And Puppy Makes Nine

We got a puppy! When my Dad's Australian Shephard had a puppy - yes, only ONE puppy - I knew I wanted her. I knew this was one uniqe pup because her daddy is a Shih Tzu! So I guess she's an Aushit?



We still can't decide on a name. The kids have come up with the following - Tippy, Socks, Boots, Shadow, Love, Baby, and Puppy. I'm thinking Puppy since my cat's name is Cat. Do you have any ideas for a name?

Camping trip

We just got home from a camping trip in the North Georgia mountains. It was such a fun trip and some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen. The last time my man and I went camping was when we had one kid. Let me tell you, a 30 something year old body can't handle laying on ground like a 20 something body can. The first night, I didn't fall asleep until about 5 am trying to find the lesser of the uncomfortable rocks underneath me. I thought about Jacob of the OT who had a rock to lay his head on; and I tried to be thankful for my pillow. It didn't work. Around 3 in the morning, I remembered I didn't pack any underpants for myself. You'd think after reminding 6 kids and asking them two follow up times if they packed enough underwear, I would have remembered them myself. Let me just tell you from experience, the Family Dollar in Cleveland doesn't have a good selection in women's panties.



The three older boys slept in their own tent that their Papa gave them. That left only three with us; and I discovered that Little Bit talks in her sleep.



On Friday, we went tubing down the Chattahoochee in Helen. I have no pictures of that since we didn't want to get our camera wet. On the way back to the campground we stopped by BabyLand General - home of the Cabbage Patch kids for those of you not familiar with it.



We found Nate's Cabbage Patch twin there.






We stayed at Desoto Falls Campground near Dahlonega. They had the greatest trail leading to an 80 foot waterfall. Their were creeks running all throughout that the kid's loved getting in and splashing around.



We even saw this famous man on one of our hikes. He looked almost exactly as he does on the sign.



The kid's even got to walk on part of the Appalachian Trail. The older boys are wanting to hike more of it and really rough it.



Saturday was the most fun. While driving down the road, we saw a sign for Hilton Creek Falls and took the turn. As we drove and drove drove, we wondered if the falls were going to be worth it. Boy were they! It was the kind of falls with a pool that the kids could swim in.





On the lower part of the falls, the boys were able to slide down.



On the way out of Hilton Creek Falls, we found Duke's Falls. These were absolutely breathtaking. You can't get down and climb around these falls - you have to admire them from an observation deck. These were definetely worth the 1 mile hike.









The final fun we had was on the way home today, when we stopped by Dick's Creek Falls.



It had a fairly deep pool so you were able to jump off a rock about 20 feet above into the water. The boys begged to do it. I, being a concerned mama, wouldn't let them. I did, however, let them jump from the bottom rock.





I eventually let them try the high one, too!





The girls even made a new friend.



It was a great trip and the kids can't wait to go camping again. And I will be buying an air mattress.

The Never-ending Dishcloth

Why can't I finish this? I started this dishcloth back in May and can't seem to finish! My youngest boy was in Mrs. Jennifer's "Frog" class for Pre-K - so when I found a pattern for a frog dishcloth, I knew I wanted to make it for her. The only problem is ... school has been out for awhile (good thing for me, Mrs. Jennifer goes to church with us) and I do NOT like knitting with cotton. It makes my hands hurt. I thought I would put a picture of my progress - and sorry for the bad quality of the pic - since you can see most of the frog. And since this is supposed to be a knitting blog ....




It is a much brighter green, I had to turn the flash off so you could see the little froggy good.

What I do when I'm bored

My husband has been gone tonight picking up my daughter (she spent the weekend with her cousins) and the kids are in bed. So what do I spend my evening doing when I could be getting some major cleaning, sewing, or reading done?

I take pictures of myself and play with Picnik.

Weight loss update

It's been 5 weeks on Weight Watchers now with a whopping 4.6 pounds lost. You can forget that weekly picture I earlier said I'd be taking. Instead you can have one every 5 pounds or so. So here I am thinking, is that all?



A-ha ... but somewhere inside I am reminded that I have gone through a wedding, VBS, a funeral, and a birthday! I have been able to eat Chick-fil-A Icedreams and all the popcorn I want! I am back on track and it will not take 5 weeks to get another almost 5 pounds off. I have a new outlook ...



*For week 1 picture, see here.

Cuppycake Dress

I made this dress using the Pink Fig Cuppycake Dress pattern. It's such a fun, cute, summer dress. I love the Amy Butler fabric I chose, thanks to Glenna's help. Seriously folks, go visit her shop on the web and buy some great fabric and patterns for great prices.

Back to the dress - I have used one of Pink Fig's patterns before and loved it, but I had a few issues with this one. First off, I think using 16 strips of fabric for the skirt was way too much for my 3 year old. Below is a picture of me in the middle of the skirt before it was gathered to give you an idea. I am in the process of making another one of these dresses and I will probably only use 10 strips. Lucky for me, my fantabulous mother gave the the tip doing a zigzag stitch over some cord to draw it up. There is no way I could have gathered it my usual way without my thread breaking. On second thought - this is so cute on Little Bit and she does love the fullness of the skirt. Maybe if I would've done a lighter fabric it would've been better.



Issue two - there was a little piece of paper stuck in with the pattern that said the bodice piece would not line up with the back piece. To fix it, I needed to cut off 1/2 an inch from the front bodice piece. No big whoop, right? Well when I went to sew it on the back bodice piece, the front piece was 1/2 an inch too short! Maybe I had a newer copy of the pattern that had already been corrected? So, it was really no big deal; just that the bodice was 1/2 an inch shorter than it should have been.

Last issue - the back bodice piece was shirred. The last row of shirring was supposed to be about an 1/2 inch from the bottom of the bodice piece, which I did. But if you remember, my back bodice piece is now 1/2 an inch longer than my front, therefore making my last shirring row at the very bottom of the bodice. I'm not sure if that made a difference or not. (Have I totally lost you, yet, with my rambling?) When I went to sew the mammoth skirt onto the bodice I got to thinking - am I supposed to stretch the shirred bodice piece out while I sew this on? If I don't - the shirred part won't stretch anymore, right? I wondered if I would be able to fit it over her head if it wouldn't stretch. The directions said nothing about it, so I decided to stretch the back bodice piece while sewing the skirt on. I think I might have made a mistake on that, because now the shirred piece is stretched out for good.



Now for the good - this is SUCH a cute dress! I'm going to make one for Red and I've learned a few things. Cut down the size of the skirt, don't cut the front bodice down by 1/2 an inch, and try it this time without stretching the shirred piece.



It passes the swirl test and got several "ohs" and "ahs" from the ladies at church last night, which is always .... a good thing.

I think I will sew tonight. I have bought so much fabric and several patterns, and haven't seemed to have the time to do anything with any of it. I'm going to use the above very cool combo of Amy Butler fabric that I bought from the wonderful Glenna. You'll just have to wait and see what I'm making with it - just know that it will be super duper cute.

As you can see in the picture below, I usually have lots of help in the sewing room. Here are the girls organizing my pins. "Shiny ones" in the little box and all others on the magnetic holder.

A Happy Fourth

We had a wonderful July 4th! We did oversleep and missed the parade - but thankfully the kids forgot about it anyway so we weren't in too much trouble. In the evening, some friends from church came over for steaks and not cooked all the way potatoes (my fault). Here is some of the highlights of the night.



Little bit was at our guest's side the entire night. She talked him into fixing her hair - and I think he did a pretty good job seeing as how he has no experience with little girl's styles.



She even talked him into putting a red barrette in his hair.



I think Red will make a wonderful Pippy Longstocking in the future.



The kids had fun playing with sparklers before we headed across the street for the BIG fireworks.

Thank you, God for Nosey Neighbors!

We had an exciting morning. We got a call at 7:45 this morning from our neighbors (who aren't nosey, but I thought it would make a good title) that there was a man in our backyard. They happened to be outside and saw him ride on his bike up our driveway and around the back of our house. As I was on the phone they told me he was leaving with some of our stuff! Luckily, we have an outside door off our bedroom. Derek ran out and yelled in his deep booming voice to GET OFF MY PROPERTY! There might have been a few other choice words thrown in. The guy threw down a sawzall and our brand new leaf blower and peddled away as fast as he could - with Derek chasing after him in his underwear. Just kidding about the underwear part, he did have time to slip on some jeans - but I think it makes the story more exciting to leave the jeans off.

Now to the funny part of the story ....

This guy that tried stealing our things comes to our house on his bike every other month or so to beg for money. Even as late as 10:00 at night he will ring our doorbell. We even know his name. So when the police came this morning we were able to tell them exactly who it was. Apparently he's had run ins with the law before because they knew him, too, and he was picked up down the street within 5 minutes.

It is never dull at our house, that's for cheesy.

Life is good.

drat

I just commented to my husband over the weekend how much Little Bit's hair has grown. For a few months I didn't think it would ever grow. But alas - time passes ..... hair grows ..... Red gets bored and decides to play beauty shop one more time.






Will my girls ever have a normal little girl haircut? Will I ever learn that it might just be easier to throw away all scissors in our house?

First weigh in

Well I completely forgot about taking my weekly picture on Sunday for you! Maybe I should do a bi-monthly photo instead. But I can tell you the results of my first weigh in. I lost 2.2 pounds! That's even with having a wonderful steak dinner and dessert after my sister's wedding.

The Wedding

If you read my last post - you'll know that my sister got engaged Saturday and her and her beau just couldn't wait any longer. They called me yesterday at lunch to see if I could be at the church at 6:00! It was a sweet ceremony and I'd say a greatest wedding put together in 5 hours.



Here's my beautiful Mom and sister after the wedding. After the ceremony, we went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. When the waiter found out we were a wedding party, he brought a plate of desserts for us all to share. I heard the Tiramisu was delicious, but since I'm not a fan of coffee I stuck with the chocolate pie that was to die for.



My family after the wedding.

How did my head get on a chunky girl's body??

I thought I'd publish this for all the world to see and maybe hold me more accountable. So here it is - starting picture. Now let me tell you why the sudden desire to loose some weight.

My goal was to loose 15 pounds in 8 weeks. Why 8 weeks? Well, my sister met the man of her dreams 3 weeks ago and they are getting married on August 1! Knowing that, and knowing that I need someone holding my hand along the way, I joined Weight Watchers on Saturday. I just knew I was going to make my goal.

However, plans change. In life, you really need to be flexible or else you'll be sorely disappointed all throughout it. My sister called this morning and asked we could be at the church by 6:00 pm tonight! So I won't look all cute and sassy in her wedding pictures with 15 pounds off. Hey, at least I have a good haircut, right? I'm so excited for them, though!

I will be posting a picture update every week to see if we can tell a difference in my weight. I'm trying to decide if I should wear the same dress every time, what do you think?

Finally made something

Last night I finally sewed something. Two sweet little dresses using Frog Legs and Ponytails Caroline pattern. I fell in love with this Alexander Henry fabric a couple of months ago on a fabulous Etsy fabric shop and just had to have it. The main fabric is April Showers and the trim is May Flowers.



This pattern was so easy and I'll definitely make some more.