Once upon a Father's Day Camping Trip

In the sweltering land of a very hot sun,
there once lived a brave Daddy
who was second to none!

When it came time to celebrate his duty as dad
there was just one thing he wanted
and for this he knew his family'd be glad

On Father's day weekend he said with a sneer
I have one simple request:

Let's all get out of here!

So they fled in a hurry to the far away land...
...that is in a relative hurry
for somethings you simply can't plan

(she'll hate us for this one day I'm sure)

A few potty breaks later the family arrived
to gulp in fresh air
and be where they thrived!

In no time at all both Father and Son
were sent on a wood hunt
before dinner begun

Two courageous scavengers returned slightly misunderstood
as they dragged behind them
more than just a little wood!
















Excited and fearless she ran to go help
as her nervous mother
called out with a yelp!

No sooner they heard her and saw her dropped jaw
in the hand of her baby
was a big yellow saw!!





















"Not to worry!" he called out as he laughed with glee
"No fatherly hero would ever allow
her to saw down a tree" (yet I'm sure...)





















Even still the mother thought better of it
and safely occupied her curious children
as they put up a fit

After exploring for birds, bugs and little white bunnies
the family started to notice
hunger rumbling in their empty tummies
















So hot dogs they ate by the fire that night
and after a long day of traveling
both kids slept without a fight

Father's Day morning arrived with a chill in the air
that Mother and daughter
weren't quite ready to bare

Staying safe and warm all tucked in their beds
they snuggled and giggled
until the smell of oatmeal filled their sweet heads

















They ate their breakfast in scrumptious delight
everything about this trip
had happened just right!

















Thank you to Daddy for our breakfast and more
we love you so dearly
you're the best we could ever ask for!

The troubles with potty training

are the MOMMIES!

How it all started...

Who hasn't sat through play dates with Mommy Pioneers telling their tales of Potty Training voyages armed with stickers, charting and treats as they bravely paved their way to underwear-hood before their youngsters could even walk??

Ok, maybe not that early, but considering that the average age for potty training is 30-36 months by comparison 18-24 month olds might as well be rolling their exersaucers to the bathroom.

Such striking testimonies are nothing more than pitfalls.

Pitfalls for the common type-A, over-achiever like myself.

In for trouble...
If other people's kids were potty training at 18 months, by golly so would mine!
She was showing all the "signs" of readiness, so clearly I decided that my darling must also be a potty genius. So bye bye diapies it was for us!

After collecting experienced advice from my fellow Mommy Potty Pioneers I mustered all of the craftiness in my heart and created a giant potty poster, made special potty point stickers, ordered the recommended potty training books and DVDs and shamefully stocked the cupboards with tasty incentives to get us started.

After days of building up to our exciting POTTY DAY, the pee-day morning finally arrived. As suggested, Sienna woke up to bunches of beautifully wrapped individual big girl panties and candle lite Potty Day blueberry muffins.


Wouldn't you be excited? ...And she was too for the first few days.

Like a good pioneer protege I decided to follow the "rules" to the T by placing her little training potty in the middle of our living room, in front of the TV with the timer set for 30 minutes. Rain or shine she was to sit on the potty with every buz.

Every 30 minutes?! Are you kidding me?

I don't think I could toot every 30 minutes if somebody paid me to. And, neither could she... Scratch that plan.

I had been warned that the magic of early training only works if you never go back, so I found plan B:

Remove all clothing, so that the child becomes aware of herself, will start noticing when she is going and eventually run to the potty.

Hum... that could help and Sienna did/does LOVE being naked. I adjusted the every 30 minutes to every hour and tripled the fluid intake just to be sure.

It worked!!

Until... we had to leave the house. Then what?

She was so comfortable using her potty at home when she was already naked, but when Mommy had to help her pull down her pants or get on and off a big toilet I could just FORGET IT! I would've never thought I might lose a wrestling match to a 1 1/2 year old until I tried to force one to go to the bathroom against her will. She made it abundantly clear that should would go potty on her watch and her watch alone. If I so much as suggested otherwise she would defiantly pee where no reasonable human should. All over herself.

I was done. DONE! So I did it. I took away her big girl panties, and then we both sat together on the floor and cried.

How it all ended...
Over the proceeding months she would frequently ask to put her pee pee or poo poo in the potty and we let her. Occasionally she'd break my heart and say "Momma, be a good girl, get big girl panties?" She thought I took her panties away because she was naughty. Oh, I messed this one up badly, didn't I?

Finally, I couldn't take her sweet little voice asking to be a big girl any more, she was 27 months old and begging to use the big girl potty. That's when I knew the trouble with potty training was me.

So I decided that I had to soldier up and try again. I picked June 1st for our new pee-day and started to pray (for myself).

This time was different. No more potty posters, no more stickers, no more treats and NO MORE portable potty in the living room!

On May 31st I simply said, "Sienna when you wake up tomorrow we're going to say bye bye to your diapers and only wear big girl panties. Would you like that?!" She starred right at me and said "Of course!"

By June 4th we weren't having any accidents. And by the end of the weekend we didn't have to ask her if she had to go anymore- she told us.

Now our biggest problem is feigning excitement as she loudly dictates every bowel movement she has and just so I don't feel alone, I'll share some of her favorite lines:


"I have a big one poo poo Mommy!"

"Just a little one poo poo"

"I see a snake poo poo"

"Eeeww stinky poo poo, shut door!"


Oh the things we do for our children.

How did I do it?

I didn't. She did. I just gave her the room to do so without making a ridiculous deal out of everything.

In case you are like me and tried potty training too early to either save money on diapers or because you just knew your kid was "mature," look at some of these studies that support waiting until at least 24-27 months. In addition, studies confirm that the earlier you start the longer it will take.

Save yourself from a lot of this:

And hopefully you won't end up like this:

Even though this was me at first, it was worth it to learn that the process is just as much about the parents being "ready" as it is the child and by "ready" I don't mean pushy :)


I know I made a royal mess out of this round, but I'm looking forward to trying with Jonah.... I know I'll wait a little longer to start with him, but that's about all I know!! Does anyone have any tips on training boys? Other success stories?? I want to hear it all!

Fleur de Skirt

There is something so romantic about wild flowers and when I saw this fabric my heart immediately leaped to visions of designs to create this sleek, feminine A-line skirt.


A perfect first project to share with my new love affair- my serger!


Although I was tempted a few times to go back to my trusty sewing machine, I stood strong and used my serger for every part of this shirt.

From the side hems

To the rolled hem bottom

My personal favorite touch :)

I even used the serger to make my wide band elastic casing, which I only had to rip out and start over once! Seam ripping and manual re-reading considered, I was still astonished by how quickly I turned out this skirt using the serger for the first time and designing my own pattern!

I don't know what I love more my serger or my new skirt?!

It also helps that I just really love the wild flower pattern on this cotton fabric and how lovely it looks with the form fitting a-line skirt!

But not too form fitting for a game of hide and seek of course!

As you can see, I'm not a very creative hider though :)

Serges of learning!

As Sienna likes to say to Jonah when he wakes up from a long nap, "I missed you, baby!"

And who wouldn't miss that smile?

I know it's only been a few days away, but it feels like it's been the longest "nap" ever and all I want to do is throw my arms around my computer and say "I missed you, baby!" But then I might have to admit that my blogging not addiction is slightly an addiction. I just couldn't do that, so instead I'll try to calmly share about the excitement bouncing in my head over my serger (!).

It was a love hate with the Sergester and hours after hours of mulling over my instruction manual trying to figure this darn thing out. Finally I decided to break down and take a serging class last week.

Best idea ever! I learned so much!

I know not everyone has a serger, so I won't spend too much time doing tutorials, but I thought I'd share a few things I picked up and if you all like it I'll do more. Sound good?

Here's a little Serger 101

Threading

#1- Order counts when you're threading including the order the threads lay over each other
#2- Once you finished threading hold the tails of your thread like you do when you start to sew with your left hand and use your right hand to gently tug up on the beginning ends of the thread to make sure they are fully tucked into the tension wheels. By beginning ends, I mean the space between the spools and the first point you thread through.

You'll know if your tension discs aren't engaged when your stitch looks too loopy.

#3- If the lower looper keeps breaking make sure you clear the lower looper of all the threads before you re-thread by brushing a something flat under the pressure foot and needle area first.
#4- Once you get it threaded you can keep it that way even if you have to change thread by simply tying a knot at the top of your threaded thread with the new thread and stringing it through- huge time saver!

Tension

#1- Have patience and ALWAYS test before you serge, even if is the same fabric you were working with before your break. You'll save yourself headaches and lots of seam ripping...
#2- Only change one thing at a time and then test, so you can narrow down exactly what is wrong.
#3- If the fabric CURLS (like a C) then the lower looper is too tight
#4 If the fabric PUCKERS (like a gather)- check the DIF and set it to N or loosen the needle tensions
#5- If your stitch is IRREGULAR- change your needles

Serging vs Sewing

No back serge. To close your stitch you must tie a knot. A tailor's knot works best (click on the link for a how-to), but you could also tie a regular knot close to the edge as possible or simply hide the thread between layers.

Turning corners. With serging your end will be bulky or come unraveled if you simple pivot your fabric when you get to a corner. Here's the steps for how to get a tight outside corner:
1. Stitch until the needl is 1 stitch off the edge
2. Raise the needle and foot
3. Pull fabric back to clear the stitch fingers (little "fingers" under the needle that the thread loops onto)
4. Pivot fabric around and tuck up against needles and knife
5. Lower needles back into the machine (not fabric) to create a barricade for where you want to stitch
6. Hold your fabric with the left hand and use the right hand to pull the threads at the top of the machine to release the slack out of the tension discs
7. Lower pressure foot and serge!

Differential feeders. You really don't have to feed your fabric into a serger, the feeder dogs are amazing on these machines! But that also means you have to be sure to change it based on your fabric.

Types and colors of thread. This matters with sergers! Your tension may be different just based on the color of you thread. Black threads tend to be heavier, because of the amount of dye so the tension may need to be looser.

Types of fabrics and thickness. This also affects tension. Thinner fabric require less thread coverage and penetration, so tensions should be tighter. Similarly, they might need to be loosened for lots of layers or thick fabric.

Good to note here- sergers can never use needles greater than size 90! So even though you have thick fabric to sew, you don't want to change your needle size like you would in a sewing machine. I definitely didn't know this before my class- phew!

I hope this is helpful for those of you with sergers in the closet or brand news one on your table! Please let send me any questions. If you have any more tips please, do share! I'm on a roll with this learning business and can't seem to get enough! I'd also be happy to take some pictures or make a tutorial of some of the techniques I've learned if it would be helpful.

I'm getting so much better at this sewing stuff!!!! I can't wait to show off my first project with the Sergester... just in time for spring!!

Serger 101

Wait!...

Don't throw me in the closet!

I'm not nearly has frustrating as you may think! Try these tips if you're stuck:

Threading

#1- Order counts when you're threading including the order the threads lay over each other
#2- Once you finished threading hold the tails of your thread like you do when you start to sew with your left hand and use your right hand to gently tug up on the beginning ends of the thread to make sure they are fully tucked into the tension wheels. By beginning ends, I mean the space between the spools and the first point you thread through.

You'll know if your tension discs aren't engaged when your stitch looks too loopy.

#3- If the lower looper keeps breaking make sure you clear the lower looper of all the threads before you re-thread by brushing a something flat under the pressure foot and needle area first.
#4- Once you get it threaded you can keep it that way even if you have to change thread by simply tying a knot at the top of your threaded thread with the new thread and stringing it through- huge time saver!

Tension

#1- Have patience and ALWAYS test before you serge, even if is the same fabric you were working with before your break. You'll save yourself headaches and lots of seam ripping...
#2- Only change one thing at a time and then test, so you can narrow down exactly what is wrong.
#3- If the fabric CURLS (like a C) then the lower looper is too tight
#4 If the fabric PUCKERS (like a gather)- check the DIF and set it to N or loosen the needle tensions
#5- If your stitch is IRREGULAR- change your needles

Serging vs Sewing

No back serge. To close your stitch you must tie a knot. A tailor's knot works best (click on the link for a how-to), but you could also tie a regular knot close to the edge as possible or simply hide the thread between layers.

Turning corners. With serging your end will be bulky or come unraveled if you simple pivot your fabric when you get to a corner. Here's the steps for how to get a tight outside corner:
1. Stitch until the needl is 1 stitch off the edge
2. Raise the needle and foot
3. Pull fabric back to clear the stitch fingers (little "fingers" under the needle that the thread loops onto)
4. Pivot fabric around and tuck up against needles and knife
5. Lower needles back into the machine (not fabric) to create a barricade for where you want to stitch
6. Hold your fabric with the left hand and use the right hand to pull the threads at the top of the machine to release the slack out of the tension discs
7. Lower pressure foot and serge!

Differential feeders. You really don't have to feed your fabric into a serger, the feeder dogs are amazing on these machines! But that also means you have to be sure to change it based on your fabric.

Types and colors of thread. This matters with sergers! Your tension may be different just based on the color of you thread. Black threads tend to be heavier, because of the amount of dye so the tension may need to be looser.

Types of fabrics and thickness. This also affects tension. Thinner fabric require less thread coverage and penetration, so tensions should be tighter. Similarly, they might need to be loosened for lots of layers or thick fabric.

Good to note here- sergers can never use needles greater than size 90! So even though you have thick fabric to sew, you don't want to change your needle size like you would in a sewing machine. I definitely didn't know this before my class- phew!