She may have lots of Auburn gear, but she's a BAMA girl!!

From 10-2-09 Auburn Gear...Bama Girl!

When I went with Jason to an Auburn game, I was scouting out a cute AU outfit that was also a bargain. This one fit that description. You can't see the AU on the front because of Jason's hand. I didn't think about the fact that she wouldn't be able to wear it very long because it would be turning cooler outside. So the only solution was.......to make her an Auburn outfit. When I went with Jason to an Auburn game, I was scouting out a cute AU outfit that was also a bargain. This one fit that description. You can't see the AU on the front because of Jason's hand. I didn't think about the fact that she wouldn't be able to wear it very long because it would be turning cooler outside. So the only solution was.......to make her an Auburn outfit.

From 10-2-09 Auburn Gear...Bama Girl!

Look....an Aggie, a Volunteer, and a Tiger......where are the Bammers? I didn't have time to applique the tiger paw on the front before Friday came so I will do that after I wash it. I ordered the cute tiger buttons on the Internet. Mom made the hair bow.

From 10-2-09 Auburn Gear...Bama Girl!

I also sewed ribbon around her socks.

From 10-2-09 Auburn Gear...Bama Girl!

From 10-2-09 Auburn Gear...Bama Girl!

She's such a big girl. She wanted to swing on the big swing! She stayed on it nearly 10 minutes, I thought her arms would get tired. I kept asking her over and over, "you wanna get down?" Which totally scared me because she usually raises her hands to say "all done." But she just shook her head over and over and said "no.....no.....no." Like, leave me alone, mom!

From 10-2-09 Auburn Gear...Bama Girl!

Wake up daddy!!

From 10-2-09 Auburn Gear...Bama Girl!

She can wear all the clothes she wants, you can see where her allegiances lie......with mommy!

Etsy store Pattern

I ordered Ella these Baby Einstein puppets for her birthday back in April. She has really started taking an interest in them. She chases Kenzie around with the dog puppet saying "woof, woof, woof!" She also has a duck, cow, monkey, goat, and dragon. She knows the duck says "quack" and the monkey says "oooo, oooo, aaahh, aaaahhh", from the Playhouse Disney song. She's not really gotten the hang of the cow or goat yet. And, of course, if your familiar with Baby Einstein, you know that the dragon says "Blah!"

From 7-11-09

From 7-11-09

I made Ella a dress last night from a pattern I purchased a while back from http://www.etsy.com/. Its an online store where you can buy and sell homemade items. I love it! This pattern is called "The Little Mademoiselle Dress". It was super easy to make and the directions were very straightforward. Actually, I forgot to print out the directions (but I had read them), so I just made it from memory. My straps turned out too narrow - Whoops! I added the pockets because I really loved the fabric. The pattern did not call for pockets. I think it turned out a little long though and I will probably hem it tonight. I'm making a pair of pants for me using the same materials. I will post pics of it in a couple of days.

From 7-14-09

From 7-14-09

From 7-14-09

From 7-14-09

From 7-14-09

From 7-14-09

It's been a while..

I'm way behind on blog posts. Its been pretty chaotic at the Slye house. Ella has been sick, Jason has been sick, Jason had an allergic reaction to SOMETHING and his hands and feet swole to the point he could barely walk, 4th of July frenzy cleaning for the family, and let's not forget the ongoing P90x saga. So....here's just a few cute pics of our last two weeks:

From 7-1-09

My baby looks so grown up in this picture. It breaks my heart. This is on 6-26-09, she's had a runny nose for a day or two.

From 7-1-09

Ella and Daddy washed the car, 6-27-09.

From 7-1-09

The driveway has just enough decline to make Mommy have to jog to catch Ella! Ella may have seemed unamused but that didn't mean I was allowed to stop.

From 7-1-09

Later Daddy had his chance to wear himself out playing SLIDE the baby!

From 7-1-09

Sunday, 6-28-09, we visited Meemaw and Lady Lou. It was a very productive visit.

From 7-1-09

From 7-1-09

From 7-1-09

From 7-1-09

OK- Here is the dress, I have been working on. It's almost finished. I have to hem it and put the other sleeve on. Please don't leave comments telling me how cute it is, when we both know it is NOT! It's too old looking for her and it has an Amish look about it. I am chalking this one up to experience. I'm too embarrassed to show a picture of Ella in it.

From 7-1-09

Beat Up from the Feet Up

Ella loves our new Adirondack chairs. I love them because they are plastic and they stay clean and (so far) they haven't faded. ($18.00 at Big Lots!!! They had Hot pink and Green too.)

From 6-24-09

Tonight, Ella mowed the deck, while Jason mowed the back yard.

From 6-24-09

Later, after Yoga X, I attempted to finish up the bottom half of the dress I'm making for Ella.

From 6-24-09

The little triangle pieces are called Godot's apparently and they make the skirt more twirly. Well, we shall see. Hopefully tomorrow night I will have time to put the two halves together and we can see what it will look like. I think the pattern I'm using is a McCall's. You never know what your going to get.

From 6-24-09

Most of you know about the trouble my husband and I had having Ella. The doctor's eventually discovered that I have a clotting disorder and I have to take Heparin shots in the stomach if I get pregnant. Well, this is my hideous leg! I don't even remember bumping into anything! My other leg looks like that too!! No shorts or skirts for me for a while!! That's probably a good thing since I'm so white it's blinding if your looking right at me. Still, I'm a little sad that they always look this way.

From 6-24-09

Saturday

We all went to the mall this weekend to do a little shopping. There were some pretty good deals going on this weekend and I was looking for some outfits for Ella and I to take to the beach next month. Also, we needed something cute because she is finally getting her one year pictures made with the Blink Lady. They have been cancelled twice due to bad weather and FINALLY we are all set for Tuesday Morning at the botanical gardens!! We love Bonnie. You can see some of our favorites that she has done on my sidebar. Or I have albums of our sittings with her on my facebook page, if anyone wants a closer look at her work. I have digressed, needless to say, we were at the mall. Looking for cute clothes for summer.

This was the first time we let Ella out of her stroller for a little adventure. What is it about the clothing racks that is magnetized to children?

From 6-20-09

Then after spending WAY to much time at the mall, we were starving and I actually bought one of these on the way to Subway!!! Don't say it, I can't believe I did it either. I feel like such a hypocrite.

From 6-20-09

At least they gave us apples instead of fries, and milk instead of juice. I feel somewhat justified.

From 6-20-09

I didn't have to worry much about creating a little McCrackhead. Jason told me I shouldn't have put her pieces in the provided catapult AFTER they were strewn all over the floor and the seat. Well, that was only one nugget down, 3 to go. After tearing up another greasy nugget and more apple, Ella made it well known that she was NOT going to eat that. She wanted yogurt and Banana and Peanut Butter. THERE WAS MUCH REJOICING. As thrifty parents, we didn't eat what she didn't, although it was hard to just waste food like that. I did however give one of the nuggets a good long sniff. MMMMmmmm....heaven, smells like my childhood.

From 6-20-09

From 6-20-09

Later, we went to the pool for a couple of hours and then headed back to Pop and Cici's to give Ella a bath. Apparently, she is now fascinated by the water falling from the spicket. I'm not complaining, other that getting a little wet, it was much easier to rinse her hair.

From 6-20-09

On to dinner, we ate out....again. This time Olive Garden. This may surprise you since we are doing P90X and Italian restaurants aren't usually expected to be healthy. However, they have a couple of low fat entrees and even a low carb option. So, Jason got Grilled Salmon and steamed vegetables, and I got shrimp pomodoro on whole wheat linguine. Also, you can ask for low fat/ low cal Italian dressing on the delicious salad they bring. It was great. Usually, Ella eats great at Olive Garden, but she was sleepy and she wasn't in the mood to try new things. Apparently she wasn't that hungry because it didn't bother her. We did spend a lot of time doing this..... Ella: "Uh, Oh," then Daddy: "Ella what did you drop?" "Hold on, Daddy will get it."

From 6-20-09

Stinker

From 6-20-09

Back at home, this is my new project, well, part of it. I'm working on a dress for Ella that criss- crosses in the front and zips up the back. It has been quite time consuming. I have begun on the bottom half and hopefully I will have time to attach the two after picture day.

From 6-20-09

From 6-20-09

Here is my new Sewing/ Embroidery machine. I haven't really figured out the Embroidery part yet, but so far so good on the sewing.

From 6-20-09

Minky Dress

Ella wore dress #2 to school today. These are for you, mom.

Pillowcase dress

Last night I made Ella 2 Pillowcase style dresses. I had some cute zebra print fabric and some left over minky fabric from Ella's nap mat. I looked at a couple of different tutorials on making these but ended up pretty much doing my own thing.

Step 1 - Measure your child. First measure the length from her collar bone to her knee then add an inch or two for your hem. I only added one inch because I wanted to add trim at the bottom of both. Second, measure her width and double it.

Step 2 - Cut out your fabric. Ella happened to be 15" long and 9 1/2" wide. So I cut out 2 rectangles 16" X 19".

Step 3 - Right sides together, sew 1/4" seam down both sides of the fabric. Press seam open.

Step 4 - Sew your hem. If your adding trim, pin it to the right side of the fabric with the bottom of the trim pointing toward the collar. It may look like your sewing it on upside down, but once your done, fold the trim to the wrong side of the fabric and press. Starting at a side seam, topstitch all the way around the hem and your done with that part! I'm sure that was about as clear as mud. It's hard to describe some things without pictures.

Step 5 - Cut the arm holes. The next part you just have to be a little creative. I measured down each side 4 inches and over from the top 2 1/2 inches. Ella is wearing size 12 month and it worked great for her, you might have to make it a little smaller or larger for different ages. Then I just cut them out. You will be cutting through two layers of fabric so you better pin it so it doesn't slip. Be sure to curve the cut where the two measurements will meet (It will look like your cutting out a J shape). Turn the fabric under 1/4" under the arms, press, then sew in place.

Step 6 - Fold the Collars down according to what size elastic you have laying around. I had 5/8 so I turned the collars down 1". If you had 1", you would turn it down 1 1/4". Stitch around the bottom. Leaving enough space to slide your elastic through.

Step 7 - Take a safety pin and pin one end of the elastic to help you pull it through. After you pull it through one side, slide your fabric down the elastic until its bunched to a width you like. Cut your elastic and pull it out of the fabric. Cut a second strip of elastic the same length. Pull the elastic back through your fabric.

Step 8 - Attach your ribbon. After you pull you elastic through, cut 4 lengths of ribbon. You may want to practice trying a bow to see how much ribbon you need. I have no recommendation on ribbon width. I used 1" but I thought it was too wide, but others have commented that they liked it. Sew 1 of your ribbons to 1 end of the elastic. Slide the ribbon and elastic into the fabric so that the ends are hidden. Then topstitch the ribbon and elastic so that it won't slide anymore. I sewed over the existing 1/4 seam. Repeat three more times.

YOUR DONE!!

I won't be suprised if you can't reproduce this dress based on my tutorial. I don't think I'll get a job writing tutorials. If anyone is interested in it, and has any suggestions, I will be happy to clarify.

52 free apron Patterns

With Mother's day coming up - I went in search of something I could make for the Mom's in my life with my new-found sewing confidence. I found this. I love aprons! and Lord knows I need one myself! I know most of my family will read this before Mother's Day, Let me just say, you may or may not, be getting an apron. Mom's the word! No pics...sorry.

Happy little things

OK - these pictures just crack me up. She looks like "crouching tiger" Ninja baby, with her nunchucks!HIIIII....YAAAAA!
I'm so silly!
What else is hiding inside of this boat?
You make Mommy so happy!
I finished another sewing project last night. I wanted to try something creative and I found a cute tutorial on felt applique's without a machine here. I love her blog and you will to if you start reading it! Anyway, I found a digital scrapbooking embellishment of a bird that I liked, printed it out, traced it, cut out the felt, and voila! For my first embroidery on clothing, I'm rather pleased. The top is Lucy, by Childrens Corner. It's actually a dress. The pants are a Simplicity pattern I think. I couldn't decide whether to do the ruffle on the pants in the fabric from the top or just use the pants fabric.
I ended up just using the same fabric for the ruffle. Yea! My first ruffle!
Cutie Pie! Yes, that is the balloon from her birthday party 2 weeks ago.


I'm thinking about buying an Embroidery/Sewing Machine. I want a good machine but I don't want to spend a fortune. Also, I know that you need software and if anyone has any experience with any software I would love to know what you think. What are the pros and cons of getting a machine that can connect directly to your computer or getting one that has a computer inside of it. What are the best brands? Any insight would be much appreciated. I have tried googleing "embroidery machine reviews," without much luck.