Halloween, We Love You So

I think Halloween is such a fun holiday. Who doesn't like dressing up? My husband would probably laugh if he came home to find me in a Snow White gown and plastic heels like Faith and Lily; however, Halloween is a day that even Mommy can get away with dress up! That actually isn't my favorite aspect of Halloween. I just really adore all of the cute little decorations...the ghosts, pumpkins, witches, and skeletons. Every time we go into Target Faith and I spend a good 10-15 minutes in the Halloween decor section. It is just so tempting! But alas, we don't typically have the money for tons of Halloween decorations. Thank goodness I can sew now ;). I need some ideas for cute Halloween decorations I can do with my sewing or embroidery machine, any would be greatly appreciated!

To kick start Halloween, I've been working on cute little shirts and bows. Here are pictures of my sweet girls wearing theirs, and one my best friends daughters wearing theirs as well.

This cute little Spider applique and hair pretty are from Pickle Pie. Faith picked our everything for her set.

Lily's is the Mrs. Ghost applique that I got here. The ghost doesn't have that little ear looking thing, but I think it came out cute anyway. That was the only black shirt that I could find for her!

When we went to bring Kailee and Camryn their shirts, little Camryn was napping, so Faith pretended to be Camryn and model her onesie. These little girls are three weeks apart, and have been playing since they came home from the hospital almost five years ago!

Then Camryn woke up, and Andrea sent me a picture of her modeling her shirt. How precious is she?

Here are some of the bows I made!

That is all for now! I have to get some things done while both of my little sweethearts are at school!

Spring Family Pictures

My lovely friend Jeni did some family pictures of us. I am blessed with wonderful friends who possess amazing talents, aren't I? We always have plenty of pictures of the girls, but have been seriously lacking a great family photo for some time now. I don't know if anyone has ever told you this before, but children of the ages one and four are not easy to take pictures with. That is actually an understatement. They are incredibly difficult to take pictures with. I made the girls adorable new outfits and was completely pumped about meeting Jeni at the park for pictures. However, about three minutes into our photo shoot Zach and I quickly discovered that it wasn't going to run smoothly.

We started out by sitting on this adorable chair and stool, which of course the girls fought over. If one was not upset about something, the other surely was. I got the bright idea to pull out the lip gloss (this typically makes our girls happy, go figure), which was actually a terrible thing to do. We got one really quick shot of glossy smiles and happy girls, and then started the whining. The lip gloss was like crack. Lily's word for anything she really really likes and can taste is "nummy". From the moment the lip gloss was put up, until the end of the session, all we heard was "Nummmmmmmmy! Nummmmmmmy! NUMMMMMMY!" You get the picture?

Despite the chaos, Jeni was able to catch some wonderful shots. Have a look-

It actually looks like Lily is posing here! She totally wasn't, but see what I mean? Jeni is GOOOOOD.

Here are all the ones of the four of us. The first one is my most favorite.

Now, isn't this just so typical...Faith being a sweetheart to Daddy, but Lily absolutely REFUSING to give him a kiss-

She did eventually change her mind-

Aren't these of Faith and Zach sweet?

Here a few of them individually-

And here is one of Lily and I-

For Faith's little halter top shirt I used a bodice pattern and just added two more layers. The rose fabric is from Hancocks. I fell TOTALLY in love with it, and bought all that was left on the bolt (a little less than a yard) so I had to be really careful on what I made for them with it. For Lily's skirt I didn't use a pattern (I really don't even see how they sell skirt patterns, it's seriously just a long rectangle) and I just rolled up some scraps for her roses.

Lastly, here are a couple of pictures of a little set I made for a friend/coworker of my mother who had a little baby girl. Her name is Emma Ladan, beautiful isn't it? I have been meaning to ship it for a while :/. Finally got it dropped off today.

The soft fabrics are from Hobby Lobby. They are one of my favorites.

Everyone have a wonderful evening!

Getting Back to Normal

We have had an lovely past week. Now I sit here Thursday, and am just starting my week! Oh goodness, what a busy bee I will be today and tomorrow. We stayed in Austin a few extra days and really enjoyed the time with family. We all miss Austin so much, I truly believe it is one of the best places to live. Yesterday Zach got home and we went grocery shopping and had dinner. Of course by the time we got home it was almost 9:00pm, which means I was up until 1:00am sewing. Today and tomorrow will most likely be the same until I get caught up! Anyway, I have quite a few pictures of little things I have done here and there that I will try and post tomorrow. As for today, my wonderful friend Meljan took these pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses this week. They are breathtaking, and he is absolutely amazing. If you live in Austin and need a photographer, you should contact him.

I am, to say the least, so very proud of their dresses. I have only been sewing for six months now, and basically completely teaching myself, so these (especially Faith's) were very large accomplishments for me. This is a first look at Lily's little dress. The last picture is just one that I took (as if you couldn't tell), but it really shows the dress well.

Valentines Day Pics and a Burlap Wreath

The husband and I are celebrating Valentines Day next weekend (due to babysitting, etc), so this weekend the girls and I made a trip to Austin. I snapped some pictures of the girls outside before church today. They looked adorable!

They are so gorgeous. I think we got more compliments today on their outfits at church, Chuys, and Costco than ever before *smile*. I was proud. I can't believe Lily actually kept her headband on too!

Usually when we come up here I pack my entire sewing room and tote it along. I can actually finish something start to finish here with the help of Nana and Granny. I get more accomplished in a day than in a week at my house! However, this time I decided I would take a break from it. I needed to finish two sets of letters, and I wanted to try this non-sewing wreath project that I found on Tatertots and Jello. Most importantly, just spend some good quality time with my family =). Anyway, this mommy is amazing. I can't wait to try so many more of her crafts. This Burlap Wreath Tutorial is just great! Here is my version, that I just LOVE. Tuesday it will be hanging on my door at home!

I had a lot of fun with this! I'm about to go get started on finishing Miss Chloe's letters. I do miss my machines though! It has been kind of weird not sewing/embroidering the past couple of days!