The Handmade Dress

We are watching Man VS Wild (we love his adventures!) and he said something about eating the heart of a plant and Maddie turns to me and says "Mama! I will never eat my heart, because Jesus lives in there! We don't want to eat Jesus in our hearts do we mama?!" I love that kid.

1. There are still NO BABY GOATS. And yes, they are still laughing at me. 2. Today is Ben's 30th birthday! Happy birthday hunny! I love you! 3. The new issue of Sew Wow is out! They did a very cute version of our Miss Madeline, there is a free purse pattern in this issue and some good tutorials too. You can see the whole issue online here . 4. Tim cracked me up this morning! I had just woke up and we were snuggling and talking on the couch when he said "Mama! Your bweath stinks! What have you been eatin?" LOL! I laughed so hard at him! He acted like I had got up before him and had a spoon full of poo or something. Crazy kid. 5. Ben is making friendship bracelets for all of us on the couch next to me right now. He rocks. 6. Sanuk sent my shoes this week. THREE PAIR! They sent me white, off white, and black. The girl on the goat farm in Alabama, who started out with one pair of Sanuks, now has four pair! Woot! I can't wait to get started on th...

...the magical powers of NyQuil Sinus LiquiCaps. You know, the "sleep like before you had kids" or something like that, medicine....yeah, that stuff. I've had a hateful sinus cold this week. I feel OK, just a little sneezy and foggy, during the day but as the sun sets I turn into a hot mess! Besides all of that it has been a pretty busy week. We are still waiting on baby goats. I'm starting to wonder if they are just playing tricks on us! I think that they think it's funny that I drop everything several times a day to go down and stare at their rear-ends, looking for any "signs". They laugh at me. I can almost hear them as I walk back up the hill "haha! We got her again! Humans- 0 Goats- 167 Wonder if we can get her back down here by lunch? Hey Nanny, if you can get her back down here by lunch, WITH THE CAMERA, we'll let you eat all of the sweet feed. Deal?" Don't even try to argue with a woman in my condition. I heard it! I know I...

We are checking in on them about three times a day, we have studied up, we have watched all of the videos, we have all of our supplies, we have the camera charged and ready, everyone knows what their job will be.....now we just need the goats to go into labor already!!!! We are so excited, we just can't wait! I mean seriously, baby goats are just about the cutest thing on the planet. How much longer are we gunna have to wait? I'll keep you posted....

I don't believe this! It's another crazy story . Are you ready? When I got my Sanuks I got a bigger size than what I really wear because I wanted to be able to wear my wool socks with them (you know how cold natured we southerners are). Yesterday I went to their website to see if they had any cute ones that I could "personalize" in a smaller size for this summer, even though I didn't think I would be able to buy another pair by then. It's not that I don't have the money, but every extra dime goes to our adoption because we are ready to get our kidos home! I can't justify buying a new pair of shoes, unless I really need them, thinking that my Bulgarian babies may not have any. So I was just looking at all of the cute stuff on their site  when I saw the link to their Facebook fan page . I click on over and see that people are sharing what they have been doing with their Sanuks like "I took my Sanuks hiking today" and "I wore my Sanuks ...

(This picture has nothing to do with this, but you know me and my posting without a picture phobia....so here's another "me and my camera" shot that was already on my computer.) I should make you feel a little better about yourself.... my DEAR PRECIOUS SISTER entered my story for the TLC TV show "What NOT to wear" last year! Can you believe that? She didn't tell me for a while, but then one night when I was leaving her house she gave me that little "tidbit" as I was walking out the door. And my mom gets so sick of seeing me in the same clothes all the time that she will randomly give me a new shirt, jeans, or shoes. She once gave me a pair of shoes under the condition that I had to throw the old ones away so that she would never have to see them again. I guess you could say I'm sorta the family style outcast, who happens to designs children's clothes that people like....weird huh? I think the stuff I have isn't so bad, I mean eve...

Here they are! My hippie Sanuk shoes. I couldn't decide on any one thing so I just started and this is what I came up with. I really like the way they turned out. Molly does too, she wants a pair now! I think I'm going to get her some little plain shoes from Target and hook her up. I started with the little free handed flower applique (I cut it a little different for each shoe) and then just had fun with embroidery and crochet thread. I think the little paisley thingies are my favorite part. I can totally see myself wearing these for the next few years. I love them that much, they are so stinkin comfy. I like the way they look with jeans on too. You know how some shoes look good until you put jeans over them? Remember when I told you how awkward it is to take pictures of your own shoes? Yeah, still awkward. I couldn't resist the sharpies altogether so I had a little fun on the inside too...I love colored sharpies. They make me so happy. I still r...

I just had the sweetest conversation with my Molly tonight. She was reading the Bible to me and then she stopped, looked up at me, and said "Mama...when I read the Bible it always makes me feel like I'm about to cry....like my heart beats faster and my chest fills up with air ...and my eyes get tears in them and my throat feels funny...Do you ever feel like that mama?" I answered feeling the same way she had just described feeling, my heart just swelling with love "The Bible does that to mama too...But it's a good feeling isn't it?" She answered "Yes, it feels really good." She was teaching me ...How many times do I rush through reading my Bible because I have a busy day ahead and I don't give my heart time to really absorb what I'm reading...or give God the chance to move my heart to tears? How many of us can learn from this little girl? She really does have the most beautiful little heart.... Mathew 19:15 Jesus said, "Let t...

The last time I got a pair of shoes was Christmas before last , you see I'm the girl that finds something that she likes and then wears it until it's completely worn out. Comfort is a big thing in my book. But the problem was that those other shoes were just not comfortable! And if they aren't comfy after this long you may as well give it up! I had heard that these Sanuks were one of the most comfy shoes out there so I hunted them down. They sell them at high-end sporting goods stores where you can find North Face and KAVU brands. Well it seems that my foot is so huge (8 1/2 or 9) that only the plain ones were left, and my feet have been hurting so bad that I decided I wasn't leaving that store without a pair. So here is my problem....I need to pretty these things up a bit. I'm thinking a bo-ho theme or something like that. (You know I'm a closet hippie right?) Maybe even a cute fabric patch or embroidery?? I even thought about just doodling on them with my ...

The Handmade Dress is on Facebook! Look HERE!

Available in sizes 6 mo-4yrs and 5-12yrs. She's in the shop! The PDF version can be downloaded instantly and the printed version will ship by next Monday (February 22nd). Happy sewing friends!

fa Isn't she lovely? Mary is my little sis-in-law, AKA, our first baby! (This is where the Mary in Miss Mary came from!) She was just two when Ben and I got engaged and she was our little doll. We hated not having a baby to play with (and we still do!). On our honey moon we were walking on the beach, the same beach we had been at just months earlier with the whole family, and we both decided that it was no fun without kids. We talked about how much fun it would have been if we could have brought Mary, David, and Zachary, and we laughed about how cute she was the summer before when she would run after the birds on the beach and say "Look at the wabbits!" We went back to our room and rented some movies and didn't go out to the beach another time! LOL! As soon as we got back into town the first place we went was to see the kids. She is twelve now, and quite grown up, but she is still my baby. I like that. I like that she still likes to be our baby. When I wa...

You see those big rolls of paper right there on top of my drafting table? That's Miss Mary! As of this morning (Ben made a run to Kinko's while I slept in) the Miss Mary pattern sheet is in print. My master copy is ready, and there is a possibility that we will be heading off to the printer sometime next week! You know, I'm always amazed when I see that first master copy, at how it looks like no big thang, but in the back of my mind I know how many hours it took to make them...oh it's such a relief to to have them DONE! There is still a lot of work to do but this definitely takes some of the pressure off! (By the way- just ignore the empty Diet Sunkist bottle under the desk, it's all good!) While we are here in the loft I wanted to show you this awesome drafting table my hubby got me a few months ago! Isn't it awesome?! He saw it at the thrift store and thought it would be perfect since it can be used on top of a table (we don't have a ton of ex...

We went bowling for Tim's  birthday on Monday night and I took a ridiculous amount of pictures! But none of the pictures really looked good alone, they were kind-of a set because you could watch them like a movie and really feel like you were there....so I looked around and decided to just upload them all (like a billion of them) to flicker, and instead of telling you what an awesome time we had, just let you be there with us. Sid came along with us too! If you haven't met Sid before I'll just tell you, he's awesome! He has been a part of our family since Ben and I were just kids, he was our Sunday school teacher for at least five years. He goes on vacation with us, he eats with us every Sunday, and he is at every birth, every party, he has been in every hospital waiting room, you name it Sid has been there. He's also the man who married Ben and I! It's funny, the kids usually get upset the first time they realize that his last name is not Caffee! LOL! I'...

So I had this awesome idea to have a post that's all about you strutting your stuff. This is how it will go, leave a comment on this post about you, what you make, sell, stand for, what you like, what your kids are like, whatever, just tell me what you want us to know about you! Spam us with your shops, blogs, or websites! Then I will have a big fat link on my sidebar linking to this post so that everyone else can read about you too!  I'm always the one doing all of the talking, this time I want you to talk to me! So.....what do you have to say? What is your story? Just in-case you are wondering what in the world the pictures have to do with anything....they don't, but I hate to post without a picture ya know? It hurts me. This is just a couple of shots I took the other night when my dear boy was trying his best to annoy his big sis. Yeah, my kids do that too. At least this time it didn't end with me yelling over them "Break it up!" or "Take it ...