Campers For Life

This weekend Chad and Charlotte are going camping for the first time in 2015. They have big plans for the rest of the year--and the years to come--in terms of camping.

Chad found a cool looking map of Ohio that he had blown up to 16X20. He framed it and then spent a ton of time locating every single state and national park in the state and marking them on the map with a black dot.

Then he marked with star stickers the places they've already camped. The goal is to mark every black dot with a star by the time she is eighteen (or until our youngest is eighteen, since she still be part of this project in a few years, too).

They went out this weekend and bought all of their camping food and snacks, and then set up the tent to celebrate (this weekend they'll be cabin camping but tents are still fun).

Almost as fun as new "big girl" swings.

Happy Camping.

~Stacy

Spring Sewing (So Far)

I've been on a sewing kick lately, which has been fun. In the past few weeks I've made Charlotte a romper, a flutter sleeve top, a nightgown, a skirt and a Minnie Mouse inspired dress (more on that last one to come). I've also made myself two bags and then just today a teeny tiny skirt for the new baby.

The bags are both made from fabrics by Bonnie & Camille--the first one is from Miss Kate and the second bag is from their newest line, Daysail. I like the second bag best, but the first one was muuuch easier to sew! Ever have one of those projects that is so thick and unwieldy you have a hard time working with it? That was the Daysail bag. I broke two needles on it. And don't even get me started on those grommets.

Yesterday I found this adorable fabric by Holly Holderman (Lakehouse Dry Goods fabric). I thought the print was so cute and different.

It was sold in one yard precuts, so I bought one and decided to make Charlotte and Baby Girl coordinating skirts. I used some leftover green gingham I had in my stash since I love the look of double layer skirts.

These skirts sew up crazy fast (about 10-15 minute per skirt). I just use my own measurements, no pattern.

I used Charlotte's current measurements for hers, and I based the baby's on a size chart I found online for 0-3 months. She's due in July so I hope she's ready for a picnic when she gets here--these skirts are picnic and parade kind of skirts.

~Stacy

Easter

I hope you had a nice Easter! We did--Charlotte was SO excited for it this year and talked about it almost nonstop for the past few weeks. She really wanted to do an Easter egg hunt, but apparently you have to plan three months ahead for those things since every one we looked into required pre-registration and was already full. No matter, Chad made his own egg hunt for her in the backyard on Friday and she was thrilled with it.

After she found all her eggs and was heading back inside she exclaimed "That was the greatest Easter egg hunt I ever had!" Easily pleased, she is :)

On Sunday she woke up to see what the Easter bunny had left her. He left a trail of eggs through the living room to her goodies--which included an extra special surprise this year: a Disney princess suitcase for her to take on our Disney World trip in a few weeks.

We spent the afternoon at my parents' house for a small Easter get together. I didn't make Charlotte's Easter dress this year--my mom did, 28 years ago! The dress she wore was mine in 1987 and she discovered it a few weeks ago when my mom was watching her. She insisted on wearing it over the next few days and it ended up fitting her perfectly. Add to that her "Elsa braid" and she looked like a sweet Easter princess :)

It was beautiful outside so we got to spend time out there for good part of the day. Charlotte had a blast chasing (and "catching") bubbles.

And we managed to get a good family photo taken--there aren't tons of these since I'm usually the one taking the pictures! And because I tend not to take any below the neck photos of myself while pregnant. I take one every other month for Chad's mom since she lives in Maine and doesn't get to see her grandbaby-to-be being born--but that's about it. I think I have about ten pictures of me pregnant with Charlotte and probably eight of them were taken at our baby shower. With this baby, I have maybe three. So here were are, in our last Easter photo as a family of three:

~Stacy

More Flutter Sleeve Projects

Last week I was on a roll with the flutter sleeve romper pattern from It's Always Autumn. I made the romper and liked the pattern so much that I decided to make a top and a dress out of it. The pattern and instructions are mostly the same, except you leave out the shorts for the top (and I added some width to make a the top more flowy) and add a few inches to the top to make the dress. To make things easier, the site also has free downloadable patterns specifically for a top and dress if you prefer.

I used this adorable bicycle print I bought last fall for the top. I don't recall the designer of this line, but it was the last half yard that Fat Quarter Shop had available! It was the perfect amount for this top.

For the dress I used yardage from the newest Flower Sugar line by Lecien. The fabric was quite a bit thinner than a typical quilting weight cotton, though, and once it was made up I decided against using it as a dress since it was so thin and almost see through. I also goofed up and sewed the neckline bias tape to the outside. Rather than pull it out and start again I ended up designating this one a nightgown. Charlotte loves nightgowns and prefers to sleep in them over anything else, so she was thrilled.

These projects are some of the fastest you can make--about 30 minutes per piece start to finish. Can't beat that!

Happy Sewing.

~Stacy