A Very Merry Unbirthday to YOU! 18 Months

Ella's half birthday is today...I can't believe she is 18 months old already!  I often look at her and think, "wow, you are a little girl now, not a baby!"  She still isn't a huge talker, but she will pretty much repeat or try to repeat anything you say.  Today she was trying to get the ball from Rylee, and I said, "Rylee drop!" so Ella says, "DROP!"  Her favorite word is "up".

We're still not really in the tantrum phase and no meltdowns in public, but she LOVES to whine.  Oh my gosh, if they had a whining competition, Ella would win.  However, a sure fire way to get her to stop whining is to take her outside.  She absolutely loves being outside, and if she had her way, she'd be outside 24 hours a day.

She is extremely social but can get shy sometimes.  She loves to laugh and be tickled.  She wears a size 18-24 month in clothing and still wears a size 4 diaper.

So even though my last post about dresses said those were my final fabrics, I added two more!  It's been cold here lately so I felt all cuddly and decided to get some flannel fabric...have you ever seen such a cute flannel fabric?!  This is the bell sleeve peasant dress...

And then because I love all things cherry, I had to do one in this fabric (it's not flannel), which I used to make bibs with...

Thirty One

As you all know, I'm a big supporter of mommy-owned/run business, and I have another great one for you. My friend, Amy, is an independent consultant for Thirty-One...they have SUPER cute stuff so please check out her site by CLICKING HERE !


On an unrelated note, Ella has become obsessed with sunglasses so we found the ones I bought her last year that were too big, and she sported this look yesterday...

That's right, gray tutu dress, pink sparkly converse and over-sized round tortoise shell sunglasses. My girl's got style. ;)

The Final Fabrics & Introducing DIAPER COVERS/BLOOMERS!

Here is the bright and cheery lemon pattern (I think this will look adorable in the peasant style too)...


This is actually the smallest size jumper (0-6 months), but I still squeezed it on Ella with leggings...look how cute it looks as a top! These "dresses" last forever!


Here is the hot pink floral...I think it almost looks Hawaiian-ish but more modern. This also shows another peasant dress style (size 6-12 mos.), the short sleeve without elastic. Very cute.




I initially planned on making elastic waist pants with a ruffle on the bottom to go with the dresses, but they take a lot of fabric, and I just don't think they will sell well enough. So instead, I whipped up a diaper cover/ baby bloomer pattern! The sizes are 0-6 months, 6-12 months, 12-18 months, 18-24 months, 2T and 3T...any fabric!!

They come in plain...

(That example would go with this dress)


Or double ruffle...

That example would go with this dress...

Ella packed in 4 playdates in 3 days, including... 

Brunch with her new friend, the adorable Megan...


And dinner with two of her favorite people in the world, Peyton and Logan...well, I guess 3 of her favorite people since she also looooves Michelle...

Do Not Judge Lest ye Be Judged!

We all do it.  You know those times when you are with someone else's kids or you're at the park, and you think, "that kid is a maniac!", and you lovingly glance at your precious angel while you thank God that the maniac isn't your kid?  I think that was MY kid today!!!  I swear, when we came back from our playdate today, I was EXHAUSTED...and slightly embarrassed.  

Between Ella stealing the other kids' snacks, rummaging through all of the other moms' purses, not sharing her toy, insisting on grabbing other toys, going BEHIND the counter at Golden Spoon while I was trying to pay for yogurt, handing complete strangers our dirty napkins (which they kindly threw away for us), running away from me at full speed as far as she could get (how is it that I am unable to catch an 18 month old?) and falling on her face about 10 times, I was ready to surrender.

I don't think I'll be doing playdates anymore where I cannot keep her fully contained.  I'm too old for this.

At least she was in a good mood and had fun with her friends!  BTW, don't be fooled by the fact that she is sitting in each of these photos...this was about 30 seconds of a 1.5 hour playdate....

*Pricing*

I think I have the final pricing for each of the dress styles I've made so far...

For sizes 0-3 months through 3T
Yoke dress $36
Jumper $34
Pillowcase dress $26
Short sleeve peasant $30
3/4 length/ long sleeve peasant $34
Bell sleeve $36

Felt rose pin $4

4T-5T sizes are an additional $3 each
6-8 sizes are an additional $4 each

I'm going to try to lower the shipping to $4 and see if I can make that work, as I like to keep shipping as low as possible.  Probably $1.50-$2 for each additional dress.  It may go up to $4.50 once I start shipping more of them, and I see how much it actually costs me for materials and to ship.

*June and Lindley- your prices are what I quoted before. :)

More Dress Options

As I've mentioned to a few of you that have ordered dresses (thank you!), with the peasant dresses, there are 4 options within each style of dress, and there are 5 styles of dresses.  I've only posted 2 styles- the short sleeve with elastic and the 3/4 length sleeve with no elastic (even though it's really longer than 3/4 length).  There is also a bell sleeve (elastic mid-way); a long sleeve with elastic mid-length; and a short sleeve with no elastic on the arms.  For each style, there are 4 options regarding fabric:

(1) All one fabric (like the aqua damask one posted previously);
(2) Main fabric bodice/sleeves with a contrasting band at the bottom (like the yoke dresses);
(3) Main fabric bodice/bottom with sleeves in a contrasting fabric; OR
(4) Main fabric bodice with contrasting band AND contrasting sleeves.

Here is an example of option #4 in the short sleeve with elastic style in size 18-24 months (red & white seersucker with navy & white polka dot sleeves and band)...



This photo shows the seersucker closer up...


Here is another example of option #4 in the 3/4 length sleeve without elastic style (bird with bright pink & white polka dot)...


Here is an example of option #2 in size 12-18 months...



This also shows a style I haven't previously posted- the bell sleeve with elastic mid-way. You can see the adorable sleeves better in these photos...

Gluten Loves Me- CD Update

Well, you won't believe this.  I had the CD bloodwork panel redone last week, and it came back NEGATIVE this time!  WTF?  Granted it was at the high end of normal, but my GI said looking at these results in a vacuum, he would say I *don't* have Celiac Disease!  The problem is that he said my original test was bad.  Very high.  Very positive.  He says it doesn't make sense.  I reminded him that I hadn't been eating gluten for 2.5 months (although I did eat gluten the weekend before I got retested).  He thinks the test still should have been positive with only 2.5 months of being GF (I disagree based on what I've read on the CD forum site, which is why I ate gluten the weekend before getting retested).  However, he said that if it was long enough to clear me up, eating gluten just the weekend before the test wouldn't really make a difference.  Soooooo, I'm now doing the "gluten challenge" where you have to eat the equivalent of 2 slices of bread a day for 6 weeks, and then get tested again.  SIGN ME UP.  Here is the list of what I would like to eat please:

 *pancakes, cupcakes, sandwiches, girl scout cookies (the first year ever in my life I didn't eat GS cookies, and now it's too late!), a twix, battered and fried anything, white bread, pasta, pasta, pasta...ooh this is going to be fun!