Been hard at work over the last week or so at the sewing machine and at the computer doing my digi scrapbook.  I am almost up to date with this year and then I started last year and am up to April.  This time around I've backed the scrapbooks up to my external hard drive, a hard lesson I learned after my other computer crashed!  I would love to be all up to date by the end of the year, but as I keep taking so many pictures with my new camera I don't know if that's going to happen!
So excited, went to Joanns yesterday and took full advantage of their Memorial Day sales!  They had their Simplicity patterns 5 for $5 and because I wanted more than 10 (their limit) I took my mom with me and got about 15 of them!  So after I finish the bag and dress I'm working on right now I will try and figure out which pattern I'll tackle first!  I'll keep you posted :)  Hopefully I'll be able to get some work done today on both sewing and scrapping!

And again it seems like ages since I've posted anything!  Well it has been!  And it's been ages since I've actually made time to get on my sewing machine.  But for Mother's Day I decided it was time to get back into it!  So Friday I got off work early and after doing some shopping for my little man, he needed a whole new summer wardrobe since he decided to grow!  I went to the local Joann's and got some fabric and new patterns.  One that was even for me!
Saturday afternoon was spent at my parents house cutting patterns and fabric.  They have an awesome oversized island that is perfect for cutting, and they're super nice enough to let me use it whenever I want.  So after cutting I went to work on creating a new shirt for myself.  One that is nice for summer and roomy enough in case I get pregnant in the near future.  I used Simplicity pattern 4127 and went with view E to start with.  I used very soft, thin and stretchy denim.  It went together very easily but I ran into some issues with the elastic because I didn't use the lining (wasn't really needed).  But I just created my own casing and slid the elastic in.  But I ended up having to cut out about 8 inches from what they said to keep the shirt up.  But I think that was because I could of gone 1-2 sizes down from what I cut.  I am going to try view C later this week/this weekend with a much lighter fabric and lining and we'll see how that works, I will go 1 size down.

I also got McCall's M4643 for my son, this was hubby's idea.  He claimed that he needed a terry cloth hooded robe to roll around naked after bath time.  So that'what I set out to create.  The fabric suggestions didn't include terry but I went ahead and tried anyway.  I decided on a yellow color because I also got some lightweight flannel fabric for jammies.  One with airplanes and one with helicopters since he's obsessed with both, and the yellow matches both as well as the other jammies I bought him at Carter's.  I started putting the robe together during nap time Sunday and was finished with it by the time he took his bath that night, I always have tons of interruptions while I sew unless I'm at home alone!  I was so excited with how it turned out, it was so easy to put together and fits him so well!  

I just finished up the shirt from the jammies last night and today I'll finish the pants.  I had to get his exact waist measurement for the pants or they would of been done already.  The shirt fits him very well but I think for the next one I am going to skip the Velcro and just make the neck hole a little bigger, not a huge fan of the Velcro placement.  He was already playing with it and he only had it on for about an hour.

I'm also super excited because Brother has come out with a very affordable Embroidery machine, $300!!!  It's smaller then some of the others and doesn't sew but that would be fine since I already have an awesome sewing machine and a serger!  I am going to start saving my pennies and hopefully I'll be able to own it before the end of the summer!

And another new thing, I am now an Advocare distributor!!!  I started in January by doing their 24 day challenge and I've never felt better!  I have so much energy and feel amazing!  Not to mention I've lost almost 30 pounds since I started :)  Now we're a total Advocare family, hubby is doing their system and even little man is taking product.  Little man takes his probiotics, vitamins, calcium (since he hates milk), meal replacement shakes in the morning (he's so picky about breakfast and would eat and eat and eat crap all morning long, but now he gets this and stays full on good protein and vitamins) and he does 1/2 ounce of the Sleep Works to help him wind down at night and stay asleep (he was a sleep walker!)  Don't worry, I consulted with a local pedi about everything and not only has she been giving this and more to her own family she also recommends it to her patient, but he's been doing so well with everything!!!
So if you are interested in anything feel free to visit my website:  Advocare Store
If you sign up to be a distributor you get 20% off everything and your discount can go up depending on how much you buy!

Can't believe that next week is Christmas! Where did this year go?!?! I've been super busy getting everything ready for the big day and even preparing for the next year. I've really never been big on New Year's Resolutions, but I have a great idea for how to make our lives a little better and maybe even save some money in the coming year. I have discovered Pinterest, and am totally addicted. I saw an amazing idea, a menu board, and decided that we needed one! I have spent all week creating, and I still have some fine tuning to do, but it is up and I now know what we're going to have for dinner the rest of the month!

The
number one question of every day was always "What's for dinner?" and I grew tired of trying to scramble and figure something out at the last minute. It will also hopefully aid in the weekly shopping trips. By knowing what we're making for dinner every day we will also know exactly what to get at the store, so I hope we'll save some money by getting what we need and not just a bunch of random crap. I know that there are days where we both are at work and it gets crazy at night, so those nights I've deemed either leftover nights or a very easy meal night.

I've also kinda said enough with our buying lunches everyday! I am making him get a lunch box and we're both going to start taking our lunch the majority of the time. It just adds up, even $5 a day for lunch. But know if we're cooking real dinners, we'll have plenty of leftovers for the week!

I have also been spending some time sewing, not as much as I would like, but I get to it when I can :) I just finished making my parents smallest dog a little coat, and I'm happy to say she seems to like it better than my puppy likes his (he acts like he's frozen as soon as I put it on him). It even has a little 'fur' on the 'collar' and it has a hood! Now she can stay warm in the cold weather outside, when she actually goes out there!

Well I've been saying that I recently got into digital scrapbooking and its super easy and so great! Its helped me so much to catch up! I went from being 1 1/2 years behind to just being little over 6 months behind in just a few months. And I would probably be totally up to date if I wasn't spending some of my free time at my sewing table.

The software that I've been using is Making Memories and if you are interested in trying it out I highly recommend it! I have a great coupon that will give you $10 off the software and an additional $10 to spend in the store!

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Just use that when you check out and you'll be getting not only a discount on a wonderful software program but a little spending money to check out all the different digital kits they have to offer in the store. The really great thing about digital kits and packs is that it can be reused over and over again. Unlike my favorite papers in regular scrapbooking where once its used its gone forever (unless you buy a few of the pages), you can use the papers, elements and monograms available as many times as you'd like!

Happy Halloween!!

Well over the last few months I've been working on little man's costume. I made the costume in September but the top didn't really fit , it was already too small for him! So I bought the child pattern and made the new shirt 2 sizes bigger than the original.

I'm super happy with how it turned out, I think its much better than one of the costumes I'd of gotten from the store (unless I spent a small fortune on one) and I'm very proud that I was able to make it myself!

I recently celebrated my 30th birthday. My wonderful husband gave me some money that I was supposed to go shopping and get some new clothes (that I've been needing) but since we just started working out again and I hope to get preggo in the next year I really wanted to wait to get new clothes when I'm down to the size I want to be. So instead of clothes shopping I got myself something I've been wanting for a while, a serger!!! I 

love it. I haven't gotten to do too much with it yet, except for figure out how to thread it and I'm happy to say that its pretty easy to thread! My current project is a dress coat for my little man and I'm planning on finishing the edges off with my new toy! I will post some pictures of the finished product ASAP! I'll be working on it more today during naptime!

And I've even got the material and patterns for my next project, matching hoodies for little man and hubby!

Still going strong with the digital scrapbook. I am so happy that I am now about to start March of this month!!! I still have some work to do in the middle, like my niece, but I'm real happy with my progress. At this rate I may actually be caught up by the end of the year.

Haven't really had time to sew lately, been spending a lot of time with the family :-) And this past weekend our son decided he had enough of the crib and made a jail break Saturday morning. No bang, thud or anything. Neither one of us even had any idea that he was out, until he was standing in our doorway. He was soooo proud of himself and had the biggest smile on his face. Just stood there for a second smiling and then just said "hi!". I can't say that I was really shocked, more shocked that we made it that far with him being in the crib. So before that morning I took the front part of the crib off, its one of those convertible ones, and made it into his 'new big boy' bed. Nap time was super rough, took 1 1/2 hours to get him to finally take a nap. But after that he's been taking to it really well. I'm real proud of him. I just shut the door and the past few nights/nap times he plays with some of his toys and then makes his way to the bed and goes to sleep. Tonight he cried for about 2 min and then crawled into bed. He is loving the pillow though! He's finally getting some use out of the pillow case I made for him a few months back, Seasame Street! So this weekend I'm going to go and try and find some Elmo toddler bedding for him to make it more like a big boy bed.

I'm hoping that sometime this week, in between all the cleaning I really need to get to, I will be able to find some time for sewing. I have a project I need to start & finish before the end of the month! But if not I'll try working on it this weekend, if I don't get called into work!

WOW

Well WOW! Its been a long time since I've posted. I've been super busy with life. Working 2-3 days/nights (yup, putting my insomnia to good use and working night shifts and loving them!) a week and taking care of a very active almost 2 year old.

I've been very busy in my 'new' sewing room. I have a folding table in the guest bedroom that is now my temporary sewing room, I'll be moving it all into my bedroom eventually.

Since I'm so very far behind on my scrapbooking I thought I would try and new avenue of doing things. I'd been giving some serious consideration to digital scrapbooking, easier and faster way of doing things. So to help my decision out, I actually WON a digital scrapbook suite this past Sunday!! So I've been playing around with it and I love it!! Its super easy and much faster than the traditional route. Plus its something I can do at night in the living room and stay in the same room as my hubby! FYI: the scrapbook software is the MyMemories Suite . I really like it and it would of been worth every penny plus more if I

had paid for it! Another plus is that I don't get super messy while doing it, lol.

As far as my sewing projects go I've been pretty busy! I made my son his Halloween costume, will have to redo the shirt as its already getting a bit snug but I'll do that next month.

I also made a pretty cool looking purse for my mom for her b-day, pictures only after she gets it!

Plus this weekend I finished my first button down shirt, and the best part is that it totally fits the little man with some room to grow in!

So that's it for right now, hopefully I'll be a little better about keeping up with this. I'm planning on doing some more digital scrapping this long weekend and also playing around in the sewing room of course!!