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Junebug Inspired Dress

Is anyone else following Project Run & Play Season 3? 

I'm slightly addicted. Maybe because one of my best bloggy friends is a contestant (Hi Stef!) or maybe because all the contestants have mad skills, and I'm hoping some of their awesomeness will rub off on me. Either way, ADDICTED. And I always have the intention of participating in the At-Home-Sew-Along but, I never get my project finished in time. This is the dress I started for the first week's Junebug Remix challenge. 

I finally finished it a couple days ago but I have a really good reason why it took so long. 

I discovered I HATE knits. 

I mean I love them, they are cozy, soft and are a joy to wear but sewing them, UHG! I had such a hard time that I gave up decided it was best to put it aside for awhile so I wasn't tempted to set it on fire. After letting it sit for a good 2 weeks, pouring over every helpful tip google provided me with a link to and watching several youtube videos, I was ready to try again. 

It's not perfect. or anywhere close to great. or even good. 

I'll go ahead and describe it as "acceptable for a first try."

Seriously, I have to give major props to anyone who can sew knits.

So without any further whining from me, here are a few more pictures of the dress.

 At least it is "a good spinning dress."

I think I'm going to take a little break from sewing until I regain some confidence in my sewing abilities.

In the meantime I think I'll work on some more nursery projects. 

Since baby is due in 7 weeks and the nursery is looking like this

 at the moment.

 And a little collage of how my bump has grown.

Can you tell I love hats?

The nesting has begun

 Despite being bone tired 90% of the time, things are slowly getting done around here. Mostly a lot of little things, like cleaning out & organizing.

Like the center drawer of my craft desk

Before nesting

After nesting

And under my bathroom sink

There isn't a before pic but let's just say this is a HUGE improvement.

 If you want to imagine the before think a bunch of gallon ZipLoc bags filled with random stuff tossed under there. Yeah it was bad.

Fresh squeezed oj & orange vinegar.

The first of every month is my super cleaning day. The coffee pot is one of the things that gets super clean. I brew 10 cups of vinegar (followed by two 10 cup pots of water) to keep my coffee tasting fresh. And I just can't justify dumping out 10 cups of vinegar so, I end up making more orange vinegar, which I use for everything from wiping counters to mopping the floor to cleaning the potty chairs. But making orange vinegar means I need the peels from about 15 oranges. So we pick and juice and peel oranges for what seems like hours. Did I mention I don't have a fancy juicer? Or any official juicer for that matter? No I'm kind of ghetto and use the bottom of a cup over a big bowl. Fun. But the end results are pretty satisfying. A clean coffee maker, a little over 3 pints of fresh orange juice and 10 cups of orange vinegar.

And finally I'm motivated to work on the nursery! 

Here are some before shots when it was my craft room/guest room.

Crap piled on my desk, ghetto blanket curtain, guest bed without a mattress because it we used it for Caetlin's big girl bed.

Unorganized fabric, extra blankets, the hubby's guitars, random crap up on the shelf.

 And now

A crib, a mattress, real curtains.

 I love the curtains. They took me about 5 months to finish and I'm kind of pissed off about it because they are so pretty I wish I'd just buckled down back in September and finished them then!

Ruffle-y deliciousness.

This morning I hung some Ikea curtains for the closet doors.

 I've still got a little more cleaning to do but most of the junk has been moved out.
Baby's dresser, which is a work in progress, is tucked in the closet and will double as the changing table.

 And last but definitely not least, our new brick walkway!

 

This is what the area looked like when we moved in back in April.

 

Here it is in October after baby girl tripped on the uneven broken cement chunks and busted her lip open twice in under an hour. I got a little crazy and decided it was coming out, NOW!

Day 2 of me ripping up the cement.

After I marked off the new walkway and started digging.

And today.

 I love it. The hubby did all of the brick work by himself. I supervised from a patio chair with my feet up. ; ) The entire project cost us under $200. I think it adds so much more to the backyard than the old "path" ever did and the girls can run and ride their bikes and scooter over it without breaking their faces.

 We also moved over a garden bed so we can have our herbs closer to the back door and kitchen & I can't wait until spring so I can plant some pretty flowers down the right side next to the house.

Oh, yeah.
 

It's now the home to my fabulous little compost bin.

 I built it at the beginning of December out of a bunch of scrap wood. The hubby was surprised and so was I! Because he actually liked it!

 And just a little update of how I'm looking now-a-days.

Yeah, there's a lot of baby packed in there now.

KCWC Fall 2011: Day 1

 

So I decided that I'm finally going to participate in the Kids Clothes Week Challenge hosted by Meg of Elsie Marley. I've almost participated 2 times before. This time around I have so many Christmas presents to make I figured this would help kick my butt into gear. I managed to finish my girls' Christmas Eve pjs, (mostly anyways). We have a family tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve & it's always pjs, that way everyone is cute and snuggly for all the pics the next morning. They are made out of flannel I picked up from Jo-Ann's red tag rack in February.

Mina's Nightgown

 

 

 

 

Caetlin's pj pants. I need to get a long sleeved shirt to embellish still.

While I was feeling crafty I also managed to knock another few items off my Christmas list.

 Caetlin's getting  2 new skirts & 4 little fleece diapers for her Hazel baby doll .

I <3 this skirt. Scraps from the Minnie dresses I made the girls for our Disneyland trip back in March.

 A little zippered Hello Kitty bag for my youngest sister ( I plan on sticking some gift cards in it) & a Strawberry Shortcake bag for my Mina to store her lip gloss, hair ties and other beauty goodies in.

I also whipped up a whole new wardrobe for Caetlin's Ruby doll.

So far I've spent a total of $3.60 on this. I had to buy 2 6 inch zippers for the little bags. All of the fabric is from my stash and scrap box, and since I need to de-stash, (because I have a nursery under construction instead of a craft room)  it doesn't count towards the project cost. My blog, my rules ; )

And to send you off, a new & improved bump shot.

18 weeks.