O' fun for... finally blessing my baby

Okay, so here's my post. We finally blessed Ellie a few months ago, and I made her blessing dress. I feel kind of guilty, since the boys didn't even get white outfits, but I guess it's just that much more fun to dress up a girl. It's okay- life evens it out later when the girls grow up and bear children and then clean up after them for the next 20 years...

I found enough white fabric from my Grama T stash to make the dress, but I wanted it to be a little fanci-fied. I decided to use the handy decorative stitches on my machine o' awesomeness to detail the fabric. It is hard to see in the picture, but the flower stitching in rows with white thread was something I added. It took longer then I planned, but turned out pretty cool:



I had fun trying out more fancy stitches on the bodice and sash, and did elastic-thread smocking on the back of the bodice. I didn't have a pattern, but smock-y dresses don't need to be too tailored.



I finished it off with little daisies on the skirt here and there, and then made a yellow and white bracelet to match. We put a huge Shauni-flower (that's just what we call it now, Shauni!) on her head to get the whole Cindy-Lou-Who thing going on, and then she was so cute it hurt a little:




And there you have it! That is the thing I am most proud of making over these last 6 months or so. Now I just need to get my craft room all back in one location and I can make baby-clothes and bows and whatnot like a madwoman. Right now half my crafty-room items are in the almost-finished craft room in the basement, and the rest are mixed in with a lot of junk in my old craft room upstairs, soon to be Ellie's room. It's amazing how much easier it is to do things when they are all organized! Plus, sometimes it's just fun to go look at all the colorful things on their shelves or in their cubbies.

I'll keep posting now- I have Christmas projects and wedding jewelry coming up on the never-ending list o' projects.

O' fun for...almost posting

Okay, I have about three minutes to post something before I have to head off to pick Brady up from pre-school. Five if I go in my flamingo pajamas instead of actual clothes... And now four for telling you that...

I had a baby, she is the cutest ever, I made a bunch of stuff after things got back to semi-normal-ness, and by the end of the day will post pictures of at least one thing I have made lately. By saying that here I have now committed to it.

Aaaand now I am out of time. But I'll be back...

O' Fun For... lazy bums

No, this isn't about bums. Just the lazy. I am officially going on blog maternity leave. The O' Fun For All blog administrators are very generous with their maternity policy- I get leave until the kid is born plus maybe a month or so, depending on how long it takes before life gets relatively normal again. I am due to have this kid April 30, but I'll at least let you know when she comes on out to join us, and possibly post something here and there in the meantime, or maybe not. So, starting now, this post is....

On Maternity Leave

See you once this kid decides to leave my poor bladder/back/stomach space alone!!

O' Fun For... clearing out the tumbleweeds

Can you see the big pile of them here on my blog? It's even bigger than the one that's been building all winter on the side of my house. So, here's a short but useful post to clear away the blog tumblweeds that have been blowing by...

It's a recipe for Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad O' Goodness. A few weeks ago I went to the Sunflower Farmer's Market in Orem. (Thanks for the tip Tiffany!) Kind of like Trader Joe's for all you Cali folks. You can buy various marinated goodness by the pound, so I loaded up a pound's worth of marinated sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts. After careful comsideration of what exactly to do with these tasty treasures, I came up with this recipe. I hope you like it...

Chicken Pesto Pasta Salad O' Marinated Goodness

*1 lb. total marinated artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, and mushrooms, chopped up

*1/2 lb jack cheese, cubed into tiny little cubes

*2 seasoned (I used a citrusy seasoning, but use whatever) chicken breasts, cooked and cubed

*1- 12 oz. package of fun noodles (spiral, wagon wheel, shell, etc.) cooked

* Half a jar (so I used about 11-ish oz.) pesto sauce- I used the kind from Costco

Mix it all up in a ginormous bowl and eat it. Mmmmm. I put some in the fridge and some in ziplocs in the freezer. It is nice cold or hot.

O' Fun For... discovering your true self

This is not making stuff related, but I thought this off-subject post was justified after the week-long streak of posts. A friend of mine posted a note on facebook where you type "(your name) needs" (quotation marks and all) into Google and share the first ten hits you get back. As I sat there at my computer putting off any kind of productivity, I thought I'd give it a try and share my findings.

"Dana needs" by Google

1. Dana needs... some breathing room

2. Dana needs... to negotiate a network television deal

3. Dana needs... help. (no surprises there)

4. Dana needs... a self-embedding U-Box. (?)

5. Dana needs... to be the center of attention (hey!)

6. Dana needs... some advice about her old girlfriend

7. Dana needs... a lot of comforting

8. Dana needs... a dose of transparancy, accountabitiy

9. Dana needs... emergency prayers

10. Dana needs... to slay the beast

Thanks for the idea, Tiffany! That was way more fun than folding laundry. What does Google think you need?

O' Fun For... this kid I've been growin'

Here are the finished blocks. Ta-da! The directions can be found from the link in my previous post about them. Okay, that link isn't working. The directions are from the London Mummy blog, and I have a working link in my post from December 29. I followed the directions as written, but added some fringe and ribbon and whatnot in the seams of some of the blocks since babies always seem to enjoy the tags more than the toys. Well, kid, there you go. Ribbon tags.



Now the name is set in... fabric. Unless we think of something we like better that can be spelled by rearranging the blocks...

O' Fun For... thwarting my attempts at plumbing

...or at least my attempts to sport the plumber's choice in pants.

It's all thanks to Spandex. This is rather shocking in light of my history with the stretchy sparkly fabric. One time in high school during cross country practice I made a wayward comment about Spandex involving the drill team, which was overheard (and misunderstood) by a very indignant Drill Team coach, who then passed the information on to the rest of her team. This lead to my being forced into writing an apology to the entire drill team on behalf of the cross country team, and getting cussed out in the halls by some drill teamers who were very defensive of their Spandex. (Who then turned away in unison and marched down the hall, arms flapping and heads bobbing in time to their marching... no, but that would have been a lot cooler...)

So who would have thought my saggy pants savior would have come in Spandex form?! I am humbled. And now, to show my new found respect for the elastic fabric of the gods, here is my...

STRETCHY PANTS TUTORIAL!

This is a picture-riffic tutorial on how to make maternity pants that actually stay up! It's true! They'll be there to cover your rapidly expanding bum through it all- the sitting and standing, the bending, the climbing of stairs... you get the idea. Let's begin...

You'll need:

*one pair of jeans, preferably low rise with a bit of stretch
*one big ol' piece of Spandex- not too thin a piece, preferably the kind that stretches up and down as well as side to side. (check out SpandexWorld- they have a minimum purchase requirement, but you could get extra to make a swimsuit... you know, for that time far off into the future when you decide it is safe to wear a swimsuit again...)
*plus a tape measure, thread, pins, all that sewing stuff

I have made a bunch of these now, and since they do- to some extent- grow with you, the specific size of the jeans you start with doesn't matter too much, as long as they are a few sizes bigger than you wear while not all knocked up. Really it's all about whether or not your preggo thighs want to fit into them or not that really matters.

STEP ONE: measure around your jeans about one inch or so below the waistband, all the way around. Now subtract a few inches from this, and you have the length for your Spandex measurement.

STEP TWO: Cut a rectangle from your spandex measuring 12 inches x the measurement you got at the end of step one.

STEP THREE: With right sides together, fold the Spandex rectangle in half so the 12" sides are touching. Sew a seam along the 12" side. (See the picture, my words are not working...) You should now have a Spandex tube. Try it on around your middle and make sure it is snug. Then take it in or taper the seam or whatnot as needed. In my example I needed to take the seam in more at the top then the hip area, so it tapers at the top. Just how snug to make it depends on how thick and stretchy your fabric is. The point is to make it stay put without your needing to hold it up while still not crushing your internal organs. Cut off extra seam allowance from the side seam.

This pic shows the seams:



This one shows how the tube should fit, (and what I have learned in my Photoshop class...):

STEP FOUR: Really quick before you forget, hand sew the zipper of your pants closed about halfway down the fly, like this:

STEP FIVE: With right sides together, pin your Spandex tube to your pants. The tube is smaller than the pants, so stretch the tube to fit as you pin. Make sure to line the tube seam up with one of the side seams on the pants. Now, hopefully to clarify and not confuse, I'll explain what you should have here. Looking at the pants you should see the pants inside the tube, and the tube is inside out and upside down. (The part you measured for your hips is on top and pinned to the jeans, the part you measured around your rib area is scrunched up awkwardly around the thighs of the jeans. If that was confusing just ignore it...)

It should look something like this:

STEP SIX: Use a zigzag or some stitch with a bit of stretch and sew the tube to the jeans about 1/2" from the top. (look at the picture above...) Start at one side of the fly and work around until you get to the other side of the fly. Don't sew over the zipper. Your machine won't like that. Also be careful for metal rivets or snaps or things like that as you sew.

**Reinforcing all seams by sewing twice or something is recommended since they will get a lot of strain put on them as you get freakishly huge**

That's it! Pull that panel on up and ta-da! Enjoy your pants! You can wear them before you get too big by zipping the fly like normal and folding the waistband over your hips to keep your pants firmly in place, like a belt. As you get larger and larger, you can unzip the fly (to the point where you sewed it shut at least) and pull that stretchy tube o' fun up to yer armpits there under your shirt.

Here are the pants worn with the waistband folded down:


And here they are worn with it pulled up:


Now go do some squats! No, that sounds tiring. Maybe instead put on your stretchy pants and go eat some brownies while you watch American Idol. Yes. Try that.