Getting Braver...

I've been really wanting to try my hand at making a fifty's style soda fountain dress for awhile now.  So, while spending time in Lafayette a week or so ago, I did some therapeutic shopping at Joann's.  I found this fabric to go with the Simplicity 6587 pattern (all on sale, plus a coupon, of course!):

My sister says this fabric will look really good for this pattern...we'll see!  She does have good taste, though

I think I am going to try dress A (which is the green one), and add the sash from dress B (the blue one).  I hope it comes out ok!!!  I'm pretty nervous about all those button holes...ELEVEN all together O_o:

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Sancte Valentinus, Ora Pro Nobis!

Every year, our homeschool group has a Valentine's party at the park where the kids all bring decorated bags/boxes, and share Valentine's cards and candy with each other.  Now, normally I don't do the whole 'decorate a bag or box' thing, because I just can't seem to get everything together for that kind of craft project, so I usually just bring a Target bag, or a pink or red gift bag...I know, my kids are so deprived O_o.  But, this year, things just fell into place!  First of all, our neighbor brought over a box of those foam sticker things for the kids, and they were all Valentine themed.  Second of all, we have all been sick lately and using LOTS of tissue, so I happen to have a bunch of empty tissue boxes laying around. (speaking of tissues...I have to give a shout out to Puff's Plus Lotion with Vicks!  Oh.my.gosh!  best stuff ever...they are like a little piece of heaven for a sick nose)  And third, Luke was taking a nap =).  So, this year, we will have cutesie Valentine boxes for the homeschool party!  Poor Andrew...all that pink and purple!!

Rachel spent more time putting all the little foam stickers IN her box instead of ON...

but, I at least convinced her to keep her name on her box ;)

The aftermath...another reason I tend to gravitate away from these types of crafts...all those little pieces of paper to sweep up O_o  So much for catching up on laundry today...

 

Have You Had Your Holy Water today?

Did you know that "According to the Apostolic Constitutions, a document dating back well over 15 centuries, the use of Holy Water is attributed to a recommendation issued by St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist."*?  I once saw a friend of mine dip her hand into the Holy Water font at Mass, and then cross herself twice.  I asked her later why she did that, and she said it was because a drop of Holy Water had the power to release a soul from Purgatory into Heaven.  She said that the first time she crosses herself, it is to great Our Lord with the Sign of the Cross prayer, and the second time, she sends up a quick prayer like "Lord, release a soul to Heaven" while making the Sign of the Cross again.  Ever since then, I have taken up the same practice.  "Only in Purgatory can one understand ardently the poor souls longing for Holy Water.  If we desire to make a host of intercessors for ourselves,  let us try to realize now some of their yearnings, and never forget them at the Holy Water font.*"  That little bit of catechesis from my friend has given me a deeper love for and desire for the use of this particular sacramental.  How awesome is it that we have the capability, through God's grace, to help the souls in Purgatory with just a *single* drop of Holy Water!  If only my generosity could be greater for those souls!  So, when we made little Holy Water fonts at Natalie's December Little Flowers meeting last weekend, I was beyond excited!  I wanted to share what we did, because I thought it was such a precious little craft.  Basically, each girl received a small sponge square, a little glass votive holder, and some glitter stickers and jewels to decorate the votive holder with.  Once they were done decorating, the Moms were allowed to fill a small container with Holy Water, and then when we got home, we wet the sponge with Holy Water and put it in the votive holder.  Natalie and I decided to put hers on my teacher's desk, so that we could use it before school each day.  I really think these little fonts would make fantastic gifts for kids to make for their Catholic friends, Grandparents, Godparents, Dads to take to the office, etc.  Or, you could even make a few for around the house:  in bathrooms, night stands, mantels, laundry room...the possibilities are endless!  I especially like the sponge idea, because if you've ever used Holy Water in the home, you'll notice that it evaporates VERY quickly if you just pour some into a Holy Water font.  I have one that I inherited from my Grandmother when she passed away, and I have to say, I kind of gave up on keeping it filled, because I felt like I was wasting Holy Water it evaporated so quickly.  Now that I know this sponge thing works so well, I'm going to put one in my Grandmother's font for by the front door =).  

Here is what we did at our Little Flowers meeting.  I had Andrew with me this time, and he wanted to participate in the craft, so I let him decorate our Holy Water container =):

And, here is my font from my Grandmother...I just love this one!:

*quotes come from http://www.pwhs-mfi.org/read_me/holy_water.htm, and you can find other fun facts about Holy Water there, as well.

“I have found by experience that there is nothing from which the devils fly more quickly than from Holy Water.  They also fly from the Cross, but they return almost immediately.  Certainly, the power of Holy Water must be great; for my part, my soul feels particular comfort in taking it, and very generally a refreshment and interior delight which I cannot express.” ~St. Teresa of Avila.

A Few (too many!) New Projects

Lately, I've been on a bit of a project rampage.  Sewing, knitting, painting, and yes, even putting ear tags on our cows!  

I finally found some time this weekend to continue working on our curtains for the house.  We've been here almost a year, and the only ones that are 100% complete are the living room shades.  But, that's OK....instant gratification is over-rated ;)  Saturday, I managed to sew the second of the four curtain panels for our bedroom windows.  The valances have been done since last February, and I bought the material for the windows several months ago, but I just haven't had a free weekend to work on it since then.  They are looking really nice, even if I don't have any pictures to show for it yet.  Here is what the valence pattern looks like, though:  

The curtains for the bedroom match the darker shade of tan in the leaves (it's hard to see in the picture, though).  I also got the valence for one of the kitchen windows hung, but I still need to finish the curtains for the window to go with it.  Hopefully, it will all be done by the 2 year mark!

For Natalie's birthday, she received a couple of Barbie dolls.  Now, I'm not against the girls playing with Barbie dolls, but I am turned off by they way those dolls are dressed!  One of the dolls she got was a teacher Barbie with a little girl student, and a bunch of classroom stuff to go with them.  I LOVE that, because we home school, so it's cute to watch Natalie pretend to home school the little Barbie girl.  But, when the teacher doll came out of the package, she looked like this...

 scandalous!

 I mean, what teacher actually wears this outfit to school?!  And, exactly what is Mattel trying to teach our daughters about how women should dress?!  I probably shouldn't be surprised, but still!  Anyway, while I appreciated the concept of the doll, the attire just had to go.  So, I thought:  "hey!  I've got a decent amount of scrap fabric laying around...I bet I could make some really cute Barbie clothes for her!"  How hard can it be, right?  Naturally, I hopped onto Google and set out for the perfect Barbie clothes tutorial.  It took some digging, but I managed to find it.  Then, I enlisted the help of my sister-in-law to make a few outfits for me (who is becoming quite the seamstress!), and voila!  Another project on my list of already too many =)  Today, I whipped up a new Barbie skirt and dress:

Ahh!  Much better:  now she is at least halfway on her way to looking less like a Victoria Secret model, and more like a fashionable, yet tastefully dressed teacher =)

 And, the partially finished dress...it still needs velcro in the back, and cap sleeves (the skirt needs velcro, too):

  

The tutorial I used for these cute little numbers come from a really neat craft blog called 'Craftiness is Not an Option'  She has some GREAT stuff on there.  You can click HERE for the link to the tutorials....the Barbie clothes are all the way at the bottom.  I did do a few things differently than what she recommends.  For example, you can see from my skirt picture, I made the waist band a bit thicker than hers, simply because my sewing skills are not that professional, so I needed the extra room for error.  She calls for the band to be 1.25" inches (before it is complete), but I cut it to 2".  And, I added length to the skirt...I did 5" instead of 3.5".  Also, instead of zig-zagging or serging all the edges of the fabric, I just sewed a narrow hem (turned the raw edge 1/4", then turned another 1/4" and sewed down) to give it the finished look.  I'm not good with the zig-zag stitch, and I don't have a serge machine.  That worked out quite nicely, but I had to add an extra 1/2" around for seam allowances.  I also sewed the darts on the bodice of the dress differently than she suggested.  For one thing, I had no idea what a dart was before looking at her pictures (except for those goofy things you throw at a target, that I can NEVER land in the bulls-eye!).  And for another, she has you sewing along side the pins, but that makes me *really* nervous...I've broken too many of my machine's needles by accidentally sewing over pins.  I know there is a way to do it without removing pins and without breaking the needle, but I don't know how.  So, what I did was pinned the bodice on Barbie, then marked where I wanted the darts to go with a pencil:

Then, I took the bodice off, made sure the markings were dark enough, and added a second set of markings about 1/8" to the outside of the first ones:

 Still with me??  Ok...then, I folded the fabric on one of the inside lines, and then sewed down the line that was marked on the outside of it.  Then, I repeated for the opposite dart.  After I sewed it, it looked like this:

front view:

Come to find out, in sewing, a dart is basically there to help shape the bodice of the dress...you learn something new everyday, I guess!  I'm not sure if that is technically correct, but it seemed to work.  It may even be way more complicated than using the pins like the tutorial said to, but it worked for me.  Also, I used a rotary cutter and rotary board to cut all my fabric to size...this made sure it was nice, straight, even, and that all the ends matched up properly.  That skirt is actually my second attempt...I didn't even take a picture of the first one.  When I went to sew the back of the skirt together, the lengths of the skirt completely didn't match up!  And, I tried to sew a snap on it, but I sewed one of them on the wrong side, and it just didn't work properly (please don't ask...).  I tried doing the zig-zag thing on the first skirt, but there were loose ends everywhere, and it looked sloppy.  Plus, it was too short.  Oh well..it was fun to make, anyway, and it was a good test run =)

this photo also shows an example of the narrow hem I used in lieu of the zig-zag/serge technique:

Now, all I need to do is go to the fabric store and get some velcro to finish these pieces off!  I think I may get a batch of fat quarters to make some more outfits.  I have scraps, but it's not really little girl-ish stuff.  I'd like to try and make at least one of each of her items.  Ok...enough Barbie clothes talk!  I know I keep going on about it, but these were so fun to make!  I thought it would be difficult sewing all these little pieces of fabric, but it really wasn't that bad.  The hardest part was pinning the stuff together.  

Alright...on to the next project that I've had fun with recently.  Have you ever heard of 'Painting with a Twist' or 'Corks and Canvas'?  I'm not sure if those places are all around the country, or if they are just in our area, but I was invited to two birthday parties at these places.  Basically, it's a 2 or 3 hour acrylic painting class, and you can drink wine while you paint.  It's really fun to go with a group of girl-friends.  And, while I didn't have the wine, I did have fun painting, and I think I actually learned something!  They have all kinds of different paintings you can choose from, but the birthday girls picked out which paintings we did at the two classes I went to.  The first was Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night.  It was supposed to look like this:

(I realize this isn't *exactly* like Van Gogh's, but it was the sample from the local artist who teaches the class, and it was very good).

When I got there, they gave me this:

And, by the time I left, it looked like this:

Now, keep in mind that I have absolutely NO artistic ability, whatsoever.  I know mine was not the best in the class, but I was pleased.  At the second class I went to, we did a Fleur de Lis with circles.  I didn't get a picture of the teacher's painting (which was really beautiful), but this was the blank canvas:

It's kind of hard to see, but this it has a Fleur de Lis outline on it:

And, this is how mine turned out:

Again, I claim no artistic ability.  So, masterpieces they are most certainly not, but it was a lot of fun making them!  If you ever get a chance to go to one of these classes, I really recommend them.  I think they would be fun no matter what your skill level at painting.  Here's a link to the website:  Corks and Canvas or Painting with a Twist.  I think it's the same franchise company, but don't quote me on that....

Ok, onto the last couple of projects I've been working on.  I've been really getting into knitting lately.  What I love about knitting, besides the therapeutic and relaxing aspect of it, is that I can pick it up for 5 or 10 minutes at a time, and then set it down and come back to it later.  You can't really do that with sewing...when I sew, I have to really make sure that I have a large block of time carved out where I know I won't be interrupted.  Knitting, on the other hand, can be stuffed in my bag to do while waiting for the doctor, or by the bed to work on while laying the kids down for a nap, or even brought outside while I watch the kids play.  I have a lot of different things I want to try and make with knitting, but I'm trying to exhibit self-control here!  Phil makes fun of me for having a bunch of different projects going, but I'm convinced it's normal...right???  Right now, I have 2 knitting projects I'm in the middle of.  One is a baby sweater for Rachel.  I've been working on this for probably 6 months now, and the back is finished, and I'm more than half-way done with the front.  The problem is, I think the yarn is the wrong gauge for the needles.  My stitches are way too tight, and the sweater is kind of stiff.  I think I want to rip it out and try something else with the yarn and properly gauged needles.  I'm also working on a baby blanket from this pattern.  I'm just about finished, so pictures to come soon!  It's a really cool pattern.  I also attempted a pair of leg warmers recently.  I didn't finish them, because I was just trying to figure out how to use double point needles.  Again, the needles were too small for the yarn, so the leg warmers came out really stiff, but they were super simple, cute, and didn't take long to make, either.  I want to make a set with the proper needles for the yarn.  Oh, and I finally finished my set of wool diaper covers that I was working on over the summer!  These are one of my favorite things to knit.  They take an afternoon to make, and the chunky yarn and big needles are fun to work with!  They have buttons on them and everything =)  Can't wait to try these out on the new baby!!!

And, last, but not least, the final project I participated in was to help Phil tag the cows.  Now that we have 9 cows in our herd, and will hopefully increase that number come springtime when a few of the females calve, Phil decided it was time to start tagging them, so we could keep track of who's who, and of what kind of care we give each one.  So, we got to really test out the new cow chute for the first time this weekend.  And let me tell you...I am no cattle farmer!  I'm really just along for the ride.  I love having cows in the yard, the beef they provide, and the milk they will soon provide (when we get our milk cow...hopefully this spring), BUT I really don't enjoy messing with them.  If Phil asks me to, or he needs a second person to help him out, I'll do it, but it is a sheer act of love, because quite frankly, those things intimidate me when they get within a certain distance of me...especially if there is no fence to keep them from charging at me.  Like I said, I love having them in the pasture, and the benefits of beef/milk cows, but up close and personal...I feel so vulnerable around them.  And, according to Phil, they can sense my fear, so that doesn't help.  We have a love/hate relationship, me and those cows =)  But, anyway, this weekend, Phil needed an extra hand, so I went out there and helped him get tags in the cows ears.  Although, I'm not sure how much help I really was...I think all I did was bother the cows (that whole fear sensing thing), and make weird faces while trying to hold the nose pincher things, so the cow would be still, while Phil pierced its ear.  Yes, that was my job...the nose clamp holder.  It was interesting.  I'm hoping that the more I'm around them, the more comfortable I'll get.  But, they stare at me funny!!  On the plus side, when I told Natalie that the way Daddy put the tags in the cows ear was the same way that girls get their ears pierced, she decided she doesn't want to do it anymore =)  Hopefully that will keep her at bay for a few more years...

 one of the calves, unhappily waiting for us to do what we have to do:

Phil demonstrating how I should hold her:

Success!

Sorry...no picture of me in action.  Phil had to act quickly...I wasn't very good at holding the cows.  I was afraid of hurting her.  Go figure. 

Craft Basket Wednesday

 Sometime during the last year or so, I discovered the lost art of knitting.  Wow is it addicting!  And really fun, too =)  You can make so many cute things.  This past weekend, I finished my first project - a yellow, boucle baby blanket.

you have to be careful with knitted objects around here, so they don't get pirated:

she likes it:

Peek-a-boo!:

I still have to weave in the ends, but other than that, it's finished!  Natalie even used it to nurse her baby doll this morning =)  Unfortunately, that was before the pot of coffee was made, so I didn't think to get a picture of it.  Now that I'm confident I can actually finish a knitted item, I'm moving on to a baby sweater!  I received my yarn and needles in the mail last week, so I'm ready to get started!

I just love new, squishy yarn!!  The teal is for the body of the sweater, and the brown for the trim.  Hopefully it will look like this when it's done (only a different color):

*note:  these are the images from the Debbie Bliss pattern book, Booties, Blankets, and Bears, and they come from this link. 

I would have made the sweater in the same colors that the pattern suggests (because I'm OCD about stuff like that), but that yarn is sooo expensive!  So, I opted for something that was 1/3 of the cost, and they didn't have these colors.  I'm sure the teal will still look lovely on Rachel - even if she will probably be way too big by the time I finish.  About a year from now when I finish the sweater, I'll let you know how it turns out ;)  I'm not the quickest knitter on the block....

Now, you can go on over to the Knit Together blog to see what other fun projects are going on!  Enjoy =)

Christus resurrexit! Vere resurrexit!

**this is a very long post with beau-coup pictures, so please read at your own risk...

I think one of my favorite things about having kids (because the list is never-ending) is the way that they challenge me to learn more about my Catholic Faith.  I'm not exactly the most catechized Catholic you'll ever meet, so ever since we started both homeschooling and attending the Traditional Latin Mass, it's like I'm learning my Faith for the first time.  It's so exciting and fun and interesting to see what a rich and beautiful history we have as Catholics.  And, with the kids, there are so many opportunities to learn things from a different perspective as well.  I mean, the questions they ask are so awesome, because it gives me a reason to go and seek out the answer.  "Mom, what will we look like in Heaven?"  "Do angels have bodies, or are they just a head with wings?"  "Does the Devil have wings?"  "When is Jesus coming to earth again?"  "How do we get to Heaven?"  "Does God come down and get us?"  "Why do we sometimes say 'Holy Ghost' and sometimes 'Holy Spirit'?"  "Can Mary appear to me like she did to the children at Fatima?"  They are very curious about all of it.  So, while Lent may not have been as prayerful as I would have liked, and maybe I didn't do the best at my Lenten sacrifices, but it was most certainly a learning experience.  Which, in hindsight, is the best kind of Lent, because I came out the other side knowing more about who Christ is and more about why the Church does all those awesome traditions She is so famous for.  Natalie seemed to really get it, too, which was so sweet to watch.  Andrew thought Lent was a person, and asked to go to Lent's house several times, but that's ok...there's always next year =).  So, here are some of the ways we celebrated Passion tide and Easter.

We started off Holy Week by making a Holy Week banner to mark off the days until Easter:

We also made an Easter Lapbook that we used to tell the Passion Story with:

We attended the washing of the feet services for Holy Thursday, and then on Good Friday we participated in a Good Friday walk.  This was probably my favorite thing that we did.  It was so awesome!  We did a 9 Church walk in downtown New Orleans with a group of fellow parishioners.  We would say 1 or 2 Stations of the Cross outside of each Church, and then visit the Church and pray for a short while before walking to the next one.  I'm not sure how many miles we walked, but it was a lot!  The kids did surprisingly well, and really didn't start getting tired of walking until the last 20 minutes or so.  After the walk, we attended Veneration of the Cross at our Parish.  When we got home that night, Phil and I watched The Passion.  Amazing movie!   

Here are the kids on the way to New Orleans...she how excited they were!

Andrew wanted to hold Natalie's hand the whole time =)

 I didn't realize how many gorgeous Catholic Churches there are in New Orleans!  They were simply amazing.  Here is one of my favorites:

The above picture is from St. Mary's Assumption Church, and it is the location of the national shrine of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos.  That was really cool to see, too!  I didn't get any pictures of that, though =(

On Holy Saturday, we made Ressurection Rolls and died our Easter Eggs

 

You were supposed to use one, large marshmallow to represent Jesus' body, but all I had were the tiny ones!  Oh well.  I also used a homemade crescent roll dough instead of the store bought kind...these things were SO GOOD!

Favorite part of Holy Week!!

When I asked Andrew what he wanted his egg to say, this is what he requested:

Ever since we celebrated St. Patrick's Day this year, he believes his middle name to be 'St. Patrick'...it's too cute, and I can't bring myself to correct him =)

Little Rachel's first dyed Easter egg!

The Easter baskets all done up and waiting for the Easter Bunny =)

On Easter morning, we checked out our goodies, then headed off Mass, and then to Grandma's house for lunch and an Easter egg hunt:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the Easter bunny left the last marker for the Holy Week banner that read "He is Risen!"

After we put it on our banner, Natalie said, "look, it's shaped like a cloud so Jesus can ascend into Heaven!"...the Easter Bunny totally did not do that on purpose...in fact, he didn't even think of that idea...he just kind of drew a squiggly line around it before cutting it out, but it was cool that Natalie saw it that way ;)

Rachel enjoying and Easter sucker:

which doubled as a drum stick:

and then she was sad because we took it away:

Daddy and Rachel enjoying our beautiful Easter day!

the weeds Easter flowers Natalie picked for me:

Finding Easter eggs!!

Rachel doing what she does best...begging for candy:

the traditional sucker for breakfast on Easter Monday:

and, last but not least, the aftermath from Easter:

All in all, we had a fantastic Easter!  I always feel especially blessed to be Catholic during Holy Week and Easter. 

Be sure to visit Catholic Icing for the Easter Link-Up party today to see how other families celebrated our most treasured Feast Day!!

 

Happy Easter everyone!!