Last weekend we played with the hose! Florence loved it even though I wasn’t prepared at all and let her get drenched in her clothes and have a saggy diaper. Kids never seem to mind about these things, thankfully. We even got a sort of family photo! Granted Jason is peeking out the door and I’m behind the camera, but I’ll count it anyway. :-)

Happy Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weekend!!

I personally love reading about things that other people made (cooking/sewing/home decor/etc.). So if you’re like me, THIS POST IS FOR YOU! If you’re not, and you’re here to see my photography work, just scroll down and there is the cutest baby right below this post.

Anywho, I made a dress for Florence yesterday and it is my first attempt at making her clothes, other than this cape thingy:

and this skunk costume for Halloween:

No wait, that’s just Jason in the hat. ;-) This is the full costume in all its glory (and a cute little monkey friend too!):

That was fun, but making this dress feels like a whole new world. I sort of wish I could just sit in front of my sewing machine all the time, but Florence is not in agreement.

This is the pattern that I used, from the blog, Straight Grain. It’s a bubble dress and it’s not anything fancy, but I just love it and I can’t wait to make it in other colors/patterns that aren’t white and bound to be ruined immediately. I had a few snafus and had to go back and fix a few things/look up some techniques online, but overall it went pretty smoothly for a first attempt at a dress!

Here’s Florence trying it on.

I think she kinda likes it. ;-)

Sooooo…for all the people who sew, where do you find great toddler patterns? Also, are there any online fabric stores that you would recommend?

I hope everyone had a beautiful Mother’s Day! I thought I’d share a bit about my second Mother’s Day as a mom.

Me and Florence, last year and this year. She’s like a real person now!

For the first time, let’s see, EVER…I hosted a sit-down brunch. We invited my mom and Jason’s mom and dad and my brother, Patrick and his fiance, Chrissy. Since I am typically the person still in the kitchen prepping food when guests arrive for a party, it was a good thing Chrissy was there, because she gets a lot of the credit for making things run smoothly.

Some notes:
-Yes, my dining room walls are an insane yellow color. Someday I’ll repaint them.
-Yes, I have recovered one of my dining room chairs and then stopped there [UPDATE: I have now recovered four of the chairs! Progress!!!]
-Yes, I used my fancy plates for the first time and looked up a fun napkin fold online. Can you tell that I got excited?
-The highlight of the day was really just spending time with everyone and chatting and laughing. I love my family! (I’m still pretty proud of this table though. ;-)

If you’re curious, I (cough, Chrissy) made a Summer fruit salad, a Baked Breaksfast Casserole, Breakfast Potatoes and Blueberry Lemon Sweet Rolls. It was all super delicious!

Lest you think things went too smoothly…this is when the house filled with smoke and the fire alarms all went off! My brother’s dog loved it and howled away!

Flo and Aunt Chrissy. She’s so funny. :-)

We also headed outside to snap a few family photos. Florence is so lucky to have two grandmothers to love her and spoil her. There is no shortage of attention for her at family events, that’s for sure.

Oh, and thanks to Jason and his dad, I even got to be in a few photos for a change. :-)

(Had to sneak one of the Macaron in.)

Apparently you’re never too old to ruin a perfectly lovely family photo with bunny ears. :-)

I hope you all had a day that was as happy and family-filled as mine!