Schools back in session!

This year I have 2 babes off to school, and it breaks my heart. Why do they have to grow up so fast? Don't get me wrong, I think I'm going to quite enjoy some peace in the house; but knowing I can't have anymore babies and seeing 2 of the three we have start school.... well, it makes me sad.
And I'm honestly baffled byhow much it costs to clothe kids for school. Stupid uniforms! $110 for 2 pairs of shoes (1 each boy), $197 for 10 pairs of pants and 4 pairs of shorts (5 pants, 2 shorts per boy), $30 for socks for both, $104 for 10 polo shirts (5 each) and 2 backpacks. I still have to buy undershirts and underwear! I can't believe how much it is. Oh well, it's needed, but still.
This week we'll go for haircuts and get our last minute items and be ready for school next week! I had my stomach dropping moment this past week when I got the letter from Orion's school saying who his teacher is. *sigh* 1 baby left!

I got my labels!

So my clothing labels came in this weekend and of course I had to put them on something! I made the boys some cool little outfits to wear on their lunch date with grandma and they loved them. I'm quite pleased with how they came out and the boys are just so proud of them. They couldn't wait to let grandma know what mom made them. So without further waiting here's their outfits

The best sewster

So my ever imaginative kids have decided to call mommy the best sewster lol. I love my new name. I love how proud they are of me when I show them something new that I finished. And I love how they could go on about what they like about what I finish.That being said, my pile of never ending projects is getting pretty high. It seems as though I start more projects than I can finish. I have a few finished, but I am nowhere near my personal goal. I want to have a nice array of things to post in my Etsy shop, but so far have a few dresses half done. Ollie has been super clingy, and made sewing during the day pretty much impossible. All in all though, I think in another week or so I should have everything on my sewing pile completed and be off onto other things. Here's a small preview of what I'm working on

missing in action

So I know I haven't written in a bit, but ugh... so much going on! We had Olivia's baptism and *whew* what a relief. But then with our extended family, we had our trials and trivialisations. Boy what a battle, but I'm glad to say everything is seemingly okay now. I can't wait to get back to sewing (I have a few dresses in mind), but it doesn't seem like it'll happen this week :( I did make myself a cute little summer dress out of one of Big Ray's huge button up shirts that he doesn't wear. I'll post pictures of it as soon as I get a chance to wear it, maybe tomorrow (weather permitting). My house is a wreck (from the week before the baptism), while I was busy sewing our clothes nothing got done. I'm still trying to piece things together and catch up on all the laundry. Oh, and as a special surprise.... we got Orion a pet! A beautiful long haired black and white kitten we call Boba (he wanted to name him after himself lol). He looks like the long haired version of Monkey (my cat). It's been a week now and so far so good, he's been feeding him and taking really good care of him. I'm proud. In the little bit of spare time I have, I've been drawing out sketches for future projects and drooling over a new stroller/pram that I probably won't get (stupid money). *Sigh*, back to cleaning I suppose!

Craziness

So this coming Saturday is Ollie Wubbas' baptism (finally), and I'm feeling the pressure. I have the boys outfits half finished, and my dress is still in pieces next to Bertha (my machine). *sigh*, I really want to wear MY dress to the baptism, but between everything I need to get done for the baptism and the kids, I feel like it's almost impossible. I hope I don't end up having to wear a dress in the closet. I'm having a problem reattaching the bust and without a dress form it's super hard to pin it in place on myself. That's got me down. The boys outfits were coming along great... until I burned a hole in Raymond's faux tie with my iron, thus ruining the tie and the iron. It's the fabric, but it has to match his short pants so I have to use that; it just doesn't applique very well. I'm going to have to figure something else out. Bobby's shirt is coming along quite well, now that I've figured out that I needed ball point needles and not standard. Duh! I'm really quite happy with the results, even though their not finished all the way. I've set a solid deadline of Tuesday night to have the boys' outfits finished, that way I'll have the rest of the week to work on my dress. I've also been slipping in some sewing for my shop as well, but I'm not realistically expecting to be able to list anything until the baptism is over and done with. *Please be a success and not a drama filled day*

Baby steps (mine)

Today I took a small step towards my goal of selling my clothes. I opened an Etsy shop, but I haven't made anything yet to sell (lol). I'm hoping to put a few things in it by this weekend, but it all depends on how much the kids let me sew. Slowly but surely I feel like I'm going to get there.

I'm super in love with making Olly rompers this week. Mainly because she gets so mad when she's trying to crawl and she gets caught on her dress'. Oh, and the fact that bonnets look uber cute with the rompers. She's going to hate me when she's older for dressing her like this, but I promise it serves a purpose other than being adorable. She doesn't have enough hair to cover her scalp, and I don't want her to get sunburn on her scalp. What better way to protect her than to put on a hat?

I'm also hoping to make the boys some shorts this week. I bought them this awesome fabric that they love. Orion got a blue fabric with motorcycles that have flames coming from them, it reminds us all of ghostrider. Raymond got black fabric with pirate skulls on it, he's so like his daddy. I'm hoping to do something with the leftover fabric and their shirts to make some sort of set, but then again they might just be too old for stuff like that. We'll see what I can come up with.

Melancholy

I finally finished the halter dress I started for Olivia like 2 weeks ago. Not that it was hard, I was just in a funk. All it needed was a bit more of elastic on one of the legs of the panties, and I had to hem the bottom of the dress. I'm happy about that, that it's finished.... sort of. It looks a little too plain, and needs something. Maybe I'll baste on some trim tomorrow to see how that looks, if it's a nice though she'll be wearing it.

And my dress.... *ugh* don't even get me started. The designs I had drawn up for it, were so wrong for this fabric. I'm very insistent though on using this fabric, so I'm pushing on. The shape looked like a bag on me, and makes me look fatter than I am (I think it's the pattern). I've chopped the poor thing up so much now that it's far from where it started. After cutting off the bust area and adding in some well needed darts, I'm somewhat pleased with the shape it's taking now. At least it doesn't look like a bag anymore. I still have so much work to do on it though, and I'm afraid it won't be ready in time. Ray's been super good at encouraging me to finish it and giving me those words I need to hear (you know, it looks really good, and I like that) lol. I think I'll ask my mom though, no offense but my baby knows nothing about fashion.

Today was also a day I've been dreading for a while now. I started to wean Olivia off of the breast and onto a bottle. She took it pretty fine during the day, but boy was she being stubborn at bedtime. I'm weak at heart though and gave in.... sort of. I nursed her some, and then sang her to sleep with some random made up song lol. I don't think nights will go over well for her in the transition. I hope I'm making the right choice, it's hard to give it up (for both of us) but I haven't slept through the night in almost 9 months. It'll be nice to have a break, when Ray helps.

I better go to bed now, I have no idea what kind of night I'm in for!