Our Whirlwind of a Weekend

We took a spur of the moment trip down to NC, to visit my grandparents and spend a few days making memories.

Our Chase is named after his great grandfather's brother, who died while in flight training for WWII. Pop Pop is convinced our Chase will live up to his namesake in height - he was 6'4" and if his current stature is any clue, our Chase just might.

Swimsuit E-book Giveaway!

Olivia has done a fabulous job designing adorable, trendy swimwear...that's modest!
Check out her blog, Working with Eager Hands, for a chance to win an e-book to make your own adorable suit! You can take a look at some of the suits she's made here.

Since we said Yes...

There were a lot of reasons to say no.
I can think of a few handful of reasons just off the top of my head and
I was reminded by others of all the ones I didn't think of.
Since we said yes to...
opening our hearts to pain and loss,
since we said yes to less sleep,
more mouths to feed,
arms full of toddlers and babes,
opening our eyes to the hurting world...

These are the three kiddos God brought our way.

Their black and white portraits have a special place in our entryway, a constant reminder to me as I pass by many times a day - when I want to be selfish, want to roll over and close my eyes, am frustrated with smeared poop and toddler hair mashed full of oatmeal....

We would have missed the blessing of God for the sake of our own comfort.

Maternity Feminine Dress

Trying to stick to my desire not to be a frumpy preggo women in stretch pants and my husband's t-shirt (standard painting attire here) I took out a favorite New Look skirt pattern (out of print and I can't find a photo of it online), looked at the top piece for a minute and found that it would be simple to make it into a maternity skirt. The skirt pattern is basically three V's topstitched together.

I folded the top piece of the pattern in half horizontally, cut the lower half out of the fine wale cordoroy remnant I found in the attic and then cut the top portion of the pattern from a four way stretch jersey from Joann's. The rest of the pattern I sewed the same except for the bottom panel, which is about four inches shorter than the pattern shows because I ran out of fabric.
Oh, I have a piece of lint on my belly... Everything falls and sticks to a pregnant midsection and no, I don't take myself too seriously most of the time.

Ruffled tank from Walmart - $1

Green sweater from thrift shop -$1

and barefooted, my favorite way to wear my feet! :)

Think I'll go mow my lawn now...

Vintage Look for Camp

Victory rolls, my husband's vintage Pendelton wool shirt, wide legged jeans with big cuffs. I have fun dressing feminine even for the remoteness of camp. It makes my family smile.

And the winner is....

Melissa from At Home on the Last Frontier, chosen by random.org. Melissa, send me a note letting me know which e-pattern you'd like and be sure to include your email. Congratulations!

Camp Birthdays

We celebrated the very special May birthdays with a trip to the cabin, a bonfire and smores, Grandma's chocolate cake and fireworks. Doesn't get much better than that.

Sense and Sensibility E-pattern Giveaway!!!

I am so excited to host a pattern giveaway for one of Jennie Chancey's sewing patterns from Sensibility.com!

I first came across these beautiful patterns about five years ago, while on the search for feminine and beautiful clothing and since then have made many dresses for myself and our daughters using them. The sense and sensibility patterns are fabulous, with instructions easy enough for beginner seamstresses to understand and follow and wonderful perks like hidden breastfeeding panel options and patterns printed on heavy duty paper.

With the launch of the new Sensibility website, Jennie is offering a giveaway for one free e-pattern from her shop. E-patterns are easy to do, just print out the pieces and tape them together where noted. Her patterns would make a great gift, so even if you're not a seamstress, you can enter and make a friend's day by winning!

Check out the rest of the inspiring patterns and photos on Sensibility.com. To enter, blog, tweet, or Facebook link to this giveaway then come back here and leave a link to your post, tweet, or link. Easy! Winning name will be drawn on Tuesday,

(All photos used with permission by Jennie Chancey)

Blessings,

Hannah

More birthday

Eleanora turned four on a bright sunshiney day. We all had an early morning that day. Ella opened a few gifts, including a requested pink baby. She and Papa went for the birthday breakfast out while I dropped the toddlers off at a friends and heart anxious went to the hospital with the rest of the children for my ultrasound.

Since our son Aiden was born with kidney problems, we are told it tends to run in families and so each baby is checked in utero and shortly after birth.

"Beautiful kidneys", the ultrasound tech told us and we were relieved and enjoyed watching our little one hunched up, little bum in the air, twisting and rolling.

Sean, who hates surprises and suspense, gave me a beautiful gift that morning - not finding out the gender of our coming wee one. We've found out with each previous child and I'm looking forward to a surprise after labor.

Later that morning we headed to the zoo with my friend Kelly and her boys. Ella had requested a zoo trip on her birthday but I was a bit concerned about how much time/money it would take driving to Syracuse and Kelly graciously shared her family pass with us for a local zoo.

One family tradition we have is that the birthday child chooses the menu for dinner. We had German pancakes (also called Dutch Babies) for dinner. They are a puffed up pancake, baked in the oven with lots of butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar and lemon juice squeezed over the top. Yum!

Orange cake from the Southern Living cake cookbook for dessert, also Ella's request.

One of Ella's beautiful gifts was a sweater my mother knitted for her. It came out beautifully, has the sweetest buttons and I love it.

So ends our whirlwind of May birthdays. Our other two kiddos are September birthdays and this wee one in the womb, if he/she arrives ten days early could end up a September birthday also. I'm pretty sure I'm more fertile certain times of the year, don't you think?

Shirt to Skirt Tutorial or Fighting the Maternity Frump

I looked in the mirror yesterday and noticed something...frump. Maternity frump is never good.Though by the sixth kiddo, you might think I'm entitled to some new maternity clothing, I am trying to go without. Yesterday was just a bad, bad outfit I promise not to wear again.
A friend passed along a bag of clothes and in it was this XXL men's lovely cotton stretch shirt from Old Navy, which I kept to refashion.
So, despite a cold and being tired, I cut into it last night to try to boost my maternity wardrobe.

First I cut the sleeves off at the seam and cut off the wrist trim. Out of each sleeve I cut two identical squares, the biggest that I could make them. No, I didn't measure them, I don't work that way. :)

Then I cut off the top portion of the shirt just below the v-neck. From each side I cut four smaller squares, once again making them as large as possible.

Next, I trimmed the sides of the shirt-turning-skirt where the sleeves had been attached to make a smooth side seam for my skirt. I sewed the sides up.

In the bottom of the skirt/shirt, I cut four identical slits upward, as long as one length of each of the larger squares that I cut from the sleeves. I cut two at each side seam and two in the front and center back.

Here's the lousy photo part so let me tell you what to do next.

Line up one side of one of your squares, right side to right side, along one side of the slit. Sew. When you reach the point of the slit, keep your needle in and turn your square so the adjacent side will be sewn down the other side of the slit. After you have it in place, briefly lift your needle up so you can get a clean pivot.

This is basically what you'll end up with:

It's easy, trust me.

Since the shirt/skirt is knit, there's no need for hemming.

I thought my skirt needed a little extra, so I cut four more smaller slits in between each of the sewn in squares and sewed in those smaller squares cut from the shoulders of the shirt.

A quick elast waistband later and here's the finished product, which I wore today. The barn boots are because I just came from weeding the garden, which, amazingly, with snow and frost has survived beautifully.