{family} spending time together

Watching the parade - it is an awesome civil war parade. everyone dresses up. lots of horses. we all loved it.

a morning 5K race with the whole family

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{thoughts} blessed with routine

in our garden! YUMMY!

yep talking while hot wheeling!

I just love this picture. It captures her. 

I have pictures of both my girls wearing these cute boots. Love them and those toes sneaking in them. 

fuzzy but look at those cute feet on that swing. I want to remember her being this small. because she is growing so FAST!

{favorite patterns} twirl and fairytale dresses

I made the girls Valentine's Day dresses and they were sleeveless... it was not suppose to be FREEZING but it was. It was faux fur coat cold. So these are the best pictures of the dresses but I had to show them off. 

Up first is big sister. I loved the pattern I used for her dress from the moment I saw it. It is from Tie Dye Diva patterns and is 

The Fairytale Handkerchief Hem Dress PDF Sewing Pattern - 1 to 5 years. 

It is a great patterns and it makes a SUPER twirly dress. Any four year old girl I know wants and loves a dress they can twirl in. Like a princess. 

this is what we dealt with - little sister running away the whole time we tried to take pictures. 

lots of twirling

the two layered skirt and the front of the bodice

the back 

 All in all: I loved the pattern. I can't wait to try out more of her patterns. Super easy to follow with clear instructions. I love the dress. The little girl who loves it is what matters most:) She was in LOVE!!! So go HERE to the Tie Dye Diva pattern shop... I know you will find something you can't wait to make. 

Up next:

Twirl Knot Dress by Whimsy Couture

I made this one for little sister. I love how it turned out. It is so cute. I should have put a shirt under it and no jacket but this girl was wearing the faux fur jacket. She meant that was going to happen. lol She is the strong willed child. oh is she!

this is the attitude she was giving out when we were having the photo shoot.. yep crossed her arms!

I have made the knot dress from whimsy couture before and loved it... this is like that pattern but with a lot more twirl. You can change up your material choices too. The TWIRL KNOT DRESS pattern is a great pattern so go get it and try it out. Also take a look at the Whimsy Couture Pattern Shop. 

thanks for stopping by! I am sorry my pictures don't compare to the awesome Melody Coarsey!

~ Mrs. D

{favorite patterns} dresses for the girls

I made some dresses for a friend's little girls. We were going to have her girls and mine do a photo shoot together but we had sickness and then no times worked out. We agreed to just take our own pictures of our girls. One huge difference in doing that... she is the oh so talented Melody Coarsey Photography.  As you will see in the photos below... she is awesome. I love this girls and these awesome pictures that really show their personality.

I used two pattern with these two dresses and then another for the removable apron. 

First up is the oh so delightful pattern from Happy Together's Out to Lunch Dress pattern. I used a silky material for the dress and a recycled cashmere for the heart. I love this pattern. It is so versatile... I liked the back of the dress for the applique heart more than the front so she wore it backwards and we LOVED it. It really was so cute. 

back as the front with a cashmere heart

such a cute picture

The next dress was the Miss Madeline pattern from The Handmade Dress. You guys know how I love this pattern. It is versatile too. I use elastic thread and shirr the arms, neck, and around the waist. I used plain white cotton for the dress and shirred in pink thread with an appliqued heart as well. Super easy. This is really an easy dress to make and you can customize it in so many ways. 

this is so her personality... I love that smile

For the apron I used the Cascading Ruffle pattern from Lil Blue Boo.  I made half of a skirt and then turned the cascade the opposite direction (than the skirt in the pattern) and added a tie. It is made out of the same silky fabric as the above dress. It will ravel but I wanted that look to give it texture and character. I don't like everything to be perfect sometimes. I love how it turned out. It was so cute. 

This is awesome, right?!?! well up next are the pictures I took of my girls and the dresses I made for them. Yep... I am no Melody! ashamed to say I made the dresses but she had the beautiful models and took some great pictures:) I can't wait for her to photograph the family for A's upcoming 2nd birthday. So excited. She is really a talented artist. 

~ Mrs. D

2012 - Sewing/Crafting List {January} REVIEW

If you want to take a look at my 2012 - sewing/crafting goals go HERE

Oh Sarah Jane. I am quite obsessed with your fabric line... and well anything you create for that matter. And to think she has a paper line coming out at Michaels soon. Oh I need to close my bank account now. I could decorate my whole house with this line of fabric with added touches of her prints and the paper line. SWOON!!! speaking of swoon... notice anything about this quilt?? Let's take a looksie...

A foggy morning bike ride with the hubs and of course a quilt in my bike basket.  I am not going to lie... I pretended the whole time I was in New York going to spread that quilt out in central park for a picnic. 

Are you seeing what I am seeing????

SWOON block with Sarah Jane fabric = PERFECTION!

Swooning!!!

the back is the parade print with a pieced row of various prints on top and bottom. I love that parade print. I mean it is creaming cuteness!

I love all of those colors working together. It is perfection. I love the bicycle print the most and it is orange which is not my typical color. I love it in this line though. Maybe it is because we are biking more and I love bikes more and more these days. :)

My helper... his arms were getting tired. that's his bike in the background. He is so awesome. 

Raw edge binding. I got this idea from Camille Roskelley's book. I will be using this more often. I like the softness of it. I like how simple it was to complete - binding is not my favorite part of quilting that's for sure. 

there are two rows of stitches on the binding. It raveled really bad after washing and dryer but I snipped all of the strings off and it was perfect. a little fussy with a lot of character. 

January review for 2012 - sewing/crafting goals:

I did complete a one block swoon quilt

I got everything cut out for my Jelly Filled quilt - I just need to sew it up

I am so happy to have things marked off of my goals. I liked having something in mind that I wanted to complete. I love this quilt and I can't wait to make the jelly filled quilt. 

Yea for goals. I can't wait to track my progress through the year.

~ Mrs. D

2012 - Books for Me - JANUARY review

Go here to see my post about how I used pinterest to make goals for 2012. 

Here is the post on 2012 - books for me.

I read some this month - YEA! I enjoy reading but sometimes I feel like I don't have the time to read with two kids running around. BUT I have found that making this list of books that I want to read really helped. I don't have to search for anything but instead just look at my list. There are several on my list that my library doesn't have so I have had to request them. It is taking some time but I think once I get the next ones I will go ahead and request the others at that time. 

Don't panic ~ dinner's in the freezer

Very good book for freezer cooking. Not a lot of pictures which is always nice in a cookbook (I think). But there were a lot of good, doable recipes that weren't full of junk. I will check this out again and make some things out of it. My freezer is full at the moment. 

 The Lady of the Rivers

LOVED it. I love Philippa Gregory. I love, love, love to read her novels. I have read everything she has written and will continue to get them as they come out:)

blogged about HERE

Outliers - The Story of Success

I couldn't get into this book right off. I don't know why. I am going to revisit it. 

Organized Simplicity

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book. I like the way she rights. I like the information in the book. I couldn't stop reading it and thinking about my own life and STUFF! I think we already have a very laid back life and don't commit to too much. We do say no to things a lot because we want more family time. 

side note: while I was reading this book we had friends come over and visit while my MIL was in town. They asked when we were going to start big sister in soccer. (my husband plays all of the time with her at home and wants her to start) I said I think they have to practice 2 days and then a game on Saturdays. I am not ready to give up my family time for that yet. She is in art and loves it and that doesn't take away from daddy time. I really don't want her to go 2 nights (or even 1 night) a week for practice and then on Saturdays for a game. She spends Saturday mornings with her daddy every week. I feel like she has all of the time in the world to do things but only a little time being a little kid with her parents. No obligations. We will have to see what happens with it. 

~ mrs.d 

2012 - cooking list JANUARY review

Go here to see my post on my goals for 2012 - cooking list.

This is a recap for January. I pinned this recipe for homemade wheat thins. I love wheat thins and the girls like crackers so I thought I would give it a try. 

Verdict: 

Recipe: super easy recipe. I rolled my dough in between two pieces of parchment paper so that made cleanup so much easier. It was a quick thing to make and bake. Great recipe to do with your kids.

Taste: 

when they came out of the oven I didn't really like them. I think once they sit a little they get better. The girls LOVED them. I think letting them help made them like them even more. 

mixing the ingredients with the handy iPad there with the recipe pulled up. 

dividing the dough to make it easier to roll out

some little hand "helping" me put the dough between the parchment

ready to bake

they thought this was so cool. they loved laying the squares out on the pan.

big sister was so patient and helpful with little sister 

I need to lighten this picture because it is so cute! She was loving getting to help.

concentration

finished product - so cute and yummy.

I am excited about this monthly cooking project. Hopefully the girls will be able to help with them all.  Next month is the perfect popcorn with coconut oil. I have cheated and already made that. It was awesome. BUT I have also been trying some other things with popcorn so maybe we will have a popcorn post for February.

Enjoy!
~Mrs. D

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