Bound for Disney

Today is an exciting day, especially for the smallest member of our household--we leave for Disney World in 24 hours! Charlotte has been excited about this trip for months but her excitement level at this point has reached epic proportions. Just last night she called Chad upstairs for maybe the 4th time after putting her bed because she had too much to talk about. I think that particular visit centered around her breakfast order--we're having breakfast our first day at Magic Kingdom inside Cinderella's Castle, so she was debating whether she would have pancakes solo or pancakes AND eggs when she has breakfast with Cinderella and Princess Aurora. The life decisions of an almost four year old are completely adorable.

We are staying for a whole week, the longest vacation we've taken since Charlotte was one and we took our trip to Maine. We're flying, which means it will be Charlotte's first time on an airplane. I'm having several different feeling about that, ranging from dread to excitement. I'm hoping she has a pleasant experience on the flight there so that we can actually get her on the plane peacefully to come home. The fact that I hate airports, flying and basically the entire transportation portion of travel doesn't help...but at least we have nonstop flights.

We're staying at a Disney resort so we don't have to deal with the headache of renting a car and driving to the parks everyday. The magicians who manage Disney World have that place organized at a level that is both impressive and alarming. And thanks to the magic and awesomeness that is our travel agent, everything is done. We really just have to show up with our MagicBands on (these bracelets that carry with them almost a frightening amount of information and capability) and the rest of it is mostly done. We went for the extra stuff that will make the trip easier and more enjoyable--the dining plan, the photo package, the FastPasses, the stroller rental, etc. Go big or go home, right? And facing the somewhat daunting idea of navigating Disney World in my third trimester of pregnancy made me that much more willing to do anything I could to make the trip as simple and stress free as possible. Like buying a pair of sandals based entirely on comfort rather than style, which is how I've ended up with Crocs sandals in my suitcase. Madness.

So today we are packing, cleaning, running last minute errands, doing laundry, and writing lengthy blog posts to procrastinate.

I'll be back with everything about how our trip went, and most definitely a completely ridiculous amount of pictures. Have a great week :)

~Stacy

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

The Best of Winter

Winter 2014/2015 does not have a lot of "Greatest Hits" in my book. We've been over my hatred of it, but even I have to admit that there were parts that were pretty. I didn't photograph much of anything this winter until the end so there wasn't much to choose from, but here are the best of the worst photos of the year (kidding, kind of):

And the best photo ended up being a shot I took on my phone out the car window (don't worry, I stopped and made sure there was no traffic):

And that's all she wrote about this winter. The best part about this winter is that it ended last week :)

Happy Spring!!

~Stacy

Summer Romper

I made my first spring/summer project of the year--a romper for Charlotte using a free pattern and tutorial by It's Always Autumn. It just so happened that the pattern was for a size 4T--perfect. The pattern was designed to sew up using a stretchy knit, but I made mine out of a quilting weight cotton (it's from one of the more recent lines by Bonnie & Camille). It came out great, but the only adjustment I would make if using quilting cotton instead of knit is to add maybe half an inch to each side of the bodice. I didn't and it still fits fine, but it might be a little more comfy and easier to get on with a the extra width.

I didn't adjust anything to the pattern and it fits Charlotte perfectly. She's petite, so if you're sewing it for a taller 3-4 year old you might want to add an inch or so to the bodice. There should be room to play with in the shorts--I hemmed hers up almost an inch and they're still plenty long (she's 37.5" tall). Also, the tutorial doesn't give fabric requirements or seam allowance, but I used about a yard of fabric and kept all the seam allowances to 1/2".

It was a super easy pattern and I made this one in under two hours total. The site also has variations of this pattern for a dress and a top, which I plan to make next since this was so simple and fun to sew.

But without further ado:

She was a big fan of this outfit and didn't want to take it off, so it must be comfortable! She kept asking me to take more pictures of her.

Happy Sewing!

~Stacy