Just haven't felt like blogging lately.

Hey everyone, all is well here I just haven't had a topic in mind or felt like coming here and making something up. That said its not like nothing is going on so here are some rapid fire updates.

Elijah is done with swim team for the summer. He did well though hitting a growth spurt that started a more awkward then usual phase in the middle of the summer did not help. He did get 3 personal bests at his last swim meet.

Emily is talking up a storm. Any concerns I had festering about her language. Not helped by a certain fist time mom who I could never be friends with saying she didn't talk much are over. She talks constantly now picking up several new words a day.

Neil went to Linux Symposium leaving me here with my mom and the kids for an entire week including 2 swim meets. We did ok though. I was just exhausted when he got back. I think it took me a week to recover.

I joined Weight Watchers and am down 15 lbs so far. Its going well and I'm working on this whole life style change thing. Too bad I really need too loose anther 40 or so lbs.

I'm still sewing though haven't been doing as much lately. Mostly I've been buying fabric bc Elijah wants me to make some cool boy stuff for fall and I had no cool boy fabric. This should be a fun challange though. I also plan on making some stuff for myself as I will need some things that fit better if things keep going well. Oh and you better believe I will be making bunches of stuff for Emily. I think part of my slump is that both my kids have summer clothes and really won't need fall/winter for a while.

Well there are the highlights. Hopefully I'll have some new projects to post soon. I'm almost done with several things.

Summer Fun with Elmo

Happy 4th

Happy forth of July everyone. Emily said her first understandable sentence today. She babbles a lot so we know that she is trying to say other things but this one came out clear. So what wonderful thing did baby girl say "Don't want that" really that is what she picked. She is also stringing words together but her current fav combo is "bubble off"referring to the swim bubble at the Y.

I Love This Dress

I got this pattern in a set of vintage patterns from ebay last year some time. I was very intimidated by all of the details and have had it sitting aside for a while now plus Emily still doesn't have a 20in chest which is the chest measurement for a size 1 in Simplicity patterns. Thankfully sewingmama's is having a vintage pattern competition this month and that was just the push I needed to give it a go. I also decided to be brave and use some good fabric that I loved for it. I'm so glad I did they work so well together. It was harder then many things I've made but I took my time (something I should do more often with all sewing) and really enjoyed the process.

A first attempt at something new.

One day I will learn to intersperce text but in the mean time oh well. A few months ago I bought some heirloom sewing books from the mid 80s on sewing mamas. They came with directions to modify exicting patterns into really beautiful garments as well as directions for making slopers to your child's measurements and then drafting a pattern from there. If the first thing you said is what are slopers then you know how I felt but I read the directions and followed threw the process as best I could. As you can see from the pictures fitting a muslin to a toddler is not an easy task. I did use safety pins not straight pins though so that helped a lot. She is also taller then she is wide so I had to adjust the width quite a bit. I felt like the final dress was still a bit wide but that was more bc of how much width the had you add around your sloper in the directions. I will be doing the width based much more closely on her chest measurement in the future. These were also my first pin tucks and the first time I did hand embroidery on a dress so all in all I'm pleased. A little sad too though bc this was called "the baby dress" and while its beautiful I have to confess its a touch babyish on her as she really isn't a baby anymore. I just had to sneak one of these in before she was way too old for it. I will be trying to do several more things from this book for her fall/winter wardrobe as they had some great information about using velveteen and corduroy. I also think its great to have more specific instructions for heirloom techniques and pattern modification.

Maybe a big of planning

The sewing site I visit recently had a competition called SWAP which stands for Sewing With A Purpose. The idea was to create a 12 item wardrobe in a little over a month. I did not participate but looking at the entries was quite inspiring and I think I am going to try to incorporate a bit of that into my sewing this fall for Elijah and all of my sewing for myself. The goal for Emily this fall is to use mostly fabric I have. I will buy only things that I need to coordinate with what I already have. Here are the basic rules the followed.

12 garments that coordinate

2 pairs of pants (or skirts if you don't wear pants)
2 additional bottoms (capris, pants, skirts, shorts etc)
4 simple tee shirt type tops
2 non tee shirt type tops
1 dress (or be creative if you don't wear dresses. If you create something that's an alternative that's okay, but it has to be comparable and it's up to you to decide what that is)
1 simple cardigan, coat, sweater or pull over

Don't know for sure if I will do this exactly but Elijah will need a bunch of stuff this fall so I think at least the general idea is great. Perhaps it will help me avoid the problem of this year where all his pants went with brown and all his tops were mostly black. That's what happens when I just buy/make whatever catches my fancy. We'll see what happens but hopefully this fall will be more coordinated. Plus if I do that a bit for Emily the hand me downs will work better for Jessica and Evelyn. If they do the game again next spring I may get up the gumption to do it who knows. I can't imagine focusing on sewing only for myself for an entire month but I bet it would be fun. They also had to pick fabric and pattern ahead of time so it wasn't haphazard there are several that I would love to just copy directly.

First Swim Meet

Elijah had his first swim meet this past Saturday. It was long, hot, and emily and I had to leave early but all in all we had a great time. He did well in all his races. Was in the final (fast) heat in all three and finished well. We think 3rd or 4th in backstroke and freestyle and it looked like he won breast stroke. He also swam in the freestyle relay with some of his buddies. We are vary thankful that one of his preschool friends Jackson is also on the team and was in 3 of Elijah's heats with him. They had a great time together playing and telling jokes to the point that Jackson's mom said before their first race even though one of the other kids totally flipped out and quit the team right there on the spot she didn't think they were entirely aware that they were getting ready to race. So anyways we are quite proud of him for doing his best and see many more swim meets in our future. Though I'm not super excited about the 2 while Neil is at Linux Symposium.