I did it!

I made a skirt!

Two skirts, actually. One for each girl.

I've given sewing several attempts and failed miserably. But I'm drawn to cute fabric, so I keep trying again.

This time I asked my super sewing skilled cousin for some advice. She summed up a basic skirt in about 30 seconds. Seriously. She made it sound so easy! I went home, and whipped them out, no pattern or anything.

And it worked!
They're wearable!
And they fit my girls!!!
And they didn't even fall apart when I washed them!!!!

I couldn't be more excited over this!





She learned to pose by pointing her toes. (I'm sighing at my daughters cuteness.)



Madie is my little fashionista.


She does things like wearing swim suits in the middle of winter.



Without shoes. Stylin'.





I was even able to put in that band of contrasting fabric near the bottom. The front and back sides of the skirts even line up to make it a neat little circle. Yay!



Next, I want to try something with ruffles!

Nutty, nutty, nuts.

My kids are craft nuts.

And cooking nuts,

building nuts...

project nuts in general.

They aren't the type to sit in front of the tv all day and let their brains rot. But in the I-feel-so-sick-I-must-be-dying state I've been in the last few months I've done absolutely nothing fun and creative with them. But in honor of the upcoming card maker invented holiday (Valentine's Day, in case you missed that), we broke out the red and pink paper and did some crafting.

When I broke out the camera to take some pics of the crafts, my kids were excited to show off what had been going through their crazy little brains.

First, taping your own mouth closed.

The perfect way to keep yourself quiet when Mom tells you to keep in down.

And then, of course, to keep your sister from hitting you, you can cuff her with the cupboard child lock.

All while in your swim suits. In January.

Of course.

And if they're not in swim suits, they are in undies, or pj's.

I can never seem to take a picture of her with a clean face.

Now on to the crafts.

Oh wait! That's my not-so-camera shy girl standing in front of the craft.

And Jared getting in on the camera action.


And not to be left out, the half diaper, half pj clad youngest of the group.


But, jeesh, she's adorable!


Oh, there's the craft. I knew I had put it back there somewhere.


We cut out hearts, then sewed them on my sewing machine.


I think it's almost the coolest thing in the whole entire world that you can combine cute, crafty paper and sewing machines!

Seriously, almost the coolest!!!

And then we made these!


So fun and easy to do with the kids!

(!!!!!) <--- Can you tell I'm excited to pull out the crafts again?!?

We just cut out 3 of the same sized hearts in different paper, folded them in half and glues all the half sides to each other. I could even give little jobs to my 2 year old so she didn't feel left out.


Ta-da! Now we are ready for Valentine's.

Now to brainstorm for the next really big holiday around here...St. Patrick's Day! (no, that was not sarcasm) This year we are catching that leprechaun!