Completed Sewing Projects

DD12's dress is finally finished. I had ambitions of her helping with it, but the dress pattern was so complicated, there was never really a spot where she could help considering she has no sewing experience. At any rate, she picked out the pattern and the fabric. She loves horses so this one-of-a-kind dress is perfect for her. She found fabric with wild horses that we used for the waist and trim on the skirt.

As we were working on the sisters' dresses, my little man (age 5) said he wanted me to make something for him. So we went to the fabric store and he picked out fabric he liked. One was Transformers that I used to make him a pair of shorts and the other was the Chinese dragon fabric that I made a vest of. He liked the vest so much that he thought his best buddy should have one, too. So I made two at once. He especially likes the secret pocket I sewed on the inside of the vest.

Birthdays

My sweet baby girl is 12 years old today. I can hardly believe it. Is it just me or do other moms go through what I go through. Every year on her birthday, I think about the day of her birth and every last detail of the two days (my water broke at 9am and she was actually born at 4:30 the next morning) and will often cry because her childhood is going by so quickly.

Here are a few pictures I would like to share as I remember her birth and celebrate how much she has grown. Digital photography didn't become common until she was about 3 years old, so I don't have a digitized baby picture of her. So I tried to take photos of some scrapbook pictures.

About 5 months old in 1997


1998


1999


2000


2004


2005



2008




In 2009 with her sister.



To my dear daughter - My life is blessed because of you. I'm so glad God has given me a front row seat to watch you grow and mature over the last 12 years. Happy Birthday, Honey. I love you!

Enjoying the Free Stuff

Sometimes the free stuff can be worthwhile.

For example, at Lowe's twice a month they have a Build and Grow Clinic. The kids are given a kit and tools to build a little project to take home. Today the project was a treasure chest. I feel these projects are good practice with a real hammer in a safe environment. It is also good for the older kids for practice in following directions.

Home Depot also holds Kids Workshops that we have enjoyed.

We pick and choose projects that are items that we could actually use and not feed the clutter monster in our home. For Father's Day they made a very nice box with dividers in it for nails and screws.

Once they complete these projects, they get a certificate and a patch or a pin. The certificates go into their portfolios with a picture of them holding their finished project.

Note: I recommend reserving your spot at Lowe's. Often times, they do not have extras so if you just show up, they may not have a kit for you.

On to the next freebie of the day -

We had coupons for free Roastburgers at Arby's. My two youngest don't like this sort of thing, so my oldest daughter and I each got a lunch that filled us for about $3.50 total! The sandwiches were free, but we had to buy a drink.

After that, we stopped by 7-11. They were giving away free Slurpees. They were only 7oz each, but that's really all a kids needs so far as sugar and calories go. They were completely happy with this.

My final freebie for the day was a deal at CVS for cereal. I was able to combine coupons and a $4 ECB to get 3 boxes of Trail Mix Crunch for free. I walked out with my cereal and a new ECB worth $5.

So for all of this, I spent a grand total of $3.50 for the day.

Completed Sewing Project

Lucy's first official sewing project is complete. She did a lot of the sewing on it. I put in the zipper, sewed on the ric rac and sewed the hem. Other than that she did the rest. She wore this dress to her first day of 4-H sewing camp yesterday. At sewing camp she is making many more projects and we have started a sewing notebook. I will post on that in the near future.