We have a winner!

Wow, lots of fun desserts on that list.  I had to laugh when my sister put a link for swig sugar cookies - 'cause it's the same one we actually tested but decided to NOT put in this book!

So, from random.org, here's the results:

and who is #4?

Megan you win!  email me with your address and I'll drop the book in the mail.

*and this giveaway made me realize that my comments don't have numbers  by them anymore.  shoot. I'll have to see if I can get them back!

Sewing for 'Lil part 2 (a whole wardrobe!)

 *I just want to start this post by apologizing for the total mess in the background of most of these pictures.  Sometimes you just deal with what you can get!


So I mentioned before that 'Lil only wears dresses.  That isn't exactly accurate. I figured out she just is only willing to wear one article of clothing at a time. So she'll wear just a pair of pants as happily as just a shirt or just a dress, which is why we always choose that last option!

So here's the story of how I did an entire wardrobe for my girl for less than $20.

When I started, 'Lil had 2 play dresses, one of which was getting too small. Now she's got this:

(the two we already had aren't in this shot.)  I'm going to break this down with all the links for the tutorials I found too.

1: ($5.47) this is a group of 3 dresses that I got from Threadup when they were having a special (it was $15 off for first time costumers, so I only spent on shipping). So $5.47 so far.

2: (free) This was a man's shirt I got for free, then I followed THIS tutorial to make it into a dress.  Except for the sleeves - at first I tried to just leave them  . . . .

Not so great! So I cut them off, sewed a bottom band to gather them in, and the final result is MUCH cuter!

(ok, I still need to hem it up a bit, but hey, it works)


3: ($8) I already talked about this one, and it was by far the most expensive one of the bunch  (WHY is fabric so gosh darn much?)  and you can get the pattern HERE.  So $14 for 5 dresses so far.

 

4:  (free) This might be my favorite one of the bunch.  I took a black long sleeved t that fit her and a women's skirt I got for free and combined them.  The skirt had a shirred waist, so really it was just sewing the two together. 

5: ($2) thrifted from goodwill (so $15 for 7 dresses so far)

6: ($1).  One of these jumpers was a hand me down, the other thrifted for a buck, but both of them I took old t shirts and sewed them to the straps.  That way she thinks it's only one dress and will still be covered!)

 7: ($1) another thrifted dress, but I did the same sew-the-shirt-in trick as before.

10: ($1) this was the easiest BY FAR of them all. It's a size 8 shirt.  Fits my size 4 like a dress - what could be better!

 

 

9: (free) I followed THIS tutorial, but then realized I hated the sleeves. So I cut them off, trimmed them a bit, then sewed them back on.  I also wanted a waist line, so I sewed the ribbon on.  Super easy! 

10: (free) this is a mix of a bunch of tutorials, but mostly THIS one.

11: (free) I had a friend give me the fabric for this one, and I sewed up a little pesant dress, mostly following THIS tutorial, but there's dozens of them out there!

At this point I counted up how many dresses we had (14 if you're wondering), and decided that was enough. But I have ideas/supplies for about 5 more, so we'll see.


It really helps that I had a bunch of adult clothes given to me for free, but it really isn't to hard to save a bundle on your kid's clothes!

Read with me (+ a giveaway)

I haven't done a read with me post in ages, but I have a perfect excuse for one today!

Who want's a new book!

Yup - Sadie Hoffmiller #10 is out!  This time, Sadie travels to Southern Utah and gets sucked into another mystery.  She kind of goes kicking and screaming into it, and then somehow actually gets asked by the police to help out this time!  It's a new experience

for sure.

It's another winner for Josi Kilpack.  A couple of plot points I saw coming, but by and large I was surprised over and over - especially at the "who-done-it" moment.  I loved it.

Now, let's talk recipes.  First off:

these are by my dad!  And  it's honestly some of the best dutch oven I've ever had. When we were testing these, a couple of the other bakers were surprised at them.  They felt that dutch oven should be more of just throw some stuff in and leave it alone.  And there's nothing wrong with doing that!  But with the extra steps that my dad always put in, it goes from "ho-hum" meal (which is what I usually think about dutch oven) to some of the BEST cooking I've ever eaten.

Oh, and the fudge is AWESOME.  And don't forget Cafe Rio's sweet pork with lime rice hmmmmm, I'm getting hungry just typing these up!

. . . . .Where was I? Oh yah - the give away!  I've got an autographed copy of Rocky Road to give away.  If you'd like to win, just leave a comment here with your favorite dessert (bonus points if you give me the recipe!). I'll take submissions until Thursday, September 5 at oh 8:00 pm, and then I'll announce the winner after that!

sewing for 'lil

So 'Lil has decided that dresses are the only thing she's willing to wear.

Which is weird to me.  First of all, because I HATED dresses as a kid.  Second of all, because Girly-Lou couldn't care less about what she wears, so it's very different to have a girl that's picky. 

And of course, I don't have 8+ dresses I'm willing to let her wear every day either.

Because of all this, I'm in the process of buying/thrifting/sewing a whole wardrobe for her.  Pintrest, of course helps with the ideas.

A couple of days ago I found a pin to THIS page, and she was asking for pattern testers for a cute dress. I've always thought it would be fun to be a pattern tester, so I filled out the form.  The next morning I woke up to FOUR emails from the blogger with all the info and asking to have the dress ready 48 hours later.  (cue panic attack!)

It was a VERY crazy day, but in 24 hours, I did this:

she was mad I was taking pictures, but she really loves the dress

Isn't it adorable! 

Now, the pattern wasn't perfect (yet!), but it's a great basic dress that I could do a dozen different variations with.  I'm super excited to play around with it some more!

find the joy

Yesterday I was talking with my sister, and (along with a million other subjects), one thing we talked about was the importance of doing what is best.  I've heard it said before that you can tell what is most important to our Heavenly Father by looking at what the world and the devil attack the most.  


Today I read THIS post on another blog.
I love things like this. I love it when parents learn something about themselves, something they didn't realize they were doing, or needed to do, or wanted to to. 


I needed to comment on this, and thought I'd copy it here (with a little expanding too)


Wonderfully written.
Along with this idea . . . I grew up KNOWING that my parents enjoyed me more and more each year. I constantly heard them saying things like “I hate it when people call it ‘terrible twos’. It’s TERRIFIC TWOS”, or “having 4 teenage girls is a joy, not a burden. I love having such great conversations with my daughters now.”

Think of the difference of that and what you usually hear. I knew my parents wanted to be around me. I knew they expected me to act appropriately so everyone ELSE would also want to be around me. We didn’t have moody teenagers because we were expected to be pleasant. (and had consequences too!)

I don’t expect my kids to be perfect, but I do expect them to grow and change. And yes, my three year old screams with the best of them (constantly too!). But I look and that sparkle in her eyes, and celebrate the little things – like the fact that she is finally understanding us (she has a severe communication delay)

Or the inventiveness of my 8 year old. Yes, today she started acting like a moody teenager. But look at just how much she’s grown.

Or listening to my 7 year old giggle as he plays with his 1 year old brother.

Every day, all 4 of my kids are a joy. Sometimes you have to dig under the unpleasantness to see it, but it IS there!  And what an exciting thing it is to be able to discover that joy in each of them as they grow too.

365 days ago

I met this guy:

365 days ago I was sleep deprived from painful contractions all night long. I've never gone into labor on my own, and didn't really feel like I should go to the hospital.  After all, the c-section was scheduled for 11 am the next day.  But man, oh MAN were those painful.  Every bit as painful as the two times I was induced with pitocin.

And I seriously regret not asking someone to check how much I was dilated. It wouldn't have changed a thing about the surgery, just sheer curiosity on my part.

366 days ago freaked my hubby out so much I was left comforting him for several hours before we collapsed into bed. No mother should ever be scared by a heartbeat like that.

366 days ago I had never felt so loved and welcomed by my ward and neighbors. What a joy it was to feel so nurtured by my friends.

365 days ago a  very purple boy was placed into my arms right as I type this.  He was perfect in every way . . . except that color.  He quickly turned pink (and then orange), but I remember stroking those purple fingers as they wheeled us into recovery.

365 days ago I finished my last pregnancy.

365 days go Jellybean came into this world and we finally truely picked his name. (I still look at him and think he looks more like a Will, but that boat has LONG since sailed.)

365 days ago we started babyhood for the last time.

 365 days ago changed our family forever in the bestest of ways.

I can't wait to see what the next 365 days bring.

Happy birthday, Jellybean.  You are loved.

3 months

I just went 3 months without blogging.

Not a word. Not a picture. (but LOTS of projects!)

This is happening too often to me. And the process goes the same way every time.  Here's what it looks like.

I blog regularly.  I enjoy it. I start thinking of more posts.  Then I start looking at other people's writing. Other people's projects. Other people's lives. 

Then I do one of two things.  I start thinking my life and blog aren't enough.  That I'm not enough. That my words are silly and pointless and meaningless.  So I gradually stop writing at all.

Or I decide that my stuff is good, but needs to be AMAZING so maybe I can get really cool and maybe even get to the point I make money off of this, thus justifying the time I spend here.  This road leads to even worse results than the first. I start doing JUST TOO MUCH. I  try to turn this little corner of the webbernets into something like Ucreate or The Nester.

And I fail.  As I try to do projects and talk about them, I delete post after post after post. All I can see is how unpolished my work is. I don't take enough pictures. My lighting is bad. My writing lacks personality.  My projects are the same thing everyone else has done before.

And then I find reasons to stay away from the blog.  I don't want to even start to think about that failure.    Very quickly I'm doing nothing but blog stalking everyone else.

I'm TIRED of this cycle!  I think this is the third or fourth version of this since I started this thing almost 5 years ago.

So this is me (hi me!) attempting to stop it once again.  I want to write for me. I need to remember that I'm enough without anyone reading this blog, and that yet again I realize why I don't really want to make money off this thing.  Yes, it would be nice. But I'm not willing to put a full time job's worth of work into this thing. 

There will be projects still, of course. And pictures.  But I want more of my personality more than anything. 

Here's to a new start.  I just hope it lasts this time.