Is It Naptime Yet

So this year for Easter I was finally able to make the girl’s Easter dresses. No play is happening, which gives me much more free time to sew, and I just didn’t look too hard at the store’s. I wanted to make something different for the girl’s, but when we went to pick out fabric, they ended up choosing the material they wanted. They each had a different pink for the main dress, but I accidentally cut Eden’s dress out of Lilah’s fabric, and Lilah really wanted her fabric, so they had nearly matching dresses. I think they turned out really cute.

Easter Morning

We dyed eggs at my parents house Saturday night. It was actually their fortieth anniversary! I totally forgot till my mom mentioned my dad would be taking her out, and since he doesn’t do that often, I asked why. I have it on my wall calendar, but was a total airhead when it came to remembering.

Green hands. Grandpa washed Eden’s hands with Shout, and it removed most of the dye.

This year for Easter I also had a goal of buying no candy.
What usually happens in our house at Easter: The girls go to two or three Easter egg hunts, and get tons of candy. I buy three or more different candies to put in the baskets, and end up eating most of it because Jon has more self control than me, and the girls have tons of candy already. I gain a few pounds and indulge my candy addiction, while the children ask for candy every.single.day. for like 2 months.
I decided recently that I would not be purchasing candy or cookies once the goodies in our house were gone. So if we wanted something sweet we’d have to make it. (Ice cream is the exception and they do get candy at other places.)
So I let the girls know that the Easter Bunny would not be bringing candy to our house, and they seemed OK with it. I have my reasons, and we discussed why he would not be bringing it, and why I would no longer be buying it.
So the Easter Bunny put cute socks, a note pad with pencil, glow bracelets, a craft, play dough, and a few cookies in their basket. Eden was also given a game, and Lilah was given some sheets with horses on them.
The cookies were something I had in my freezer and needed to use, so that’s why we enjoyed them in our baskets.

For the Easter Bunny the girls left out some carrots and a bag of candy from candy they had collected at the one egg hunt they went to. This year really was a low candy year for us, but it’s better for us this way.

Easter morning the girls put on their new dresses and we headed to church. After church we had an Easter egg hunt. The Easter Bunny filled the eggs with quarters and small ink stamps. Lilah found 5 of the 6 stamps, so Eden traded one quarter for a stamp. ( I think filling the eggs with small change is actually a really good idea and honestly costs as much as candy, if not less, if you decided to put nickels or dimes in the eggs instead.)

Can you spot the two eggs the girls were not seeing?

The loot!

Lilah’s bangs were trimmed on Monday.

We then enjoyed a nice afternoon with Jon’s parents and an evening meal at my parents.
The cousins enjoyed a fun egg hunt together and ate nearly all their candy while at their grandparent’s house.

The cousin’s waiting to find some eggs. (Adrienne, Eden, Lilah, Howie, and Kaitlyn.)

Lilah was very excited to get some candy.

Enjoying their candy and counting eggs.

We all have our little bit of craziness that we deal with, I’m right in the thick of it for me, the funny thing is I’m finally motivated and doing things, even though I have a looming deadline and not enough hours in the day.

Since life was so crazy over the summer, and during the play, I was really ready to not do anything, and I almost did not do the homeschooling co-op. I got my brain together and figured it was for the best, so I decided to sign up and continue to have it has a part of our homeschooling journey. Well, I asked if there was anything I could do to help, since I know the whole preparation part can be hard, and they asked me to help our treasurer, since she had a premature baby over the summer and though he was home, was quite overwhelmed with regular life and now constant doctors appointments. I pretty much organized all the information, and am acting as treasurer. I like it because now I only have to teach for one hour on Mondays, but it’s also settled me into a very permanent role, though I could leave if it became overwhelming. I’m now in the inner circle of the co-op and get to help with making decisions and knowing what’s going on. It’s been interesting and I really feel I’m learning and growing.

Besides co-op I’ve been taking a once a week choir class. It’s been lots of fun and I feel it’s helping me gain some confidence in my ability to find parts and sing. I have a lot to learn still, but I love the choral music we sing and being a part of something. The choir class is really so I can get more confidence for the plays, and soon we’ll be starting meetings for choosing the director and getting the ball rolling for the next play. It’s crazy to think we’ll soon be starting all over again!

My main focus right now is sewing though. I started Sew Lacey, which don’t bother going to the link since I haven’t touched it since January, last year and participated in a craft fair out of a woman’s house. That time of year has rolled around again, and I decided I wanted to participate once more, only I forgot about it till she called me and only have a week and a have to get ready, since I had to finish the girls costumes and help her with set up. I want to do it because I have tons of fabric for bags, and when people see and hold the bags, they’ve been inclined to buy them. I’ve also decided to add hooded towels and burp clothes to the mix, with a possibility of nursing covers too. We’ll see how much time I have next week, since that’s all I have before set up begins and then I’ll need to devote some time to making chocolate covered popcorn for it also, since that’s a big hit and I want to try selling that too. So I have lots of projects to do and very little time.

And Wednesday I decided to clean and organize my house because it was pretty crazy, but more importantly I needed to get all my material in one place and bring some order to my chaos. I hate to start creating in chaos, but don’t mind the mess along the way. Like I’ll clean my kitchen and do dishes so I can bake, though this is something I have to do with how small our kitchen is. I had to clean and get my room into a little more order so I could sew, but really have space for a drying rack for the fabric.

Yeah, I have tons to do. I need to prepare a lesson for Sunday, a lesson for Eden’s class on Monday, finish Lilah’s costume so we can go to the Haunted Harvest, cut out and sew 6-8 bags, make hooded towels, burp clothes, prepare another lesson, make chocolate covered popcorn and get ready for a craft fair, all in two weeks, plus have family time and regular house duties.

It makes perfect sense that I’m blogging. Yeah, this is me and my craziness.

My friend Anna just posted the Lily Munster Costume we worked on. She designed and made the dress and I made the cape. I had a pattern to work by but I had to make modifications and design the hood from scratch.

She does regular sewing as in: cosutmes, bridal, and clothing. Though she has also made drapes and is certified in alterations.

I’ve yet to blog about this, and now might be a little too late, but I’m selling my bags at a local little craft fair. It’s just in a woman’s house, but a little publicity is still good publicity.

Sew Lacey is the name of my business and it’s tag line is: It’s Sew Lacey, but it’s so you. Jon thought of it on his way home from work once we had decided on a name. My site is SewLacey.com, but we’re still fixing it and figuring things out, but you can see pictures of the totes I’ve made and what you can buy of mine if you go to the craft fair. The fair will also have lotions, candles, Christmas decor and plaques that are amazing. I think I might be buying my parent’s gift there. (Lotion’s are by my friend Sam and here is her site.)

I’ll only be there in the evening once Jon’s home because Eden has a fever and I don’t want to leave her with anyone.

So come by if in Vegas, and once I get my site up I’ll be doing a give-a-way for those who help get my name out, so keep you eye out for when SewLacey.com is ready for more costumers. ( I’m excited and nervous at the same time for all that’s happening, so any positive words are welcomed. 🙂 )

The Holiday Gift and Craft Boutique

When: Thursday November 5, through Saturday November 7th.

Place: 6787 Vintage Highlands Lane, Las Vegas NV, 89110

Time: Thursday and Friday from 9am- 8pm, and Saturday 9 am- 3pm.

I’m jumping head first into my first business type venture and I would be lying if I didn’t say I was scared.

I’ve had some things happen and have decided to start sewing for money and figure now is the season, and hopefully it works. My biggest worry is finding the people who will pay what I’m worth, since sewing does take time and I don’t work for just a dollar a day and mass produce products.

My main focus will be bags and then aprons and maybe other things, like nursing covers and custom orders for other things.

I’m not sure if this will work and Jon’s been so supportive of me. I’ve talked about making and selling things, but have never done anything, and now I’m doing something and I’m so happy and love that he’s so supportive and helping me and giving me ideas.

We just bought a domain name and once it’s up and running, at least minimally usable, I’ll let you know.

Also, I’m doing  a small craft fair on November 5-7th. It’s in a woman’s basement, but there will be different people also selling handmade products, including my friend Sam’s lotion. Mark your calendar and come by if you have the time. I’ll post more info later.

For now just send me good thoughts and extend the days to 34 hours!

pronounced: Jazz-me-den.

Here’s the “Jasmine” outfit I made for Eden. The official Jasmine pattern has been discontinued so I used a genie costume and made two changes. I lengthened the gold belly part by 1 inch. I guess I should have done two. I also widened the straps so it was a little more modest, but I figure it’s a dress up costume and I’m just letting her play so I’m not terribly concerned. I think she’s adorable.

Eden does not like to be called Jasmine when wearing it. She’s still Eden. So I just started calling her Jasmeden, which she still says “No, I’m Eden.”

I’ve realized I have two weaknesses right now.

The first is I love, love, love finding school or teaching related things. The whole back to school season has made the stores full of cool learning things and I find myself filling my carts with flash cards, puzzles, glue, pencil box holders, notebooks and workbooks.

I’m just excited to find things that I feel my girls will be excited about and find things to teach them. I may not be the most consistent homeschooler, but the idea is to make my house a learning environment and then all by themselves they’ll be interested in what’s around them and the cool stuff mommy bought to help them learn. My girls love learning and I love watching them learn and right now is the time to get cool workbooks and glue really cheaply. ( They go through glue rather quickly and I fear my 9 bottles that I bought rather cheaply won’t last till the end of August at the rate they love to make crafts. )

My second weakness is sewing. I’ve been sewing a lot. For the past three weeks  I’ve been sewing everyday or night, except weekends, and for the most part I love it. I’ve been able to make some great things and I’m even looking at making a dress for me. We’ll see how that turns out and if I get to it anytime in the near future, but I’m excited to be sewing and creating.

My next project will to fix the slightly to small top of Eden’s Jasmine outfit. (I’m happy I made it a size larger than her measurements, but still disappointed that it fits so perfectly.) Then I get to make some more aprons and bags. JoAnn’s is having a sale on outdoor canvass, 60% off, and I’m so tempted to go buy a lot of fabric for my bags. It’s just that I don’t buy fabric because it’s on sale so have it for when I need it. I don’t have the storage space to do that and even though I have a very specific reason for buying it, I don’t know where I’ll store it till I can use it, though I have an idea where I might put it if I clean out some other things.

I admit my house is holding up, but I need to spend more time on certain things. I feel like I am accomplishing a lot at the same time. I’ve had great cleaning days and great sewing days. I’ve been spending more time with the girls and I’m figuring things out with what I want to teach them and how I want to spend our days. I’m no where near the organizational level I want to be, but it’s baby steps. Just take baby steps.

I’m just going to need to stay away from Target, JoAnn’s and Costco till I can put a rein on my spending. (Costco has great back to school stuff and it’s cheaper and it’s only there for a limited time and too tempting for me.)

So don’t be alarmed if you come to my house and find the ironing board out, sewing machine on my table, a slightly to very messy house, and children reading Brain Quest cards. It’s just how it is around here nowadays.

I posted pictures of the two reusable bags I’ve made on Facebook. I also created an album of things I’ve sewn, but it’s not really that exciting.

These bags are, and they were fun to make, kinda, in a why do they take so long kind of way? Oh, because I want to reinforce them and make sure Jon can haul home a watermelon week after week kind of way.

This is a bag I made for Jon. It’s a little funky and fun, though slightly girly, but he doesn’t mind.

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This bag I gave as a gift to the same bride I made the apron for.

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I bought the material thinking I would only get one bag out of each fabric, but I decided to just use white, since they had no off white canvass, for the inside I’ll be able to make two from each fabric and why I was OK making and giving the to be bride the blue and brown bag. I love the fabric and I want to go buy all they have left and make bags for people I know as gifts, but keep one for myself.

I’m thinking of selling them, though they take way too long to make at this point. I’d need to perfect them and possibly get ride of the bottom contrast fabric to shed time off, though I really like it.

What do you think?

How much would you pay for a bag like this? It’s larger than the regular fabric shopping bags and I think a lot more sturdier. On Etsy I see them priced around $35-$45, but I’m not sure if they’re made of cotton or canvass, which mine are.

Any thoughts?

I stayed up till 2 am Thursday night making this:

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Why did I stay up so late? Because it was fun and I was excited. FYI I never stayed up till 2 am making the costumes, why because those were not fun, they were a burden. I also started it at 10 pm, so I knew I would be up late, I just didn’t know how late. I think I’m a slow seamstress and I will never hire out my talent because I take too long.

Two of Kate’s color’s are teal and brown, I’m hoping she notices that I chose these fabrics deliberately.  I’m undecided whether I like so much of the print, it looked great on the bolt, but I just couldn’t see it the other way around. It does remind me of some 70’s kitchen and it’s growing on me more as I look at it.

Also, I have one more sewing project to add to my list. Lilah wants to give Eden a Jasmine dress up outfit and guess who will be making it. I think it will be cheaper than buying a Disney one, and I can make it a little more modest.  I probably won’t have it done by Eden’s official birthday, but I know I can have it done by her birthday party. I figure it’ll probably be her Halloween costume too, that’s if it doesn’t get too worn out by then.

I’ve mentioned that the girls are taking swimming lessons right now. Sadly tomorrow is the last day, though I’m somewhat happy at the same time. Since I’m not exactly an early to rise person since I stay up late, I was up till 2 am cutting out an apron last night though usually 12:30 is my bedtime. With not getting up early and on days that we don’t need to go places I let the girls stay in their pajamas till after lunch when we get ready for swimming lessons. I on the other hand do get dressed, most of the time, especially since I had a UPS guy come one day while I was still in pajamas at 11 am. I just don’t see the point to have them get dressed for 3 1/2 hours and then need to change them, though we do that on Sundays but we’re leaving the house so it’s different.

On another note I want to share with you my list of sewing projects, most of which need to be done by next Saturday, all are pretty easy or quick and I’m just excited to make them.

1. Swaddling blankets for a woman in our ward who’s last Sunday it this week, it’s my one thing that needs to be done by this Saturday.
2. Reusable bags. One for Jon and one for a bridal shower I’m going to next Saturday.
3. An apron for the same bride, and it’s in her wedding colors, well it has two of them since I couldn’t remember the other two.
4. I’m altering one of the bridesmaid dresses too, and would like to have that done by next Saturday , though I don’t need it done by then.

Other things: more reusable bags and maybe an apron for me and my niece. Those are to be done sometime this summer. And we’ve decided to make a tent for the top bunk, which I will be sewing and Jon will be building, to help prevent any little heads from running into the ceiling fan. I’m hoping by Christmas we have this ready. (Ignore that we wanted it done by Eden’s birthday. We need to get things out of the shed and out from under our bed so we have space to put things there from the top bunk or maybe even the disassembled crib. Anyone want to help refinish some chairs and put one more coat of shellac on a table? I’m pretty sure I will be in charge of these once it’s cooler, especially since Jon will be busy with work and school during the cooler, but not yet cold months. )