The Handmade Dress

(The song is How Great is Our God) Molly says that she messes up every time I try to video her playing, so yesterday I snuck up on her when I heard the music coming from her room. She caught me about half way through, but she had her groove by then I guess. With her permission I wanted to share it with y'all today. It makes me happy, and a little sappy, and it also challenges me to let go and praise like that even when I know others are watching. I'm so proud of my sweet girl. :) xo, Sam

I can say that I LOVE almost every piece of furniture in my house except for my couches. Ugh. They are a stained, worn out, hand me down mess. Don't get me wrong, they were nice when we got them as hand me downs, but 8-10 years and five kids later, notsomuch. So what do you do when you don't have the fundage to buy the nice leather couches (that won't stain or rip) that you want but can't wait for the fundage? Well we decided to just make our own. We hit the Internet and found a picture, hit the road and found some doors ($25 each!), mama's got the fabric and the cushions from the old couches, daddy's got the tools to make this happen and done! Two new couches for close to $100! I'm inside nursing at the moment and Ben is putting on the finishing touches, so I will have to show the finished product later, but here is some in progress pictures. I can't wait to start planning the fabric for these!!! xo, Sam PS. The photo/project credit for the idea (fir...

The sun is supposed to make an appearance here today which will be nice because we've had a string of gray, wet, and very cold days; however, at the moment the house is quiet, gray, and lazy and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Unmade beds, a baby in her favorite spot in front of the fire, a new knitting project to work on, a hot cup of coffee, chocolate, a sleepy toddler snuggling up under my arm....this is a nice way to start a Saturday. :)

For the last several days I've been working on this sweet little set for Penny. She was in desperate need of a wee woolen hat and a wee woolen cardigan. :)  I finished this set last night and this morning snow started to fall on Alabama. We didn't get much, not really even enough for it to be pretty, but the kids had a good time scraping it off the cars and throwing it around. It made me feel like I finished just in time for Winter.   I used free patterns for both the bonnet and cardigan. You can see my Ravelry notes HERE and HERE . The cardigan is a very modified version of the Five Hour Baby Sweater, so I included all of my notes on my Ravelry page.  I added the gold band to the bottom of the sweater, because I was running low on beige yarn, and now that's one of my favorite parts! I finished this with just inches of yarn left!  Penny likes her new winter get-up, and she looks adorable in it, so mama's happy. Now on to the ...

We now know the meaning of viral! Ha! That's exactly what happened to the triple bunk bed plans. When the idea came to give them away for free our thought was that a few other big families out there may like the idea and we would be able to help them out. Over the last few months being able to share the triple bunks for free has brought us many new big-family friends and that has been very exciting! We never dreamed that the idea would be this popular! Unfortunately, it has also brought a lot of spam, negative attention, and more email than we can keep up with. We recently decided that the best way to deal with this problem would be to charge a small fee for the plans, a price low enough that everyone would be able to afford them, but enough to deter the spam problems. We felt almost guilty for making the decision, but with a family of five children to raise and a home based business to run something just had to be done. We are very sorry for the inconvenience, and we hope you sti...

It's another gray day so the pictures aren't great, but I wanted to get these posted since I have a few minutes. The family closet has changed my life people!! It has taken my most overwhelming chore from crazy to totally doable. We had to start in the laundry room because that is were most of this process starts. These storage racks went on sale for 69$ right after Christmas and we got 3. We also got several of the $3.50 Steralite clothes baskets because they fit side by side perfectly. In the laundry room I now have baskets labeled (Whites, Towels, Darks, Reds & Purples -we have a lot of those!) to separate clothes into, baskets marked "Clean" for clean clothes, a place for storage (extra dish cloths, table cloths, socks that need a mate). The laundry room is much less intimidating now, I actually like going in there! I also now have room for my drying rack in here! I painted a huge henna design on the wall to pretty it up a bit. :) The Caffee sign ...

A week or so before Christmas a friend ( Hannah Craft ) came over to take newborn pictures of Penny. Oh, I'm so glad she did, because just this week she turned into a baby. She has that plump porcelain skin, a few little rolls on her legs, she smiles back at us and tries to talk.... How does it happen so fast? So now I'm in a hurry to get her birth story written, and capture these chubby legs before they start crawling. Tonight I'll sit back and enjoy these sweet pictures though. The bookcase pictures were Ben's idea! :) He thought she would be cute as a bookend, and Hannah was very intrigued....and there you have it. My angelic little Penelope. xo, Sam PS. If we have sunshine tomorrow I'm going to take pictures of the new family closet! It seems like it has been gray and rainy since Christmas. 

I've started a new group on Facebook "Mama's Coffee Break" to make chatting with you guys easier! I want it to be a place where you can come when you get a few minutes (maybe a coffee break?) to chat with other mamas, ask questions or advice, share your latest projects, laugh about the things your kids say..... We've already got the place hopping so come on over and join! Even my Granny and my baby sister are there! Come on over friends. :) xo, Sam Follow this link to join! http://www.facebook.com/groups/213149452155781/

Since having Penny Pie and getting my house back (after being on bed rest) I have been completely overwhelmed by clutter! I feel like I can't do anything in a decent amount of time because of the stuff!! Just stuff! So the last several days have been spent UN cluttering my house and coming up with new ways to deal with the STUFF that comes with having seven people under one roof. It has been hard work but I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! Today I will be done. We have made some big changes, the biggest being a family closet for the kids and a makeover for our laundry room. I'm so excited! And glory be! I got everyone out the door, dressed in mama approved gear, AND with no stinky attitudes (that would be me normally) and to church last night in record time! *Can't you hear the hallelujah chorus?!* Our biggest hurdle wasn't toys like you would think, probably because we rarely buy toys, but clothing. Ugh, the clothing. I have been very blessed that we...