See You In The City

     This is my sister, my best friend, my confidant. As sister relationships go, ours has been pretty great. We went through our early, close years, found easily in childhood, drifting apart for those few awkward years when I was still a child in her eyes, while she, a thriving teen. But we ultimately found our way back to each other in high school, and even more so in college years. We have lived close and far and close again a few times, but mostly, we have been blessed to live near each other for the majority. We are crazy similar, minus her curly blonde beautiful locks. We think the same, our conversations are easy, we talk about mostly everything and sometimes nothing. There is no better friend than a sister; it is a friendship that can not be duplicated.

    

 

 

 

My sister and her family are moving tomorrow to New York City, no longer a short car ride away. It makes me sad, and yet I am so excited for her new adventure. It reminds me of a conversation we had when we were young. I was still very much a child at the time but I could see that Emily was on that precipice between childhood and adolescence, and I was afraid to lose her to something different and unknown. I started to cry as we sat on the swings and told her that I was afraid of her growing up because she would no longer want to play with me. I think she laughed at me a little and then said that that would never happen because we were sisters. It’s such a funny memory now, and yet it's such a great example of sister friendships. The truth is, we did naturally drift apart for a few years, but, we’re sisters, and we ended up eventually only growing closer the older we got. I thank god for her and her family. I’m thankful and excited for their new adventure…. and a free place in the city to stay and visit. I know eventually, we will find our way back to each other, whether it be just for holiday’s, or a short visit, or even a quick phone call. I love you Em!

Happy Birthday Clara Girl: Handmade Fabric Doll

 

 My sweet little niece Clara turned 3 a few weeks ago. She is one of the most charismatic, friendly, loving children I know. Sometimes I wonder how she got so silly, and then I look at the way me and my sister interact, and it all makes sense.

I wanted to get her something special for her birthday but couldn’t figure out what to buy. Nothing in the store excited me, but then I saw this Fabric Doll Tutorial on Pinterst and thought they were so cute. I made mine to be a “Clara Doll”, with a matching dress that I had made Clara and a shirt I made my sister.

I had most of the materials needed already except for a few odds and ends. I just printed out the doll pattern and followed the directions. It was easy and so fun to make. By easy I mean there were lots of small parts, details and corners to sew and it took longer than I expected, but it was still really fun and you need minimal sewing skills. I think if I make more they would take much less time.

They look so cute:)

New Life For Old Threads: Sunny Summer Sundress

I haven’t had much time or patience for any up-cycles lately. They can be tedious and take a lot of concentration, and I just couldn’t get in the right frame of mind to start one. But I found this dress for $2.00 at the Thrift store a few weeks ago and I dug down deep and decided it was time for a long over due, “New Life For Old Threads” post.

 

I really don’t mean to make my before photos so God-awful, but I will admit that this photo was taken right after a long hot run; I have a sports bra on, and crazy mental patient hair. All of this was not on purpose to make the dress look worse, I swear. I just take pictures when I have the time, and apparently my calendar was wide open directly after that run and I decided to do absolutely nothing to myself… because that’s just easier. I espceially like the tacky phone charger in the bottom corner, classyJ

This dress really wasn’t that bad, if it fit, it would be fine. Here is what I did to make the up-cycled dress:

-Brought in the side seams

-Put in a longer zipper

-Brought in the arm holes and made them smaller

-Added white bias tape to arm holes

-Brought up the hem.