Music To My Ears
1 week ago
18 May 2011
We had a happy house-full this weekend! My friend Keight Dukes (from Putapuredukes) packed up all her sewing tools and fabrics and family members and blessed us with their company for four whole days!
We spent a weekend together in March (she only brought Layla that time) and called it Hardcore Sewing Delight Weekend (shortly thereafter dubbed HSD 1.0) and knocked out all sorts of lovely projects despite my near-deathbed health status.
This time, no one was sick. Praise Jesus! Plus, we added a day. But somehow, I think we may have accomplished less actual clothing construction this time around. There was just too much fun to be had with the kids and husbands, it was hard to pull ourselves away.
We began the weekend diligently and tackled one of the hardest patterns either of us has done to date: the oliver + s Bubble Dress.
By the end of day 1 we only had completed bodices to show for our efforts. For shame. (we did learn some cool new techniques with the bodices though!)
On day two we hit a few garage sales in the morning (I bought a chair to reupholster!) and completed the dresses (can't wait to show you what I learned here!), then called it a day and enjoyed each other's company. The pattern was tough, but really worth pushing through because we learned a lot and turned out some of the best quality dresses we've ever made. (The girls totally wore them to church the next day. They were famous in the nursery.)
We also swapped fabric and knocked out coordinating ruffle bottom bloomers to go with the dresses (or without the dresses).
Then we just played and ate and ate and played. There was lots of bacon involved. And bleu cheese. And berries!
But enough about food. Can we talk about the beauty of her children? Melt me. Judah's brown eyes and ample cheeks - I just wanted to snuggle him all weekend, but he didn't have the same desire. Ah well, I took photos instead to document his cute.
Also, I'm pretty sure Layla made her first forward crawling motions on the first day she was here. I like to think it was the new carpet. I'm probably wrong.
Oliver was in love with Layla and Judah made Hazel cry a few times.
But mostly, Oliver just tried to hijack the Dukes' iPad all weekend (they had new games!). On Sunday afternoon I actually found him playing with ours and theirs simultaneously. We may have a problem on our hands. (Seriously though, I'd love to hear: Are your kids as technology obsessed as my guy? If so, how do you handle it??)
On Sunday while the Dukes family took a Sabbath nap, I holed away in the sewing room and knocked out an Everyday Dress by ManiMinia on Etsy (I made mine tunic-length).
Seriously, whatever time we spent making the O+S dresses, I made up for with the Everyday Dress. 45 minutes and done! I made another one the next day. In fact, I may make another one each day this week. So fast, so easy, so perfectly cute.
(Oh, and see the jeans I made to go with them? I used the garage sale jeans I bought a few weeks ago and the Good Looking Pants tutorial from Sewing in No Mans Land and love how they turned out!)
Apart from all the sewing and playing and eating, some of the best stuff happened after the kids went to bed and the sewing machines were tucked under their respective dust covers for the evening. There was a fair share of laughter, yes. But there were also very encouraging conversations in which we were all pointed to Christ; where we were able to testify to the truth of the Gospel and hope together in the promises we have been given. So cool to be able to sit down with brothers and sisters in Christ (one that we'd never met before) and share such common ground.
God has been good to give us the Dukes. A friendship out of blogland that has very much done us right.
Thanks for a fantastic weekend, y'all!
ps - tomorrow is giveaway day!!!
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14 comments:
getting nostalgic HARDCORE here. thanks for letting me hijack oliver into my lap in our group glory pic to distract from my sweats/husbands shirt/no makeup. we loved EVERY minute of hanging out with yall. HSD 3.0 should involve babysitters fulltime with periodic snuggle visitation. and great wall of chocolate. the honey badger
I ate up this post since it, of course, involved my sweet friend, Keight. And let me just say that our 2 year old is completely obsessed with our ipads. She would play on them all day if we would let her...so no worries :) It is the new age! Love the pics and love y'alls new friendship!
I love all of the sewing creations, but I'm more excited to hear of your blogland family friendship. Finding other families deeply rooted in Christ is hard to find these days (not to mention others who sew!) I'm happy for you and your new friends!
can I apply to be the babysitter next time? pretty please!?
Awesome that you've found such great family friends through blogging!
I'm in denial that my 3 year old (he'll be 3 in just 3 days) could probably more successfully play an iPad than I could. Well maybe not literally since we're a Mac family anyways. But I have been saying for the last year that I don't want him to have any kind of video game system-be it an iPad or Nintendo DSi-until he is at least 6. I don't know why 6, but I just feel like he doesn't need to be addicted to video games already! My mother-in-law however probably got him a DSi for his birthday. She tried at Christmas and I told her no. So we'll see what happens.
Anyways, I love the dresses you made! So cute! I don't sew, I'm a scrapbooker, but I do love handmade items better than store bought and want to start doing quilts once my kids are in school! I love following your blog!
Ooooh, the Everyday Dress looks so accessible, even to stupids! Thanks for pointing us all in the direction of a good pattern. You can do that all the time. kthx.
Looks like y'all had a fabulous time together! I'm so glad you can find good friends anywhere. We need them, right?
And ours kids are technologically stunted, simply because we don't provide them with the latest and greatest. They are masters of our outdated stuff, so I'm convinced they'd be awesome at it if we exposed them to multiple iPads at a time. I think O is just a product of his generation. But you should probably send him to kindergarten with 2 iPads, just in case.
pancloi!
ALSO: Dude, I have a garage sale ($1) to-reupholster chair sitting in my basement (it's been there awhile) that's going to go in my "new" sewing room. We need to talk strategy, lady.
Looks like it's time to get a 7-digit hit counter! Congrats!
What a good looking bunch! Such a fun weekend. The dresses are gorgeous. My two year old navigates our iPhones expertly! It's amazing. When my mom shows my daughter pictures on her Blackberry, my daughter slides her finger across the screen to try to scroll to the next picture. Fail, but it's hilarious! On the iPhone, she knows to double-tap to zoom in, plays videos and games, and is always asking to "wacha movie?" Haha!
Our Crazy Filled Life & Ashley - my Mom got an iPad for Mother's Day and Oliver was actually the one that sat with her and helped her figure it out. ridiculous!
We're trying to hold out on gaming systems too. I'd love to wait until he's ten. Ryan would like to wait until this evening. :) We'll see how long I can put it off...
Christine: yes, strategy indeed! My chair is for my sewing room too. Would it help you if I posted a bit of a step-by-step as I do mine?
Nathan: Yes! Help! Be my techie and find me a longer hit counter, please!!
Lena: I think I've heard enough Lena love from Keight to know that you are good for much more than babysitting! :)
I love the fabric you used on the bubble dresses... so pretty!
I would also love to see the process of the chair being reupholstered. I have 2 in my garage waiting to be tackled!
any way to make that second navy dress for moi?! seriously.
glad you had a great time with the dukes!! i can feel the love through the computer... ;)
It really was a magical weekend; and I can safely say that The Myers really are as charming, generous, funny, and Christ-loving as they seem to be. The guys had a great time as Ryan and I started our own fledgling bromance (at least that's what the people at the mall in Franklin are saying) and the iPad certainly didn't hurt my stock with Oliver. But we certainly feel the same burn with our little guy and electronics. Judah isn't quite obsessed with the iPad yet, but he certainly does love it. This NY Times blog is a great read about the topic and exactly how we approach it. http://tinyurl.com/69ogsh2
All things in moderation... except Grace. No moderation needed there:) Can't wait to see you guys again!
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