Mirror mirror on the wall...

Sophia is the fairest of them all. Halloween is upon us, my favorite holiday! Sophia has chosen to be snow white and I am going to be Rosie the Riveter! I was pretty pleased with Sophia's choice because I was looking for a reason to get some tutu making in and yellow tule makes the perfect snow white gown! I just have to find a tee that can be fashioned into a dress top! I cannot wait! Fav costume yet! I cant wait for our annual pumpkin patch trip either! Anyone have any ideas for a good prosthetic Rosie muscle?

Cook Booking!

Well the challenge has been made! Seems like a theme in my life these days! I decide to make a cook book to add to some of my Christmas gifts. Seems simple collect some of mom's classic recipes, add a few of my own favs and drop them in a book. Now wait though, what is a cook book with out pictures. So, now this means I have to make all the items I want in the book to be able to photograph them. So far, I have met the challenge! I baked no bake cookies, which were of course delish...then followed those up with some Snickerdoodles. Now a big lesson was learned on those! Don't substitute anything for cream of Tartar. EVER! Hahah! My 3 year old loves them. The rest of us could leave em for sure! Then on to the bread making! My personal fav. Now the nerves set in here because of the bread baking stigma...but I found that it was actually a lot of hurry up and wait and my English Muffin Bread was delicious. So needless to say, I have a new hobby....food photography. So tasty!

76 Dresses

The goal was set at 100 just 1 month ago. Today we stand at over 76 dresses and enough pillow cases to complete well over 150 dresses with 1 month to go! I cannot believe how amazing this project has been. Not only will it make the day of over 100 little girls, but it has changed me as well. First and for most, I now realise as a mom just how fortunate I am to be able to provide clothing, food and a worry free childhood for my daughter. Sometimes it is tight, but there is always more than enough clothes in her drawer and food on her plate, and never once or ever will she need to walk to a well to get a drink. I have enjoyed so much organizing this project, but have really just been completely over whelmed by the way other women, many that I might not even be able to pick out a crowd have believed in me and the goal and have helped so tremendously. My hope for the future is that I am able to teach my daughter over the years to give what we have to others and we will be rich. If that means sharing our craftyness, or our musical ability or a smile.


Now on to the dress progress itself. I submitted a request to have our program supported by my employer and was accepted. After just the first 3 days there were 46 pillow cases donated. Today we are up to over 111 pillow cases and tons of yards of fabric. So, huge THANK YOU to my co-workers at Altier CU. We also received donations from church members, friends, family members and other fellow employees. A group of us crafty church gals have been meeting up weekly to sew our Saturday nights away and one Saturday we had cutters, ironers, sewers and prayer doll makers over 10 people! This past Saturday, had Rachel from Hope For Children International joining us to sew! She began the program and was able to tell us a lot about Uganda and what they do when they visit. It was a nice kick in the pants for us gals. We have a lot of sewing ahead of us!

Keep checking back for our progress in the coming months! Once the dresses are sewn we will need to fill the pockets with dolls, post cards, and hair bows. We will also have plenty of Dress A Girl tags to sew on too!

Mr. Softy, ok, ok...Blankey

In other sewing news...which is the craft du jour, I was working on a great little baby blanket gift and had enough fabric for an additional one for Sophia. Check it out! It came out beautiful and I only wish I had made if for her 2 years ago. I finished it in the evening this week and tucked it into bed with her. When she woke in the morning she came trotting out and asked "mom, who maked this for me?" I told her I did and she was so excited. She even wants to take it on the airplane instead of her old stand by "blankety"! All I can say it Nana, you arent the only one who can make a solid blankey!

The hum of the machine...

After clearing away a heap of sewing remnants (thread, scraps, pins....ect)in the middle of my bed, I am sitting down to just fill you in on the Dress A Girl progress! I presented the idea to the gals at church and they are in, committing to 100 dresses. Ill be completely honest, they may be nuts! Haha! Anyhow I have thrown my hand into the huddle and committed to work my hardest towards that big 1-0-0. My hope is that after what we make for the girls, be it two or 12 we can also offer a few up for sale to be able to donate money towards farm acres, goats, or a well too. Sounds strange, but gosh...if I could give a kid a goat.... Id be a happy gal!

As for actual sewing progress, I have completed 3 dresses. Tonight I hope to work on another one. So far I have widdled my time down to about 2 hours a dress rather than an entire afternoon for just 2. I am hoping to get one done tonight and Friday, putting me at 3 for the week(5 overall). Saturday it would be great to do some sewing also. My goal for our next meet up on the 21st, is to need more pillowcases! That would make the count 12!

If you are following along and thinking about contributing pillowcases will be half off this weekend the 14th at Goodwill! Make sure they are only very lightly used and very cute!

Prayers are also always appreciated!  Be sure to check out the pictures I post along the way!

Pillowcase Dresses Piling UP!

So to kick off the good ol' Blogging, I'll start off by saying I am not a great writer and my grammar from time to time could surely be better. On the other hand, I'm all in all a pretty interesting chick. Let's start there then. I'm an art school graduate and a bank teller in my real life. I have a biker husband and a 3 year old who both work hard to keep me crazy! When I'm not doing the mom, wife, banker thing, I love all things crafty. From one week to the next the project is always different. I just wrapped up an amazing 3 year birthday superhero adventure for my lovely Phia. As soon as the pictures were developed and of course made into their own story book I found myself in a rut. Not a crafty rut...I have crafty seeping out of my pores, but more of a project rut. What was next. Who was it for...? On the ride home from work one day I heard a news report about an organization that was called Dress a Girl Around the World". This group stitching wizards was busy taking an average pillowcase and a whole lot of heart and making dresses for girls around the world that were less fortunate.


At first I thought, that sounds like fun...and I could help someone. Then I thought...now wait a minute. Here are kids that need medicine, food, school supplies and I would be giving them a dress. That seemed a bit superficial to me. Then I started to think more about being a girl, having confidence, modesty, and well...lets be honest something a little pretty. I thought of how Sophia lights up when I come home with a new dress that I found on sale. I thought of how being able to provide that for her made all the difficult mommy days worth every second.


Well, I'm off to present the idea to my crafty gals at church and they are ready for the challenge. Today I scored 10 pillowcases at Goodwill. All sizes and colors! I cannot wait to get started! Ill try to post pictures of my adventures in sewing and also keep everyone updated on supplies that we need donated and of course how many dresses we have made along the way. Also, my challenge still stands...send me 1 pillowcase or 100 and I will see to it that each one will end up on a smiling little girl who desperately needs it.



www.dressagirlaroundtheworld.com

http://www.hope4kidsinternational.org/h4wi



Pictures to come!!