Dear Sis,
This coming week we are entering William’s pumpkin in a non-carved pumpkin decorating contest at the library. William had lots of fun glueing glitter and wiggly eyes all over his pumpkin. There is a big glitter spot in the back yard were we were working:)
It really is a toddler masterpiece! William’s fondness for wiggly eyes will be known throughout the community very soon:)
Love,
b
Dear Sis,
It is hard to believe my little guy will be turning two in four short weeks. Today we took advantage of the sunshine and the 62 degree afternoon and did our train photo shoot. So many of the pictures turned out super cute! It will be hard to narrow it down to just one for birthday invitations.
Here are some cute head shots, I won’t be able to use because the train and the conductor outfit aren’t visible enough to be apparent.
He’s one where you can tell he is saying Choo-Choo!
Tonal photos have a more vintage look, plus it hides lighting issues a bit too:)
These next photos didn’t look great in color, but I love them in a tonal setting.
I’m not a photographer! I’m a mom with an I-phone scrambling to snap shots before her very energetic toddler moves out of his super cute pose!!! Between the hat falling off, when he looked at the ground, and him frantically trying to yank off his bandana every few minutes, it is amazing any of these turned out:)
We had a lot of fun!
Love,
b
Hi Sis,
This morning we woke up bright an early, which is pretty normal. Only this time I didn’t fall back asleep after feeding Evelyn. We had to be in PA at 9:30 for Lily’s dedication, and we always allot extra time for traveling with Evelyn in the car!
I was looking forward to this day for awhile. Not only did I personally have the honor of making the dedication gown, I was going to meet Lily for the first time and see her mommy… my childhood friend Stephanie and family!
I had been working on the gown for the last month. Okay, I have actually been working on this project for months, but the first two dresses I started were not doing it for me. I found this pattern and thought it was prefect. It is a free pattern called Laulu kuusesta. Here is the link https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/laulu-kuusesta
I decided to make the dress in undyed merino silk yarn. Perhaps, I should have used a bright white, but I loved the softness of this yarn, the sheen, and antique look. After all, I wanted it to look like an heirloom.
I actually had to blow dry the dress this morning, as it was still damp from blocking. After that I packed it and all of Evelyn’s things for the trip.
Thankfully, Evelyn didn’t seem to mind the ride. She was awake almost the whole two hour ride and didn’t cry once! When we arrived she was super happy to see grandma!
Stephanie and her family arrived soon after, and we got to meet adorable Lily! Thankfully, the church had an awesome nursery decked out with rocking chairs and boppy pillows. It made being somewhere with a baby easy! We girls spent a lot of time in there, nursing and changing diapers. They had a TV in the nursery so you could watch the service.
Soon it was time for Lily and another baby’s dedication.
After service ended Evelyn had a lot of fun getting her hair petted and cheaks pinched. Then, it was time to leave. It was a bit hard to say goodbye, as everything seemed to go so fast!
Then, we headed to Grandpa Jeff’s house for lunch. Of course stuffed us with steak, salad, potatoes, and pie with ice cream. I almost fell alseep on his couch! lol
Love,
Jamiegoof
Dear Sis,
We managed to include vegetables in breakfast this morning! This recipe uses sweet potato puree. Sweet potatoes can be microwaved, steamed, baked, or slow cooked. For texture sensitive individuals, a stick blender can help make the stubborn fibers in the sweet potato more submissive to pureeing.
b
Dear Sis,
William decided he wanted cake, so we made some. I gave him a few options. He was drawn to the one with Raisin in the title.
Love,
b
Dear Sis,
Our baking addiction strikes again! We were looking for a chewy sugar cookie bursting with autumn flavor. We didn’t get what we expected. They turned out cake-y and mild! So we shock things up by adding a lovely pumpkin glaze. They look and taste perfect now:)
b
Dear Sis,
Today William got to wear his bee costume at long last. We’ve had the wings and antenna for over a month, because we found them at Dollar Tree and they were too perfect to pass up!
The occasion was Barktoberfest at our local library. There was live music, vender tables with treats for the dressed up kiddos and dogs, pizza, and crafts inside the library.
We made the bee body out of yellow and black felt-by-the-yard. The pattern was created by tracing the front neckline and armscye of a tank top onto tissue paper. We made it almost knee length and used a straight edge to make a flared side seam. It looks a lot like a simple dress pattern! We cut two on-the-fold of the yellow felt.
The stripes are two inch strips of black felt, cut long on purpose. We placed the first strip 1/2 inch below the armscye. We measured to make sure we had two inches of yellow showing between each 2 inch black strip. The strips are sewn on 1/4 inch from the top and bottom edges. Then, we trimmed away the excess strip fabric so that the stripes were flush with the sides of the fabric. Lastly, we did 1/2 inch stay-stitching along the neckline and armscye of the front and back panels to keep them from stretching out during dressing and undressing.
Using 5/8 inch seam allowance we secured the shoulder and side seams. For a girl, it might be perfect looking like a little jumper dress. For a boy, we decided to turn the bottom edge under 1 inch for elastic casing so it wouldn’t look too much like a dress!
This is as close as our bee came to flight:)
Love,
b
Dear Sis,
We don’t know when Trick or Treat is, so we thought we better get ready! We got all our favorite candies, some fun Halloween pencils, stickers, super balls, and stamps. And we made Boo Pops to at a festive flare to the candy bowl. I made these years ago (pre-blog) and they were a hit with the kiddos.
Tootsie Pops or another large round lollipop
5 inch square cut of white broadcloth
10 inch piece 1/8 inch Grosgrain ribbon
black Sharpie marker
William loved handing me all the pieces as I assembled each Boo Pop! Once they were made he would Boo at them in turn:)
Love,
b