Hydrangeas

My favorite time of year is when our hydrangeas start blooming.  At our house our backyard was full of beautiful hydrangeas.  At the first sign of the leaves turning green, my excitement started building to see those first buds blooming!  And once they bloomed, we had beautiful flowers all summer!  I don't know why, but to me hydrangeas are so peaceful and refreshing.  

Saturday Murray and the kids went to the house to cut the grass and clean up the yard.  When they got home, the kids busted through the door so excited saying, "Mommy, Daddy has a surprise for you.  Daddy has a surprise."  When I saw Murray walking through the door with a  water bottle full of hydrangeas, my heart smiled!

Murray knows exactly what to do to brighten my day.

And he must have really talked it up to Ella and Miller because they knew they did something that would make Mommy so happy!

So, for the next week or two we are enjoying some of our beautiful hydrangeas.  Don't know why, but they just make me happy!!!

Twirly Skirt

When I try to take pictures of Ella to share things I think you might enjoy reading about and trying, I get either one of two responses.  One, zero cooperation.  Or Two, everything is totally posed.

My goal for showing you just how cute this Twirly Skirt was to capture some pictures of Ella playing.
At first, I thought my hopes were dashed.  She had a pose at every angle.

But once I got Ella twirling, her cute little (real) smile and laughter could not help but emerge.

Although she just could not resist adding a little pose to the end of all her twirls.

What little girl does not love to twirl

 and twirl?

 After Ella had enough of me snapping pictures of her, she took over and performed her own photo shoot.

 Ella caught me at the end of my twirl, I think she did a pretty good job.

Now, about the skirt...  I am sharing this with you because it is VERY easy!  I would not tell you that if it was not true!  I used the Circle Skirt tutorial from MADE.  I pretty much followed her tutorial with a few improvisations.  

1.  Measure your child's (or your waist, you could easily make this for yourself). 

Measure your child's waist and then add two to three inches (I think I added three).  This allows for seam allowance and adds a small gather at the top of the skirt.  It also allows for a little give when putting the skirt on.

2.  Make your pattern.

Draw your pattern on a piece of paper with a right angle corner (I say this because I usually draw my patterns on freezer paper and do not have a right angle.  It is important to have a right angle to get the pattern correct.).

There are detailed instructions on the tutorial, but basically you are finding the radius for the skirt.  You can read her instructions, but what you want to do is divided the waist measurement by 6.28 inches.  

So, if your waist measurement is 20 in.  You have 20 + 2 = 22.  22 / 6.28 = 3.5. 

To get the waist line of your skirt pattern, place a ruler in the corner of the paper and measure 3.5 inches from one side of the paper to the others.  It will make an arch.  

Determine the length that you want the skirt.  I wish I had made Ella's skirt about an inch longer than I did.  As easy as this was to make, I don't think I have ever completed a sewing project that has turned out exactly how I envisioned it.  That is just a side note for your benefit:)

After you have determined your finished length (be sure to take into account the size of your elastic, mine was 2 inches), measure an arch all the way across the paper from the waist measurement for the desired length of the skirt.

(Just ignore that middle set of dashed lines.  That is where I measured from the corner of the paper instead of the waist line.  So glad I discovered that before I cut my fabric!)

 Here is what your pattern will look like.

3.  Cutting your fabric

Here is where I deviated from the tutorial a little bit.  In her tutorial, Dana says you can make this skirt in 30 minutes.  And after you have made your pattern, I believe it is true.  That is, if you choose a fabric that does not have pattern that you wish to fall in a certain direction.  Of course, I did not...

Dana has detailed steps to cut the fabric out in one piece (here), but since I did not want my rainbows to be upside down, I had to cut out each piece individually.

I used one yard of 45 inch wide fabric, which was just a tiny bit too short (see bottom right skirt piece).

But, I was not about to let this stop me!

 With a little bit of improvisation

 I was able to make that final piece of the skirt

Sew all four skirt panels together (right sides together) to make one big circle.

If you do not have to piece together your skirt, this is what your fabric will look like after your cut it out.  You would then just have to sew the one seam together to make the circle.  

4.  Elastic Waist Band

I used two inch elastic for the waist band.  

Wrap the elastic around your child's waist to get the right size.  Remember, you want it to fit a little snug so that it will stay up and not gap in the back.  

After you have the right size elastic, add one inch for the seam in the back.

Sew the elastic together, making another circle for the waistband.  Sew together with 1/2 seam.

Then fold back each side of the seam and sew it flat with a small zig zag stitch to the waist band.  This is a very important step for comfort!

5.  Sew Skirt to Elastic
I did not follow the tutorial's instructions here either.  The tutorial had you pinning the skirt to the elastic all the way around and then just stretching the elastic as you sew.  I tried this and it just did not work. (Let me tell you, taking out that white zig zag stitch on white elastic was not fun!!!!)

So, I just did a good ole', tried and true, gathering stitch (turn your straight stitch length to its longest setting, mine is 4).  Sew a gathering stitch all the way around the waist.  Before you gather, mark the center of front and the center of the back of the skirt.

 Then do the same on the elastic waistband.

Gather the skirt and line up the center front and center back.

Pin the skirt to the elastic and sew about 1/4 of an inch from the bottom of the elastic with a small zig zag stitch (it was pointless to take a picture of the stitch because with the white thread you could not see the stitch).  My stitch length was about 1 and the width was about 2.5 - 3.  

I just realized I did not take a picture of the placement of the skirt on the elastic.  You sew the right side of the skirt to the wrong side of the elastic.  Here is a picture of pinning and you can see how the skirt should be pinned (but your fabric should be gathered).

6.  Hem the Skirt

I did a very small hem, 1/4 inch.  But you can do whatever you like best.  Personally, I really like the small hem.  I think it makes the skirt fall very nice.

And then you will have one happy, happy little girl

who just cannot help twirling!

Not Forgotten

From the beginning, Cahaba Park has focused on Ukraine in missions.  I posted this post after I returned from Ukraine in 2009.  

The orphanage that we work with houses children with "special needs" (most seem to have learning disabilities and have been labeled special needs).  

The majority of our work while we are there is in helping with the autism program.  

Inspired by the work that has begun there and the ways that families have been impacted, Tom Saxon (a pastor at our church and former missionary to Ukraine) and Matt Blick (an excellent film maker who is currently working with MTW to produce films for the missionaries on the field) have filmed a documentary about Autism in Ukraine.  

You can watch the trailer here.  From this short 2 minute trailer you can see that amazing work that has begun over the past few years in Ukraine. 

The Autism Documentary "Not Forgotten- The Secret of Autism in Ukraine" has been chosen by Cultivate Wines to enter the contest to win either $50,000 or one of the 5 $10,000 prizes.  The documentary cannot be finished unless they can get funding.  SO PLEASE HELP US!  Here is how you do it:

Go to this link:

http://www.cultivatewines.com/cause/6058/

Click "I want to Vote"  There is a box from Cultivate that says login and vote.  This sends you to their facebook page. YOU MUST 'LIKE' THEM. This is only done once.

The second time you vote you will just use the link and vote.

You may vote 1 time a day for the next 8 weeks.

Please, please, please vote!  Vote everyday!  Pass it on to others to vote!  The voting goes on for 8 weeks, so vote, vote, vote!

Everyone Is Doing It...

As much as I love to sew for Ella, she does not always love what I make her.  I never know what I am going to get.

I can either get this...

 or this...

The real reason is that Ella loves knit!  She would wear a knit dress every single day!  So, any time I make her something that is not knit, I am taking a big risk.  Because if Ella does not like it (even if I get it approved by her before I make it) she will not wear it, or at least there will be a lot of tears the two or three times that I force her to wear it because I made it.  

The problem is I rarely sew with knit.  For two reasons really.  1.  It is very difficult to find cute, reasonably priced knit that makes it worth the effort.  2.  Knit is very different to sew with!  And I am very far from perfecting it!  But since Ella (and now Sara Wells) loves knit so much, I have been reading up on it lately.  The more that I read, the more I realized most people got their knit fabric from old t-shirts. So I thought, if everyone else is doing it, so can I!

For the next couple of weeks I just kept my eyes peeled for any cute (x-large) t-shirts on sale.  (Since I have gotten rid of boxes full of clothes with each of our three moves this year, I knew I would not stumble across any treasures in our closets.)  I just happened to go to Old Navy on the right day, all of their clearance items were 50% off.  After digging and digging, I found this cute orange strip for only $1.75.  I kept my fingers crossing hoping to find another one.  

And I did (plus two tank tops for me for the summer, about $1.00 each, and a sweater that was $8.00).  

So, I turned this...

 into this

and this.

 For Ella's skirt I did a simple gathered skirt with a large (3 layer) ruffled flower.

 Then I put small (1 layer) gathered flowers on the girls' shirts.

It was a big hit with Ella

 and with Sara Wells!

And with Sara Wells having a stronger opinion lately than Ella about what she wears, I feel really good about making something that both girls love.  My craftsmanship on the skirt and bloomers is definitely not where I would like it to be, but I was able to use the original shirt hem on both the skirt and bloomers so from a distance, at least, they look professional.

**If anyone has any great tips or resources to sewing with knits, I would love to know them!!!

One Year Later...

It is hard to believe that one year ago today we were trying to figure out how we were going to deal with this!  

The number one question that Murray and I get is, "How is your house situation?"  The answer is, it is exactly the same it was the morning of April 27th with a blue tarp instead of a tree on the roof (and all the problems you might imagine would occur over the course of a year with a hole in the roof only covered by a tarp).

The day the movers came and packed up our house and moved us for the first time, we never imagined we would have two more moves within the same year!  You know when I type it, it sounds very crazy, especially for a mom of three young children.  But the Lord has shown us an extreme amount of Grace!  It has been a great year!  While I have lost it a few times (ok, maybe more than just a few), we really don't feel like this year has been characterized by packing up and moving all the time.  Each house has brought us lots and lots of fun memories!

First Rental House:
We will always remember the Dance Parties we had in our shag carpeted den...

Sara Wells starting to join in on all of our art projects...

 all the fun treats that we made...

and of course dress up.

Rental House #2

We had so many fun memories in Rental House #2.  Things we will never forget are 

Carving our pumpkin...

Christmas morning...

Sara Wells's Second Birthday...

And all the fun we had playing outside!

Rental House #3
Although we have only been here a short time, we know this house is going to be great for our family!  The Lee kids love to play outside!  Leaving Rental #2, we did not think it was going to get any better than living on a cul-de-sac and having a killer rope swing, but our new house is great!

Our new backyard is every child's dream.  The Lee kids play for hours outside every day!  The yard, and all the fun we have had together outside, will definitely be the thing we remember most about this house!

April 27th is a day that we will never forget.  I will never forget the sound of that tree falling on our house!  But that is not what forever marks the day in our life.  To our family, it is a very visible display of God's protection.

In 1 Samuel, Samuel placed a large stone, Ebenezer, to always remind the Israelites, and all those that passed by, of God's faithfulness to his people.  When they saw this stone, the people were always reminded of God's faithfulness, mercy and restoration.  I wish I did a better job of physically keeping a record of the ways that God has been faithful to me and to our family so that in times of struggle I can always look to a physical reminder of God's faithfulness.  April 27th will forever be one of those reminders.  I will never forget how God protected our family on April 27, 2011, our family at 5:30 a.m. in Cahaba Heights and Wellon and Stephen's family at 5:30 p.m. in Tuscaloosa.  The only times I have gotten really emotional about the tornados are when I see specials on tv or at sporting events (yes, I have cried at several football games and even a gymnastics competition) where they have dedicated highlights of the tornados and the victims.  Not because of what we lost, or Wellon and Stephen lost, but because of how God protected us!  What we have been through is so little compared to the complete devastation that some families have been through in the past year.  I will always look to this day and be reminded that God protected us on that day.  His protection may not always look like protecting us physically.  But, we can look at this day and see how He does protect us and be reminded that there is never a time that we are out of his hands.  No matter what the situation looks like through our eyes, we know that God is always working for our good and will never let his plan be hindered.