Moments I Want to Remember

At the beginning of this week Laura made the comment that she has had her dog (who now lives with us) for five years this month. Jovi latched onto this, "So does that mean that it's his birthday?". "What day is his birthday?" Laura suggested that we celebrate puppy's birthday on Wednesday, the evening she watches the kids while Juan and I go out. Jovi was so excited all week. "Does he have some dog friends he wants to invite." "I'll draw him a birthday cake since he can't eat any." "Can we have birthday hats?" Laura got birthday hats, noise makers, a few doggy presents (which Jovi wrapped) and cookies for Puppy's human friends. Everyone we met on Wednesday got to know about Puppy's party. And then at 7:00, right before Juan and I left we wore birthday hats and sang happy birthday to a dog who really could have cared less, but it made a four year old little girl so happy.

Yesterday the kids and I went on a walk. As we were walking Corbin was kind of skipping in front and then he turns around and says joyously "I'm so happy momma!" and starts skipping again. It made my heart want to burst. Later on the walk he slipped his little hand in mine and we walked for a few minutes like that.

These are the moments I want to remember forever.

Jovi the Soccer Player

Jovi started soccer three weeks ago. She is on team Ladybug and has had two games. She loves it, she calls herself a soccer player and I have to say I love it too. I can't think of anything much more cute and funny than 4 year old little girls playing soccer. Juan and I just love watching her games. We are a winning team (although I don't think they keep an official score at this age) thanks to our powerhouse player A, apparently she has an older brother who has taught her some serious skills. A scored 10 goals the first game and like 5 the second, she is seriously impressive. Jovi is learning and doing great. She assisted on a goal in her first game and scored 4 goals on her second game; two of which were for the other team, but I guess they cancel each other out right? Jovi loves her coach and he has the best approach to getting the girls in the right place on the field; he picks them up and places them where they are supposed to be. It is so funny to watch. Here are some pictures of the first game.




(she is pointing to the goal she is supposed to score on, she gets confused once the teams switch at half time so the pointing helps orient her :)) I'm sure you will be seeing more soccer pictures, it's so much fun being a soccer mom to a 4 year old.

February Sewing

I frequent a forum, Sewing Mamas and they held a contest in February called Stash Game. You are supposed to use up as much of your fabric stash as possible without buying any fabric during the game. Points are given based on yardage used and number of notions. They hold this contest twice a year and although I had signed up before, this is the first time I finished. Even though I wasn't even close to the winners and their numbers I feel proud that I finished. My final stats were:
32 3/4 yards of fabric sewn
19 items sewn
8 different patterns used
4 items for me

Please excuse the bad photos, i was trying to document the month and didn't get the nicest pictures. I started with curtains for the upstairs playroom using fabric I had bought for Jovi's room before we moved. I made a matching pillow, but I'm so NOT proud of it (really bad craftsmanship) that I didn't take a picture.


I also made curtains for the windows on the stairs. The have been covered with cheap curtains from Walmart that didn't even fit the windows since we moved in. Now they have nice, lined, white linen with aqua polka dot curtains. They make me happy every time I see them. Unfortunately they didn't photograph well.



I learned this month that I don't really enjoy making curtains. It involves a lot of measuring and ironing and then measuring again and then re-ironing, then measuring yet again and sometime continuing to repeat till the panels are exactly the same. The actual sewing is easy. Measuring super accurately is not so easy. I still am planning on making curtains for the downstairs living/ dining room, but I think I will wait another week or two to start them.

For Juan's Birthday I made him 4 extra long pillowcases as he requested. He said he didn't care what fabric I used so he got pink and purple pillowcases.


I also made him shark pajama pants.


For Valentines Day I made Jovi a reversible dress from this pattern. I've had it for about two years and only used it once. It makes a really cute A-line jumper and I will hopefully be making more.





I also made two sets of shorts and long sleeve shirts for Jovi to wear while she played soccer. I made the purple set she is wearing in the first picture.



One of my goals was to test out some patterns for me. I hate shopping for clothes for me. Most of the time they don't fit quite right and it takes so long to find just what I want and then it usually costs too much so... I got this pattern from fabric.com and tried it out with some cheap knit fabric I ordered from there. I will be making my own tshirts from now on. They are super easy and only take 1-2 hours from cut to finish. I love the pattern too and with a few modifications it will be perfect for me. I made the crew neck first and found the arms a bit tight and the shoulder seam a bit wide. Then I made the V neck and LOVE it. I fixed the problems I had with the crew neck and it is the first V neck tee that doesn't cut too low on me. I will be making many more of these, and the pattern is sized from little girl to adult so I can make the same tees for Jovi. And not only are my "muslins" wearable the fabric only cost $4 for each one.



Next I tried this pattern and I really liked it too. I made my own sleeve changes, but really like the gathering on the neckline and the hem band at the bottom which makes it very flattering when worn. And it only cost $4 too.


Last of all I made an A-line skirt using the basic skirt pattern from this book. It had darts and a zipper; two firsts in clothing construction for me. It fit just barely. I made it Sunday morning and wore it to church that afternoon.


It was a really fun month, but I'm taking a week long sewing break before I start working on new projects.

My Jovi

A few weeks ago I got a clearanced i-dog dance. It was originally meant for me, so I could play my ipod wherever I wanted, but it was quickly adopted by Jovi. She has wanted a dog forever, but Juan is not fond of them and since I prefer small/ medium dogs I want to wait till our kids are not a danger to them. Babies/toddlers and small dogs just don't mix. The i-dog is interactive, barks, moves and has "emotions". Jovi has named him Meatball and loves him whenever I let her play with him, usually when Corbin takes a nap. Toddlers and pretend little dogs don't even mix.

Jovi is getting so big. She is such a good big sister and really takes care of Corbin, sometimes more that he would like :). Jovi loves to watch TV, especially Scooby Doo. She would watch all day if I let her. When she isn't watching Scooby Doo, I still feel it's influence. She likes to find mysteries that need solving. She makes maps and clues to solve her mysteries, it's pretty cute. She just started soccer and is super excited about it. We've been practicing outside when the weather is nice and she is getting pretty good and almost always remembers not to use her hands. Jovi is finally liking preschool and her teachers say she is doing great in class. She loves to draw and her drawings are awesome, lots of detail. Jovi loves spending time with her family. She calls my parents' house her other house and she loves playing with her cousins whenever she gets the chance. Jovi's a great helper in the kitchen, but is pretty picky about what she eats, her favorite foods are all the little kid staples like mac and cheese, pizza, hot dogs and ham sandwiches. She also likes eggs with green food coloring (like in the book green eggs and ham), but not regular eggs. She has really gotten into doll play and is a great pretend mommy. She loves clothes and dressing up, she has a good eye and some of the outfits she comes up with are really, really cute. I love my Jovi and am so glad she is part of our family.

Arghhhh!

Corbin is two, he is just SO two in that hugely annoying and super cute at the same time sort of way. For example, the other day we were at the library and Jovi found a friend. Jovi is very good at making friends. Whenever we spend time at a place where kids are playing, the park, MacDonald's, the library, she ends up with a new friend. They might not know each other's names, but they are friends who enjoyed playing together, ah to be four again. Anyway, Jovi went off with her new friend to look for Barbie books while I was trying to read a book to Corbin. He looked up and realized Jovi was no longer with us. He immediately jumps up and starts yelling "Jovi" at the top of his lungs as he runs around looking for her. He finds her and then roars at her as loud as he can which startles Jovi and makes her scream. Ack, what is a mother to do? Whispering seems impossible for him even though I had talked to them both about being quiet in the library, in the car, on the way in, on the elevator ride to the kids area, walking into the kids area, well, you get the idea. All the other kids in the library seem to manage to be quiet, why can't my kid?

Then he was super cute while we were there too. He was standing behind a little girl when she tripped. He immediately went over, gave her a hug and asked if she was ok. She pulled away with this look of, "who is this kid?!?!", but he continued to try and pat her back continuing to ask "you ok?, you ok?". I had to intervene and tell him she looked like she was ok now. It was so sweet.

Last night my sister watched the kids while I went out and ran a few errands (thank you Laura). When I got back I went to check on the kids and found Corbin sleeping with his diaper pulled off and holding it in one hand. Fortunately the bed was dry and I put the diaper back on without him fully waking up, but I cringe at the thought of what could have been.

The other day I was trying to work in my sewing room and within five minutes Corbin had tried to touch and turn on all my sewing machines (big nono), grabbed my fabric scissors and was looking for something to cut and then when I took those away he found a permanent marker that I hadn't even know was on the floor and took off the top before I grabbed him and finally gave up working in there while he was awake. Honestly, I know better, but was in the middle of a project and was trying to finish up one last step.

The past three days we've been in the car at lunch time (I need to practice better time management) and he has had a drink in the car. All three times he has spilled a large portion of the drink on himself and/or the car. Before this week he really didn't cause much trouble with drinks, but after this third time I think I've finally learned my lesson.

I love the kid so, so much, but sometimes I just want to channel my inner Charlie Brown, bang my head on the wall and yell a nice loud Arghhhh!

Win one of two sewing machines

Ok, so I'm sure you are tired of hearing about how much I like www.youcanmakethis.com but I just have to tell you about their latest "thing". The are starting a new website with FREE evideo tutorials on all things crafty, sewing and quilting. Here is a little intro:


To kick off their new website they are giving away an embroidery machine AND a sewing machine. How cool is that? There are a bunch of ways to enter. Go check it out, http://www.thediydish.com/ It would be too cool if someone I knew won.

Some Sewing Projects

My sewing machine went kaput on me right after Christmas. I went back and forth for a few weeks about what sewing machine to get to replace it, do I go with a computerized machine with more stitches than I could ever use and lots of convenience items, like needle up/down, thread cutter button, etc. OR do I choose a vintage all metal machine that will last forever and I could do all the maintenance myself? It was a hard choice and I eventually chose a new Brother sewing machine that can do EVERYTHING. There is no way I will grow out of this machine. BUT the antique Singers were calling to me..., but that is a story for another post. Anyway, I've been doing a lot of sewing to try out my new machine and get to know it. We had a rocky start, but I'm really starting to like her and those convenience features are AWESOME.

One of my first projects was a receiving blanket and bib set for a friend who is having twin boys. It's not very exciting, but I got to try out a few of my new decorative stitches.



I made some down and dirty play curtains for the kids. These curtains can be taken anywhere and used to cover doors or hallways to make new rooms or give "privacy" (a newly important thing to Jovi) or be the bottom of a puppet show or, well, you get the idea. I didn't spend more than 30 minutes from cut to finish, eyeballing most measurements and unfortunately it shows because one curtain is 1 inch longer than the other. It is a good thing they are play curtains.


On Sunday I finished a dress for Jovi that I had cut out in September, crazy I know. It only took like 3 hours (with lots of breaks) to put it together. I don't know why I waited so long to sew it. It is the Farbemix Cara pattern and one of my favorite jumper dress patterns. After the first picture, I was trying to be a good photographer and use natural lighting, but my model was not facing the right way so I got lots of squinting, oops.



Here is a close up of the elephant embroidery, you can get it at sewingforsarahembroidery.com. She is an extremely talented digitizer and I love so many of her patterns, but her website organization is terrible. If you have an embroidery machine and a little patience to look through all her many, many pages of designs you can find some amazing ones.


And here is a picture of Corbin in his Sunday clothes just because he is so cute! That is his "cheese" face.


Thanks for visiting my site. I'm working on a cool giveaway so please check back in the next couple of weeks :).