still sewing

With our move coming at me like a freight train, I am still sewing. I have found I need it to keep my sanity. I will sew until they take my pins and scissors from my hands and put them on that moving truck ;)

I love cardigans and other ways to transform my Summer clothes into Winter clothes, but I was wanting a more structured option and having seen so many cute blazer style fitted jackets out there recently, I decided to make my own. I used McCall's 6711 and just love how it turned out!

 The best part: I had this awesome black and white camera cotton in my stash. I got it at JoAnn because it just made me grin and I could not resist it! The jacket lining was the perfect use for it, don't you agree? I wanted to keep it neutral for when it does peek out, but more than that, I wanted to know there was a cute print inside my jacket :)

 The outside fabric is a cotton twill from Denver Fabrics with a little bit of stretch. I'd made this pattern once before in a suiting from a thrift store with zero stretch and the sleeves were just too uncomfortable when I bent my arms. So in this version, besides using a fabric with some give, which helped, I cut the sleeves a size bigger, lowering the arm syncs a half an inch. This version accommodates my buff arms quite nicely, hehe.

I love it and it's super comfortable!! It will fit nicely over long sleeved shirts too so it will be very versatile.

More and more of my wardrobe is hand made these days, which I'm thrilled about. The two things I refuse to sew, however, are undergarments and jeans, ha! Where do you buy jeans? I could use a new pair, but I find myself to be between sizes in many brands. I like the washes of juniors jeans, but hate the low rise. I have a muscular build so it's hard, but not impossible to find skinny jeans, which I love. We were in Gap the other day and were laughing because the thighs on the mannequin wearing their skinny jeans were literally the size of my bicep, haha! The jeans I'm wearing in these pics are from Target and I love them, but unfortunately I have slimmed down ever so slightly this year and they feel too big--I don't have to unbutton them to get them off, lol, but I'm between sizes now in Target jeans too. I'm willing to spend up to $40 or $50 on a good pair of jeans, so give me your best shopping advice!!

how to work out at home for free!

Fair warning, this is wordy :)
I am a bit of a fitness lover. It didn't happen over night! But, sometime about a year and a half ago, after many years of getting bored after using the same video for a few days and quitting, I figured out how to stay motivated and add variety and intensity to at-home workouts and it's too good not to share. My main motivation these days is the simple fact that I feel better when I exercise (and by exercise, I mean hard enough to sweat). My entire perspective on myself, my life and my circumstances becomes brighter when I work out!! It's true. It's scientific too, I promise, it's not just in my head ;) I love a quote I saw once that said, "You're only a workout away from a good mood." I agree :)

First up, I LOVE the site, FitnessBlender.com.  The married couple that runs the site have hundreds of high quality FREE workout videos, varying in length and fitness level. They have fitness plans you can download for a small price if you aren't sure where to start or how to progress. Plus, they don't include music, which is nice when you'd just rather listen to your own :) You can easily search their site for what you're wanting to tackle. Today I was doing a Crossfit workout and just went to Fitness Blender to do a 6 minute cardio warmup.

Making them even more fun, they have a really fun video for kids. My kids love it. They love to workout with me anyway, especially Layla, so having a video just for them is a fun resource.

Me and my workout buddy:

Next up, can we talk for a minute about the awesomeness of YouTube??? It's almost embarrassing how many different things we use YouTube for. Fitness just adds to the list (I first discovered Fitness Blender on YouTube, actually, by searching for "30 minute HIIT workout". You can specify any type of workout and find it on YouTube. The PopSugar Fitness channel is a fun one and has tons of ten minute workouts. Combine two or three and you can get a really great routine in. Also, if you're new to fitness, you'll want to make sure you are using correct form on certain exercises and YouTube is a great way to do this.

Right now, I am using Clean Eats in the Zoo's (awesome site, btw) 30 Day at Home Crossfit Challenge.  I've been intrigued by Crossfit and there are plenty of gyms close to me, but as a homeschooling mama, I don't get out alone more than one evening a week usually (more on weekends) so it doesn't make sense for me to join a gym. Not to mention, my thoughts on gym memberships: If you're not motivated enough to work out at home, what makes you think you will drive to a gym to work out on a daily basis?? Just food for thought. Start at home, then see if you think a gym would fit into your life. The classes sure would be fun! There are a few fitness centers on the Army post we are moving to, so I'm hoping that taking a Zumba class or something will be more feasible for me there.

I also really like an app called Sworkit Pro (find it in the app store). I have it on my phone and my ipad and sometimes I just  like to put on a Podcast and tell the app I want a 30 minute cardio circuit workout. It has yoga, upper body, lower body, cardio, or a little bit of everything. And if you're not sure of an exercise, you can pause to watch the quick how-to video. And if you aren't comfortable with an exercise, you can go to the next one (there are a few things I don't like to do because I have scoliosis, although I have had fewer problems with my back than ever since I started doing tough workouts last Spring!)

If you are willing to spend a little money, I have used and still use certain workout videos. I highly recommend Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred if you're wanting a good place to start. Her workout is tough for beginners, but builds stamina and muscle tone very quickly. I have also done Insanity and TurboFire. (I bought both used, which is the only way to go for crazy pricey workout programs like that!)  I like both, but just do not like how long the workouts get in the second half of the program. They are really fun and highly motivational, though and come with variety built right in since they come with so many discs, which is why I'm saving my pennies for Shaun T's new T25 workout--only 25 minutes, yay!

I know many mamas like me wonder how in the world they can fit a daily workout in (20 minutes is all it takes!) and believe me, I do understand. Life with kids gets crazy!! I am not a morning workout person. It takes me awhile to get going in the mornings and my kids are generally less needy in the afternoons. So I always work out sometime after lunch. It helps to make your mind up on a time too--at 3:00, I work out. Put it on the agenda. When my kids were smaller, it was much more difficult to work out every day. I have whacked toddlers in the head with weights more than once. They get under foot, I know that. Sometimes after Casey got home, I'd go into our room with my laptop and a DVD and work out then. It was a nice break for me!

I am always looking for more online workout ideas, so if you have some, please share in the comments! And if you're wanting to get started working out, YOU CAN DO IT! Exercise as unto the Lord :)

One more thing, there is a LOT of "fitness motivation" out there, particularly on Pinterest. When I decide to follow someone on Pinterest, I immediately unsubscribe to their Fitness board if they have one. Those pictures of perfection are not healthy for me to dwell on and not motivating in the right ways. I strongly encourage you not to buy into those links and pictures!

I quit shampoo

If you haven't heard of the "no-poo" method of hair care, it's quite a sweeping movement these days ... if you don't believe me, just ask Pinterest. I've been growing my hair out for a few years. I have naturally curly hair and the longer it got, the more unmanageable it became. I felt like it just looked frizzy, whether I was wearing it curly, wavy or straight. I hate products for curly hair that make it crunchy and products for straightening just didn't seem effective--don't even get me started on the cost of the "good" products! I wasn't happy. So I decided to see what would happen if I left my hair to do it's thing. It's been a couple weeks and today was a turning point. Finally!! This is my hair today with no product and air dried. I gave it a trim this morning, both the length and the bangs.

I started out using the honey wash method every other day. I added a lemon juice rinse after the first week. But, my hair was just not getting any less oily (the adjustment period after quitting your shampoo will not be awesome). No one but me noticed, but still... So this morning I tried what most no-pooers do and made the baking soda wash with the apple cider vinegar rinse. And WOW, for the first time in two weeks, my hair is SO soft and smooth and not oily at all!! 

I do not like blow drying my hair--I just don't have the time to mess with that. So to style it wavy like this and relax the curls, I wait til it's almost dry, then gather it up, twist it and wrap it in a loose bun, sticking some pins or a pony tail holder over it. After about 30 minutes, I take it down and ta-da. Done. I do style my bangs with a flat iron and sometimes fix some curls with my curling iron if some pieces are going crazy. But, no product at all. 

This picture was about one week in. I wore it curly that first week because it hid the grease, haha! I always thought my hair was way curlier underneath and just a mix of curl/straight/frizz on the top layers. Now it is all as curly as those bottom layers!! It's insanely curly without the frizz, it's awesome. It occurs to me that the shampoo was more damaging to my top layers because those were the parts that were getting more of it when I washed! I also started using a large piece of cotton knit fabric to wrap my hair in instead of a towel. I have known for years that this is better for curly hair to diminish frizz, but I just now implemented it.

So my recommendations so far:

• Take the plunge!! Give it 30 days. Just see what happens. 
• The honey did not work for me. It was actually more oily on the days I used the honey, so I guess there's a reason that method isn't as prevalent as the baking soda/vinegar method. 
• My adjustment period was a couple weeks, but some people say it took up to 6 weeks for their natural oils to figure things out. So don't give up. 
• I'm not going to bother writing the step-by-step because you can already find that alllll over the Internet. If you do have questions, leave them in the comments and I will absolutely answer them! 
• You might find a couple posts that claim baking soda and vinegar will ruin your hair--that's because this method is NOT meant to be used every day. It might possibly damage your hair and scalp if you do that. You may need to use it more in those first couple weeks while your scalp adjusts, then you will be able to go 3 or 4 days or even up to a week without washing or just using water to rinse. Time for me to buy a shower cap ;) 

That's all! If you've also quit shampoo, please share in the comments! I have read tons of stories of how people changed their hair with this method, so let's swap stories!

on outfitting kids

Before I get started here, I'd like to give a shout out to how awesome PicMonkey is!! I designed my new header and the new sidebar buttons with no frustration and with great ease using that site. I "splurge" on the $5 a month for the pro membership. After using a 30 day trial of Photoshop recently and finding it way too cumbersome and time-consuming for my needs (not to mention expensive), I find PicMonkey to be soooo much fun.

Next bit of news, Fancy That now has it's very own Facebook Page!! It used to be the page for my Etsy shop, but that is no longer in operation so I turned that wasted space on the Internet into something useful :) You can find and like that page here and thus receive my new posts on your timeline. There is also a cute new button to the right that will always take you right to it.

Now for the bit of sewing I have been doing. I made the girls some super cute knit dresses from McCall's 6785. This is Natalie's (Layla doesn't want to model hers right now. Shoulda taken pictures yesterday when she was wearing it!)

Layla's is out of a cute cherry print knit and I made the other view with the cute ties at the hem. It's adorable. Don't worry, I'm determined to get pics of her in it! This is the pattern envelope:

And so, my Fall sewing has commenced. I have a lot of great plans, but I'm not sure if I should dig in now or just wait until after the move. I definitely can't go weeks without sewing ... so I guess I just answered my own question! I'm digging in ;)

We went to our favorite thrift store on Sunday afternoon (the one the kids got all excited about, haha) and they happened to have all kids' clothes half off that day. We had just left Old Navy--I wandered around thinking, "I could so make that better and for a lot less money" and Casey and I were both snubbing our noses at their "clearance" prices. Call us cheap, but when three kids need complete new wardrobes every time the seasons change, you'd have a $5 limit for kids' clothes too! This Old Navy experience made Savers even more fun. We get clothes there that we would never but in stores: Gap, Banana Republic, Abercrombie kids, Gymboree--these were all represented in our haul on Sunday for between 1 and 3 dollars a piece. Thrifting is just the way to go, in my most humble opinion. How do you shop frugally for kids' clothes?

two tried, two true

I made second versions of two recent favorites.

I got so many positive comments on my latest Vogue dress, both here and on patternreview.com! As soon as I finished that one, I knew it would be a perfect design for this print I picked up at Denver Fabrics, which I'm pretty sure was part of the Liberty of London for Target line that everyone went nuts over a couple years ago.

I love this version just as much as the solid blue chambray one!!

We've had a couple cool and rainy days here. It's been lovely, but I'd like another month of sunshine at least!!
In the meantime, though, an umbrella makes a fun prop ;)

 Yep, I think an umbrella must come with me to my next photo shoot!

In case you're interested, this was my second version of Vogue 8810, which I reviewed here.

Before that, though, I made another version of my recent ruffle shirt, Simplicity 1886, which I reviewed here. Shortly after I made that top (which I've already worn several times!) I bought this two-sided double gauze at Denver Fabrics. I knew this same pattern would be the perfect design to showcase both sides!

 Isn't this fabric so cool???

That wrapped up the Summer sewing I was wanting to do before our exodus to Virginia. I have a TON of Fall sewing plans for both me and the kids, but I think I still have plenty of time. When does Fall (meaning long-sleeves and hot Starbucks weather) arrive in Virginia. Anyone?

In other news:

• We started school today. It went awesome :)
• I quit shampoo. More on that later, in a long and informative blog post, haha. 
• Natalie just decided she wants to be a Mexican Princess for Halloween. As she's watching Strictly Ballroom. Best movie ever. The costume plans change almost daily, all year round.
• Our kids got crazy excited over a trip to a thrift store yesterday--we are a nerd family. 
• We started reading the Chronicles of Narnia out loud to the kids and we are all loving it. 
• I cleaned out my little girl patterns yesterday :( My girls are too big for most of them. One daughter is too mature for the sweet ruffly looks and the other daughter just prefers pants and shorts and wants to look "cool", not "cute". I'm trying to encourage her in her own style. I want to let her be herself, which makes me thankful for the lines of patterns designed by Disney Channel stars past and present--even though my girls don't know those characters, they like their clothes, haha. And my friend Jennica will be getting some awesome little girl patterns ;)

That's all! 

Cheers :-D

Winding

Well, as time before our move winds down, our school year is winding up! I've spent this week planning our next few weeks of school before we have to pack it up and move across the country a bit over a month from now. I've had a few people tell me I'm crazy for trying to school through a move, but Summer, after July, finds my kiddos a little lazy--too much TV is being watched, not enough chores are being done and we all are starting to itch for a little routine. So we're jumping in.

I have started to wind down my Summer sewing also. I have two more pieces I'd like to sew up before packing up. I cut one out yesterday, maybe I'll get it done by this weekend. I managed a breezy rayon dress last week. I wore it to church Sunday and really liked it:

 This picture is not great. I need to teach Natalie to focus on the person, not on the brick wall ;)

 It's McCall's 6678. I liked the modified shirt dress look with a drawstring waist. And I love a shirttail hem.

I used peachy orange buttons, which I think are perfect!! I made a couple changes. I shortened the hem by two inches in front and one inch in the sides and back. It was a frumpy length before and I like things to hit above my knee, not below. Also, the sleeves were a little ridiculous.  They are large and they stuck straight out. I tried it on and just manipulated a pleat into each sleeve and then took it off and attached the pleats with buttons. After those changes, I'm pretty happy with it, but in the future will stick to my new favorite modified shirt dress pattern, Vogue 8810, which does not require a cami underneath like this one does because of the massive arm holes. 

I'm pretty excited about our school year, as broken up as it's going to be with two moves in the next 8 months. I'd love to come back in the next few days and show you which materials I'll be using! This will be our best year yet :)

family & friends

There have been good reasons for my absence here this past week. After my friend Jenn and her family left, my sister and her husband and five kiddos came!! It has been SO fun having loved ones here for a few weeks. Yesterday my kids were wandering around the house not knowing what to do with themselves. I think they'd gotten used to being busy, ha! Today they have mellowed out and are occupied, whew!

I was able to rope everyone into a little family photo shoot at Delaney Farm one day. Whenever we are all together, we must make this happen in some form!

 This is the one and only shot where everyone was looking and no kids (or Dads) were doing silly things.

 My favorite:

My brother in law snapped that last one. I love it :)

Working backwards from there, despite the sickness that scurried through the house while Jenn was here, we did manage to get one day of outside fun in once we were all well again.

 She couldn't resist making her own version of the pool bag. They look SO AWESOME next to each other. These guys could make anyone smile ;)

 Their little guy Asa just became officially theirs this week!! So excited for them. They took him to Build-a-Bear that day and named his bear "Gotcha". So cute.

And we got to go on a double date to the rifle range too :)

Now, you'd think things would be settling down for me ... but, we are moving in SIX WEEKS!!!! Six weeks. Crazy. I have a lot to do. I'm trying not to stress out about every tiny detail. We are moving to Ft. Lee, Virginia for six months for Casey's Captains Career Course. After that, we'll move again. Could be anywhere. We have to drive both our cars, which puts me in our SUV with the three kids and no passenger to help tend to them for three 8 hour days. This part is not necessarily sounding that stressful to me, actually, although your ideas for helping the kids through it would be very welcome :) The stressful part is getting this darn house ready for renters! While trying not to get super behind in homeschooling with two moves in one school year. So, anyone who has rented a house, moved cross-country, PCSed with the military, moved while homeschooling, driven with kids for several days--insert your best advice in the comments!!!!

My new favorite dress

I don't buy a lot of Vogue patterns, but sometimes when they're on sale for $3.99, I pick out one or two. Call me cheap, but when the other companies go on for $.99, four bucks can seem like a lot, haha.

I have been looking for the perfect shirt dress pattern. I didn't want it to be the straight kind with a sash or belt because that's just not a flattering cut for me. So I wanted one with a skirt and I do have a pattern like that, but it has a fitted waistband also and I wanted it to be more comfortable for everyday than that.  I know, I'm so picky!!

But, I flipped through the catalog just for kicks since I was at JoAnn and saw Vogue 8810. I loved the more paper bag style of this one and the drawstring would make it so comfortable! I had a dark denim colored stretch chambray and hand so after making a quick muslin, I got to work. And I LOVE IT!!

 The fit is perfect, although I sized down from what I normally make because I thought it had more ease than I wanted on the model. I also thought the waist looked low on her so I shortened my bodice by using the petite fold lines on the pattern pieces. It actually made for a perfect length, thankfully.

 I found the perfect buttons at Hobby Lobby. They add to the casual look, I think.

 I didn't quite have enough fabric (long plackets like these, since you need to cut four of them, take a lot of fabric) so I pulled a vintage cotton from my stash and used it for the placket lining and the pockets. I love how it peeks out from my hem occasionally when I walk.

This will be so easy to style for Fall too. Just add a long sleeved tee underneath or a cardigan on top and some boots or flats.

I love this dress so much, I'm thinking of making another one out of the Liberty for Target print I showed you the other day! I just need some underlining for it. In the mean time, I promised two little girls some doll bathing suits ;)