Tiny Shoes

There are a few reasons I can't stop staring at these tiny shoes.  First...I made them!  I learned how to sew with leather and use fusible interfacing.  I also learned how to "ease stitch" and the importance of keeping seam lengths identical all around.  More importantly though, is the fact that I made these for Natalie.  I already feel guilty that she doesn't get everything "new" like Gwen did and I spend lots of time making special things for Gwen.  It feels good to make something for my new cutie pie too.  =)

Here is the link to the tutorial I used.  Love it!

Oh the giggles

Gwen has become such a comedian lately.  She makes jokes and faces and tries to get us laughing (always works), but we are laughing so much more at the things she says that aren't intended to be funny.

For some unknown reason, she has a habit of putting on nerd glasses and fake laughing and moving her head back and forth for a while.  It is hilarious.  She thinks she's so funny by changing the words of songs and messing up the alphabet and calling things the wrong colors.  She just gets the biggest grin on her face while she's waiting for us to "correct" her.  Life with this girl is incredibly sweet.

Even when she doesn't try, she makes me laugh every day.  Last week she mentioned that the sun rises in the east and it was pretty bright outside so she needed her "stunna shades."  There is a mention of stunna shades in one of the hip hop songs my company is dancing to, and apparently she picked it up.  We have been so blessed with how incredibly vocal and smart Gwen is.  But there are times I also wish she'd quiet down with all this knowledge she has.  A couple weeks ago she was with me at an OB appointment.  I was getting undressed for an exam and she was saying in her loud little voice, "you have pink underwear mommy?" and "you have flowers on your underwear mommy?" and "you put underwear on your bagina mommy?"  I'm glad we were at the OB and not the dentist because I know everyone in the other rooms could here this conversation!

She's is now potty trained and does such a good job of going pee pee on the potty.  She does find it a little difficult to poop these days because I think she holds it longer than she used to.  She says things like, "uuuuggggghhhh  I'm pushing so hard.  It's so hard to push.  The poop won't come out of my butt.  The poop wants to stay in my butt.  Maybe later it will want to come out."  I give her credit for verbalizing the exact situation she seems stuck in and for expressing it to me, but it is really hard not to laugh. 

Making the Most of our time

My sweet girl is on her way to 3 years old and acts even older than that.  I often feel like I am failing to capture our moments in the right way.  I've decded to reflect on what we accomplish each month so I canh plan to make up for time slipping away and also remember all the fun we are having.

December - In December our family was busy with our final recital, tearing dow the studio, packing up our house and moving into our rental home.  After lots of negative circumstances, we were finally able to enjoy each other.  We put up Christmas decorations and trees.  Gwen participated with Tango, the elf on the shelf.  She loved the Christmas lights when we would pass the well lit houses.  She had a blast going through the Phillips Park light show and also the display at Mooseheart.  Most importantly we got to visit all of our families for the holiday and that helped us escape from our funky situation at home.  It was nice to be with the people you love.  Christmas morning was awesome.  Gwen went down to see if Santa had come.  She ran downstairs and yelled "santa, where are you"  Then she was blown away by her gifts.  Her big special gift was a wardrobe that daddy made for her.  It is a great way to hang all of her costumes and dress up clothes and organize the accessories.  She was very gracious with all of her thank yous to the family, which made us proud. 

January - Our whole family celebrated Elizabeth's wedding.  Gwen was a perfect angel and made it through the LONG days.  She played quietly while everyone was getting their hair and makeup done.  She LOVED riding in the limo.  It was a pain in the butt getting the car seat installed, but it was worth it.  She loved the lights and music.  She loved dancing with Elizabeth at the wedding and got upset about needing to leave at the end. 

On January 22nd we headed into Chicago for our first dance competition.  The girls did a great job on all of their dances and we had fun.  Gwen was well behaved and loved to watch the girls dancing.  I ended up in L&D that night and stayed for a few days.  Gwen stayed with Grandma Tully and then with Julie where she had a blast. 

Gwen is signed up for a "play to learn" school class which meets twice a week.  She loves it.  I love sneaking close to the door and watching how cute my kid is while she is painting, or listening to a story, or playing with other kids, or dancing with bubbles.  She's definitely ready for more structure and learning, but for now this is a cute class. 

I'm sure I will sneak back in this post and add to January fun as I remember more things we did.

Proper speech

As much as I LOVE that my daughter speaks in full sentences and is 100% understandable...I miss some of the incorrect phrases she used to say. 

I miss the word "crocolator," which was her combination of alligator and crocodile.  I miss her asking to "please a help you" and "please a carry you" instead of asking "help me."  I'm lucky that she still adds random a's to her sentences.  We hear "please a carry this computer," or "please a put chocolate in my milk," or "please a play castle with me."  She does still say that she has nuts in her hair to comb out (instead of knots).  I don't correct her because I think it's hilarious.  I love hearing these things, and thought I'd post about it since I know we are in the final stages of her speaking this way. 

She's so grown up these days it is hard for me to think about without a lot of emotion.  She feeds herself, climbs into the car seat by herself, She mostly dresses herself and goes into her "school" class without any issues.  She solves her own problems and for the most part is out of diapers.  I feel like she's off to college next week!  This is perfect timing for Natalie to arrive, because I'm ready to feel needed again.  I'm ready for the little helpless cute face who depends on me.  I just hope that being a big sister doesn't make Gwen grow up even faster.  It is already happening too fast.  At least I know that in several months I will get to hear the cutest mistakes in speech again as my new girl attempts to communicate with us!  And Gwen will be writing novels at that point!  Love her.

Love Branches

I used scrapbook papers in purples, greens, grays, and browns to make leaves which I wrapped around twigs.  They are in a vase filled with coffee beans which keep them in position and also keep the room smelling fresh.  The second picture is of a necklace holder I made.  I mod podged the same fabric leaves onto canvas and set up the twigs with pins at various levels to hold jewelry.  Both pieces look nice together and makes my jewelry a little more accessible. Original idea came from HERE

Fabric Book Sling

I made this fabric bookshelf for Natalie's room.  The best part about it is that I learned (sort of) how to applique letters just by changing stitch width.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  I have plans to make two more for Gwen's room. 

Potty Chart

Here is Gwen's potty chart.  She gets a sticker each time she pees or poos on the potty and once the chart is full she gets to go pick out a new toy.  We were at her cousin's birthday party and she already started talking about some of the disney princess barbies she would like to have.  I figure we could keep it and throw it in her scrapbook for future embarrassment!

Puppet Pals

5 puppets.  That is as far as I got and probably ever will get.  These hand puppets are all made out of felt.  It took many hours of cutting and hand sewing.  They are adorable and Gwen loves to play with them.  She usually has them chase each other or some become moms and some become babies.  I don't care what she does, I just love to see her enjoy something that really took me forever!  Next project is to put together a puppet theater so she can put on shows for us!  Original idea and pattern HERE.

Popsicles for Preschoolers

Rather than just make a matching game, I put together 2 different games.  One one side, kids will be asked to match capital letters with lowercase letters.  On the other side it is basic matching but with numbers and punctuation symbols.  This is a game that will definitely grow with the girls as their abilities change.  When we start putting letters together to form words, I plan to buy some foam blocks so that each Popsicle letter can be stuck in and stand up on its own.  I figure this will make phonics a little more fun!  Original idea for the matching game came from HERE

Artsy Bow Holder

In an effort to fill Gwen's empty walls with cute junk and also organize her hair bows, I made this fancy bow holder with fabric and ribbons.  It is hung in her room at her height so she can learn to put bows away and see the choices in front of her.

Magnet Magic

In order to eliminate bags of makeup clutter in the bathroom, I made this magnetic makeup board.  It is actually a pizza tin from the dollar store with fabric hot glued to it.  I stocked up on the peel n stick magnets and put my most common products on the board.  It really saves time and is nice because it gets piles of junk off the counter and is cute!  Original idea came from HERE.

Ruffle Lamp Shades

We have not been used to lamps, as our old house had all overhead lighting.  I was lucky enough to find these lamps (2) from the thrift store.  I decorated the lamp shades by gluing ruffle ribbon around the shade and embellished with a felt flower.  We have two and they look great on either side of our bed. =)  Original idea is from HERE.

Girly Fun

This is my favorite project.  The week before Christmas my sweet hubby spent hours in the garage building this wardrobe for Gwen's dress up clothes.  She is lucky to have a dance teacher for a mom, because her collection of costumes and accessories is already huge.  She loves to dress up in fancy clothes and play like a princess.  I love it and know that with another little girl on the way, we will get tons of use out of it.  We have bin for crowns and tiaras, makeup and jewelry, character accessories, headpieces and hair bows, belts and scarves, and of course shoes.  The right side of the wardrobe is painted with black chalkboard paint so the girls can lay out their costume plans.  I got the original idea from HERE.

Creating a home

I love my little girl so much and want her to enjoy being at home with her family. There are lots of reasons behind my obsession with this topic, but I just need to make sure enjoys her life and feels warm and cozy in her home. I'm on a mission to make sure we turn our new house into a place we all love. I've been busy with crafts and projects to personalize our space. Many of these ideas come directly from others, so I will try to link to its original source.