Dress to skirt

Here is our guest/craft room.


I figured since I was going to be taking pics of the skirt in here, I would show you where I was working.

Ok. So I have had this dress for years, and this is a terrible pic. I only just noticed, and the skirt is done, so there ya go. It was long, shapeless, and out of date but had a cute print. I wanted some new springy skirts to I raided my closet for possibilities. This made the cut!

I measured where I wanted the skirt to hit, leaving an allowance for a ruffle on the bottom. I cut the top off the bottom.

With the top, I cut lengths of fabric 4 inches wide for the ruffle. I didn't know how many I would need, so I just cut up the whole top.

I sewed the 4 inch strips together, guessing at the length I would need. I think I did about 1 1/2 the width of the skirt.

Then I did a gathering stitch on the end. Oh, first I hemmed one rough edge. I gathered the other rough edge. I don't have a pic of this, but then I pinned and sewed the ruffle to the bottom of the skirt.
With the left over strips, I decided to put a ruffle on the skirt. I cut them in half, then zigzagged the edges in blue thread. This would have been easier with a serger!

Then I pinned the ruffle on the skirt. I put it on one side.

I sewed the ruffle down both sides with the same blue thread I edged it with.

Made a place for elastic.


Here is the finished product. I am so happy with it! The ruffle I put on it is hard to see in the pic, but it is super cute. I like how the ruffle on the bottom turned out too. This was only $1.29 for the elastic. Pretty thrifty! And now I have a new skirt for spring and summer!

Ninnyisms

"My finger hurts! My mouth bit it!"

Happy Easter!

We had a very nice Easter. On Saturday, we took the girls to a great egg hunt where they came home with a good number of eggs filled with candy. I was worried that they wouldn't get much. We have been to some where they are lucky to come away with one. This one was great! They even had the Easter bunny. Michaela made sure to move away from the camera; she is getting too old for bunnies!





Sunday, we woke up and had lemon ricotta pancakes and the girls got baskets from Grandma.

Then they opened the ones from us.

Ninny got a new baby doll, she was very happy about it.

One of my favorite parts of Easter is seeing all my girls lined up at church in new dresses.

I bought little gloves for the younger two, and then left them at home! They put them on for pictures at home, though.



Then we had an egg hunt in our yard with our real eggs.

Me and Michaela.

The weather was so nice!

Then my mom and I cooked for two hours, and we had a yummy dinner. Gene and Marlene came down for dinner, and also brought the girls baskets.

Mmmmm, chocolate truffle cake.

A great Easter. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have a day to celebrate the Resurrection and what it means for us as families. We had a great talk in Sacrament meeting today about the time line of Jesus' last days. It was humbling to listen to his sacrifice and suffering and to know he did it for me. We also had a fantastic musical number in Relief Society that brought tears to my eyes as I thought of what He went through. I know we fill much of the holiday with bunnies and candy, but more importantly it gives us a chance to ponder the Atonement and renew our convictions to live worthy of his sacrifice. I love Easter.

Sweet Dreams, Smarty Pants

Corrine lately has been having nightmares. I remember my other children begin to have them at about the same age. After a few months, they seem to taper off.

Last night, she was crying for me, so I went in and found her sitting up in bed, saying there were bugs and mud on her bed. (No, she didn't have any meth before bedtime!)

I picked her up, comforted her and said it was just a dream. I was hesitant to try to explain to her about that, we had never talked about dreams before and that is a difficult concept for a two year old to grasp. She just nodded and we cuddled.

As I put her back to bed, she said something that let me know she had been processing what I said and putting two and two together.

She said "Mom, dreams disappear and go away," while making a "poof" and gone gesture with her little chubby hand.

I hadn't said that to her, those were her words. Amazing. I didn't even know she understood the concept of disappear.

Here I was witnessing her comprehension of a very abstract concept.

Then she said that a giant sometimes came to her dreams.

So sad. Broke my heart, but at the same time, I am sitting here thinking," I am having the most amazing conversation with my little smarty pants at 2 in the morning. "

She goes on to explain a little more to me about her dreams, and chats with me a bit. I kiss her head, and say,"Dreams can be good too. You can dream about a big ice cream, or playing at the park, or making cookies with Mommy. Go back to sleep and dream good dreams."

I am so amazed at her thought processes at such a young age. Maybe it comes from being the fourth child and having the influence of 3 older sisters, but this little one is smart.

Easter Fun and a Cool Tan Line

Easter is kind of sneaking up on me. I really hadn't thought much about it until this week. I think it is because we are not hosting a big family dinner! For FHE, Payden did an Easter lesson (I hadn't even thought of it!) and on a whim I decided to make paper mache eggs like we did last year. It was fun, and Corrine did really well with it. It was so cute watching her try to get the tissue paper off her gluey fingers!


Ava, on the other hand, has been anticipating Easter and is very excited for it. She made herself into a little bunny by putting on all white clothes and drawing a face on with marker.

And what do you get when you spend an hour on a beautiful Saturday afternoon running?

An IPOD armband tan line, thats what. Can you see it? Its pretty faint, but its there. Cool!

Some pics of our house

Sooo, this isn't the whole house, but its a start. The rest wasn't very tidy, so I will get those later.

Here is the kitchen. Lots of space, I love it. Of course, if we buy the house, I will redo it, but its ok right now. It does need all new appliances, and not just for asthetics. The microwave is touchy, the fridge is all beat up, and the oven is almost as bad. But, I love all the space. I was worried about the tiny island, but it actually has lots of counter space.

One great thing about this kitchen, it has a spot to catch clutter that is not really visable! There is this little "hidden" counter next to the fridge. Joy. That is where all my counter clutter goes.Ha, ha, now I am showing you a pic of my counter clutter. Awesome. Also, it has a nice deep farm style sink. I can fit a lot of dirty dishes in there without anyone seeing them!


Here is the garage door. Off to the right is the pantry, the left is a half bath.

The bath.

The pantry. Is. Huge. I love it. One one side, I have hooks hung for coats and backpacks. One downside of this house; there is no coat closet. At all. So our coats and shoes go in the pantry!

The other side is used for what it is supposed to be for!

Here is a shelf I had Jason make for me, and I finished. He did a great job; I love it!

Here is the living room, open to the kitchen. I made the curtains, and would like some honest feedback. They look to wimpy to me. I didn't want them to be too wide. There are too many windows and not enough wall space for wide, but they still look too wimpy. What do you think?

You can see in the bottom right of this photo that we have the computer desk in here. The only place for it. I spend too much time there now, as its right next to the kitchen. Oh,well!

Here is the litte room off the front door we call the piano room. Not very big, but it is nice to have a separate place for the piano. This room also has french glass doors.

When you walk in, there is no entry way, which bothered me at first. I just put my entry table in the piano room. Works. There is kind of a split level right here, with stairs going up, and stairs going down.


What is left is the downstairs, which has the two older girls rooms and the guest room and a bathroom. Upstairs is the little girls rooms, their bathroom, laundry, and our master. When I get pics of those, I will post!

Flowers for mom

All my girls have brought me flowers when they were little. Ava is no different, but her presentation is! Here is her latest creation; all the yellow flowers in the middle surrounded by the purple ones. She brings me flowers just about every time she goes outside. So sweet.