new tops, new camera

Hello, lovelies! I had a busy week, but what else is new? Haha.

I'm just gonna get right to the sewing :)

I really love Fabletics. They have great quality athletic wear and while the prices are decent, they're not low enough for me to flood my wardrobe with the stuff, if ya know what I mean. I had my eye on a drapefront sleeveless knit top. I came super close to ordering it, when I remembered I had a pattern just like it! AND I had just been gifted the perfect fabric to make it with. The pattern is Simplicity 1588, View A, which is not styled well on the envelope at all.

Here is my first copycat, which you already saw if you follow me on Instagram. (I'm into watching Murdoch Mysteries while I sew. I recommend it :)

And while I had the pattern out, I went ahead and made another one! I wore it for yoga that day (I do yoga at home, I really love Yoga with Adriene, she's my favorite,) hence the yoga pants. It stays put on my hips, even in downward dog :)

 Okay, prepare for an onslaught of unrelated photos, because I was GIFTED a new camera and just cannot get enough of it!! My D90 was damaged in the last move and while my little D50 was getting the job done, this D200 just blows both those out of the water and I am just floored that it's mine and by the generosity of my lovely friend!!!!

We are doggie sitting again. We love this dog. Seriously.

Red hair don't care. #gingerproblems

 Cardinals on my lanai! 

 Diffusing doTERRA cleansing blend with Grapefruit because big dogs stink, haha. This completely gets rid of any smell, even if you've been cooking bacon. Or something with fish sauce. I think it's cool how the camera captured the mist!

 A bee on my cucumber plant.

 This never gets old.

I am already having so much fun with the new camera, it's going to make my life and my blogging a whole lot more fun ;)

Happy Spring!

It's the first day of Spring! Not that it means anything to the weather and I'm sure some of your states didn't get the memo. It's been beautiful here, though, of course. Actually this week marks our one-year of living here in Hawaii! I can't believe it's been that long. Last Easter we lived in a hotel. Mother's Day too, actually. Maybe I should celebrate by going back to the hotel this Mother's Day. Haha. Ah, the maid service and beach access.

Anywho, I visited the mainland last week and came home with a ginormous suitcase so full of fabric, I had to pay extra for my bag. It was totally worth it, though and I had planned on the extra expense. I do have a couple fabric stores here, but I pay so much more for everything and there are never sales or coupons. Not only did my friend Jenn give me fabric from her cleaned-out stash, she took me to her wonderful Mill End store, where I piled my cart high and then bought it all, without doing any head math and putting some back. Ha! For me, that's a big deal. But, in the end, I got 10 cuts of fabric for $80. Awesome!

I grabbed this knit, with a vision of this very style of dress in mind. I've seen sporty striped knit dresses like this on Pinterest. I pulled out McCall's 6559 and got to work.

You can see I added a casing to the outside, with a drawstring so it would blouse a little. I've made this pattern five times now, the dress three times and the cardigan twice! This was the curliest knit I've ever worked with, it was hilarious. I quite trying to press it and hem it, I just let it roll, haha.

I'd like to make another like this, I think. I have a couple other things to share and I whipped up a cute dress for Natalie yesterday. She finally made it into the size 10, lol, she's been an 8 for like, four years!

Have a lovely weekend!

Ten!

My firstborn turned ten on Monday!!! Blessedly, she wore pig tails that day, which made her not look quite as grown-up as she's been looking lately and was good for my Mommy heart ;)

 Layla wrote the sign, I think it's adorable.

For her birthday breakfast, I made these birthday cake muffins from the latest Rachael Ray magazine. I love her magazine, its my one and only magazine subscription. 

Instead of a party, she chose a shopping day, just me and her! It was so much fun and she's so cute. We went to Target, Starbucks, the mall and lunch. She picked several outfits and spent a couple gift cards from Grandparents. She's even still thanking me for how much fun she had, several days later. 

These "mix tapes" have easily become my favorite part of birthdays!! They are SO MUCH FUN and we listen to them in the car all the time. It was really fun listening to hers during our shopping day, she was so excited to see what was coming next ;) Here's what made it onto Natalie's Ten Tunes:

 For her birthday, she asked for a skateboard! She's doing pretty well on it, but she's played with neighbor's several times. She knew she wanted the long kind, not a short one, so I picked this one.

My kids are gonna have a real shocker when we move back to the mainland someday and they actually have to put shoes on occasionally, haha.  Sometimes we drive down to the pool and realize no one bothered putting shoes on, lol.

I don't know if you all remember me almost a year ago asking your opinion on accepting a house site-unseen with no yard and shared walls and a shared driveway and how nervous I was about it and how I mourned our huge backyard in Colorado? Let me just update you and say how thankful I am to be living here! And not just here in this neighborhood where it's so safe for the kids to play, where they have friends, where everyone is a wonderful neighbor, but on one of the best spots in this entire neighborhood! I think the Lord knew how much the views from this hilltop would bless my heart day after day.
These were both taken yesterday, one morning, one night:

 Amazing. And I didn't even hit the "enhance" button ;)

I'm off tomorrow for a jaunt to the mainland! It will be a much-needed break for me and Casey's excited to play "Mr. Mom" for the week. He says he's going to meal plan and do school and the pool, beach and bowling and the Bishop Museum. And don't forget dance! And grocery shopping with all the kids. And I'm sure he'll know now where my spending money disappears to every week, ha!

Cheers to you all and happy Friday :)