I've taught her well.

So, you know, I've been working on dear ol' Babette again.  I'm on section 9.  It's like I see a tiny pin prick of light ahead at the end of the tunnel.  I work on her in sections, making only those squares, sewing them together and then attaching them to the other sections.  Lord knows the mess that I'd have if I tried to just crochet up all the squares and go from there. 

This means at the end of a section, I have a pile of granny squares sitting next to me on the couch.  When I was getting ready to sew up section 8, Olivia came into the room and picked up my pile.

"Ooooooh, Mommy, granny squares!"

My 6 year old not only knows what a granny square is, but she thinks they're super cool.  I'm kinda proud of myself there.  ;)

The Flower Fairy

Last year, for Isabelle's birthday, I made her a Tinkerbell-inspired outfit.  It didn't last very long... the shorts were too short and a tad too small and the shirt had shirring in the back and I am not a good shirrer (is that a word?), so that came undone in no time.  I actually had forgotten all about it until about a month ago when a friend of mine brought it up.  She has a niece that has a birthday in the middle of May and she wanted to know if I could make a dress somewhat similar for her.

I was very flattered.  And very excited.  I would have done it that night if I hadn't had other obligations.

She wanted the whole Tinkerbell feel.  The first thing that I thought of was how the fairies dress in flowers and leaves.  So I sent her a little sketch of a dress with flower petals as a skirt and leaves as the top.  She told me to just go for it. 

The skirt was a no-brainer.  I had to make it really twirly so it had to be a circle skirt.  I just scalloped the bottom of it.  The idea of hemming that was very daunting, so I just used bias tape (thank goodness I happened to have some that worked perfectly, too.).  I kinda screwed up the waistband a bit, thinking I could sew exhausted, and forgot to change the thread and had a wonky pink line running through the white elastic, so I was faced with the idea of getting out the seam ripper, which I hate to do.  I avoid it at all costs.  So I covered the waistband.  It'll probably be a little more comfortable that way, too.

I agonized over the top.  I went through half a dozen ideas from a wrap around pinafore to a halter to a brief consideration of a corset top (but I know what a pain they can be to lace up, so I don't do that unless asked).  I thought about trying my hand at shirring again.  Buttons, no buttons... I literally hadn't decided what to do until I put the rotary cutter to the fabric.  The final result is almost identical to the top I made for Isabelle last year, minus the shirring.

So, without further ado... I introduce The Flower Fairy

Oops, didn't realize this was so blurry...

I added some ties to the back since I scrapped the shirring idea.

If you followed the link at the top of the post, you'll appreciate how happy I am about her hair now.  ;)

Isabelle is VERY long-waisted, so the waistband most likely won't show on the birthday girl

You can't get much twirlier than that!

I was very lucky that the birthday girl happened to be the same size as my kids, so I could make sure it fit and looked OK.  I'm really excited about it.  I need to add a button to the neck of the halter.... I needed to check how it fit first so that I wasn't strangling the poor child.  Auntie loved it and showed the mother of the girl, who said that it matches the colors of her birthday party!  I hope I get to see a picture of the birthday girl wearing it.  =)

Happy Mother's Day!

These are the little people that call me "Mom."  I have to say that, despite the times that they attempt to send me to the looney bin, they do show me how much they love me every single day.  Their Daddy isn't really good with holidays, I don't think I even got a "Happy Mother's Day" from him (I don't think his own mother has yet), but he did clean the house and do some laundry while we went to visit my mom.  But even though there were no grandiose gestures of appreciation, I know he does - he does things out of the blue throughout the year. 

That outfit on my middle child (in the middle) is the outfit I made for my friend's niece.  I'll post more about it later, but I'm very happy with it =)

Inspiration

My plans didn't quite go like I wanted today.  I wanted to take the kids to the Museum of Discovery and play in the park downtown.  When I went to check the hours of the MOD, I saw that they're closed for renovations.  Bah.  So we started out to go to another place that I really didn't want to go... until I asked them where they wanted to go.  Isabelle said she wanted to go to the store with the little shopping carts.

You have to love kids.  She wanted to go to Kroger.

So we did.  We have a huge Kroger Marketplace on the other side of the river.  It's like the best store ever.  Fancy schmancy grocery store plus half of Walmart all rolled into one. 

When we walked in, there was this huge display of hydrangeas.  I adore hydrangeas.  I want to plant about a hundred of them, but since we rent, I won't.  I know the landlord wouldn't care, but I would cry to leave them behind.  I think they are just gorgeous, and I want to make something with these colors...

Maybe a blanket... I'd love to wrap myself up in those flowers.

As if that wasn't gorgeous enough, the first thing we saw in the floral department was this:

Blue orchids.  Love.

I just love that color.  I want everything in my life to be that shade of blue or a pale green.  

We did a little shopping there and at an actual Walmart where I picked up some crochet thread for a shawl I want to make.  I've never worked with crochet thread before.  I'm not really liking it much just yet.  I had to take quick action to stave off a migraine when I was about 30 minutes into it.  I'm more of a worsted weight yarn and bulkier type of girl.  I decided to practice with some sport weight yarn and I think I might be able to go back to the thread soon.  I just needed to get the pattern straight.  I can't deal with a new pattern and new medium all at once I guess.

But, back to the topic...

We shopped, then went to lunch.  Near the place we ate lunch was a fountain and there was a small playground, so I took the girls over there to play for a bit.  There were some small trees planted in raised boxes, just the right height for me to notice this:

I don't know, it just reminded me fairies and other tiny creatures.  I love nature.

As I was going through pictures later, I came across a photo of Zoe jumping off of one of the boxes.  And it's just stayed on my mind as I somewhat stress a little over the outfit I'm making.  I don't mind experimenting with stuff for my kids, because no one really cares what it looks like but me.  But I'm trying new things with this outfit and it's for someone else and I know they are just expecting amazing.  I guess I'm worried that I can't deliver amazing.  Part of me knows I can do it but there's that other part of me that worries that it just will fall short.  And I know that this is the feeling that has held me back my whole life.  I know that people have high expectations of me and I always feel like I can't live up to it, so I just shrink back.  But you know what?

It's time for me to just jump in.  I love creating stuff.  I'm good at it - I'm not perfect, but I don't mind experimenting and trying to learn something new.  It might not ever be much more than a hobby that makes me a little money now and then, but I have to stop worrying that no one's going to like it because if they didn't like it, they wouldn't ask me to do it.  And even if they stop asking me, I still have myself to make happy.  This is what makes me happy.

Quiet...

I have two moods of discontent... the loud discontent where I want to just shake the cage and scream, and the quiet, sulky kind.  I'm kind of the latter tonight.  I'm in a wanting mood.  I want something beautiful.  I want a hug.  I want laughter.  I want to not have to wait. 

There's nothing in particular wrong.  I think I'm just tired.  The week usually catches up to me on Thursday.  I've been up even earlier than normal all week to hit the gym.  I did very well up until today (and I am counting Monday despite the fact that the gym wasn't open yet and I didn't actually get to work out... the effort at 4am in the rain is definitely worth counting in my book) when I woke up to two little munchkins watching Spongebob at 4am.  Maybe that is my problem.  It just can't be healthy to hear that obnoxious laugh first thing in the morning. 

I don't have to work tomorrow.  I took the day off to go on a field trip with Olivia.  She's chosen her Daddy to go with her, though, since he's off on Fridays.  I don't mind that.  I get the day with Iz and Zo instead.  I'm still debating on what we are going to do, but I just want a day of enjoying two of my girls.  I hate that it will be minus a girl, but I've discovered that two - any combination - is fun.  Add the third and they lose their minds.  We had a really good night tonight, though...  no ultra-hyperness on their part or ultra-crankiness on mine.  We even went out to eat dinner without incident.  I've actually had a pretty decent day.  It really must be the early morning Spongebob that's knocked me sideways.

I have much that I should be doing tonight, and actually have time to do since I can sleep in tomorrow, but I'm not.  I've spent far too much time tonight looking at things on Pinterest. Do you have a Pinterest account?  I'm telling you, it's just the most amazing time suck ever.  I have found about a million and one things I have  to make in just the past week.  You have to have an invite to join, so if you want one, let me know.  I could look at the pretty pictures all. day. long.  (That probably isn't helping with the wanting mood either.)

This weekend I have to finish up an outfit for a friend's niece and get it in the mail next week.  It's sort of being birthed slowly from my brain.  I have the skirt almost finished and I think I've finally decided on how to make the top, although by the time I sit down to cut, who knows where my head will be. 

I also need to make some decisions about summer.  Last summer having all three kids home was pretty much a disaster.  I can put Olivia in day camp this summer, but the other two are too  young for just about anything.  I really don't want to put them in daycare.  Bill's schedule just changed back to one where he'd actually get some sleep at night, so I'm debating letting them stay home and then using the money we'd save on childcare to do fun stuff after I get off of work.  They're slightly less destructive now than they were then.  I mean, we've gone a whole year without Isabelle chopping everyone's hair off and I can't really think of any epic messes lately. I just hate to get a few weeks into summer break and realize that it's not going to work and then scrambling to come up with something for the rest of summer.  I wish so much that I could just take summer off.  But if wishes were horses....  I need a REALLY big barn.

Here's some happy for you... sorry if I'm a drag today =)

Growing

Months ago, I purchased the pattern for the Babette afghan.  It was a pretty large undertaking considering that I hadn't tried an afghan at all yet.  The only other blanket I've crocheted to date is a small lap blanket.  I was initially drawn to the bright colors in the picture, but when I looked at other projects I found one that was done in black and white and fell in love with it.  So, after Christmas, I used up most of my Hobby Lobby gift cards buying yarn for it.  To be honest, I kind of wish I had gone a more colorful route.  At the time, the black and white scheme appealed to me, but I'm in a much more colorful mood now.  Maybe one day I'll do it in color, but it's too late to go back now.  And I really am considering doing it again one day- probably playing around with it a bit, but I have at least one other afghan I'm dying to try first.

I don't know how others have done it, but I knew if I tried to make up all the squares and then piece them together that I'd just end up with a mess of lost squares.  So I've been taking it in sections... completing just those squares, piecing them together and then adding it to the blanket.  The first few sections go really quickly.  Once I hit section 6, it just slowed down considerably.  And then I got caught up in holiday crafting and poor Babette was put to sleep for a while.

I took her out again yesterday and finished up section 7.  I noticed that as Babette is growing, I can see how my skills as a crocheter have grown also.  Not that it takes a lot of skill to make this blanket, but I'm better at keeping my tension consistent and my larger squares don't turn out quite so warped.  ;)  It will never be as gorgeous as the one in the picture, or even a lot of the projects I saw on Ravelry, but I don't expect it to be.  I've only been crocheting about a year, and still have much to learn and I've been having a ton of fun with it. 

Babette through section 7... 3 more to go plus border.

No cake fail here!

Yesterday we had Isabelle's rainbow themed birthday party.  We went to a local frozen yogurt shop, 3 Flamingos.  I had invited Isabelle's class at Mother's Day Out, not really expecting more than one person to come, because that's the most we've ever had out of any of the girls' parties.  We're used to just family.  After the first 3 RSVPs, I kind of panicked.  I'm not a really sociable person.  As hard as I try, I am really uncomfortable around people and feel like a big moron trying to keep up conversations.  To my surprise, SIX kids RSVP'd.  Two were no-shows and one came that didn't RSVP, but we pretty much hoped would come since she's Iz's BFF.  So we had 5 kids, plus our three and the little brother of one of the guests.  I didn't feel as awkward as normal, because I had more than enough to do to keep me busy and only one mom really tried to draw me into conversation (and I felt like I did a good job not sounding like an idiot LOL).  All in all, it was a huge success.  These kids were just the cutest and I wanted to put them in my pocket and take them home with me. 

Here are some highlights:

The cake!  I was so excited it turned out the way I wanted it to.  

Strawberry cake, lemon frosting, Rainbow Twizzlers

Party favors:  Rainbow Twizzlers with gold chocolate coins at the end of the rainbow, of course

(I totally stole this idea, but can't find it now...)

9 children total... and enough sugar to hype up an army!

I managed to knock out a party hat after all. 

How old are you now, Iz?

I discovered that BFF's mom is crafty... she made Izzy some pink polka dot flip flops and matching hair bows.  She needs to be my new BFF ;)  

Happy May Day.... hope Mother Nature is bringing you more flowers than showers.  She's failing quite a bit at that here right now, but she's got time to redeem herself.