Leaving, but not on a jet plane

Today I leave with my Little Ladybug and my mom to go down to Missouri to visit my grandparents.  They live in Branson.  From here it is about a 14 hour trip (give or take a little).  14 hours in a car with a ONE year old. We do split the trip into two parts... but that is still two 7 hour days of driving with a one year old.  This should be an adventure!  Its a darn good thing that she likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, that we have two Mickey dvds, and that my mom's van has a dvd player... thank you God for small things like that!

I am going to miss my hubby dearly!   Please pray that he stays safe while we are away... and that he doesn't have toooooo much fun getting to sleep soundly all night long for a week. Hehehe...

I am sorry that I haven't gotten more pics of the craft room up yet.  I desperately want to, but have been sooooooo busy lately that I haven't gotten to put the finishing touches on the room.  I am hoping to get some red fabric from my grandma's stash to use for some more of the details. Then when I am back I will show you the pics... pinky promise!

Have a great Monday everyone!


P.S... I have a new FABULOUS recipe to share with you later this week... don't let me forget!

Spring break and a Successful Sewing Project

Well,  last week was spring break.  Did I go somewhere fabulous?  Did I get a tan?  Did I get to see Mickey Mouse?  The answer to all of the above is NOPE... not this year.  Hooooopefully the answer to all of the above will be yes next year ;-).  However, this year it was a year to stay home in good old Michigan and spend some quality time with my Little Ladybug... we even got to go to the park since spring actually started to show itself around here!

Here are a few photos to re-cap the week :-)



Playing with Balloons



Picture taking for Auntie Em's birthday

Diaper Sewing

Sundress sewing - in hopes of warmer tomorrows! :-)



Making messes!



Swinging at the park

Piggy Tails



First spring flowers

Fun at the park

She LOVED the slide!

We had a good spring break together!

And a cute one with Daddy for good measure :-)

Now for my successful sewing project.  I have had an urge lately to start running again.  I haven't really been running since the summer before my husband and I got married, almost 5 years now!  And I don't really have any running gear. Soooo my wonderful hubby said I can get some workout clothes (yay for shopping... altho honestly its just a pair of pants) and I decided that I also need an armband for my mp3 player/phone.  I looked online for a good tutorial for an mp3 player armband and came up empty.  However, I did find this awesome tutorial for an ipod case.  I measured my phone and it seemed to be the same size as the ipod soooo I gave it a shot. 

The only thing in the directions that I changed was to add elastic to make the case into an armband annnd instead of using velcro I used snaps put on with my AWESOME new snap pliers that I bought from Kamsnaps.  To add the elastic I simply cut 1 1/2 inch elastic that was long enough to go around my arm.  Then I sewed it into the seam of the outside fabric.  I did so in a way that when I turned it right side out the elastic would be on the right side so it could go around my arm... make sense?

Here are a few pics of the finished product.... let me know what you think! :-)

Front



Back

Unsnapped... I added a few different snaps to make it adjustable

Annnd so you can see what it looks like on my nice model... meet candle ;-)

So, what do you think?  It was an awesome easy project that anyone can do!


Linking here:

Blue Cricket Designs Show and Tell

Lost in the world of birthday parties and CD...

WARNING:  This post has LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of pictures and is long winded... if you make it to the end CONGRATULATIONS! :-)



Hi there!  I have an explaination for my long time absence.  Well, many explainations.... first of all was birthday week.  Second, has been my research, development, and partial implementation of cloth diapers... yes, I did say CLOTH Diapers.  We will start however, with birthday week!

Birthday week started with me making two new dresses for our little miss!  She got a special one for her actual birthday day and another special one for her birthday party day.  Both days were very special for our big one year old!  Here are some fun pics of birthday day:

It was a very good birthday day! :-)

Annnd some of the birthday party day!  I know... oh so many pictures... but I just love her cute little face! :-)

The cake... it was a Minnie theme birthday party because our Little Ladybug LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

I made the garland from tissue paper circles that I sewed together using my sewing machine!

Birthday girl and her momma  : )

She decided when it was time to open presents

She did a really good job too!

The wonderful fabulous Auntie Em and I helped get presents out of their packaging (don't you just looove my face : P )

And then there was cake! 
(We also had food... pulled bbq pork and chicken, along with chips and veggies...yum!)

Mmmm cake! :-)

I can't believe our beautiful  Ladybug is 1... She is such a sweet 1 year old! :-)

Now for the second half of this post it is on to cloth diapers.  I know EWWWWWW... lets all say it together... EWWWWW!!!

Okay, now that that is out of our system let me tell you that I have discovered, as many have, that they really are not that bad!  Like hardly any different at all from disposible diapers... don't believe me, I challenge you to try it yourself... :-P 

After hours and hours and hours and hours of research on the internet, talking to friends, and talking to store owners who sell cloth diapers we came up with a system that works for us and also fit our budget as we did not want to invest $300 in diapers for a little girl who will hopfully be potty trained in a year and a half (I did say hopefully so don't laugh at me!).

Here is what we came up with... after much research and pbsession with cloth diapers we decided to buy a few prefolds and covers from a consignment store and try them out.  We liked these at first.  They seemed the cheap way to go and like they were pretty easy.  Then the wiggling started...oh we have a wiggle monster on our hands!  And she is just way to wiggly to get the prefold situated just so and then velcro a cover over her little booty so she won't leak.  Soooo, we went with the next best thing.  We chose to use fitteds with covers. 

Now, for those of you not from cloth diaper land a fitted is just a step up from a prefold (the old fashioned white rectangle diapers) in that it is shaped like a disposible diaper and it snaps or velcros in the front so it is easy to put on a wiggler.  Fitteds still need covers.  The nice thing about the covers is that you can use them for a whole day as long as they don't get poo on them... yay! :-) 

Now, I will admit that to buy fitted diapers from a store premade they can cost a pretty penny... BUT... you can make them for waaaaaay less!!! Can I get a YAAAHOOO?!?!?! 

Many of my hours of research online was to find the perfect pattern for making fitted cloth diapers.  I tried the Rita's Rump Pocket diaper pattern, the Ottobre Design diaper pattern, making my own pattern by tracing around a diaper we liked, and finally the Goodness Gracious Diaper pattern.  All of these patterns were free so I did not spend any money on them. 


Rita's Rump Pocket seemed to work at first... but I think it runs a bit on the small side... maybe I printed it out wrong...lol!  The ottobre diaper just looked funky to me (I didn't actually make any), and making my own pattern seemed to work at first... and I think if I had a serger to serge the edges instead of turning and top stitching it might have worked... but in reality those diapers aren't my favs either. Then I found the Goodness Gracious diaper pattern... and goodness gracious am I glad I did!  ;-)

The goodness gracious diaper pattner requires you to print out two pieces of the pattern and tape them together.  Then there is a booklet you can print out with allllllllll the directions on how to make the diapers if you need them!  I used some of the directions and some of them I mde up as I went along.  I love this pattern!  I made the medium diaper and it fits our Little Ladybug perfectly with room to grow! :-)  I am going to be making a lot more of these to up our stash... then when we have another little one (not for a long time!) I will make some newborn and small size diapers... so excited I found this pattern! :-)

If you want to know how and what I make my diapers out of let me know and I will write up a post about that.... in fact, I might just do that even if you don't want to know.... becuase I did a lot of research and just because I can :-P

For now though, here are some pics of my precious one year old (*tear*) sporting some of her new diapers!

First attempt diaper... with my own pattern

Goodness Gracious pattern size Medium.  With snaps added with my KamSnaps Snap pliers

I think she likes it!

Well, if you made it to the end... good job!  And thanks for visiting!  :-)

Linking here:

My How Time Flies!

One year ago today we were taking pictures like this...

And pictures like this...





Very bad camera angle... but I will cherish this first picture of us!



And like this... of a handsome man holding a beautiful baby girl! 

I can not wrap my head around the fact that it has already been a year since my water broke, since we made the big call to the hospital, since I was in all that pain with contractions and my sweet hubby was trying to distract me with Gilmore Girls, since after 1 and a 1/2 hours of pushing the dr told me she wouldn't fit and we needed to do a c-section, since the first time I got to see my little girl, since the first time I got to hold that precious little baby close!  She is one year old today... and I love her more than words can say. 

Our little ladybug has added so much to our lives... she has turned us from a couple into a family and I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world!  I love her little giggles, and her sly shy smiles, I love the way she loves her daddy and loves to climb on him while they are playing.  I am so thankful that she is healthy and growing!  God has truly blessed us! 

I can not wait to see what this next year brings and I am sure it will fly by even faster than the past year did.  I am excited for swimming, and bike rides with our ladybug this summer, and for ice cream and playing in the grass!  Oh the adventures that await us....

But for now, here are a few "before and after" pics of our precious Little Ladybug!

She was a beautiful baby and is turning into a beautiful toddler!  Happy Birthday Little Ladybug... we love you so much!!