Back in the Saddle

I have not been very motivated the last few weeks. I'm mostly just tired (last trimesters will do that to ya), but today I sat down and finished up this maternity skirt I started last Friday and tweaked more and more throughout this last week. Ever since my first pregnancy, I have been disgusted at the lack of decent maternity patterns out there. Every one I tried was just huge in the arms and neck holes. Just because my belly is growing rapidly, doesn't mean the rest of me is growing at an equal rate! So, anyway, I found this tutorial, cut the elastic out of a pair of maternity jeans I didn't like and here ya go--a lovely skirt! The next one will go much faster, since I can use this one as a guide. I love this linen-look fabric and I bought another equally great fabric to make one more.

SO, there is actually a reason I am more motivated to do some sewing. The lovely Julie Kendall and I have a booth at the Brighton Farmer's market, starting next Saturday!!! YAY! We're both very excited, but realize we need to build our inventory a little bit. All this to say, if you've seen something on CraftyGirlz that you've been coveting, now is the time to snatch it up! since those items will all be going with us.

One more thing. If you haven't seen Heather Bailey's new lines of fabric, go over and visit. I found myself drooling over each and every one. Just beautiful!

Cake, Books and Other Stuff

Wow, I have found myself with very little sewing time lately. Actually, I have not been doing much of anything lately, except weeding out my house of excess stuff--namely toys and kids' clothes. I figure if there are less things for the girls to get out, there are less things for me to put away. (This last trimester with two little ones is no easy feat!) SO, I moved Natalie's dresser into their walk-in closet with Layla's. The girls now share that dresser and I moved the new baby's stuff into Layla's former dresser. I don't know if you remember how I rigged Natalie's dresser shut. It only worked for a little while, she managed to empty it on a daily basis anyway. Clever little thing, I tell you. Recently she dropped all her crayons into the vent in her room. They were so far down there, Casey had to go into the crawlspace downstairs, take the whole thing apart and get them out, along with some other treasures she'd been hiding. So, we moved the furniture to cover the vent. Always an adventure.

ANYWAY, I made Casey this S'Mores cheesecake for Father's Day. It was G-O-O-D! I would post the recipe, but it's long and I've already made this post too long, so unless someone wants it, I won't bother. Oh, that's toasted marshmallow on the top--mmmmm. I'm still mad at myself for not getting a picture of Daddy and the girls in their church dresses before Natalie spilled chocolate milk all over herself. Oh, well.

And, finally, some books I've been enjoying, buying and wishing for:

1. Mudhouse Sabbath--My mom read this and then bought a copy for me as a gift. I'm so glad she did. I finished it last night and loved it, from start to finish. It's written by a former follower of Judaism who converted to Christianity some years ago. In the book, she compares certain sacraments between the two religions and makes some excellent points about what we can take away from Judaic traditions. Great book and an easy read, it's not very big.
   
2. The Billionaire's Vinegar--I just bought this book for Casey for Father's Day and he's very anxious to read it and then pass it along to all the wine-loving men that we know. It's a nonfictional mystery about the world's oldest bottle of wine, dating back to 1787. It's sort of like a conspiracy theory, which Casey loves.
   
3. I came across a new-to-me blog last night, Preschoolers and Peace and feel like I stumbled on an absolute treasure. I only read a few posts and was SO encouraged by both, I didn't want to stop reading. While there, I found a link to a book called Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends. It's always been so important to me that my kids get along and are close, despite their personality and age differences. This looks like a good read to me.
   

That's all for now, although I added a widget to my right sidebar where you can see random books from my library. Kinda fun, I think.

Preschool Gold Mine

Things don't go well around here if Natalie gets bored. That's just a simple fact. She's a smart little booger and so we've been considering starting some preschool things with her. We're planning on homeschooling and that goes for preschool too so I Googled some things yesterday and came across Homeschooling Adventures, where there are tons of links to free, printable material on all kinds of subjects. I clicked on Preschool and found a link for each letter of the alphabet, with several links of activities for each letter. Awesome.
Today we learned the letter A and she was busy with these things all afternoon. I just love this picture. I also couldn't resist posting this video of the girls playing the piano, each standing in one of Daddy's work boots. It was mighty funny. (Apparently you can't turn videos, so.....whoops :)

Gifty

These are some picture of a bag I made my lovely Aunt Teddi for her birthday. I made a similar one for myself several years ago and she spotted it around here sometime after Christmas. I just now got around to making her one. She LOVED it, so I'm happy to have made her happy :)





























AND, Casey and I attended a wedding this last weekend in Greeley. A friend at school had asked him to sing in a quartet at her wedding, so we took the opportunity to spend the night there, while Casey's mom stayed with the girls. We have not done that since having kiddos, so it was a wonderful time for us. Anyway, we have zero extra money, so the gift required some creativity. I made these pot holders and we printed one of our home made recipe books of all our best recipes. A great gift and totally free. Here also is a picture of Casey with his three other school friends that made up the quartet and one of Casey and I in this absolutely gorgeous old Catholic church. They sounded sooooo beautiful, I wish I could post all the music here somehow :)

Recipe Box Swap

One of the lovely ladies whose blog I read hosts a monthly recipe box swap and so I thought I'd participate today! Here is my favorite smoothie recipe. I love it because it does not require any ice, since my blender does a horrible job with ice. Instead it uses frozen fruit, which my blender does fine with for some reason. Here ya go:

Peach Smoothie

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1 cup frozen peaches (or strawberries, or whatever you have)
1 banana
6 oz. vanilla yogurt (I never measure, I just guess)
1 Tbl. honey

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend well. This recipe easily serves two, or one adult and two sippy cups, which is usually how it goes around here :)
Yesterday I made a batch of this and poured it into Popsicle molds to freeze. It's sure to become Natalie's favorite snack, I think.

A Happy (now) Accident

So, I made the mistake of using a Butterick pattern to make a bag for the shop. I LOVE these fabrics together, so I was devastated when the bag was completely non-functional in every way. I made it right, it's just so wide and so shallow that it would never work! WHAT IS UP??? Do they have these patterns tested???? It had to have taken some major staging to make it look that way on the pattern cover. Anyway, I considered cutting it up and making several tissue holders because the fabrics are so great, I did not want to toss it, but instead I put in a casing and a drawstring, realizing that it would be perfect for my knitting projects, that usually sit on my side table in a plastic box. It's so wide, that is holds knitting needles very well, even the super long ones. That's Layla's little hand in the picture, she wants to play with that stuff so bad, poor baby :)

Water Play

We had a GREAT day as a family yesterday. After nap time, we put the girls in their new bathing suits (thanks Granny!) and headed to Southlands shopping center where they have these great fountain things in a big circle. Layla had a blast, although she would NOT let go of her bag of Cheerios, no matter how soggy they were getting. I do realize there are not as many pics of Natalie. She is a little more timid of the water and spent most of the time with her towel, spread out on the ground :) After that, we had a nice dinner at On the Border with some gift cards we had. It's so nice for Casey to be home a little bit more now that this last semester has ended. We had so much fun together.

Just a Few Things...

First, these are the fabrics my mom and I chose last weekend for Kelby's baby quilt (Kelby will be our new baby boy's name, if I have not mentioned that before.) Mom is going to make it for him, as she has made all my babies quilts so far. I love this free Zig-Zag pattern on The Purl Bee so much, I even ordered the zoo print online. I did decide to go with greens instead of oranges, though. Anyway, I can't wait to see the finished project!

Speaking of the baby, I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and once again, the size of the baby may a concern. Why do I have such big babies?? Layla was 9 lbs. 2 oz. and her shoulder got stuck. I have never been induced before and I have not had an epidural either. I'm afraid if I let them induce, it will be a snowball effect and I am scared of that. It's causing some anxiety, so your prayers would be appreciated. We'll have an ultrasound in eight weeks to check the size, so maybe it won't even be an issue, we'll see.

Lastly and very important, my hubby was cleaning out our VHS tapes the other day since we no longer have a VHS player and when he came to his not one, but TWO boxed sets of the original three Star Wars movies, he refused to get rid of either!!! Did I already say, we don't even have a VHS player??? SO, after we laughingly argued about this for awhile, he decided to put a poll up on his blog, asking whether or not he should ditch either or both. PLEASE go vote!! You will find the poll at the bottom of his left sidebar. Thanks :)