4 year old cha cha slide baby!

Kids are SO awesome these days. I have great pride :)

And let the Countdown Begin!

So here we have just over a month till Christmas, a little over a week till Thanksgiving. I think it's time to set aside my crafting and move on to HOLIDAY BAKING! Now, I just need some bread flour, cake flour and lots of yeast lol. I plan to start making my own bread soon and I just ordered my first fluted pan :) I see cookie production on the rise as well. This means I really must get my kitchen cleaned up and actually, I MUST clean off my junk counter to start storing up my baking supplies for the holidays. I will also need that space to sit all the goodies LOL. I will have to take LOTS of pictures and do LOTS of fun stuff with flour. I promise to be colorful and to never ever ever ever EVER attempt to make a fruit cake.

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Unintentionally took a couple days off lol. Tonight we're having lemon chicken in a white wine sauce. Smells tasty, lets hope it IS tasty. While dinner was marinating, I had an urge to make some sort of dessert. We had 2 older apples in the fridge and I decided to make apple tarts. I made some nice sweet pie crust and made some apple filling. I used a variation of a recipe I found for standard apple pie and then adjusted ingredients to fit the holiday season. The filling came out OUTSTANDING. The pie crust is just sweet enough to make me happy lol. They are currently in the fridge waiting to be baked while we eat dinner. I plan to brush them lightly with milk and sprinkle more sugar on top. I will post the finished pictures. Did I mention how proud I am of this? LMAO.


Pie Filling Yummy!


Pie crust... pre made :)


Ready and waiting to go in the oven :)


Finished product! I couldn't wait to try it till after I took the picture so one is missing a bite LMAO.

I Swear I'm not MIA

I know I know, where the hell have I been, right?

Insert slide show of 40+ pictures here.......

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v179/Ebbie/Projects/?action=view¤t=4a96a36d.pbw

I suppose a link will have to suffice since it's rejecting my photobucket. Evil Evil Evil blogger.....

well now you know :) More in depth update in a couple days after I get through and survive my weekend :)

Recycle any way you know how!

Wow, I'm slacking on my posts! I sometimes wonder who I'm really writing to besides myself lol. So I'm the queen of freecycle. I'm the queen of recycling my own goods as well. I have found a great amount of stuff these last couple weeks.


I've been wanting to decorate, but on our budget it's just not possible. So I freecycle. I get clothes for me and the girls, I get toys, I give away my junk as well. I will be posting a bunch of stuff today I'm pretty sure. I have managed to snag myself a bunch of little country style decor. Wooden heart shelves, wall baskets, door hangers, etc. I also got a HUGE framed pastel painting that barely fit in my car to hang over my "new" couch (bulk trash find). My neighbor is about to give me all her old crafting paints so I can decorate the shelves to my liking. This couch was put on the curb by my new neighbor. Our old couch was just that, old, and CHEAP. Just a note, if you buy furniture from Big Lots, you get what you pay for, seriously. I loved that couch, don't get me wrong. Our love seat is still fantastic, but the couch had been jumped on one too many times and the center of the frame was busted. You would literally sink 8 inches into a hole if you sat even CLOSE to the middle. We had a regular queen size bed pillow in the hole to prevent injury to Ebbie. So out that went when I saw this couch down the street. I walked down there, checked it out. It was a little stained up. But the cushions didn't even have butt dents in them. There was marker on the back cushions. I took them off, looked at the foam inside, no stains. All stains were exterior. I lifted the bottom and checked out under the springs, everything seemed to be in working order, nothing had been lost in the bottom either. There was one cracker under the cushions. I took my vacuum to get any crumbs out, cleaned under the arms where it gives way to the bottom. Took some laundry detergent and scrubbed at the few stains, most of them at least got a lot lighter. I then febreezed the whole thing and let it sit. I went to the store, got a burgundy king size flat sheet and made myself a sofa throw. New couch. It's actually quite comfy! Then I got this great idea. The throw pillows that matched the new couch were kinda tired, like kids had used them to beat each other for way too long. Besides, they didn't match or even coordinate with my other furniture (at this point, nothing matches lol). So I go outside and notice that the fabric on our old couch is still in good condition. Clean, unstained. I gutted the old couch. Took the fabric panels from the sides and back, cut open the cushions and took the stuffing. I will be making my own throw pillows today :)

As I said, you can recycle ANYTHING lol.
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So we got a kitten. His name is Khadgar. He is lovable, great to the girls, and he's helping balance out the hormones in this house. He's been here for 2 days now and I think he's quite settled in. Poor thing lived in a barn before here. He's 4 months old, never been bathed, no shots, nothing. At least he's litter trained.

I gave him a bath using dish soap last night because I read that the "grease cutters" in dish soap kill fleas. Yes, he had fleas. I think he might still have a couple, but not nearly as many. He didn't really like the idea of the bath, but he didn't fight too much. Then again, I mastered a LONG time ago the art of cat bathing. He did, however, let his feelings be known when I was scrubbing around his no no spot where there were a lot of biters. I have a nice gash across the back of my hand. Thank you for your mark of love Khadgar. But he's good otherwise. He loves to play, he doesn't cry all night. He loves to chase things across the computer screen. He actually listens when we tell him no (then waits till we turn our heads). All in all, he's great. I can't wait to find my kitty scissors so I can clip his damn talons. :)

Baby Weaning 101

Rule number 1: If you have the goods, don't be the one to put the baby to bed!

Doug and I have discussed this since he got home. It's time to wean Izzy. Ebbie was different, she was a bird type eater, she wasn't getting enough nutrition, she wasn't drinking enough fluids, and she was just THIN. So I let her wean herself... at 18 months. Izzy, however, has been eating fistfuls of table food since 10 months and has mastered the sippy cup and could win a gold medal. She only nurses when she's tired and then she goes to sleep. I've been having issues the last week or so at bedtime getting her to sleep because, well, I'm not really producing much milk since she's not really eating from me anymore. She arches her back and screams. It's been a struggle. Since Doug has come home, I've been having him test the waters with putting her to bed randomly without boob action (since he's without the goods) and she goes right to sleep for him. I had him put her to bed last night. She fought at first, didn't want to sleep. He let her cry for about 5 minutes, then went back upstairs, rocked her for a couple minutes and she was out. Here's the big kicker. She slept ALL NIGHT!!! When I put her to bed, she wakes up several times wanting more boob. Or she sleeps fitfully. I am now confident that should something happen to me, she will not starve, dehydrate, or die lol. The kids are now big enough that they don't NEED me and I feel better. The fun part is going to be seeing what his schedule is going to be like and when I have to put her to bed. I'm going to have to deal with the fighting for boob she will give me. I'm going to have to struggle against her screams and arching until she settles in from exhaustion and finally crashes out. I need someone here all day every day (or at least sleepy times) to take her to bed for me for a week till she is used to not having boob. That's not going to happen so I guess I will just have to make due. Either way, Doug is very proud of himself (as am I) that his daddy's girl will go to bed for him and not me. Ebbie is my mama's girl, he's got Izzy. We are content now. No more kids for us :) Who needs a boy in the mix to terrorize our girls? They do that to each other enough lol.

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So the wonderful knitted blanket is finally done. Well, almost. I'm finishing up the boarder stitches as we speak. I'll take pictures shortly. It came out very very nice and little miss Emma will be able to use this thing till she's 4 or 5, yay! It's nice and warm and pretty. Not overly girly, so I'm not pushing her to be princess-y. But she will be warm and snuggly and hopefully, this blanket will be her snuggly just as Ebbie's is hers. Ebbie won't go overnight ANYWHERE without her blanket that my godmother made her years ago. That poor thing has seen better days, but still she insists on having it on her bed on top of the sheets and comforter. It's a tie blanket and she holds on to one of the ties all night while she sleeps. Once I tested her and took it in the middle of the night, less than a half hour later she was screaming because she lost her snuggly. I think my next step will be making Izzy a snuggly. Right now she's still using a baby blanket, it's not too small. Yet. But it won't be long. So I think I'm going to get decorative and make her a toddler afghan to sleep with. I've been working on Ebbie's afghan for about 2 years now, if not more. But since she already has a snuggly, I've seen no rush for it. I guess to be fair, I'll have to make her a matching pillow just as I did for Ebbie lol. Pictures of those will follow as well :)

Random Monday morning ramblings

***Just a quick note. This is just my ramblings, I am NOT seeking assistance in any way from anyone, I do not want, nor need any charity, there are people out there way worse off than I am, help them, not me. We will be just fine :) ***

Well, the holidays are upon us. No matter how I work the budget, it doesn't seem I'll be home for Christmas again this year (sorry to my family who reads this). We don't have a Christmas tree, but I have a super idea for one, I'll go into that in a bit. Because of some last minute changes to our pay and some unforeseen things this year, our gift fund has depleted so it's going to be a slim Christmas for the girls, but that's OK, they are still young. As you know, I made Ebbie's Halloween costume, completely from scrap fabric that a loving freecycler gave me, bless that woman. I still have a ton of fabric left so I'm going to attempt to make curtains for the rest of the windows in our house. Because of our lack of money, I've had to be creative with getting items to decorate and such. Freecycle in itself is awesome. Along with that, it's amazing what higher rank military people will throw to the curb when they are moving! Some people are SO wasteful! Here were my latest finds:

• 3 curtain rods brand new still in the packages
• 2 very large heavy wooden mirrors, gorgeous but need to be refinished
• a folding suntanning style lawn chair, still had the tags on it (YIPPEE!!!!)
• A hallway runner that was clean and in perfect condition, purdy little thing :)
• A flowered area rug in gently used condition for Ebbie's room. Has a few stains but nothing major.

I also, just yesterday, received 2 large black trash bags of fall/winter/spring clothing for girls which I split according to size between me and my neighbor. Both of our girls are hitting growth spurts and well, yay for the military for not giving us a cost of living increase in pay. Anyhoo, the clothes were in SUPER condition for the most part and will be great for school, so thanks Raven! See, this is where I begin to ramble.....

For years now, about 4 1/2 of them, we've lived here in the commonwealth of Virginia. And for the 4 years prior to moving here where we are now, I had virtually no close friends, it was hard to get anywhere, hard to do anything, and everything was just a struggle. Moving here into this military housing, though it has it's downfalls, has probably been the best thing for me. I've become part of a helping, sharing circle of friends. Every day I meet someone new in my neighborhood. Now, when I go grocery shopping, I see people that I know, not just nameless faces that I may have seen before. Now I have people to talk to in person when things just aren't going right. Also, with this circle of friends, we have a hand me down system. Seems most of our kids are not the same size. One person will pass something on to the next person with a child about that size, then they, in turn pass something to another neighbor for a child of the next size down, etc. And because most of us have multiple kids, we end up with the stuff back lol. But because of the hand me down system here, everyone takes really good care of the clothing to pass on. Ebbie has gotten some really cute outfits from a couple of our neighbors and I will not even go into how many clothes she just got from Raven yesterday. Granted, some of them she won't be able to wear till she grows more, but still, she's got something to grow into now and that's more than she had before. All that said, the holidays still look grim.

Who really WANTS to give their child wrapped up hand me downs of clothing and toys for a birthday or for Christmas? No one does, but some do because it's the only way they can give them a Christmas. I had to once with Ebbie, though I sacrificed a bill to buy a couple of "new and shinies" to give her as well. This year looks to be like that. It looks as though I'll be cleaning out Ebbie's room and placing stuff in my closet to clean up and wrap for Izzy, and Ebbie..... well, lets hope some nice freecyclers come through for her. Most of our holiday budget is for food and well, you know how important that stuff is. But here's where my craftiness comes in to play :) So for our christmas tree, I'll be getting a large piece of white paper. I will quickly sketch out a tree on it (i'm no artist so this should be interesting). Ebbie and I will then paint/color it. Izzy is going to have fun with finger paints while Ebbie and I have fun with glitter, glue, paint, etc. We are going to MAKE a decorated tree :) Besides the fact that it will take up less space and won't topple over onto our increasingly mobile toddler, it's a great family project! I've even figured out a way to put a string of lights on it lol. And just think of the ease in taking down the tree! What I'm going to do as well, and this may seem packrat-ish, is take a small box and put everything in that after the holiday is done and label it with the year. They will be my scrapbook boxes. Later on, MUCH later on, I will create a family scrapbook and include these items along with the kids school stuff. I think this is a great idea for a family tradition. I'm excited about it lol. No bugs from a live tree, no watering, no fake tree parts falling off the tree, no fluffing the tree, no falling tree..... I see no problem with this LMAO.

So anyway. I'm hoping that in some way, our Christmas will still be fulfilling and fun. I will miss the family however (hint hint, we're only 3 hours away people, come visit!).

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Now here's my dilemma. I'm going back to school. I'm doing a certificate program. I've been thinking about doing this for a couple years now but haven't had the money, or time, or whatever (procrastinator extraordinaire) to get it done. I'm doing medical transcription. I have 2 options. I can get a student loan for $3K and do the course and get all kinds of great little perks, or I can do it through the military and do it free. Now here's the 2 differences:

Military Program:

• Free if dh does a certificate program as well
• I would have to buy the foot pedal and headset
• Access to the website to take my certification course online after completing program
• 12 Months to complete course
• FREE

Paid Program:

• Free laptop
• All items supplied, headset, foot pedal, books
• Access to website for certification, AND free certification
• 18 months to complete course
• 24/7 student assistance plus access to student forums
• LIFETIME job placement assistance (they set up interviews with their partners till you get a job, then do it again if you need, anytime)
• costs $2276 right now with "economic disaster discount" (LMAO)

Now dh is trying to get me to do the military one, he is telling me "We have enough debt!". He's not seeing that we would still have to pay out of pocket. Now, I did convince the guy to include my headset and foot pedal. But the other perks do not exist. I would have to scour for a job. I would have to pay in 2 years to get certified (the program registers you, but you need 2 years of job training to be certified), you get less time to complete the course. My thoughts are this, and they are probably slightly skewed because of my stubbornness but..... : We are paying off all debt besides cars with our income taxes. That frees up almost $500 a month. I have 18 months to complete the course, so if I should get a student loan, it could be up to 19 months before we pay the first payment of the whopping $30. They give me a free laptop, which I would use specifically for school work. I would be able to take it with me and do work in the Dr's office, sitting outside, whatever,...... or run to my room and hide from the kids when they are being too loud. This is a very useful tool! All my stuff would be supplied without me having to have a tantrum. LIFETIME JOB PLACEMENT ASSISTANCE. The way they explained that to me is they have signed on with a large group of partners in the medical field. When someone finishes the program with an 85% accuracy rate on average, the partners agree to interview them and take them on as an employee. So the school would set up several interviews, I would get a job from jump, I would get a PAYCHECK from jump, and then after 2 years of steady working (so many "hours"), I would be able to go to this website (different one than that the military provides actually), take the online certification test, and they would mail me my certification bumping me up from registered transcriptionist to Certified Medical Transcriptionist, which also raises what people will pay you. Now I do understand wanting to avoid more debt. Fully understand that, but somehow, I really like the program that's non military. It seems more oriented towards getting you into a career instead of just giving your spouse a hobby while your man is at sea. Doug is not happy that I am seriously thinking of going against his wishes for this, but ...... Is it selfish that I want to have a career at home? Something I can do to FINALLY do something financially for my family? So we can NOT have anymore holidays like this one coming and all the prior ones since we've been married? So we can DO things that involve leaving the house because we can actually AFFORD IT? Is that really selfish? I see it as doing something for my family, and also, (fingers crossed this never happens) in the event my marriage should fail or something happens to Doug, I could still provide a decent life for my children and still be able to be home with them to help with homework, chaperon field trips, etc because this career allows you to work when you want and still get paid. Why don't all house wives do this? I can't help but want the paid program, especially since it's one of 2 of the paid programs, there's standard, which is almost like the military's, then there's professional, the one I've listed everything for. I still think I'm gonna go ahead with the paid one. I want a career, not a hobby.

Sweet Sweet boredom

People take boredom for granted, don't they? I used to HATE being bored. Well no longer do I feel that way. Now I embrace it, snuggle with it, make out with it. Just kidding lol. I do, however, enjoy being bored. You know what bored means to me? It means my cleaning is done, my laundry is caught up, there are no dirty dishes, the yard is picked up, the trash is taken out, and the kid(s) is/are asleep. That's what it means to me. Yes, I do love boredom. This gives me a chance to go through my DVR and check out all the recent episodes of everything I have missed. Usually a 6-7 hour marathon of tv watching.


Speaking of which. I sat down a couple days ago and caught up on the last 3 weeks of House. As I did this, Izzy slept. I knitted. Little miss Emma's blanket is coming along nicely. Her initials are now in the blanket. It actually came out quite nice. It's amazing though, if you knit, how something that could look like this: E R C, even on graph paper, can come out looking like this:





Yes. That's what it takes just to make a 4 inch tall set of initials knitted into a STANDARD blanket. I'll not even begin to think if I had decided to get all fancy with some sort of pattern. Something tells me it would have been pattern interruptus to create initials, then it would have been mass chaos as I began to try and figure out the exact columns for the pattern again. My my, it hurts my brain just thinking about it! I do, have pictures of the blanket thus far. It's about 2 or so feet long right now, it's going to be close to 4 feet long when I'm finished. It's actually probably closer to 3 feet, but I'll use man measurements for a moment. Meaning it's about 6 feet long right now :) Here's a couple pictures :



Wonderful said blanket in it's, so far, entirety.





Said "illusion" lettering to include her nifty adorable little initials in the blanket :) I wish Sara had internet so she could take a peek at this precious blanket. It's very warm and soft as well. I've been using it to keep me warm while I knit lol.

Sunday Randomness

So having kids can be delightful as well. Like when they do random funny faces or you teach them a new trick. Or even better, when you find out they one of them has a craft talent and it's a dirt cheap one to boot lol. Ebbie likes to decorate.... ANYTHING. Wal mart has a huge section of kids crafts. Something tells me Santa Claus is spending alot of time in that section this year. Here's some random pictures. And well..... video too, cause I'm one of THOSE mommies.

Anyone else freak when they get ants?

So I get up as usual this morning. All is well, I go make my coffee, get Ebbie ready for school and take her in, then I come back home. Not 10 minutes after I get home, though, I realize my kitchen sink and counter is FULL of little brown ants. I thought at first they were red ants and I went haywire. I grabbed my spray and went nuts. After I fully sprayed all tiny little crevices and ensured that all living ones were dead, I then proceeded to clean up the many carcasses. At this point, I realize I have sprayed all the clean dishes in the drainer. Le sigh. So now I must wash them again. I cleaned the counters off, wiped them down with vinegar (for those that don't know, it confuses ants, they follow a scent trail and vinegar depletes that), then scrubbed the sinks and everything that goes on the counter. It's been about 2o minutes since I did all that and I see no signs of critters crawling so I think I deterred them. Usually I have carpenter ants everywhere. The apparently are eating away at our houses here. *Yay* I've been spraying inside and out once a week for the last month and have miraculously seen only a stray one here or there. I will not tolerate a home invasion! You cannot overrun me! I am bigger than you! I am top of the food chain dammit! I will not submit, nor will I surrender! This is just my feelings on it. I don't tolerate spiders in my house either. Mosquito hawks, yes, spiders no. I will allow as many mosquito hawks in here as they please, because should a stray skeeter make it's way in my front door (or window or back door or garage) then I know something will be properly guarding my home :) Now, back to my dish washing.

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So we're looking for a kitten. I found a couple of real cuties on Craigslist. If we hear from them, great, if not, we will continue our search for our new child. My theory is what's meant to be is meant to be. If the bouncing bundle of fur is supposed to be with us, he will be with us. Doug is currently throwing around names though and I find it hilarious. They are names from world of warcraft. He's so funny. Today is probably going to be a pretty blah day. Nothing much in the way of eventful has happened thus far, minus the miniature army that attempted to rush my front line this morning. My flaming arrows put them to rest though :)

Rain and wind and puddles OH MY!

So we have the famous Nor'easter coming through right now. Wind gusts up to 50 mph, rain falling sideways, idiots on the road. Everything you would expect with a tiny little storm. I don't know about everyone else, but I used to think people in Cambridge were crazy drivers. Being here, I don't understand their logic! Example: We live RIGHT across from the school. I literally pull out of my driveway, make a quick left, quick right and bam, right at the school. I can stare at the front doors of the school from MY front door. So yes, it's pouring out, Ebbie only has an umbrella, no raincoat. Izzy is still sick. I decide I'll just jump in the car and drive her over since I have to sign her in to her program every day. I get in the car and look to my right down the road and traffic is backed up past the stoplight, around the corner onto the main road. What?? What happened to all the kids that ride buses? I know the kids from my development have to walk, i can understand that traffic. But why are people coming from everywhere else? Why are your kids not on buses? Not to mention, the special service they seem to NEED to do at this school. If you drop your kid off, no need for you to get out, get your kid out, etc etc. Pull up, they open the door and get your kid into the school. Nice. Not really. They have 2 people, 2 pull up spots. These people also want to converse, in the pouring rain, with the parents and hold up a HUGE line of traffic. Ebbie's program starts promptly at 8:30. The door gets locked at 8:31, if you are late, you have to go to the admin office, explain why you are late, sign your child in there, go through the interior door to the classroom, sign them in again there, then walk them over to the main school to meet up with the class for breakfast. They are incredibly particular. I left my house, my home that is only a 5 minute WALK to the school, at 8:10. I got her into her class at 8:28. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Needless to say, I believe a lot of the kids at the main school were late this morning, as there was still an incredibly long line of cars trying to get into the school at 8:35, which is the late bell time at the main school. Virginia is for ....... idiot drivers.

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Today, due to weather, I have nothing I can do outside. I can't clean the floors, well, because it's raining and my stupid roof is leaking. A leak they told me was fixed long before I moved in. I've watched a bubble of paint increasingly get larger over the months. Dave (supervisor of the maintenance crew) says to me, "It appears it's just the drywall tape pulling away, lets poke a couple holes in it and see if it leaks when it rains in a couple days." Dandy. I hadn't noticed this morning, but my ever observant Ebbie did. "Mommy, did you spill water in the floor?" "No, why?" "There's a puddle in the floor, is it raining inside?" "There's a WHAT?" Yep. There's a puddle in the floor, and wow, would you look at that, it's RIGHT under that 'loosened tape'. Go figure. So I called the office, told them to get in contact with Dave, tell him to get his caboose over here to witness that, yes, my roof is leaking. And I'm not as nice as my neighbors. They WILL have it fixed within the next week or I'll be calling my dear old Daddy to come on down for a visit to fix it for me and to make sure to charge a good labor amount because it will be done CORRECTLY, and then I'll happily pass that bill on to housing. My mom should be proud of my bitch level these days :)
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So I'm going to take a wonderful picture of this baby/toddler blanket that I've been working on since April for my baby cousin Emma. My plan, since I can't lounge outside and eat bon bon's Peg Bundy style, is to work on this blanket ALL day. If I do that, there's actually a chance that it could be done today. Really. Wouldn't that be great? Then I could begin finishing the afghan I started making for Ebbie 2 1/2 years ago. That one, you will need to see a picture of. It's actually very detailed, so I've moved really slow on it to ensure that I don't mess anything up. It has twisted stitches, cables, knots, slipped stitches. The whole nine yards. It's actually quite beautiful. If I could ever get to power knitter status, I would make these by the dozens and sell them for $50 a piece. I'm fairly certain that price is actually rather low and they would sell like hot cakes.

Working at home pt 2

So I've picked a path I want to go on. I've spent the entire day researching, discussing with Doug, talking to several different reps, etc etc. It's something that was actually presented to me a long time ago and I declined, but am now interested. It's also not something I'm going to do right now. I think in January I'm going to offer to do people's basic taxes online for them for $10 a pop, plus filing fees for state if applicable. Or not..... I'm tired and I'm running out of ideas to help me coast through the holidays without breaking the bank and then robbing the bank. I could start busting my @$$ and really start knitting and making holiday themed baby blankets for those snuggly winter babies and selling them on Etsy. That could work.... if I was motivated lol. I'm still working on a blanket I started ummm, back in April? My poor baby cousin will be big enough to use it for her dolls at the rate I'm going. Nah, I'm just extending it and putting her initials into it though. It's cute, really it is. I'm going to start back on it tomorrow, when I don't have any meetings or research to do. I spent most of the morning in an online conference, then most of the rest of the day talking on the phone to this rep and that rep. Then I spent a large chunk of time emailing people with questions and calling people. Then after I did dinner and got the kids cleaned up and in bed, I attended yet another online conference. I keep telling myself to get used to it because when I begin this journey, this is what every day life will be like. I'm actually going to have to WORK again. I think I need to wash my mouth out, that word tastes nasty.

Trials and tribulations of trying to WORK AT HOME

For years now I've been desperately searching for a work at home job that doesn't entail me going on doing sales, parties, or making telemarketing calls. Basically, what I would LOVE to do is at home data entry or tax prep or something of that sort. Something where I won't get fired if the baby cries in the background because the only person I would have to call is my boss. Something tells me this type of job just doesn't exist. Everything I've found was some sort of MLM scheme, though most of those actually work...... IF you put the time and money into it. Isn't there a market for people like me? Doesn't someone need someone to type up business letters? Isn't there someone that needs their checkbook balanced??? Le sigh.

It's a Beautiful Morning

Have you ever had one of those mornings? You know, the ones where you wake up refreshed because you went to bed at a reasonable hour? Where you get up, get a shower and feel so nice and clean? You sit down in the early morning silence with your cup of coffee and enjoy the sunrise (what you can see through the clouds). You smell the fresh autumn breeze blowing at you (or gusting at you). You feel at peace with yourself and your surroundings..... and then you hear "MOMMY! IZZY'S GOT BOOGERS!". Le sigh. Yes, this was my morning. I went to bed at 10pm last night. I got up at 5:30 after a nice full peaceful night's sleep because even though Izzy and Ebbie are both sick, they both sleep right through now. I got up, took myself a nice warm shower and had a nice quiet breakfast. I packed Ebbie's lunch for school. Still no sounds of stirring upstairs, YES! I make my coffee and proceed to enjoy a peaceful cup of coffee and a cigarette outside, where the temperature is about 68 and the air is moving a little swiftly but it's nice. There's a nice sunrise this morning and it looked spectacular because of the dark clouds scattered. It was wonderful. Then I heard the above phrase through the baby monitor. Yes, they were both awake, though I had heard nothing from them. My guess is they had been watching TV in Izzy's room. Ebbie can't stand to see Izzy's nose run in the slightest. So I go upstairs to wipe her nose and find her entire face encrusted. Wonderful. Thus began my wonderful (sarcasm) morning.

I get Izzy cleaned up and downstairs to breakfast. I get Ebbie her clothes out and she wants to get dressed downstairs. Fine, whatever. I proceed to tell her to get dressed.... 18 million times.... over the course of the next half hour. She is wearing a little t shirt for pajamas and is claiming that she is warmer in that than she would be in a reg shirt and jeans and socks. Shut up kid and get dressed! Izzy is eating bananas and smearing them all over her freshly cleaned face, at this point it's hard to determine if anything on her face is snot because, well you know, smooshed bananas and boogers kinda look the same.

About 15 minutes before it was time to take Ebbie over to school, I gave her her antibiotics and told her to brush her teeth. Her response was "I'm too slow to brush my teeth." Huh? What does that have to do with the price of eggs in China? I told her I don't care if it takes her 15 minutes or an hour, she's brushing her own teeth cause she's a big girl. She proceeds to get in a huff, stomp in the bathroom, attempts to stomp onto the step stool and promptly lands flat on her butt. I laughed. She cried. I said "are you hurt?" She said "No." "Why are you crying?" "I'm sad." "Why are you sad?" "I don't know." I laugh harder. She gets up, finally brushes her teeth, we finish getting her ready for school, I clean Izzy up and get her dressed. I now have 5 minutes left to sit and hopefully enjoy quiet because the neighbors kids are out front and Ebbie hangs out with them before we all go over to the school. Ebbie is off playing, Izzy is contently sitting in the stroller waiting for our morning stroll. Ebbie comes over and........ her pants are around her knees and all she says is "oops." So I run upstairs and get her belt. Grumbling, I put it on her and tell her she needs to gain some weight. I walk her over to school.

On the way back from the school, the clouds parted and the sun began to shine. Izzy's nose is miraculously not running. The gusty wind has died down to a breeze. Yes, oh yes, it's going to be a beautiful morning after all.

ACK THE MONSTROSITY!

It's done. I quit lol. This is horrible. Well not really. What should have been a princess dress is now a pre-princess cinderella dress. Check out the pictures.

I guess the important part is that when I was done and showed Ebbie, her face lit up as she exclaimed "Oh mommy, it's BEAUTIFUL!".

Day 3 Better late than never

Ok, so this sucks. I haven't screwed anything up yet, not really. I sewed the sides of the skirt together and did the bottom hem. The sides came out decent enough, the hem....... notsomuch. Can you say tad uneven? I know that you can! What's done is done, I nearly broke my back trying to pin the fabric down for the hemline. 42 pins all the way around. Someone remind me again why I decided to do this? Oh, yeah, I wanna be super mom. Sheesh.

So there are no pictures this time. I took a bunch and they came out so bad because of lighting that it just makes my monstrosity look even worse lol. However, I'm about to tackle putting on the elastic, which should be fun. I wanted the waist to look gathered, so I cut the waistline of the skirt to be 3 times Ebbie's waist size. Something tells me it's going to come out looking bunchy instead of gathered, but at this point, I DO have a backup plan. A pretty, wide lace curtain pullback that is JUST Ebbie's waist size that I can sew over top of it if it looks too terrible LOL.

So here's the order I plan to do:
Elastic at the waist
Swoopy things on the sides..... or maybe I should do those first? Have to think about that one.....

Ok...... redo:
Cut and hem swoopy things, then sew them together
Sew them to the upper hemline of the skirt
THEN do the elastic.

Perhaps that will work better. I still haven't figured out what to do with the top of the dress. My neighbors husband suggested I go get a Bedazzler. How a man knows about those things, I will never know..... and the fact that he remembered the actual name...... wow...... guess it's a Navy thing LOL. I guess I've still got time, about 4 weeks, to figure it out.



Ok, here it is, about an hour later. I leaned towards elastic first so I went ahead with that. It was probably a mistake, but I'll make it work lol. I've made cutouts of the swoopies. I decided instead of making 2 separate pieces of each layer to do one like an oblong donut to sew to the waist. Probably another mistake, but I'll make it work. Can you see the white trash princess idea starting to really take shape? So now I have to hem both sides of each swoop and then attach them to the waist, that should be the really fun part cause all of this cloth is like rayon and slippery lol. YAY! *note sarcasm* This project is ALMOST DONE. I feel as though I'm on a mission now to complete this today. If it gets done today, then YES, I'm NEVER sewing again. J/k. Or am I? Maybe next time I'll just use a pattern.




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Fun Fun Fun. WT Princess is really super coming together now. I hemmed all the swoopys. I lost patience because I cannot hem a rounded edge to save my life so now it looks horrible..... well not really but it looks very amateur. I guess it won't really matter on Halloween night when it's dark and people are just going to see the basic quick glance of it, eh? le sigh. I'm on a mission to get this done today. So pictures WILL be on here. And hopefully, once it's all done, I can put it on Ebbie and take a pic and see just how WT she really looks.

Day 2.... sorta

So, here it is, over a week later. I say Day 2 because well, it's the second day of working on the dress LOL. Well actually, I should have posted this yesterday because now it's day 3. Yesterday I got the top underlay portion of the dress done. Pictures to come, I promise. It was definately an adventure. Someone far more seasoned than me could have done this in probably about an hour. I took my time to ensure that I thought out what would happen if I did a and b. That way I was pretty sure all would work out correctly. This is why it's tough doing this without a pattern.

Patterns are nice, they give you directions, even if you cannot understand them because you don't speak sewing-ese. This actually required thought. The previous night had been a long one. Ebbie has an ear infection and sinus infection. She was sent home from school 3 school days in a row. She went to the dr. The dr said she couldn't believe that Ebbie could even hear, she had so much fluid behind her ear drums that for the air pressure test, her ear drums didn't move. So she's on antibiotics and a nasal spray. Nice. I stayed up way too late that night due to some anger issues I had with a forum. Well not really WITH the forum, they just kinda encouraged those issued to appear. For the last couple of weeks I've had alot on my mind, alot actually happening and not much of it is good. Either way, it's better now. So yesterday morning at 6 am I decided since kids were still asleep and dh was gone to work, I would start trying to tackle this top while I had peace and quiet. My first adventure was the zipper.

The zipper. My friend the zipper. When i made the original pattern, I did not consider a zipper into it. Probably a mistake. Once I figured out I would need one to get this poor dainty top over Ebbie's giant daddy dome (genetics suck), I realized I was going to have to cut down the middle of the back of the dress. I got the shortest zipper wal mart had, which was 7 1/4 inches. I sat and began to contemplate how to do this. I could cut the entire back piece in half to create a seam at the bottom and bring the edges closer to the center of the zipper, or I could just cut the length of the actual zipper from the hemline and hope to make it work. Whats the worst that could happen right? I pull the stitching out and have to continue to cut down the full back anyway? So I make my markings, I cut, then I cut about a 1/4" on each side of the zipper created cut at the bottom so I will have room to fold it over to create a clean sewing line. This took me about a half hour to do just this much. I could hear the kids stirring, I had to hurry up. So I pinned the zipper on. Here's where I started to worry. The zipper is about an inch wide. After folding over the hem part next to the zipper (feel free to jump in anytime with what these things are really called in sewing-ese cause I haven't a clue lol), I realized the opening was more than an inch wide...... or well it looked like it. I somehow managed to sew the side hems onto the zipper at the VERY edge of the zipper without stitching off of the zipper cloth at all. At this point I am SO thankful that zippers come with that melted edge to avoid fraying. That will keep that stitching from slipping off. YAY ME! Then there were kids, one of which asking me "Oh mommy, is that my beautiful dress?"....... yes honey, that's your white trash princess dress.
Later on, once the baby and Ebbie had been fed, I went back to work. Here's where I made my first mistake. I sewed all the attaching parts of the front and back together. NOT COOL. I mean, well they all lined up and all was perfect... until I realized that it was gonna be a real bitch to do the edging seams in the arm holes and the neckline. *Sigh* I started pinning the seams. Realizing that I had to cut the fabric if I wanted the seams to curve without bunching or pulling. I'm actually pretty sure I may have learned that in sewing class 20 years ago..... how I remember that I have no clue, or maybe I saw someone do it on DIY lol. After much fidgeting, sewing VERY slowly on my psycho super fast sewing machine, I got all the seams done. I got them done without having to redo them. I got them done and everything came together nicely and evenly.... well mostly lol. You can tell I'm no master by looking at this. Really you can. You can see that I didn't turn the seam in just right here and there, and the front of the neckline puckered a bit anyway but who cares??? I made the top of this dress! And what's great ??? My neighbors. They are a really good ego boost lol. The guy next door laughed when I told them my plans for this dress and that I had never sewn anything but patches on clothes and curtains. I showed them the finished top and he looked shocked. He said "Wow, that looks really good"...... and MEANT IT. I grinned, got giddy. You know, all the things us SAHM's feel when we get complemented on learning a new homemaker style task that make us feel more like June Cleaver :)
So for the pictures. This is fun. I'm not even gonna describe them this time, just look and gawk, laugh, point, stare........ whatever :)

Day 1, pieces for underlay are cut out

Ok, so here's what I've got so far. I have the front to the top of the dress, the back to the top of the dress and the 2 halves of the skirt part. I need to go and buy some elastic and a zipper, but other than that, the underlay is ready to be sewn! And I THINK I did a pretty good job doing freehand. I can only hope that it sits right, but something tells me that I should have curved the edge of the skirt upwards at the outside/seam edge because now that I think about it, its' going to dip down at the seams. But that can be all fixed with a quick re-measure and a snip of the scissors, so no big deal. Better to have cut too far down than to have not cut enough and be screwed :)

That's the front of the top, freehand sketch. Not too bad if I do say so myself. I MIGHT actually be good at this LOL. Or I might have just got lucky :)

Then there's the front and back cut out and pinned. They are folded in half in case you are wondering. Makes for good measuring so I hear.

This is both halves of the skirt part stacked. Like I said, I do believe that I should have tapered that right corner on the bottom up to maintain an even hemline. I'll measure it all out and get it right tomorrow while the munchkin is enjoying her first day of school .

Here's all the pieces.

Like I said. Basically, this is the underlay of the dress. Maybe. I know the skirt is gonna have the swoopy things on the right and left sides like most standard "princess" dresses do, but I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to detail the top much and if so, then what with. I do, however, have a lace sash of sorts that I'm going t sew around the waistband once I get the elastic and zipper in, just to cover the elasticized waist. If the munchkin likes it enough, she can wear it again next year lol. I have it measured right now to be down to her ankles, so unless she hits a massive growth spurt (doubtful knowing my gene pool), then she would be ok to wear it again next year. So this concludes my fun for the day. I've fried my brain the max fixing this up this way and that and doing the mathematical figures to ensure correct seamlines and measurements. As I said, this is gonna be a blast. Keep your fingers crossed that I'm not a total moron with the sewing machine LOL.

Day 1, sewing a princess dress....... no pattern!

Ok, so here goes. Today is my first blog, my first attempt ever and freehand sewing. My first attempt ever at creating a pattern. This should be a blast. I've sewn piddly stuff before, but come on. Honestly, I can't even sew the patches on my poor hubby's navy uniform without sewing the sleeves shut LOL. I don't know what possessed me to think I could actually do this, but hey, I got free fabric, I'm gonna give it a whirl. My 4 year old wants to be a princess (what one doesn't?) but who's to say that all princesses must look the same on halloween? My princess may look like a trailer park princess but dammit, she'll be unique LMAO. Sooo. I'll post the pictures of the pattern/cutouts for the under part of the dress, and pictures for each section afterwards. I will fully document each part of this wonderful experiment to find out if I have what it takes to eyeball and successfully pull off making something (that fits) without a pattern to use. Or if I can even get it sewn together right :)