Buzz Buzz

Last year before Connor was born, Pat, Haley and I made a trip to Pittsburgh to visit family. While we were there, we went to this awesome fabric shop called "LOOM". The store is a candyland of amazing designer fabrics. I would live there if I could. While I love my local fabric store, there's just something about browsing a giant store full of adorable designer fabrics that make a girl want to move in and stay forever.

Since my bank account can't handle the boatloads of fabric I wanted, I had to be careful about the fabrics I chose - and let me tell you, that was difficult given all the fantastic designers: Amy Butler, Michael Miller, Alexander Henry, Robert Kaufman....I was in heaven. I decided to go ahead and buy at least one piece of fabric at full price, so I got 1/2 yard of Alexander Henry's "Tweet Tweet" fabric, which is the one I used to make Haley's simple skirt in THIS post.

Like I said, I knew I couldn't affort the insane amount of fabric I wanted, so I did what any thrifty girl would do - I headed straight to the remnant pile. And that's where I found this adorable fabric!

source

There in the pile amoung the other scraps was 1/4 yard of Michael Miller's Bee Hive fabric in mustard. With Haley's obsession with bees, I knew I had to get it and make something out of it. Fast forward a year later, and I finally got around to actually using it.

Haley has a sever lack of summer clothes, so with hot Tennessee weather quickly on the way, I knew I wanted to make some shorts and a coordinating shirt out of it for her!

I made some simple, elastic waist shorts with little pockets on the back (you're looking at the back of the pants in the photo above.) I used store-bought bias tape to line the pants and pockets, then added some buttons to the pockets for a little extra detail. I also sewed a large button and elastic string on the front using this tutorial on Craftiness is Not Optional for the fly. I know it's not meant to be used for the fly of pants, but it turned out great!

Might have to do a shorts tutorial in the future....these were so fun and easy!

The shirt was SUPER easy. I used a scrap of the Bee Hive fabric, ironed on some fusible webbing to the back, and then appliqued it to the shirt using a zig-zag stitch.

It was hard to get a decent picture of her in the outfit...she was a little hopped up on sugar during the photo shoot. Judging by her grin, she seems to like it!

Linking up!

Show and Tell Wednesday at Blue Cricket Design

No pee pee

**After waiting and waiting....and more waiting, Blogger still hadn't recovered my post so I had to republish this, but in doing so, I lost all of your comments :(  Thank you all for your helpful tips on potty training! We've had 2 small successes (with a little bribing with chocolate chips), and I'm hoping for more progress! Feel free to leave more tips if you want! We need some advice from you experienced potty trainers :)** 

My daughter has officially started potty training. Again. Ok well this is our second try, but for REAL this time, she's started potty training.

The first time we tried was in December. The Hubs and I did some research and found the Boon Potty Bench.

Part potty, part functional bench for standing at the sink, kneeling at the bathtub, etc. You know I love me some combo's when it comes to kid stuff - it's just so much easier to buy things that function as more than one item rather than having to buy something else separately later. We have the crib that converts to a toddler bed, the combo kid's bath tub/kneeling bench (yes another bench, don't judge me), the stroller/carseat/blender. Ok, that last part isn't true, but wouldn't it be sweet to be able to make a smoothie as you're walking your kid around the block?

Anyway, Haley got a potty for Christmas and acted relatively interested in it. A good sign, I thought. Until we actually tried the potty training thing with panties and all. I was on maternity leave with Connor, so it seemed like the obvious time to try to train her. I spent a good part of the day with a bottle of carpet cleaner and a rag in my hand following her around going, "Do you need to go pee pee? You need to go pee pee. Please pee pee?" And then after I put her on the potty, she'd stand up 10 seconds later and say, "No pee pee." Then she'd go in her panties 5 minutes later, and I'd be scrubbing the floor yet again. So we decided she wasn't ready yet.

Well as luck would have it, there are 2 other kids in her daycare that needed to be potty trained as well so with that and the fact that she's now over 2, we decided to give it another go beginning last week. We bought the Pull Ups (becase we don't want to torture the daycare workers with the possibility of 3 wet children running around all day) and started being consistent with taking her to the potty at home and at daycare. We've tried to bribe her with everything she loves: chips, stickers, candy, ice cream.

Nothing.

We've given her praise, I made up a potty song, we've set her on the potty for a set time, and still, "no pee pee." If I was a stay-at-home mom, I feel like things would be so much easier because I could let her run around naked all day long and let her do her thing. But since that's generally frowned upon in public settings, we need to get creative.



Anybody else have any good ideas? We've never done this before, so any pointers would be welcome.

Easy Breezy Placemats

When we moved to Tennessee 2 years ago and bought our first house, we were lucky enough to score an Ethan Allen table and chairs for dirt cheap from a lady who was moving soon and had to get rid of it asap. The only problem is that it isn't child-proof.

The table is gorgeous and in mint condition, but with a 2-year-old bent on destroying everything, we knew that might not last long. Our nice scratch-free table was just screaming for my daughter to scratch it/throw something on it/spill her dinner on it. I needed some table protection stat! 

These placemats I whipped up not only protect it from said 2-year-old, but they also add a lot of personality to an otherwise boring dining room table. This is a great project for beginners!

Supplies for 8 placemats:

• 2 1/2 yards heavy decorator fabric. I used an outdoor fabric because it's thick and spill-proof
• 2 1/2 yards solid cotton fabric for backing 
• Sewing machine and coordinating thread
• Rotary cutter and cutting mat 

Instructions:

Wash and dry fabric first. Cut out 8 rectangles 21" wide by 13" long from each fabric. You should have a total of 16 rectangles - 8 from your print, and 8 from your backing.

Take one rectangle of each of your fabrics and pin them together, right sides facing each other. Using a 1/4" seam allowance, sew around perimeter leaving a 4" long opening for turning.

Turn your placemat inside out by pushing it through the opening you left. Push out the corners using a chopstick, skewer, knitting needle, etc., and press the whole thing with a hot iron. Hand-sew the opening closed, then topstitch around the perimeter of each placemat using a 1/4" seam allowance.You could add an additional row of stitches for a decorative look if you like.

See, easy breezy! And pretty.

This project is so rediculously simple that I didn't go too in-depth with the photos. Let me know if you have any questions!

Linking up here:

Show and Tell Wednesday at Blue Cricket Design

Here's to you, Mom's!

I love my kids. They're my world and I can't imagine life without them.

However, becoming a mother makes you realize that there are a lot of things that change when you have kids.

Sleeping in is non-existent (why can't they learn that 6 AM is not an acceptable hour to wake up??). You trade in your TV shows for Wonder Pets and Dora the Explorer. Your favorite lipstick becomes your daughter's new favorite marker. Of course, these things don't make you regret being a mother, they're simply the "other side" of motherhood - the side that people don't see when they look at your perfectly preened, rosy faced child. (You know, the one who covered the cat in applesauce right before family portrait time?)

I've had many of these moments as a mother. I think it's most difficult with your first child because you haven't experienced the true ins and outs of parenthood before. I mean sure, you've changed a diaper here and there and babysat for the neighbor kids but now, you can't just give the kid back to their parents. You ARE the parent.

Now, your days go something like this:

Yes, I am wearing pj's while I grocery shop.
Um yes, I DO have a Cheerio stuck in my hair. That's not a fashion now?
Yes, that's my kid eating your potted plant. That's the most vegetables he's had in 2 weeks.
Oh wait, I'm not supposed to discuss poop at a dinner meeting?

There have definitely been some hard times. My daughter once managed to take the cap off of my bottle of chondroitin/glucosamine supplements and eat a couple of them. That was the first day I called Poison Control - and hopefully my last. (The supplements aren't harmful in case you're wondering.) Poison Control is now on speed dial. And of course my least favorite times when my daughter has gotten sick in the car and my husband and I have had to scrub down everything. Ugh, no matter how much throw up I've dealt with in the past 2 years, it still bothers me the most.

All the hard times make me appreciate the funny times the most though. Like the challenge of working out with a toddler, or most memorably, when I put one of my daughter's boogers in my mouth. My son is still too young to wreak any big time mischief yet, but I know the minute he can crawl I'll have some stories for you.

I polled some of my friends and readers to ask them for their stories. Surely I wasn't the only one who has ridden home in the back of the car holding a handful of throw up? I wasn't disappointed.

We go through a lot of crap for our kids. Literally.

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My daughter was only 4 days old. It was the middle of the night. We were concerned because she hadn't pooped for 2 days and only once while in the hospital. That night I prayed that she would poop! (Something I never thought I would be praying about!)


Around 4 am she was sitting in her bounce chair and she opened her eyes and was wide awake. I was happy to see her awake,since she was only days old, but was wondering why it had to be at 4 am! All of a sudden my husband screams, "Oh my gosh! She pooped!" And he runs into the bathroom to get a wet towel. I was confused because I didn't see anything. (After all it was 4 am and dark). He replied, "You are not looking up high enough."


I look at her shoulder and there it was, green/black poop. (You moms know what I am talking about too, those first poops newborns have). It made it all the way up her back, sides and shoulders and starting to come down the front of her shoulders. Her brand new bounce chair is covered too. I pick her up and take her to her changing table. At that point I said to my husband, let's just cut this onesie off of her! So that's what we did. Then my husband looked at me and said, "You prayed she would poop!"

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A few days ago, my daughter came running up to me in the backyard - she had something in her hand. It was dried dog poop. And she had something in her mouth, which she told me was grass.


So...we're in the public restroom at a local restaurant, every stall full with people waiting,and she decides she needs to poop.


She says, "Eewww, that tastes bad." I said, "You mean it smells bad. You smell with your nose."


Then she said..."Mom, I did eat the poopie. I'm sorry I lied to you.

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And here's a sweet (non-poo related) reminder from one reader that God is always looking out for our kids when we can't:

I was a young mom of 23 with my first born. I had to work so I was working a a snack bar at the pier. I took the playpen and placed my son in it where I could watch him and play with him, during the times I was not busy behind the counter.

One day I was very busy and I heard a voice (which I know was God ) telling me "look at your son." I responded in my head "I am too busy right now" the voice more sternly but at the same time lovingly said "LOOK AT YOUR SON!" so I did.

Somehow he had grabbed a cap from a baby juice bottle and had placed it in his mouth and was choking. I jumped over the counter took the cap out of his mouth grabbed my baby and went outside.

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Thank you all for sharing your stories, and thank you for all that you do as mothers.

Happy Mother's Day