It's Finally Finished! (209/365)

It's most definitely not perfect, and it's taking all that I have in
me not to take the seam ripper to the waistband and start over with
the gathers, but I think it will do for my first big project. My
gathers aren't pretty, I didn't hold them down when sewing so they
walked to the end a bit (that I HAD to fix), but it was a good
learning experience. Next time I might use even less fabric width wise
as it comes out to a lot of fabric and a lot of poof with my
measurements, but it does the job and I will proudly wear it to the
shower on Sunday!

Headache Central (208/365)

Not only do I have one from hell, at the moment, but today has also
been filled with one headache after another.

- The dress I ordered for Mary's wedding is too big despite my own
body measurements being slightly larger than the size I bought. It's
also not as sort as the website depicted it. Not sure what I'm going
to do with it yet.

- My new swimming suit is too big in the bust. I wish clothing
designers would realize that not all full figured women have size DDD
boobs! Now I have to go buy some inserts and hope it will suffice.

- I am stumped on the waistband of my skirt. I'm sure I'm over
complicating things, but I can't seem to get it right. I took 12
inches off the width today in hopes that it won't be quite as poofy as
it was turning out to be (and per a reccomendation on the blog I got
the pattern from. I'll either need to attach it with a really wide zig-
zag so it will stretch up over my hips, or this sucker will just have
to go on over my head. OR I'm just really missing something. Needless
to say I've made great friends with the seam ripper today.

- My actual headache was caused by my three year old headache's
inability to do a thing I told her to do today. Please pray that once
preschool starts in nearly a month that it'll be her saving grace. If
not I may just ship her to Grandma on a one-way ticket.

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing (207/365)

Bet you're tired of hearing about it, eh?

I haven't started my project that started it all, but I have a good
reason. Mary's bridal shower is on Sunday and I decided that the
fabric I bought around 7 years ago (look familiar, Jess?) needed to be
made into a skirt finally! And I should have enough to make something
else too. I found a super easy tutorial online for the skirt and I'm
about half way finished at the moment. I'm about to start the gathers so wish me luck, I'm goign to need it!!!!

Be Proud of Me (206/365)

I drove around the Villa Park area for a few hours today (thanks Mom
and Dad for watching the girls), then after our weekly visit and
dinner I DROVE ALL THE WAY HOME. If you know me, you know how huge
this is. I'm pretty proud of myself for just doing it already.

And here are some pics of the girls from today.

Things I Learned Today (205/365)

- That 15 month old babies can be wide awake at 4am and be happy as
clam until 8am.

- That no matter how much I want to deny it, Alice does come by her
current attitude honestly.

- That Kathy and I will show up to a family function wearing nearly
the exact same outfit again in the future.

- That Izzy is quite possibly at the cutest age, EVER.

- That Alice will have no problem making friends in preschool.

- That we'll have to beat the boys off of her with a stick.

- That I'm related to my most favorite people in the whole world.

- That Matt can sleep like he's been sedated with heavy drugs when he
wants to.

I Think it Turned Out Pretty Swell (204/365)

What do you think? I've already washed up some more fabric and I may
just whip up a few more tomorrow.

Just When I Think I Know What She's Going to Be (203/365)

She throws a curveball at me. I've been jokingly so sure that she's going to be a chef due to her obsession with everything kitchen, but lately she's been really into drawing. She spent a good chunk of today just like this "drawing" (I say that because 9 times out of 10 she doesn't actually make a mark on the paper, for various reasons). Now if I could just get her to understand that there are books she can draw in and books she can't.

Sewing update - still haven't cut my pattern for the dress yet, but that's ok. I've been watching tutorials and reading online about issues I've run into with the skirt (and issues I know I'll run into with the dress) and I feel much more confident. I learned how to hem the skirt so I was able to do that and add the ribbon trim tonight to finish it! I can't believe it's finished and it actually looks good (if you don't look at the bobbin thread tangle up at the waistband)! I bet you can guess what tomorrow's post is going to be.

So I Don't Have Much Done (202/365)

And I'm falling behind, but I'll catch up! I'd rather have some
sewing practice before I jump into the dress. The tutorials, pics, and
flickr threads will still be there when I'm ready for it, so I'm not
too worried. After the issues I had last night, I may just sew another
skirt before I start the dress.

The skirt is incredibly easy and I plan on making loads of them for
Alice in the future, but I've got to iron out the kinks first. I'm
struggling with finishing the bottom edge (you're supposed to bind
with ribbon) because I didn't square it up before I started sewing, so
I may just end up hemming it, if I can figure out how to do that, that
is! :)

So anyway, here's the almost finished product. It fits Alice perfectly
and I'm so proud I didn't screw up the casing for the elastic (just
don't look too close, mmkay?). All in all a good experience so far!

We're Experiencing Some Technical Difficulties (201/365)

Clearly this is going to be a post about my adventures in sewing land.

So I decided to start with the skirt before jumping straight into the dress pattern. It's definitely easy enough, I just know jack about my machine and I was having some tension issues. Turns out all along I had been threading it properly, but this time I looked at their little crude drawing (and their instructions that say follow the directions in the picture) and thought that I had to loop the thread around something I had never looped it around before. I should have known that that was my issue once I started, but no, I was convinced it was the bobbin.

It wasn't the bobbin.

So I spent the better part of my allotted time this evening trying to thread my damn machine. After that things went pretty well, but I've been having issues with the thread bunching up on me (I think the tails are getting tangled up) on the bobbin side. I've only had that issue so far at the spot where I'm sewing the elastic ends together so clearly it's a spot where I have to sew and turn, and sew and turn, and I'm betting I'm just not being careful enough.

That's where I'm at right now. I may try and sew a little more (or pull out some stitches) before bed, but I may just call it a night. We'll see.

200 Days Down! (200/365)

Can you believe I've made it this far?! Who'd have thought that I'd
actually keep up with this?

Anyway, today I didn't get a thing done, literally. And I'm not just
talking in the sewing department either. I've been laying on my couch
napping and praying that the kids don't get into too much trouble
because I've been feeling rather awful today. I'm not sure if it's
something I ate or a bug, but hopefully it passes soon. I did manage
to take a pic of my fabric for you all to see, but keep in mind it's
not an accurate representation since I took it with my phone.
Hopefully I can get it all pinked, washed, ironed, traced, and cut
tomorrow and maybe I'll move on to the skirt if there's time.

Cross your fingers I'm feeling better tomorrow. I'm ready to get to
sewing!

I'm In Way Over My Head (199/365)

An October 2006 mommy friend of mine, and fabulous self taught sewer, Faith, brought to my attention that there is going to be a sew along on Flicker this month if I wanted to get in on it and try my hand at sewing. I've been wanting an excuse to learn for a long time, but you all know I need another crafty hobby like I need another hole in my head, so I've been putting it off until now. The project is a pattern called Ice Cream Dress by Oliver + S and I knew that once I saw the pattern I had to get in on the sew along.

Now I've used my (ahem, Mom's) machine many times before, but in reality I've just winged it and made things up as I went along. Now I'm getting into technique, and terminology, and I'm afraid I may need to break out the big guns - a sewing book that once belonged to Mom (kind of like MY machine, eh?). The internet will also most definitely be my friend as I learn about sewing darts and easing sleeve caps, etc, etc, etc, so hopefully I'll come out of this with SOMETHING resembling a dress when all is said and done. I have a feeling that these will be things that once I learn how to do them, the next pattern I tackle will be that much easier and take much less time than I'm expecting this first project to take.

When I have some light tomorrow I'll take a pic of the fabric I found at Wal-Mart last night. I was seriously about to give up looking because they had nothing that wasn't novelty prints or prints that screamed old country lady (no offense to any old country ladies that may be reading this). Having looked at everything, I thought, I did one last pass when I found a stunning paisley print and others from the same collection that were right up my alley. It's not what I had envisioned in my head, but if it turns out it will still be spectacular. I bought plenty of extra for in case I mess up or if I decide to make a different dress (or splurge for the smaller size pattern packet for this dress) that will match for Izzy.

I'm hoping to get everything cut tomorrow so I can be caught up with the schedule, and then, if I have time, attempt this skirt that actually seems more at my skill level that Faith suggested I try before jumping feet first into the dress project. Hopefully tomorrow is rainy and the girls will cooperate with me. Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it!

And They're Off (198/365)

We'll miss you. Be safe. See you next year, James. Love you bunches.

In Honor of Uncle James (197/365)

We'll miss you. Be safe on your way back to Curryland (by way of Boyscoutville - please don't kill dad on your way there).

Good Food, Sickness, and Battle of the Wills (196/365)

Today I finally think I finally duplicated my mom's BBQ. She always cut hers up, but every time I've used pork shoulder, cooked it a bit, then went to go cut it up before cooking it some more, it fell apart so I just had to shred it. This time I used pork loin because it was cheaper and wouldn't you know it held together so I could cut it up and the texture was finally just like mom's. It probably could have cooked a bit longer to be a bit more tender, but I sure as heck liked it. Guess I will be using pork loin from now on.

It's 11pm and I'm still up for two reasons. One we'll get to in a second, the other is because I love my brother so much that I'm making him a batch of Opie cookies. Dad's oven runs way too hot, so the first batch is edible, but not perfect. After that I dropped the temperature again and cut the time by 5 minutes (ugh, and these cookies take 20 minutes to cook so cooking for less time was ok by me) and the other batches came out looking and tasting pretty darn good. I hope he appreciates them. :)

The other reason I'm still up is the fact that we had a battle of the wills with Alice tonight. She's been having some major attitude and listening issues (it doesn't help that she's inherited major stubbornness from both sides of the family) lately and today she decided she wasn't going to eat her dinner. For three LONG hours she decided to be stubborn, throw a fit, scream and shout, and just about anything under the sun other than eat her food. Eventually she gave in and finished, but let me just say I hope we don't have a repeat of this any time soon.

Please pray that no more of us get sick, especially with Dad and James's big trip coming up. It started last night with Charles, we figure he ate some bad chicken salad at Subway on his way back home. He was miserable, but thankfully he felt much better in the morning. I am having a few issues myself, but so far I'm not sure that I'm sick. Matt, however, went home sick from work today. His stomach was really bothering him and he just couldn't make it through the day (his coworkers joked that it was because of his toilet hand). He must really be feeling awful because he never goes home sick unless he's really sick. I'm not sure what all he did when he got home, but when I talked to him he had crashed on the couch and eventually threw up. He's supposed to come down tomorrow night, we'll see if he makes it. I'll keep you posted.

Now I'm off to bed. Two and a half more days left at home. I don't want it to end.

What An Exhausting and Fun Day (195/365)

I was ready to go to bed at least two hours ago so I'll keep this
short. Today JJ, Cindy, Tori, the girls, and I all went to "the water
park.". It was quite a steamy day so of course the place was packed to
the gills, but we still manager to have a great time. Here ate some
highlights.

- Izzy has absolutely no fear of just about anything. She insisted
that we let her walk in the water by herself (1 ft 6 in water) which
meant that she ended up face first in the water several times. Alice
would cry and freak if she did that, but not Iz. As soon as she got up
she was ready for more. She's so not MY kid.

- Alice warmed up to the water faster than I had anticipated. She went
from being scared and wanting me to hold her after she went under
water after her first slide, to not wanting to leave and making plans
to come back "in a few weeks" by the end of the day. She LOVED the
lazy river where you could float from pool to pool, but her absolute
favorite was the wave pool. I don't think I've ever seen her so happy.

- Grandma got peed on by Izzy. Those damn swim diapers.

- JJ made a fantastic dinner afterwards Pork chops, veggies, salad,
and fried cabbage made special for James (he shared) made for one
yummy dinner.

- I have to find a new sunscreen. I've used the spray kind for years
and only had slight issues with it breaking down when wet, but today
was awful. I looked like I was peeling from head to toe from a bad
sunburn and it felt nasty. Needless to say I tried to stay in the
shade some because I was afraid I'd get burned. I still feel like I
could use another shower.

- And just for fun, everyone make fun of Matt for having to shove his
hand in a toilet today at work because his ring is so damn big it fell
off into the toilet. Now tell him to go get it resized already!