Svea Renae

Announcing Svea Renae!!

She was born April 21 at 3:35 pm weighing 7 lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long

She sleeps a lot, is a quiet natured baby and all is well at home. The other three children are adjusting well and I just have to show off some pictures!!

My two year old just got his first real haircut - since he's no longer my baby, i allowed him a big boy hair cut. It is truly amazing how much he now looks identical to his older brother at the same age. We pulled out an old photoalbum and the two year old could not tell those were not pictures of himself in the older child's book.

Picture Troubles

I'm making a second post this evening because I'm having a hard time getting all of my pictures posted. (blogger is not liking me this evening)

Here's more of what I've been working on instead of playing on the internet.

The skirt is from the Redondo pattern, it twirls like there's no tomorrow. Every girl needs a twirly skirt - I'm going to be making one of these in "my little pony" fabrics with a matching top to wear to the My Little Pony Tea Party that we have tickets to in early May. The top is a tried and true halter top pattern from last summer, not sure the pattern maker, i only have my handy tracing left of it.

The angels are made on my new embroidery machine - two sheets of disolvable stabilizer and a free download http://mars.oesd.com/angeloffer/ It takes about an hour for each one to stitch out, but they are very pretty.

Whole Month!

Where has the time gone? It's been a month since I've logged into here. I've done a LOT of sewing. Here's some pics.

I made two serger puff quilts - all work done on my new Janome serger. Really a fast way to quilt, I wouldn't have the paitence for anything too time consuming or tedious. My sister and I made the blue one together.

The baby dress is a reversible sundress from the Sew Baby pattern. I plan to make lots of these! They are fast and fun, plus cute and can be made in bitty baby and four year old sizes to match :)

The hat and baby gown are a big three pattern, can't think of which one - but I now have the New Conceptions Baby Essentials pattern all lined up to start sewing on as soon as this little girl comes out and off my sciatic nerve ;)

Dress Up Day

When Daddy is away, Ms I will play.

She dressed her baby brother up in one of her favorite dresses. I swear I had nothing to do with this, but we see a trend, if the new baby arrives in blue, she won't allow that to last for too long.

Pine Car Derby

Oldest boy competed in Boy Scouts Pine Box Derby this morning. Photography done by 4 year old sister. (mom stayed home with youngest) Car kit purchased three weeks ago - father and son were supposed to put it together. They painted it, Mom got the pleasure of gluing and weighting and balancing the silly thing around midnight the night before the derby.. Imagine that. Car took fourth place - it was a purple roadster.

In other news - Husband has promised me two new sewing machines with the tax return money. I'm getting a brother embroidery machine and a janome serger. I've been tracing patterns for over a week. Tomorrow I'll start cutting fabrics. I hope to have at least a dozen items cut and ready for sewing as soon as the tax money and my new machines get here. I'm really rather annoyed that hubby insists we wait for uncle sam! I have pleeenty of room on my credit card ~~ OYE ~~ the temptation!! This should be my final month of pregnancy, so I'd like to get a good start on all the summer clothes I'd hoped to make, it's just that waddling around that cutting table gets a little strenuous.

Updates

I've not had the ambition to be crafty lately, so I'll just post some of what we have done.

Last Sunday this snowman was built. I'm rather ashamed of the tiny guy - that's not what an Iowa girl thinks of when we say snowman. But the kids were just happy to have enough snow for one afternoon to make a creation. To the great sorrow of those children, one little girl who cried, he melted completely gone the very next day.

My husband did take a day off work to just play hookie in the beautiful weather we've had lately. It was sunny and 60 degrees, so we went to the park. Funny the difference one week makes here in the south - these pictures are less than ten days apart, The snowman and the park day.

I'll be spending my Saturday morning this weekend at the lab for bloodwork. I really bombed the one hour gestational diabetes test this week. You're allowed to score 140 - I scored 160. Three hours of bloodtests to be done to see if I have full blown diabetes. I've done this twice before and not had trouble, but this is the worst I've ever blown the one hour test.

I also had a weird episode of high blood pressure. I've Never Never had high blood pressure before, but one afternoon this week, I was laying down for a nap and all of the sudden my face became hot an swollen and I felt like my brain was going to implode. I am only a few blocks away from the doc's office, so I stopped up there to see what she thought of my condition. I was 160/90~!! She made me lay on my left side and I was quickly back down to 100/50 ~~ which is my normal range. I stayed in bed for the remainder of that evening, and have been feeling ok since. Just rather scary - and sure hope not to be on bed rest for a month!!

Change of Heart

Ms. I had been picking out her old baby dresses and pink baby clothes. She brings them to me and tells me how her baby "stister" will wear these, how her baby stister will be so cute in this. She has an entire wardrobe picked out. She has declared that her baby stister will sleep in her room and she will help momma take care of the baby.
In an effort to make this gender neutral, we mentioned that when a baby got older, she'd want to play with Ms. I's toys. What a rapid change in emotion!! She thought about this. She then declares she no longer wants a stister. She does Not want to have to share anything. Giving her old clothes away was fun, but if the sister gets into Ms. I's chapstick, there's gonna be some bloodshed.
So we're in the car on the way home from church
Ms. I "Momma, why does there have to be a baby anyway?"
Momma "Because the baby is a gift from God and we don't give special gifts back."
MS. I "Well, can't God just make the baby Distappear?"
Momma "I'm not sure that it would work that way honey"
Ms. I "But momma, I don't want a stister and I've already got brothers"
Momma "Look there's a birdie on that sign" <<>>

Productive Day

I completed one more new set of hairbows. These are also of the Dior bow pattern only in a smaller size. These were 6,9, 12 inch ribbon cuts, I think that I'll try to go down one more inch in length for each cut.

Ms. I had preschool today, she was very excited to wear her red dress with matching bows.

I also completed another bag. This one was a remnant of fabric from walmart, I estimate the whole bag to have cost me $0.79 in supplies, I'm rather pleased with the finished product. I made two out of this one remnant, I lined them with a pink fabric out of my stash and used green shoe lace ribbon as the handles.

The belly baby got her first case of hiccups in utero. I can feel her little jerking!! I just love having something so miraculous occurring inside of me. We don't know that she's a girl, but we sure do hope (at least me an Ms. I really want a girl - the boys of course are suaded the other way)

Tote

I

I made a practice tote out of scrappy stash fabric. I used this free pattern and it turned out adorable. I have some cute princess crowns fabric that I bought as a remnant for $0.50 (i think it was about 9 inches, just enough for maybe two purses)~ I'll line it with pink and she'll have an adorable tote and a gift for a friend for less than a buck! She was rather upset with me that I made a "practice purse" she wanted her princess fabric sewn up ASAP. She would not pose with the purse, but my little guy was more than happy to slap a toy cell phone in there and call it his :)) This pattern was amazingly simple, it took less than an hour from start to finish. I used some stash ribbon for the handles. None of these fabrics really go together, but he didn't mind.

I also made two more of the Dior Bows last night. I used shorter loops and managed to only use one yard of ribbon per bow. It's nice to have this down pat in a nice round number, now I can cruise the ribbon remnants as well!! Last nights two new bows will be part of a Valentine package going to a very special preschooler back in Iowa. Maybe her momma will send pics :))

New Bows

I've made my first set of hair bows. They turned out adorable. I used ribbons that I had on hand, some were in a goodie bag from my parents last fall. Somebody else's stashed fabrics count for double right? Bonus points?

I purchased some of the blank hair clip things, and hot glued ribbons to them. Her absolute favorite was the Dior Bow http://www.offray.com/65c.html *could not make neat little linkie** that I only made one of because it came out so big. It's the one currently in her hair for the red fashion show this morning. Each bow takes less than seven minutes start to finish, so there will definitely be ribbon on my shopping lists!! I'll also need to purchase a size up in the barrettes for the bigger bows. The small ones work really well for the small bows, but this little girl has decided that bigger is better in the hairbow department.

I spent all Saturday afternoon playing with ribbon and making bows for her hair, she was soo excited to wear her red dress and bows to church this morning and then we get a call from the Pastor! Dern, canceled on account of wicked cold and a half inch of snow (it's now 2 degrees outside) I'm from Iowa, this annoyed me! Suck up you southern wusses, my baby girl wanted to dress up today!

On another note, we hit the Joanns fabric sale yesterday - brought home entirely too much fabric, but I got a beautiful yellow with pink flowers for a dress, and we got some really strange matching western satin an corduroy material for the boys. It's an hour an a half to Joann's, I most likely won't go there often :( Hancocks is closer, but they never have the really good sales like all clearance for $1 a yard. Keep me in mind if you see soft flannels for cheap :") I need to make some baby clothes this spring.

Mr J. has traced his new pajama pattern, and is cutting the tracing out this morning. We hope to have the fabric cut today and get a good start on his new jams. I'm waiting for the next pattern discount day at Hancoks to get a pajama pattern for the youngest boy, and they'll have matching green maplike jams.

Snow Day

This is really silly. We're from Iowa. This is not what we'd consider a snow day.

We have one inch of snow, and it's 27 degrees outside and school has been canceled, the gyms have been closed and all community activity is shut down. WHAT?@@@!!

I know that back in Davenport we would need at least 6 inches of snow or it'd have to be 20 below zero before they closed down the schools. The biggest gripe about this here in Missouri is that the snow fell last night- -- before 9 pm and they still didn't have the snow plowed or salted for the schools to open in the morning... What these people don't even have night crews for snow removal? OYE!!

I can still see grass through the snow and these kids of mine think that there should be enough to at least make a snow man on a snow day....

On a sewing related note - as soon as Mr J finishes playing in this snow/dust ~ we have the patterns picked out, a brand new roll of Swedish Tracing Paper, and seven yards of pajama fabric picked up in Iowa for $1 a yard at Joanns. (I sure miss that fabric store!!)

We'll be tracing and maybe cutting today..

Happy Birthday Daddy-O

These pants are my father's birthday gift. He's a former marine and very patriotic. I figured how could I go wrong with patriotic lounge pants? Can't wait to give these to him. I have them nearly complete, I really need him to try them on before I finalize the waistband elastic.. Going to Iowa tomorrow!!! The kids are so excited!!

On another note, I was asked to test out the following pattern for a ruffled skirt. This is absolutely adorable!! Ms. I cannot wait to wear her new skirt.. Now I have to find a top to match this bizarre stash fabric skirt with butterflies and stars!! Walmart didn't have any denim and I was not brave enough to go to Hancock for merely a half yard of anything. Both fabrics were selected from my stash rack. This makes the skirt a bit different, but geesh, hubby's happy to see stash reduction progress.

Round 1 Diapers Done

I've completed my first batch of cloth diapers for a woman with a preemie baby. Those are packaged and mailed off!! Whahoo.

I'm still not sure how I feel about making my own diapers. I used the Chloes Toes pattern. The pattern was easy to assemble and the directions were clear enough for a beginning diaper maker. It was somewhat time consuming and not nearly as rewarding as sewing those cute little tops or dresses for my daughter. It's now a game of wait and see what cloth diapering supplies I really need when May rolls around and we have a newborn in dipes. I do know that a dozen or more could be made up assembly style in less than a week.

We purchased the complete Motherease package when we began cloth diapering, ummm, three babies ago. I know that many of these are soo threadbare that if an eyedropper sneazed, they'd leak. So I'm sure that a few dipes will need to be made. I'm almost completely positive that I won't be making my own covers.. But I do have a few small scraps of the waterproof fabric to try a couple.

On another note, Ms I started preschool. It's only one day a week, but it's still a very big step for both of us. We'll begin homeschooling in the summer, but this is a great opportunity for her to play with others and learn some social skills. The pictures are of her in her first day dress and bows. She's holding her kitten in one pic and holding my beastly cat in the other. One cat weighs in at less than two pounds and one cat is nearly 30 lbs...

FInished pants

These are the pants we finished for Mr. J ~ we adjusted the elastic a few dozen times to get it just right for him. We finished the shirt back in August and the pants kind of dissappeared in the cross country move. He did all of the long straight seams himself. I sewed the neck and sleeves and other curvy or technical seams.

The kitten was a Christmas addition to our family. I think we've settled on calling her smokey. She drives our huge old grouchy cat bonkers! She sleeps with Ms. I and purrs like a freight train.

I had a little blue friend visiting me this morning, he was making sure that I stayed on task :) I can't say that I'd ever seen a real blue bird before I moved to Southern Missouri. I thought they were part fairy tale that my grandmother used to tell me. She loved to tell blue bird stories.

Fist Quilt

I finished my very first quilt top, I used a rail fence pattern. I haven't decided which color to back it with - purple or green? (it also needs ironed for the 112th time)

I made up a quick winter doll set from previously mentioned pattern. This is going in the mail today as a birthday gift for a friend in Iowa.

Doll Coat

In less than two hours, I finished a pair of pants for Mr J and made up this cute little doll set.

It's a coat, hat, and scarf for an 18" doll. Pattern courtesy of Alice Cantrell I haven't a clue how I wandered into her blog, but I do adore this quick easy pattern. I have sleeping children and no model can be found without waking them :)

Projects completed

Two projects completed today. One pair of pants for husband - nearly porn fabric, but he picked it himself. These were started more than a week ago, but they were hemmed in 2007, so they count for totals this year. They were my first time making inseam pockets. The pockets turned out well considering I didn't have an official pocket pattern, the opening is a little snug for my hubby's hand size, but i can poke my hands in his pockets with ease

The nightgown for Ms. I was started maybe six months ago and just needed a hem and a button, she sleeping snugly in a flannel backed satin with a smile on her face tonight. I didn't care for the bodice part of this pattern, it's one of the big 4 pattern companies, but I don't remember which one. It's a lined bodice, it was tedious to put together and the head opening had to be adjusted to put her head through it. No repeats on this pattern. Still have plenty of this fabric that I purchased at Joanns for less than $1 a yard.

First Post

It's January 2 of 2007. I'm starting this blog to post kid related events and my sewing.
January is the time for making lists, resolutions, and other odbits of joy.
This year I'd like to commit more time to preschooling Miss I, potty training Mr M, and being more responsible with the daily devotionals with Mr. J. These are all things that I have done frequently in the past, but not with the regularity these tasks really call for.
My sewing goals are to track all my spending on crafts, organize all my stash fabrics, and finish my five WIP's (work in progress) from last year.
Throw into this equation that I'm expecting a baby this year, and these goals are plenty lofty and will be pushed aside occasionally, but I really feel these are important things to prioritize high on my list.