Beautiful Dress #2

I've made another "Beautiful Dress", this time for Mamamade.  Cotton, white & linen colored print, with an avocado green waistband, and green neckline ribbon tie.  Size: 3T-4T.  Fully lined, and hand-finished.  This is a one off- there may be more "Beautiful Dresses" to come, but not in this print.  Truly one of a kind!

"Beautiful Dress"

My darling girl has a new dress! She says, so sweetly, that it is "B-yew-tiful". All of the fabric came from stash, and the design is completely my own. The size is one larger than she needs so that it can be worn for some time, or with a turtleneck underneath in the fall and winter (I'm guessing it equates to a 3T or 4T). The avocado green used in the waistband was the same fabric that Grant's crib skirt was sewn out of by his Grandma- before I was very good at sewing. I made my niece, Riley, a dress with the blue floral fabric ages ago when she was only 1 or 2 (and now she is SEVEN). And the brown, well, who knows- I always have brown around as it is one of my favorite colors. Brown goes with anything! Construction is only the best for my sweet daughter, too: fully lined and hand-finished, ribbon tie closure, subtle bow embellishment. Treated with care it should last for our next daughter to wear. While already at it, I cut out a second set of pattern pieces from other fabrics and plan on stiching it up in the near future. My plan was to put dress #2 in the shop, but if I keep it for Lael, no one will hold it against me, will they?

Bits

- Grant's last week at the academy is this week. I am relieved and saddened all at once. He has had a great two years there under the care of our church's home school partnership. On the other hand, I have found it increasingly difficult to carry out my duties as wife/ homemeaker/ mother/ teacher and not drop the ball somewhere. The public schools here are some of the best in the state, and I know that this is the right path for Grant, for at least this year. I will try not to get emotional about change.

- It is easy for me to get emotional about change. I am "pregnant", after all. Although, elephants have faster babies! Our wait is now officially expected to be about 12-14 months until referral of an infant girl (and then another 2-6 months before travel).

- We are having Eric's sister, her husband, and their two kids to visit in the coming week. I'm really looking forward to seeing them. The kids play so well, and we miss them. To make the time especially restful and vacation-like, we've rented a cabin in Gatlinburg for three nights. It should be tons of fun- I really can't wait. I'm also excited to show them the new house and get Angie's fabulous opinion on decorating (she's a *natural*, and would be great in a designing/ decorating career). When we visited them in Dallas at Christmas, we had the contract on the house and hadn't yet moved. They heard tons about it, but now we're here!

-I'm starting to believe the whole "girls marry their fathers" saying. Eric has become a Chelsea supporter and is actually going to watch the US airing of the recent Chelsea-Manchester game tonight with a friend. Don't anyone spoil the score for him. Needless to say, my dad is proud of Eric's recent enthusiasm for Blue.

-We signed back up with the YMCA. The whole reason we quit in December was to save the $100 a month to help with adoption costs. But, Eric's company has a contract with them now, giving us a bit of a discount, and no sign-on fees, and- lets not forget- the adoption will take us a good deal longer than we had first anticipated, so there is plenty of time to save a bit more. We've got three Ys on our new side of town, and I am thrilled that one of them has a racquetball court. Eric and I played on Saturday and had so much fun . I really enjoy exercising, and thought I could do the treadmill thing here at home. But, unless there is childcare, I find myself being interrupted and my workout is cut to 15 minutes or it doesn't happen (It. Doesn't. Happen.). One of our new local YMCAs has a rock climbing gym. It makes me think of my brother. :-) And, in a few weeks when Grant turns seven, he can take a mini-class on how to do the auto belay and then he can climb too. Won't that be fun?!

- My garden is sad. All of the new seeds I planted have been stolen by birds. Next growing season, I'll make a cage or netting to protect everything. I think the first set of seeds made it past the crucial period because I was covering with a tarp half the day to shield the seedlings from the frost. Still growing from the first sowing are: carrots, one spinach plant, and the nasturtium flowers (which have yet to flower). I bought a few other packs of seeds that I may still be able to try this year (as they mature quickly): corn, cucumber, and green onion. We'll see. I'm amazed at how fast the spring season went and how it is now summer and the window of planting opportunity has all but closed. If we had to live off our land, we'd starve.

-I've designed a handbag pattern and I am now using the prototype. I really like it, although the future versions will have longer handles (just a smidge). Have a look-see.