. It bothers me to see kids having activities until 9 o'clock at night when they should be in bed.

So these are the questions that I'm having to ask myself as I look up ballet lessons and swimming lessons on the internet. Where do you draw the line? What do you allow children to be involved in when they want to do EVERY activity that the friend from school is doing? How do you keep things "SIMPLE?"

I don't have the answer to this question yet. But I'm determined to come up with what simplicity looks like for our family. Maybe that should have been my New Year's resolution this year - to come up with answers! I should have saved the actual "simplify" resolution for next year! Please comment if you have any insight on this topic! I would love to hear your thoughts.

Cakes, Crafts and Customs

No, I haven't made any cakes in the past few weeks, but one of our local news stations, WAPT, is having a cupcake challenge in a few weeks. On their website, in the weeks leading up to this event, they have a section called "Show us your cakes," where people can upload photos of cakes/cupcakes that they have made. I uploaded a few of my favorite cakes last night so I need you to go in and rate them on the webpage. You do have to create a profile, but it doesn't take long at all. Here is the webpage address that will take you directly to my cakes: Ctuminello11's Cakes on WAPT.

Okay, on to the crafts that I have completed lately. I have loved getting to know my sewing machine, although we have had our fair share of yelling matches. The first project that I completed is a blanket with tons of old t-shirts. I have had stacks and stacks of t-shirts in my closet for years. T-shirts from high school, college and beyond. T-shirts that I couldn't bring myself to get rid of. T-shirts that bring back tons of old memories - such as the night that my college friends and I were having a mud fight on campus and I got a large amount of mud in my eye, had to go to the hospital to get it flushed out, and then had to wear an eye patch for a week. My roommate taped an eye from a magazine on top of my eye patch and it was so freaky. More to her than me, because when I would sleep my eye patch eye would stare at her!! Yes, I had to smile when I got to that mud stained t-shirt and included it in the blanket! This was a good project to start sewing on. It was simply sewing squares and t-shirt material was really easy to sew on. It doesn't unravel on the edges, so you don't have to hem it at all. And it turned out HUGE. I have 36 -  14" squares on each side, making it the size of a queen size quilt. I don't have any pictures of it, but I'll take some and post soon.

After making my blanket I have tons of leftover t-shirt scraps so I've been trying to practice my sewing on that. I made Taelyn a tiered skirt and then attached a shirred top to it. I don't like the two together though so I think I'm going to take the top off and do something else with it. I can't decide if I want to leave the skirt a skirt or make it a dress. The skirt has a lot of seams and doesn't look great if you are looking closely! But it taught me how to gather and make ruffles. And I loved shirring the top. Supposedly, Brother sewing machines can't shirr, but mine shirred like a charm. I didn't have any problems at all. I actually had less problems with the shirring than I did with sewing with regular thread. (How many times can I use the word shirr in 3 sentences. It's kind of an awkward word!). My lower thread tends to "birdsnest," according to google. I think it is a problem with my tension, but I can't figure out where it needs to be. It may be that the machine is just cheap. I am looking at new machines since I actually enjoy sewing!

So, I am definitely going to take the shirred top off of the skirt and add some sleeves to it. I may just leave it a little shirred top. Or I may attach it to something else that looks better. I'll let you know once I decide! It's nice working with scrap material because when it turns out looking badly you don't feel like you've wasted a lot of money!
Last night I wanted to do something quick with some tie-dyed t-shirt material from one of my high school t-shirts. I wanted to do a comfy little play skirt for Taelyn to bum around the house in. I was able to make it quickly before dinner. It isn't fantastic... it would probably help if I would attempt to use a pattern, but I haven't tried that yet. I tend to envision things in my head and then just go for it. Doesn't usually turn out like I hope, but at least I'm increasing my sewing skills, huh?

I have a picture of her wearing it (and she LOVED it!), but she doesn't have a shirt on in the picture. I don't want to exploit my child on the internet, so I decided not to post that one! I'll put her back in it with a shirt so that you can see it on!

On a different note, Scott is back in the country (hence the "customs" portion of the title)! I'll post more on their trip in the next few days once I've managed to drag all of the stories out of him! He doesn't volunteer information willingly, so it is a process!