Totally Girly

*the inside of the skirt and my new tags!

A long time ago (about a year or so?) I saw this skirt on etsy. I wanted to buy it for my Emily's BFF, Emilee (for her birthday). But i didn't for one reason or another. Anyway, I stumbled upon the pattern to make it myself and almost (just almost) peed my pants in excitement!! Emily's new friend Cheyenne just had her birthday and she's really girly so I thought this would be perfect!

The really cool thing about this is it's made with no-fray nylon chiffon. It feels like a nylon slip. Really soft but snags on my roughed up cuticles! The chiffon is from this shop and it's sooo cheap! It's 54" wide and $1.69 a yard! I bought 3 different pinks, 1 yard each. I used almost all of it. I made each ruffle a double layer so it took a little more than normal. I also made the size 8 because I had trouble understanding the ratio thing. I don't do math. I.don't.do.math. So I went with the size used as an example in the instructions because it already had the math done for it! As it turns out, it is the perfect size for Cheyenne and even though Ava and Emily are smaller than Cheyenne (just shorter) it looks good on them too. I bought 3 different blues to make Emily one too. She requested blue but when I made this one she said she doesn't remember telling me she wanted blue and how about we do pink!

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I had fun taking and editing these photos of Ava. She was really good at taking direction! I know it's odd I have my watermark on each photo so it looks overboard but I hadn't intended on grouping them in twos when I did the watermark. Just needed to explain myself..

I used Florabella Actions: morning glory with some sweet haze on top. The pictures are kind of my ode to this photographer. She has really really inspired me.

I'm into labels

Look what finally arrived!! After 5 weeks, my new labels are here. I think they are perfect (aside from the really bright green on that one mushroom). Jessica (who designed the logo) helped to make them the right size for a label since the full logo was out of the question. These are from fancyweaver.com in Hong Kong. The prices are the best @ 200 labels for $60 (I ordered 200 small labels and 200 big labels). The big ones are for...big items! Duh. Like quilts and ...other big things and the small ones are for clothing and bags and softies, etc. The only drawback for me is they took 5 weeks (actually longer but I'm not counting the back and forth when working out the design with them. So the total times was actually almost 8 weeks! If you live in the states, the shipping time will be less because I had mine shipped to my military address then here.

The above photo shows the backs of the labels.

The quality is awesome. So thick and professional looking.

 Have I mentioned that Emily is a Daisy? She's a Girl Scout Daisy!! I haven't taken any photos at her meetings or events because they didn't really have uniforms..until now. Not this dress! She wore this to the Boy Scout Ball last night. The Girls Scouts were invited as "escorts". Sounds wrong, doesn't it?

I bought this plaid taffeta dress at the PX on clearance for $4 !! I didn't buy it for this ball, I actually got it just because it was $4 and one day one of the girls might need a nice dress and I might not be in the mood to sew one. When I sew on all her patches I'll take a photo of Emily in her "uniform". 

You have to look at this website called My First Dictionary. It's really funny!

Year 3

It's been 3 years since I started this blog! 

Three years ago today Ava was 6 weeks old and Emily was 2.5 years old.

A lot has changed since my 1st post!

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I had a lot to say about being grateful, etc. but I'll keep it simple since some people skip the reading!

Today it was sunny! But mother chuckn' cold! Like 25-30 degrees cold. Emily and Ava have colds and Emily's cough is back. But since it was sunny, I made them go outside for a few minutes to take some pictures.

This hat Emily is wearing is mine but I think she looks so beautiful in this color so occasionally she wears it. She takes my breath away.  

Doesn't it look like Ava is holding the camera in the photo on the right?

Maybe she'll make it her face book profile picture.

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All photos were processed with Florabella Color & Haze Actions: Milk & Honey with milk haze turned off.

blogiversay digi stuff:

Font is "Chalkboard" from dafont

Frame from: mscraps birthday bash blog train freebie: scooty's designs free

Chalkboard "paper": http://www.jessicasprague.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=333

bunny from: minitoko and it's free

Have a nice day!

I almost forgot I have a blog! How can that be?? I'm not even doing anything exciting.

It's TOO COLD HERE! And the sun DOESN'T SHINE HERE! So we know I'm not outside!

But enough complaining. I wanted to show off the cutest poster ever! I saw this on someone else's blog (I don't have the link anymore since we reformatted my computer) a loooong time ago and had to have it. The funny thing about this poster is where it comes from. This is the store and it's in England.  You have to click on it to see the name and then come back:) Some of my coworkers already know this story but I'll tell it any way because it still makes me laugh at my own stupidity.

 I was at work on a very boring Thursday night and remembered this poster and wanted to see if it was still available. Well I couldn't remember the name....only the 1st part. So I stupidly typed "p***y store" in to the search engine ON THE WORK COMPUTER and hit the search button. It took about 2 seconds to realize I just tried to search for a "p***y store" on a government computer and how was I going to convince everyone that I wasn't searching for porn???? I almost had a heart attack trying to cancel and get off the Internet! No one showed up at the store and as far as I know, no one filed a complaint (who knows how much they monitor those computers??). What an idiot huh? Another funny thing was when I called the store and the lady who answered said the name of the store like it was nothing in a British accent. I would have been giggling and turning red EVERY time I answered the phone if I was her.

I cut Ava's hair (yeah, I cut it. I was lazy and didn't want to take her to get it done professionally) about a week ago and all the curls are gone. Remember this picture (scroll down to the curls and back fat)?  There goooone!! I wonder if she'll have some later..

I meant to post this picture of Mary's cake pops in Nicolas's hands but I forgot. Sorry Mary! So here they are. She did the most amazing job! Seriously Mary, you really did me proud:)

And how she brought them to his school was even cute! 

Shower Gift

My sister asked me to make a baby shower gift for a friend of hers.. and this is what I suggested.

I'm telling you people, this top is EASY! I used the left overs from the yard I made Ava's top out of. So you can get a 5t and a 12-18 month size out of 1 yard!

The pants are Bed Time Story pj pants.

I did a lettuce edge hem on the sleeves, pant hem and shirt hem with my serger.

Below are two things I have saved to my computer and I thought I'd share.

Inspiration corner from odeedoh. I want to do this!!

I LOVE this pillow! It's from Landofnod.com. I could so make that for the girls room!

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I'm listening to the The Generals Daughter on my IPOD and reading the Fall of Giants. I read The General's Daughter years ago and loved it. I never saw the movie with John Travolta because I just figured it was bad. I like listening to it on audio except the guy reading it is annoying. He reads it like a guy from the 50's. A guy who would say "see ya later doll". Oh I know, he sounds like the guy from the Twilight Zone. Hard to explain and no I don't hate the way all books are read, there have been many where I really liked the readers voice. But there have been so many where i do a lot of eye-rolling while listening.

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I borrowed the Fall of Giants for my ereader from the army online library. How cool is that???

Kokeshi x 6

*look away from the dust and don't judge:)*

Jon's new Kokeshi dolls from me for Valentine's day (the 3 on the right) The 2 farthest left we got in San Diego at an antique store (it's in Ocean Beach and they have a ton of that vintage Pyrex stuff that's all the rage). The store is one Jon and I LOVE and always visit when we visit home.And the one in the middle (in yellow) is from my sister-in-law Jessica.

I had to show the boy kokeshi doll! He's got a wedgie and boobies!

This was a rare day where I caught the sun for about 5 seconds because 

the sun does not shine in Schweinfurt:(

I think everyone is having a horrible winter and can't wait for sun

(you heard right, I said I can't wait for the sun!). Am I right?

Mary: my 1st guest blogger!

My friend Mary Allen is my 1st guest blogger. She doesn't have her own blog and I want everyone to see how fabulous she is so I'll post her stuff here and she can be my guest! 

She made this valentines card for her son Nickolaus to take to school using this kit. Mary had NEVER used photo shop. Never messed around with digital scrap booking and had never run actions on photos and look at this!!! I am so impressed and so proud of her!!! If you were here Mary, I'd slap you on the butt and say nice job! Bravo! Well done:)

The really cool thing about this card is that she will cut slits in his hand to hold a real lollipop!

I love it Mary! I know you will inspire others to do this too!

Valentine Bag Toppers

Emily's Valentines. I had to go big since it's her 1st valentines where she gives and gets!

 Made from this tutorial and this kit (which is 50% off right now making it $4.99). I used card stock in my printer and the only things I did different than the tutorial is make the "new canvas" in photo shop 6.75"x5" and then when I was done making the bag toppers I made another new canvas that was 8.5"x11" and dragged and dropped the bag topper on it twice making it so I can print two on a page. Also, I made it so there is graphics on both sides (see last two pictures). But I think I'll hide the staples like in the tutorial.

I left the back circle open to stamp Emily's picture and name (custom stamp bought here. When I bought them they were about $25 each). I'm so happy to have an excuse to use these stamps!! Emily will fill in the "to" part and help me cut out the toppers, fill the snack sized baggies, stamp and staple.

Below is how they look when printed.

New Obsession

This is what I have been doing for the last week.

Downloading digital scrap booking stuff! Some free..some not but still so cheap compared to regular scrap booking supplies which take up sooo much room (I would like to sell most of mine by the way, anyone interested??). I discovered some digital scrap booking blogs that are just my style. I love this persons stuff. And I LOVE her collaborations with this person. The above layout (template?) is free from here till February 12th and it's a collaboration of the two mentioned above (some of the elements I used are from other kits). I also love this persons stuff. All 3 are very simular in taste.

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I have been doing a little sewing here and there. I'm in the middle of making a bunny garland for Easter and in the middle of making a quilt with fabrics from the Dream On line. I've also been busy hand sewing the binding on my sisters quilt while watching Dexter. The one thing I have been doing A LOT of is gaining weight. Today it finally was warm enough and sunny to go for a walk. I put on some jeans I was wearing before I left Stuttgart and now they are tight in the thighs. Wahhh!! I've not really gained weight like this before were it affected my thighs. So it's bad. I feel like if I say it out loud maybe I'll do something about it... Thanks for listening:) 

The Hospital Stay that Wasn't!

We're back from the hospital and do not have to stay the night!!! All that worry for nothing. After sitting in the waiting room for 2.5 hours we were finally seen and then after another 1.5 hours of testing and waiting we were allowed to go home! We go back tomorrow for blood testing and to go over the EEG results. We got new meds that dissolve in water (it's about time as the crushing of the pill and putting it in yogurt twice a day was getting soooo old!) and new emergency meds that are NOT rectal!! It's a pill that dissolves instantly in the mouth. So no more problems at her school or from the bus driver about having to give her meds should she have a bad seizure. So all is good, Emily is good. Ava not so good. She was awful by the end of the visit. The ride home was terrible (longest 10 minutes of my life). Total drama about nothing.

 

Thanks for all the kind words about the hospital stay that wasn't:). If her results show something worth talking about, I'll post again tomorrow. Other wise. All is good! Here's some photos from today and a peek at the quilt I made my sister Julia just so I'm posting something crafty!

 

Beloved giraffe came along for support. Emily was once again so good.

Here's the quilt I made my sister. It's been quilted on the long arm since this picture was taken and I had intended on hand sewing the binding while in the hospital with Emily . I also made quilted shams with piping! They are so awesome (patting myself on the back here). When I'm done and my sister gets it, I'll have her take photos so you can see the whole thing together on her bed, in her room.Does anyone have ideas for a throw pillow to go along with this whole set? I was thinking soemthing with linen and some of the fabrics used in the quilt but I'm not sure what pattern. It has to go with the squares..