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10 Things I Love

My August Blog Prompt is 10 Things I Love. It’s a great way to start out the month, right before school starts up again and I get busy teaching and keeping up with the kid’s lessons and such.

I’m going to be doing a weekly post on Homeschooling on Mondays throughout the school year, so come back next week to see what we’re up to!

Now, for 10 things that I like…

1. Music – I love listening to music, but mostly I love playing. I started piano when I was 5 and as an adult I continue to enjoy it.

2. Cordless Dust Buster Hand Vac – This thing has saved my life (actually, it’s more likely saved my kid’s lives) countless times. I can’t live without it! An entire poptart crumbled on the couch? No problem! The 2yr old just dumped the entire potted plant on the floor? A big problem! But not nearly as bad as it could be (he could have broken the pot). Seriously though, I did use my dustbuster for this because I don’t have a shopvac.

My dustbuster lives in it’s charger on my counter and gets used a lot!

3. A Good Book – Some of my favorite authors are James Fenmore Cooper, Charles Dickens, and Jessee Stuart. I enjoy the classics and occasionally a new book or two. Reading is a time to grab a drink and relax.

I recently reviewed Shadow of the Mountain: Exodus and really enjoyed it. I’m also amazed by how much easier it is to read a book I’m reviewing. I guess I justify the time spent more easily because I have a deadline.

4. Coffee – Speaking of drinks. I love coffee. I like the taste, and it’s my preferred way to wake up in the morning. A cup of coffee and my Bible Study. Of course, the kid’s don’t believe in sleeping in so I have to add getting breakfast and hot chocolates and tea to that list in the morning.

5. BBQ Ribs – The best I’ve ever had are from this local place called Dead End BBQ. Their ribs are soooo good! They also have great brisket and delicious sides. And I have no idea about the desserts because I’m always too stuffed to try any!

6. Sewing – I don’t do as much as I would like to because the kids keep me busy, but sewing is a fun, creative outlet for me. I’m working on a few things for the girls right now and they’re so excited.

7. Caramel Bugles – Seriously, the best thing since sliced bread. It’s like caramel corn, without the kernels. I actually hide this from the kids and then my husband will eat an entire bag! It’s delicious. And perfect any time of the year, not just the holidays when I’m craving caramel corn.

Amazon probably isn’t the best place to get these, they’re kind of expensive online. Check the snack aisle in your local grocery store. A few times a year Kroger has them on sale for $1 a bag and I stock up.

8. SciFi – I love SciFi, from the old Star Trek, to Dr. Who, to pretty much anything interesting I find on Netflix. I’m also teaching my kids well, my 6yr old sometimes suggests Star Trek when she’s trying to convince me that we should watch something!

9. Legos – I love legos. Except for when they’re spread all over the floor in the middle of the night. The kids love legos. They have LEGO Friends, LEGO Elves, LEGO Disney Princesses for the girls. My girls love them. And if I don’t feel like actually playing with the legos, they even have Lego XBox 360 games! I have my eyes on this LEGO Jurassic World.

10. Jurassic World – Speaking of which, I loved Jurassic World. I remember watching Jurassic Park as a kid so I had to go see Jurassic World when it came out. It was not disappointed! It’s right up there with Indiana Jones (except for #4, I didn’t like that one) and The Mummy. Just fun to watch!

I’d love to hear some of your favorite things. Comment below and tell me, what’s something you love?

This post does contain affiliate links, and I do earn a small commission off any purchase made through those links.

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New Black Dress for the Baby

So…shiny black dresses are apparently hard to photograph, but I think you can get the general idea.

I found this huge skirt at a yardsale this past summer for $1 that I decided to make a dress for the toddler out of.  You can’t see it really well in the picture but it has embroidered flowers all down the front of the skirt. The minute I saw it I knew it would make a cute dress, and I even had enough fabric for the bloomers!

Up close on the front of the dress. You can kind of see where I did some altering to the from to make the very top section of the front see-through.

If I ever do a project like this again I’m going to remove the waste band from the skirt before I start cutting. It was a little difficult to cut out a pattern because the skirt was gathered at the top and I couldn’t get the pieces to lie flat.

I tried it on the baby already and it’s so cute! Now, on to my Easter dress project!

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Baby Quilt and Child’s Apron

I’m a little bit behind on posting sewing projects, so, here’s a couple I  just finished:

Little girl and doll apron. This fabric was leftover from a project last year so I just used it up.

A baby quilt and burp cloths that I made from leftovers from sewing projects. Whenever I finish a project I cut as many squares as I can get out of the leftovers and just save up the squares until I have enough complimenting squares to make a quilt.

It definitely makes for a fun quilt!

And, a closer look at the burp cloths. The have terry-cloth on the back so they’re super absorbent and easy to clean with.

I have two more sets of cloths done, but I’m still working on the quilts to go with them. I don’t have quite enough squares to piece them together. I guess that means I need to do a few more sewing projects.

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Red and Black Dress

I absolutely LOVED this bubble skirt dress pattern!

It’s McCall’s M6271. You can do it long or short, and there’s also shorts to go under the short dress version.

I made the longer version since my little girl refuses to wear shorts.

And it’s adorable! I’ve tried out several bubble skirt dress patterns and this is the first one that I’ve liked. I think because this pattern has LOTS of fabric in the skirt so it’s nice and poofy. Guaranteed to make my little princess happy!

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More Pictures from Sweet Booties!

More pictures of projects from my Sweet Booties! book. My sister made these baby boots when she was in town the other week. We had so much fun sewing together!

I never would have paired the red leather and yellow lining together but she did, and I think they look great now that I see them together! It’s so much fun to watch someone else combine fabrics in ways I never would!

And of course, her hat. This was actually a baby pattern but we added a few inches and made a hat for her. It’s such an easy pattern to make (just a couple of circles) and very easy to alter. I’ll have to make it the right size for my baby. The baby pattern has an attached chin strap – which we obviously removed for an adult.

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Baby Shoes

Two pairs of baby shoes from my new Sweet Booties! book.

This book has the cutest baby things in it! Booties, bibs, hats, bloomers, etc.

My sister made a really cute pair of red and yellow baby boots at the same time as I was working on these. As soon as I get a picture from her I’ll post it.

These on the left I did a blanket stitch around the opening and then ran the ribbon through when the shoes were done.

The sizing was a tad smaller than I expected so unfortunately these shoes don’t fit my baby so I’ll either save them for a shower gift, for future children, or sell them on my Etsy shop when I start it up the end of this year. I’m sure my baby doesn’t mind, she doesn’t even like socks!

I love these Mary Jane’s! I used some leather on the outside and some animal print fabric I had left over from a poodle skirt I did a while back. The pattern called for a button but I used velcro and I really like it. Trying to do buttons on a kicking baby just doesn’t sound like fun.

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Princess Dress

My latest dress for my little girl. She loves dresses so I’ve just started getting her only dresses since that’s all she wears. I have a drawer full of cute play clothes that have never gotten worn. Oh well, maybe the baby will like them when she’s bigger!

The pattern didn’t call for a bow in the back but the ribbon was just so cute I had to add it! And, what you can’t see in the picture is the underskirt with tulle to make the dress fuller.

One thing about this pattern, there’s buttons in the back and I’ve never seen a skirt with buttons constructed quite this way. I think it had to do with the underskirt but I found it a little confusing. I ended up reading the instructions 4 times before I fully understood it.

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Cherry Dress

My latest dress for my baby. It’ll be a tad long on her, but she’s not walking yet so it doesn’t really matter. And it should fit her for a little while. (probably until after she’s walking)

I had a small piece of that pre-pleated fabric that I used. There was just enough for the dress. I cut off the bottom, because it was too long and made it a 3 layer dress by hemming the piece I cut off and adding a red layer between the two black layers.

Also, at a children’s consignment sale the other day I got a cherry dress for my toddler. The girls will be so cute in their cherry dresses!