Ode to the Taco Truck

We had a pretty busy weekend, full of birthday parties with all the birthday food delights, over-stimulated toddlers, and mom rushing around like a chicken with her head cut off. WE are exhausted. But had a great time. I (having been dieting unsucessfully for oh, 6 months) made up for lost time. I ate pizza, I ate cake, I ate Taco Truck tacos. Yeah, I definately ate those tacos. And LOTS of them. At least it felt like lots at 4 in the morning when my stomach was a mess. And honestly if I were to be told that I could eat those tacos without gaining weight (think meat cooked in lard! tortillas heated in that same lard, oh so yummy) I would probably do it again. But alas, my stomach has decided it can't handle the grease and the spice anymore. Oh yeah, I ate more cake.

I am proud to say that other than a pack of crayons and a coloring book for each tote, I made every gift that was given at the three parties this weekend. The Thomas set posted in yesterdays entry was the gift for the first party, then I made a Cars tote bag with individual car slots and crayon roll. And the third (that was actually combined with the second party) I made the girl an oversized bag. Everything was well recieved, and all my fabrics were purchased at clearance prices (think less than $2 a yard. pretty good for character prints)

Ok, today it is back on the healthy food bandwagon, and I have to finish up a custom wrap. I'm contemplating opening up a hyena cart store as well as my etsy shop, because well, I would like to sell more stuff lol.

For Melissa, boys stuff!

Melissa, one of my wonderful "followers" (lol I love how cultish that sounds) requested that when I find something to make for little boys I let her know. So here is the photo montage of the kick butt boy stuff I have found.

A art tote, complete with crayon roll and eye spy bag.
A fall winter fleece longies set with matching shirt.
A pair of flannel drawstring pj pants with appliqued shirt.

I know it is hard to find cute stuff to make for little boys. But you can always make standard boring stuff fun if you use fun fabrics. Happy creating!

Life Happens

OYE! Things keep popping up that keep me away from my pet projects. Although, since I have been sewing I guess that wouldn't be an entirely true statement. I have several custom orders to get finished, have had three birthdays to sew gifts for, and darn it all, my kids like to tease me!

One night they let me sleep for more than 4 hours straight. I'm telling you, it is a sad state of affairs when you are excited about 4 measly little hours. But I am. Then the next night I try to repeat whatever magic trick I did the night before (when really I have NO clue, just flying by the seat of my pants), and it NEVER works! :( They are up every hour. Taking turns.

I know most people loath hearing about the blogging momma's advanced kiddos, but I have to tell you, when your 8 m.o. is taking turns, you are doing something right. I just wish he was sleeping. Regularly. Standard baby hours would be fantastic too. I'm probably asking for too much lol.

Anywho, the purpose of this post is to inform all my peeps that I finally got an instructional DVD put together to send out with my wrapss. It only took me almost a month. But it is done, and I am relieved. It just seems like one more step to being proffessional.

I made a purse for a 14 year old girl's birthday. I haven't touched on doing/sewing something for the little boy, but I'm sure something will come to me. It always does.

Just a Drive By

We are heading to the zoo today. My best friends son is turning 3 and she wants to do a boy excursion. I forewarned her that Kilian is teething, Kane is a terrible two and I am beat, but she thinks it's a good idea.

We'll see. I have my duobts but I'm always up for a challenge lol.

No zzzz's for me, among other things

So I'm on a sleeping strike. Not by my own personal choice per say, but it's here regardless. My youngest son is working on cutting his second tooth and he really just thinks that it is easier if Momma is sitting up in the chair, holding him ALL.NIGHT.LONG. while this happens.

Me, I'm a pretty patient person. But I don't know that I'm patient enough to sit up at the computer, night after night just waiting for this magical event to happen. I'm tired. And Kilian isn't one of those super nice, super sweet babies that is content to coo and grin. He likes to try and give me a lobotomy with his super sharp fingernails. Figures if he is suffering in pain and awake too, I should probably be awake and suffering physically too. He doesn't understand that I am suffering physically. I'm *shredding* and THAT hurts.

So because the Mr. is making noises about it being time to start trying for the fifth and final installment in our "little" (lol) family, and I refuse to get pregnant while still carrying around the extra baggage from the last one, I torture myself daily with the evil but oh so effective Julian Micheals 30 Day Shred. I love and hate Julian. She is mean, guilting me into putting every ounce of my non-existent energy into those 20 minutes. "There is no modification for the jumping jack people. If I have 400 pound clients that can do it, you can too". Uggg, do your 400 pounders get more than 2 hours of sleep? My body aches from fatigue alone, lets pile excessive exercise on top of that. However, she is motivating. And the shed is effective. She just hurts me daily.

But I don't want to be one of those women who have kids and their bodies go to hell. I know it isn't realistic, but I hold myself to the standards of Heidi Klum who can pop out a kid and be back on the runway a mere few months later. Yes I know they have personal trainers (Hello?! I have Juliane AND Bob at my disposal 24 hours a day!), personal chefs who whip up whatever their bodies need for fuel. I am the personal chef in this house and we do pretty well. (well, except for the emergency M&M stash. But that is gone. Potty training by chocolate wasn't working anyways) There are fresh fruits and veggies and whole grain with with lean meats. The only thing I don't see happening is the nanny to watch the kiddos while I devote my time to getting fit. And I really wouldn't want that anyways. The kids hanging on my legs and sitting on my chest as I work out is extra resistance.

Sooo, I'm off to finish my artificial energy and to sweat and curse, get one day closer to reaching a weight that makes me feel comfortable enough to start regaining again lol.

Yummm, M&M's, and diet shakes!

So, 8 months ago today I gave birth to my FOURTH baby. Exactly 18 months and 1 week after I had given birth to my THIRD baby. Now, prior to the third, my body was doing pretty good. Yes I had some extra pounds, but I was pretty solid, definately in good cardiovascular shape. And ALL my clothes fit.

Fast forward to today, where I am busting my butt, sweating rivers, gasping for air and cursing Juliane Micheals at the same time. I desperately want to lose this extra 15-20 pounds that Kilian has gifted me. (Ya, so incredibly unfair, I gave him life, nourishment, my sex life, the ability to use the restroom without an audience, and my sleep, he gave me fat! Anybody esle see the injustice?) So, I get up in the morning (which is actually only 3 hours after I finally got to bed), feed the boys their breakfast and Kilian his bottle. Do the diaper changes and such, all before I have even drank a half cup of coffee. Finish my coffee, get suited up, and get to it. My jumping jacks are interrupted because my oldest son wants to hold onto my legs, or worse, sit on my feet. My situps are doubly hard, because the baby wants to sit on my chest and pull my eyelids off my face. But persevere. I do it all baby, and I have the sweaty hair and sticky clothes to prove it. Now to eat a clean day. Egg white scramble on a whole wheat tortilla. Turkey marinara with ww noodles.
And then Kane wakes up from his nap. Instead of the nectarine and the graham crackers I have for his afternoon snack, he zeros in on the emergency stash of M&M's. Dam*it! I can resist an unopened bag. I can resist the graham crackers, even the gummy worms. But I DO.NOT.HAVE. the willpower to resist an open bag of chocolate. Sorry backside. Sorry favorite jeans. Looks like you are hanging out a bit longer back flab.

So that is how my afternoon snack was. Original M&M's washed down with a half portion of the nastiest protien shake ever. Maybe next time I can blend the two together? lol

Being a Better Blogger

Sooo, I realized that I suck at blogging. I have tons of pathetic (ok, in my world they really aren't pathetic, they are valid and real lol) excuses. Regardless, they keep me from posting sometimes. But I am working on it. I just joined the SITS (The Secrets is in the Sauce, you can see my button) to help encourage me to read more blogs, post more comments, and maybe get a little more posted here too. It seems like a really great concept and I can't wait to see how it goes.

Now I just need to find more interesting subject matter.

For the mundane, my husband is home sick with pneumonia. I know this sound horrible, but I really don't like it when he is home from work during the week. And not only is he just occupying space on the couch, he is whiny. Ugggg. Wish me patience and vast amounts of kindness.

Hello? hello? (echo, echoooooo)

lol Most of the time I feel like I am doing this blog just to hear (ok, see) myself type. Oh well, it is a good documentation of the days of my life.

Life doesn't slow down in our house. Not even for sleep. Littlest Man is teething, Big Brother is sick and momma gets no sleep.

I've still managed to finish up some custom orders (though I'm not overly fond of them, they are exactly what she wanted), and part of the Christmas present for my oldest daughter. The customs are newborn pillowcase outfits in safari animal prints. They turned out well enough, I just don't particularly care for the prints used. But she is excited to get them and gift them, so I am happy for that.

I'm working on making her a "grown up" shirt that I had planned on finishing long before school started. Yes, we are two weeks into the new school year and I barely have the neckline cut out. What I wouldn't give for a full nights sleep and a full day of sewing (sans computer, it's a HUGE distraction for me).

For ODD's X-Mas gift, she is getting a super cute purse with matching wristlet for girly things and some makeup. This was my first purse ever and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I got the free pattern and tutorial from LOLA..Again, and it is the "Angel" pattern. I *almost* want to keep this one for myself and make her another. Almost lol.

Since it was requested, the link to the Lola..Again blogspot where I found the fabulous zebra bag pattern is here:. I didn't do a direct link to the tutorial, because quite honestly, there are too many rules on these things, and she has some amazing projects on her blog. You should check out the whole thing. Happy creating!

Where did the time go?

It has been an emotional week. Somehow I went from having two adorable little toddler girls to having two stunning preteen girls and two adorable little boys. When did they grow up on me?

My oldest daughter started junior high this past Thursday. My youngest son cut his first tooth. My oldest son is composing full, complex sentences, and my youngest daughter started wearing a real bra!

I wish there were more hours in the day. More time to snuggle them all up and hours to just watch their sweet sleeping faces. It's a shame that when you become a mom you don't develop the ability to add hours in. So instead of piling my four babies in the bed for popcorn movies and cuddles, I have to waste that precious time managing our lives and working (though I LOVE what I do, don't get me wrong)

This is the outfit that kept me from the fun stuff yesterday. I love how it turned out. I enjoyed the fact that I had the freedom to do "whatever you think looks good", it is all self drafted and I had a great time doing it. I just had to miss a few of those precious moments.

It's Almost upon us, CPSAI that is

If any of you are momprenuers, you know that awful, hair pulling, frightened shudder that those letters can produce. Talk about a chill up the spine! August 14 is the big day when all products intended for use by children 12 and under have to meet some pretty stringent labeling criteria.

As I'm new to being a WAHM in the production aspect, this has given me nightmares, headaches, and probably a few new grey hairs. I mean, could they (being the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Panel, whatever) be any less clear in their wording for meeting those requirements? I don't believe they can. So after agonizing over how to do this or that, how to meet the minimum requirements, trying to decipher what exactly they need from me, I finally have it figured out. I think. It all boils down to labeling for me. And some crossed fingers, breath holding, and prayers that one certain proposal (this one: http://www.cpsc.gov/library/foia/foia09/brief/leadfinalrule.pdf ) is approved. It would exempt textiles, both natural and synthetic from the very expensive lead testing.

So that is what I have been working on this past week. Getting all my ducks in order, so to speak. Trying to figure out how someone like me who only makes one or two items out of the materials at hand can properly meet those labeling standards. I mean, I don't have a "batch", I have one item. I can't order up 50 labels with one date of manufacture on them, because with two babies and two pre-teens I am lucky to get even one project completed a day. And individual care labels? Come on! But I found the solution thru the help of other momprenuers, and some fellow crafty bloggers. I made my own labels. It was a bit of a challenge, but that is due to me being challenged by complex computer operations like photo-editing. lol

The links to the blogs I visited for inspiration are in my links section. I found making my own labels to be very cost effective too. About $7 for 96 loop labels, and I think it will give my products a more professional appearance too. Even if you just enjoy making homemade gifts for your friends and family, labeling is a great way to give your creation an extra punch of polish. And who doesn't want to have their name stamped on something beautiful they created?

Sorry for the Hiatus

Well, we have been a bit busy here. We went on a little weekend getaway for DH's work, took a side trip to the coast, the boys aren't sleeping (which makes mommy TIRED) well, the girls are about to start school in another week, and I got my Etsy shop set up!

Actually, I got the shop set up right before we left, then set it to vacation mode. When we got back, I turned my vacay mode off and by the next morning I had my first sale! Insert happy dance, giant smiley face, etc here; it wasn't a big ticket item, but it was super exciting to see somebody else wanting something that I had made.

Anyways, I am almost back to a project a day. Some days it takes a bit longer, depending on what I'm working on, but I have been totally focused on getting some gifts finished and adding stuff to my store.

If you want to see what I have been up to, come visit me at www.dustiebottoms.etsy.com !