I want to sew, and do it well – planning to work on a shirt with Mom this weekend, hoping it turns out well.

Last weekend I found a cute simple peasant shirt tutorial for kids.  I really want to make one for each of the girls.

My recent obsession has been fabric flowers.  I want to make a ton of them and use them on hair clips, headbands, pins for my cardigans and other tops.  I also want to make a bib necklace with them.

Paper flowers are only a short distance behind fabric ones.

I have fallen in love with Amy Butler fabrics, and patterns.  Her fabric patterns are bold, bright and fun.  Her patterns classic and almost with a vintage feel to them.

Bought some coordinating Amy Butler fabrics on Etsy and plan to order some patterns once I finish making the other stuff that I just bought patterns for.

Bought a really cute elephant softie pattern on Etsy last night.  Want to make these for the girls for Christmas probably.

I’d love to be able to do a “mostly” handmade Christmas this year.  I’ll be lucky if I can do a few projects, but hopefully I can plan a bit better for next year.

Found a cute kit for a pear pin cushion by the same person I bought the elephant softie pattern from… thinking this might be a cute gift.

The girls started Mother’s Day Out (or in our case, Grandmother’s Day Out) this week.  They will be going one day a week for now.  Nora had a great time and only fussed when it was time to leave.  Sarah did OK, but had a harder time with it – as expected.

Went to the Dr. myself yesterday, my blood pressure is kinda borderline so I’m working on fixing that… thinking that my hair appointment tomorrow and possibly a pedicure after that will help with the process.

I went to the fabric store after work yesterday, and Jeremy picked up the girls.  He called and told me that Sarah was walking!!!  Yes, my 9 month old had taken her first steps… and I missed it.  She was too tired to walk for me when I got home last night – hoping I’ll be able to see it today (and capture on video soon).

This is cute…

I guess that’s it for now… maybe more cool stuff later

In the mean time, enjoy a recent photo that I snapped one morning on my way out of the house.

Sunday, we got up and went to the cemetery where Jeremy’s Mom’s side of the family meets up each July 4th to remember his Grandmother. Then a big family breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We dropped the girls off at Grandma & Grandpa’s house for naps and some swimming while Jeremy and I came back here to get the yard mowed and the house cleaned up. Everyone was coming over to our house for fireworks so we wanted to make sure it was all ready. When we were done we headed back over to Jeremy’s parents house and cooked some steaks and went swimming until it was time to head over here and get everything set up for fireworks.

We ended up with a pretty decent crowd… in addition to Jeremy’s parents, sister & her husband, and his Aunt and cousin… my parents made it over too, with a cameo appearance by Aunt Whit and her new boyfriend… who soon left for bigger and better fireworks (apparently).

Nora LOVED the fireworks! We were afraid that she’d be scared… but she really seemed to enjoy them. We started off with some sparklers and she thought those were pretty cool. She really liked the little snap pop things but couldn’t throw them hard enough… so she’d stomp on them on the ground (which was pretty awesome). Sarah hung out with us for a little bit but she was getting pretty tired so Grandma Kathy gave her a bath and put her to bed for us (Thanks!!).

Oh, and we can’t forget my super awesome cherry chocolate ice cream that I made! – see previous post.

We started in on the fireworks in the backyard and had a blast. Nora kept hopping from one lap to another to watch the show… which was pretty cool because everyone got to enjoy them with her. Surprisingly, the kid stayed up till almost 10!! Before Grandma Judy (& Grandpa Mark) left, she read her a story and Nora was pointing towards her bed wanting to be laid down – what a sleepy girl!

Unfortunately, the late night didn’t make her want to sleep in any longer – both the girls were up at 6:00 am!! Oh well.

Today, we decided we’d make a trip to the bookstore to get a few new story books. Mom & Dad are really tired of the same old selection of stories at bedtime so it was kind of a treat for us all. Grandma Judy met us up there and hung out with us while we looked for books, browsed another store or so, and had lunch at Red Robin. By the time we got these girls back in the car it didn’t take long and they were both asleep!

Anyway, it was nice having an extra day off and getting to spend the day with the whole family. Back to work tomorrow…