Bond, Jackson Bond

 

I’m always excited when I get invited to play with a new pattern, whether it’s testing or pattern tours or just trying it out. And I adore Stacey for her dry humour and luscious eyebrows, and her boy-centric sewing always inspires. But for some reason I hesitated a moment – just a brief moment – when she invited me to the Bond pattern tour. The Bond really struck me as a reflection of Stacey’s fresh, modern style, and I wasn’t sure I was could do it justice. I mean we all know I am hip with the times, lol to my homies and all that, but I wasn’t sure if I could keep up to the pack. But I decided to go for it anyways, and try make it Jackson-flavoured, and man in the end it was more Jackson-y than I could have imagined.

I was very excited to sew my first garment for Jackson since the wee shorts I made when he was too small to fit in most store-bought clothes. I decided to go with a warm brownish-grey Riley Blake diagonal plaid pirate themed fabric paired with a dark brown tissue knit. I wouldn’t really recommend tissue knit if you’re not super comfortable with knits, I am and I still cringe a bit because if you mess up or the sewing machine starts to gobble it up, kiss that ish goodbye and start over. After I was finished I found an almost identical thicker brown knit on my desk and had words with myself about cleaning my craft room.

So at the beginning of January I had my fabrics picked out, I printed out my pattern, taped it, cut it. Then the closer and closer I got to the placket, the more freaked out I became. You see, when I was a newbie sewest sewer when I was a sewing baby, I did not know what was supposed to be scary. I’ve used knits from day one because I didn’t find out they were hard until after I’d already been using them for ages. I’d added a collar onto a shirt that was absolutely terrible but the collar turned out just fine, no problemo. I always assumed it wasn’t them, it was me, when I had difficulties, so I just kept trying. But I never got a chance to try a placket before I got wise enough to taste fear. And taste it I did. I sampled and nibbled and procrastinated actually sewing this top until two days before the blog post was due. Thus effectively not giving myself very much time to start over if I did mess up. Clever.

 

Early this week I read and re-read the instructions for the placket, then went and read a few other placket tutorials I dug up on the internet. When I had read enough of them that they started to make sense and I could see the steps coming together and a bit of the what and why, I was ready to try. Later. So on Tuesday, I went to my sewing machine and iron, put on some Katy Perry, and Roared.

And here’s a secret. It wasn’t so bad. I’m a huge baby. And I wish I’d tried one before. I feel like trying this pattern will open a whole new world of placket-y goodness for me, which is totally awesome, because I absolutely adore a good placket. I instantly instagrammed my placket, and my IG sewing friends rejoiced with me. Then I went and showed my husband my placket, and he glanced at it for half a second and grunted acknowledgement. I was taken aback.

“No, dear, it’s a placket,” I gently explained. “It’s awesome. I did an awesome thing. Look at my placket.” He did not look at my placket, involved as he was watching a Disney Princess movie with our girls. I decided to forgive him and maybe eat crackers on his side of the bed.

In his favour, he did admire the finished shirt, even if he thought it was for Olivia. In his defense, though, she did declare it hers the next morning, and then insist that I immediately make her an identical one when I put it on her brother anyways and pointed out the sizing.

In the end, I am so so glad I said yes to the dress. I mean, to the pattern. It is so completely perfect for Jackson. This shirt, like Jackson, looks Serious Stuff but is in reality playful and fun. He took a hissy fit when I shoved it on and buttoned it up, then stared solemnly at me for a moment after he was fully dressed. After deciding I wasn’t going to change my mind and let him be naked and free, he jumped onto the bed to roll and tumble and play with his dad in his new cute but very tumble-friendly shirt.

I do have to hem it yet – I put it on him to check and wasn’t able to take it off. I also made a few tiny mistakes, including topstitching the collar upside-down, which wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t had white bobbin thread. D’oh. And initially I put the placket in facing the GIRL way, and almost left it, but it was a super duper simple fix and considering how particular I had been thus far, really worth fixing. (And then the white topstitching on just the collar. Again, d’oh! I will probably pick that out and redo when I manage to pry the shirt off of him.) But I’m even happy with it as it is, and keep swooning over it and its perfect match to my playful sweetheart with the serious packaging.

Be sure to check out Sabra of Sew A Straight Line’s version of the Bond Top (and she is a way more experienced boy-sewperson than I am so do check hers out!), as well as the rest of the tour. If you hadn’t heard already, in honour of Kids Clothes Week and the pattern tour, you can use the code BONDTOP here to get $2 off this $8 pattern. Whether your style is fresh and modern, fun and funky, or a bit more subdued like Jackson’s here, the Bond Top is probably right for you. It’s definitely an advanced beginner / intermediate pattern, so if you are just starting on kids clothes I could probably suggest a few other places to start. But then again if nobody tells you this is hard, you might just try it, and it might take two tries to get something you’re delighted with, but you could totally do it. Just go for it!

a nickel for my thoughts

You know, since the penny is obsolete here now? Although I guess realistically one would round down and I’d be giving it away for free. Considering how few rational thoughts I’ve been having this week you would think that would increase the value a bit, no?

I have some really fun stuff in the works and/or finished and ready to share, but I’m elbows deep in preparation for a craft sale this Saturday, and if it goes truly abysmally then I may need a few days to recover emotionally. Outside of that, I’ll be listing a bunch of stuff in my shop right after. But I digress; I’m busy in a tizzy sewing away in my own personal sweatshop. Since it happens to be full of cute prints I’m not exactly suffering, although someday my autopsy will read something about copious amounts of various fibres that seem to permeate every bit of my being. That’s right, I’ve been snorting faux furs and flannel dust again. Intervention may be pointless.

Meanwhile, feel free to peek at my Instagram feed for a sneak peek. And if the code worked right, below is embedded a picture that includes two reversible bibs. I made a pattern for the two-tone one and if I can’t find a pattern or tutorial that already covers it, I’ll share that pattern and tutorial soon.

Moment of Silence

To honour our veterans of yesterday and today, their fallen comrades, and their families, I will not be posting a regular post today.

Thank you to those who have sacrificed their lives, and thank you also to those who have sacrificed and do sacrifice precious time and memories with their loved ones. Thank you to the parents who have cried over missing first steps, lost teeth, and Christmas concerts, and to the parents who have cried because it’s been a really bad week at home with the kids, and to the parents who have cried because their precious child was far away and in danger.

xoxo

Bimaa Light

Get it? Beam-a-light? Beam of… Never mind.

When Sarah emailed me to see if I was interested in participating in the Bimaa blog tour I almost broke the internet with my haste in saying yes. I had already planned on obtaining the pattern and using and abusing it for my girls’ fall/winter wardrobe. There are a few fun variations (and in the next few hours or days I hope to share another that I made, and another fabric combo of this one) but my favourite hands down is the cowl-neck version. Sarah makes the cutest patterns, and how cute is her little girl? Hair for miles and such a good-sported little model! If you’re wondering why Olivia doesn’t model on here much, you clearly don’t know Olivia, ha. Granted, she did model a pair of leggings for me for exactly one photograph yesterday, which is 100% more than usual, but she was asleep so I didn’t even try.

Yes, that cowl is built right into the shirt. You can do it all in one fabric for your normal cowl-neck version, or you can do a contrast for a faux infinity scarf. Although a real infinity scarf seems more versatile, this one won’t pose a choking hazard so it can be worn for play. It won’t get dropped behind the couch, left at school, or pulled off 30 seconds into the day. I do own cute scarves for my kids, but for my particular children, I love them but they generally get left at home or worn for shopping trips.

Nicole loves this top, declaring it super cozy and that she can hide in the cowl. Sadly, due to two factors – one, I asked my hubby to print the pattern for me on his laser printer and forgot to specify to unclick the resize to fit to page button, two, my girls have long torsos for their legs – this one won’t stay hers. I knew I was taking a risk just making the pattern instead of reprinting it but I take that kind of risk when I’m sewing for Nicole, which is exactly why I didn’t bother trying to cut something for Olivia out of the resized print error. It’s a bit snug and definitely a bit short for her body. I shortened the sleeves at her request, and I’m glad I did, as it will make it more wearable for Olivia. She loves it so much that I’ll be making her the exact same sweater again and they’ll be twins. However, that was all my bad and I’m excited to reprint this pattern and use it again properly.

As for the sewing, this came together beautifully. If you’re just starting off sewing garments with knits, I really recommend something like this with bands for finishing hems. Confession time: since my laptop with the instructions was all the way upstairs and I was all the way downstairs, I didn’t consult the directions once. I had heard that the cowl was the most challenging part of this pattern, but if you think of it as another band like the wrist and waist cuffs it’s really simple. It’s actually the waistband that I put on inside out and trimmed down accidentally as a design feature to add a bit of texture and edge with the black and hot pink with metallic animal print design. The fabric I used for the cowl didn’t photograph very true to color but here it is online.

My pinkalicious girlie freaked out over this metallic pink goodness and it is right up her alley. Girly, fun, full of light, and a bit unusual but if you ask me that’s the best way to be.

Check out the other bloggy goodness on the tour, and if I get my other two Bimaas-in-progress done today yet I’ll let y’all know. And in case that leaves you with the impression I talk like a sweet southern gal, I just love the word y’all and recently discovered while travelling that I sound very Canadian. If we were chatting in person I would probably say, for example, “That photobombing Jack Russell is pretty cute, eh?”

IT HAS BEGUN

MY BIRTHDAY THAT IS.

And a giveaway for that at the end but pretend to read this because it’s my birthday and you have to be nice to me.

Ah, the relaunch of my blog. I wish I could say that meant an exciting redesign or a shift to word press, but in this case it just means I actually plan to blog more regularly again. I wouldn’t say things are less busy lately – this morning I question my sanity; there was one snotty baby toddler who was in bed again by 9, two cereal explosions, three fighting kids, four missing socks, and seventy-five hissy fits. (Does 75 not come after 4? Please inform the children.)

So as I sit here eating steak and eggs for breakfast (microwaved, and the steak was leftovers, but my mouth has no idea) and eyeing Olivia, bouncing around on the mini trampoline I hauled upstairs to distract her, I oil up my brain and warm up my fingers and ask myself why. It’s not really for the community any more. A lot of that has moved to Instagram, and it’s easy and interactive and neat-o, gang. I love it. So why pick up the blogging? I’ve never seen a red cent for it, although I’ve gotten some really nice stuff - it’s not for the money, honey. So why?

Well, for the blogging itself.

The skills I don’t want to fall by the wayside.

The good quality photos I don’t remember to take otherwise, bigger and better than just that convenient little iphone. The editing, zooming in on little eyes and mouths and memorizing those details and falling in love with them even deeper. Commemorating them in photographs but also in my head.

The writing, always something I’ve done in one form or another. I actually wrote at least two complete novels when I was in highschool, and more that were incomplete; scribbled in notebooks hidden in desks during class more often than not. Oh, they were so awful, but so grand. My friends would read them and encourage me and read them some more, sometimes professing love to the male leads. You know you have good friends when they claim to be in love with your fictional characters, guys.

But I digress. My point is, I’ve been reminded that I love to write, and I love to capture photographs, so I have decided to put more effort into blogging regularly. Use it or lose it. Bear with me as I fumble through, my brush isn’t as skilled as it could be when I try to paint pictures with words these days. But as long as you can see what the picture is supposed to be, I’m sure I’m moving in the right direction.

So, if you’re interested, my attempted schedule will be as such:

My Mondays – the gist of it is that this will be a bit of a free for all. Cute pictures of my kids, slightly dramatized novellas of the day to day, maybe some of my own personal or family recipes, whatever.

Working Wednesdays – This will be the meat and bones day. Primarily sewing stuff, so if that’s what you’re here for, that’s your big day.

Friday Favs – I used to do a weekly round up of Friday Favs, and I’m aiming to do that again. Favorite projects from other bloggers, etsy finds, fav new products or recipes.

I know, awful names, and I won’t likely mention them again except the Friday Favs!

Now, give the people what they’re here for, amiright? Here’s the good stuff!

A little collection from my own personal craft room and shelves, a hunk of cream and gold lace, Martha Stewart glitter Coral Reef collection, a bit of washi tape, some mint rose earrings, and some hair candy for little girls and pretty ladies. And of course, a little wooden laundry pin to remember me by! The accessories are all moi. I may throw in some more stuff yet, but this is the bare bones basic that you’ll get. (sorry about the flash-trashed photo, but it’s full on dark here today. Beats last year, when it snowed on my birthday! Winnipeg – Hoo-rah!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is my first Rafflecopter giveaway so do please let me know if it isn’t working!

The Dawn of a New Era

The crickets chirp in the silence. Suddenly, a noise in the distance. A faint rumbling. Could it be? Could Laura be gearing up to blog more regularly again?

BEHOLD!

Probably.

Ha! Just kidding.

Yes.

Jackson working on the relaunch

Nicole is back in school and routines are back, but I’ll be travelling soon with the hubster. (A large blonde man with fists like hammers will be at my house with his family and a pack of fierce albeit smallish dogs, so I wouldn’t bother gearing up to rob the place. Sorry.) Meanwhile, I do have some yet-unblogged stuff, including a brief tutorial on how to make kids jeggings/leggings/pants out of existing garments ready. Instead of handing it over I’m hoarding it for a relaunch in October. Specifically….

THE FOURTH OF OCTOBER!

In most circles known as My Birthday. If  you didn’t know that October was the Best Month Ever yet, in my house it’s My Birthday, Thanksgiving, and Candyfest. Not to mention two of my sister in laws birthdays as well so there tends to be some fantastic girls night in there. And I’m part of a pattern tour in October that I am so pumped about. SO PUMPED. SPUMPED.

So.

Watch for me. Wait for me. I’ll be doing a giveaway on my birthday to kick off the relaunch, so if you’ve got an online shop you’d like to promo and/or goodies you’d like to give me other people for my birthday email me.

Edelweiss Dress Curtain Call

Today I’m tickled pink to be part of Hey June June. When Adrianna from Crafterhours invited me to be a part of the tour for the Edelweiss Dress, I pretty much jumped into her lap. Except I didn’t because Adrianna lives in what I can only assume is the set of a movie because I refuse to believe that not everyone on Earth gets pummelled with unkind weather.

So I mean don’t get me wrong, if I could jump into her lap based on weather alone I probably would, but I’m too busy doing the Manitoba Mosquito Dance to visit movie sets right now.

I would be lying to you if I didn’t admit I crooned The Sound Of Music songs to myself while I taped and cut the pdf pattern for this. After all that, when I went to survey the goods in my fabric supply, I was immediately drawn to this fabric, which reminds me of vintage curtains. Perhaps grabbing something that just overall reminds me of curtains in general is kind of a stretch to link in my mind with The Sound Of Music, but it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to.

Going back to the pdf, guys, this is love. In the past when going through patterns to put them together I’ve thought to myself, “If only there was a list of what pages to print for specific sizes so I could save myself time and paper.” GUYS. GUUUUUYS. Adrianna has just such a guide! I kiss your hand in a gentlemanly fashion, Adrianna, as a token of my affection and respect. I would share Red Pepper Hummus with you. (disclaimer: I already ate all the hummus. Sorry.)

I was a little nervous about what Nicole would think of this dress, since this isn’t a colour she would have chosen on her own. I was also a little nervous that my fabric choices would wind up making this cute pattern into a blasé and plain dress. Well, Nicole tried it on and turned to me with a serious face. “I don’t like it mom.” “You don’t?” “No…. I LOVE IT!” Now, first of all, I don’t like this game. Quit playin’ games with my heart, as a wise boy-band once said. Secondly, I could not agree more. This pattern is well made and I love it in these fabrics! And listen, it goes up to a size 10. TEN. I love it. If you are Dutch, and not necessarily like truly Dutch but just Dutch enough that you like salty black liquorice and your dad thundered out indecipherable Dutch phrases when you were about to lose some serious privileges, then you like a good deal. If you, too, tend to amortize all your purchases, then this, my friend, is the pattern for you. Might make up for all the times that you stood there with the fridge open wasting precious nickels and dimes. Speaking of nickels and dimes, I am not being paid for my opinion here. I was provided the pattern and the button. EEZ GOOT.

I think we all need to take a moment and admire the back of this dress. It’s so simple but can I get a collective smile and nod here? I’m kind of mortified that I don’t have a close up of those little red vintage buttons I used on that fun little off-center button placket. I think one of my favourite things about this dress is that it’s not over the top frilly (which I love from time to time) and it’s not serious and miniature adult (which I also sometimes love) but just perfectly classic children’s wear.

I’m going to have to whip another Edelweiss Dress up for Olivia next. Clearly she has no clothes, wearing her sister’s tunic as a dress, and look at that dirty face. 

If this doesn’t quite have you inspired to snatch up this pattern yet, then hold onto your horses, or maybe your doe a deers, because there is a lot more coming your way. Keep an eye out at Crafterhours for the other bloggers on the tour, I’ve seen some sneak peeks and some of them make a slow happy tear run softly down each cheek. So beautiful.

 

Sew Pretty Bubble Tea

When Sew Pretty Tee Shirt Dresses book arrived in my home, each member of my family went through it and chose their favourites and I had requests, plans, and and demands from all directions. For once I didn’t even mind, because these projects all start with a finished tshirt or tank top, and refashioning is right up my alley. If you have never tried this type of project, you might be surprised to realize just how much time you save when you start with some finished elements. Whether you’re using stained tshirts, too short tshirts, or even buying cheap tshirts on sale just to make dresses with, this kind of project is a quick way to customize your girls’ wardrobes! 
 

My husband chose this simply darling tie-waisted ‘wrap’ dress and requested one for Nicole.

This dress immediately reminded me of a dress I had pinned ages ago, so you just know I have to make it for at least one of my girls.

And after flipping through the whole book, Nicole has decided she must have one of the cover dress before her wardrobe will be complete. (Olivia had no opinion, she was likely off conditioning her hair with A&D Diaper Ointment or getting into my hot pink lipstick.) I had grand plans of doing one of these gorgeous projects. But then life happened. And I kind of like the plot twist, because instead of pretty happy shiny “And with all the free time in the universe, Laura whipped up boutique dresses at her leisure while sewing aprons to donate to silent auctions and baking goods to donate to lunches and raising three children AND keeping them alive…” which I mean, HAHAHA. Not even fairy tales go there.

What really happened is much more grounded in reality. For some reason, I often find myself deciding The Night Before that I would like to whip something up for one of my girls and staying up all night making that happen. So I flipped through the book and selected a few simpler projects, and then narrowed it down to the Bubble Tea dress. From cutting, deliberating over fabrics, changing my mind on who I was sewing for, all the way to completion, this project took me less than two hours. None of these dresses have patterns to mess with, just cutting instructions. I altered the bubble a tiny bit to fit in the amount of fabric I had decided on using, but otherwise followed directions that really helped move this project along.

So whether you’re living the dream or you’re a bit closer to my own reality, this book has sweet little projects for you. And if you’re curious, I was in bed by 11:30 AFTER also doing some laundry. A new record for procrastination projects! I recommend this book for beginners looking to start out with some big satisfaction, all the way to advanced sewists who would like some quick and easy wow factor. Not to mention that all these based-on-a-tee dresses are super comfortable for their intended models!

If you want to see more projects that involved a little more planning and a little less flying by the seat of one’s pants, or even get a chance to win a copy of this dress, check out the other fabulous bloggers on the blog tour!

May 5
The New York Mom will feature a finished project
Nouveau Stitch will feature a finished project, “Flirty Shirt”
Just Pure Lovely will host a giveaway
The Crafty Princess Diaries will host a giveaway

May 6
Craft Knife will feature a finished project, “Cool Water”
Stitched by Crystal will feature a project for her 9-month-old
BlogHer DIY will feature a project

May 7
Prudent Baby will review and host a giveaway
House of 34 will host a giveaway

May 8
Smashed Peas and Carrots will feature a finished project, “Bubble Tea”
Simply Modern Mom will review and might do a project

May 9
Marsha’s Spot will feature a finished project, “Patchwork of Art” and host a giveaway
Sew Spoiled will review the book
Maya Made will feature a finished project

May 10
Dollar Store Crafts will feature a project
Only From Scratch will feature a project

May 11
A Few Shortcuts will review and host a giveaway
Wild Olive will feature a finished project
Positively Splendid will feature a finished project

May 12
On the Laundry Line will feature a finished project
Elegance and Elephants will feature a finished project

May 13
Luvinthemommyhood will review and host a giveaway
My Little Gems will host a giveaway

I received a complimentary copy of Sew Pretty T-Shirt Dresses in exchange for this review. All opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own. Images above from Sew Pretty T-Shirt Dresses by Sweet Seams Studio, published by Sixth&Spring Books. Photography by Dan Howell and dress design and instructions copyright © 2013 by Sixth&Spring Books/Soho Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Bubble Shorts

I had the pleasure of pattern testing for Heidi of Elegance and Elephants, and I did the bubble shorts from her Bubble Pocket Shorts Pattern. I don’t want to give it away all in one go, but spoiler alert: I’m gaga for this pattern. (sorry if you’re getting this in a feed reader again, updating the link to the now-released pattern!)

I know it looks really intimidating, but the instructions really hold your hand and tell you you’re pretty, walking you through each step with clear photographs to go with the explanations. I think this looks very top-of-the-line kids-designer-clothes. I worked mine up in a stretch poplin for light, breezy shorts. As you can see, it is absolutely scorching here. Wait, what? Oh. Believe it or not, our weather goes just as high into the positives (Celsius) as it does the negatives… eventually… hopefully?

Olivia is her own stylist. I had planned on her wearing a tweedy newsboy cap, but she tossed it aside and stuffed her big sister’s big fluffy toque on her head instead. A real Canadian gal. I wound up having to wrestle her into a jacket and stuff some babylegs on her afterwards so she could keep playing when the (fastest photoshoot in the history of ever and then hope there were some useable shots) was over.

And as you might recall from my All You Need Is LOVE dress post, Olivia is all about the pockets lately, so these bubble pockets are right up her alley. I think I will make a pair for Nicole as well (they go from 6m-8yr!) and see if they’re as cute on her as they are on Nicole. I mean, Nicole did walk into the craft room, take one look at them, and demand a pair. I live to serve, right?

Here’s an instagram photo of the inside of the shorts waistband. Not the greatest photo, but I just love the neat and tidy contrast waistband on the shorts. It is just the sweetest and most professional looking finish! I think I need to step up my game a little for waistband finishes from now on, because I am just super in love. I used this cute little elephant print as a wink and a nod to the fact that it’s an Elegance & Elephants pattern.
So, in summary, five stars to this pattern, go forth and make shorts, and hopefully enjoy them in warmer weather than Olivia did. Check out the other testers’ shorts – and weather – here!

Linked up at:

I’m not affiliated with Elegance and Elephants and was merely asked to test-sew this pattern and photograph the results. This blog post is not in any way a sponsored post.

2012 Roundup

Happy 2013!!

Okay, I’ll do a year-end roundup too. If only because I feel like I did nothing but I know I did something. But I’m not really going to link to my posts, because that takes too much time and I’m lazy.

The beginning of the year had me knitting. I did this Mallory Cowl by www.luvinthemommyhood.com, and I also knitted but never photographed a vest for Olivia. Then I eventually fell off the bandwagon when I knitted two adorable little cardigans and then lost interest mid-sleeve after I ran out of yarn for a second time and needed to order more. Math is apparently not a thing for me.

I sewed this cute couch pillows, and I have no idea where they went. My children made off with them. The sparkly one didn’t even last a day before it was stolen.

I let my then four year old play with scissors and sew herself a circle skirt.

And since I was pretty sure I was having a girl (wrong) I gussied up a receiving blanket and did a tutorial. Sharp crochet hook for the win!

I created a fun little valentine for Nicole’s preschool class

I rearranged my house for the first of many times, and I sewed Olivia a giant sleep sack that she will never outgrow because she takes her clothes off instead of going to sleep sometimes. Confession: I never finished the armholes because I needed it that night but I would do it later. I did not do it later.

I attempted to partake in Kids Clothing Week Challenge, and I did this little peasant top for Olivia. It was one of two projects I did with fabric that had cool continual prints/features that I had bought to make dresses for myself without taking into account that since I needed to use the selvedge and couldn’t cut double, I should have bought twice as much. sigh.

Cute little double-tiered circle skirt for Olivia happened and I still love this project, long outgrown.

I know there were more projects but they didn’t wind up being blogged. I wound up staying at my parents for about six weeks, and didn’t really do anything crafty while I was there. Sadly when I was back home I was into the third trimester and really feeling it, I put all my energy into taking my girls on fun outings and working on stuff for our home renovation. My hubby and I went through a rough patch this year but we worked through it with lots of prayer and guidance. Quick tip: major home renovations during pregnancy with a chaotic toddler are pretty much the opposite of say, doing yoga.

One of the things I did get done was Nicole’s dress for her preschool graduation. It was a refashion project and by far her favourite thing that I did this year.

 

And in July, this happened:

At which point I got a whole bunch of help from some awesome family members as I adjusted from having two to having two-under-two. Jackson was a bit early and thankfully I kind of saw it coming, or at least was incredibly uncomfortable enough to cancel the party I’d been putting together for Nicole’s birthday before I sent out the invites. I didn’t ever share his birth story, did I? I’ll get to it, but as a prequel, I was in prelabour for something like a week and a half, waters bulging, 5cm dilated, and it was hot hot July weather. In other words, I was fun in a bottle.

Anyways. Distractible.

This little guy stayed tiny for the first month, and then he exploded into Giant Baby status.

That set of pictures still cracks me up. Oh, the difference a month can make!

I did make him a pair of teeny tiny Sunday shorts while he was too small for normal bottoms.

At some point in here we did finish our kitchen renovations, but I never did wind up blogging about them properly after we heard mutterings in our circles ‘in real life’ saying snarky things about us and our new kitchen. It made me pretty upset, because I lived with a pretty bad kitchen for about five years, and it progressively got worse as time went on (about halfway through, the pantry got black mold in it and I lost a pantry and a cupboard, which left me with almost no cupboard space at all) and I didn’t really complain about it much I think. So I was pretty excited to have a nice kitchen! Haters gonna hate though, hey? I’ve been reading a book called When People Are Big and God is Small and I recommend it big time. It’s about exactly that sort of thing and not letting people be a Big Thing when there’s really only one Big Thing you need to worry about. (God)

But back to the roundup! I sewed this skirt for Nicole, and she loved it. She got to pick the embroidery for it herself. I actually went on a little bit of an embroidery spree trying out the features on my new sewing machine, which sews like butter and I wish I had upgraded years ago. My sewing took several large steps up in improvement … if you’re considering getting into sewing, this may sound like a no-brainer but get a machine that sews well. It will really, truly make a difference.

I went on a bit of a sewing spree. I made the skirt for Nicole and the shirt for Olivia. I also did some tailoring and embroidering on random things, but I’ll leave those out of this post.

My baby got gorgeous. I also found instagram and my blogging took a bit of a dive, ha.

And that pretty much sums up the past year of blogging! We did a LOT of renovation and moving things around and painting and the like. Our family grew, and my girls grew up. Nicole was just a chubby little baby pretty much in those preschool grad pictures, and now she’s suddenly got these skinny little legs that has my husband pushing her to have a few more bites at supper each day.

I’m hoping to blog more consistently now that things are getting a bit more normal around here. Renos, holidays, work, school, everything has been nuts but we’ve been so blessed. I hope you all have a fantastic year in 2013… I know I plan to!