Machine change up

Last June I decided to buy a new sewing machine, since the base model I had didn't have some of the features I needed. I ended up buying the BabyLock Grace, which is way more than I asked the salesman for but I do have to say it's been great. I spent way to much money on it and I've already had to take it in twice for repair. I'm not very happy about that. Because it's computerized I have more trouble with heavier fabrics and I've broken two needles. That's not really unusual except when you break a needle with this machine, first you get yelled at by the salesman, second I scratched the bobbin case (which they said they would replace and never did), and third a pice got stuck in the bottom of the machine. It doesn't come apart as easily as my old one. Finally, after the second repair, my mom suggested I use my old machine to make the diaper bags.

My Elna (old machine) is a beast. It cuts through the many layers of fleece, fabric, and interfacing like it doesn't even exist. It's not automatic and it get's snagged all the time, but it will save me time and money from having to go get repairs again.

This is the sewing room in my house. The whole front of my house has this long indoor porch, I think it's called a Florida room. It open's up with glass french doors from the living room and one side is the sewing side, and the other side is for my piano. This room was carpeted with gold walls when we bought the house. We had to do a lot of refinishing to get the floors back to the original wood.

I've been working hard lately to get everything done and since I've been on a pretty good track, getting the diaper bag done before the shower, I decided to make Jake a present. I got this fabric in Lancaster. He slept with it on top of his head most of the night because he "didn't want to mess it up"

Diet day 2 and 1 again

So I realized, that as well as sugar, everything has carbs. Day 1 ended up being a low carb day but i've been getting better. Day 2 I had cranberry chicken salad "naked" (no bread) for lunch, eggs for breakfast again, 1 Tbs peanut butter as a snack and a small Dunkin' iced coffee with cream and equal (2g carbs yay!) and for dinner, Trader Joe's Alaskan Cod grilled with lemon (yum!) I just started eating fish about a month ago and I realized I love it. I also realized I never liked it before because it was never cooked properly, but Jake is a pro at cooking it to perfection.
This week's day 1: So far I've had eggs with salsa for breakfast, Iced coffe again and peanut butter for snack since I didn't get lunch until 2, Sliced turkey and cheese for lunch with 1/4 cup cottage cheese on the side, and dinner i'm either planning corned beef (after I do some research) or grilled chicken with a few fresh veggies on top. Not really getting any deserts is what's killing me the most.

Diet day 1

So, for the past 3 weeks I have been cutting back the sugar in my diet to less than 25g per day plus absolutely no high fructose corn syrup. I haven't been keeping good track of my weight but I probably lost about 5 pounds so far and I just feel so much better, which is what really counts. If you try this diet I can assure you, you will be surprised at how much food has sugar and how much sugar is in foods that you thought were healthy. Let's take yogurt for example. The container says low fat or fat free and everyone uses yogurt as a diet food. Well 1 yogurt has average 23g of sugar, the ones that use Splenda such as Dannon light and fit have 11-13g. Cross that off my list. Since I started, I no longer crave desert after every meal, I actually hardly ever eat desert and it doesn't bother me, and I don't have the urge to eat all the goodies that people bring into work. My brother Jesse lost about 80 lbs doing this diet.
To try to get the weight off a little bit more I am going to be cutting out carbs 2 days a week. My sister did the 17 day diet and she looks amazing after just a few weeks. I can't follow the 17 day diet because of the sugar and because I just don't have that much willpower yet but maybe in the near future. Today is day one of my 2 days without carbs. So far i've only done breakfast but that was one of the hardest, I had scrambled eggs. Lunch I am planning edemame and cranberry chicken salad with just a few craisins because they also have a ton of sugar. Dinner has not been decided yet but it's supposed to be around 70 degrees today, so I will probably grill chicken kebobs with fresh veggies.

Baby clothes, love them especially when handmade

I have pictures of Stella's dress now. Her's has a raised empire wiast at the center front and back, pinafore style top with buttons and the skirt flares out a little more. She is so adorable!

I also added a removable flower to the waist of her dress.

Then, my sister Melissa surprised Savannah and I with 2 onesies with St, Patty's day themed

iron-on's, and a beautiful green tu-tu. Even better, Stella has ones to match.

We would love to get the girls together for these pictures, but we live in NJ and they live in MD.

Did I mention how adorable she is.

Finally, some pictures

I finally had a chance to take pictures of the dress I made Savannah and her cousin Stella. I used the pattern Oliver+S Tea Party Dress, but I changed the pattern for Savannah's dress and added the bow. Stella's picture is on it's way. I made Stella's with the original pattern, and it's still very cute.

A mother's day is never done

I am so beat right now. Savannah still doesn't always sleep through the night every time. It depends how much rice cereal I can get her to eat before she has a complete breakdown (she's kinda a drama queen.)
So, my day started pretty rough just because of that, then I had to take my niece to kindergarten and I got so involved in teaching her to read music that we were almost late to school. Savannah got a 15 minute nap during the trip to the school so she decided that was enough for a while and wouldn't take her morning nap. In the meantime I did get her to roll over from back to front for the first time.
When I eventually got her to take her nap, I had to work on the gift for my pregnant friend (i've been trying to get this gift done since I found out she was pregnant in November. Then Savannah woke up and it was time to run errands. It was so windy today, my hair was standing straight up.
We finally get home and Jake had to work late with my brother so I sat down for 5 minutes then tried to get dinner in while Savannah took another nap, but it never fails, as soon as I sit down with my dinner, she wakes up. Finally after cold dinner and trying to hold her and eat while she grabs everything out of my hand, Jake comes home.
Then it's time for baby's rice cereal (which she barely ate again), baby's bath, bottle them bed. Once she hit's the sack it's time for me to clean the house, do the dishes, laundry and make the baby food for the next few days. I finally get to sit and relax for an hour only to wake up and do it all over again tomorrow.

More fabric

My mom, niece Emily, Savannah and I went to another fabric store today. It is called Olde City Quilts in Burlington NJ. It's a very nice, big store and I got a little more fabric to make some more gifts. I know it seems wierd that I need to make so many gifts but my husband and I have 4 friends/family members getting married this summer. Two of them are in the same weekend. And I have 2 friends having babies this summer. I always looked forward to my 20's because I knew, that would be around the age all my friends would start getting married and having children, but this year is especially crazy. I thought last year was bad when a girl at my work was 6 weeks pregnant ahead of me and my sister was 11 weeks ahead of me. It's definitely going to be an expensive couple of years (hence the presents being handmade).
It was such an unseasonably beautiful day in the mid 60's and tomorrow is supposed to be even better. Unfortunately Savannah has had a bad cough and has to go to the doctor tomorrow, so we might not be getting to enjoy the outdoors very much.

Rainy day

I looked at the weather forecast on Monday, only to see that today was supposed to be beautiful. I usually work or watch my neices on Saturday and Jake usually works for my brother. We finally got a week off, so seeing that the weather was supposed to be sunny and 60's (in March) we made plans to go to our beach house and The Grounds for Sculpture. Turns out, the weather was rainy and cold this morning. So sad change in plans, we ended up going to a childrens consignment sale in Lawrenceville, and scoring some great deals on clothes and toys, going to Terhune orchards to get breakfast, then rented two movies, Planet of the Apes and Water for Elephants (both of which were great), and we also went to my mom and dad's house to cut my dad's hair. It ended up being a busy day but I would have much rathered the original plan.

Cider donuts for breakfast. (pic is from the website, we did not eat that many)

Fresh apple cider to wash them down

I can't find my old pictures from our visits to the Grounds for Sculpture, but I found one of my father in law with his grandaughters. (Just one of the many beautiful sculptures)