The wheels on the bus…

I’m telling you, it’s all about the school bus. Ever since Calvin started preschool last fall, he couldn’t stop talking about and asking when he would be able to ride on one, just like “the big kids”. Well, the day has finally arrived! There was a little bit of prepping before hand… like making him a new backpack/bag:

getting a new folder for school:

and new sneakers (can you tell he’s obsessed with Toy Story?)

Since he’s going to a private school, the public school bus will only shuttle him halfway and then transfer him to a second bus that will take him to Trinity. I was a little nervous about all the shuffling, so I made him a little “map” with his various bus numbers and had him put it in his pocket for reference :p Anyway, here we are waiting for the bus:

He looks like such a big boy in this one!

Here comes the bus!

He was sooo eager and promptly jumped on the bus, took the front row seat, and waved crazily at us from the window… which was so heavily tinted I couldn’t really get a shot of his excited little face:

Then we watched him go (we all got up early to send him off)…

Bye Calvin! Hope you have a wonderful first day of school!

Tags: Kids
Posted in Life | 1 Comment »

Deep Down in My Heart

“At the end, I want my life to be unexplainable apart from the Gospel and Holy Spirit.”

This past Sunday’s sermon was particularly inspiring to me. A good reminder that the fruit of a Christian’s life isn’t necessarily measured by how many people you’ve been able to lift out of poverty or orphans you’ve managed to save, but rather:

“…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control… Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
Galatians 5:22,26

Along with the handful of scheduled (academic) activities Calvin and Charissa do each day (tracked with the awesome sticker chart), I’ve been helping them memorize Bible verses. I decided that the Romans Road to Salvation would be a good starting point (Romans 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 10:9-10). The theology is a bit too deep for them to completely comprehend, but as it says in Psalm 119:11

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

…which prompted me to make this heart pocket pillow to literally “hide” their verses inside. A sort of “hands on” literal reinforcement of the importance of knowing God’s word.

The process of making the heart pocket pillow is similar to making a lined tote bag. And the uses for something like this extends beyond memory verses: encouraging or thoughtful notes for someone special or small toys for infants. Or substitute the heart with a tooth for a tooth fairy pillow! Click here to download the PDF tutorial.

This past weekend, we brought the kids to a local farm to play:

jump on a giant bouncy pillow:

and play some miniature golf. Calvin’s got the hang of it:

Charissa is definitely showing potential… in the sport of kitchen-floor-broom-sweeping:

Poor baby Stephen; Still too young to join in on the fun:

I also managed to make a second holiday dress for Charissa and the shop:

Seemingly nice and sweet… until you see this outtake:

Yes. I quickly removed the wooden box prop. So… un-lady like. Totally not the look I was going for!

Tags: Crafts, Etsy, Sewing
Posted in Life, Sew Happy, Things for Little People | 1 Comment »

Real Life Analogies

Remember those good ol’ days prepping for the SAT’s? Jeremy and I went on a dinner date tonight and took home a few:

wine : alcohol :: coffee : caffeine

depressant : impaired judgment :: stimulant : thinking I am awesome

I only had one glass of wine, and that is usually enough to make me sleepy for the rest of the evening. But I indulged in two cups of coffee which has clearly overridden the effects of the alcohol considering I am awake at 2 a.m. typing this blog post

Which reminds me of freshman year in college when I consumed 8 bottles of Starbucks cappuccino while studying for my calculus final. I couldn’t sleep, or lay still, that night due to uncontrollable body tremors from the major overdose of caffeine. I stayed away from coffee for the rest of my college career.

I had plans to sew some orders tonight but had to put them aside to work on re-designing a website for a former client. (In my previous life, I was a web designer/developer… in my previous previous life, I was an average college student, and in my previous previous previous life, I was a pianist, violinist, and composer…) Probably a good thing considering I might have botched up a dress and still thought it was awesome. (Coding a website is different since whatever gets displayed in your browser is an objective indicator as to whether or not your work is awesome.)

Anyway, I do have a crafty post to share with you all tomorrow… errr… later on today

(The picture above was taken on our ice wine tasting trip back in January of 2006. Random. But the post looks prettier with a picture.)

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All Children Grow Up

(except Peter Pan) And I am turning 30 this year! Ahhh! Even as adults, we still have a few more milestones left

My best friend Janet (who will also be hitting the big three-o) had this brilliant idea of going on a weekend getaway together, sans kids and husbands, to help celebrate this momentous occasion. I am super excited. Any suggestions on where to go or what to do?

I may be getting old(er), but I still love roller coasters! This past Saturday, we took C&C to Seabreeze. They absolutely loved it. Compared to Disney World, it was much less stressful with plenty of rides for people 40″ and shorter, short lines, bearable weather, and a smaller map to get from one ride to another. One our way back home, Calvin goes, “What is the funnest place in the whole wide world?! It’s not Disney World! It’s SEABREEZE!”

Here are the kids right before heading out. We kept the trip a surprise until the morning of:

Like their Auntie Amy, they are really into jumping shots

Calvin’s favorite ride was the “Sea Dragon”, the big boat that goes back and forth higher and higher. It really does tickle your tummy from the inside out. Even I couldn’t help giggling like a little girl :p

click to view larger

I do so love amusement parks I was completely wiped after just 3 hours. The kids were fine and so disappointed that we had to leave so soon. Yeah… getting old

I will end today’s post with a tutorial on how to make what I call “The 30 Minute Fat Quarter Skop Top” (Skop = Skirt + Top):

It’s a simple, easy, and “cheap” way to get your designer-fabric fix while making something beautiful for a little lady (up to 4T).

You will need:
- One fat quarter
- 3/8″ wide elastic
- bias tape
- lace or ribbon

1. Unfold your fat quarter and iron out the creases.

2. Cut your fat quarter in half so that you end up with two 18″ by 11″ pieces.

3. With wrong sides together, sew together the two sides measuring 11″, 1/8″ from the edge. These are the sides of your top.

4. Turn your top inside out so that right sides are together. Press the edges and sew together the two sides measuring 11″ again, this time, 1/4″ from the edge. You are effectively doing a french seam here (encasing the raw edges). Not necessary. But it produces a nicer finished product.

5. Zigzag or serge the top and bottom of the top.

6. Fold the bottom edge over 1/4″ and sew, creating the hem.

7. Fold the top edge over 1/2″ and sew 3/8″ from the edge, creating a channel for the elastic. Be sure to leave a 1″ opening to insert the elastic in

8. Using a safety pin, thread the elastic through the channel. The equation I use to determine the length of elastic needed goes like this:

circumference of chest - 2.5″ = length of 3/8″ wide elastic

Note: This equation only works for 3/8″ wide elastic.

9. Once the elastic is through, overlap the two ends by an inch and zigzag them together back and forth a few times to secure.

10. Cut two pieces of bias tape (for a 4T, I cut two 10″ long pieces). Place and pin one end of the tape 2″ from the side seam. This will be the front of the top. Pin and place the other end of the bias tape 3″ from the same side seam (so that the two ends are 1″ apart). This will be back of the top.

11. Secure the ends of the bias tape with a straight stitch, going back and forth a few times. Repeat with the other side.

12. Add lace, flowers, or whatever you want to complete the look!

Posted in Life, Sew Happy | 1 Comment »

When Life Gives You Lemons…

This morning has been “one of those days” where I let myself mope around the house in self pity. Maybe due to the rain… or the long weekend spent prepping our townhouse in Baltimore for sale… or the lack of sleep… But what’s worse than allowing yourself a pity party is getting into bed at night and realizing that you let a whole day wallow by. So I made myself get off my lazy butt and filled out a rebate form (wahoo! Aren’t you impressed?! :), made a “Lemonade Stand” dress, a sort of tribute to a lemon-y kind of day:

reminded myself that the rain won’t last forever, and that my favorite part of the day is waking up in the morning and walking into a sun-bathed kitchen and family room:

flipped through the children’s journals that we started this summer and thought about how much Calvin has enjoyed doing math, spelling, and reading since school ended:

and rejoiced in the fact that if it were not for these “down” times, I would not appreciate the things I do have and give thanks because every good and perfect gift comes from above

Tags: Etsy, Life
Posted in Life | 4 Comments »

7 Years!

Happy Anniversary! Um, technically 3 days ago. This post is a tad late… so goes the story of my [blog] life

Remember our wedding day? Yeah, they forgot to give us the tutorial on how to cut a semi-fake wedding cake and it almost toppled over. Thank goodness nobody was paying attention…

Thank you for being such a good sport and taking a decent picture of me before eating at our favorite restaurant in Rochester…

…and then proceeding to capture my unsuccessful attempt to jump up to sit on the ledge (need to get back on the treadmill, need to get…)

…and rescuing me from further embarrassment by hoisting me up and taking another decent picture…

… and for planning ahead 7 years ago for this day by purchasing and storing a bottle of wine from our wedding year:

Who knew that in such a short time, we’d have a happy family of 3 bubbly minis… and manage not to age a day… HA! I feel old… no really, I feel it in my hips when I try to pivot my legs over the tire swing at the park… I almost dislocated that joint yesterday…

(And for any J Crew fans out there… yes, I am Crew from head to toe. My closet and I are complete suckers for this store…)

Tags: Anniversary
Posted in Life | 7 Comments »

Let the Festivities Begin!

A couple weeks ago, we took the kids to Disney World. For someone who’s never lived more than 30 miles south of the Mason Dixon line, it was insanely hot. But it was fun. The kids enjoyed it. And we’ve concluded that they are roller coaster junkies like me (they loved Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Test Track).

Can you believe this handful of flimsy cards is worth more than 3 iPads?

We cheaped out the first day and went with shoulder riding as the kids’ mode of transportation. The kids were fine. The same could not be said about the human transporters. But we were all still very happy!

Isn’t that photo great?! We were lucky enough to have Uncle Tim come along and take awesome photos for us:

The kids were surprisingly patient waiting forever to get 5 minutes of thrill:

And were thoroughly intrigued by the massive aquarium that was part of the Finding Nemo exhibit:

Now that we know they like roller coasters, I think we’ll start taking them to less expensive amusement parks that are nearby and return to the happiest place on Earth when they are a bit older.

In keeping with the “festive” spirit of things, Calvin and I worked on some mini free-floating pennant flags to hang in their playroom:

A fairly simple way of using up those tiny scraps that your husband can’t understand why you don’t just throw away:

You will need lots of tiny triangles (mine measured an inch at the base). It took me 30 minutes to cut roughly 120 of them. Then I just straight-stitched parallel to the base, letting the needle stitch “blanks” (no fabric underneath… I’m sure there’s a formal term for this) a few and then placing/feeding the next triangle under the presser foot. Calvin helped by picking out the order of the triangles. If I really wanted to make it an educational experience, I could have set a pattern for him to figure out… and even let him cut out the triangles… but I didn’t. So anyway

Hope this helps put a dent in your scrap bin!

Tags: disney, Family, tablescrap creations
Posted in Crafts for Big People, Crafts for Little People, Life | No Comments »

Quick n’ Dirty

Our summer days are quickly filling up with activities and fun! A little late in coming, but here’s what we did during our memorial weekend-turned-week-long-vacation-at-my-parent’s-house:

Attended a wedding and spent time with some old friends:

Painted our nails for the first time ever!

Did some upcycling…

Made a new dress and took pictures of the kids…

And finally, finally succeeded in making a (matching) top for myself. You have no idea how many hours and fabric I sacrificed to reach this point… oh, and I also realized how difficult, awkward, and depressing it is to have to model something yourself. Almost as bad as shopping for a bathing suit… I must say, Charissa is much better at this than I am! (And thanks to my little sis for taking pictures!)

And now, for my quick n’ dirty tutorial of “The Boardwalk T-Dress” - an easy peasy way to upcycle a free career-fair t-shirt that your boyfriend or husband just can’t seem to let go, or any t-shirt for that matter! And the best part is, there’s no need to serge or zig-zag raw edges because jersey doesn’t fray! Yay!

You will need:

• a t-shirt
• a ball-point needle, not necessary for constructing the dress, but quite so for your sanity’s sake in working with knits!
• scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• paper, scissors, ruler, and a pen
• a tank top in your child’s size



1. Fold a piece of paper in half, and using the tank top as a reference, trace half of the tank along the fold, creating your pattern.

2. Get your t-shirt.

3. Turn your t-shirt inside out and place your pattern on top.

4. Trace your pattern onto the t-shirt.

5 and 6. Using a ruler, extend both sides to the desired length (for my 3 year old, I extended it 11″ down from the bottom of the armpit).

7. Cut the t-shirt along the lines. With right sides together (as it already is since the shirt was turned inside out!), sew together the sides. You now have a tank dress!

8. Take the bottom of the t-shirt and cut off a strip (mine measured 5 inches wide).

9. With your sewing machine stitch length set to the longest and tension set to the highest, sew around the length of the strip, 1/4″ to 1/2″ from the raw edge. You now have a ruffled band.

10. Adjust the ruffles so that the length of the band is the same as the bottom of your tank dress.

11. With right-sides out, place the ruffled band slightly over the bottom of your tank dress and pin in place (optional. I don’t do this, I place as I sew).

12. Straight-stitch the bottom band to the tank dress. Almost done! Cut two strips from what remains of your t-shirt and tie them to the shoulders to make bows (refer to the initial/finished product pictures). You can also cut another strip and tie the two tank straps together in the back if the straps lay too wide on your girl’s shoulders… or just to add a touch of cuteness

Tags: Kids, Sewing, Upcycle
Posted in Life, Sew Happy | 8 Comments »

What do you do all day?

I get this question a lot (as do many fellow stay-at-home moms). Despite having been asked this on numerous occasions, it still catches me off guard: “Ummm… stuff?… I don’t know… laundry… and groceries…?” Uh. Okay. That’s it? Well, yes. But not really. I think part of the reason my response sounds so air-headed is because many of the things I do can’t really be “measured”… that, and I’m too busy thinking about what I have to do next to keep a running list of mundane accomplishments. So, I thought, why not let these people see for themselves what a typical day for me is like?! And behold, a blog post is born! And here it is: Wednesday, May 26, 2010…

5:00 Got up to finish a shop order and pack two for shipment.
6:00 Planned out meals for the next two days and made a grocery list.
6:30 Calvin and Stephen wake up. Fixed breakfast for Calvin and fed Stephen.
6:45 Had Calvin read to me his take-home books from school.
7:00 Dressed Calvin and changed Stephen.
7:10 Put away the clean dishes and loaded the dishwasher with dirty ones in the sink.
7:15 Packed everyone’s backpacks (including Jeremy’s) and made Charissa’s and Jeremy’s breakfasts (waffles and eggs).
7:30 Woke Charissa up, dressed her, and laid out clothes for Jeremy. Went to unclog the toilet that Calvin just pooped in.
7:45 Wrote out book response sentences and had Calvin trace them. Told Charissa to eat her breakfast and got washed and dressed.
8:00 Loaded kids and library books to return into the car, grabbed a waffle, and collected and took out the trash.
8:20 Dropped the kids off at school. Endured 15 minutes of “Calvin and Charissa karaoke”.
8:30 Came back home, put Stephen down for a nap, checked email, and worked on a new dress for the shop.
10:30 Stephen wakes up. Fed him while returning some phone calls.
11:00 Unloaded clothes from the dryer and set them in family room for folding later.
11:05 Packed my purse and made a bottle of milk to bring along for Stephen.
11:10 Loaded Stephen into the car and grabbed a luna bar.
11:15 Leave to go pick up the kids from school only to hit traffic-stopping road work. Took an alternate route only to end up in another traffic-stopping road work. Took yet another alternate route and wished I had a radar detector and a car with more horsepower.
11:40 Got to school, picked up the kids, and chatted with the teacher about C&C’s upcoming speech review.
11:50 Wendy’s for lunch. Fed Stephen while the kids ate.
12:20 Wegman’s. Contrary to what most people may think, I don’t look for a parking spot near the store entrance, but rather, a spot closest to a cart return area… so I can get a cart to load all the little people in it thereby avoiding the hassle of lugging a 40 pound infant and carrier while “holding hands” with the other two so they don’t run off. I find a spot near a cart return area only to find that there are no “normal sized” carts big enough for the job. And so I lug the 40 pound infant… Dropped the kids off at WKids, bumped into a friend, chatted, and then
12:40 realized I forgot my grocery list at home, and that I should have gone to the library first, because I forgot to bring a cooler to keep the perishables in…
1:10 We leave Wegman’s. Stopped by the library just to return books. Kids are whining and crying because they want to go inside.
1:30 Get home and unload and put away the groceries. Unload the kids.
1:45 Photo shoot with Charissa.
2:00 Put Stephen and Charissa down for a nap. Calvin has quiet time, playing with my iPad, reading books, and working on an addition (math) worksheet.
2:10 Edited photos from photo shoot session and listed new shop items.
3:00 Practice piano.
3:10 Stephen wakes up for feeding.
3:30 Totally wiped so I nap while Calvin plays with Stephen in the nursery.
4:30 Wake up, check email. Put on Veggie Tales for kids.
5:00 Start dinner (Artichoke-asiago-spinach pizza and roasted brussel sprouts). Kids go out to play.
5:30 Fed Stephen and checked email.
6:00 Jeremy comes home… still feeding Stephen.
6:15 Dinner
6:45 Put Stephen down for the night. Took a picture of “pirate Calvin” because he wanted me to.
7:00 Practiced piano.
7:30 Cleaned up the dinner table and swept the floor.
7:40 Leave to go errand shopping: Target, Jo-Ann’s, Lowe’s.
9:00 Come home. Picked up toys around the house and sorted all the goodies from shopping trip.
9:20 Attempted making some flower magnets for C&C’s teacher and decided they weren’t good enough to give. Scrapped project to start over the next day.
10:30 Did devotions with Jeremy.
11:00 Bed!

Wow. This post reads a lot longer than I thought it would… and yes. For those who may have noticed, I forgot to take a shower. No worries, I took one first thing this morning

Tags: stay-at-home-mother
Posted in Life | 4 Comments »

My Mother’s Day

I think this was Calvin’s first Mother’s Day where he had a decent grasp of what the day is all about. All week long, he’s been whispering in my ear, “Mommy! I have a secret. It’s a surprise. I can’t tell you. You have to wait until Sunday!” It was so cute to see him so excited. And not just excited because he had a “secret”, but because he couldn’t wait to make me happy Hehe. I think that alone makes mommy-hood all worth it. So on Sunday, he gave me a card and a little painted treasure box wrapped in tissue paper:

Needless to say, I love it (even though I’m pretty sure he got a lot of help from his teachers… but it’s the thought that counts, right?) and plan on framing that picture and letting it hang somewhere until the construction paper is all faded. Yeah I know. So cheesy and sappy. But, you know, he’ll always be my little boy, even when he’s all grown up… B.O., pimples, hairy legs and all

Speaking of being all grown up, while we were waiting for Jeremy and Charissa to finish up some mother’s-day-dinner shopping at Wegman’s, Calvin, laying lazily on a bench, suddenly looks up at this old lady walking by, alone, and says, “Happy Mother’s Day!” The old lady was so thrilled… and speechless. After a few moments, she manage to ask for his name and comment on how sweet he was. I didn’t say anything. But inside, I was so proud of him. So proud that he was able to show a bit of compassion and kindness without any sort of prompting or previous “instruction” from me. I loved the picture and box I got from Calvin, but those three little words, uttered to a total stranger, was my real mother’s day gift from him, and makes picking up all those dried buggers hidden under his pillow and finding a five-day-old loaded night-time diaper stashed away in his closet all worth it… maybe I should stick a trash bin next to his bed…

Tags: Kids, Mother's Day
Posted in Life | 2 Comments »