The Usual Morning Line-up

Johnny came home from work yesterday saying that he had a song stuck in his head, and he wasn't sure what it was.  He hummed a bit of it for me, and I started laughing because it was "When Will My Life Begin?" from Tangled, the Disney movie ("Then, after lunch, it's puzzles and darts and baking, paper-mache, a bit of ballet, and chess...").

Johnny's life as a dad has officially begun.

Cinderelly Cinderelly

When I cleaned out my costume closet last weekend, there were a few things that I was excited to bring home for Lila to play with.  One of them was this Cinderella music box that I had when I was little.

I let her play with it for awhile.  She watched Cinderella turn around while "So This is Love" played, and then she would close the box, open the box, close the box, open the box and so on.  I let her play with it and did a little cleaning.

When I came back and looked at the music box, this is what I saw.



Poor Cinderelly.  Headless.  I looked all over the floor for her head and couldn't find it anywhere.  Lila acted like she didn't know what I was talking about when I asked her where it was.  All I know is I'm not going through any poop to find the rest of Cinderella.

Call #1

We finally got our first fostering call!  I was ordering dinner at Panera in between tutoring sessions, and the sweetest girl from our agency called.  The only problem was the placement was for a sibling set of brothers, ages two and three.  We can only take one right now, so I had to say no.

I found myself quickly trying to figure out how I could make two kids work.  Sure we don't have two extra beds or two extra car seats or two extra high chairs, and sure it would be crazy to have three kids age three and under, but they sounded so darn cute!  I suppose the thing that I have to remember is that we aren't the only family willing to take in kids.  There are hundreds of families, many willing and able to take multiples.  We have to do what's best for our family, and by doing that, we are also doing what's best for the incoming kiddos.

Saying no made me sad, and I didn't even want to think about what happened to get them into the system, but we at least know that we are up and running and on the radar for a placement soon.  Thanks for all you who've been thinking about us and supporting us through all this.

I am double posting this on my new fostering blog From Foster to Family.  I'll be using that blog for pictures and more specifics on placements once we start getting some kids in our house.  Feel free to ask for a subscription.

Baby Quilts

We've been so lucky to have two good friends have little babies close to each other for the second time in a row!

Our friend Emily, who lives down under in Australia, had a little boy a few months ago.



I was so excited to get to use this adorable whale fabric to back the quilt that I made for him.

I originally bought all this fabric the week before Lila was born, thinking that she was going to be a boy.  Oops.

 

 Then right after Emily, our good friend Laura had a little baby boy too! 

These owls are just too adorable.  Laura's older daughter used to love owls and make the cutest little owl noise, so I thought it fit.

After all this boy stuff, I had to get a little pink in there and make Lila's quilt for her room.

I mentioned before here that a lot of the fabric I used on her quilt was scraps from other projects.  I really like being able to look at her quilt and remember all the different quilts that have gone before, if you will.  It also meant that I spent under $50 on a full sized quilt.



My new Bernina machine allows me to make these quilts in a crazy small amount of time.  There's a lot less yelling and silent cursing going on in my basement dungeon craft room these days.

DIY Waterproof Bag

I've mentioned before how much we like our cloth diapers, but they do come with a few difficulties.  One problem is that when you are out somewhere and you change a diaper, you need to cart the diaper home.  I often forget the ONE wet bag that we bought for $15 and end up using target bags.  I wanted more wet bags but didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on them, so I decided to make some.  Waterproof baby fabric can be expensive, but a small amount with coupons is definitely cheaper than buying a premade bag online or at Buy Buy Baby.

DIY Waterproof Bag

I'm using this for diapers and wet baby clothes, but these are perfect for sweaty gym clothes if you go to the gym and have sweaty gym clothes.  I've heard some people do.

Ingredients:
Enough waterproof fabric for the size of bag you want
Zipper in coordinating color
Thread in coordinating color
Pins
Ribbon for embellishment (optional)

After cutting your fabric into two identical pieces of the size you want, the first thing you want to do is add any embellishments that you'd like.  I cut a piece of ribbon the length of the bag and pinned it to what will eventually be the front.


Stitch along the edge of the ribbon to attach it to the front.

After your ribbon is attached, place the two pieces of fabric right sides together with the wrong sides facing out.

Before sewing the bag together, you want to attach the zipper.  To prepare the space for the zipper, baste together the side that is going to have the zipper.

After basting the zipper side, open up the bag so that the wrong sides are facing up and the seam is open.  Pin the closed zipper on top of the seam you just sewed so that the zipper fits right on top of the seam. 

Make sure that the zipper is open a little bit, and make sure that the zipper is facing down.

I put two pins at the top and the bottom so that I know where the zipper begins and ends.

Now go find your zipper foot.  It looks like this.  Make sure that you move your needle over all the way to the right so that you don't break it...not that I have ever done that.  (If you don't have one of these zipper feet for your machine, just do your best with a regular foot.)

Turn your bag so that the fabric is right side up, and begin sewing in the upper left where you put two pins.  You want your needle to be sewing pretty closely to the teeth of the zipper.

Sew down until you can feel that you have hit the actual zipper zipper thing (what is that called?).  Now stop sewing, plant you needle in the down position, lift your pressure foot and do your best to reach your hand under the fabric and zip the zipper all the way back up.

Once you accomplish that, keep sewing all the way down the left side until you hit your double pins at the bottom of the zipper.

Put your needle in the down position, lift your pressure foot, and pivot the fabric so that you are now sewing parallel to the bottom of the zipper.  Do three or four stitches to get you across

Once you are all the way across, plant your needle in the down position, lift your pressure foot, and pivot the material again so that you are now sewing up what used to be the right side of the zipper.  Sew this side and then when you hit the end, do the same needle-down-pivot move so that the top of the zipper is secure and you've sewn a complete rectangle around the zipper.

Grab your seam ripper and gently rip the basting stitches that are holding the seam above the zipper together.  Voila! Fancy zipper.

Now open up your zipper and turn the bag inside out so that the wrong sides are facing out and the right sides are together.  Pin the open sides together, and sew it up.

Turn it right side out and tada!  All done.

Now go find a cute baby foot to put next to it.

And put it in your diaper bag or gym bag or whatever bag you carry that has wet things in it.

And All That Jazz!

There comes a time in every young woman's life when she is forced to clean out her costume closet at her parents' house.

That day came for me today.  My mom wants to put some of my grandmother's things in the closet formerly known as my costume closet, so my things have to skeedaddle.  As I was clearing it out with my dad, I looked at him and said, "You know, at some point in my life, you spent money on all this stuff."  I have a feeling that Lila might be my payback...and I don't mean a financial payback.

 If you happen to need black character shoes, black tap shoes, black jazz shoes, tan character shoes, or tan character shoes with taps in a size 8, let me know.  I might know someone who has some.

I thought I might give you a general overview of the types of ensembles you could put together upon perusing my costume closet.

Now this is a nice combination of sparkly top hat and gold embellished vest.  The vest was actually a vest that my mother used to wear.  Very lovely.

There is certainly no lack of sparkle in this closet.  This jacket I wore as a gangster in one of my dance recitals.  I am not sure what type of gangster I was supposed to be.  The next year I was a gangster too, but I wore maroon velour pants and a maroon pleather jacket that year.  The graduation cap from 2005 is a nice finishing touch.

My mother wore this lovely little number as a bridesmaid in a wedding.  I thought about paring it with a beret, but I think it holds its own very nicely.

This dress I actually really do like and wore to many a 70s day at school.  I found it in my grandmother's basement after she passed away.  I also found a fabulous black Breakfast at Tiffany's style dress that my sister wore to one of her high school dances.  

This is really just the tip of the iceberg, folks.  I'm holding on to all of it because I loved playing dress up in my mom's old clothes, and I'm hoping that Lila will enjoy it with mine.  My circle of friends also has an exponentially larger amount of costume parties than anyone else that I know.  Just wait for Lila's upcoming first birthday.

Feeding the Hungry

Lila has started a new routine where every morning after I feed her her bottle, she goes around to her toys and gives them a little taste.  It doesn't matter if they have mouths; she fed her toy cell phone this morning.



She also likes to offer her baba to Mommy and Daddy.

All done!

Please don't judge her outfit.  She had peed all over her pajamas when I got her up this morning, so I grabbed the first thing I could quickly get on her.  Then she was kind of cold so I added mismatched socks and leg warmers.  I promise she won't wear it to Prom ok?  Geeze.