Due...

Today my sweet baby is due to be born. I'm sad. There is something so final about this day... like the end of a season, or a cycle. The thought of my baby being here now is bittersweet. Today I thought about how I would have an almost 2 year old and a newborn .....but they are not here, and I miss them deeply. My precious children.... I've been trying to keep busy, there are so many new and exciting things going on right now.... but I just can't make myself feel it. I found these pictures of my baby today and I wanted to share them with you. Oh this baby brought so much hope and joy! I remember thinking I would never carry another baby just days before I found out I was pregnant. I am so happy that I was able to carry this sweet angel .....even knowing now how it would end, I would do it all again. I know God has a plan...and I do trust him, but today is hard. Really hard. I'm going to take a few days off. I'll be back soon.

You didn't think there could be a Lily without an Iris did you?

(Click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Yes little Miss Iris has been in the works since Miss Lily, but I didn't think I could tackle the two at once so I spread it out a bit. Miss Iris should be done sometime in April!

Just like my twin nieces Lily and Iris , the two patterns look alike in ways but have totally different personalities! Miss Iris is a sassy little bubble skirt that will be ONE pattern for sizes 6mo-14! YES! Miss Iris fit on one pattern sheet so this one will not need to be separated into two size ranges!

Miss Iris will also have 3 different lengths for each size. The shorter length is cute and funky over leggings, the medium length option comes right to the knee and looks perfect with a tee and flip flops, and the longer version is perfect for the girl who needs below the knee skirts for school or church

Miss Iris can be done in cute funky fabrics for a more trendy look, the outer layer covered in tulle for the look of a tutu, or done in sweet vintage florals for a more girly look. You can dress her up or dress her down, she is adorable either way! The contrasting waistband makes it just precious over a personalized or appliqued onesie for babies and toddlers.

The skirts sew up in about an hour and are perfect paired with plain inexpensive tees. I also plan to include a few applique designs, but that's where you come in! What applique/embroidery designs would you like? I had in mind a butterfly, a flower, and maybe a little umbrella. What do you think?

My girls are just in LOVE with these skirts and they call them their tutu skirts. There was even a time when Maddie had to wear her tutu skirt to bed every night! I think she once went three days without letting me wash it! Thank goodness she had been playing indoors for those days or it could have been pretty bad! LOL!

I just couln't let the post go without showing you a couple of pictures of Maddie in the tutu skirt, boots and pj's. What am I going to do with this kid?? LOL!

I have more pictures HERE on flicker if you would like to take a look.

My little Sun-seekers....

I found her here in the window today looking out at this gloomy rainy day, her little skates on, wearing a bright Springy dress, it looked like she was wishing for the Sun to come back out and play. We have had a few weeks now of Spring-like weather and they have been outside playing until dark almost everyday....days like this make you really appreciate the pretty ones.

About an hour later I found this little Sun-seeker peeking out too. I have a feeling these children wouldn't do well up North! LOL! I hope we all find the Sun again soon!

   

PS. Thanks for the great response to my gathering tutorial! If you have any other techniques you would like to learn let me know!

A Little Gathering Tutorial

Here is another video tutorial on how to make pretty gathers. We all have different techniques that we like to use and this is mine! I hope you enjoy it! If you don't learn anything maybe you will at least have a good laugh out of it! LOL! I really don't enjoy hearing myself on video!

Miss Lily is ready!!!

All pre-orders have been sent out!!! I sent all the PDFs this morning and I'm headed off to the post office with two boxes of printed patterns now! Thank you all so much for the tremendous response too Miss Lily. It has been busy around here for the last few weeks so this afternoon I will be heading out on a camping trip with the kids. They have been camping all week with grandparents and I've only been able to visit everyday, but tonight I will be staying with them! I know I have had some craziness going on in the shop, I still can't figure it out, but so that everyone will have a chance to order I have added some patterns to my Etsy shop. The problems seem to stem from Fire Fox or Mac users, the people who have used Internet Explorer haven't had any trouble ordering. I will have some help to tackle that problem when I get back. Again thank you all so much for your support, it looks like Miss Lily will need a second printing soon!

Who does that??

I cried reading the comments on another blog today....I'm such a cry baby! Who does that? These years, this man, and these children.....they have turned me into a big fat softie. If you want a sweet read today - with all of our favorite things...a dress, a ring, and a handsome man - then read Alicia's post and comments HERE. So sweet. It inspires me to share our story. Maybe I will do that one day. It really is a good story ya know....kinda makes me giggle just thinking about it. And since I don't like posts without pictures I'm going to leave you with this little jewel (LOL!) that I dug up the other day. We were engaged, 19 & 20 years old (I'm older), at a concert (we were youth leaders after a big youth conference), he's wearing vintage (AKA thrift store) and I'm wearing Abercrombie (Yes, they had that back then. shut-up), and NO he doesn't wear glasses. (To the guys at the fire station..... you are very welcome.)

Miss Lily is up for Pre-order!! 25% Off

You heard it right...My sweetie is just days away from the press! Can I tell you how good it feels to have this done? Well I will....It feels GOOD! So many mamas emailed me about having Miss Lily ready in time for Easter sewing, and I made it!! In just a few days those mamas will be happily sewing away on this project. And for the next few days EVERYTHING in the shop will be on sale! You get 25% off your entire purchase! Now I'm going to rest...ahhh.....

Edited to add:: If you are using Fire Fox you may have trouble on my website. For some reason that little "Fox" has something against us at the moment...I have had several people who have been able to order successfully using plain ole Internet Explorer, but Fire Fox users are pulling their hair out! So if you are one of the sweet people pulling their hair out, drop the Fox and come on over :)

EDITED (again!) TO ADD: I had some really screwy things happening today in my shop! I still don't know what caused all of the trouble but I do think I have it all taken care of now. Sorry! If you have anymore trouble let me know.

Speaking of chocolate...

This picture was taken at last weekends girls-night-in. The boys and their daddies all headed out for a weekend in the woods and all of the mamas and their girls stayed over at my house. Is there anything better than chick flicks, chocolate, and a house full of girls in pajamas? We love our boys, but it sure is nice to get some all girl time in every now and then! I hope you all get some girl time in soon!

A Mother's Prayer ...this is as real as it gets!

I found this in my washing machine....

Oh, believe me! I was just as shocked as you are! My train of thought went something like this:

"Oh God, please don't let it be poo. Oh my God is it poo?! Maybe rocks? It could be mud from Tim's pocket. I'm going to kill that kid! But what if it's poo! Sweet Jesus, please don't let it be poo! it could be chocolate...yeah maybe it's just chocolate. God please let it be chocolate. I'll just smell it. WHY would I smell it? To make sure it's not poo you goof ball! Just man-up and smell it! (sniff) Sigh.....It's just chocolate. Who had chocolate in their pockets? I bet it was Tim. Oh he's a dead man. Thank God it wasn't poo you big dummy and just let it go. OK, Tim can live. I'll just blog about it....it is pretty funny when you think about it, I mean I totally thought it was two little (well, you know) sitting there. I hope it doesn't gross anyone out too bad."

Pattern Corrections:: Oops!

Oops! In the perfect world I wouldn't need this page. LOL!! But until then this is where you can find or report all typos and corrections for my patterns.

Miss Madeline 5-10 years: Page 2, second paragraph: For a size 5 the mark C should be moved over 1/2" (not 1") for 45" wide fabric. If you are using 60" wide fabric disregard the correction.

Miss Lily (both size ranges):

Illustration 8 should look like this:

Not this:

 

It's that time of the year...

...preparation for our Summer garden is in full swing! Ben has cleared off a new spot for this year's garden down by the creek. I can't wait to eat fresh veggies again! Here are some things I have missed: :: Everyone working together to feed the family

:: Seeing him love this so much

:: Mud fights

:: Her wearing gowns out to the garden to help

:: Hosing the kids down before they come inside

:: And that rotating pile of dirty little duds that seem to stay on the welcome mat

What do you miss?

All is well!

Once again God has overwhelmed me with his love and kindness! I was so sad writing that last post, feeling a little betrayed and hurt. Feeling a little like I would need to keep my guard up from now on and maybe not post about all the things that I have posted about in the past...but then the sweetest thing happened....a dear lady, who will be from now on a dear friend, wrote to apologize. All of the sad feelings were instantly replaced by compassion as this mama explained that tragic circumstances in her own life had caused her to respond the way she did to my post that day. What courage it must have taken to write back to me to ask for forgiveness! God instantly changed my heart, and what could have been bitterness, is now an overwhelming love for this sweet mama who was hurting. If things had not happened the way they did I would not have this precious friend. What a testament to God's amazing love. It's absolutely beautiful how he can bond us and fill our hearts if we just lay aside our prideful human-ness and walk in his ways. Oh dear friends, I feel so honored that you would all come here and read what I have to write, encourage me when I'm sad, and laugh with us when we are laughing! My outlook is so different now than what it was when I wrote that last post. I feel so blessed to be able to call you all friends. Thank you! Love, Samantha

A little out of sorts....

I have started this post a hundred times in my head but I chicken out when I start to write it.....Some of you may have noticed the comment moderation that I have had in place lately. There is a reason for that. I'm a little emotional writing about this because so much of me goes into this blog, that I feel very sad about the things that have happened..... Let me start by telling you why I blog. I love the way it helps me focus on the important things in life, I see my children differently when am able to reflect on our days and remember all of the special moments that we shared. I love the bond I feel with other mamas all over the world who comment when I write about something they can relate to. I love the inspiration, encouragement, and love that you all have shown me through the tough times I have had over the last few months. Really, there were times that I couldn't bring myself to talk to anyone face to face but you all were here anytime I needed you. I also love the occasional email from young mothers saying that they were inspired or encouraged by something I said. It really is so rewarding. There are times that I feel guilty when I can't play all of the fun blog games or answer every comment. I know that most of you mamas understand that raising three children, homeschooling, and running a little pattern business sometimes won't allow me to do all of the things I would like to do. I feel like the important thing is to just keep writing and sharing. Over the last couple of weeks I have had some questionable comments (3-4 comments). My first instinct was to just delete them and move on, and that's just what I did. Then I added comment moderation so that I could weed out the bad ones. The comments have now ranged from implying that I am a bad mother; to implying that I live a fake, "too good to be true" life; to now almost making fun of our simple, Christian, homeschooling lifestyle. I really feel like I have shared my struggles as a mother openly here. I truly hope that no one thinks my life could be too good to be true by what they read here. I am blessed to be sure! And most of my posts are about our great adventures as a family because those are the things I most want to remember, those are the things that inspire me when I look back on them. God has blessed our family so much that I sometimes can't find the words to express my feelings in words. But please understand that the few words that I write here two to three times a week are just specks of our everyday life. You are looking at my life through a very small window. We are not perfect. We do experience pain. In fact I have experienced some of the hardest struggles of my life over the last few months. So please, be kind….If you can't find something nice or encouraging to say, please just move on. To those of you who always have something sweet and supportive to say, thank you. Seriously, I have been so touched by your kindness over and over. I have made so many wonderful friends over these last two years. I couldn't do this without you. Thank you. xoxo, Samantha

Snow Day!

Oh! We had so much fun on our little snow day. To understand our enthusiasm you have to know that it has been over 12 years since we have had this much snow - and we only had about 4 inches, and even that was gone by lunch. This far South you can't even buy a snow suit! Thus the picture of me below with the thrifted, men's, just-in-case-it-ever-snows suit. LOL! We picked that baby up from the thrift store where all of the snow birds dump their real snow clothes when they move South. Does that suit have 1992 written all over it or what? (Did you know that Southerners call Northerners that move South for the weather "snow birds"? Well we do.) And for a change I wasn't stuck behind the camera! Rae, with her baby bump, had to refrain from rolling in the snow so she took over the picture taking for the day. Yes!

Snow is so magical to us! It looked like fluffy white cotton balls falling, it was beautiful!

Mom and Dad came over to play too and I just loved this picture of my Dad. This is him. Holding a baby (Maddie) in one hand and a camera in the other, wearing an awesome hat, and just going with the flow. Too bad he was standing next to 1992 in this picture. LOL!

The kids played until every last speck of the snow was gone. Poor babies, it only lasted about four hours but we were so happy to at least get it that long! Molly came in once and said, in a very sad voice, "All the snow is gone now Mama". But I had just spotted some on the back deck that they had not seen, so I told her about it and I heard her shout as she ran away "Tim! Maddie! Come on, hurry! Mom said she found more snow on the back porch!" It was so cute!

This first video is of Tim and I flying down the hill on our "sled" face first with him on my back. OK, so the sled isn't really a sled, it's more like a piece of an old tarp that we cut up that morning. But it worked!

This one is of me pushing Tim and Uncle Jake down the hill. I totally push like a girl. And how does Tim end up on EVERY ride down? That little hitchhiker!

And this last one is Molly and I having a roll race down the hill. Boy when I say I got out from behind the camera I meant it didn't I! 1992 wasn't playin was she?

What is God doing?

The people who own the property next to us are building a house, so sometimes during the day we can hear loud booms from the big machines they are using. I heard Madeline say this this morning:

"What is God doing?......." (Insert cute little giggle) "Mama, I like when God does that!"

They really BELIEVE that he is everywhere, all the time.......We all know it. But do we believe?......Sometimes I think these children teach me more than I teach them.....

PS. Snow videos coming soon :)

It's SNOWING!!!

Real snow! Do you know how long it has been since we have had for real snow? .....Me either, but I was a kid! Last year we got this little teaser .....and my Christmas wish was for snow! Please, everyone say a quick prayer for us....Pray that it snows ALL DAY! My kids want to play in the snow just once! They say we may get 3 inches, let's pray for 6! It will take some praying, it was 70 degrees just two days ago.Rae and Jake (my sis and hubby's brother and the parents of Lily and Iris) are here, they came over last night hoping to get snowed in -yes, we are a bunch of big kids, but we are talking about snow people! I'll check back in soon, hopefully with lots of pictures of the kids wearing Wal Mart sacks! Yeah, we trashy like that.