The Handmade Dress

I am so excited about this bag pattern! It's so fast and easy and I'm thinking it will be my new go-to gift for brides, mamas, or birthdays! It has a wire rim around the top (which can be made from recycled clothes hangers), nice rounded edges, the main bag is only three pieces so its super quick, and best of all they are sized so that two mini bags can fit perfectly in front of one big bag so it makes organizing easy!   The official description goes like this: This wire rimmed  bag  can help you organize the trunk of your car,  a closet, cloth diapers, a bookshelf, or a toy area. It can go to the beach, the library the grocery store or camping, and when you don’t need it anymore, it will collapse nice and flat out of the way. The Kitchen Sink Bag can hold your knitting, sewing projects, coupons, or a picnic lunch; it’s also a go-to gift for new moms, brides, or bridal parties! Monogram it, appliqué it, add funky fabrics or a few extra pockets, have fun a...

Finally! I have managed to get a pattern out! My girls call this "the fairy dress", but her official name is Miss Penelope. The official description goes something like this: Miss Penelope is the perfect little top or dress for any little fairy to wear! It’s adorable as a top over leggings, jeggings, or jeans; or as a dress it can be worn in any season paired with a top underneath or cardigan. My girls start twirling and hearing “fairy giggles” soon after donning this enchanting dress.   This cute top or dress even looks good in knit! The one shown here is Molly's new favorite dress. Since you need to size down a size or 2 to use knit you can also go up to a size 14-16 too. You can mix it up a bit by using different fabrics for the skirt layers too!  The pattern is in THE SHOP so head on over and take a look! By the way, to properly launch the new pattern we are having a shop wide SALE! Get 20% off of your entire purchase until Friday! ...

I have had a few emails and questions after my apothecary bag post, so I thought that I would share more about our recent experiences. Lately it seems more and more normal for people to take charge of their own health and find gentle natural healing for everyday bothers instead of always running to the drugstore. This makes me so happy!!! Most of you know that once upon a time I was a pediatric nurse at Children's Hospital, my career as a nurse taught me, above all, that there is a delicate balance between natural healing and modern medicine. My husband also works in the medical field as a firefighter/paramedic and believe me, if you are in an emergency situation you want the wisdom of men like him administering life giving fluids and medicines until you can make it to the hospital. However, I also believe that to be able to treat and heal my family using natural methods (that cause no side effects) is something that I need to learn more about and put into practice. Tha...

I woke up this morning, after not much sleep, absolutely determined to get something done! For days I have been coming to the end of my day with nothing to show for it. Oh sure, the kids were all fed and taken care of, the house was somewhat clean (for having kids with colds), the laundry had been done and undone and done again, but nothing creative has happened aside from the little apothecary bag. I sometimes struggle with "mama blues" (I refuse to say the D word) during lulls like this, I've realized over the years that  for me  being a happy mama means balancing creativity and children. A lot of times that means waiting until they are busy or in bed to sneak in a little sewing time, sometimes that means leaving Daddy in charge for a while, sometimes it means that I include them in my project and we get creative together, and sometimes (like today) it means that I give up that vision of the "perfect" creative time and just take what I can get!  It's impor...

 I've had sick kids for the last few days, it's just a spring cold but it's enough (with five kids) to take up a good bit of my time. We've been doing a lot of listening to books, playing card games, rocking, watching Netflix, taking baths......you know, the usual.  Well by last night I was desperate to sit in front of my machine with a good book playing, and I knew just the project that would be fast and be  put to good use immediately! An apothecary bag! That's my name for it anyhow, Molly and I have a thing for naming things pretty names from books lately (I'll tell you more about that later). The word apothecary just sounds so much nicer than medicine doesn't it? I thought about the word remedy too but it just lacks the romance that the word apothecary has...anyhow. (Maybe I got hooked on the word from reading "The Apothecary's Daughter" a while back?) after the babies were asleep last night and my big kids were all laying around I sn...

 

Boy it's hard to come back to reality after a trip like that! We walked back in to the craziness that is a family wedding. Ben's baby brother, my "first" baby (just a sweet 6 year old boy when we started dating) David, got married to one of the sweetest girls on the planet this past weekend. We arrived home just in time to help decorate, be in the wedding, send them on their way to Mexico, and clean up. It was a beautiful wedding!  Then we had to clean up at home. WOW! Outside we had a mess from the crazy last few minutes of finishing the camper before we left, the inside was fine, until we unpacked! Oh my goodness! It took me until today to get it all back in order, but just now my house is clean, the clothes are washed and put away, school has resumed, and I feel like its a home again.  Today we did school on the porch and had an easy day. We have a few stuffy noses and scratchy throats so an easy day was just what we needed. I'm already thinking about all of th...