Girls hair and a Bag

Finally, a hair post!

This is my niece Emily 3. She has bangs so I tried to copy a picture I saw on pinterest for toddler hair.

 Another niece Lauren 5. I also tried to copy a picture I found on Pinterest for her. I've never been really good at formal hairstyles or updo's so I'm working on it and learning new tricks as I go.

 Her's was 2 braids on the side and fishbone braids all twisted into a bun. I am too tired to find the original picture right now but I can assure you the Pinterest picture was much better.

It was my sister in law's birthday a few weeks ago, so I made another purse as her gift. This is another new one for me, but it was really easy. The pattern came out of a book called Simple Sewing with a French Twist.

I will definitely be making this one again!

 

I have a couple more posts coming up soon. I've been so busy with my multiple jobs (mother, housewife, babysitter, and the 2 paid jobs on top of that) I feel so overwhelmed, I'm exhausted all the time and after reading another blog tonight I realized that I am constantly striving to have the perfect Pinterest house.
I have to move all my stuff around just to take a good picture and it's absolutely ridiculous. I highly doubt the houses these pictures are taken in are lived in. I don't have nice furniture, and I can't keep up with the mess my family makes, but I'm doing the best I can.
After preparing this wonderful delicious dinner last night, Jake called to tell me he had a meeting at work he forgot to tell me about, so he wouldn't be home for dinner. As I already had everything ready to be cooked it was too late to turn back. So I strived forward, with Savannah whining the whole time, I managed to finish 2 hours later. I put her to bed scarfed down my food then cleaned the kitchen.  Jake made it all better by calling me Super Mom!
It makes all the difference to have someone encourage you. Even if it's just one word, make sure you let people know how much they are appreciated. We forget this all too often.

Pillowcase Dresses and a Playdate

 Savannah and I got to have a play date this weekend. We got together with some work friends and their children, had Pinterest inspired snacks and had a great time. I made Ham and cheese pretzel bites and Salted caramel almond pretzel popcorn, Keo made Chicken and pot pie cupcakes, and Tanya made Mini Tortilla crust pizza's. Everything was absolutely amazing! I was very surprised how well everything turned out.

We've had so much going on at home the past few weeks. Jake is finishing up re-doing the ceiling in our bathroom (his first time drywalling) I finally finished painting my craft room and I made 3 beautiful dresses. I've been seeing these dresses everywhere lately and I had a pattern for them I just updated it a little. I was able to use all fabric that I had in my stash (yay for free!) and they really didn't take very long I just ran out of time.

 This one is Savannah's

 Tanya's daughter Abby

 

 Keo's daughter Joslyn

 

Here is a picture of all the kids. Joslyn 7 mos, Abby 16 mos, Micah 5 mos and Abby's brother, and Savannah 16 mos.

 

On the subject of beautiful crafts, my Aunt Roxanne made Savannah a beautiful knit sweater for Christmas. It is perfect and we love it!

Who knew that you could get a 3 yr old to help with the laundry? She loves sorting the socks and it is a great learning opportunity.

Savannah update:
No idea on height or weight
Taking steps on her own when she wants, not when we want.
Got 2 molars and a front tooth all in a month, and I'm pretty sure there are more on the way.
Loving peas and greens.
Still wont say mama but says "this" every time she wants something.
And cute as a button.

Christmas

 I hope everyone had a great Christmas, besides getting a stomach bug mine was great. Savannah had a lot of fun, especially playing with the batteries to the toys she got. Why do we bother buying toys, they like the boxes and apparently the batteries better. Please excuse the especially bad quality of photos, I am trying to figure out the manual mode on my camera.

 Her hair is getting so long, I can actually get a ponytail on the top and in the back but not both together. She took her first step the other day, it was with the ball popper but we are getting closer.

 She got her last tooth when she was 11 months old making it 2 on the bottom. She finally just started getting 2 more (at the same time) strangely though it is 2 top molars instead of the 2 top front. This kid has done everything opposite of what she is supposed to.

 So remember that nightmare project I was telling you about? Here it is! I think I have to hem it again before my niece can wear it but honestly I can't wait to see it on her after all the hard work I put into it. I also made a golf pillow case for my brother in law, tote bag that fits into a smaller monogram bag for his girlfriend, and 2 drawstring shoe totes for my nieces. I added a cute little surprise of ballet shoes inside.

 And here is the stocking that I had been working on for years. I would have gotten a better picture but Jake said he got one already. That wasn't true.

 

Savannah's new developments besides almost walking: She gives kisses all the time and it is soooo cute, she started falling asleep in my arms again and I just turn into complete mush when it happens, it's been about a year since she has done that.

 

A new job and a quick update

Sorry no photo's this time either, I hope you'll understand.

 A little over a month ago I started a new at-home  job as an Internet assessor rating and reviewing web pages and video's. It is a very legit job and I have been paid already so no worries. I can't talk about it too much but it is pretty complicated, requires a good amount of studying until you get the hang of it and I had to take 2 very difficult tests to get in. I do about 10 hours a week which is a lot more difficult than it seems when I still have my part time job and a 15 month old who doesn't nap as much anymore. This is hopefully a step to leaving my part time job that just gets worse as the weeks go by.

Have you ever started working on a project just to find out it is going to be a nightmare and there is no other choice but to finish it? Well I finally just finished that nightmare. It was a dress that was intended for my 6 year old niece for a Christmas present. I made the whole bodice, intricate detail, lining and all, to realize it probably would fit a 2 year old. I decreased my seam allowances and tried again, still too small, so now it is going to be a gift for my 3 year old niece. I think the pattern has some sizing problems. It's finally finished, and it's beautiful but I will never, make it again.

I have been working on a homemade cross-stitch stocking for about 10 + years now and I finally finished that also. I'm glad it was my own child who it eventually got finished for.

I finished a lot of my Christmas shopping early and even got a few projects done early, then Jake's family dropped the bomb on me. They decided to do a secret Santa exchange, oh well I've gotten over it and some people will just get an extra gift. I'm not real happy about having to go out in the last minute shopping crowd though.

Savannah started standing on her own last week, it is so exciting to watch her grow and learn. She isn't doing it enough yet to start walking any time soon though.

Longaberger Basket

 We could all use a little extra money to pay for all the Christmas presents right?
My mom is selling a bunch of great Longaberger baskets on Ebay : my ebay I was at her house all night entering them so it would be great if a few of them sold. They are all in excellent condition.

 

This picture below is a 1999 May series Daisy flower basket. It has a plastic lining that allows you to store flowers in the basket.

 

1994 Lilac basket.

                                                                         1999 Christmas

                                                         1999 Horizon of Hope basket with lid    

                                                         1998 Harbor basket. Large basket with lid.

                                                                        1998 Horizon of Hope

                                                                1997 Petunia basket

                                                          1998 Picture Perfect Sweetheart

                                                                         2001 Vintage Blossoms

Thanks for taking a look. Please excuse the dust, it was a very late night and I was too tired to dust them.

Almost Walking

 Due to the hurricane Halloween was on a Monday this year. Because I work Monday nights I wasn't able to take Savannah trick or treating but Jake was. I made this costume for her to look like a peacock. I made a classic tutu and hot glued real peacock feathers into the slip knots that make up the tutu.

 This is the headband that went with it. I folded up some pieces of tulle and glued them to a ribbon. Added a couple scraps of peacock feathers and sewed the ribbon around a stretchy hair tie.

 There are photos out there of her in the costume I just don't have them yet.

Savannah got to play in the leaves. She didn't like it very much.

She is finally learning to walk! For about 2 weeks now she has been pushing everything around that moves. She loves cruising through the kitchen with her walker. We are practicing standing on her own and she seems to enjoy the effort.

Loves pushing her shopping cart.
She still only has 2 teeth and is getting very picky about food. I am not making much anymore because she will like it once then never again.

I have been working on Christmas presents so I don't have any current projects to show.

Hurricane Sandy

 

Hurricane Sandy went right through the bottom of NJ, the state I have lived in for over 20 years now.  I never thought I would experience anything this disastrous living here. I remember my dad driving us through the Mission district in San Fransisco after the earthquake of '89. I can still picture the haunting scenes of houses crumbled to the ground, and I was only 5.  No one ever expects to experience something like that twice in their life. Honestly, I hope that is the last time I have to experience it.

We were sitting in the living room listening to the wind bang against the windows, shaking and cracking the house, listening to things breaking and flying around outside and there was not a thing we could do about it. We lost power around 8 pm and didn't get it back for about 36 hours. Not an easy thing to deal with when you have a small child in the house.

The next day we looked around at the devastation, fortunately we didn't have too much damage. Some broken plaster from our ceiling on the floor, shingles missing and part of our fence broken, but other people fared much worse including my parents.

 

The Weather Channel was broadcasting from the hotel next door to our beach house throughout the storm and Fox news visited that area the next day and showed this and a few other pictures of the inside of our house on the news. Since the state is restricting who can go into the disaster zone it was neat to be able to see what happened to our house.

 Snuggling was necessary since we had no lights or heat.

Savannah go to take her first quad ride with Jake

She didn't like it very much

 

On a happier note, when the power came back I couldn't wait to cook, so I celebrated by making a new kind of pizza. Vodka Rigatoni pizza!

I make pizza about once a week because that was Jake's family tradition, and I had leftover vodka rigatoni.  I make the dough using the recipe in the Joy of cooking. I also make my own sauce, for the vodka sauce I use my regular sauce, 1 cup cream, and 1/3 cup vodka.  It took a while to learn the tricks, so first: prepare the dough on large bread kneading board, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder. Then move onto pizza peel with a generous covering of corn meal. Add your toppings. I always add ricotta cheese to my pizza, it just makes it even yummier. Cook for 12 minutes at 475 on a pizza stone.

 

I have been getting Savannah used to feeding herself with a spoon. She does good for a while, then discovers it's easier just to use your hands.  She is learning so much lately.  She puts her cup in the cup holder, clucks her tongue, says no and yes, night night, waves and says bye bye. All this in just a few days. She's also getting a little more confident standing.