Costume: Supergirl

It is February! And I forgot to write about the Supergirl Halloween costume!

 Photo made with Over!

Here are my super late and quick notes of how I accomplished it.

Using this classic picture, Dorothy asked for it to be exactly the same. "I'll try".

The Leotard. I made a practice fitting using a cheap black t-shirt knit material that I bought on sale. I did this by tracing her favorite swimsuit onto freezer paper. and using this tutorial at No Big Dill and lots of the info I have learned from all these posts on my Sarah's clothes to sew: knit pinterest board 
to sew it all together .

The practice fitting or "muslin", fit well so I kept the pattern which like I said was basically a trace of her suimsuit folded down the middle. (I took pictures of all of these steps, but must have deleted them because they are not on my phone or computer. Sorry!).

I added sleeves by tracing D's favorite long sleeve shirt and attaching it with my favorite sleeve method, A cheater's guide to setting in a sleeve At A Fashionable Stitch.

The "S" for Super... it took a long time. I used fusible interfacing and made a patch out of the knit materials. I have hopes of making my own tutorial on how to do that. Until then google that concept if you want to know how to do it.

The Skirt. Mom's of girls, This is my favorite skirt tutorial for girls. I had made a couple of these all ready last fall so I had done the math and this was the easiest part of the outfit. I used the gold to cover the waist band: Dana Made It: The Circle Skirt. Make one now.

Are you still with me?

So.

Cape. I honestly can't remember how I made the cape. I made three versions out of red lame' and that fabric was gross crinkly fabric for me to work with it kept ripping even though I used the right needle. And I made it the night before and she didn't want to wear it. We were both over the cape and of the three times she wore the costume she would not wear the cape. Luckily her cute wool blend coat looked matched with the rest of the costume when she needed it.

Super Dorothy,  Butterfly Jamison, and Little Red Mags

Boots. There is this tutorial on making super hero boots. I was on my 5th or 6th day working on the costume and I just didn't have the energy, also I was not keen on cutting the tape off her legs, so I just took her red tights I had bought for the tutorial and cut them and stretched them over her boots. It cost about 3 bucks and 30 seconds.

And that sewing friends, that is how I made Supergirl costume and learned how to sew with dancewear/swimsuit knits.  I think the costume cost about $18-20. I could have bought it for about 5 or 10 bucks more through a costume store, but I learned a lot of sewing skills which makes it so worth it.  I enjoy this so much. I know there are people that wouldn't, but this stuff makes me giddy.

Hey friends!

If you read this blog in a reader then click on over and see the new banner I just made! I have had this on my to do list for over a year and finally figured out how to. Here is the tutorial I used.

I am also currently using Clover Lane's tutorials and info on digital scrapbooking. Check out her info here. Our girls are 2 and 3 now and what I have documented has either been pictures taken, blogging here, or scribbling a few notes down and throwing them in a box :(. I have always wanted to do a scrapbook for each of their first year and then one for every few years from then on! Thanks to this idea I have already done about 20 pages in the last 5 days.

Maggie turned 2 last week. I'll be back with more pics on that soon. Such a sweet spunky girl.

Oh and that quilt. I put it down because of flair ups. It will be brought out again soon...

Thanks for checking back. Oh and the banner looks fine on my computer, but let me know if it is a weird size, cropped, or stretched on yours.

Progress

Flu like cold + iphone in the dark = terrible picture of quilt progress, but progress none the less!

Girl's room part 2

I told you a while ago of goals for decorating my girl's bedroom. Dorothy's birthday came and went and there were plenty of other distractions for her at her August birthday and even at Christmas for her to remember that she was suppose to get a quilt from me. It was also a dilemma for me because I couldn't decide if I wanted to make it a toddler bed size or twin size. I knew the toddler bed wouldn't last much longer than a few months or a year before it was passed on to our escape artist, Mags so I hoped to make a twin size. That just meant a lot more work for me. Like twice the work. Luckily the decision was made for me by waiting so long to pick the project up again.

Here is the tutorial I have been using. Here is the quilt that started it all. I started this last June and only worked on it about 2 weeks (10-15 hours maybe) before completely packing it up in preparation for rearranging the house (like trading rooms with other rooms). I unpacked it this past last month and have been working on it quite a bit. Today I finished piecing and trimming the 80th square. I have spent about 40-50 hours on it so far.

I am like a deer in the headlights getting ready to sew all the squares together. I can't possibly pull it off.

The colors of the quilt are what I call bubblegum, cotton candy, cherry, lipstick, sage, and lime. Or something like that. I am loving the color scheme and excited to have an almost complete room.

List #5: Hibernation activities

Hibernation: to pass the winter in a torpid or resting state
Torpid: having lost motion or the power of exertion or feeling

We are hibernating. In these cold months we have had colds, viruses, stomach flu, RA, back injuries, etc. We are in a resting state. We have lost motion. I think I am OK with that. Some of of our inside winter activities I had planned to do as Advent activities and round 1 and 2 of Mr. stomach flu pushed those back to January.

Here are some of the things we have been doing to keep the fun going around here while at home so much.

Muffin Tin Rainbow Lunch: Freeze dried Strawberries, Goldfish,
Barilla plus pasta, Peas, Blueberry juice, and an Oreo (see I totally break my own rules).

• Muffin tin lunches. Does your one to two year old only eat processed snack food to sustain herself and even then only a tiny bit a day. D did this at that age and Mags is on the same track. I think it is partly all the teething that takes place and partly the new found battle of wills, etc. I remembered reading about muffin tin lunches in the blogoshere and looked them up. Basically it is adding fun to eating, packaging your meal into muffin tins or other cute containers. Most grown ups and kids fall for something if it's presentation/packaging is pleasing to the eye. Dorothy prefers her muffin tin lunch to be rainbow colors. I try to have just 1 or 2 to be a processed snack and at that hopefully with no corn syrup, since I know it makes my RA flair up. I don't always follow this. To each his own. This really does not take me much extra time, I just use what bits of food we have and don't make this complicated. The green cup is almost always peas or green grapes because in the winter those are some of the only green food we ever have :) As they get older, I see us branching out into themes to go along with the season or a favorite book. For example, look at these great examples: Thanksgiving, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Book, Valentine's Day.

• D is working on writing her name. She use to hold her pencil naturally and then I think her teacher and I both made comments on holding the pencil properly and she got nervous and now questions how to hold it. Well we had a million character band aids around that never stayed on when the girls needed them so we began using them as stickers. I wrapped her pencils with a Dora or Mickey and now she knows to place her grip where the band aid is. It really seems to help.

• D also needed a boost in her confidence about writing in general, not just her grip. She told her Aunt Dawn and I separately that it was one of the hardest parts of preschool (Is that not adorable?). While sick, we didn't spend as much fun time doing art or drawing at home, so I have a writer's work shop basket where she can doodle, draw, and explore whenever. It doesn't seem like such a chore now at preschool or when I give her specific tasks, because she has lots of opportunities to do it on her terms just the way she likes it (This is our approach for reading/letters/phonics too). Right now we have just a basket that can be put out of Mag's reach. When Mag's can be trusted to have pencil access it will be on a lower level for both of them to use whenever they want. Here is a super inspiring Writer's Workshop for young writers. Love it.
  

• Mags is really into sorting and stacking. Sometimes I help and show her colors and sizes, but a lot of times I just let her do it her own way and have fun. In the picture above she is lining up our Mickeys and Minnies by size. No that is not even all of the ones we own. I guess we hoard -I mean collect Mickeys and Minnies :)

• Speaking of hoarding. I watched a couple episodes of Hoarders to kick start a much needed donation pile in our home. We are going to be in this house a couple more years and we need to get rid of about 1/4 of our things since there is no space or need for them anymore. I though that show would kick me in the pants and inspire a house purge. Then I watched Toy Story 3. Darn it if those two shows don't cancel each other out....sob. That Andy and Woody. House reorganization to. be. continued...sob.
  

The Girl's Room

I told my friend, Wren I would post. I know she lovingly judges me when I go for a while without posting.

I have always thought to myself that as long as my health allows I want to make a baby quilt for my girls, and then a twin size quilt that they help pick out fabric for when they are older say 3, 4, or 5. Well this 3rd birthday my little pink loving fashoinista, Dorothy Jean is approaching . She has many milestones on the horizon such as 100% potty training (slowly getting there), preschool this fall, and a big girl bed.

OK so long story, well long (that is how Mike describes my story telling)...

My girls have a blue, red, and green nursery. The original rental bedroom that Dorothy inherited was periwinkle and lime green and apple red was my choice for gender neutral theme. I am now trying to figure out how to phase out some of the blues and add a lot of pink, which is easier now, because they have a neutral off white wall in our house.

So we are making a pink quilt with lots of bits of green, white, and red in it. I found a pattern I love and of course it is stupid hard and very meticulous. I started this process with 2 months until her birthday and tomorrow marks the 1 month until her birthday. We'll see. I made a practice quilt for dear friends to see if I could pull it off. Again, I say, "We'll see".

Practice and baby gift for dear friends

Goals already completed

• Make a practice quilt to make sure I can pull this off (I made a baby quilt for my friends 3rd baby girl, being a 3rd child myself I thought she needed something of her own).
• Get rid of several boxes of stuff we never used for the girls.
• Organize their closet (so much stuff-took me a whole day. Remind me not to let it get so bad ever again).
• Rearrange room. Get Maggie away from all items that she can destroy or harm herself with.
  

Goals for their room

• Get art back up on their walls that Maggie can't rip down when in her crib or on her changing table.
• Make Dorothy's birthday quilt.
• Make a banner or bunting to add more pink to the room
• Make the height chart that I have had in my mind for 3+ years now and fill in the girls heights over the last 3 years

Some of my favorite pictures of last year part 1...

I am so thankful for this past year. Here are some of my favorite memories. Lots and lots of pictures!

Dorothy's first moment with Maggie Sue!

Our first family picture.


Mike and his girls.

My family. In small, medium, and large.

Brooks, Jamie, and Mike in DC for the Sovereign Grace Worship God 09 conference.


Mike at Sojourn's CD release party.

...Again Mike at Sojourn's CD release party.


Our friends Lachlan and Ellory Sue with Dorothy at the Ems house.

4th of July with the Degraides and Montgomerys


This sums up my day sometimes.

I am so crafty I make people and quilts.



Grandpa and Grandma Huff with their grandkids and celebrating their 40 years of marriage.

I love this sweet girl.

Maggie Sue Courage

Halloween with the Lewis and Butlers.

Avery and Dorothy.

An outtake from our family portraits with my MamaDear, Mickie Winters. Yes those are pajama pants, with Mary Janes, with no socks.


These pictures were taken by me, Mike, Chuke Heeke, Michael and Mickie Winters, Chip Lewis...and if I forgot to credit someone, let me know.

I'll (try) to blog December pictures soon!

Thankful for Maggie Sue

My friend Terri posts her daughter Ellory's prayers. So when Dorothy said her first unprompted prayer tonight I was inspired to post: "Jesus, Maggie Sue, Maggie, Thank you. AMEN!"

Dorothy's love has grown quite a bit since Maggie came into her world 8 weeks ago. Our prayer has been that they would be loyal to one another throughout life. I, a true nerd, looked up loyal: unswerving and faithful in allegiance. I feel like that sums up what I want for them.

The above picture was snapped with Mike's camera phone as we left from the hospital to bring Maggie home.

Little Miss Dorothy Jean, 7 months old (March '08) in my old dress.

We have been looking at a lot of pictures of old Dorothy. I have not taken many of her at all in the last few months, other than with Mike's iphone. I have torn the place apart for our camera and have every piece EXCEPT the battery charger and extra battery. This explains that when I DO post photos they are either fuzzy (from Mike's phone) OR they are old ones of D. This time: a photo of Dorothy a year ago this month. One of my favorites ever. I can't wait to get our awesome camera up and running so you can see her curls and compare her to that bald head a year ago!

Five weeks from yesterday marks the day of our scheduled c-section...April 21st. Yahoo!

We have been busy with spring cleaning, rearranging the house, our church/Mike's job, raising a 1 1/2 year old, a new nephew (Samuel Joseph Cosper), catching up with old friends, loving on our families and much more.

God bless you all.

Some of my favorite moments over the last several weeks.

Sitting in Grandma Sue-sue's pot.

Playing at Levi's siblings birthday party on the big indoor soccer field!
(Elijah was 6 and Stella 4)

She grabbed this off the shelf at the aquarium. We got her one, but the next size down. We are suckers for really good stuffed animals. We got her a great buffalo out west this summer.

And this is our family Friday a few weeks ago. Apparently shopping wears her out. She slept on both of our shoulders throughout TJ Maxx when Mike asked if she wanted a cheeseburger and french fries, she woke up and said "Yeah, uh huh, yeah".

Tera tagged me...I was supposed to go to my 6th folder and get my 6th picture, but I just picked the 6th picture on my desktop. This is Miss D at the 930 this month. I would like this piece of art, from Lost Love in D's room.

Update:

• I have a tentative c-section date of April 21st!
• That is 10 weeks away!
• Mike,Neil, and the Sojourn worship team have almost finished their next CD!
• Mike is the co-founder of the Open Sourcebook, an free online liturgical resource for churches. It just launched this month.
• Sojourn has some GREAT new web blogs and resources. Check out TravelBlog. (SO THANKFUL FOR BOBBY GILLES WHO MAINTAINS THIS)
  
• Dorothy had her half birthday this week, that means she is 1 1/2!
• D talks in sentences as of this week. Some of them make NO sense and the other half are clear as day "I don't want noodles mama." "Read stories mama?" "Thank Jesus for cheeseburgers" Mike and I just look at each other shocked. I prompted her to thank to say thank you and she said "Thank you Mike" then started laughing, because she used his first name. She continues to call Mike's parents "Nana and Papa" And has labeled my mother "Sue-sue" and my dad..."Gamp-pa Sue-sue". I am not sure how he feels about that.
  
• We are sill dealing with so much crappy health...We all had colds and for Mike and Dorothy it developed into bronchitis...Mike's back, my arthritis. We just continually have to do life our own way. I have had to step back from a lot of expectations that others have on me and that I have put on myself. It is hard, but it is so nice to remind myself I am putting God first and then my family. And that is all that matters right now.
  

Good thing we don't plan on teaching Dorothy that Santa is the reason for Christmas :)

May Christ's birth be on your mind as you celebrate with family and friends. I am looking forward to it and wish you all a very blessed day. Love to all.

I love this recipe: Creamy Chicken Lasagna. Even more than that, I have been making the creamy sauce and using it for spaghetti. D loves tomato sauce, but she still has a hard time eating really acidic foods so adding the cream cheese helps.

Happy December! Thank you so much for all the love again. Our life is taking on a bit of normalcy. Mike is still in major back pain but we see a specialist this week. We have our 9th wedding anniversary on Thursday and we find out the gender of the baby on Monday! Here is a picture of Dorothy's first corndog. About 2 minutes later she had taken the "corn" off the "dog" and inhaled them both.

Well, you are all so loving. I have received many emails and facebook messages asking how we are and the truth is we have been better. You probably remember that I am now 16 weeks along. Since about week 7 I have been extremely nauseous and throwing up on an almost daily basis, with a few needed days off here and there (yes it's still happening...just this morning). I traced my previously mentioned RA flair up to the same exact day that I started drinking regular coffee! Seriously, the day I had this amazing cup of Guatemalan and that was the day before my shoulder went crazy. ANYWAY. Dorothy has been battling a stomach bug and dehydration since Saturday. She didn't eat more than a few bites for 4 days. On Monday as we were feeling out of the woods with D, Mike called on his way to the ER. His back injury was aggravated, possibly the worse I have ever seen him in the 7 years of this injury. This entire week was very hard because of back spasms,pain, and such...Well Mike likes is privacy and I probably shared too much. But please keep us in your prayers. We have more doctors visits coming up, some for Mike and some for the second baby (heartbeat and ultrasound!).

Oh, but despite all this. We have had some quality family time together and Dorothy is adding new words and funny habits every day. Just as she turned 15 months she started calling me "Mama". She has been saying "Dada" since she was 9 months and calling me "Sarah" randomly since July.

We have also been talking a lot about babies and looking at pictures of babies and her doll. I am slowly getting her to be gentle with the doll and the baby Jesus from her nativity. She chucked baby Jesus the first time she had him, but this morning she picked him up and kissed him. Progress!

I am still here!

Hello! I hope you still check this blog! I am back. Probably not every day, but I hopefully can post a bit more than I have been.

I haven't had morning sickness in three days! I am 14 and 1/2 weeks along I have been sick for almost 8 1/2 weeks. I am hopefully on the mend. A lot of you have asked and I was not this sick with my first pregnancy. Maybe 3 times total that time. I have lost count this time. No two pregnancies are alike, I hear.

We took Dorothy to hear the heartbeat of her baby brother or sister last week. She charmed all the nurses and doctors and played with all the things she shouldn't and had no idea why we were even there. BUT! I think we got through the appointment much quicker than normal because of her presence. Not that I am ever taking a one year old to the doctor again, unless it's for her. The above picture is her running the hallway as I made the first payment on our second kid :) Just as we pay off the first kid we start paying for another- It is certainly worth it though!


Oh and I found this funny picture of D. This was on her way to meet Ruby Laffin for the first time. I love that she is waving at 6 weeks (well accidentally waving) and that she still is working on the eye control, and she is so rolly-polly.

Please pray for me if you can. Just as I am doing better with the morning sickness I have had two flair ups with my RA. I pulled my shoulder last week, the worst it been in about about two years. Then this weekend as I geared up to sew, I had a flair up in both wrists, again something I haven't had happen since before Dorothy. Not exactly a good thing for a lady trying to sew for a little business. Well enough typing on these hands for now. Love to all, near and far.

Happy October! We went to the Zoo for the big Halloween party tonight.
I'll go on the record and say Mike and I are not obsessed Wizard of OZ fans. D was named after my Grandmother and Mike's aunt. BUT! we wanted to have her dress from the movie at least once. We figure it will be all too soon before she has strong opinions on who she wants to be.

Hello friends and family, near and far. It's been 14 days since I posted! Well 7 days in the middle of that 14 we had no power because of the hurricane winds that hit our region. During that time my 1st trimester nausea hit it's peak and Mike's back injury added some extra interesting juggling. But praise God we had friends and family host us. 2 nights with our dear friends, Daniel and Mandy; 3 nights with Mike's parents; and 2 nights with my parents. So I have put sewing and blogging on the back burner as I put the my time with God and caring for my Mike and Dorothy. So much easier said than done. Love to all.

Remember when I told you Dorothy hugs by bumping her head into whatever she loves?

I realize that I may not have been altogether honest, you might have assumed that I take all the pictures on here. You see, if there has ever been a well taken picture on here, well then, Mike probably took it. I have always just been a point and shooter. But I am learning! I never expect to be a great photographer, I have so so many friends that are stellar at that. My goal is just to take some pretty pictures of my babe without it being too dark or overexposed. SOOO, I took these photos above. I am finally learning the settings on this fancy Cannon we have. Not the best but I am getting better!