Parisian/Marie Custom Disney Dress

Our daughter's favorite Disney character is Marie from Aristocats so it was without question that I would have to make her a Marie dress.

If you saw the Pirate Minnie Dress I made last month, you'll see that I used the same pattern with just a few modifications.

Once again, I made a 2T dress although our daughter really fits an 18mos dress better because...

A-I want her to be able to wear it to Disney World this fall

&

B-I always prefer too big to too small.

I spun the skirt around to put the ruffle panel in the back rather than the front.

I took out the loops in the back and made it a true halter top with an open back.

I elongated the bodice and took an equal length (about 3 inches) off the skirt so that I could fit a fuller-sized Marie on the bodice and give it an almost flapper-like low waist.

Because the skirt was shortened, the number of ruffle layers in the ruffle panel in the back was essentially cut in half.

If you want to make this dress yourself, you can find wonderful step-by-step directions with the pattern from Fairytale Pattern Designs on Craftsy and the embroidery design from Etsy.

If I had it to do over again, I might skit the ruffle panel altogether in the back and and take some of the extra fullness out of the skirt but that's just me being picky.

Time Flies

Hello blogging world...you may (or may not) have noticed my total desertion of this page for the last month (and a half). To be honest, nothing major really happened to drive me away. I just needed a break. I needed to focus on my family and myself. 

Here's a (hopefully) quick breakdown to catch you up...

We cracked down on homeschooling and have officially decided to go with Classical Conversations next year and are super excited about it. 

We had a snow-pocalypse that was a ton of fun...

I got a new .22 rifle for Valentine's Day and we took some good friends shooting... (the boy and one of his best friends had a blast)

I escaped. I took a long weekend and flew down to El Paso (thereby leaving the children alone with Joshua for the first time ever!) to visit this awesome lady...

(cell phone pic...eh, sorry)

Joshua and I had a weekend away...hotel, theater tickets (Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan-I highly recommend seeing it!-that woman is in better shape at 60 than I am today!), dinner out...the basics

In related news, the boy also got to see Peter Pan as his first broadway show with his Grandma. He LOVED it!...he wasn't so much a fan of the pics I insisted we take before he left but I couldn't resist. I love my bow-tie-lovin', suspender-wearing little man!

Also, I've been on a sewing kick...big time. I made a couple new dresses for the girl...

(she was less than thrilled to do pics at that particular moment)

(I got the hat from Halo Heaven)

And finally, the biggest news (for me at least) was that I finally got my much coveted Brother PE-770 Embroidery Machine!!! I'm in love! This was the first thing I made...

So that's what we've been up to...kind of a crazy busy season for us but a good one. 

Feelin' Crafty

The longer this deployment lasts (or maybe it's just the older I get) the more I'm into all things crafty. There's so many different things you can create with a sewing machine, hot glue gun and a little bit of time...so many, in fact, I'm avoiding Pinterest because it would become a total time suck. Anyway, my most recent crafty adventures are all about homemade sew-on appliques. I started with a shirt for the boy...

(sorry about the pic quality...it's from my phone)

After the boy's shirt I moved onto something for me...an "Army Wife" hat...

And because I like to wear hats all the time (read:I don't like and am terrible at doing my hair) I made a second hat that I think I like even more than the first...

BOOMER SOONER!

HH6 bag

I've been distracting myself from deployment blues with lots of projects...here's the latest...

The front. (I took the name tape off for the pic and I'm not sure how clear it is but the rank is HH6)

I used some of one of my hubby's old uniforms...obviously the digicam ACUs and if you want to be technical, he's in multicams now but personally I think they're ugly...yes, they provide more camouflage and all that but they're brown and always look dirty so I didn't want a bag made out of that print.

The inside...I used a couple of the pockets from his cover too.

It was fun. I wish I could do a tutorial post but I really stink at that sort of thing (I could never show my work in 6th grade math either)-I usually just wing it on stuff like this. Anyway, I'll probably take a couple days off from craft type stuff but my next project is a dress for baby girl.

Too much time=Tons of Tutus

I have an obsessive nature...shocking, I know. *dripping sarcasm.

I've managed thus far in my life to direct my obsessive nature into good outlets...vacation planning, photography, time with my husband, motherhood...all good things. And now I've found another...

With this deployment and being pregnant with a little girl, I've been thrown into a pink world and I've fully embraced it...somewhat to my own surprise. I'm not much of a girly-girl at least when it comes to clothes and accessories myself. I enjoy nice things and jewelry is fabulous but I'm a ponytail, jeans and make-up-only if I have time for it, kind of girl. But I love to create things. I love photography and designing pretty things.

So...I've gone overboard with baby girl's room...and loved every second of it. I'm also that mom who prefers my kids be dressed properly, as in matching, unwrinkled and unstained, even if we're just running to walmart...no judgement on anyone else-it's just my little OCD coming through BUT, I'm also the child of a hard working single mother who would have had a hard time going to the extremes I have with my kids' rooms and clothes so I know how blessed my kids are (and one of them isn't even born yet!). I do have concerns that they may grow up taking it all for granted. But I'll worry about that tomorrow...today, I shop...and decorate.

I've decided that instead of putting our daughter's name on the wall...as we did with our son and so many people do, I want to do something unique. I had already planned to buy a medium sized wall shelf to help take up room on a specific wall but now what I want to do is buy nine (the number of letters in her name) wallet sized photo frames. Then, I plan to print off each letter of her name on card stock, cut it out and put each one in a frame...cute, right?!

Well, in addition to decorating her room, I've taught myself how to make hair bows, head bands and tutus. Here's what I've done so far...

^ -The 1st Tutu I made and a matching hair puff clip

^ -Just a couple bows/barrettes...I need to get better at these...

^ -Tutu #2 (I like to call it the "I Love Lucy Tutu) and a matching hair puff (that I clipped onto a newborn hat just 'cause it's cute)

^ -Tutu #3...I love it when little girls wear blue (the pic doesn't show it very well-it was late when I took the pic and lighting limited but it's a purplish blue tutu with wisps of glittery white)

Tutus, bows and room decor have been a great deployment distraction and I look forward to making at least a few more before this pregnancy gets too tiring to stay up late cutting tulle and gluing clips.

Deployment Schedule

Well, we're getting back into the swing of our version of a deployment schedule. No one in our family is really a morning person except maybe my husband and even then, I'd just say he's more average than an actual early morning. Meanwhile, the boy, the dog and I all feel that anything before 8 or even 9am is pretty much wrong. As time progresses, at least the boy and I will have to adjust...first to baby girl and then in a couple years to the boy starting school (although we plan to send him to a blended private school where he'll actually be home-schooled all but two days a week). I sincerely doubt the dog will ever adjust. He doesn't even go out to do his morning thing sometimes until nearly noon. No accidents so I don't push it.

Anyway, we're living it up, night owl style. We usually have breakfast around 10am...or our version of it...again, not morning people and although the mother in me would love for my son to eat some homemade waffles or an omelet and turkey bacon every morning, it doesn't happen. I'm lucky if I can get him to eat a pastry, some yogurt and fruit but it's all about picking your battles and since even my husband's not a big breakfast person, I'm not surprised the boy isn't one as well. Lunch is usually early (to mid depending on the morning) afternoon and while Joshua's gone, it's quickly becoming our big meal of the day. Something I couldn't have done with Joshua here...his schedule just wouldn't allow for it. THAT is the one big benefit of deployment. The schedule is all mine. I don't have to clear things or arrange things according to my husband's civi job, the guard or his plans. It's all about whatever I want (well, whatever I want that will also work with the boy). Dinner usually starts with me staring in fridge and ends with leftovers or a quick sandwich and veggies.

Meanwhile, TV has become essentially non-existent at least in live form because I don't really believe in watching television, especially any sort of adult (meaning How I Met Your Mother and Criminal Minds, not bow-chica-wow-wow adult) television. I would never get to watch anything but cable news and late night hosts if it weren't for the DVR. A big ol' THANK YOU to whomever invented it...words cannot say how much I appreciate you-you have kept me entertained and somewhat sane. So instead of television in the evenings before the boy goes to sleep, I've been doing all the basic household stuff, shopping online (another sanity savior) and becoming more and more domestic. I have made baby girl's first tutu. It's pretty small and I hope to use it for her birth announcement pics but we'll see when she gets here. Here's a pic (sorry about the quality...camera phone pic and the dog decided to investigate the tutu-read: got his nose in and pushed the tulle around a bit...just as I took the pic).

This weekend, I'm hoping to clean out the bathroom cabinets (not a small project) and sew baby girl's new curtains. Like I said, this deployment schedule (and this pregnancy) are upping my domesticity.