My latest project...

For months since we started the adoption I looked forward to the day when we would know the child that we were adopting. Ever since we got approved for our little girl I have been envisioning the projects I wanted to do before she came home. One was to create a special "lovey" to send to her in Colombia. It is recommended to send the child a soft toy that they can bond with in the orphanage. Then when your child leaves she will always have that "lovey" that smells like the place she has always called home. It is a good way to bridge the gap.

My sweet friend Joy suggested I make a rag doll. My great-grandmother made me a rag doll that I still have, and our sweet girl shares a name with my great-grandma. I knew it would be perfect to sew my girl a similar doll. I ended up hand stitching and embroidering the doll, so it was a sweet time to focus on our daughter, and pray her her.

I finally finished sewing her dress today. It was made from a night gown that was made by my great-grandma, and I had enough material to make a matching dress for our girl. I can't wait to see her in it!

 The finished dolly!

 My rag doll, the new doll, and matching dress. 

I'm hoping maybe we can send the doll for Christmas, but we are still trying to figure out how to make that happen.

Other good news is that our check has cleared the USCIS, so we should be getting our fingerprint appointment soon. We are waiting on USCIS clearance, FBI fingerprint clearance, and our employer reference. Then we will get everything apostilled. Getting closer to the end of the paperwork! Hooray!

MFT

Last week I did not participate in MFT simply because my current favorite thing was still coffee (and i was too tired to think of anything else). But today has been a wonderful day off, so now I have two new favorite things...

My new seat cushion and pillow

It matches my new pillow for my awesome red chair.

Linking up with Graduate Extrordinaire! 

what.i.wore.wednesday.

So I've been pretty good this week! Except my computer does the picture taking, so the pictures as less than fabulous. Also, my head is cropped out of one because of bad hair. Sadly the only day I forgot to take my picture was on Valentines Day :(. But I did have a picture taken of me while I was being sang too. Let me explain...it is a fundraiser that our school does where someone can buy you a Valentine and a song. Mine was from my parents (Scott got one too, very funny & awkward). Some of students got sang too, which was sooo funny. One little guy said when they were done, "Mrs. Hamilton, that made me hot all over." Which in kindergarten language means embarrassed. Ok, so here are the pictures...

Thursday

Sweater: American Eagle

Skirt: Hand-me-down

Shoes: Rack Room

Necklace: Christmas Gift

Friday

Pink Shirt: Rugged Warehouse

Jacket: Christmas gift

Grey Pants: Ross

Boots: Rack Room

Saturday

Went hiking to the top of Stone Mountain with my bro & his gf

Sunday

Sweater: Wet Seal

Jeans: Aeropostale

Brown Flats: Kohls

I also have to include a pic of the awesome pillow I made for my new chair.

(I can't figure out how to turn the picture around)

Monday

(We have an entire jean week at school, hooray!)

Coat: Ross 

(Kayla & Jordyn-remember when we all bought these!)

Pink shirt: Forever 21

Jeans: Christmas gift

Cute Shoes: Rack Room

Earrings: Mexico

Tuesday

(bad hair not shown)

Purple Shirt: Christmas gift

Tank: Birthday gift

Jeans: Christmas gift

Necklace: Some stand in Mexico

Wednesday

(I decided to go casual)

Shirt: School Theme shirt designed by Scott-

Our theme is Amplivate: Encouraging others to be bold for Christ.

Jeans: Target

Tennies: Ross (Best shoes ever for only $30!)

Linking up at The Pleated Poppy

How I love Saturdays...

Saturdays in college were always fun, but now that I have a full time job it is different. In college I always wanted to find something to do on Saturday; now I just want to sit in my new red chair. I have my typical Saturday to-do list, but it mostly involves staying in the house.
1. Make Biscotti
2. Clean bathroom (or convince Scott to)
3. Exercise...maybe...
4. Make Valentines cookies for class
5. Sew new pillows for my chair
5. Read a book and drink coffee

Yep, I love Saturdays. Why do you love Saturdays?

Ruffle Scarf!

Today I successfully created my first ruffle scarf! I'm not sure I used the right material, but it was on sale at Joann's. Here it is:

I chose green and purple because I looked in my closet and saw a lot of green and purple. I made a purple layer, and a green layer, and sewed them together. They are all twisted around in the picture because it's a bit too short to wrap around my neck. It is nice, after 5 days of sweatpants, to do my hair and makeup since we have having guys/girls night with the small group!

Finished Placemats!

So here are my final placemats...yay! I did learn, however, that it is quite difficult to use the macbook to take pictures of things on the floor. Scott laughed at me trying to stand on a chair to get a better shot. :)

Here are a set of four placemats

 And here is my favorite placemat! I love these buttons!

Next project-ruffled scarves

Current train of thought-should I open an Etsy shop? I really like making this stuff but what will I do will all of it? Advice?

Snow Day 4

The more I'm at home the more I craft. The more I craft the more I blog. Because my husband is currently speaking computer language, I have to explain my crafts to those of you who understand :). Yesterday and today I started making yo-yos. I made some for the back of my sewing chair. Then I found out no school today, so I decided to go for a bigger project-dishtowel placemats. I know everyone has something they receive in excess at their wedding-mine was dishtowels. So I used my brown ugly placemats as a backing and sewed my dishtowels on. Then I added pockets for utensils. Next step is decorating with yo-yos, but I need to find some cute buttons first (Walmart failed me). Here are some pics...

The yoyo chair

The before placemats

The almost done placemats and yoyos yet to be made...

I will be posting the final results soon! (Since we are out again tomorrow)

Final Product...

I have completed my Christmas break project on my new sewing machine! A table skirt and chair cushion for my sewing table. Here are some pictures of the process...

Step 1: Layout fabric

 Step 2: Sew chair cushion

Step 3: Sew table skirt

Now what to do next...