The Elephant

I have made this little Wee Wonderfuls elephant a total of 5 times now and will probably make it at least 5 more. Everyone loves it and requests one, so it is my go to gift for children's birthdays. This one was made for my girlfriend Jessica's 10 year old daughter, Samantha. Samantha shares a birthday with Sophia and was actually present at Sophia's birth. She is such a sweet girl and she LOVES chickens! LOL She recently lost all of her pet chickens to a raccoon, unfortunately : ( When I saw this Alexander Henry fabric, I knew I had to use it to make her elephant. The fabulous aqua buttons are vintage, I just love that color!



Poor Samuel, begs me to make him one everytime he sees me whipping up one for someone else. He just asked me a few minutes ago when I was going to make his. I guess I need to do that today. And I might as well cut out one for Ava, because you can put money on it, she will want one the minute she sees Sam's lol I rarely make patterns twice, but I really enjoy this one. I think I am going to purchase her new book, so many cute gifts, so little time!

My Baby is One!

I cannot believe it has been a year since my 8th child made her late but speedy appearance! It literally only seems like yesterday, I still think of her as an infant even though she walks everywhere now. She is a rough little booger, I guess that comes with being the youngest in such a large family lol I am a little sad because she is my last, but am trying to enjoy every minute of her dwindling babyhood. I consider them babies until at least 3 LOL She will probably be considered a baby until my dying breath, because she is really my baby.....unless, of course, God has a little prank to play on me later on. : O Which would really be fine, but if my plans work out, she will be the caboose.

These pictures were taken the other morning by Savannah. They really aren't very good, but I just love them. She is such a happy baby and loves to dance with her morning cartoons.



She loves to do anything Samuel and Ava do, they are still at the point that they love having their little sister follow around after them. I am sure that won't be lasting too much longer now that she can easily get into their stuff.



Chad's Mom and Dad dropped by to give Sophia her gift, we will be celebrating this coming weekend because the older kids had too much going on this weekend.



The school year is in full swing now, and I am scrambling to keep up! The girls have ballet 3 nights a week, there is church and sewing for Savannah on Wednesdays, Ava has speech therapy on Tuesdays and everyone has somewhere they want to go on the weekends! I am still homeschooling 3 of the children and Sydney and Parker are in a private high school which necessitates that I pick them up everyday. Thank God their school is only 5 minutes away. I feel like I live in that 15 passenger van sometimes. The house is a wreck and I often choose to sew or knit during those few free moments over cleaning up, which doesn't help to get the house out of wreckage mode! Oh well, as stressful and busy as things are right now, I am really very happy. I know one day I will have all of the free time I want and I will wish for these busy busy days with my children. I am really trying to enjoy my life where it is this very moment. I know from experience that I will look back and only remember the good times, I am trying to learn to truly enjoy the good times while they are happening.

NOLA and Best Friends

Saturday morning, my 3 best girlfriends and I took a little getaway to The Big Easy. We had a free hotel room on Canal Street, so it was an inexpensive getaway at that! Let me just say, I needed this. I have never been away from Sophia for more than a few hours, not to mention all my other children. I knew I would miss them, but it was so nice to only have myself to think of for 36 hours. I just love New Orleans, it is such a beautiful and unique city. It is only 2 hours from where I live, so it is easy to just take off for the day or the night. We often go with the children for the day to visit the zoo or the aquarium. Great food too, I know that goes without saying lol



We stopped at Target when we were first getting into town for some snacks and necessities that we forgot. It was a nice 2 story Target, but we forced ourselves to get what we needed and leave because Lord knows we were not in New Orleans to go to Target! We do that all the time at home lol



My girlfriends are funny, crazy(in a good way:D) ladies and it was so nice to let my hair down and just relax and have fun! We ate a lot, walked a whole lot, window shopped and I danced : D Did I say that I danced? Yes, I definitely danced. I think I need to go dancing more often, I forgot how much fun it is. Oh, and you can't beat people watching in New Orleans, lots and lots of interesting people to see!

I was a little worried about Sophia because she is still breastfed and usually wakes up once a night to nurse. Well, the little booger slept allll night for her Daddy lol He said she was crying for me Sunday morning, but the rest of the time she did great. She was ready to nurse when I got home, and I was ready to feed her. lol

All photos courtesy of my crazy girlfriend Jessica ; D

crazy ramblings

Not a great picture, but I hate to blog without posting a pic and all of my good pictures are on my computer, which has a virus : / This was taken on Bella's phone, it is Sophia and Sydney.

Hey everyone, just wanted to stop in and let some steam off. I don't know how much of this will make any sense and to be honest, I am not sure if I will even hit publish post. ha! Things have been so crazy ever since I got pregnant for Sophia. I really thought circumstances in my life were the reason, and they were to some extent, but I finally went to the dr. and realize now that my body is probably the main reason. I tend to go for a more holistic approach to medicine and thankfully my ob feels the same way. I had lots of testing done and found out that my vitamin D levels are almost nonexistent, I am deficient in iodine, my adrenal gland is stressed, I am low on progesterone and probably more that I just don't know about yet. I have started on the necessary vitamins and natural progesterone cream and am praying I start feeling better soon! I am only a week in, and realize that it will take a little while to get back to normal, but I can't wait! I am so ready to feel normal again!

On a positive note, my family is doing so well. Parker and Sydney are doing very well in the private school they are attending, it was a great transition from home schooling. The little ones are getting big and we are really enjoying Sophia, she is going to be 1 year old at the end of the month! There is sadness knowing that she is my last little one, but I am really looking forward to the next part of my life. LOL not like this one is over by any means, I still have at least 17 years with children around : D But no more babies, until grandchildren come along that is! I figure I have at least 5 years until that happens though. I am so greatly blessed (which makes my feeling crappy even more frustrating), I can say I have the EXACT life I have always dreamed of. I wouldn't change a thing! I also can't express how lucky I am to have married the man I did. He is perfect for *me*. He takes all my craziness in stride and loves me no matter what lol

I will say in all of this, my hobbies have helped to keep me sane. I am over halfway done with the quilting on my Mom's quilt. I know, I know it is taking forever, but I am doing a fairly complicated pattern, at least for me, and this is my first try at free motion quilting. I also have a little sewing class, I am teaching one young mama how to knit and another one how to sew. This is so enjoyable, I love visiting with them as much as I love teaching them to do these things that I love so much. We have babies around the same age, of course, they are young and I am O L D LOL Funny how it seems like just yesterday when I was that young mom, I really don't feel much different than I did then, maybe because I do still have young children.

Oh, and the small thing that made my morning....this line of fabric!!!! I havn't loved a whole line like this since Urban Chiks 1974 line came out and I used it to make my first quilt. Thinking I will be buying quite a bit of it.

thanks for reading if you got this far, I miss all of my blog friends, even though I do keep up with all of y'all through your blogs. Hopefully the next time I blog I will be feeling better and making more sense : D

The Couture Process from FIDM Museum on Vimeo.

This is fascinating, especially the part on the intricate handwork that went into these beautiful creations!