The Handmade Dress

I have been a total blog failure lately. I know! But I plan to turn it all around this week and get back in the habit. It really is a habit ya know. I also know exactly what de-rails me everytime. When I have things to blog about (like our trip) but I don't have time to do it I start feeling guilty for not writing it down. Then I start to avoid whatever it is that is making me feel guilty....then it snowballs into THIS! Today I decided to bite the bullet, blog about SOMETHING, and then when I have time this week I can write about the trip. We have a travel journal and loads of pictures so it won't be hard to remember, it's just going to take a fair amount of time. I really, really, really want these things written down (with pictures) for my kids. So, today lets talk about rice. Nkay?  I have always loved the wild rice that you can get at restaurants. It has so much more flavor than just plain rice. Not too long ago I found that Rice A Roni made a wild rice mix. Perfe...

Black Friday sale!!!!! From Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday we will have a 40% off sale on everything in the shop!!!! Use the coupon code "blackfriday" from now till Monday night!! www.thehandmadedress.com I pray you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving friends!!!

Last Monday, at the doctors office, I was sitting there thinking....that Ben and I are so blessed. Most people know exactly who they are going to see when they get to Heaven, but not us, we get our own little welcome committee made up of children that we have never met! When we get to Heaven we will have a little crowd waiting for us! In my heart I feel like I will know them as soon as I see them, that their names will come to mind immediately when I see each precious face! Over the years I have learned to "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials" (James 1:2) I know that holding a perfect little MIRACLE named Claire helps, but it feels good to be in this place, finally . It feels good to not be angry. It feels good to know that the family that I have is EXACTLY the family that God meant for me to have....Yes, it hurts too , but mostly I'm thankful....we have so much to be thankful for! I couldn't let one little soul go without men...

Last night I was preparing to start a new knitting project. I decided to actually find my gauge (which I have never done before, I know, bad girl) because I wanted to use my new worsted yarn instead of a sport weight that the pattern calls for. I started knitting my swatch in stockinette and suddenly my knitting looked textured to me. Hmmm...I looked at my other projects and they looked that way too.  I tried troubleshooting online, but I couldn't find any help. You see how the bottom of my swatch and the gray fabric have a twisted looking stitch? The top part is what I did after I figured it out. The back of my work had these deep gutters! Ugh! After watching several videos online I realized that I had been purling wrong! I learned to purl from a video when I first started knitting and it was wrong! I had been wrapping my yarn in the wrong direction this whole time! Of course I found that sometimes people knit this way (it's called a crossed stockinette ...

She should be doing school. She's in front of her computer like she is doing school, but if you look closely you can see that there is yarn attached to her....she's knitting! I guess it could be worse right? But still. New rule in the School of Caffee Children, no knitting until school is done. :) I've created a monster! xo,Sam

Let me tell you a little story. It's about me, a stay-at-home, work-at-home, homeschooling, adopting, breastfeeding mama, who has been in a miserable funk for the last two weeks, and was blessed with a way out! I feel compelled to tell this story today because I feel like it may help other mamas. I really hope it does. :) Within a week after we got home from our trip, I started feeling "off". Nothing big, just a little overwhelmed with the cluttered house, the kids being kids, homeshooling, that sort of thing. Immediately I thought "I need to figure this out fast! I don't have time for this!" Ben was working doubles to make up his time off and I thought that may be it. Not having him here always throws me off balance a little. Claire was a little fussy obviously coming down with a cold or something and that meant not so much sleep. Within a few days I started getting snappy with the kids, inwardly I was really struggling with a short fuse. I thought ...

I have managed to do some knitting with my sick babe asleep in my lap, or playing for short periods of time at my feet. I finished a couple of projects yesterday and late last night I finally blocked some things with homemade lavender water. I wish the picture was scratch and sniff! I also wish that the vest didn't look crooked in this picture. Oh well. Pictures of a beautiful un-sick baby modeling these knits are coming soon I'm taking my sweet babe to the doctor today, she just isn't back to her happy self since that hateful tummy bug. I pray that she feels better and we get to sleep tonight! xo, Sam

 So my plan for today was to go through the thousands of pictures from our trip, upload my favorites, and write about our first few days, but after being up most of the night with Claire and her tummy bug I'm going to simplify things a bit. Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches! Bend but not break! Right? Today I don't have the time or brain cells required to write much, but I really wanted to remember this sweet little moment from our weekend. It will do me good to think on this moment today while I let all of the things on my "to do" list go undone. As I was knitting Saturday the kids came to the door and called "Mom, come outside we have a surprise for you!" When I went to the door I was met with this! They know how I love pretty pine cones and they had collected a whole wagon load of carefully picked pine cones for me! But here comes the best part, the part that every mom loves to hear, one of those moments that you can live off of for...