Mustard yellow dress - Refashion

I follow this lady on Instagram named Sarah Tyau. I came across her late this summer. (I think it was about the time she was gaining a ton of popularity, and was featured with PEOPLE). I really enjoy following her, seeing her photos, watching her stories, and reading her posts. She is funny, cute, somewhat cheesy, but overall very good and authentic. She became well known because of her 'refashioning' skills. She takes clothes that don't fit very well and sews them into something cute. I fell in love with the idea.

I grew up sewing and watching my mother sew. She even refashioned a few things, quite often, now that I think about it. However, after following this account I became reminded and inspired about refashioning. She really changed the way I look at clothes that I give away to Goodwill and also how I look at the clearance rack. I not only just think that I could add sleeves or length, but I pay attention to fabrics that I love, and becoming more brave in what I chop and re-sew. I have taken in a few dresses and skirts for my girls that I love the fabric or style of them, but that don't fit them right, or don't fit them yet and I want them to wear them now. ( little trick, I don't cut on some of these so that I can take the side seams and hem out easily and have the dress grow with them if I desire) (and sorry that was a confusing sentence, but a fairly important one).

In this dress that I want to show you I completely changed what the article of clothing was. Saved on buying fabric! Woot Woot. I wish I had a 'before' picture, but I don't. However, this mustard dress was a maxi skirt someone gave me as a hand me down that just never laid very well. However, I loved the color and didn't want to see it go to waste. (since I am pretty sure it wouldn't flatter anybody, it was a weird maxi skirt).

I cut the skirt completely. I cut my own pattern for a bell sleeve dress for Madison. I didn't even have to hem it and just used the original hem. It is not perfect, but it was fun, and I learned a lot about sewing with knits. I even crocheted a little collar for her to hide the imperfections in the neck. ;)

I even crocheted a cowl as an option as well. ( she loved having a choice)

Amtrak Adventure

We did it. We rode the train. It was definitely an adventure. We boarded the train about an hour from Iowa City in a city called Mt. Pleasant. I am always pleasantly surprised by the kindness that I always receive in Iowa. The train station had a few passengers waiting. They loved interacting with my little girls. They laughed at their curiousness and even were very interested in how much they would weigh when they stepped on the baggage scale. (Madison 33 lbs, Jordyn 23lbs)

We boarded the train at about 6pm and had some dinner. We packed a little cooler full of food to make our little meals on the train. (The meals are EXPENSIVE, that you can buy). We packed sandwiches, fruit, cereal, and tons of snacks to have a day+1 worth of meals. Afterwards we hunkered down and went to sleep.

We found it easier to strap Jordyn in her carseat to help her settle down to sleep. There aren't any seat belts on the train, but there is so much room at our feet she fit with plenty of room. The rest of us spread out over our two aisles. Jordyn woke up for a couple minutes every time the train stopped, but went back to sleep each time.(she did a lot better on the train ride back)

In the morning we found ourselves in Denver. It then takes the whole next day and into the night to make it through the Colorado mountains and Utah. The day was LONG!! The girls loved walking around a little, but it was exhausting to watch Jordyn, since the train rocks a little and we didn't want her to fall and knock her head on anything. However, we made it. About 10 pm the next day.

Looking out the window in Southern Utah

We definitely watched shows on the iphone to pass the time

My two hoodlums

Eating a meal in the dining car

I am not sure if I want to ride the train again with kids as young as my kids. They took a lot of attention, and couldn't/didn't take the best of naps. They days dragged on. However, it was nice to have Jordan available to help and play instead of tied to driving the car. Pros and cons I guess.

Overall it was a fun adventure.... and I am glad to be home.

Christmas Morning

We celebrated Christmas both at home in Iowa and in Rexburg. We gave our girls a kitchen set this year and it was just gonna be easier to let them open it and play with it a couple of days before we left to Idaho. I bought this kitchen set at the end of last year and have been saving it under the crib. Like all the reviews said, it does actually take 3 hours to put together, regardless of how manly and handy your husband is. (I think mine is :) )

We took the train to Idaho! (post later about it.. hopefully) Christmas in Idaho was fun, busy, and exhausting. Madison had the time of her life and Jordyn loved exploring a new place. Pretty sure they ate way too much candy and slept way too little.

We are so glad Aunt Abilee is home from Argentina!

Christmas Dresses

In an ideal world, I would love to post my Christmas photos before Christmas is over. It NEVER happens. Oh well.

This year I made some cute little dresses for my girls to wear the month of December. I feel like I am the only mom that starts dressing her kids up like Christmas the first week of December, but I decided I don't care. I put a lot of effort in these dresses. They deserve to be worn at least 4 times. :) Plus I hope that they will fit to an extent for the next year.

I used an old dress I made for Madison 2 years ago for Jordyn. It is a little long so will hopefully last and be used next year! For Madison I made a simple red dress and then made a removable collar and sash to coordinate with little Jordyn's dress.

I waited and waited for a little bit of snow here in Iowa, but it didn't come before we left. AND... finding evergreen trees in Iowa is kind of hard. A Christmas background is hard when you just have dead trunks and branches. We found a couple of trees at the church and didn't even have to dress up in our dresses for a reason other then church. WIN

Wood Burning Tool ~ Christ Centered Ornaments

I thought I would share this fun little craft I did last month in prep for Christmas. My Christmas tree is a little sparse and at the moment, it needs some ornaments that will not break with toddler hands touching them. After some research, a friend and I decided to make ornaments that have pictures of Jesus Christ's life and a scripture to go with them. I plan to use this as an advent in December.

I learned how to use a new cool snazzy tool. The wood burning tool. I have a close picture of it later. It had a bit of a learning curve, and I was discouraged at first. But you get the hang of it and it actually was fun to use!

Materials:

Wood slices
Pictures of Christ - trimmed to fit the specific wood circles
Wood Burning tool
Tiny little hook screws
Twine
Modge Podge
Sponge Brush
Tracing paper
Printed scriptures on paper to trace
 

DIRECTIONS: 

1- Glue all the pictures of Jesus on your wood slices. I don't modge podge the front yet. I want to wood burn the back with the scripture first. I used a free scripture list and went and gathered my own photos on LDS.ORG where they have free high quality downloads

2- Use tracing paper to make a pattern for you to follow when wood burning on the back of the wood slice.

3-  Use the wood burning tool to carefully follow the pattern you traced. SLOW and STEADY is the trick. Try to apply even pressure throughout so that the lines are not different levels of thickness. Be sure to practice on other wood first.

4- Modge podge the top of the pictures to add texture and secure the pictures in place. Let dry.

5- Screw in tiny hook and tie twine through to hang on the tree. I found that starting a hole with a little screwdriver helped secure the hook, plus helped prevent cracking. If you want you can add a tiny little bow on the top of the wood slice. I saw a bunch of cute little examples of Pinterest.

Happy Christmas Season!

Grocery shopping

I don't feel like I have wrote anything about grocery shopping. It is miserable. I actually like to meal plan, make a list, and actually get the food in the store, but my circumstances make it something to dread. Anything with babies is 5 times harder. Making sure their hair looks somewhat presentable after nap time takes extra time and fighting since we don't want to look like your stereotypical Walmart people. (which we do a lot usually anyway)  However, you add winter, and I am taking on and off coats as I buckle both in car seats. The car is freezing and doesn't warm up by the time we get to our two stores: usually Walmart and Aldi.

BEFORE

AFTER

 Getting to the car is an adventure on it's own. It is a little bit of a walk down the stairs, down the sidewalk and then down another flight of stairs. I usually just carry Jordyn, but I thought I would be kind and let her have a little freedom even if it did take longer. Madison all of sudden burst out giggling and couldn't stop because she said that Jordyn "walked goofy".

Coats on..ready to go!

I open the door for Madison before loading Jordyn in because she insists on climbing in herself. She also locks and shut the door as well. I just have to unlock her door and re-open it to buckle her in. We have a system and I just let her do her thing.

Aldi is actually usually a fairly good experience. The carts have two seats in the front, plus I am pleasantly surprised how much food I get for the price. However, after I pack my kids back in the car seats, and the groceries, we head next door to Walmart.

Walmart NEVER has working buckles on their one baby seat, they are either nonexistent or too bent to click. So while I am training Madison to stay close to the cart and stay out of people's way (she is doing fairly well), I am fighting with Jordyn to not do dangerous things in the cart, (since I cannot buckle her down). I even had a Walmart employee tell me to use the buckle once. She got an earful. I kinda felt bad, but not really.

After we get our food, which is fairly quickly. I can work through those aisles very fast. I have a  system. We wait in line for longer then we shop. Oh well...... such is life.

Madison is usually dancing throughout the store

Jordyn doing dangerous things

 I load the groceries then take coats off my kids to load them in car seats. We get home and I put their coats back on and get them out of the car. We live a bit of a walk from where we park our car so I take multiple trips taking in groceries to the house after I have put my kids in their room to play or even turn on a movie so they wills stay put while I run up and down stairs and sidewalks from my apartment to my car. In the cold this is especially miserable. However, I have to add; a year ago when it was super hot and I was super pregnant, I literally bawled the whole time I was carrying these groceries in. The weather adds, but it is miserable either way.

Saying "cold" in sign language

Anyways, sorry for the long description. I feel like I just may want to remember this crazy escapade someday. Writing about it actually helps me see the ridiculous humor in the situation instead of miserable and angry.