easter dresses

Two years ago I made Sutton an Easter dress and the boys, including Michael, matching ties. My outfit coordinated too. Honestly, I think my husband was a little embarrassed but I thought it was fun even if a little over the top.

I can't remember if I made any Easter clothes last year. If I did, I didn't blog about it.


I had planned to make matching Easter dresses for Sutton and Gemma but I wasn't going to makes ties again. Too much effort, too little time.

I made a dress for Sutton but it didn't turn out as I wanted so I grabbed a partly finished dress I started a while ago and finished that. The dress was inspired by Katiedid's dresses that she made for her girls a few years ago. (Side note: Anyone else wish Katie was still blogging??)


Sutton was pretty pleased with the dress, as you can see. Although she doesn't love the dress as much as she loves to pose. :)


And no, she didn't wear those boots to Church!


After the failure of Sutton's first dress, I didn't even attempt to make one for Gemma. Which worked out well because one of my friends gave Gemma this adorable dress. I love the yellow and navy together. Plus is has stripes and polka dots! Love.

This isn't a great picture of the dress. Gemma hasn't figured out how to pose just yet. Ha, ha.


Here's the whole crew. We don't match. Heck, we don't even coordinate but I don't care. I have been thinking about my priorities a lot lately and I have come to a realization that I put too much effort into unimportant things. So I am trying to change that.

Those five people in the picture are where my focus needs to be. Do you ever struggle with your priorities? How do you find a balance?

Hmm... this post really took a different direction than I planned. :)

I hope you all had a great Easter!!

yarn pillow

I had purchased several skeins of yarn to make yarn eggs but then I realized that Easter is only a few days away. I'm too late to decorate this year! I didn't want all that pretty yarn to sit unused for a whole year so I picked a few spring-y colors...


Cut them slightly longer than the top piece of my pillow...


Sewed over each end and the center to anchor the yarn...


Then stitched back and forth many times with coordinating thread. Trimmed the yarn...


Sewed the back pieces to the front. Turned it right side out and popped in a pillow. Easy peasy!


I'm loving the texture!

the sincerest form of flattery

One of my favorite blogs, Craftiness is not Optional along with KoJo Designs is hosting a knock-off week called 'the sincerest form of flattery'. There have been some amazing knock-offs so far and today my version of a mini-boden dress is being featured! Go check it out here.

the dress again. this time with Gemma in it.

Gemma looked adorable on her blessing day in the dress I made. You'll have to take my word for it though because I didn't get a single picture of her on her blessing day. She had a blow out half way through Church. Poop all over her dress. Ugh!


Thankfully, it didn't stain! All last week I meant to put the dress on her and take pictures but it was a crazy week. Not only were we busy with school and projects and errands and life but Gemma has had a cold and I have a sinus infection and ear infection. We've been a barrel of fun over here, people.


The stars finally aligned today and I was able to get a few good shots of Gemma in her dress.


This week will be better than the last, I am sure of it! Mainly because it's spring break and I plan on sleeping in every morning. :)

just in time

Gemma is being blessed tomorrow morning. I just finished the dress a few minutes ago. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right?


I prefer simple, non-frilly blessing dresses. I used a basic pattern for the dress but the addition the lace and the pintucks on the bodice are my design. The pintucked fabric I used for the skirt was a remnant I picked up a year or two ago for a few dollars. I haven't used it before now because I didn't have much yardage. I am glad I finally found a use for it!

sprucing up the master bath, part two

If you remember last fall I posted about sprucing up the master bath. This is what it looked like after the sprucing:


I did not expect there to be a part two but my General Contractor brother-in-law Jon wanted to get some practice at making concrete counter tops and asked if he could do one for our bathroom. Um, YES, please!

Jon also made concrete counter tops in his master bathroom (his master bathroom is way nicer than mine. I'm a little jealous!). Side note: Jon and Jen are selling their house so if you are local check it out. It's a lovely house.


The new after:


The crappy white counter top with the built in backsplash is gone and a lovely light gray concrete counter top with a glass tile backsplash is in.


I got lucky and found the glass tiles on clearance at Lowes. I spent only $10!! I did the tiling and grouting. It was my first experience with tiling and I am pretty proud of my work! :)

this and that

It's April Fools day but I don't have any tricks for you. I saw this one last year that almost made me pee my pants. A year later it still makes me giggle! Check it out here.

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Our trip to Portland was so fun (more on that later)! Thank you for all your suggestions! I was surprised that so many Portlanders (or former Portlanders) read my little blog.

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No school for my kids today. I am so excited to have a long weekend with them to make up for the time we were away last weekend. We don't leave the kids often and whenever we do I am always surprised by how much I miss them. Since there is no school, we will be going to the library and out for lunch. Hopefully the weather will clear up so we can go to the park too.

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Once your newborn starts sleeping through the night never say "We're doing great, she is even sleeping through the night!". Even as the words came out of my mouth I thought to myself, I shouldn't say this, I'll jinx it. And jinx it I did!

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I am sure by now you have heard of Pinterest, right? In case you haven't, it is a virtual pin board. It's light years better than using your browsers bookmarks. I even had my bookmarks organized into separate folders but it was still almost impossible to find something among the thousands of bookmarks. I have been pinning for a few months now and I love it! Follow my pins here.

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For dinner tonight I am attempting a Jamie Oliver recipe, Chicken in Milk. Honestly it sounds kinda gross but it comes highly recommended. I am intrigued.

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Gemma is ten weeks tomorrow! I think we might finally be blessing her next Sunday. I really need to get started on her blessing dress!

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Also this weekend we get to watch General Conference. It's just what I need right now. I only wish we were having the beautiful weather we enjoyed last year!

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Friday night is our weekly Family Movie Night. I think I will make these brownies and we will watch either our new favorite, "Tangled" or an old classic, "Star Wars: The Emperor Strikes Back".

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I am dying to make these yarn eggs. Mini eggs would look awesome as a garland! Inspired by this party. The whole party is amazing actually. I may copy it detail for detail when Sutton turns six five this summer! (I can't believe I forgot how old my daughter is! I'm kinda tired.)

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HAPPY WEEKENDING!