Stay At Home Mom?

It has always been my dream to be a wife and mother and I always thought when I had kids I would be a stay at home mom.  When I pictured my future family I pictured me at home with the kids running wild and dinner on the table when my husband came home from work.  Nowadays it seems like a silly far fetched fantasy of the 1950's but regardless it's what I wanted.  Well after 4 years of college, thousands of dollars in student loans, medical bills, car payments, rent, and all the other day to day expenses, I came to realize my dream was financially impossible. 
During my pregnancy I tried not to think about strangers taking care of my precious baby and prayed daily a solution would present itself to me.  I had come to accept the fact that I would have to work to help support our growing family and that meant daycare was our only option.  I worked in a daycare for four years and I can tell you it's not like the horror stories you see on the news.  Most of the women who work there really do care about the kids they are taking care of and I can honestly say I got very attached to quite a few of them.  I still keep in touch with a couple of the families and they even attended my wedding.  Even knowing all that I know of daycare I still wasn't crazy about having my son in one.
After having my son I was over joyed to be able to take 12 weeks maternity leave and thought I would be content having that time with him knowing I would have to go back to work.  However the more time I spent with him the more difficult the idea of leaving him became.  As I sit here and watch him sleep so peacefully the idea of someone not talking to him in the same loving way I do, not holding him when he cries, or rocking him to sleep when he's tired breaks my heart and makes me tear up every time I think of it. 
So the question arises, is making more money worth him possibly not being in a loving environment?  Is having cable, internet, a new car, eating out frequently, and being able to buy more "things" really worth it? In one word...No. 
I currently have 2 weeks left of my maternity leave and have come to the conclusion there is no way I can leave my baby in someone elses hands just so I can have more material items.  My husband and I have thought long and hard about this decision since it will effect us greatly and finances will be more tight than ever.  When I think back to my growing up I don't remember what my parents bought me, I remember the places we went, the time we spent just being together. 
So, while I am really dreading telling my boss I'm not coming back, all I have to do is look into Grant's little face and I know there is no other place I'd rather be than right here with him in my arms.

Whoo Hoo! Bit of Whimsy Doll Pattern

I'm so excited, I just purchased a doll pattern from Bit of Whimsy.  I have been eyeing these patterns for months searching for an excuse to buy one, but at the same time feeling a bit intimidated by them.  In case anyone hasn't noticed I feel a bit intimidated by any sewing pattern that has more than 3 steps to it.  In keeping with my New Year's resolution to 1. stop procrastinating (this one has become a yearly tradition so it must be included), and 2. take more creative/crafty risks.  Which means if something intimidates me that means i'm going to suck it up and try it, no excuses.  Which brings me back to the Bit of Whimsy pattern, I bought the Beth doll pattern.  They are all super cute and I have every intention of buying one of the boy doll patterns  for my little man, probably for a Christmas gift this year.

My intention is to use this pattern to make a doll for a friend of mine's daughter.  Her first birthday is this month and I want to do something special and of course homemade.  So hopefully I will keep with my resolution #1, not procrastinate and have a finished Bit of Whimsy doll to show you soon!

New Year's Resolutions

Okay so I admit, every year I make some New Year's Resolutions and never follow through.  So when thinking of what I wanted my resolutions to be this year I really did want to pick things I might actually stick to.  My first thought, probably like most women, was to make one of my resolutions to lose the rest of my baby weight.  While I don't have a lot of weight left to lose I decided making that a resolution probably wasn't realistic being that I hate exercising and I am really not great at dieting.
So here are my resolutions:

1.  stop procrastinating -at least on some stuff, haha.

2.  take more creative/crafty risks-i'm intimidated easily by patterns and some of the projects I see all these talented blogging ladies coming up with.  So I want to finally start taking chances, after all what is the worst that can happen?

3.  make more holiday and birthday gifts homemade.-  I think i'm most excited about this resolution.  Every year I dream of a homemade Christmas.  I start off the year with all these great plans of homemade gifts thinking I have 12 months to get them all finished which should be plenty of time, only to have December roll around and be in a complete rush to get one or two things finished.  This is one of the reasons I wanted to start this blog, to keep myself accountable and have someone/something to answer to.  So this year will be a busy one full of projects if I stick to this resolution.

Another Gift for Grant

I made Grant these shoes and matching onesie to put in his stocking.

The shoes were made using my favorite pattern from stardust shoes (i'm addicted to this pattern and find any excuse to use it).

Breast Cancer Molly Monkey!

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and is now about one month from finishing all her treatments and hopefully will never have to worry about it again.  She had been trying to think of something to give the nurses on her last day of treatment, when she saw me making Grant's Mikey Monkey she asked me to make a breast cancer molly monkey, and of course I did.

I didn't follow all the directions completely (a bad habit of mine since it usually gets me in trouble).  Since I had already made the Mikey Monkey I did a few of the steps out of order and didn't follow the directions at all with the skirt.  I used the measurements from the pattern for the skirt but only used elastic since I didn't have any biased tape and was ready to see her all finished.  My mom was very excited with the end result and said she can't wait to give it to her nurses.  Another project to mark of my list!

Molly and Mikey together

if you want to make your own go to mmmcrafts to get the free molly monkey pattern



Mikey Monkey!

I knew early on when I found out we were having a little boy that I wanted to make him a Mikey Monkey for his first Christmas, and I thought this would start the tradition of some homemade gifts for him each year.  Again I am a procrastinator and was working on this up until 30 minuted before it was time to open gifts with everyone.  Luckily my little man is only 2 months old so he didn't know the difference anyway. 
I admit I was a little intimidated by the pattern and instructions but decided I needed to suck it up and face my fear.  In all my Mikey took me about 5 hours to make, however if I wouldn't have been rushing to finish I would have avoided some mistakes and therefore saved myself some seam ripping.  I also was not using my own machine, I was borrowing my mom's which is completely different from mine.  Okay i'm done with excuses now, haha

So here is Mikey, I finally got to cross this off my to-do list,  isn't he the cutest!  I will admit I didn't get his hat and shoes done but he is still adorable without them (those are now on my to-do list).  I decided to only fill Grant's stocking this year since he wouldn't be able to open anything anyways.  Mikey was the perfect toy to be sticking out of his stocking.  My mom got a few pictures of Grant with his stocking and little Mikey peeking out, so sweet!
If you want to make your own go to the mmmcrafts etsy shop and purchase the pattern.

Christmas Stocking

At my mom's house we always open our gifts either the night before Christmas Eve or Christmas Eve  morning, and being the procrastinator that I am, I was of course working on my last minute gifts and things right up until we were about to start opening gifts.  You would think after years of New Year's Resolutions to stop procrastinating I would actually follow through but I don't. 
Anyway,  one of my goals this year was to make my son his first stocking.  I decided before he was born that I wanted to make all of our kid's stockings.  I thought it would be a great little tradition, and they would each have their own one of a kind stocking.  Since I am a procrastinator and I love fabric, which means I want it all and can never decide which fabric to buy for my projects (does anyone else have that problem?), I searched and searched for the perfect fabric and finally purchased it a couple days before Christmas Eve and didn't start making it until the night we were going to be opening presents. 

Here is the finished stocking.  I still want to put his first initial on it but that will be for later.  I'm so excited with how it turned out and I love the fabric chose, and the best part was it was on sale because it was so close to christmas.  I used the pattern from noodlehead but didn't follow the directions from that site.  Silly me thought making a stocking should be super simple.  Being as there are only a few pieces to work with, the outside stocking, inner lining, and batting, so how hard can it be right?  Well 2 hours later I was kicking myself for not following directions, O well I figured it out and will know better for next time.