Sewing

On Tuesday the girls and I drove about an hour north east to Bremerton to meet my grandma, who I call Ema at Olive Garden for lunch.  It's really nice that we can have a short visit more often when each of us only need to drive an hour each way.  It's especially nice when we do it on Tuesdays after Natalie's physical therapy and we're already out that way and the drive drops to 45 minutes.  I'd love to be able to do it every week or every other week.  Knowing we'd want to do more than just lunch, Ema told me which stores she likes to shop at in the area around Olive Garden and she mentioned JoAnn Fabrics and Micheals and Ross.  I pulled out a book I got myself with some gift cards I got called 101 One-Yard Wonders which is a book with plans for - wait for it - one hundred and ONE sewing projects that can be completed using one yard of fabric.  Most of them have several other materials you need, like coordinating thread, bias tape, batting, fiber fill, buttons, velcro, etc., but most of them are also really easy to do.  I flipped through and noted three different projects I wanted to try and made a list of the materials I'd need.  After lunch, we went to JoAnn and I bought the fabric for all three projects and because I found another fabric I thought my friend Jen would like, I decided I'd do two of one of the projects.  I can't say yet what it is because said project is in the mail, on its way to Germany as we speak.  When I got home, I promptly sat down and dusted off my sewing machine and started on her project and had it all finished in about 3 hours.  And that's with the distraction of two children.  The directions in the book are pretty easy to follow and many of the projects don't have a paper pattern, they just give dimensions for various squares and rectangles for you to sketch out and cut.  After finishing Jen's project, having dinner, and getting the girls to bed, I started another one yard wonder- a dress for Lauren.  They described it as an "updated pillowcase dress" and call it a Ballet-neck Toddler Dress.  It's SUPER cute! It has one tiny pattern piece to cut out and keep track of, and the rest is just a giant rectangle. (I bet if I make it a few times I'll be able to do future ones from memory!) I finished most of it before bed and waited until morning to have her try it on so I could get the elastic around the waist the right length and so I could hem it to the right length.  She of course wanted it to be so long that she'd trip over it, but she told me that would be ok, because she'd just hold the front up with her hands when she walked.  You know, like a princess.  I hemmed it to just below the knee anyway.  Probably ruining the entire dress.  She wore it all day anyway.

I haven't started the third project yet, it's a changing pad and a little pocket to store 2 or 3 diapers and a small container of wipes in.  Maybe I'll get to that one this weekend.  Tonight I'm working on the second one of the unnamed project that I made for Jen but so far it's not coming along well and thus, I stopped to blog.  Sewing does make me happy, though, and I'm glad I have been making time to do it this week.  I stopped into Barnes & Noble this evening to flip through some sewing books and I found a couple that I liked.  I'll order those with some gift cards and hopefully have them in another week.

On Monday and the Friday before we finally had a little bit of speech therapy for Natalie.  It was actually parent education sessions that last about 30 minutes.  Most of it was stuff I already was doing and know, but it's nice to have reassurance that I'm doing things I should be doing, and also nice to have someone tell me not to worry about some other things.  Natalie has been babbling a lot more and has been overall more vocal.  It was great to hear her laughing at her sister over and over tonight at the book store - so nice that I didn't care if she was bothering anyone else in there.  Small victory for us and for her!  Anyone who didn't like it could go to hell.  (Not that we had any problems or looks.)  And I'm pretty sure she'll be walking any day now, she just thinks she can't do it and stops herself and sits down.  I've got to try to boost her confidence about it, she has it, it's right there, just about to happen...

I took the girls to the new splash park on base yesterday.  It's really cute.  Lauren had so much fun.  Natalie?  Not so much.  She doesn't really enjoy getting sprayed with water.  She and I sat on the sidelines and watched Lauren run around and play.  I'm hoping we'll get a chance to go tomorrow, if not, we'll head over on Saturday.

I'm especially glad I've had time to sew since it's been too hot to cook.  I miss baking cookies!  I've been spending my spare time in the evenings reading (I'm catching up with the Harry Potter series.  I've read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire should be waiting for me at the library tomorrow) and watching movies (the first two Harry Potter movies and 'An Education').  It's been nice.  The girls have been doing pretty well about sticking to a bedtime schedule.  Well, Natalie has been doing fabulously, she's ready to go down at 8 on the dot, starts rubbing her eyes about 10 minutes before and quiets right down and is asleep by 5 after.  Lauren is a little more difficult, she didn't have a regular bedtime until this past May, so even when I can get her into bed at 8 she watches tv or movies until 9, and sometimes I go in after I've turned off her tv and lights and she's still up playing.  I've been cutting down on tv during the rest of the day, though, and she acts better overall when it's off more.  If the tv is on she's able to tune me out completely.

Anyway, I better get back to that sewing project, it looks so sad sitting there hanging out in the sewing machine.