a little inspiration

I've been working on this dress since March.  Intermittently, slowly.  Trying to do things as well as possible instead of my usual rush job. I even made a muslin and decided to size down, knowing this satin would show every crinkle where the fit was wrong.  I am looking forward to finishing the muslin into something wearable too.  It'll be fine a size up in a light weight woven stripe.  I've put it off because of the buttons I think...  There are a lot of buttons. This is Colette Patterns again .  They really write a beautiful pattern.  I want to go back and put smaller buttons on the collar to convince it to stay down on both ends and up the men's wear details on it.  I didn't have time to get matching buttons before the wedding when I realized that the collar just wasn't going to behave.  When my mother in law asked me to be in her wedding I knew I had to find something special.  Something pretty and simple and that I...

 You: :Love to give hugs and kisses.Sometimes you hit so you can kiss and make up. :Are starting to say some words "bye bye", "all done", "mama", "meh" for Emerson, "eye", "hi", "night night" :Had your first trip to the beach. You're a little apprehensive about the water.  :Can climb into the car and into your car seat. :Run to the top of the stairs then stop, giving us heart attacks. every. time. :Stopped nursing two weeks ago. :Are getting walked to sleep a lot. :Still cry out in the middle of the night. :Miss Emerson when he is gone during the day. :Like to dance to music. :Come over and grab my legs and kiss them. :Bite. Stop it! :Are showing interest in sitting on the potty. :Have four molars coming in. :Are starting to carry your baby doll around a lot. :Still want to swing every day. :Learn more signs everyday and use some together.

Soy seems to have been okay, though I will admit to not eating as much of it as maybe I should have.  I had one serving a day plus tamari on anything I could think of... Today is the first day of corn and already I feel bloated and a little gross.  I did have corn three times today so maybe that was overkill for any day... But I couldn't resist.  Corn is such a big substitute for all things gluten and snack like. Anyway, I'll give it a couple more days to judge.  Yesterday my lovely mother in law got married and I spent the whole day running around with her and eating nothing but fruit and cheese(when we ate at all.)  It was a wonderful day and everyone had a splendid time.  I wore the Hawthorn dress I made from Colette Patterns.  I even got pictures for you!  I'll share later this week.  Can you believe how many things I've made the last few months?  I don't think I've been this productive since Emerson was born. Speaking of t...

Let the festivities begin!

It strikes me as ironic that I finally made a perfectly serviceable nursing dress the week before I decided that I was done nursing.  I've been working on this dress in my head for the last 5 years.  (I know, it is awfully simple to have taken that long!!) I love nursing my babies but somewhere around 14-16 months I'm totally over it.  When the teeth come out and the baby becomes the distracted toddler I'm done.  And I miss dresses!  This time, all done.   Dress A is a blank slate tank dress.  My favorite shift style.  I lowered the neckline and notched it and added a button.  I added patch pockets.  On the next one I will omit the notch and put the pockets in the seam.  I am also thinking of adding a draw string waist.  Because of the pockets on this one you can't really belt it. But I don't mind.  No one is going to call me sexy in it (and some people might think I am hiding something.  No more babies here tho...

Last week I re-introduced eggs.  At first I thought things were going well but as the week went on I noticed that I didn't feel very well.  I'm a little surprised by that and plan to try them again at the end of adding in all the other things.  Adding them on vacation was probably not ideal.  The reaction was strong enough to keep me off them for the time being at least.  I am glad I went back to the doctor and it came up! Our trip was wonderful though, enough beach time for everyone without getting sunburnt and even some down time for the grownups due to the hotel's camp program.  I'll never stay at another hotel for more than one night with out this feature again.  Talk about brilliant.  The cousins got to play and the parents and grandparents kicked our feet up for a few minutes without worry.  Ahhh.  It wasn't so hard to eat now that dairy has a green light.  I did have a protein smoothie at least once each day (but I have...

We are off on a little vacation this week and I am using it to practice a few things: 1. A capsule wardrobe.  I've been sewing up a small storm here and just finished a dress I've been trying to make for ages.  A shift dress you can nurse in!  I'll get action pictures this week with the beautiful beach backdrop and share more about it later.  But I will tell you now it is a hack of Dress A from the Stylish Dress Book . 2. Minimalist packing.  I am the queen of bringing an extra everything with the excuse that I have kids.  This time I am bringing a small amount of clothes and some detergent instead.  Only two things I am bringing are store bought and I'm feeling pretty proud of that. 3. Traveling while still on a fairly restrictive diet.  This week I added in eggs and dairy is back as well.  I'll be able to eat eggs for the first two days of the trip and then they'll be off limits for the rest of the week again. What I am not bringi...

I could hardly resist the title.  Two is not quite enough for a flock but perhaps three will be.  Moving two sizes down from the last Tiny Pocket Tank  I found a nearly perfect fit.  And I was a little surprised (though I had been looking at them both for many days thinking of these tanks) to discover I had picked two bird printed fabrics. This one is vintage from a gifted stash.  The binding is part of the immense amount I got at the beginning of my sewing all those years ago.  This shirt cost me nothing but time to make. There was exactly the right amount of the binding to do the neckline.  If I do say so myself, I think it is very anthro.  I still want to drop the darts an inch.  These children have certainly rearranged my body but I am getting used to it and trying not to mind too much.  All part of growing up, accepting the changes for what they are instead of fighting back so hard. Also, perhaps it is time to clean my...

So far dairy has been great.  It has felt wonderful to reintroduce something I really like and felt strongly wasn't the problem first.  I'll be back to avoiding it the next four days and watching for any signs of a negative reaction. Next week we go to the beach for a very long awaited (I don't know the last beach trip we made...) family vacation.  It should be interesting trying to eat out that many days in a row with this many restrictions.  I'll be packing a small health food store's worth of food. But at least I am fairly sure dairy will be back in the mix and so at least there is that. You should see the list I've started making...  I already today the other members of the family I don't mind bringing a smoothie for meals out if it looks like that will be the only option for me.  (Or the best one...)  Of course, we'll have to go places that have gluten free options anyway because of Emerson and we are vegetarians but for goodness sakes, ...

I'm trying out reintroducing dairy this week.  So far, wonderful.  Oh cheese, I love you.  I'll let you know if I still feel the same at the end of the week. xxo