Happy 3rd Birthday Andy!!!

The kids' birthdays are always a bittersweet day for me. I'm happy the they are getting older and smarter, but I'm sad that they are growing up so fast. I feel like with the blink of my eyes, they will be grown and gone. And now my "baby" isn't really a baby anymore. :-(

Here is a photo of me 3 years ago just about ready to pop (well actually 5 days before Andy was born)!

And here is mommy & Andy (he is 2 days old).


And this was Andy yesterday getting ready to blow out the candle on his cake. We had a nice family party and he got the things he loves most...TOYS! Now if we could just get potty training figured out! LOL


Happy Birthday Andy, mommy loves you so very much!!!!

Burning the midnight oil...

Yesterday was a busy day. My youngest son turns three on Monday and I really wanted to take him to get his pictures done yesterday while the older two were still in school (their last day is Monday). I figured it would be way easier to have two kids in tow rather that four so we headed to the "city" to JCPenney. We didn't have an appointment so I prayed the whole way there they could get us in pretty quickly. Fortunately we were about to get in about 1.5 hours after we arrived which worked out perfectly since I had some other things to do at the mall as well. And sweet Andy did a wonderful job getting his pictures taken, which was a huge relief since last year he was much less cooperative.

As I posted in one of my early posts, my family is working on becoming debt free after being inspired by Dave Ramsey. When we started last spring, we had some credit card debt, two auto loans, a small loan on our home equity line of credit, and a balance due on our new mattress which we purchased on a "one year same as cash" deal. As much as it seemed like it was going to be a very overwhelming task to pay all this off, we have really tried to keep our eyes on the prize and keep our budget in check. Well fast forward to yesterday and we are now almost entirely debt free (with the exception of our home which we hope to have paid off sooner than later). We just need to pay off our bed and that will be done next payday (in two weeks)!!!! I was very excited once our home equity line was paid off and our credit card debt, but I'm even more jazzed that we have no car payments anymore!!! Now if my lovely minivan will last me until my kids graduate from high school (I probably shouldn't hold my breath, but it is a 2005 so it should last right???).


So all this to bring me to the title of my post "burning the midnight oil". As we got ready for bed last night, the phone rang and it was DH's work calling him in because something was broken (he's a millwright at a newsprint mill owned by Weyerhaeuser). The beauty of his job is that he can get just about as much overtime as he wants, but the bad thing of signing up for weekend duty is the potential to be called into work in the middle of the night. So here I was home alone and I have a horrible time sleeping when DH isn't in the house. So I decided since he was going to work, so was I! Down to my sewing studio I went to work on my safari jacket. I don't feel like I got a lot accomplished, partly because I had to tidy things up a bit before I could start working on it, but I got a few uninterrupted hours of sewing time and now have the collar on and the sleeves ready to be set into the jacket. It's really close to being completed. So I sewed until shortly after midnight and listened to my Dave Ramsey podcasts to keep me motivated. Thankfully DH came home and saved me from myself, I really am a slow sewer in the wee hours of the morning and definitely needed to go to bed before I screwed something up.

Oh joy!

Today was one of those days that "Susie Homemaker" just loves! LOL Okay, not really, but cleaning up and organizing is part of my "job description" so that is what I did today. You know the usual laundry, dishes, baking, etc. ~ it's just been one of those day. I also went through and organized some things in my sewing studio too which felt good to get done. I had about 15 minutes before the school bus was due to arrive, so I did get to put together the collar for my safari jacket and it looks splendid! I can't wait to work on it some more, hopefully tomorrow! :-)

Safari Jacket

Well I truly am back in the saddle (finally!). It felt so good to start a project!!! I can't believe it took me 3 full weeks to start feeling better - definitely the creepy cruddy that wanted to hang on for dear life.


I picked up Vogue 8208 at the recently $3.99 sale at Joann's. I really thought a short sleeve Safari jacket would be a fun wardrobe option when it's warmer outside. Sometimes you want a jacket to look put together, but it's too hot for something long sleeve. I'm using a khaki/tan colored twill I picked up at Joann's so it really does look like the pattern drawing. I'm about half done with the jacket. I think it's going to be pretty easy since it's not lined. I don't think I'll do anything special like Hong Kong finished seams on the inside. I hate to go to all the work and not end up liking the jacket. Plus, when it's on, no one will see the inside anyway.

Back in the saddle again????

Well I think I'm finally getting over the hump of this darn cold. It's been 2.5 weeks now and it's just down right rediculous I'm still feeling not like myself. So this morning I decided to jump back in to work on the my Alice & Olivia jean-style skirt Vogue 2811 ~ I'm using a white twill fabric and making the longer version. I worked on this last week on a day I was feeling so-so and all went well until I got to the waistband. It was too big in the back thanks to my swayback, so I had to alter it. My alteration didn't go well, so I tossed it aside and headed for the couch. The other day I had a moment of ambition and decided to rip the waistband back off. Fast forward to today, I went in my sewing room to try the skirt on and see how I'd tackle the waistband. When I slipped the skirt on, oops, I forgot I cut the top off the zipper off when I sewed the waistband down and yes, you guessed it, I pulled the zipper pull right off the zipper - ugg! So now I need to decided if I'm going to try to salvage the skirt (it was looking so cute) and insert a new zipper or toss it in the trash. I hate stuff like this. I put lots of work into it, but if I don't get the waistband to sit right, then I'll be bummed I even plowed forth since it will just be wasted time. Zippers sure seem to be a problem for me lately too - the zipper I installed in the Simplicity sundress I made a few weeks ago proved to be faulty when DH was helping me unzip it the night I made it. I ended up having to use my seam ripper to get the zipper out so I could get the dress off - nice, huh? Thankfully Joann's exchanged the zipper, but I still need to put the zipper in the dress still. Darn zippers!!!

A New T-Shirt!

After feeling cruddy for days on end, I got a little bit of my mojo back today and decided to work on a top for me. It will be one of my pieces in the SWAP/Wardrobe Planning contest on Pattern Review. Now I have no idea if I can actually get all 11 garments made before the July 31st deadline (this is only item #2, item #1 was a light blue twist top), but I'm going to give it the 'ol college try. I really need some solid colored basics to go with the rest of my wardrobe. I often find cute prints and and will make a top or skirt, but then in the end, I don't have a lot of mix and match options. For the SWAP I plan to sew items that will go with the things I currently have in my closet, plus go with each other too. I have ideas of most of the things I will sew, but a few things are still up in the air.

Today's garment is a top from Simplicity 3759 made in white cotton/lycra knit fabric. The top turned out pretty good, my only dislike is I feel like the sleeves are a bit pointy. I think it more has to do with my shoulder/arm shape than the actual pattern (I have a forward shoulder and usually make an adjustment to the pattern to correct this fit for this, but a raglan sleeve is more forgiving and doesn't require this alteration). It's nothing major and will not keep me from wearing my new top. You can see a review I posted of this pattern on Pattern Review.

Down for the count...

Well some lovely illness has struck the house, first starting the DS #3, followed by DH, followed by yours truly Susie Homemaker, and now DS #1, & DD are both getting it too. It's a cold of sorts that lingers on and on and on. I've been fighting this for a week now, first with a sore throat for four days followed by the typical cold symptoms. We're all trying to rest so we'll see if I get much sewing down this week while I play nurse to DH & the kids and try to heal myself up too. Oh joy!

Swim Trunks are Finished & A Dress for Mama!

Nothing makes you feel better than getting a project off your table - well at least that is the case with me. I was so happy when the swim trunk sewing project was finished. Honestly, my heart just wasn't into it. I had other things I wanted to sew for me, but I knew the boys were going to need swimming trunks very soon. I'm glad I bit the bullet and got it over with. It didn't help that the fabric was a royal pain to work with (at least in my opinion). Oh well, all is forgotten now that the swimsuits are done. Above is a photo of a pair on my middle son and below is a close up of one of the patches I added to the leg to give it a more RTW appearance and then two more pairs (there is actually four total that I made). You can see a detailed review at Pattern Review.

Well mama really wanted a new dress and had picked up this pattern Simplicity 3867 at Joann's over the weekend when they were $.99. I saw a review on Pattern Review for this pattern done in a navy eyelet. It was just beautiful and I wanted one too. Well the eyelet was on sale at Joann's for $8.99/yd, but I just couldn't justify spending that much money (it takes three yards), when I wasn't sure how well I'd like the dress. Instead, I got some polyester silky fabric for $4.50/yd and make one to try it out. I really like the dress and think it turned out great. It's going to be a great piece to have in my closet on hot summer days. I posted a review of this dress on Pattern Review too!

So what's next you might wonder? Good question ~ stay tuned to find out!