The First Test

I passed my first big test on the buying ban today!  It was of course Boxing Day in Canada.  For the Americans out there, Boxing Day is our biggest shopping day of the year, similar to Black Friday.  And I managed to not buy any clothes!  It was tough and it was tempting... but I went to Michael's and the fabric store instead to fuel my craftiness and build my stash a bit.

So, as promised some pictures from yesterday of the 4 girls in their Christmas customs, sewn by me.  I couldn't get pictures of all of them together no matter how hard I tried.

And here are some of my adorable little neice who is around 9 months old.

Christmas Day

Contrary to what I thought was going to happen, Laina and Mylie slept through the night and only started agitating to open presents at 6am!  We had my parents, my sister, brother-in law and neice over to open presents and have breakfast, so we held the kids off (mostly) until about 7:15 and then they all let 'er rip!   Everyone seemed thrilled with their gifts and we had a great morning.  As the day went on though, it became apparent that all three of my kids are sick with colds and/ or pink eye.  Yuck, we just can't seem to shake these germs!

One of the surprises I had been working on for a couple of weeks was to "re-do" the playroom.  It really wasn't finished with all of the details I wanted (ie. I will be adding a small stage that will be curtained off and can double as a dressing room for when they play dress-up, also an area rug as well as a few shelves that still need to be hung) but Christmas was here, so I had to unveil it for them!

Here was the playroom before (and this was on a good day!!)

And when I showed it to them this morning:

Gone was the ugly floral green loveseat; I replaced it with Pottery Barn Kids Anywhere Chairs personalized with their names.

This is the corner that the stage will go in... the Rose Petal Cottage will go on top of the new playroom TV cabinet (which was our old Living Room one) once the Christmas decorations come off of it.  The wall are now Lovely Lavendar instead of yellow.

A new shelving unit and bins from Ikea are labeled and used to store all the toys in.  I need to get more bins, there was more spaces than I thought!  There is also a new pink 3 drawer dresser beside this unit that I couldn't fit in the picture.  It will be used to store the dressup clothes in.

You can see one of the shelves over on it's side here that needs to be hung up still.  It will hold their Carebear collection.

And that is it for today! Tomorrow I will share some photos of the girls and my neice from today... they were wearing matching outfits that I sewed for all 4 of them... very cute!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I'll start this post off with the bad news.  Today was no different for me than any other big holiday.  I call it "important day panic".  It happens to me every time I very badly want something to go well.  I obsess and fret until I have a panic attack which I then try to hide from the kids, causing myself more anxiety.  But the kids are all tucked away into bed now, having been read "Twas the night before Christmas" and leaving the carrot for Rudolph and milk and cookies for Santa.  So I will take some deep breaths and try to move on, knowing that the upshot of getting it over with on Christmas Eve, is that I may get to skip the Christmas Day panic attack!

We visited with my husband's family at their house for dinner and the kids got to open presents from them tonight.  Then we stopped in at my parent's house for a quick visit before coming home to prepare for the big day!  I hope that everyone who may read this has a wonderful Christmas filled with lots of family, love and good things to eat!  Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

The girls got Precious Petzzz and that is what is sleeping on Mylie's lap, not a real dog.

This is my first and last year that I can match all 3 of them in the fleecy, cosy Carter's PJs that we buy every year for Christmas Eve.  Laina is in the biggest size that Carter's has (at least around here), so her days of matching are numbered unless I sew them next year.

Christmas Lists

This will be short since I have "The Christmas Cold".  Every year, I seem to get sick just in time for Christmas day, and this year is no different.  I am feeling crappy and just want to crawl into bed after finishing up my present wrapping and putting together the kids big surprise.  So I will treat you to the kid's Christmas lists.

I found these when I got home on the weekend after my in-laws babysat the kid's overnight.  My MIL wrote what Mylie dictated and Laina wrote out hers.  Several of the entries were.... amusing.

Here is Laina's (and I am aware that her spelling is atrocious for a 2nd grader, but please keep in mind that she is taught entirely in French.  They don't learn English as a subject until grade 4.  That is my excuse and I am sticking to it!)

I can decipher any that you are interested in, just comment which number.  But check out number 10.  Yes.  She DID request Cheese Nips from Santa.  And Santa will oblige.

This is Mylie's.

Number 6 is my favorite.  I mean, who am I to deny her?  Although I suppose I should be concerned about what kind of impact my shopping is having on her psyche?  Because how many 3 year olds request clothes by brand name?

Great Balls of Cake

Since I only had about a million better things to do this evening, I decided to make cake balls.  Well, cake pops I guess since they are on sticks.  I love these things, and hate them at the same time.  They are absolutely sinfully delicious.  On the screen they sound pretty easy to make too.  And they are, but they can be frustrating at the same time.

Bakerella is the great mind behind these, and if you have never been to her website before, there is how-tos and lots of adorable ideas and variations of cake balls/ pops.  You can check her out here.  Basically, these little goodies are made up of a cooked cake mix, which is crumbled into a bowl and mixed with a tin of icing, then candy-coated.  Mmmmm, candy-coated cake and icing... what could be better?

So I aimed for festive cake balls (and everytime I make these, my husband can't resist making suggestive comments about candy-coated balls... ugg... men!) and they turned out, well, kind-of ugly actually.  But for what it is worth, here they are, and just know that they are delicious!

Keep Me Busy Projects

First off, let me just say that my 3 kids DO keep me extremely busy.  Between driving to and from 2 schools with different drop off and pick up times, dance classes 3 days a week, and figure skating lessons one evening a week plus being the costume coordinator for this years figure skating club's Ice show, I would classify myself as quite busy.  That being said, I am not busy enough to keep myself from online shopping!

So, since I am going on a buying ban, I have some sewing projects stacking up to keep me busy.  Here is a sneak peak of what I have lined up!

First, I need to quickly whip up 4 wristlet dance scarves.  I have no idea what else to call them, but the girls use them in dance class and Laina especially loves them and asked me to make some.  Essentially, the elasticized sequin-y stuff that is laid across the fabric will be made into a bracelet for around their wrist and a large rectangle of chiffon is attached to the bracelet.  Then when they dance, it floats around.  Do you have a mental picture?  If so, I hope it is of the kids dancing with it, not me.  Because let me tell ya, that would not be a pretty sight.  I have recently re-affirmed what I already knew to be true with a dance/ exercise class.... I am extremely gawky and uncoordinated and can't follow simple step instructions. S'true.  Don't let the long legs fool you.  A dancing queen I am not.

Here is the materials I bought for that little project:

Next up, and possibly going on for a while, is some tutus for the dance school.  They asked if I could make 17 of these little cuties for 1 (maybe 2? I am not sure if both of these colors are for the same class or if they are seperate classes) ballet group(s).  Miss T. if you are reading, how does the color blue look?

Then for a dear friend's beautiful little girl Lorelei who has lipodystrophy causing her to have a distended tummy, I am making one of the apron knot dresses like Mylie is wearing here, but in this gorgeous retro cherry print.



And... my big project that involves making 5 of these pettiskirts.  It is entirely necessary that you look at this site.  It is mind bogglingly adorable stuff!  Candy for the eyes.  I purchased one of her tutorials on how to make them as well as the material (since they don't sell the right type of chiffon around here) to make 5 of them, 1 in each of candy pink, caribbean turquoise, sunshine yellow, lime, and deep purple.  There are free patterns for these out there on the internet, but Dreamspuns pettis are sooo sooo cute, that I wanted mine to turn out exactly right.  I have coaxed Addy into doing a photoshoot reminiscent of this once the weather turns nice.  Again, that last link is candy for the eyes, seriously cute stuff!

And finally, my photos of the day.

The first one super sucks.  But it is funny anyways.  I chased the neighbors cat around the yard trying to get a picture of him.  This is why:

I was running and so was he.  So it made for a blurry picture.  I caught his indignity one last time before he hopped the fence to freedom from the crazy lady with the camera:



I am sorry, but cones on the head will never cease to amuse me.

While I was out there, I took pictures of some random crap in the yard that looked sadly out of place in the winter wasteland.

And finally, my little Evelyn, who also looked sad to be outside in the winter wasteland with no jacket on.  Even with kinder egg chocolate in hand, she refused to be bribed into a smile.



Hello, my name is Julie, and I have an addiction....

.... to buying kids clothing.  There.  I stated the obvious. 

Now, what am I going to do about it?  I have tried all kinds of different ways to get myself to STOP buying more kids clothes.  Some have worked for awhile but then my self control explodes into a big buying binge.  Others don't work at all.  So far, the thing that has worked the best for me is this blogging thing!  So that means you all will probably have to read a lot more out of me in the coming months.  Also, sewing is helping me.  I always knew I needed to get a hobby, but nothing held my attention enough to divert me from my shopping.  Sewing is the best of both worlds.... I can make some cute kids clothes (usually) at a fraction of the cost, plus I get the satisfaction that I made it myself AND with the added bonus of keeping me busy enough to steer me away from online shopping!

Sooooo.... with that in mind, I have decided to go on a self-imposed buying ban.  I am going to aim to not buy any more (new or used) kids clothes from now until March 1.  The only exception being that I can purchase patterns and fabrics with which to make kids clothes.  Sound fair enough?  I hope I can do it! I will check in daily here with my progress.  And I promise to be 100% honest.

I have blathered on long enough for one day, so tomorrow I think I will post some projects that I am thinking about embarking on in the new year!

And to wrap it up, here are my photos for the day.  It was a cold and dreary day which we spent mostly inside and the lighting was terrible today.

Here is my little Evie trying soooo hard to be a good girl and not jump and run all over the table.  She is drawing a picture:

Then I noticed that she was getting a bit of a devillish look on her face, thinking "hmmmmm":

"Oops, I accidentally got on the table.  But look, I have beautiful blue eyes...."

"I just couldn't resist the mischief.  I am just going to full-out sit up on the table and be naughty"

And this is Mylie with her new doll, "Jenny".  She got her from Aunty Lisa for a birthday gift and she hasn't put her down all day.