No sew costume goodness!

I'm sure as some of you know, I've been dabbling in sewing. So far, I can hem something, make some clothe wipes, a few crooked bibs, but I'm sill amateur, maybe lower than that, if it's possible. Anyways, I decided a while ago that I wanted to make A's halloween costume. One-because all the affordable costumes I could find were pretty generic and two- because my mom made almost all my Halloween costumes up until 5th or 6th grade and they were always so original. So this Halloween, I decided A will be..... A CUPCAKE!! Can I sew a costume of the caliber? heck no, She'd probably wind up looking like a fabric scrap pile. Then I found this site. It's wonderful. It shows you step by step how to make a no sew Halloween costume that is almost an exact replica of Pottery Barns ( which retails for $60). So, I decided to give it a shot. I had left over pink and brown felt from a project I did months ago, I already had a hot glue gun, so the only supplies I had to pick up were-glitter glitter spray,ribbon, and blanket bunting. On her site she used a ruffled fabric but since we only have a Walmart out here in the boonies, I could only find blanket binding. I used a hot glue gun and made ruffles for the collar though (picture to follow). I only used one layer for frosting since A is only 9 months old and I also added some " cell phone bling"-those little sticky tiny fake diamonds people put on cellphones and I made the dress part the same color as the frosting so it looked a little more even. Those little sticky tiny fake diamonds people put on cellphones. It was pretty simple and the only snags I found were 1. after I made the rufle for the collar and glued it on the inside , I could no longer slip it on A's head and had to cut the back, attach ribbon and make it a tie on( turns out that made the costume more simple). I'm currently working on the " cherry on top" which is turning out to be more work than the rest of the costume. I would highly recommend checking out  http://lemontreecreations.blogspot.com, her crafts are incredible and her instructions are so easy to follow!  and finally; THE COSTUME ...okay it's actually up there ^^^ Because I don't know how to get it right here lol and it's not as glitter as it looks in this picture. I'll post an updated one as soon as I charge the battery for my camera.

teeth

I named this post "teeth" thinking of it as a pun from that cheesy horror movie called "Teeth" but , I realize anyone who hasn't seen it and anyone who has it seen will probably think gross. Onto said tooth,  DD has one. I saw it and thought YES! she'll start to feel better. Why? whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy would I think that? A dream, I suppose. This last week has been AWFUL. She doesn't really sleep at night because her mouth hurts and nothing seems to ease it. While she does eventually go back to sleep, it takes a while. I've got tylenol, teething tablets, frozen wash clothes,ice, and while it does appease her nothing can keep her asleep at night. So I went from thinking  " I can't wait till she has a tooth" to " am I bad mom if I want my DD to be toothless?" Since her tooth has come in she's started to bang her head on things, I found her in the hallway one time just banging her head over and over on the wall. Disconcerting , to say the least. According to my doctor it's normal in a teething child. He seemed confused when I asked him how I can get her to stop. Apparently you're suppose to let them alleviate their tooth pain but causing pain somewhere else, "Major Pain" style. Oh, and she's walking. Well, she's trying to walk. She can get halfway across the living room before she sits down. So I've got a teething, walking baby on my hands. At least she doesn't bite, yet

teeth and pinspiration!

A. has been teething for MONTHS and still no teeth. You can see two coming on the bottom and have been able to see them for a while. So A. has been fussy for a while :( In other news, Halloween is coming up and I'm super excited about making DDs halloween costume. Also, I found this easy tutorial for a fabric basket here . I'm currently working on. Let's just say, I'm getting my 2 bucks worth from my seam ripper. I'll finish this later tonight once the little one is asleep :)  

hello, nanny, babysitter, sister, brother, kid-less world who thinks they know better

This post isn't meant to be mean. I would like to think of it as a wake-up call but it more or less came to me in a moment of anger. I noticed that someone who is a babysitter, is constantly complaining about her job-who doesn't though? Then, she complains about the parents of her young wards, AKA the boss'. Then again, who doesn't? But then, amidst her post full of rage she calls out all parents. Talking about how easy it is to teach your children. How parent's shouldn't coddle children, how they shouldn't let them do anything with electronics or technology. in other words, she consistently talks about how " easy" it is to be super awesome, creative parents and to raise a gracious, respectful, never tantrum throwing, independent child.Does she have kids? no, none at all. I never want to be the one to say " you don't know until you have one" but I can't help to feel justified. She talks about how easy it is to control your child in a grocery store when they're throwing a tantrum. " I calmly tell them they need to stop, or walk away and they listen". You should be thankful that those " horrible parents" have taught there children to respect there babysitters and that when they're not there, the babysitter is boss. That's pretty damn good parenting if you ask me. Children are more responsive to someone other then there parents most of the time. They know there parents, they know how far they can get and they know the end result. No matter how much you babysit , you will never know how hard a parent really works. You aren't there at 3 am, when they get up to a screaming child to find them covered in there own poop, their sheets-covered in poop, the crib railings, basically everything said child can get there hands on- covered in poop. Maybe they've been through it once or twice, but they don't deal with some new catastrophe everyday. There job is temporary. They can leave when they want to, drink when they want to, have time for themselves after work. You know what parents do after? Come home to do the "work" you complain about. There is no off time, no vacation whenever you want. Now, I understand, parents chose this life. But you chose the job. Parenting isn't as " easy" as this person constantly claims. My child is almost 9 months old and I can tell you it's the hardest job I've ever had in my life. It's also the most rewarding and my daughter is the greatest job I could ever be blessed to have. I don't consider her work, but it makes me mad to hear people down play parenting when they've never done it. Your child is constantly changing and you have to learn how to adapt as fast as they do. You play doctor daily, you sniff butts in public, google poop colors, have an in depth conversation about your childs poops for the day, basically a majority of the time- you're dealing with poop, you walk outside with two different shoes on , or in pajamas thinking you're fully dressed, you get puked and pooped on. Your hair is always being pulled out, you get bit constantly, You have to fight to put someone elses clothes on 5-10 times a day, you don't eat until your child does. YOU come last. So please, enlighten me on how wonderfully easy it is to be parent in your imagination ?

Felt owls

Recently, I discovered www.pinterest.com. It has opened so many craft doors to me. This may or may not be a good thing because when I look at them I think " hey, I can do that and it will look just as good", that's not reality . I wind up with this popsicle sticky glue mess haha. But, I persevere. I've made cloth wipes, bibs, melted crayon art and most recently, a felt owl. ---> see

She's a little lopsided, the feather are sort of cockeyed but here she is. My pinsperation can be found here. I have a bit to go before I get to that level. But I just love these little things. I cut a hole in the styrofoam, put three little bellsit in there  and then I put the top back on so when DD pushes it, it jingles.We'll see how my next one turns out :) 

The bib

I finally finished my first bib. It's nothing great but I did it, it's done and I can say I've made a bib. What do they say in Clueless? It's a Monet, pretty from far away but up close, it's a mess. It really is. If you don't look too hard at it you'd think " hey, nice bib you got there baby!" Then you get closer and see jagged lines and some frayed edges. I'm slowly working on bettering my technique. I blame the terry cloth. See --------> excuse the face, she was enjoying her veggies lol .
it's really simple, if you want to try one yourself. I used fleece for the print and terrycloth for the back. I would not recommend terry cloth. It tore so easily and the needle just ate it up. I traced one of her bibs she had, sewed it inside out first and left a little hole, pulled it right side out and did a top stitch to even it out, Then i sewed on some velcro. It gets the job done.
Next up, I'll discuss my experience with cloth wipes :)

oh no!

I've been away for so long. I came back fully ready to face my abandoned followers and expected to see the little icons under "Following" be slim to none. But no, they've increased! Here you all are being putting faith into me and I just off and leave you. Well no more. I'm really going to try to be better. Things have been a little hectic in the household the past few months. With school and baby firsts, vacations and whatnot. I haven't really had a chance to try out any new toys. I've been working on being more crafty. Making reusable wipes and most recently a bib that looks as if Ava sewed it. But, it's a bib nonetheless. I've fully expanded my couponing and have been doing quiet well. I save us so much money that I want to slap myself for not doing this before! I'm going to try to expand this blog into tips for couponing too, but we'll see how that goes. DD is a full on teething machine now. She's got three or four teeth coming  and it's making her cranky...which is making me cranky. Whenever I try to soothe her gums by rubbing them she rewards with a swift and hard CHOMP followed by a vicious head shake that rivals the Great Whites I've seen on Shark Week. Let's hope biting phases out when she gets the real chompers or my blogging days might be over ( typing with no fingers is relatively difficult, I imagine). DD has also learned the magic of tantrums. She arches her back and throws her behind her while wailing like a banshee and if that doesn't work then she slow sobs and puts her head in between her legs, stopping only to take a sneaking glance to see how well her pitiful-ness is working, such the drama queen. A lot of people think this would make me more stressed but it's pretty funny. Her melodramatic acts of distress usually make me laugh. except for when she headbutted the wooden table at Ruby Tuesdays..that was pretty said. Then she preceded to grab a steak knife once she was being coddled.Curious or  homicidal genius? hmmmm
Anyone else experience the monster boddler ? How did you deal with it ?