I did it.....

I have the previously mentioned items listed in my shop. One handbag and three baby slings. I had a pretty productive afternoon. Not a normal thing for Sunday as I try to take a day of rest but since DH was in town giving away kittens and Olivia was sleeping a figured I would take advantage of the quite time. I listed the hand bag and then started pizza fro dinner. DH got home about that time and started finishing up some projects he had going...including putting a shelf back on the wall that had toppled down in the middle of the night and torn big holes in the drywall on the way down. We finally got the kitchen table cleared of the books that had come off that shelf. He then started cleaning the fridge which I finished because I wanted to make sure I could find everything when I needed it. My did it need to be done. It was embarrassing and I'm glad that when people come over they don't look in my appliances very much. After that was done DH spent time with Olivia and I went back to my sewing room. I finished the top stitching on two slings and got the lining put together on a bag I'm making for my sister-in-law. The lining is the same as the purse I posted in the last post, she is into anything hippy and when I saw the fabric I knew I had to make her something out of it so I bought what was left of it.

So for next week................I'm hoping to keep up on the house pretty well, I'm having company Friday night and really don't want to spend all day Friday cleaning. I'm still working on being routine enough that my house is pretty much always clean. I was there at one time, before we moved three years ago, I just have to get settled with my new life again and learn to balance all my task. I need to get the bag done for my sis-in-law as we are going to be seeing them in the next couple of weeks, and in all fairness I should come up with something for my other sis-in-law but I haven't gotten to know her well enough to know what she would love. I'm also hoping to at least get some christening dresses started to sell. I have allot of extra lace from the one I did for Olivia as well as extra fabric I figured I would give them a shot.

I havn't fallen off the face of the earth.

I promise I haven't. I have been very busy sewing though. I did a denim skirt that is sitting in the wash pile and I will take pictures of soon (I hope) maybe even with me modeling it, but that I'm not sure. I also did a high chair pad cover since my little one is sitting and eating solids a bit now.

I have also done a couple of projects that will be listed in my store. Last night I did this purse

It's a simple tote but it has this great lining inside of it

It's a hippy themed fabric that I found on the remnant table at Joann's. Go on over to my store and take a look if you are interested.

I have also put together a couple of baby slings. They are reversible pouch style slings with denim on one side for durability and then a fun print on the other for style. Each sling is custom made for the person who it is intended to be worn by. I made several of these slings before Olivia was born and I LOVE them. I do not use them as much now as she would rather sit in her exersauser (AKA her Command Center) where she can supervise all that goes on in the house, but when she was tiny and always wanting to be held it was a life saver. I still use it when I go to the store because she does not like to sit in her car seat while I shop and I can't say that I blame her.

I hope to get these Items listed by the end of the day so come on over if you like.

Have a wonderful day.

I Would Die For That

This video is so touching if you have had any experience with infertility or long for a child at all.

My husband and I often tell people that Olivia is our miracle baby or that she was a long time coming. Often times people do not really understand what we are saying. We started trying to conceive in December 1999, two years later I finally became pregnant. We were twenty at the time we started it was very frustrating to be told to be patient when our Friends were on birth control and getting pregnant. We were so happy to get the news that we were having a baby. Unfortunately at 19 weeks into the pregnancy I went to the bathroom to discover that I had bulging bag of waters. We rushed to the nearest hospital and found out that there was nothing that could be done the pregnancy was over. Our first baby girl Desiray was still-born 15 hours later.

It took 18 months for us to conceive again. In that time there had been no confirmation as to what had caused my first pregnancy to end and I had about seven different doctors in that time frame (you gotta love the military). I was diagnosed with PCOS which is a condition where you do not ovulate on a regular basis. I was just about to start taking Clomid to help me ovulate when we found out I was pregnant for a second time. Since we had no idea what had gone wrong with the first pregnancy we were very scared about this one. I put my self on a modified bed rest and everything was going very well. I was sent to a high risk Dr who stated that losing a pregnancy at 19 wks was a one in a million chance and it would not happen again. That was at 14 wks, according to every Dr I have spoken to since my chances of wining the lottery are better. Seven weeks later at 21 wks I was in the hospital in pre-term labor. When the Dr checked me I was 75% effaced and 3-4 cm dilated. At that point there is still a chance if the Dr does the right stuff....my Dr did not. I was left sitting up in a hospital bed all night, the next morning our second daughter, Madilyn Rose, was born. She was with us for a while, I don't even know how long I just know that I cherish every minute that I held her in my arms. It was at this time that I was diagnosed as having a possible incompetent cervix. My cervix cannot hold the weight of a baby and carry it to term so it opens up early and without medical intervention I cannot carry a baby full term.
Eight weeks after Madilyn was born we moved from England back to the US. When we got settled in we applied to be foster parents because adoption is something that is really on our heart and we felt that going through foster care was the best way to do it. While adoption is still something we feel lead to do we have put it aside for now.
We also started doing fertility treatments. Metformin for treating PCOS and Clomid to help me ovulate. I lost count of how many cycles I did but we were at the end of the rope on that rout and insurance does not pay for any more that that so we had some decisions to makes. We were pretty sure my body just had its own timing for ovulating and I would be pregnant in Dec 05 Jan 06 but then my husband got orders to deploy to leave in Jan 06 and I did not get pregnant in Dec 05 so I was pretty sure I would not see a baby for years to come.
While my husband was deployed it was a healing time for both of us. All of the years of trying to have a baby and losing babies had really put a lot of stress on us and the time apart really did us some good. And DH was in a war zone so it put life into perspective for him as there were a couple of times he was not sure if he was coming home or not. He was suppose to be gone until Aug 06 but got sent home in May instead. When he returned we just enjoyed each other for a few weeks and then I went to the Dr to get a referral to the infertility Dr again so that we could start trying for our baby again. While I was there I asked her if she could do a pregnancy test on the off chance that I could be pregnant because there was no point in me making an appointment if I was just going to have to cancel it. She ran the test and the next morning she called me to tell me it was positive. I couldn't believe it, I wasn't even late yet for that cycle. We were thrilled and understandably very scared at the same time. We put our baby in Gods hands because it was by the grace of God that we were even having one considering that my husband was still suppose to be half way around the world at the time. I had a cerclage placed at 14 wks and had really an ideal pregnancy until about 30 wks when I started having some symptoms of pre-term labor. At that time I started working half days and went on modified bed rest (no house work, no extended shopping trips, no heavy lifting, ect.) and I had very little signs of per-term labor after that. At 38 wks my cerclage was removed and a week later I delivered our third baby girl Olivia Faith (bringer of peace and the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen) a healthy 7 lbs 1 oz and 19 inches long with no complications during the delivery.

Sailor Dress & Hat

OK this isn't the best picture for showing the details of this dress but it is a cute picture isn't it?

I made this sailor dress out of a remnant piece of red and white seersucker that was just big enough for this dress and a matching hat. Olivia got to wear it for the first time to the picnic her daddy's squadron had last Friday and it's now sitting on my ironing board to be ironed thus the reason for no detail pictures.

Ah, and the picture.....she is sitting in the drivers seat of the car. DH had forgotten to put the stroller in the car before we headed out the door. I was still getting things in the house and instead of strapping her into her car seat he strapped her into the drivers seat. I don't think she quite knew what to make of it.

No pin solution to pre-fold dipers

I have been facinated with cloth diapering for years. When we first began to think about having children I thought about the possibility of cloth diapering. For me it's more of a reduce, reuse than money saving. I believe that as christians we should be the bigest environmentalist on the planet. God put us on the planet and chared man kind to take care of it. I recycle when possible and do not feel comfortable throwing diapers into the trash week after week.

When I became pregnant with Olivia I began to research cloth diapers more and fell in love with the idea of all-in-one diapers. I didn't buy any however because I was unsure how big of a baby I would have so I settled for using disposables at first and then buy cloth diapers after we got settled a bit.

When it came time to by the cloth diapers I could not justify the cost of all-in-ones even if I made them myself because we were only spending about $20 a month on diapers (buying military storebrand diapers) so I went the "old fashiond" route pre-folds, pins, and plastic pants. The problem was that my huband who is wonderfull about helping with all of the aspects of parenting was not comfortable with the pins, I was talking to my Mom one day about it and she was like don't they make diapers with velcro? I said yes but they are expensive and more than I want to pay for diapers right now.

So today while driving home from my personal time shopping trip I came up with this idea.

I took a pre-fold diaper and folded it to the size Olivia is right now

I then put a piece of loop just below the line where the diaper folds over. I left the fold loose so that the diaper can grow with her. When she gets bigger I will put more loop at the bigger sizes and if God blesses us with another baby I will put loop at the smaller size also to make a one size fits all diaper.

I put hook on the top corners of the diaper and then put loop right next to it so that when I wash the diapers I can fold the hook over onto the loop and not get junk caught in the hook.

Here is the finished product.

Its all about self-dicsiplin

And I'm horrible at it, absolutely horrible. Given the choice I like any other person will take the easy choice over the harder. An extra hour in bed is so much better than getting up and exercising, letting chores go in favor of reading a book or going out for the day is so much easier. On the other hand when we get used to the harder things they become second nature. Our bodies adjust to waking up at a certain hour and the exercise becomes less of an effort. When done consistently the chores do not build up as much and can be done in a manageable amount of time. You begin to do things and do not even realise that you did them, I find that I am doing this now. If I could just be consist ant.

I have a tendency to crash and burn. I'm gun-ho about a diet, exercise plan, or housekeeping schedule, follow it for a while and then something happens. I get out of the groove, I don't loose weight, I would rather sleep than do anything else (this is how I feel this week). And yet I know if I do the basics all will be OK.

I must take baby steps. Bring things together one thing at a time, and prioritize. I have so many goals both for our family and myself, I need to write them down discuss them with DH and prioritize them then make a plan to get them done.

I'm inspired now, I'm going to do a couple of task and then work on the list.