Another project

I embarked on another sewing adventure today: a jean skirt using recycled jeans. I followed a general pattern idea but altered it to (hopefully) fit Madeleine. I think I'll have to take the elastic out of the wasteband and make it a little smaller to fit her tiny waist but besides that I think it's pretty cute. We'll see if she likes it.

More sewing

I sewed Madeleine another sweater dress in class Wednesday night and began a t-shirt dress but ran out of time to finish it. Madeleine wanted to wear the dress this morning and spilled yogurt all over it before I could take a picture so I'll be washing it tomorrow. I'm hoping to embark on a few other projects this weekend: two skirts and baby legs. Seeing as it's a 3-day weekend I should be more realistic and hope to finish taking the Christmas decorations down.

Poking along

Life has crept along in our house since we all caught the crud Justin was battling a few weeks ago. The kids and I were housebound for over 10 days. We finally ventured out today for Parker's 15-month appointment. Despite his limited comfort diet of milk and crackers over the past week, he's still had a huge jump in his weight (25lbs. now) since his 12-month visit. We mainly attribute that to switching him to whole milk (off soy). And he's also increased in height (32in.) which gives us hope that Madeleine might not tower over him forever. His next appointment is in April so we'll see then if he continues on this track. He's waking up from his nap now so I'm off to rescue him from the confines of baby jail.

Success

It fits and looks better than I could have imagined! And in the midst of being really sick she even managed to pull off a smile for me.

transformation

I tackled my first sewing project outside of class tonight. I took the sweater on the right and turned it into... this!
I've been searching around for practical sewing ideas and found a tutorial online for turning old sweaters into toddler sweater dresses so I decided to give it a try. The arms are a little shorter than planned due to a mistake but I'm hoping it will still qualify for 3/4 length. Madeleine's sleeping right now so I don't actually know if it fits but fortunately I know quite a few little girls smaller than Madeleine who might want it if Mads is too large. It took me way longer than it hopefully will next time but it was a fun way to spend my Saturday night. I'll see if Madeleine can model it for you tomorrow.

Castaway

Justin's had a nasty cold for over a week now and his coughing through the night has left the other three of us who sleep in the bedroom temporarily bed-less. This has been our nightly sleep haven for the past 4 nights. I'm experimenting with using the boppy as a pillow tonight. My regular one takes up too much space, not giving me much leg room with the dog at my feet. I continue to get fabulous use out of my mom's knit afghan and the quilt my Aunt Janet made for me upon graduating high school. No wonder I've been inspired to take crafty classes :)

Black kitty. That's his/her name (gender changes with each day). Madeleine insisted he/she live in her shirt for part of today, giving her lopsided knockers. She kept asking why I was laughing and didn't seem to grasp how funny she looked.

The ol' Parker flop and stare. His technique for trying to distract me from noticing the wandering fingers so eager to push any available button.

Parker will likely learn to climb into Madeleine's crib before she ever attempts to climb out. Her highly sensitive nature has definitely set us back on some things...like moving to a big girl bed. But all in due time.

Enjoying the crafting table and chairs from Papa and Mimi. And yes, Parker insists on wearing hair clips and necklaces. You'd think Madeleine would be the one to enforce it but she's usually trying to get them back. I imagine Parker thinks "finders keepers," regardless of gender association.

Project 2

We tackled another project in class Wednesday night and here's the result: a zippered bag. This was a great learning tool for me to expand into making reusable snack and sandwich bags. Not bad for my first time.

Yesterday was warm enough to enjoy some time outside before dinner. Madeleine drove for a bit but then decided it would be just as much fun to let Parker have a turn.

Moon sighting. It's been a while since we've had clear skies.