The Big One

Making party invitations. Until last night, when I started to make Jonathan's invitations for his 1st birthday, I had completely forgotten how much I use to LOVE making invitations. I think it might have been the best part of the party for me. I thought I was so tricky with the printer, I'd print one half of the invitation out, turn the paper upside down and then print out the other half. . . a couple of "tricky" paper folds and viola! I had one snazy looking party invitation! Once or twice I might have even had colored ink in the printer.

I did not do any folding on these invitations (well, except for the envelopes). I used an X-acto knife and found a great love in my heart for this dude. . . I have no idea how he does that. In a world of crickets, I prefer my sloppy circles I think. . .  Such a nice "homeaid" look. . . 

 Ummm, so these are adorable.

If you decide you cannot live without these, or something else on this site. . . hit this link and say that I referred you!

To your fleece be true. . .

This is the second year that I've gotten to make this sweet little girls outfit for the line lead. Isn't she adorable?! This summer she brought home two blue ribbons and one red ribbon. The ewe was in heat for the state fair, so we won't go there. haha! 

I'm already starting to think about the plan for next year, and I am super excited because there is a younger sister who is going to begin next summer, so I get to make two outfits!

How to: Make a pair of shorts out of jeans

(Disclaimer : After 4 years I just found the macro button on my camera. I am super excited and will probably start doing a lot more "how to's" )

We all know how to make a pair of jean shorts - simple, mark where you want the leg to end and then whop away at the fabric with your scissors. After a couple of washes you'll have yourself one fine pair of daisy dukes.

I am 99.9% positive that I will never have to legs to pull a pair of shorts like that off. I hate shorts. I realized that this is true this morning when I looked in my closet to find myself a pair. All I had were a pair of maternity jean shorts and a pair of cargo khaki shorts. . . oh, and like 3 pairs of biking shorts ;) What I do have are lots and lots of jeans - most of my jeans are pretty beat up and the width around the ankles is a little out of date, so I decided to get to work.

I like that long skinny shorts are in right now, I like this because I do not have a pair of pants that is baggy through the thigh area . . . not even when wide legs jeans were cool did I have a pair of pants that were baggy through the thighs - it's just not in the books for me.

One thing that I detest more than just about anything else are pants (or shorts) that you can tell have been hemmed at home. I am a hem snob, so just shoot me. I've totally put my foot in my mouth over this issue several times, "Caitlyn, my mom hemmed these jeans for me, can you not stand these?" : /   Actually no, I can't stand them. You should have let me hem them for you.

Getting the hem on a pair of jeans to look right is simple - follow the following rules:

1. Pick the same color of thread as the original hem and use a double thread if necessary to achieve the same look.

2. Put the same size hem in that was there before.

3. If you jeans are distressed and hem has a lot of details on it that you paid a lot of money for, then cut off the original hem and sew it back on. Honestly, this approach is easier than re-hemming a pair of jeans in my book and I do not know why alterations places charge more for it.

4. Most jeans have been through some sort of acid bath and then are industrially dried before you get them - this makes the hem have a very unique "worn" look to them - you can recreate this with a hot iron, lots of steam and some sand paper. After a wash or two in your home machine your hem will look as good as "old."

5. Keep in mind the shape of the leg when you are hemming something. When hemming a pair of jeans into shorts you are most likely going to be working with a tapered leg, meaning it gets increasingly narrow as you near the knee. When you fold the jeans up to create a new hem, you are going to get  puckers in your hem unless you do something to your side seam first. The reason for this is because you are sewing something that is say 20" in circumference, to something that is 19 1/2" in circumference - it might not seem like a lot, but, it will look funny if you don't do something about it. There are a couple of ways to fix this, I have a picture demo below (with a few words) to show you one of the ways.

How to make a pair of shorts out of jeans : adding a side slit

(Yes, I understand that most of my readers probably know how to do this - especially you, Mom!)

1. Using a straight pin, mark where you would like the hem to end. Caitlyn's helpful hint: Forget where you think you want them to end and just pick the smallest part of thigh above the knee. If however you cannot hold a child in your lap because the space between your legs is so wide then I suggest just making daisy dukes. . . 

 2. Using a straight edge, chalk mark your hem line.

 3. Your chalk line should run parallel to the crosswise grain line of your pants - look for threads running horizontally across your pants. Further, the chalk line should end at your side seams in the closest you can get to a 90 degree angle. 

 4. Decide how deep you want you hem to be (Do you want the stitching line to be 1/2" from the bottom? 1"? ), add half and inch to that measurement and then measure down that distance from your hemline. I wanted a 1" hem, so I added 1 1/2" to my hemline. Cut on this line. 

 5. Lay the cut leg over the leg that you have not cut yet. Make sure that everything is lying nice and flat and perfectly on top of one another - cut the second leg. 

 6. Get a seam ripper and tear out the outer side seam until you reach your stitch line. To determine where your stitch line will be, measure up from your hemline (first line marked) the depth of your hem (mine was 1" up from my hemline.).

  7. Place a straight pin at the bottom of your side seam and sew ~ 1/2" up the side seam. Make sure you backstitch at the beginning and end of the seam (and trim your threads of course!) .

 8. Press hem up 1/4" I am using a hem gauge to help me with this. 

 9. Press up another 1/4" This will hide your raw edge. 

 10. Press side seams flat

 11. Fold bottom of hem up. It should fold right on that first hemline that you marked. Right sides will be together.

 12. Bottom of hem will fold up until it touches the area on your side seam that you reinforced in step 7

 13. Do the same thing to the other side and pin in place. 

 14. With the majority of the jeans facing away from you, sew the side seams shut - starting at the center and working your way to the hem. You can only do one section of side seam at a time. Backstitch at the beginning and end.

 15. Now with the majority of the jeans facing you, start at the hem and stitch to the center along the side seam. Stop when you reach the midway point / stitch line from step 14. Backstitch at the beginning and end.

 16. Clip your corners.

 17. Turn hem right side out. Iron flat. 

 18. Continue ironing the hem up at 1" from the bottom to the folded edge. 

 19. Put a new large needle into your machine. There are needles specifically for jeans. . . I find a 90/14 works just as well. 

 20. Sew your hem in at slightly less than 1". I usually follow the 1" mark and then offset my needle to the right just a bit. 

 21. Iron that baby like there is no tomorrow. Turn your steam all the way up and leave your iron on the hem for a minute or so. 

 22. Pretty quickly you will notice that folds from  your hem are starting to show through where you have been ironing. More steam and heat will bring them out even more. 

 23. Sanding block and very rough sanding paper. 

 24. Use the sanding block all over the hem. Little bits of lint will start to fall off and attach themselves to the sanding block. Caitlyn's helpful hint: Do not inhale or attempt to snort these - doing so will eventually result in cotton lung. 

 25. Use the rough sanding paper to add small holes  to the very bottom of them hem. Remember these are shorts, the bottom edge really can't get that worn out naturally, so don't add to many holes or it will start looking unnatural. If you want to add a bunch of holes, add them to the back, that place would get more wear and tear for sitting than the front would. . . 

 26. These holes will distress a bit further in the washer. Better to make small ones than large ones that you can't go back on. 

 27. Viola! A cute little side slit in your denim shorts! A nice little detail that masks the fact that these were not originally shorts, but pants! 

28.  See what I mean? Short cut offs and me just would not work. 

Let me know if there is anything else you would like a demo on. Make it as complicated as you'd like :)

Ain't even grey and she buries her baby. . .

When my time comes, please bury me according to the words of this song:

Tribute that I wrote for Benjamin's funeral today: 

Benjamin was just shy of 20 weeks old in my womb when his heart gave up and stopped beating.  Such a short life story, but I still don't know where to begin, so I'll begin by asking, "Where o' death is your victory?"

   We were not created for this world.  This is a truth that has always brought be great comfort.  We were created for a life free of sin and evil.  A life where we are in perfect communion with God.  A life with no pain and no tears.  Sometimes I wish we could just bypass all of this inbetween stuff and just  go to that place.  

   I carried my son for 18-some weeks before he passed from all of this madness and into that glory.  During those weeks Kyle and I were filled with so much joy.  We wanted this baby so very badly.  We were so excited for Jonathan to have a friend for life and could not wait to meet him. 

All of that came crashing down on July 7th when we went in for our much anticipated ultrasound where we would find out the sex of the baby.  The baby had been measuring small since our first ultrasound and despite trying I had been unable to gain any weight.  The instant I saw my baby on the screen I knew something was wrong.  He was still too small and was curled up.  The nurse started asking the questions you never want to hear and finally said that there was no heartbeat... that the baby had died weeks ago.  We cried a lot that day, but despite all that sorrow there was a strange glory about everything.

  The thing about the truth is that it has a way of making itself known and it kept coming bak to me that we are not created for this world. I truly believe that inside of everyone that there is a God shaped hole and that we are all longing for heaven and for God to fill it. So, despite myself wanting so very badly to be mad at God and wanting to say "this isn't fair," I instead saw that my child  passing  from my broken womb and into the loving arms of the only one who can fill that brokenness and the only one who can really take care of him. What better father is there than the Lord?  And he is the one raising Benjamin!   Not the “son of my sorrow” as death would wish it, but the “son of my right hand.”

I began to be filled with this sense of peace and happiness as I was comforted in the idea that my children are so sweet and precious that God wanted some cuddle time, too. After all, we took his son from him and did the unthinkable.  We tortured him, He who had not sinned, who truly was innocent and then we nailed him to a tree and left him there to die while we went off and denied that we ever knew Him.

 Jesus was someone's son, the Son of the only God that has the power to control anything... and yet He died too and his Father didn't get to hold him and when He died He was so covered with our sins that even His own Father could not see him.  Now that God is taking care of my 3.7 ounces of a boy.

Do I think God killed my son so he could have him? No.  Rather, he took something ugly, something caused by the curse that sin brought into this world and He made it into something beautiful.  That's what it says in Romans 9:20-23.

“But who are you, O Man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory –“

So let us find comfort in that glory and rest in the idea that His Grace makes all things beautiful.

Nothing beats the sound of hearing the first bird beginning to chirp in the morning.

Flagstaff

I turned 25 yesterday.

On Friday, after I frantically finished a project, we headed up to Flagstaff for a short little trip. On the way up we stopped at the outlet malls. Now that manufactures create clothes exclusively for outlet malls, I feel like all stores have the exact same things - targeted to almost the exact same customer. I went to Gap, Anne Taylor, Banana Republic, Calvin Klein, J Crew and BCBG. With the exception of BCBG and Anne Taylor there was really a huge lack of design - everything was the same. Anne Taylor was set apart by some really nice dresses. Dresses, that if my stomach were not baloomining (yes, that is a word) I would have probably tried on and then put back on the rack. I am having an increasingly difficult time finding clothes that I like at a price I can afford. The dress I would not have put back was still $200 at an outlet mall. . . well, I would have put it back because of the price.

I think that perhaps the greatest setback to shopping is Jonathan. He is a very well behaved baby. . . but shopping with a baby, I just can't stand it.

We made it to Flagstaff right around sunset. Our hotel was nothing to write home about, but was significantly better than the "Relax Inn" that we had stayed at down the road a few years earlier. When we stayed there our shoes never came off and we slept in our sleeping bags on top of the bed. Even with this room being so much better, we still made Jonathan stay in his pack-n-play the whole time. I dunno, I just like knowing where my floor has been. . .

We slept in Saturday morning and then went hiking around 11:30. The weather was so nice, and was almost cold at times. The hike I picked out was. . . child friendly. It was suppose to end at a lake. However, that lake was dried up, so we ended up hiking further than we were suppose to and down several different "trails" that eventually ended into nothingness. One ended at the top of  some rocky cliffs. I insisted that we climb down them, Kyle insisted that the hike was "child friendly," I said, "Kids climb all over everything." So we climbed down. After about 5 minutes I was convinced that we were not going to find a lake at the bottom. So we climbed back up and had our little picnic.

Cheese, crackers, salami from Trader Joes, almonds, hard boiled eggs and apples. . . all taste so much better when you don't have a baby with you who has watery eyes and a runny nose because the wind is blowing dust into his face in 40 mile an hour gusts. It was so windy! The sound of the wind rushing past my ears was like standing next to a huge waterfall. On the hike going "to the lake" everything was fine because the wind was at the back of Jonathan's head, however on the way back it was blowing right in his face. So I carried him back the rest of the way. . . okay, Kyle helped too.

In retrospect, I think this was the lake. 

All in all it was a very nice hike. I think the only thing I would change in Jonathan's hat . . . he needed one that fastened under his chin, because he kept pulling his ballcap off.

Back in Phoenix, Kyle took me to the the House of Tricks for dinner. Kyle had been keeping this place a secret from me, but, he had also told me that the place we were going to was not very expensive. So the entire way there we kept driving past hole in the wall Mexican and Asian food places and I just kept thinking, "oh, please no."  Apparently what he meant by not expensive, was "not expensive when your work place has given you $$$ to take your employees out for a nice meal and entertainment, and you go during lunch time." House of Tricks is by far the best restaurant that I have been to in the Phoenix area. It was very much like Les Bourgeois in Rocheport, Missouri - with the exception that it was not a winery.

 We had a cheese and fruit plate that was . . . out of this world. With this pregnancy, good food has given me goose bumps and made my toes tickle. The cheese plate had praline pecans that came with it. . . praline pecans are soooooo good with fruit and cheese! I had no idea! By the end of the night Kyle was just rolling his eyes at me because I was trying them with everything. . . turns out they are good with the "Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Bacon-Fig Gastrique, Aged Manchego Cheese Potatoes,
 Watercress and Truffle Oil" too.