Double the Blessings

(the coordinated pacifiers were just a happy coincidence)

Owl and Otter were blessed at the end of September.

 

To be honest, I was pretty stressed leading up to it, because I'd procrastinated making the dresses mostly.  I also had planned to have a housecleaning service come clean the house for me, and then wasn't able to get them scheduled in time.  Also I got sick the week before.

 

All that said, I think that it was the nicest blessing day of all of the kids.  The stress continued up until we got to church ...late... and they had to switch around the meeting to do the blessing after the passing of the sacrament rather than before (with all of our visiting family looking around anxiously..."where are they?!"). 

 

But then the blessings were beautiful, and after that I enjoyed everything.

 

A funny thing about the blessings.  First of all, I can hardly remember any of either one...trying to remember one blessing is sometimes hard enough...two is too much for my tired brain!  But I had my sister tape it for me (hopefully she hasn't taped over it, since I haven't gotten it from her yet).  I know some feel that taping a blessing is taboo, but I'm ok with it in this situation.  Anyhow, the funny thing is that during Owl's blessing Fox called her Julia.  It's her middle name, but there's never been any discussion about CALLING her that, and he's never called her that before or since.  He denied it and says he doesn't remember calling her that...I think he just likes to give people something to wonder about ; )

When Mr. Fox saw this he said that he looks old and tired. 
I will admit that these few months have helped us both to FEEL old and tired,
but I still think he's a handsome devil.

Anyhow, then we finished out the meetings and everyone headed to our house for a luncheon.  There were Grandma and Grandpa J, Grandma and Grandpa N, my sister Laura, Fox's uncle Mark, and my sister Judy + family.  It was a much smaller group than for the others, but the food was delicious, the conversation interesting, and the happiness abundant (at least for me).

LOVE this picture of Owl with my goofy nephew Ben : )

Grandpa and Grandma N

Grandpa and Grandma J

Anyhow, the dresses.  I completely revised my plans for the dresses, because I'd procrastinated sewing them.  I decided to go with a simple shirred-top dress style.  I didn't use a pattern, and I made the dresses from an eyelet bedskirt that I'd bought at a yard sale for $1.  I love repurposing : )  Anyhow, I am happy with how they turned out, though they weren't as quick and easy as I'd expected.  And they aren't even the same, because I did one and then tried to improve upon it for the second.  There are things that I like better in one, and things that I like better in the other.  But I am happy with how both turned out.

Dresses with matching headbands and booties.

matching booties that didn't stay on well,
but were super adorable anyhow.

I know this isn't the best picture, but it shows Otter in her dress.
I love the sweet, innocent feel of white eyelet.

A note about the colors for the dresses:  I love both colors.  I kind of felt like the peachy color was more "Otter" and the bluer one was more "Owl"...but I don't want to type cast the babies before they've even had a chance to say what they like...so when it was time to get them dressed I just grabbed a baby without looking to see who it was, and I grabbed a dress, and that was that.  But it was contrary to how I had originally thought to do it...so I was confused for a lot of the day trying to remember.

 

It's enough to have to identify someone based on their clothing, but to have to go through the thought process of "that one is wearing peach, which I had in mind for Otter but today they are switched, so that is Owl" ...well, it's exhausting.  And I'd stayed up late making baby booties and headbands, and was recovering from being sick, so my thought process was a bit sluggish anyhow!  Long story short, I need to hurry up and get the babies' ears pierced, and when I do it, I need to make sure the earrings are what I really think fits that baby and not worry about it! sheesh.

I suppose it fits that Otter had the more watery color
and Owl had the more tree-ish color.  Right?
How much can I read into things?
wanna come over-analyse things with me?

 

Anyhow,  lunch was very nice and low-key, and then it was over and everyone left and I got to take a nap : )  and we ate leftovers for dinner.

the end.

Otter Pop.

Owly.

Retro Style

Ok, you all know that I love having excuses to dress in costumes and/or dress my kids in costumes/coordinating outfits.  I'm sure you can imagine my elation when I was invited to my future niece-in-law's bridal shower and it was

50's Retro Themed!!  Costumes encouraged!

Well, I immediately started putting costumes together, of course!

Chick was the poodleskirt teeny-bopper.

Monkey was the 50's glamour girl.

I was the 50's housewife.

Chick's costume:

ponytail with ribbon tied on it, white t-shirt & socks, chiffon fabric tied as neck scarf, cats eye sunglasses (thrift store, $2), Pink Ladies jacket (thrift store, $4?  I don't remember the price....), Poodleskirt (thrift store, Grandma found it and bought it).

Monkey's costume:

clip-on earrings & necklace (thrift store, $2), vintage hat - gloves - purse (from my costume trunk), dress: refashioned from a women's skirt (thrift store, $1) with chiffon fabric as a sash.  Pettiskirts underneath.

My costume:

hairnet and ribbon, pearl earrings & necklace, gloves, 3/4 sleeve sweater, crinoline (all of which I had already), skirt (thrifted, $1), apron (homemade).  I made up my own pattern for the apron, but it didn't turn out quite the way that I'd hoped, so I'll have to make another...someday. 

My friend, Tamie, is a theater gal, and helped me know how to style my hair and makeup. 

I think it was a success.

Anyhow, it was fun to see how other people dressed, and it was fun to play themed games!  Some showers don't do games, and sometimes that's fun, but I love me a well-planned theme. 

(I also love the circles on the doors, windows, & fireplace.  Great job, Maren!)



(Maren, the Hostess)



My girls really liked the mother of the bride-to-be, and hung out with her most of the evening.

The bride-to-be, Emily, with her friend who made the ribbon hat.



Mother of the groom-to-be, my sister.



In keeping with the theme, the prize bags were vintage as well. 

My Mom did a great job of putting these together.

 

SO FUN.

And it provided us a photo op with the soda bottles : )

Sleep and the Dress

Here are more pictures of the dress that I did for the competition.  I wasn't picked for the top 50, which was disappointing of course (I won't say more since it'll just be sour grapes), but I'm glad that I did it because it gave me incentive to get the dress DONE. Quickly, even.

the difference between ironed and not.

Anyhow, it's breastfeeding-friendly, comfortable, and fits. And I'm proud of myself for making something so very wearable without a pattern.


I'm setting a 2 week goal, starting yesterday, to get to bed by 10pm each night. This week is layout, so it might be very very hard, but I think I need to do it anyhow. It'll help in many aspects of my life.

yesterday: 9pm.

A Newsy, My-Blog-Is-Getting-Backlogged Post

KCWC Days 5,6,7:

About a year ago I bought this tunic at the thrift store specifically to refashion because I liked the fabric.

Chick's new tunic-y dress:

The neckband is made from a costume that was being made for a production but then wasn't used.  The underlining is an old slip (that was my grandma's and then mine & the waistband was wearing out but the fabric still was wearing like armor).

My favorite part?  The mismatchy fabric covered buttons.

Monkey will be getting a very similar one, but I haven't gotten to do it yet.  Her's will be made from the sleeves.

When Monkey's is done I'll post pics of the girls wearing them.

Other Sewing Adventures:

The first episode of Project Runway: They had the designers take something out of their suitcases to refashion.  Then the twist? They had to pass their item of clothing to the person next to them.  So they had to use a random article of clothing.  They had 15 minutes to sketch, and 5 hours to sew.

When I watched it I thought I'd really like to give myself the same challenge.  So I had my sister randomly select something from the thrift store for me to refashion.  She picked this dress:

Even though she took color into consideration for me, it was very true to the show because I would NEVER have picked that dress.  The fabric isn't dye-able, and the skirt fabric isn't bleachable (the top bleaches into a pretty orangy yellow, though).  But there was a LOT of fabric to work with, because the dress was huge. 

Here's my sketch:

I hadn't started the dress when, during KCWC, I saw the BurdaStyle/Rowenta Project Runway Competition!  I had to finish KCWC, but then this week I got started on the dress to enter the contest.  But it's been a busy week, so most of the sewing took place yesterday (the last day to enter).  I did exceed 5 hours, and though I have a finished product to enter (at almost the very last possible minute, because that's how I operate, unfortunately) I am doing some tweaking today to make it a better fit for me specifically.  But here's my entry:

The bodice pattern is a copy of a blouse in my closet.  The back is strips sewn together because I didn't have enough fabric to cut it in one piece, but I like it like that.  My life is full of happy accidents (Moose).  The skirt is just wide strips sewn into gathered tiers, and shirred at the waist.  The satiny trim is what the crazy original puckery stippled fabric looks like when you iron it!

This week:

I went to the Relief Society General Broadcast last weekend, and we had a dinner in congunction.  I loved the cupcake decor, and I got to bring home these beautiful flowers (which I'm still enjoying everytime I'm in my kitchen).

I took the kids to the Picture People at the mall for Moose's baby pics and a picture of the three all together.  Monkey had to be bribed just to be IN the picture (I couldn't afford to get her to smile, though).  Moose, though very smily usually, was tired and not so cooperative.  I think I should get an award for attempting it by myself.  Here's the link, though.  I bought #3 & #10.

I was busy with slightly sick kids, my new calling, babysitting, rotating toys, etc.  HH worked late every night.  So no improvements for the home.  But we sodded this little bit of land recently (to the left of Chick in the picture).  It's been dirt and weeds for the past couple of years.

A while ago:

We got a new car.  It's been a couple of weeks now.  Anyhow, I really like it.  It has some really great features, and best of all it seats seven : )

Ok.  Next time I'll tell you about Victoria!

KCWC: Days 1 & 2

I'm participating in the Kid's Clothing Week Challenge, from over at Elsie Marley.  It is one hour each day this week spent sewing childrens clothing.

Day 1 I finally sewed this tie-dye baby gown that I've had cut out for ages.  (again, it's from THIS TUTORIAL from This Mama Makes Stuff)

Day 2 was just mending little people's clothes.  Sewing on buttons, mostly.

Day 3 (today) is yet to happen, but I get to work on the ruffle dresses that I started mid-summer.  I hope to have something to show for myself tomorrow....

Burgandy BBQ

The day after the 50th Anniversary Party we had a Family Reunion at Cascade Park.

There was coloring & a candy hunt for the little kids...

 trying to keep the paparazzi away... (I think it'll be my goal to use the word paparazzi in every post from now on)

relay races and a water balloon toss for the adults...

playing in the river...

naptime...

spending time with family...

and first attempts at slacklining.

Even our two missionaries were there.

It was a really fun day.  There was also food.  But the Little Man was eating at the same time as everyone else, so I was admiring the stunning blue sky and green leaves above the hammock...without a camera, sadly.

A couple of special-to-me things:

Obviously we all had matching t-shirts (no, it wasn't one of those funny coincidences), and since they didn't have baby sizes, I altered an XL to fit the Little Man.  I used the baby gown tutorial for the neckline & sleeves, and more or less traced an existing shorts romper for the rest.  I'm happy with how it turned out.

These two were thick as thieves, and I wish the didn't live so far away (UT).  This is one of my favorite pictures of them.