WOW! I made a backpack!

I am so proud of myself! I decided that I was going to make Kaelyn a backpack for school this year and I did! I made the whole thing and I even made the pattern for it!  I'm pretty excited that I was able to do the whole thing without a tutorial or pattern to go by!  At this point I feel like I can do anything!! Until I run into a problem on the next thing I make! I'm posting some pictures below!

Here is a picture of the front! I used a K applique on the bottom part and I stitched out her name on the flap!

 Here is one of the sides (both are the same except the design is reversed).  It has a nice big pocket on either side to hold those small things that would get lost in the big part! I love the butterfly design!

Here is a picture of the back. I'm hoping that the straps will be long enough... if not I already planned what I will do to make them longer.  How is that for planning!! I actuallythought ahead!! haha

Here is another shot of the front.  It looks so small but it is actually 13 or so inches tall and probably about the same amount wide.  I'm really happy with how it turned out!

New Outfit for Kaelyn!!

Finally getting around to this blog post! I made another outfit for Kaelyn! I'm really excited to make more! I have a huge stack of knits ready to be made into skirts... pretty soon Kaelyn will have a closet full of outfits and not enough days to wear them!!

Here is a pic of the whole outfit!

Picture of the rolled rosettes that I made and put on the shirt!

Here is a picture of just the skirt! Made from orange, white, pink, and grey madras with off-white trim!

Close-up of the skirt fabric!!

She REALLY loved it and goes around telling everyone that her mommy made it!  Look at the smile on her face!

I am so proud of this skirt!

I am so proud of this skirt! It didn't take very long and was pretty easy to make!!  I can't wait to go get the stuff I need to make more!! She will be wearing skirts everyday!! I appliqued a shirt to match, now she just needs a bow! The pictures aren't the greatest because I had to use my phone (the camera flash was washing it all out), but you get the idea.

 Here is a picture of the whole completed outfit!! I can't wait for her to wake up tomorrow so she can try it on!

 A Close-up of the Applique

A picture of just the skirt.  It has an elastic waist so that it will stay up and not be falling down all day!

And Baby Emma was born on Monday night!! Here is a very blurry picture of Kaelyn giving her new baby cousin some kisses!! Hopefully we will be able to get her to hold a kiss for more than half a second so we can get a better picture!  I am so in love with her because she is so sweet and adorable! Congrats to Liz and Joe and big sister Haley! We are so happy for you!!!

Pillowcase Dresses!

My friend, Erin, had started out making these dresses and soon realized that she really had no time to actually make them. So I offered to make them out of the supplies she already bought. I ended up making 2 dresses and 2 bows for her to give to a little girl for her birthday! I'm so happy that she loved them! Here are some pics of the finished products!!

Custom Ribbon Wreaths!!!

I am so excited!  I saw this idea on Pinterest and I knew that I needed to make one!  I started out making the pink, purple, and green one to hang on Liz's hospital door when Emma is born.  Then i got to thinking about it and decided that big sis Haley needed one too so that they could both have cute wreaths on their doors!  So then I started making a Mickey Mouse themed one for Haley!  I am so happy with how they turned out!  I gave them to Liz earlier so that I could post pics!  Actually, I was soooo happy with how they turned out, that I finally made an Etsy shop so that I could sell them!  I'll give you a little info about them,  They have a 14" diameter and are covered with various sizes of ribbon.  I painted the letters with two layers of paint so that I could sand the edges a bit and have the bottom color show through.  The E has pink on top of purple and the H has red on top of black.  Haley's ribbons ended up being a bit shorter but I like them both... Emma's is nice and floppy and Haley's is a little more spikey! I can't wait for Emma to be born on Monday!  They moved up Liz's csection to Monday so now I am scrambling to get all of the things made for her arrival!! Wish me luck...I've got loads to do and I need to get the house ready because Haley is going to be staying with us while Liz, Joe, and Emma are staying at the hospital!! So exciting!! (Also check out my Etsy shop... I've only listed the wreaths so far but hopefully there will be more to come!! Here is a link! JustForYouMandG Etsy Shop )

Very Frustrated!

So, I was working on embroidering these towels last night and it never fails that the last one would mess up... I went out in the living room while it finished stitching to finish up cleaning off the finished ones and when I went back the edge had fallen onto it and stitched through and screwed up on the last letter. Grrr... I guess that's what I get for not babysitting it... So now I need to rip it all out, wash and iron it, and re-do it. I'll get right on that after Tim goes to work. At least I was productive this morning and made a dress for Kaelyn and two for myself. (pics to come later!) Now I'm off to work on the last one! Wish me luck! Haha

C-Section Rate at All Time High- How is this acceptable?

I saw this article from MSNBC today: C-Section Rates Hit All Time High

I do not understand how a 34% c-section rate is acceptable to people! And how we, as women, are allowing doctors to cut us open for no reason at all!  Since when is convienence an acceptable reason for major abdominal surgery?  Why aren't women being told of the risks associated with c-sections.  Not just the risks during the surgery, but the ensuing risks for future pregnancies! Here are a few facts to consider:

The US ranks 42nd in the WORLD for maternal mortality rates!

The CDC reports that there has been NO improvement in maternal mortality rates since 1982!

What makes this even worse is thatthe US has one of the highest cost-per-birth! So we are paying more to have a higher chance of dying?  Maternal deaths in the US are reported on the honor system and there are no penalties for misreporting or failing to report them. So, we could be even lower on the list! I find this very hard to swallow and it makes me wonder why we spend so much money for sub-par maternity care.