Summer. Finally!

Since June hit, it feels like Summer has finally arrived! School is out, the pool is IN, woohooooo!!

However, it is reeeeaaaaally starting to hit me that we are moving in less than three months. Across the country. Thankfully, I'm not stressing (today, haha), but knowing this is the last Spring in our beloved house here has had me savoring every moment.

One of my favorite things about Spring at our house is watching our snowball tree in the back yard come to life. I can't help but take pictures of it each year because it's just so beautiful.

When we first bought this place (our first house), we'd been living in my parents' patio home, which we are still SO thankful for because it allowed Casey to get his degree, which has been unbelievably worth the time, stress and five years of being flat broke all the time, all while having three babies in three-and-a-half years. Seriously... IT IS WORTH IT! Anyway, the patio home had a very small cement back "yard" and the neighborhood had no sidewalks. Our house now has a huuuuuge backyard with an awesome deck, surrounded by trees and a play house to boot. We were so happy to have some outside play space. And we still enjoy it so much. Holy cow, I'm totally tearing up because I'm so thankful for our time here and because it's so hard to leave! Ack!

Those are my kiddos now. And because I'm feeling this nostalgic, here's some blasts from the past...

And one of my all-time favorites ever:

And I'm praying that whoever rents our wonderful house will love it and use it as we do!

I made shorts!!!

Well, I have really been branching out in my sewing lately! I have seen some pretty cute printed shorts out there. A bit classier of a style than jean shorts. Just check out this J.Crew page to see what I mean. But, not only do I not want to pay J. Crew prices, I wanted shorts just a little longer than I usually find in stores. So, at the last JoAnn's sale, I bought a couple a couple of Lisette bottom weights on clearance (which was an additional half off). So, each of these shorts cost about $4 to make! I already had the pattern and the zippers (because if ever there's a bag o' zippers at a thrift store, I do not pass it by, I buy it ;)

Here's my first pair:

 And with a different shirt:

 The pattern is Simplicity 1617. I've already made the skirt on the same pattern, so I have more than gotten my 99 cents out of this one, ha!

Here's my second pair:

 I wasn't sure I had any tops to go with either of these, but once I took a lot, it turned out I had a few for each pair! Actually, though, this last one I am not liking in the pictures. I don't think it's the best fit for me, so it might go in the giveaway pile. See?? Everyone should take pictures of themselves in their clothes if they really want to know what they look like. Ha!

 This pattern had no pockets, so I drafted some based on a different skirt pattern I have. On the green pair, I used a cute Heather Bailey cotton for the pocket lining. It's a cute surprise in there :)

 And for the second pair, I added a ruffle, just like the pockets on my favorite yellow corduroy skirt I made last Fall! So cute.

I did not photograph the rear view, but the fit back there is perfect! Also, I tried out the fabric glue stick method for the zipper instead of hand basting in it, which was previously the only way I could get them in right! The glue was awesome, it worked like a champ and did not gunk up my needle.

I'm super proud of both of these because I took extra time in making a muslin (in two different patterns, actually--I was determined!) and the extra time paid off because I feel like I can use this as a base for all kind of shorts and pants! I have one more pair in mind to make, so hopefully I'll be sharing those soon!

I make other stuff too ;)

My summer sewing is coming along and getting plenty of wear, too! Here are a couple dress I've made and have already worn a fe times.

This is Simplicity 1612, one of the newer patterns for knits.

 I really wasn't sure about this at first, it's much louder of a print than I usually wear, but it's such a soft knit, the fit is perfect and it's really comfy, plus I got a few compliments from strangers on it that day, so now I feel better about it. The back is really cool:

Annnnnd, I haven't only been sewing clothes for summer! I simply could not resist this pattern for a new pool bag. Then, when Hobby Lobby recently started carrying several prints of laminated cotton, I knew it was meant to be. I bought a yard (way less than the pattern recommends, but the stuff was not cheap and I determined to eke it out). So, here's our awesome new pool bag (Natalie named him Hangry):

Isn't is so funny!? His mouth is a zipper pocket Ha! We love it. It's lined with the same laminate cotton, so water will not be a problem. Bring on pool time! I also got a new swimsuit from Land's End. It has an underwire AND it's really cute *gasp*. Highly recommend.

And I make other stuff too. Last week I made Play Doh because I had tossed all ours, intending to buy new and start over and then forgetting to do that. Kelby wanted to play and I wanted him to stay occupied for more than 2 minutes, so we made some.

It was fun. But super messy. I still think I'll buy new, haha! When Casey asked what we did that day and I told him, he said something like, "You made what?? Huh. Just when I thought you'd done it all." HA! Like that will ever happen ;)

around the house

Seems like we've been spending our days enjoying home lately! I uploaded photos just now and realized how many memories we make right here at home with each other and with others. Since school is winding down and the weather is warming up, we have been able to relax quite a bit, while I take random photos of it all along the way.

Here's a dress I made recently and that I really love:

Knit dresses are my Summer uniform, there is nothing more comfortable on a hot day, in my opinion. This in an older Cynthia Rowley pattern that I've made before, only this time, I omitted the waistband. 

 We had a play date last Friday. It was so much fun to hang out with a couple other mamas, just chatting for hours while our kiddos played! And the weather was perfect. This is my lovely friend Jennica and her gorgeous little one :)

 The boys...

 It is SO adorable how excited Kelby gets on mow day. He puts on his mow clothes (a hat) and follows Casey and the mower around the whole time. It's super cute. d

 Awana awards night!! These little girls are the best of buddies.

 Natalie and Mr. Al:

 The Cubbies, waiting anxiously to sing their Cubbies song:

 We are continuing some low-key school time throughout the summer. Math for the girls, mostly, but Kelby likes to spread out with his workbox.

 We have a beautiful snowball tree in our backyard and watching it come to life is one of my favorite things about Springtime.

 Today I made play doh! It was super cool, the kids helped.

I have some more sewing to share! Several things, actually, but we are going to stay busy planting flowers, playing with friends and going to the pool (starting next week, yay!) too, so I will share it when I can!

Mother's Day sewing, among other things.

I had a lovely Mother's Day! I hope you did too :)  After a veritable feast of steak and lobster at my mom's, we came home and I sewed the rest of the day away! I finished up a knit dress and then cut out a rayon top. I just snatched up Simplicity 1614 the other day when they went on sale for 99 cents, but I was very unsure of this flowy style on me, although it's a style I've been wanting to try.

I am very pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up loving this top! It really might be the most comfortable thing I own.

I really like the back and the nice butt coverage ;)

Kelby totally photo bombed my first attempt:

Yes, he still wears the dino costume. Makes the sewing time worth it when they love their costumes this much!

In other news, I did quite a bit of cleaning on Saturday and then took that rare opportunity to take a picture of my granny couch, which we scored at an estate sale for $25 several months ago (it was marked $90, but it was the end of the day and she was practically begging us to take it, haha). I updated the look with pillows and new lamps from Ikea. Then, after touching up that wall behind the couch, I only hung up the one piece of art, rather than the collage I used to have there. I really like the look now!

 Then I moved a chair over to the bookshelf side because it occurred to me that not all furniture must be pointed at the TV, hahahaha! I like to sit over here and it makes a much better conversation area now.

I snapped this pic of Kelby splashing in puddles. His new camo pants were soaked and he *made* me wash them right away so he could wear them to bed that very night. I just get so happy when the kids love things I make for them that much, so I couldn't say no ;)

It's supposed to reach the 80's this week!!! We are so excited, that we went to Target this morning and bought our annual kiddie pool and the kids are happily playing in it even as I write this. I'm also working on a super cute new pool bag and can't wait to sign the kids up for lessons! AND, I spotted the first green bud on our huge front yard tree. She's always a late bloomer, but oh, how I love waiting and watching for those first buds!!

chairs!

I told you I found an awesome chair at the Goodwill in Pueblo last weekend!! Here she is:

 Isn't is gorgeous!!?? It's in perfect condition and it looks to have been professionally reupholstered (lucky me). It's a perfect peachy color and so comfy. I think she was made for me.

 We decided we wanted bedroom chairs well over a year ago and so we began keeping our eyes peeled. You may remember me blogging about this green one after we found it last year (also at Goodwill) for only 10 bucks! It was a lucky find, most mid-century modern pieces like this have ripped vinyl, but this chair is perfect. It's a man's chair, though, so we kept searching for a girly one. Casey spotted my peach chair first and it was $45. I told him it could be my Mother's Day gift and he said he would have bought it for me anyway. Aw :) I then sat in it until it was paid for and got it's "sold" sticker, just so no one would steal it, hehe.

And now the manly green chair gets to live on Casey's side :)

And now for a couple thrifting tips:

I have a few friends who think we get really lucky all the time at thrift stores. But, really, we are just patient. We keep going and looking and wait until we find what we've been hunting for--for the right price and in the right condition. It can take some time. You can't just decide what you want, go check every thrift store/antique store in the vicinity in one day and then give up when you don't find it. Same goes for Craigslist--when I'm looking for something, I just check CL a couple times a day, sometimes for several weeks, until I find what I want. This is how I got my 8x10 wool Pottery Barn rug for $100.

Also, you have to be careful when shopping for vintage items because it can be tempting to snatch up anything vintage and you end up with too big of a collection of things you only bought because, well, they were vintage and cheap. We learned that lesson the hard way! Now we pass up lots of things that are cool, but just not useful in our home. More on this topic when I show you the new Corning ware pieces we found the same day as we got my chair :)