The Handmade Dress

I can't really tell the whole story because of safety issues, but I can say that Becky and her fellow soldiers are, and have been in danger. Shell, Becky's mom, was over Thursday and told me what had just happened there and it made it so real to me. You know it's really easy to be patriotic and say we support our troops and to passively think of them once in a while; but to hear a mothers tale of her daughter being in danger can make the things our troops go through for our freedom really hit home. I sat here at my desk last night thinking of Becky, trying to write this post..... Becky, a real life, a human soul, a daughter, a sister, a dear friend.....I have a face to put with this war we are in...it's not passive, it's not safe, it's not fun, but they do it for us. They do what they do so that we can be free. I decided last night that from now on I will pray for Becky everyday like she is my daughter....Will you do the same? Can we commit to praying everyday f

I've been sitting here at my desk tonight thinking of all the things I love about this Summer...all of the things that I hope I will never forget...all those little moments that I wish I could hold on to forever... I already miss them...I can feel them already starting to fade as new moments happen and the Summer starts to come to a close....These are the things I want to remember: New adventures. Going back to the basics....back in time. Learning new ways to live more simply and being ever mindful of that pull to "the slow way". Swimming holes. Squeals. Splashes. Smores. Friends. Bare feet and dirty faces. Sticky hands. Extra children. The way they can always see something new in such a familiar place. How little they are. How big they are. This place, our very own "secret spot". New projects. How I drag them out because I don't want to miss one second with my babies. Hard work. The pleasure that he gets from working the land. The pride. The straw h

in wishing a very dear childhood friend and soldier in the US Navy, Becky, a very Happy Birthday all the way in Iraq! Growing up Becky was like a little sister to me. You see we lived in this really close knit community where everybody knew everybody and our moms were best friends. Her big sis Crystal (AKA Crys) was my best friend in the whole world (Molly is named after her, Molly Crystal) and Becky and Rae (my little sis) were best friends. We lived in that kind of neighborhood where the kids could play long after dark in the street, where if you did something wrong the closest mom would give everyone a good swat on the behind and send you on your merry way! LOL! We were all so close, and it was just the perfect way to grow up! Becky reads here regularly and comments often about how my kids bring back memories of the way we grew up. Becky was always an incredible person, she always stood out. When she was a kid I always thought she would end up in the Olympics! That kid could

We now have a new header for the adoption blog too. Yay! It was really starting to bother me that the two sites looked so different. I didn't want them to match but I did want them to "feel" like the same family. The new header tells a little story of us. On the right is our home with us dreaming of more children and on the left is an orphanage with our children dreaming of a new family. There is a whole world between us, but there is a little broken and crooked path that connects us. I seem to have most of the kinks worked out in the shop too (all but that pesky tutorial button! Why does that button have to be so rebellious?? It will only work on the Home page..that hateful button has been driving me nuts for days!). I would love to hear some feedback from a few Mac users. The new program promises to behave nicely with my Mac friends, we shall see about that. If some of you Mac-ers could look over it and drop me a line I would really appreciate it! Now about Miss Iris

****Miss Molly picked some numbers for me and we have four winners of the Miss Iris pattern!*** The winners are: Patty, Mindy , Jenny , and Rhonda ! Happy sewing ladies! ******************** I'm trying out some new banners and graphics (since I'm having to redo my website in a more Mac friendly program). I really want to do something different, more of a hand drawn approach. What do you think? The header is a little sketch of our house, the tree house. the canoe, and even the little chicken pen down the hill. Then there are all of the dress ideas coming from my little loft in the attic. The shop will be "under construction" for at least another day, but when it's back up and running Miss Iris will be up for pre-order (and on sale of course). In fact, lets make this fun.....hmm...oh! I got it! Leave me a comment on this post telling me what you think of the header and when I'm all done with the shop (I'm thinking Monday) I will draw names for a f

As of yesterday, we are officially a waiting family! We turned in our application!!! We are "expecting"! I have a little more about this over on our adoption blog Our Handmade Family . And in case you are interested I have added a little story to our website's home page too. Can you even believe this?!!! I'm going to have more children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God is so good!!!

Isn't it beautiful!!! This is what we get when we pick (about every other day) now. The garden is in full bloom! and I can honestly say I have enjoyed it more than ever this year! Our garden has tripled in size from last year so we have had enough to put away for Winter. I really thought that the putting away part would be very hard messy and time consuming, but I have been surprised at how easy it has been. I find that I do better by putting away small batches of veggies just before or after dinner every night, this way I'm already in the kitchen preparing for a meal anyhow and I already have a mess to clean up. All of the things I put away can be blanched, put in an ice bath, strained, put in freezer bags, and popped into the new fancy schmancy stand up freezer that my hunny got me. If you have never done this before and are afraid like I was, just do it! It's so easy! I promise it's not rocket science! This is one of my favorite Summer salads. I'm sure a lot of

God gave me a dream....you can read about it HERE .

I'm a little hung up on this "big girl look" lately ( I explained that here on this post ), so I've been working on a new design for my Molly. I think this is Jane Austen meets American Girl. What do you think? Are you seeing it? Or maybe what I should ask is...What do you see? What was your first impression? I am considering drafting a pattern for this dress, and I really can't get past "Miss Jane". It just sounds so perfect! This fabric is a voile type cotton that I bought on vacation two years ago, It's so thin and dainty and it flows so nicely, I really do love it. The bodice is gathered all the way across the front and back and the neckline is square-ish (Did that make any sense?). I used pearl buttons down the back to add a more heirloom look. I wish I had taken a picture of that, oh well, maybe later.....right now God is watering our garden so I won't be taking any pictures today. I'm not complaining either, our garden needed it!

Our Handmade Family is live! This will be the name of our new adoption website and blog . I have been working on getting our story started over there, boy that's a hard story to summarize! I'm still working out the particulars on how I will organize information on these two blogs. I think that The Handmade Dress will remain, as always, my family and crafty blog and I will use Our Handmade Family as a place to only update our adoption process. I realize that some of the posts will be similar, but I haven't really thought of a better way yet. I really like having this blog as it is, a very general journal of our lives, whether it be crafty or otherwise. I also like the idea of having a blog dedicated to the process of adoption....What do you think?? . In the next week or so there will be some changes here as I move things around a bit to make both blogs and websites easier to navigate. I will also be sharing some of our fundraising ideas. I may need your help on