Thanksgiving Swag - And I am THANKFUL!

Weirdest dreams last night!  It sucks to wake up at 2 and start thinking about what needs to get done in the next couple days. Tip: DON'T DO THAT!!  I'm sure the turkeys will be thawed by Friday. dang it.

And then the following freaky dreams involve being in a glass shower in the entry way of a store that is supposed to be closed but the boss decides to bring his family there for Thanksgiving dinner and your sister can't find your WKRP Annual Turkey Drop shirt so you can get dressed.  REALLY?!!!  Give me YOURS! *because apparently she has one too but it's the wrong size as mine*

And an update: Mine was right where I left it last night and ready for me to wear today.  And can you believe NO ONE commented on it at Biolife this morning?  SHEESH!  You'd think they were all born after the year 2000.  Well some were.

I'll get it washed up and wear it again on Friday for the big Thanksgiving reunion.  I'm willing to bet my cousin Scott will appreciate it!

The recipes are the Hawaiian rolls and then a cranberry relish, both made last weekend for our shindig on Sunday.  The cupboards work great for keeping track of what you're doing.  My phone only stays lit for so long.

I'm sure I won't be blogging until Monday.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day weekend!

Sew Planned

I've been sewing when I can but it's been sporadic.

I made this see through top last week.   

Meri saw it hanging on my bedroom door and has claimed it...  

really?...

If I wear a tank top underneath, it's pretty cute.  Any other alternative would be indecent I suppose.

The front seam is a serged seam facing out. Meri thought the whole shirt was inside out so I thought it might be mine after all.  She still likes it.  darn.

I also make a new skirt based on a pattern by Dana Marie.  It still needs some two inch elastic that I purchased yesterday.  I hope to wear this on Sunday.   It's asymmetrical, not crooked. 
Am I going to have to tell everybody that?  It'll be worse than spelling my last name repeatedly...



I also plan to make this again in this stretchy knit for Robb's company Christmas party.  But that's a project to be started in a couple more weeks.

We'll see Maddy and Matthew this weekend so I'm getting the two shark bag blankets done this week for her kindergarten class.  I had promised them to her last spring but just remembered.  All of it is being done with stuff from my stash.  Note the special design of the 2nd one.  Piecing enough together to make the sharks body.  The blood red lips came from a red t-shirt that won't ever fit me.  I didn't want to use some red silk that I had because it told me that it wants to be a skirt or blouse instead.

I must obey the fabric...

I've also picked up some mermaid type fleece for two mermaid bag/blankets for our church craft sale coming up.  Those should be easier to put together than sharks so I may make more, but not sure of my time yet.  We'll see.

So those are my sewing adventures for now.  I'm always planning out my next big thing.

Robb and I finally sat down last night and bought my airline tickets for the sister's cruise in January.  I caved to sisterly peer pressure and did it.  I'm the last one to purchase my flight.  I kept holding out hope that my chiropractor's advice would come true but we didn't see a single round trip ticket for $65...oh well.  I just want to get down there!

The sister chat gets pretty busy some days and yesterday was a biggie.  

Those girls are so fun!  I can't wait.

Sewing Sensibly

You know those radio commercials for diet tablets?  Where they say you don't have to go on any diet food, just take this tablet before each meal and eat sensibly...  

Look, if I ate sensibly, I wouldn't be at the dress size I am!

Over the weekend, I picked up a cute top at Target on the cheap!  I didn't try it on, but I felt that it would fit me.  I get feelings sometimes...  It's a mom thing.  *and a fact that I don't have time for dressing rooms*

So I ended up with a shirt that makes me feel like I look pregnant.  It has elastic under the chest area instead of the waist or hips.  Normally I'm sure this looks flattering on women... But not me.  I'm not a busty type...

As someone in my sewing group once said, when faced with a store bought clothing piece that didn't fit her right, "Hey!  I know how to sew!!!"  and she fixed it.  I decided to fix the problem.

So this morning, since I didn't have a small child begging for attention or raisins and no housework I wanted to do...  I grabbed this shirt and a seam ripper.  

Found that the elastic was just serged onto the seam allowance around the high waist area and if I pulled it off, the seam would still be intact!  S.weet!!!  So I did.  I made myself a tidy little pile of blue thread pieces and over lunch I'll iron this shirt and see how it fits me.  

I'll probably serge the seam allowance so it won't unravel on me..  

And the shirt does hang long, so I'll either put some elastic down towards the bottom to scrunch it up a little, rehem up higher or just leave it...

Hmm.. Decisions, decisions...

What are you deciding on today?

Is it chocolate?  mmmm

Baby steps...

On Saturday my husband and I drove two cars to Des Moines because his car needed new tires. Do you remember me talking about our flat tire on Wednesday night? Yeah. So much metal was showing that recyclers were circling the block. and his car had a shimmy that wouldn't quit...

So... we'd put it off long enough. We dropped his car off and then went further past Des Moines and found the lady with the preemie baby clothes. After taking a wrong turn on a gravel road we found her! She lives on a farm with an awesome butcher block table in a country kitchen. Her little boy sat in his stroller and watched us sort baby clothes that he had outgrown. Danelle has a blog! Go check her out and say Hey!

There were sizes from preemie up to 9 months. The pile of preemie clothes seemed pretty small until you realized that hey! These are basically doll clothes sized. Of COURSE the pile is going to be small! And also, how large a wardrobe is this kid going to need in the NICU?! There were actually about 10-15 outfits for him. I was able to find a few preemie sleepers at Walmart afterwards so I included those as an additional gift for my sister.
Got the preemie sizes shipped off yesterday morning and will take the rest when we are all over our colds and get to go meet Braedon. My sister had said that he would be ready for clothes by this next weekend, so the timing is good! Hopefully he'll be off the IVs by then.