The Handmade Dress

Hey guys! I have no idea where the last few days have gone! Our friends, Brandon and Katie, left on Tuesday morning and I pretty much spent the whole rest of the day (and the next) sleep walking because I was so tired from our big weekend! We had so much fun. We were all sore from laughing, tired from being up late and visiting everyone, and happy to be together...it was just a great weekend. Last night we started sorting through and pricing things for the yard sale this weekend and BOY do we have a lot of stuff! Don't forget if you live in our area that the yard sale will be this weekend, indoors, in McCalla, AL. If you want to stop by and need directions you can call me today at (205) 527-3560. We have such a long day ahead of us but I know it's going to be fun! You can't get a group this crazy together  and not have a blast- no matter what you're doing! I hope we have a good turn-out because so many people are working hard to make this a success. My Dad built...

We have made quite a few changes around here this Spring. Our Willow tree has gotten so big that we had to extend the flower bed around it and plant more flowers. Ben saved an old bench that one of his friends had planned on dumping and it made a perfect spot for mama's pictures. We finally got around to planting the flower bed across the front of the house that I have wanted since we built the place! Ben had a stash of salvaged mismatched bricks that we used to line it with and the were just enough left over to make this little walkway in front of the door. I love it!!! I've wanted it so long and it turned out so much prettier than I even imagined! A few weeks ago we extended the goat pen all the way up to the house. Now I can see my little goats from the porch! It's so cute! When we go out and call them in the mornings we can hear them running up the hill from the barn! I can even see them from the window over the sink now too. Oh, and do you see that...

( Ben's cousin Jon took this picture on one of their yearly backpacking trips) I talk about the kids, sewing, crafts, the adoption, and my business here but I rarely directly talk about the man behind it all. He's awesome, loud, funny, adventurous, a great dad, a wonderful husband, and I'm proud to be his. (He's kinda cute too!)   If you ever meet him you will likely never forget it! LOL! He has an extremely strong personality, and he's almost never serious. We went to New York a few years ago and every night there were people crowded around a table listening to all of his crazy stories and ridiculously funny sayings. Ben is KNOWN for his way of saying things and his famous tales of being the oldest of twelve. After over 400 posts I thought that it was high time you got a formal introduction to the firefighting, pattern packing, farming, backpacking, canoeing, fishing, joking, story telling, man that I call my husband, Ben Caffee. (Maybe since he finall...

I know that most of you live hundreds of miles away, but for those of you who don't, we are having a yard sale to raise money for the adoption and we want you to come! It's going to be at our church in McCalla, Alabama on Friday, April 30th and Saturday, May 1st. It should be pretty huge because we have had a lot of people donating! If you would like to help, donate, or shop give us a call (205-433-9040) or email me at mamacaffee@hotmail.com . I'm thinking of having an Etsy "virtual yard sale" in June for the adoption too. A lot of people have offered to donate handmade items to sell and I could list them all and open the shop on a certain day. You think that could work? I think it might do well if we spread the word in blogland. I could even make us a little sidebar button. It's definitely a new concept. What do you think?

This is a Miss Claire in quilters cotton, you can see the shape is much different than the one I posted yesterday. It's the same pattern, but the weight of the fabrics make a big difference! It stands out so nicely in the quilting fabric. Miss Claire looks pretty cute with that $5 T-shirt too (gotta love that). Molly has requested several more of these skirts for summer (I guess the four she already has isn't enough) and since it doesn't even take an hour to whip one up, I'm in. Maddie wants one with the top like sissy's Easter dress because she wants to be a big girl and wear a skirt to church. Hmmm. I didn't realize that skirts were a "big girl" thing, did you? Well according to Maddie, they are. We are going to need to go fabric shopping soon, Mama's stash is dwindling quick! Summer sewing, how I love thee.....

Meet Miss Claire! Miss Claire is a sweet little double layer, shaped yoke skirt that has sizes 6 months- 12 years in one pattern!  This was the skirt that I paired with the Miss Olivia Paige for Moll's little Easter outfit. I'm working hard to get Miss Claire out at the same time as the Miss Olivia Paige because they work so well together! Who's Claire? Well she is our social worker. She is such a sweet person and I love her name! I've had a few people ask about the adoption lately, thank you. I'll give you a quick update. We are preparing the paperwork for our dossier right now. God is sending the money in! And I'm trying to stay busy and enjoy the journey, because the more I sit and think about it the longer it seems to take, and the stinkier my attitude gets. It's a very frustrating paper trail. I keep telling myself to stay busy, try not to watch the pot, and save all of my emotions for when we get our referral. That's when the ti...

Because you are always here when I need a good opinion! Thanks gals! I decided to do a little sneak giveaway for all of your help. When I started this post there were 22 comments and the Random Number was 7, that's Amy ! Amy, email me at mamacaffee@hotmail.com and tell me what pattern you would like to own. And for everyone else, I'm going to make that little floral design an embroidery download today and I'll have it up by tomorrow. Let me tell you what I picked. I agreed with most of you, that the first and last were the best for all areas, but that the second one was cute because of the color, so I did both. Whatever I picked had to be lightened to represent the wrong side anyhow, so I chose the top one for the wrong side and the last brighter one for the right side. I like it! I also printed it out in black and white last night and it looked good. They show up in different shades of gray and the outline shows up in black, so it was...

I'm still trying to decide on a color scheme for the illustrations! I think I've narrowed it down to these three variations, but I'm tired of thinking about it. What do you think? I hate when I get hung up on the little details because it keeps me from getting the real work done. But then, the details are the fun part aren't they? I think this one is my favorite. I really like this one too, but I'm afraid that the details will get lost in all of the colors....I really like the colors though. Then there is this one, and now that I'm showing you I'm wondering what I liked about this one in the first place... Can you see how bad I need you? Which one do you like best? Edited to add: How do you like this? It's brighter but you can still see the details well. I think it's probably my favorite so far. Better?

...working in the loft on the Miss Olivia Paige pattern. At the moment I'm trying to decide on a color scheme for the illustrations. I love working on illustrations, it's one of my favorite parts, but I wish I had a buddy to chat with while I work today. Since all of this pretty weather hit my kids haven't been in the loft much so I've been entertaining myself with audio books. But audio books can only do so much! A couple of weekends ago my friend Lisa came down from Tennessee and we had so much fun talking. We sat on the front porch and rocked and talked, and talked and rocked.....it was so wonderful. Lisa, if you are reading this, let's do that again sometime. OK? I'll buy us a bag of that fancy flavored coffee and we will polish it off in one weekend! You can stay with us (not Rachel and Jake, because we are their older siblings so we win!) and it will be so much fun! And to you, my sweet blog buddies, why do we have to live so far away? I'm sure, if...

Now is that a cute bunch of kids or what? Easter was beautiful and warm and just lovely all the way around, even though the kids weren't too interested in having their pictures made. We went to our same old spot across from the church (I love this fence!) and snapped a few pictures before heading off to eat lunch with family. It was such a nice day! We were able to eat lunch outside with friends and family while the kids played and had an Easter egg hunt, really, it was wonderful. Friends, family, warm weather, fried chicken, and chocolate all in one day.....perfection. Now for the dresses! This is not only Molly's Easter top, but it's also View B for the Miss Olivia Paige pattern. I used blue imperial batiste (so perfect for this pattern) and a Liberty of London scarf from Target that I cut to pieces. I really love the way this came out. I'm tellin ya, those Liberty of London prints are to die for. The colors are so pretty! Here is a shot ...

I sort of knew last night how this was going to go-down, that's why I wasn't quite as nervous this morning. For the last few weeks my kidneys have been a little achy on and off, but nothing consistent or enough to worry about. Then last night I started feeling pretty icky, fast, by this morning I was completely miserable, chills, aches, clammy...yucky. So it was no big surprise when the doctor came in and said "Um, you have a really, really, bad infection." We guessed that the infection has been smoldering for a few weeks, that's why my body was reacting the way it was. I got a big ole shot in the hip and then came home and parked on the couch. I have pictures from Easter that I want to show you (I STILL haven't posted Easter dresses people!) but they will have to wait until tomorrow or maybe the next day. I think the medicine is making me feel even worse than I did this morning. The good news is that we think the swelling will stop now! And kidney infections ...

I'm about to head out to the doctors office (to see if he can cure this fat lip and hives) and I have to say that after yesterday (which totally ended great with lots of kisses and cuddles)  I'm looking forward to sitting in the waiting room for an extended period of time, alone, listening to my FAVORITE book on my iPhone. Thank you Sweet Lord for free audio books on days like this!!! And for Granny's who like to keep kids! I know you will all understand that this doctor visit that I have been dreading for over a week, seems like a vacation sent from heaven after yesterday!!! LOL! Thanks for all of the support yesterday! Days like that make us appreciate days like this! LOL! I'll let you know what the doc says. xo, Sam P.S. I drank a whole pot of coffee yesterday! Every time I sat down to read comments I would make me a cup and pretend that you were here! That was a nice little talk! LOL! Thanks friends.

Oh my do I need just that today! Along with all of the wonderful, magical, joy filled days that a homeschooling mama is blessed with.....there's always one of those days where you can find her locked in a closet, in her pajamas, a bag of her children's Easter chocolate in hand, dreaming of what it would be like if a bus were to pull up in the drive, take her children away, and bring them back hours later full of knowledge that she herself didn't pound into their thick little heads. Oh yes, I have those days too, and today is one of them. Sure, most days are completely uneventful, save a sibling fight here and there, and most days leave me feeling so blessed that I get to be the one that teaches them.....but on days like today I wonder why we can't all just get together for coffee and chocolate to tell our silly stories and laugh about the different ways our children have tried to get out of doing their school. We could tell each oth...

Desiree contacted ma a while back to ask if she could do a review and giveaway on her blog, Wee Share , and of course I said yes! You may be a little surprised, if you haven't been around for the last few years, to know how or where all of this began...well it's all in the interview! From how I chose the name to why I started this gig to begin with. Go over and enter for a chance to win an entire set of patterns! I'll be signing off here for a few days. We have a lot of family time planned over the next few days with Ben's brother, Daniel, his wife, Cristina, and our nephew, Luke, leaving for a six month stay in Romania on Saturday. (That's where Cristina is from and where all of her family live.) Then we will have Easter with family on Sunday. It's sure to be an emotional but happy weekend with the people we love. Please say a little prayer for Daniel, Cristina, and baby Luke to have a safe trip, they have such a long way to go and it's sure to be a bi...