Strawberry fields

Our strawberry farm adventure, as seen through the camera of Aaron.

Small Steps Forward

Last night, after supper, Ella and I were snuggling. Suddenly she sighed and and said, “Mama, I feel tired”.

You could have knocked me over with a feather at that point. Never, EVER has she expressed feeling tired. I can count on one hand the number of times she has yawned once she left babyhood.

I asked her what sleepy felt like and I was told that her “eyeballs here super heavy”.

Aaron and I hustled it up and whisked her off to bed ASAP. And would you believe it? Within twenty minutes she was out COLD.

Honestly, I think she has been exhausted her entire short life and didn’t know what sleepy or tired felt like since she always felt like that. So now that she is waking up a bit less at night (we’re down to about ten wakings!) and getting a solid chunk of sleep in the beginning of the night, she’s more rested. More rest means she’s able experience the transition from being rested to being tired.

This gives me so much hope!

Wordless Wednesday

Success!!!

Success!!! I am so excited!!!

I attempted to make a skirt, but I wasn’t too impressed with the results. I used this really cute tutorial over at Ruffles And Stuff and it looks great on her, but I just don’t have the same body shape and I felt the skirt looked really boxy on me.

But then I rediscovered Angry Chicken’s tutorial on how to draft your own a-line skirt pattern! I followed her directions exactly and… it came out beautiful. I think my fold over elastic is too heavy, so I’m going to order some  from the store she suggests for my next projects. Either that or my tension is messed up on my sewing machine. Probably a bit of both. I decided that it really doesn’t matter, though, since you can’t see the messy stitches as they’re on the inside of the waist band.

It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

I absolutely love this fabric! It’s from a vintage sheet set I found at a second hand shop and it is so soft and delicate feeling. The bias trim hem gives the material some weight and prevents it from blowing up at every stray breeze. It also offers a great definition and finish to the overall skirt.

I’m wanting to make myself a structured peasant blouse to go with it. Do you think it should match the pink or yellow in the skirt? Pink because I know it will look good on me or yellow because I should dare to walk on the edge?

Homemade Poptarts

Homemade poptarts. AMAZING. Melt in your mouth good. Mouth watering. I filled them with “Fruit of the Forest” preserves, which had whole cherries (om nom nom) and made the recipe with half whole wheat to give it a more nutty texture. Amazing. Delicious. Aaron loves them but wants me to add some sort of glaze or frosting to the next batch. bleck. Not sure if I will. I jokingly asked if he needed sprinkles added, too. lol

The next time I make these, I’m going to do it in a two day stint. I’ll mix up a double batch of of crust since it’s the same amount of work for a single or double batch. It can sit in the fridge overnight and I’ll use the next day’s naptime to roll out two different types. One will be black current preserves for me to enjoy and I think the other will be filled with chocolate peanut butter with bits of marshmallow fluff for the husband.

Recipe and directions can be found here.

Spotlight

Engagement pictures based on the Disney movie “Up”.

These cakes are simply amazing. Wouldn’t something like this be fabulous for a children’s library’s retirement party?

A person can never have too many bags, totes, or purses. Really and truly. Here’s something to feed the need. View it as a stash buster!

I think we go to Target a lot.

Celebrate National Asparagus Month by making me something from this list!

Playing with this all week has made me want sing “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” but switching the words to “ride a bike”.

It’s the little things

One of my sneaky secret pleasures is slipping a piece of wrapped chocolate into bed with  me while I’m putting the kids down for their naps. Once everyone is asleep (but me!), I take the candy out of the wrapper and slowly savor it in the dark. There’s something about not being able to see that heightens all my other senses. My taste buds are more sensitive and my sense of smell more acute. It’s something I sincerely enjoy and look forward to on the days we have little bits of chocolate in the house.

How about you? What’s one of your favorite small things?

Wordless Wednesday

She wanted to sit on the bench with her baby but there was only room for one cheek…

Summer Wardrobe

I can hardly contain my excitement! I’ve been collecting super cute vintage sheet sets from our little local second hand shop, The Church Mouse. They are going to be refashioned into darling 20 minute skirts. Once the baby gets up from his nap, I’m going to dash over to the fabric store to pick up some elastic and then my goal is to whip up a couple before dinner!

To make things even better, we got gift cards to Target as a thank you for participating in a food allergy study when we went up to Chicago last week. With those, I got some cute tshirts and cardigans to compliment my skirts. They’ll carry me through this spring and summer then transition nicely into the fall with jeans and pants.

Once I get these skirts done, I’ll be able to cross off another item off my Project 101 in 1001 — make 50% of my summer wardrobe!

Pictures to come soon, I hope.

Wordless Wednesday