polkadotbug

Wood Chucker Day

Can you guess what we’re having done??

That’s right!  What a big girl she is now.  She is so proud of herself and we’re so proud too. What trooper. 

Little Miss Molly was making me laugh so much today when she got home.  She really learned a lot at school today.

She taught me all about groundhogs- which are also known as “wood chuckers” ya know.  I think she was combining wood chuck and wood peckers.

They can only be found in two countries- Pennsylvania and New York City.

Molly told me not to question her though, she learned this from her teacher “who has been in kindergarten for 20 years.”  How could she be wrong?!

My last funny tidbit actually happened a couple of weeks ago.  We had a really bad storm here and for some reason they didn’t close school.  They’d already had a snow day or two on days that weren’t quite so bad, but this day school was on.  It was a blizzard. I could barely see enough to get down to the school to pick her up.  She got in the car and informed me that all of the teachers were saying that school should’ve been cancelled.  But, “it was up to the president.”  Molly says “Barack Obama was not looking out for the safety of the children.”  I immediately burst out laughing and tried to explain that it was not Obama’s fault (it was actually 4 days before he was even being inaugurated).  If only the President of the United States knew (in that much detail) what was going on in Western New York!

  

How sweet is she?!  I still can’t believe I have a blonde child, but she is so darn cute.  An angel if I must say so.  I want to chew on her marshmallow cheeks.

She decided to break up the photo session and set everyone free. First the puppy.

 

Then the doll.

Splish Splash

How cute is that?!  They had their first bath together and they loved it.  I was worried that Abby was too little but she sure proved me wrong.  She was a little maniac.  They’ve had a few since then and I’ve decided that bath night has also become “clean the entire bathroom night” because the entire place gets drenched.  They have so much fun though and Abby kicks and screams when it’s time to get out. 

Gosh, it brings back fond memories of bathing with my brother when I was little and how he had this neat little game of seeing how long he could hold my head under the water without actually killing me.  Those were the days…

The other day I was laying some fabric out on the floor when Abby ran over and snatched it from me.  I went to see where she disappeared to and found her in the other room getting cozy.

It’s so good to see that she has quickly fallen in love with Anna Maria Horner too!  Man, my kids have good taste.

I’ve been experimenting a little more with Andalucia and made a couple little fold over clutch bags. 

I have this problem lately where I just can’t stick to one thing- or even 15.  I’ve been jumping all over the place trying new things and I just can’t organize a thought.  I guess I am just an experimenter at heart.  It doesn’t help that I have a million blogs that I can’t stay off of and I want to try making every last thing that I see.   Oh well, at least I’ll never be bored- just confused.

Starting Off Slow….

I can’t believe this.  I’m not one to make resolutions but I thought I’d try this year.  I have been reading everyone’s inspiring lists of goals and resolutions for this new year of ours and felt compelled to try something. 

Not a whole list though, just one thing. 

I didn’t want to pick something too difficult, or something I’d feel too bad about not accomplishing if I started slacking.  I just decided that I wanted to try to tend to my blog more.  I have such a great time reading so many other blogs and I really want to be part of the loop.  I want to open up a bit and say more and throw myself out there… sort of.

It took me 2 weeks into the new year to even post about that great resolution of mine.  I know I don’t have too crazy of a life over here in Western New York but there must be something I can find to write about - even if it’s just something little. 

I think my problem so far has been that I felt like I couldn’t post unless I had something crafty to show.  Forget that.  If you read my blog only for crafty things, then you can skip the ones that may not be so crafty.  I can’t imagine there are too many people who read my blog at all, let alone for my crafty stuff.  There are million other people crafting more interesting things and blogging about it!  That’s where I find my ideas.

Ok, here is one crafty thing I did over the holidays.  I know I said I wasn’t only going to post about crafty things, but I do have a few to share.  I’ll start with this- a sweet little handprint project on some fabulous Andalucia fabric that I stuck in an old wooden frame I had sitting around. I just had to find a reason to get some of that on the walls – in the bathroom. 

I love it. Handprints are too cute.  It makes me smile every time I have to use the bathroom, that still doesn’t have a door….

Farewell Christmas

I can’t believe it’s already over and I am just now posting about it!  How sad.  Before everyone is 100% ready to be done with the holiday, I will share a few pics of mine.  I’m very relieved that the hustle is over, but we did have lots of fun.

Here is the ugliest sweater winner in the middle.  That would be my sister.  :)  I just looked like a dork.  Her sweater seriously gives me a stomach ache!   Ellie looked really wacky because she also had crazy Christmas pants on that you can’t see in the pic.  The Salvation Army can have their sweaters back now.

Next for a little carriage ride around the village.   I didn’t actually go on,  I stayed back and took the pictures.

Me, Molly, Abby, Santa and pony dressed as a reindeer.  This little event funded a wild horse rescue, hence the horse activities.  It was very cute.

Here’s some tree decorating.  It feels so weird to be putting these up right now when we are preparing to take it down! 

Abby fighting with some beads.

 

Finally, the girls playing in one of the new toys.

Ok, I feel better that I got something up here.  I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday and is de-stressed and catching up on rest and relaxation.

Cheers!

Experimenting Again

I’ve tried yet another reversible dress style and actually really enjoy it.  This newest style reminds me more of a jumper. I made button holes in the front and then just pulled the strap through and knotted it.  I saw a similar jumper like this (pants thought) in a catalog and decided to give it a whirl on a dress.  It was my first time actually implementing button holes to an article of clothing so it was a very new experience for me. 

I love that I keep coming up with new ways of making a dress that don’t involve a zipper.  Zippers frighten me.  Maybe I will get to that point some day. 

This size dress was a tad big on Abby, maybe more 24 monthish, but still super cute.  The best part is that is also fits Molly as a tank top.  How cute over a shirt with a pair of jeans?! This article of clothing can serve multiple purposes and last several years. So long as my stitching doesn’t fall out!

Here’s the reverse side.  This is how Abby wants to be ALL of the time now. On her feet.  Any day now she will be taking off on her own.  She still won’t crawl though.   Our little munchkin will turn 1 next Thursday. 

Last thing for the night… I covered a few lampshades with some glorious fabric in response to the excellent reception my first lampshade got.  Let me tell you I get a headache trying to pick which fabrics to use.  I love them all so much.  This stuff is seriously stressful for me.  That and the fact that I have to make so many dumb mistakes before I get it right.  I am thinking of putting a few on Etsy and seeing how it goes.

What do ya think?

Crayons to Go

I think these crayon rolls are the cutest thing.  I saw my first one in person when I went on my visit to Josie’s house.  She always makes the cutest stuff.  Now she has upgraded to crayon wraps complete with books, paper and other accessories?!  I just can’t keep up!! 

I found a lovely little tutorial for the rolls at Skip to My Lou.  They are so easy and a great gift idea.  Just throw it your purse or diaper bag and always have a little entertainment with you.  Not that you couldn’t just throw the whole crayon box in your purse but this is SO much more stylish and adorable.  Again, I was using up some of my Heather Bailey fabric.

On a completely different note, our little Abby will be turning 1 in a few weeks!  How quickly the time goes.  She has developed such a little personality of her own already and has also decided that she wants to be on her feet.  She’ll scream and yell at you in her little baby talk until you grab her by the hands and take her for a stroll around the house.  Funny because she doesn’t even crawl yet, just a little butt scoot.  I think she is going to skip the crawling step.  

Oh, and I even did a little school shopping for Molly this past weekend seeing as she will be starting kindergarten in September. AHH!!!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Pretty Problem Pants

Hi!  I am here!  I feel like this is my special diary and I have this stong urge to write in it all the time, but can never sit down long enough to do it!  I liked this pic of Molly and I a lot.  We had the same color shirt on and Molly thought we were twins.  That's all I want to know is how I can transplant her hair onto my head.  It's absolutely perfect. 

I want to start by thanking everyone for my birthday wishes and healing wrist wishes.  My birthday was delightful.  The girls at work went all out for me and I came in to a desk covered with balloons, flowers, banners, etc.  My sister (whom I also work with) made me a wonderful ice cream sandwich cake. YUM.  Thanks Ang!  She doesn't even read my blog but I thought I'd throw that out there anyways.

My wrist is much better now.  It's still very sore but I can do almost everything.  I just need to go to physical therapy once a week so I can stretch out the tendon and massage the scar tissue.  Fun!

With the healing wrist I actually got around to a little sewing this weekend.  You can see the girlies in their matching pants.  I started with a pair for Abby and of course Molly wanted the same exact fabrics for herself.  I don't blame her because they are adorable patterns from Sandi Henderson's new Farmers Market line, but I only ordered one yard and I could've used a little more.  I love it so much that I guess I will eventually be buying a lot more.  I need a separate bank account for this addiction I've developed.  Why does everyone have to keep coming out with new amazing fabrics!  Of course I really don't have a pattern, so I did my classic "wing it." 

I must admit that they look pretty cute in the pictures but let me tell you the whole truth.  Anyone reading this who is not an expert sewer (a novice like me) should appreciate my blunders.  Abby's pants were sewn um... upside down I guess you can say.  Basically, what was supposed to be the legs turned into the crotch and the crotch ended up the legs.  This makes for a very "low rise" type of pants that only make it 1/2 way up the diaper and fall off continuously (doesn't help that the elastic was to big too also).  Elastic always gets me because I hate pants that are too tight and leave marks on their bellies so I overshoot.  Note to self... elastic stretches a lot.

With Molly's pants I made sure that I had the crotch/leg situation under control when sewing but I still didn't make the crotch big enough.  The I have been following has the front and back of the pants exactly the same.  Is this normal?  I realize that you need more room for the butt to fit in the back so maybe I should be looking into a different pattern?  Or should I just leave a really lot of room in the crotch area?  They looked really cute on Molly but she did have to keep pulling them up so her little butt crack wouldn't sneak out.  It was definitely a learning experience, although I still really don't know how to do it right.   

Oh yeah, the serged seams tore in the crotch area on Molly's pants before the end of the day.  I was told that I didn't have to sew the seams and then serge afterwards, that the serger would take care of everything.  Is this true?  Do I just have to reinforce the high stress areas? 

I hope you have some advice for me! 

Here We Go...

How exciting!  This is the beginning of my very own site/blog.  I figure I would start it off with the reversible dress because it seems to be a great topic of interest.    This is the newest, inside and out, made with some recently arrived Heather Bailey fabric.  Mmmmm...

My good friend (crazy friend) Caren and I started a blog together, gigglepigs.blogspot.com, that we have been having lots of fun with.  She's a bag-making machine.  We've been very inspiring to each other, I think, and there's nothing better than having someone to share this all with.  My first reversible dress made its debut at gigglepigs, and that one dress has turned into many others and they will be coming with me to our first fair!   I am very anxiously awaiting this Saturday for the Buffalo Indie Market.  There is so much excitement and so many nerves at the same time. I plan to keep my blog with Caren and use this one more for my creations and perhaps a few tutorials.  Soon I'll begin putting a tutorial together for the reversible dress I make, so please check back.  I would love to help all you other crafty folks out there make your own reversible dresses!  I think it's so great that everyone is getting into this!

My bonnets that began this new adventure for me are still my favorites.  Is there anything cuter than a baby girl in a fashionable, modern bonnet?!  I don't think so, especially because I have an adorable 8-month old baby girl who looks great in one!  I think I've found something that truly makes me happy. The incredibly beautiful fabric choices out there make this even more exciting and addictive!  Hopefully I will begin to stock my Etsy shop soon.  Then all we need is to convert our walk-up attic into a work shop for me so I can move my mess out of our dining room!