Dresses for the Girls

(Photo from Blake Collins)

I know Easter was a few months ago but I made dresses for the girls and wanted to share them here. We did not take good pictures of the girls in their dresses that day, but you can get the idea. I used a fun animal print fabric I picked up at JoAnn's for the main portion of both dresses. You may recognize the fabric from this blanket which is how I used the leftovers.

Dressing sisters in matching outfits goes back decades but since there is a four year age gap Sydney usually likes to have a little individuality. So I used a different color solid to complete each dress. Sydney picked out pink, of course, and Violet received green. I used the Ice Cream Dress pattern from Oliver + S. The pattern was well written and easy to follow. I did make a few small mistakes but I learned alot along the way. For example, I didn't secure the side seams of the dress well enough and now after a dozen washes Sydney's has begun to come unraveled. They both have enjoyed wearing them though and it makes me happy to see them.

Hearts and Needles

Happy Valentine's Day! We had a weekend of heart shaped food including toast with hearts cut out and filled with eggs. We call these birds in a nest but I'm not sure that's an official name for this food. We also made homemade pizzas in heart form.


Today is a no school day for Sydney. The girls have been having a fun day playing together. While Vi was napping I decided to work on a little hand-stitching.


It is so lovely to look down at this fabric (from Anna Maria Horner). But so much better to look up to find Syd has joined me with her own project. She knows how to make a mama feel so loved.


The only thing that would make this day better is having my Valentine here with me. But alas, a day of love is not a holiday for the movie making folk. :) I'll just have to wait until dinner.

Crocheted Halloween Costumes

I have wanted to make Sydney's Halloween costume since she was a baby. This year I finally got the inspiration to really go for it. She really wanted to be Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon, which of course made Shane really proud. We actually looked around for a costume for her but couldn't find one anywhere. We did see some girls wearing pre-made ones on Halloween so they must have been available but maybe just sold out. Either way, with Shane's encouragement, we decided to make Sydney an Astrid costume ourselves.


First I picked out some yarn and crocheted the vest/shirt for her. It is two different yarns, one aqua color and a tricolor, that I crocheted together. I just chained enough to fit around her waist and slip stitched to the first chain to make a large loop. Then I just did rows of double stitch up her torso. I was worried the double stitch would be too big and not tight enough for a shirt but because of using two yarns and a H hook it worked out great. Once I made the tube big enough for her torso I just winged it to go up around on shoulder and then attached it to the back. Then I crocheted the other side. I was in a hurry so I didn't keep track of stitches or anything like that. Basically the poor girl had to try it on every hour or so as I went to make sure it was going to fit correctly.


The skirt is a faux leather I picked up at Joann's. I just made myself a little template and cut out all the pieces by hand. Then sewed them onto a waist band piece. I didn't really have the time to finish the skirt well so we just cut belt loops right into the waist of the skirt and put her brown belt on the inside of the skirt. It worked perfectly. Plus, this method means it is adjustable so she can wear it again next year if she wants. The skirt also includes a basic tube of brown cotton fabric for the bottom layer. The 'studs' are just silver buttons I found and sewed onto the skirt. The little skulls and the studs on her shoulders are clay Shane mixed up for me that we baked in the oven until set, then we just hot glued them into place.


The shoulder pieces are made for cardboard, hot glue, spray paint, and more of the clay for the spikes. And to finish it all off I made her headpiece from a scrap of the 'leather', extra buttons, and verco. Viola! Astrid.


Next up was Violet. We thought it would be cute if she was a little dragon. We talked and sketched some ideas for a little beanie and spikes as well as other details but in the end time limited her costume to just wings. It worked out because at 15 months she wasn't really liking the idea of a detailed, cumbersome costume. I just used some Red Heart soft green yarn. Once again I just sort of winged it without a pattern (sorry for the pun.) It is all double crocheted as well which made it come together quickly. Shane helped me add wire (from a wire hanger) then I just added a couple buttons to attache the harness.


I was happy with how they turned out and I look forward to making more costumes for them in the future. It was also good to try my skills at creating something with no pattern to even base it off of. Definitely a stretching experience.

Turning One

My baby girl turned one on July 17th. We celebrated Star Wars style with her big sister. Violet is an amazing child and I once again feel so blessed that God added her to our family a year ago. Some of you may know but we had a miscarriage two years ago and then became pregnant with Violet a couple months later. This experience made me nervous throughout my pregnancy but I'm so thankful to have a faithful Father who carried us through that experience. Even though I can't explain all the whys of losing our baby, I find comfort and peace in trusting Him. One of the many blessings that came from that difficult experience was added joy in the birth of Violet. It felt like such a celebration of life and the blessing of children.

Violet, you are truly a joy to your daddy and me. Here are a few of the many things about you that make me smile...

-the way you say hi by reaching out to us in excitement
-your little tentative, wobbly steps
-your "kisses" face


-your "cheese" face
-the way you laugh when Sydney plays with you
-the fact that you giggle so much and so easily
-the way you say "Dad, Daddy, Dada, Dad" all day long until he comes home
-how you lay your head on my shoulder when you're tired
-your little chubby hand signing "please"
-how you drink from a straw until you are breathless (someday soon you realize you just have to stop sucking)
-your love for water (we find you in the tub even when it is empty)
-how brave you are

Right now you love all things with buttons, all fruit, and anybody who will pick you up. You don't like being told no, skipping naps, or being quiet in the car.


Little padawan, you are my heart's joy. I pray that this coming year is filled with adventure, exploration, and discovery. I pray that as you become a young lady you are brave and courageous in your walk with the Lord. I love you, Vi!

Much love and blessings,
Mama

First Swimming Experience

Violet and Sydney are different in many ways. Swimming is definitely one of them. Sydney's first experience with a swimming pool did not last long. She started screaming the instant her toe hit the water. Even though she's almost 5 and has had swim lessons she still demands a floaty. Violet is the complete opposite. She was trying to crawl into the pool and laying on her belly splashing away at the edge. As you can guess once we put her suit on she was a happy water baby. I am looking forward to much more swimming with the girls this summer.

Mother's Day Craft

Sydney and Violet made these little pendant necklaces for their Grammy and Oma for Mother's Day. Well, mostly Sydney and Mommy made them. I saw the idea over on The Crafty Crow and thought it would be a great project for Sydney. We just added little Violet's fingerprint too. Now both grandmas have a pendant with the girls' fingerprints. I will say it turned out a bit too big to wear though so these necklaces may become Christmas ornaments.

Happy 29th Shane!

The man I love turns 29 today. I struggled with what to get for him. He means so much to me and another Blu Ray or book just seemed sort of....not enough. In the end, Sydney picked out a record for him (his newest hobbie) and along with a couple small gifts we each made him something. Sydney used some clay that bakes in the oven and made him a pencil holder for his desk. I decided to make him this crocheted yoda to sit and guard the pencil cup. The pattern was a little confusing to me so I sort of changed some things as I went, but that may be because this was my first attempt at any sort of animal or doll. I am happy with the way it turned out and I look forward to trying other creatures in the future.


Shane, I love the way you love me and the girls. You are such a wonderful man of God, an amazing artist, and of course, an amazing father. May your birthday be filled with lots of laughter and fun, and may the Dodgers win today for you! ;)

Baby Brother's Wedding

My youngest brother was married this past Saturday. It was a beautiful ceremony at my parents' house. He married Stephanie, who already feels like a part of our family but now we officially welcome her to the chaos. I wish them many years of happiness and lots of babies. hee hee

Of course I was too busy during the wedding to take pictures but here's one of them heading out at the end of the night.


And here's one of the my little family, all ready for the wedding and pictures to start.


If you are keeping track, both of my brothers have now been married in the last month. Next up is my sister in October. Let's just say it is a busy year for our family. The good news is our family is doubling in size (almost anyways) and it is so much fun!

New armoire

We have a 9 month old explorer living in our house. She loves anything off limits including any of big sister's toys, Daddy's flat screen and Blu Rays, and Mommy's crochet hooks and sewing supplies. In order to create a safe land of adventure in the apartment we have been doing some spring cleaning and decluttering. We also finally added this beauty to our living room. I love love love it! There is still a bit of cleaning and organizing to do and then of course my favorite: decorating. It feels so good to go through the house and organize. We are known to move often so usually the cleaning and organizing happens then. However, we have been in this apartment for over 2 years so it was time. I have a few projects in the works so look for some actual crafting up soon.

A brother's wedding

My brother Richard is only 13 months younger than me. He is dangerously intelligent and loves being a father. On March 27th he was married to Michelle. We welcome Michelle and her daughter Lily to our family. Lily and Sydney are only a couple months apart in age and have very similar personalities. You can imagine Sydney's excitement when learning that Lily was now officially her cousin. She even insisted on getting her a gift!

8.5 months old

Uhhhh, who is this cute baby?

"coo coo"

Kisses!

Opps we got caught.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love her? I do. Immensely.

How To Train Your Dragon

Shane finished up on How To Train Your Dragon a few weeks ago and last weekend we celebrated. The crew was treated to a screening of the film and a wrap party on Saturday evening. It was the first time I was able to see the film and I now understand why Shane was so excited. It is a masterpiece of animation, story, and imagination. I just love so many things about it. It is a father/son story placed in an amazing world of vikings and dragons but I don't want to spoil anything for you: just go see it! DreamWorks Animation has done some really funny films but my favorites are Kung Fu Panda and Prince of Eygpt; however, Dragons is better than these in my own opinion. Of course, I may be a bit biased since Shane worked on it. :) I hope everybody else enjoys this film as much as Shane enjoyed being a part of it.

Hiking

In an effort to spend more time outdoors I have been taking the girls out hiking recently. Here in Southern California the weather is beautiful and perfect for being outside right now. Often Sydney will get frustrated with hiking and complain that her legs hurt after only a few minutes so I decided to give her a little motivation. To encourage her to explore and look at the world around her we made the following:


Basically, I had her use markers to color an egg carton. Then on our hikes I simply encourage her to find different objects in nature that match her colors. The picture above is some of her treasures from today.

Favorite Things: Afternoons at the Park

We are lucky enough to have a park right across the street from our apartment. It is not the best park by any means neither in playground equipment or setting but it is wonderful to have a park so close to home. Even though it is the middle of winter we are still able to go frequently. Sydney loves running around playing, Vi enjoys being outside with new things to look at and explore, and I am thankful for a few moments in the sun with my girls and a book. I do realize that as soon as Violet figures out how to crawl these moments of sitting on a small blanket with a book will be over. Our time at the park will become chasing her around and taking all sorts of leaves and dirt out of her mouth but for now I am loving it.

2009

It is hard to believe that 2009 is already gone. I am not one to sit and reminiscence (at least not out in public on the blog) but this year has been a big one. I have been so blessed! Just a few of the things on my mind are:

- The three of us becoming the four of us!

- Learning that my second baby is so much different then my first and yet somehow her small fingers, her smell, her habits, and her smile seem so familiar.

- Celebrating five years with the man I love.

- Watching Sydney become a huge Star Wars fan (just like her Dad).

- Developing close friendships is always worth the time! I have not always had really close friends, you know the ones that you instantly call if anything significant happens. :)

- Watching the progression of Shane's artistic ability (whether he wants to admit it or not).

- Realizing it has been 10 years since I graduated high school and I am not as young as I sometimes think I am. haha

Of course, the beginning of a year always gets me thinking of what I want to change or improve upon. This year I am looking forward to:

- Violet turning one: the first steps, the first words, and her personality emerging a little more.

- Sydney turning five and starting kindergarten.

- The release of two films Shane has worked on in one year!

- Spending more time with my favorite three people. I am hoping to spend more time outdoors: biking, hiking, etc.

- Creating more. And hopefully sharing more here in the process. I am making a list of projects I want to try. This also includes my longing to make more of the gifts we give this year.

Mostly, I feel excited to see what God has in store for me and my family this year. I know that whatever the highs and lows He will always be by my side through it all. I pray each of us is acutely aware of His providence this year! May you each be blessed in 2010.

Birthday trip to Disneyland

Last Friday Shane took us to Disneyland for my birthday. What is there to say about a trip to Disneyland? It was magical and super fun as usual. It is so great going with Sydney who sees all the magic that I forget about. This was also Violet's first visit as well as the first day of the holiday season so we were able to enjoy all the Christmas decor. Here's a couple of my favorite pictures from the day.

Violet going strong even though it was close to bedtime. She just spent the day staring at everything.


A picture in front of the castle with my sweet girl.

Thank you Shane for making my birthday another special one! Love you!

Halloween: Fun Fest

This year's Fun Fest theme was Star Wars as mentioned before. We forgot the camera in the car and never remembered or had time to run back and get it. However thanks to my phone we have a few pictures. Sydney was in the skit and it was exciting for me to see her come out of her shell a little bit.

Here's Jedi Paul (formerly Darth Saul) fighting Darth Vader. Sydney and all the other younglings are in the foreground using the most powerful weapon of a Jedi (prayer) to help.


At the end they all demonstrate their best Jedi pose.


This year was once again super fun and I just have to say thanks to all those who spent their time and energy planning, preparing, and serving for this great event. Until next year....may the force be with you!

Halloween Celebrations

On Friday, the day before Halloween, we spend a couple hours at DreamWorks with Shane. Like last year, they had tables set-up for each of the projects they are working on. Sydney had lots of fun playing games, getting candy, and eating lots of yummy food! She was dressed as Ahsoka (from the Clone Wars animated series).

Here she is meeting Fiona (aka Amanda).

Then she played some games.


"Hmmm which candy to choose?"


The best costume definitely went to this guy who was the DreamWorks moon-boy and even had a speaker somewhere because he kept playing the DreamWorks music too.


Here is Violet in her yoda hat! This was hand knit by a dear friend, thank you Katie!


We had such a great time! Next up was Fun Fest, stand tuned for pictures.

Feeding Violet

Last week Sydney feed Violet for the first time. She was so excited! It is so amazing to watch them grow together: how they interact even now. Violet will watch Sydney with such intensity. And Sydney will do anything to make Vi smile. I can already see how God is blessing their relationship as sisters. I know it is such a special bond. I am so thankful that they have each other and that they are part of my family! What an awesome responsibility Shane and I have to raise them and teach them but what a huge blessing.

Pumpkin Patch

We recently visited a local pumpkin patch with the girls. Sydney had lots of fun in the bounce house and on the hay ride. Then of course we let her pick a pumpkin to take home. Even Violet got in on the action and explored the pumpkins.

I just love this time of year and I especially love spending time outdoors with my family. Now if I could just convince this weather to get a bit cooler I would be very happy.