Corie from Banberry Place is having the greatest giveaways over on her blog.

Some of you might remember the Redondo skirts I've made. If you don't, you can see one here and both my daughter's absolute favorite skirt here.

I've made a couple of the Anna wrap dresses and am about to make a couple more this week. Here and here are a few examples.

These two are probably my favorite patterns to use because of the easiness but mostly they are so darn cute. The reason of my raving over these patterns is to tell you I got them from Banberry Place. It's a great store with great customer service and one of the few that carries Farbenmix patterns. They also always seem to have a sale going on - like 20% off their Japanese fabric going on now - so go on. Click away to Banberry Place and the blog Stunt Sewing to see the AMAZING giveaways she is, well, giving away.

Um ..... a bad idea

So maybe those rag curls were not such a good idea after all. These were the kinkiest, curliest curls I've seen. I tried so hard not to laugh as we were undoing them; but when my 6 year old told her she looked like a clown I couldn't help it.



As you can see she wasn't so happy with her do.



I decided it might help to put it up. So we gave her a "princess up do" and she was quite pleased. Even when I offered to wet it, she declined.



My 6 year old then thought that she looked like a Trojan. You know the Trojan warrior with their mohawk type feathers in their helmets. Again, I had to laugh; but it didn't matter to Red.



She has now decided that she wants me to curl her hair every night. I have decided that I will not roll them as tight and I will definitely take bigger chunks of hair. We'll see how it works tomorrow.

My try at hair

Nate was in big need of a haircut... Derek was very tired of his mop hair. My opinion is, who cares? With his genes, the poor boy might not even have much hair in 15 years; so why not let it hang over his ears? So Derek decides to cut his hair tonight. I wish I would've taken a picture of it before I fixed it. It was sort of a Barney Fife bowl cut and not very flattering.



Guess what! I couldn't find a single comb in my house. So I used a round brush and scissors. You can imagine how uneven it is. But from afar, it looks pretty darn good, don't you think? I haven't seen a clean cut on this boy in over a year, and I must say .... I LOVE it.



I also decided on a whim to try rag curls on Red. In retrospect, I probably should have looked up how to do this. I'm not sure how this will look in the morning; I'll let you know.

Fairy Tale Ball

The entire 2nd grade has been doing a Language Arts unit on Fairy Tales. Tomorrow will be the annual Fairy Tale Ball in which all the 2nd grade students dress as a character from a fairy tale. Chuck decided on Peter Pan. This was such an easy outfit to make and cost $10 to make. I bought a plain t-shirt from Hobby Lobby and cut the bottom and sleeves; then a slit in the top and used some leather cord to tie it up. The bottoms were a brown jersey knit and I used my pajama pants pattern that I'm wearing out. I've never sewn a knit before and have always wanted to. For some reason it scared me. It wasn't bad, although it did roll up as I was trying to sew. I will definitely be using it more, though.

Oh - and the hat. The hat is borrowed from a friend who had a Peter Pan costume. The costume was too small for Chuck; but we were still able to use the hat and the felt boots that fit over your shoes.




About the ball. There will be games, refreshments, pictures, and DANCING! The students even had to pair off and learn a few dances for the event. Chuck learned the box step, waltz, and swing and the lucky girl is Madison. I don't know her, but Chuck showed me his moves so I know she'll be impressed.



Isn't he the cutest? He has yet another tooth loose up top that should be coming out any day now - I don't know how the boy is going to eat.

Halloween

Happy Halloween, ghouls and goblins! True to myself, I didn't plan and we didn't have any costumes this morning. It all worked out in the end and the kids looked great and had a fun night of knocking on doors. Some friends came over and the Daddy's took all ten kids trick or treating while Nicole and I stayed home to pass out the candy.






Chuck decided to go as a pirate. I had a vest from back in my high school days bought from a craft fair. It's made out of ties and so cool that I've never been able to part with it; even though it hasn't fit in quite a while. I pulled that out along with a lacy white shirt of mine. Complete with some stash fabric wrapped around the head and voila, he was a pirate.



Matt wanted to go as the Grim Reaper. This one was pretty easy. At Target this afternoon, they had black jersey knit twin sheet sets on clearance for $13. He wrapped the top sheet around his body and secured it with a few safety pins and then we put the pillowcase over his head. I didn't cut into any of it; so not only did it make a cool outfit, we also have cheap, new sheet set. For his scythe, we used a mop stick and the top of an old Rubbermaid container for the blade. We just happened to have some copper colored spray paint lying around to give the blade a metallic look.



The girls had some Gothic looking princess dresses from last year that still fit them. On the trip to Target they found two $1.39 witch hats; so they decided to be witch princesses this year.



Johnny went as a mummy. I had an old queen size that I had been saving for a rainy day (like today). I tore it in strips and soaked it in tea to give it a browned, aged look. The poor thing started coming unraveled, though, soon into the trick or treating. Derek said that one of the other kids would step on his rags and J would stop and get pulled backwards.



I think my favorite was Nate. He wanted to go as a nerd. He wore some of Chuck's pants and shirt that were way too small for him. We slicked his hair down and I stuck some up in the back Alfalfa style. The greatest thing of all was some zit makeup I found at Target. They really looked disgusting.

*yawn* ~ more pajamas

Are you tired of seeing the pajamas I've been making? Well, there's still three more pair to show after this; so get used to it.

Here is Matt's pair with the flannel that, I think, screams pleasant dreams. He's been after me to make these since February; so he was so happy when I finished them last night around 9:30.



It is so hard to get a good picture of this boy because he's always making silly faces. Here is Matt with the girl version of himself .... don't they look just alike?

The three older boys had their piano recital yesterday. Boo on me because I forgot my camera. However, my dependable Father-in-law brought along his trusty camcorder. Knowing him, he'll have us a copy of it by Friday. Have I ever told you that he keeps all of our children every Friday night for my man and I to go out? Yes, he does! It's something he started when our oldest was a wee 2 weeks old. Little did he know we'd have six or he might not have started that tradition.

Allright, so back to the recital. Wow. My boys stole the show (don't all Mom's think that way?). Nate even composed his own song and played it. I am so proud of each of them and the hard work they put into practicing.

Since I don't have a picture of the recital; I'll leave you with Chuck practicing his violin. This boy loves his fiddle and plays it everywhere. I've seen him bouncing on a big Hop ball playing, curled up on a sofa playing, and here sitting on the floor in the corner of an unpainted room playing.

More pajamas

Today it was Red's turn for pajamas. I used more $2.40 a yard flannel from Jo Anns. I wish y'all could reach in the screen and feel these; man are they soft.

I learned something today. After having my Grandma's old sewing machine for 10 years, I finally learned how to sew a buttonhole. Yes, friends, you read that right .... I've never sewn a buttonhole on my machine. They've always scared me. My machine manual doesn't have any specific instructions, but thank goodness my Grandma wrote in the side margin "press tie-off buttonhole". I found out that once the button is as long as I need it, I press the "tie-off buttonhole", then it starts sewing back up the other side. Now the trick that I didn't realize before today is - I need to press the "tie-off buttonhole" one more time at the end for it to finish it off.

I'm rambling, I know, but my point is I learned something that I should have learned years ago. Check out these fabric covered buttons on the PJ top - precious!




I'm glad I finished the girls PJs. It's supposed to get down to 38 degrees in the south tonight, brrrrrr.

Pajamas

I bought lots and lots of flannel last winter hoping to make my kids some pajamas. I am just now getting around to it. I used the Favorite Things Little Sleep Well pattern. I bought it a while back because it includes the patterns for boys and girls sizes 1 through 14. One pattern that is a fit for all my six is a deal in my book.




I thought I'd start with the smallest size and work my way up, since little bit was the most excited about a new, warm pair of pajamas. She also loved the little ballerina flannel. This flannel is the softest stuff; and at $2.40 a yard on sale at Jo Anns it was a great deal.



Please excuse her chocolate face. I noticed blood in her ear during lunch today and took her to the dr. It turns out she has a very infected ear and her ear drum burst! She never complained one bit or had a fever. At the ENT, they really had to work hard to clean all the goop out of her ear. She kept completely still and even laughed because the vacuum thing tickled; so I thought that merited a Frosty.



I love how this pattern worked up. It honestly took me a few hours. Doesn't the inside look good? I love when the inside looks neat and tidy! Man I love my serger.

Halloween fun

Picnik has their Halloween features up. Let's jut say I've been having fun making some of the kids into monsters and ghouls today.

Apple overload

My sister and I went up to Ellijay to the apple orchards a few weekends ago and I came home with four bushels of apples. Do you realize how many apples that is? Let's just say I was up to my elbows in apples. Thanks to my wonderful Mom, she came over last week to help me peel them and make my kid's favorite .... applesauce. I froze some of the that (isn't it beautiful?) and then made some apple butter with the rest. I ended up with 22 pints. Chuck, my #3, is the one with the biggest love of apple butter. His absolute favorite thing to eat is a peanut butter and apple butter sandwich. When I finally finished canning he exclaimed, "Tomorrow, we'll be eating like kings!"

Grosgrain: Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

This girl's creations are amazing; but I think she may be a bit crazy to be GIVING them away. Check it out.


Grosgrain: Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

The kids and I went to visit my dog loving sister over the weekend while my husband was away on a motorcycle trip. We had a lot of fun and I came home with 4 bushels of apples. I guess I'll be busy making applesauce and apple butter the rest of this week. Back to my dog loving sister; my Tippy fell asleep on her couch. Kim gave her a pillow to lay her head on, then covered her up with a blanket, and gave her a little stuffed puppy under her arm to snuggle with. I wish is was a different color stuffy with her so you can make it out better in the photo.

As cute as Tippy is cuddling with a stuffed pup, my little Redhead was even sweeter sleeping on the way home.

This is the usual way my girls walk around the house during the day. They call the skirts on their head their long hair.

Notice Anna's dress, skirt on body, and pants.

Growing up

With my older two boys only being 9 months and 3 weeks apart; it's hard for people to tell them apart. I've always said that Nate wears glasses. Would you believe that the boy grew and got contacts?



What can distinguish them now? How about those dimples? He begged me not to use the above photo; but how could I resist? So to compromise, I took the serious pose below.



I seriously can't believe he's in Jr. High already. It seems like yesterday when he flashed me his very first smile showing off the sweetest and deepest dimples I'd ever seen.