Pattern Testing: Women's Leggings

This past week I was selected to be a pattern tester for one of my favorite pattern designers, Jocole.  Her patterns are modest and adorable for kids and adults alike.  Fabulous!

The pattern is for women's leggings.  Perfectly awesome considering I'm pregnant and wearing nothing but leggings from here on out.  She emailed the pattern out and I got to make some leggings and email her back some photos and my review.  Let me just tell you this pattern is AWESOME!

There's an option in there for either an elastic or foldover waistband.  I tried both out and I'm love the elastic.  It's super easy to put in there and there's no casings to fight and fiddle with.

The fit is fantastic and the pattern includes sizes XS-XXXL.  So there's for sure a size for everyone in here.  You can also choose full length, capri length, or shorts.  I'd highly recommend this pattern for you ladies out there who love leggings like I do!

Just the right accessory for my 26 week baby bump.  A pair of mustache leggings :)

A Dress for ME

I've been seeing these tank dresses all over Pinterest lately and I got it in my head that I could make one that would fit my bump.

Dress: Me, Sash: Me. Necklace: groopdealz.com

I'm seeing the colors coral and mint everywhere for spring and I LOVE the combination of those colors so that's what I went with.

I stopped by Meijer one day and bought 2 tank tops (the other one is going to be made into another dress) for $7.  Then I hopped on by JoAnn and got this great skirt fabric.  The skirt is a woven and apparently wovens and I don't get along because I made this dress twice before I finally got it right.

I left a super generous hem on the bottom, something like 5.5 inches so I could adjust it up or down if I needed to.  So far, it fits the bump pretty well so we'll see how it lasts as I continue to grow and grow!

In a nutshell, I tried my tank top on and marked where I wanted it to stop and the skirt to start then I chopped the bottom of the tank top off.  Then, I measured myself where I wanted the waist to start and grabbed some 2'' elastic in that length.  For the skirt, I made it a couple inches bigger than my belly measurement (which is the biggest measurement on my lower half right now).  I sewed the tank top and the skirt to the elastic.  Then I hemmed the skirt.  Last, I used 1/2 yard of the solid mint green fabric to make a sash to cover up all those yucky elastic seams.

Now, I could just use a little spring weather here in Indiana so I can actually wear this for more than 2 seconds without shivering.

Want to make your own tank dress?  I didn't use an online tutorial, I just measured myself and hoped for the best.  But, to make it easier, here are a couple good tutorials:

Ruffles and Roses Tank Dress Tutorial
Sew Country Chick: Easy Tank Top Dress Tutorial

Ain't Nobody Got Time For That!

Since Mr. SPC has been away going through his Coast Guard schooling he's had a teeny bit of bad luck.  Ok, really, we don't believe in luck or happenstance or coincidence or whatever you want to call it, but some crazy things have happened to him.

A couple weeks after he got there, he managed to tear all the muscles in his thigh.  You know, the quad and the hamstring and whatever the muscles on the sides are called.

Source: Google

He had to have stem and ultrasound treatments daily and then some heating and icing and he wore a compression sleeve thing on his thigh to help him heal.  He ends every day with a really intense workout. Either cross-fit or a pool workout or some kind of PT test closes out his day, so he had to work through all the thigh issues.  Take a break in a military workout because you're in pain?  Ain't nobody got time for that!  Thankfully, just today, he got through his workout at full intensity and his leg is much better.  Great news!

But, before he made it over the leg thing, he was in the pool last week doing a workout that involved swimming with bricks.  Really?  The military is no joke right?  They had to drop their bricks in the water, swim to the bottom (I think he said it was a 12 foot pool), retrieve their bricks and then tread water while holding the bricks over their heads.  Then they had to repeat the whole cycle over again.  Well, our Mr dropped his brick in the water, dived down to get it and then someone else near him in the pool dropped his brick and it parked itself right on top of my sweet man's head.  That's right, he got hit in the head with a brick while swimming under water.  Odd.

Not my husband, just a picture I Googled.

The poor man that hit him dived down right away and pulled Mr. SPC right up out of the water, praise the Lord for him.  Mr. SPC was OK, just a bit dazed I think, and he actually didn't know what happened he only knew that his head hurt.  He showed us his head the day after it happened over Skype and he had a pretty good dent in there and a big bump.  He had a sore head for a few days but other than that, he's fine.

He's got 29 more days left, and I'm praying those days are filled with safe training and a level-headed focus.  My man has been doing such a great job on all his tests and qualifications (he scored the highest in his class on the rifle and qualified at an expert level), and we can't wait to see him home and hopefully, Lord willing, in one, healthy piece.  Maybe I can call his instructors and request that he finish his time there while wrapped in bubble wrap.  That should do the trick!

Dresses, Furry Boots, School and Mickey Mouse

I just finished up my designer day upload on Facebook!  Man that was so much fun.  I love it when I get to follow through on all the designs that are in my head without any restraints.  My favorite dress that I did was this one

It turned out so colorful and bright and lively!  There's a little girl out there that's going to get to rock this beauty very soon!

I was so blessed to have been invited and included in the designer day festivities with some of the most top notch designers I've seen.  To even have been considered among them is humbling.  I've been seriously designing and sewing these clothes for less than an year, and God has really just opened up doors to me in so many ways.  I'm so thankful to get to know amazing women over the internet and some even in person too!  It's been such an amazing experience!

While most of my week has been consumed with picking out shirts, auditioning fabrics, cutting, and sewing, we did do other stuff too! :)

Rylea, Dieter and I all got our hair cut together.  It was Ry's first time getting her hair washed in the bowl and she loved it.

She was clearly very relaxed.  She said it tickled a little bit and she liked that she never got water in her eyes like she does in the bath and shower.  This was Ry's second haircut in her 3.5 year life.

She sat perfectly still and showed us how her hair looked just like a princess when she was done.  Little D was a different story.  I had to sit him on my lap for him to get his done which was so weird.  He's had his hair cut every 6 weeks for about a year now and he's never had to sit in my lap like that.  But since he was having a mini meltdown, I didn't get any pictures of him.

We also got to go outside a little bit this week because it was a little warmer than normal.  We are READY for spring!  I'm ready to pack these babies up and store them for the summer.

Furry boots circa 2006, Walmart

We also spent some time at school this week!  My mom in law is a 3rd grade teacher, and we went over to the school with her after hours so I could help her with some decorating stuff and the kids love to go over there and write on the boards, read books, and cause general chaos.

D caught in mid smile. They were playing with snap cubes.

Making messes!

All in all, another happy week for us here in the SPC family!  The good news is there's only 30 more days left until the Mr. makes it home to us.  The bad news is he gets sprayed in the face with pepper spray this coming week as part of his training.  Yikes for him, but we're in the home stretch!

Oh, and this has nothing to do with anything, but Rylea drew a picture of Mickey Mouse.

Clearly, she's an artist.  I hope you had a good week too!

Sunday Scripture Printable 5

Here's today's scripture printable, I pray that these words ring as true in your hearts as it does in mine.  This verse gives me so much hope and encouragement! 

Click on the picture and save it to your desktop to print out or click this link here for a higher quality version to print and use.  Happy Sunday!

Disclaimer & Terms of Use: This printable art was designed for personal use. Please do not share or redistribute this artwork or use for commercial purposes in any way without express written consent from me, Kirsten DeWitt.

Dieter the (almost) Dwarf

Today marks 22 weeks pregnant.  Wahoo!!!  That means we're just that much closer to meeting this tiny little man.  I had an ultrasound and a checkup today so the kids and I all made the trip to see the midwife.  Turns out the midwife had to make a quick exit for a delivery, but I was able to see a different doctor while we were there.

There's our little man hanging out.  The ultrasound tech commented on how much he moves.  No kidding.  He's a mover alright, just like my other two babies were.  Never a dull moment down there in the womb.  It's like a party in there.

The old belly is measuring at 24 weeks and the doc said, "Hey, you might get a baby that hits the 7 pound mark."  Haha.  My babies are tiny.  They were born at just over 6 pounds each, and they're still tiny.  Tiny kids.  Tiny tiny.  If this baby hits 7 pounds I'll be thoroughly surprised.

All the measurements were great during the ultrasound and little man has hit the 1 pound mark himself while his mom has gained a few more than just 1 pound.  Actually though, I was told I should be gaining more weight, and I need to "eat more snacks."  You know it's a good day when someone tells you to eat more and get fatter.  Yes ma'am.

The best news of all is that this baby has 10 fingers and 10 toes.  At our ultrasound last month, the tech and midwife diagnosed the baby as being polydactyl.  Which is a fancy word that meant that our little boy had one extra finger on each hand.  After doing a bunch of research and finding out that this was a genetic disease that ran in families, I called a bunch of family members and asked if anyone had that in our family.  Everyone said no, so I was a little confused and suspicious, but really not nervous or wary at all.  I prayed about it a few times and really felt a peace about the whole situation.  (Thanks God!) So, at this follow up ultrasound I was not surprised when we were all able to count 5 fingers on each hand and no extras showing up anywhere.  God is so good to us.

Wanna hear something else weird?  Dieter was supposed to be a dwarf (their words, not mine so don't write me letters about being politcally correct please).  We had an ultrasound with him and they told us his arms and legs were too short in comparison to his body and that he was most likely going to be born a dwarf.  After spending a month researching and sweating that one out, we were told at a follow up scan that nothing was wrong and he was completely normal.  What is it with people giving us fake baby scares?  Anyway, I'm happy to report Dieter is not a dwarf and our 3rd baby has 10 fingers.

So, here I am today at 22 weeks after our yucky drive in sleet and rain.  Still truckin' along.  :)  Happy Tuesday friends!

Sunday Scripture Printable 4

This week's scripture printable isn't really a verse from scripture but rather, a list of family rules I've complied for our family according to scripture.

I think it's important that you sit down and decide on a life verse for your family.  A life verse is a verse of scripture from the Bible that will kind of set the tone for the way you want your family to run,  the way you want to live your lives as a family unit, and the way you want to bring glory to God through  your family.  I also think it's important to have a set of family rules and have it posted in place that everyone can see it daily.  It's great to refer to, and it's an awesome reminder when we get in a rut and start acting selfish or angry toward one another.

I made two versions.  The one above is the one that's specific to our family.  I used a couple of things I say on a daily basis like, "speak gently," which comes from Proverbs 15:1.  I honestly say it more for me than for my kids.  I pray that even in anger I am still able to speak gently and set an example for my children that anger does not equate to yelling or raising our voices which is so often a horrible habit that I have to break.  One way I try to combat this yucky trait in myself is the angrier I get, the softer I try to make my voice, and sometimes I even pull my children aside and speak to them in a whisper for fear that I might blow the roof top off the house using the volume that my flesh so badly wants to use.  I fail at it, sometimes daily, but I'm a work in progress, praise the Lord He isn't done with me yet.

This second version here is the one you can print out for yourselves if you want to.  Frame it, hang it up and put it in a place where everyone can see it.  It would even be awesome to sit down as a family and talk about what each of these things mean to you and how we could all better incorporate each rule into our daily lives.  Click on the picture and save it to your desktop to print out or click this link here for a higher quality version to print and use.

I hope our list blesses you!

Disclaimer & Terms of Use: This printable art was designed for personal use. Please do not share or redistribute this artwork or use for commercial purposes in any way without express written consent from me, Kirsten DeWitt.

Tutorial: Turn a Clipboard into a Chalkboard

We've got one of those wicked long, hair pulling, stressful, not kid-friendly, car rides coming up.  Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 hours one way in a car.  Yuck.  My kids are some of the worst road trippers.  They hate to be in the car for more than 30 minutes at a time even with the DVD player on.  We've traveled overnight, early in the morning, and midday and it all ends in major complaining, whining, and general nastiness.  So, in an effort to curb all those ridiculous things I thought I'd brainstorm a few new things to keep the kids happy while in the car, at least for a little while.  Enter: chalkboards.

I made one for each of the kiddos complete with erasers, and I painted their names on it to avoid any fighting or confusion.  Here's how I did it.

What you need:

• A clipboard (I got mine at Target for $1.99 each)
• Chalkboard paint
• Chalk
• Felt
• Sticky back Velcro
• Paint pens

Step 1: Prep and paint your clipboard - Cover you clipboards in the chalkboard paint.  I didn't take any pictures of this part because I just followed the directions on the can.  I painted 3 coats of the paint on there with a foam brush, and let it dry for 3 days.  Then I took a stick of chalk and rubbed it all over the entire surface of each clipboard and erased it using small circles all over the board.  This helps to condition the chalkboard and makes it a lot easier to erase later.  After that, I wiped each board clean with a damp cloth.  Done!

Step 2: Paint Names: To do this, I found two fonts I liked on my computer.  For Dieter's I used the Avengers font which you can find at www.dafont.com for free.  And Rylea's name is a font called Lobster.  I typed their names into a Word document at 125 size and printed them out.

Then, you can rub some chalk all over the back of the printed name.  I printed my names on scrap paper I found  so you could better see the chalk all over the paper.

Then you put the paper, name side up on top of your clipboard and trace the letters.

Then when you're done, you can throw the paper away and your chalkboard should look something like this

Then I took these paint pens and painted inside my chalk lines. I did two coats and let it dry.  Once it's dry you're all ready to go.  You can even draw chalk over top the paint and it won't come off.

Optional Step: Erasers - For the kids' erasers I just cut some scrap felt I had laying around and hot glued it together.  4 layers all together.  Then I cut the edges with some pinking scissors just to make it look prettier and I was done.  I put a piece of sticky back velcro (the hard side, not the fuzzy side) on the chalkboard and the felt will stick right to that so the kids will always have their eraser.

Haha look at that little footprint on there, someone must have walked on it and I didn't notice until just now.

I'm hoping these clipboard will also serve double duty in the car, giving the kids a hard surface to color or draw on if they want to use paper and crayons too.  Or maybe it'll still be a miserable ride and nothing will change. At least we have some cute clipboards for homeschool stuff.  Happy chalkboarding, and if you use this tutorial to make your own, send me some pictures, I love to see them!!!