Late Edwardian Silk Blouse

 

Just before my wedding I ordered in a length of China silk, meant to be a nightgown for a certain night. Sadly I ran out of time, so my mother gifted me one in my style from the Victorian Trading Company. (Which I still wear and love!)

But what became of the silk you ask? I'm coming to that.

Around Thanksgiving I began to wonder what I would do for myself as a Christmas outfit. I was short on time, low on energy, and slap out of money due to shopping for others.

So I started rummaging around in my stash and came across the silk. I realized I had bought enough for a blouse AND a nightgown! (Which I still have yet to make..)

I dug around in my patterns and pulled out my copy of Past Patterns 8643 And got started.

It came together beautifully, and it felt so elegant sliding it on. I used leftover wedding buttons as well to finish it off.


 My Husband and I then went on a photo shoot around our historic neighborhood

                                               

  I think E-bug enjoyed it as well! 

I hope everyone had a very happy Christmas, and I wish you every blessing in this new year! 

 

A Christmas to Remember

I just so happen to have been excited all year for this Holiday Season, knowing it would be our little one's very first!

 

I had big plans to deck the halls and trim the tree and make something very special for a certain little boy to cherish.

Sadly very little of that happened.

Unforeseen circumstances meant that Christmas was much quieter and humbler than I had hoped. But wasn't that the way of the very first one? Quiet and humble Our Lord entered this world, and we were the better for celebrating it that way.

Two weeks before the big day, though, I realized my hands were still empty and I had nothing prepared to go under the tree. A desperate search and I found what I had been looking for.

A few clicks and THIS old time teddy bear kit was on its way.

E-bug's favorite movie of all time is the original Disney "Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" so I wanted to make him his own old fashioned "Steiff" style Teddy bear. 

It does go to show that you should always read the fine print. His name is "Tiny Ted" for a reason! lol! He only stands about 8" tall. But for a little boy, a little bear was perfect. This kit came with the pattern and fabric for the bear and the little red felt jacket. It also had a small piece of teddy print cotton to do with as you please. She even traced the teddy bear pieces onto the mohair so all you had to do was cut!

HOWEVER this kit did not come with the eyes or joint components needed to finish it off. And sadly a trip to Hobby Lobby came up short when it came to teddy bear parts. The only things they had were plastic and for much bigger bears!

Not having time to spare to order the parts I decided to improvise. I sewed the arms and legs on sturdily and used one of the bigger joints I had bought for the head. I then embroidered a little face on to him as best I could.

Before I added his face

I'd not like to introduce you to "Theodore Reginald Bear" Or "Teddy Reggie" as we like to call him.

E-bug was not quite sure what to make of him upon opening the box Christmas morning. But he did give Ted a kiss after a moment. (Which was so quick I didn't catch it on camera... :/ )

He still needs a few things before I feel comfortable giving him to E-bug for keeps, but I think he will make a lovely little companion for our Boy!

All in all I think our baby boy enjoyed Christmas, and now it's time to look forward to a first birthday party! 0_0!!

Six months of "Mommy Made" Items

So you may remember that I knitted Baby E's Coming home outfit, well, that gave me the idea to make something each month for his official monthly pictures.

Some months I succeeded more than others. lol!

For month one, I simply repeated his coming home outfit. Breastfeeding struggles and an utterly exhausted Mama lead to zero time or inclination to make anything.

 

Poor baby, it wasn't long after this that we decided to make the switch to formula. I just wasn't producing enough for him! Best decision we made! But that's a story for another time.  

By two months things were a bit better, but I still wasn't up to making much, So I used one of his daddy's creations! 

 

We had been planning on going to some highland games over the spring season, so his daddy made him a kilt! Wasn't it just perfect! He just looked so dapper! 

By three months, we had finally gotten ourselves into a rhythm, and mommy had her groove back!

A full on vintage sailor suit it was! I used THIS pattern from Etsy which I would highly recommend, and had it together in a couple days. Sadly, he had just woken up when we got to the park to take pictures, and was in a foul picture taking mood... lol! 

 At Four months there was a bit of an "Uh OH!" I threw together an overall romper, based on a store bought one he had. It was a size six months so I estimated and sized it down.... too much. On the day of the pictures it didn't fit!! 

So instead I put him in a sailor suit I bought from Dapper Lads (Not affiliated) And used his "Christening Blanket" as his "Mommy Made" Item. 

This blanket (Or Shawl) Should not be attempted by the faint of heart! It took AGES to complete. I had to use four sets of double pointed needles to make the "Lace" Edging. (I think my yarn was too thick, as it didn't turn out as "Lacy" as in the original. 

My Ravelry Review Here

At Five Months we were back on track!


This was the month I discovered that you can find a free pattern for basically anything you want on pinterest and went absolutely crazy!!


I used THIS pattern to make his vest. I also had to size it down, as the pattern was for toddlers, but I think it turned out OK in the end.

I Used THIS pattern for his shoes, but seeing as he had just discovered his toes, they didn't stay on long!

And lastly, though you can't see it, I used THIS pattern to make a little tie to go with it.

This Weekend My little baby turned SIX MONTHS! Where has the time gone?

I was once again short on time, so I did a re-fashion, instead of making something from scratch. I Bought these pants for E-bug at Easter and they were far too big, as someone had switched them on the hangar for a bigger size... But they sure fit now!

I loosely used Beauty from Ashes Plus Two's Tutorial to turn them into Knickerbockers. It was so easy that I intend to do it a lot more!

And then I just so happened to have a scrap of blue striped seersucker that I used THIS tutorial to turn into suspenders.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this look into our Little Man's life. Hopefully I can get back to doing more blogging soon, but you know how life is with little ones. :D

Bringing Home Baby

So I realized that three months have passed since Our E-bug came into this world and I still haven't posted about his coming home outfit.

I found This outfit on Pinterest and immediately fell in love with it!

I was certain it was the cuddliest thing I could ever bring home a snugly baby in. Sadly I thought it was outrageously expensive for something he would probably wear once. Plus I wanted him to come home in something I made.

So I went in search of a knitting pattern to match. After a long rummage I found this one.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-aran-bodysuit-hat--booties

Held together with hairpins, while I waited for the buttons to come in.

I then went in search of yarn. I wanted a traditional "Aran" color, but I was unsure of doing it in wool, just in case of an allergy. I debated for ages in the baby yarn section of Joann's where I couldn't find anything remotely close to the creamy white that I wanted. Instead I went with a soft grey, and ended up really loving it!

This pattern was really enjoyable to work with, and I didn't have any problems with it.

The buttonholes on the legs did end up being uneven, but that could have been pregnant mommy brain error.

I decided to go with natural wooden buttons to finish it off, and I didn't regret it!

Coming Home!

I wasn't crazy about the hat pattern with it, as it looked rather like pigtails in my opinion, and I figured that wasn't so good on a boy...

So I searched Etsy for another pattern and came across This one.The hat pattern only came in 3 sizes and one of them was not "Newborn." My option then was to keep looking, or attempt to resize.... Resize it was. I ended up just taking a wild guess and using smaller needles. It actually fit rather well, and actually still fits. :D

His one month pictures, it still fit!

The Day the Stork Dropped By

It has now been a week since our Little "E-Bug" Came into this world, and what a ride it had been since I can tell you. A gloriously Wonderful ride!

I wanted to go ahead and write all of this down while it was still fresh on my mind. I promise not to go into too many gory details, but if Birth Stories are not your thing, go ahead and skip this post. I've just waited a long time to tell this story.

I had been in pre- labor for two miserable weeks. I had been cramping on and off and had been dilated to 3cm one week, and the second to 4cm. The waiting game was killing me, as I was planning on going natural, the suspense made everything worse.

At 4:30 on Sunday morning January 17th, I felt my waters break. Apparently it was only a little, but at the time I didn't know that, I was just sure that's what it was.

A call to the doctor and we were on our way to the hospital.

Once there, it was confirmed that my waters had broken, but not completely, and I still wasn't in much pain. But no matter, Our son was on his way and we were given a room.

A little while later, our nurse Be-bopped in, proclaimed she was a doula, and would be so glad to help us on our way. It then took her three tries and help from another nurse to put my IV port in.

At 10:45 when my doctor got there, I still wasn't feeling much of anything, so they broke my waters the rest of the way and had me walking the halls. That was when things really started to ramp up. Intense contractions every 3-5 minutes. The only thing that helped was to stand and sway through them. So that meant no birth ball, no bed, no sitting, no rest. 

By 6:00 they were coming every 1:30-2 minutes, and when checked, I was still only at around 5-6cm. I also didn't have any energy left to push through a contraction. My doctor suggested pitocin, and I knew what was coming. I was ready for the Epidural. My nurse talked me out of it, but by the shift change at 7pm, I was done. I just wanted to hold my son at all costs. Our new nurse was wonderful, and understood I meant what I said. It took until 8:00 for the anesthetist to get there, get everything hooked up, and for the medicine to kick in.

The epidural wasn't easy either, I shook from the moment they put it in until baby was here. But the pain was gone and I could rest.

That phase didn't last long though! By 9:00 when they checked me, I was complete and ready to push. And at 9:38, he was here! All ten perfect fingers and ten perfect toes of him! He weighed in at 7.14lbs and measured 20" long.

It's been a rough week physically for both of us, with healing issues on my part, which made breastfeeding difficult, and led to sleepless nights and weight loss on Baby's side. But we are both now on the mend and his weight is already improving!


I'll get back to blogging as soon as I can, until then I'll be enjoying my cuddles. :D

~Megan

A Journey With Mary

To properly tell this story I must go back a few years first. No not that many years, just almost twenty. The year was 1996, and I had just turned 5. I didn't know it then, but I was sitting in my future Mother-In-Law's Kindergarten class at the little private Christian school I attended.
December came around and we were going to put on a little nativity, just us kindergarteners for that year's Christmas play.

My best friend and I (Who coincidentaly is still one of my dearest friends), had ,had a rivalry going on all year, and this moment was no different. Both of us knew we were contenders for the part of Mary, and the competition was fierce.

This was a year or two later when we got along just a little bit better. lol!

The day came when we were to find out our parts, and written on the chalkboard was easch of our names and the part we had been given.

But there at the top was something that set my little heart to anger, Jessica's name next to the part of Mary, and mine but a lowly angel.

Well I just decided I'd fix that, surely there had been a mistake! Mrs. G. left the room and I promptly pulled a chair over to the blackboard and switched our names in my large, uneven, childish script.
I'll never forget my beloved teacher's reaction, though. Instead of anger, or punnishment, she simply explained to me the importance of the angel Gabriel, and the part that he played in delivering the good news.

I supposed after that, that I could endure the part, for her sake mostly.

Now fast foreward back to 2015. This year our church decided to put on a little nativity for the children's service. A very simple affair with Mary and Joseph, a Manger, and the three wise men. Naturally, being 8 months along myself, I was asked to play the part of Mary. I couldn't help but feel a little thrill of excitement, twenty years later and It would be my name on the black board!
But today I must admit, it was a different feeling all together.

The one silly selfie I got to send to Jessica. (Captioned "Nanny Nanny Boo boo")

There was a flurry of silly costumes, and a sad female baby doll wrapped in a towel, but I couldn't help but be awed by it all.

As this mother, "Great with Child" was escorted down the aisle by my husband, I began to tear up.
I imagined Mary, a much younger girl than myself, being told that she would have a child out of wedlock, in a time when that meant almost certain death. I can imagine being completely overwhelmed by it. Having to tell Joseph, her parent's, her friends.

I can imagine the relief that Joseph believed her, having been told himself, but still having the humiliation of the community looking down on her, shunning her, maybe even hating her.
I imagined that later, just when her time was upon her, ready and scared to death of bearing her first child, being told by a distant monarch that she had to leave everything familiar to her and go to a place she had possibly never seen before.

I thought of how blessed I am to be able to look foreward to giving birth in a clean hospital environment with kind and knowledgable nurses and doctors, ready and waiting if anything goes wrong, and I imagined how frightened she must have been. Feeling the beginnings of her pain and not being able to find a place to stay, and finally being offered a place in a barn, the dirtiest place in the world.

But then as I sat down next to that manger and sad looking baby doll, I watched the "Wise Men" come down the aisle and lay their gifts before it. Though I know they came later, the shepherds still came that night. I can't imagine how awestruck Mary and Josheph must have felt that night. People came to worship this tiny baby that had been hated and shunned since the moment it was conceived, but this child would soon save the world, one heart at a time.

Oh yes, it was a powerful feeling.

How NOT to Treat Someone With a Food Allergy

I recently joined up with my local "MOPS" group, here in my new town. It has been such a blessing and I'm so glad I took the plunge to find out more about it!

But that's not why I'm posting. At our bi-weekly meetings one or two of the ladies will bring a few light breakfast items for all to enjoy while we're there. Because of my gluten intolerance, I tend to go into meal gatherings with a grain of salt. I usually eat before hand, and then if I find something I can have, I'll have just a little to keep from seeming rude. At the last meeting my allergy finally came to light as I had to decline to take any of it home with me.

This morning I was amazed to find that the two ladies who brought breakfast this morning not only remembered my allergy, but made sure they had something I could eat! (If you're reading this, Thank you all so much!! I can't tell you what it meant!!)

It took me until I got home to realize why I was so overwhelmingly grateful. For the rest of this post I'm going to explain why. This morning was a rarity, normally I don't get treated like that. So here are some tips for how NOT to treat someone with an allergy.

1. Don't treat it like a fad.
This may not happen with the more dangerous allergies like peanuts or shellfish, but it happens quite often with Gluten. I have a lot of friends that are Celiac, which  is a more intense version than what I have, and most have stated hearing the same reaction. Too many people have heard of a gluten free diet and are following it simply because of the craze. It really won't help you lose weight, that's still going to be carbs and sugar and a gluten free diet won't necessarily keep you away from those two. You may even gain weight.

But that's beside the point, The Fad is making those of us with an allergy look crazy. Walk into a restaurant, ask for the gluten free menu, and watch the waitress sigh. My Celiac friends then have to further inconvenience the staff by asking that special care be taken with their food. Clean utensils, separate preparation space, ect. If even the tiniest amount of gluten gets in their system they could get very sick. So, no, it is not a fad for us.

2. Don't treat it like an inconvenience.

This one goes along with the one above. I'll Start by saying I am NOT a picky eater. I'll try anything once.... well almost anything. Anyways, before I found out I was intolerant, I prided myself in being able to find something at any restaurant, that way no matter where someone wanted to go, I wasn't a bother. Now I have to be. There are some places that no matter how carefully I choose I get sick. There are other places that I simply cannot make work, there's just nothing that isn't breaded, or slathered in a sauce I can't eat. This has actually cut out a few places that I used to absolutely love, which is no fun I tell you!

So believe me when I say, I know it's an inconvenience when everyone wants to go to the Olive Garden and I have to say no. I would LOVE to be able to go and have Alfredo and bread-sticks with everyone, but I can't. It's also no fun to go and just have coffee... The staff kind of look at you funny when you do that.

So please don't sigh, I really can't help it!

3. Don't treat it like a contagious disease. 

Now, here's the other extreme. There are people that are too cautious, at least in my opinion. Unlike the more severe food allergies, my personal symptoms when I eat wheat are not life threatening. I get a severe headache, a runny nose, I sometimes get sick to my stomach, but in the short term, it probably won't kill me. A celiac will have those ten times worse among others, but for the most part, they still won't go into shock and die. You also cannot catch it from me. I may try to convince you to get checked for it, if I see symptoms that are similar to my own, but that doesn't guarantee that I'm right.

You can also eat gluten free food! A baked potato is gluten free, so are all other fruits and vegetables, so you have already eaten gluten free food in your lifetime. As for the items such as pasta and soups that have to be made with a different kind of flour, manufacturers really are getting better at it. You can hardly tell the difference! If I or someone else have put gluten free food on the table, Go for it! I'll be glad to know what you think! It's not some kind of kibble that poor little old me is forced to eat. I also certainly can't eat the entire dish myself, don't be afraid to take a helping.




4. Lastly, DO make the effort. 
As I said above, I can't tell you how much it means to me when you try! You have gone the distance! I don't have to be the outsider at the meal! I don't have to have made it myself from scratch!! You're awesome!! It's a complete and utter luxury, and be sure I will repay you somehow! Grocery stores are making it easier and easier to find things that I can eat. A lot of them will have a little label on the shelf. The back of the package will also have an allergy label beneath the ingredients. The allergens will be listed in bold.  I always say that I can eat anything I like, I just have to go back and make it from scratch. Which sounds complicated, but not so much anymore, there are mixes, and ready made items already on the shelves. Have a recipe you like, but it calls for a tablespoon of flour? Just use a gluten free version, I like "Bob's Red Mill," which I can get at Big Lots for a fraction of the cost of anywhere else.

Anyways, to wrap it up, a gluten free life is really not all that bad. It takes an extra effort sometimes, and others one has to be the odd man out, but in the end, it's not a bad thing. It will teach you patience, and discipline, and... well... how to cook from scratch. To use the old adage, a person with an allergy is no different than anyone else, there are just things we can't eat. We don't mean to be an inconvenience, and we don't mean to sound rude, so please be kind. We really do appreciate it.

Much Love!
Megan