esskayelle

a towel swim dress for girls

yes, the air here is cool, the leaves are changing their wonderful colors of red and orange.  and it has been almost a year since i have last posted.  

i don't think i need to let you know, it's hard to keep a blog up.  but i will try my best in the days to come because it's great motivation for me to stay on par with my projects.

i will start with one summer sewing project that i completed the night before we left for a family trip to the beach.  {if you don't know me by know, i have issues with procrastination}

last year, i made dana's very cute towel dress for myself.  i have received countless compliments.  no need for a picture of mine, because it's exactly like dana's.  no room for originality here.

my plan was to make the same for dillan, but i never got around to it.  

this year, i decided to do it, but i wanted something with a bit more coverage and a hood to soak up the massive amounts of water that drips from d's hair.  i browsed the web and found this by crafterhours.  super cute.  i wanted to make the dress as simple as possible, to make it easier on myself.  so i nixed the cute ruffled skirt on the bottom.  sorry dillan.

i came up with a sleeveless a-line and tried to keep as much of the original towel hem that i could.  i also added a giant off-centered pocket for beach-side goodies, like the assortment of rocks and shells that she discovered on the shoreline.  the neckline changed from round, to the pointed slit, once we realized how difficult it was to get the dress off of d's giant head {what's the correct term for this neckline?}.  :)  i love that giant head.  

i am sorry that i do not have a pattern to share.  i just used one of dillan's dresses, outlined it, added a hood, and put bias tape on all the rough edges.

there it is!  at least one project was completed this summer.  for the grand total of $3. isn't it crazy that summer days are already behind us?  it's not so bad, i do love fall best.

yee haw : woof :: halloween 2010

i really look forward to the fall.  it's the start of all things holidays. 

first comes halloween, then our wedding anniversary, d's birthday, thanksgiving, christmas, and new years. i really love it.

halloween has become more fun + special for me, now that i've started making costumes on my own. 

like someone said to me today, "you made that?  oh, you're one of those crazy crafty moms."  yes, i am. 

a couple of months ago, d told me she wanted to be little red riding hood.  i immediately went to the fabric store and bought corduroy red fabric at 50% off...and began scheming plans in my head for e to be the big bad wolf.  then, a month passes, and d tells me she wants to be a cowgirl instead.  well, it's a good thing that i didn't start on that little red costume.  so i took the fabric i had, and "made it work".  i threw out all plans for e to have a new costume, and decided he'd wear d's old puppy one i had made when she was two. 

i thought it would be fun to share how i go about my costumy crafty process :: sketch first, figure it out the pattern in my head, measure, cut, and sew. 

i totally mimicked the pbkids puppy costume, but didn't have it in me to make the head piece, so i settled for the store bought ears instead.

d wore it when she was just under two years old...e didn't seem to mind.

my favorite part of the costume, is the tail.  it wags side to side when e walks. 

and what started as this:

became this:

i got the great idea for the braids here

yeehaw, it was one fun halloween!

perfect :: not by a LONG shot

an old high school friend posted a most appropriate entry about her feelings in keeping up with the blog world.  to quote from k: 

HOW DOES SHE DO IT ALL?  I ask that a lot, about many of the women I encounter – both online and in real life. Sometimes, I am happy for them and their accomplishments. Other times, I can get a bit down. Envious. Sad. Even resentful. Bitter.

i can totally relate.  and then, i started thinking...maybe people have a misconception of me and my world, believing it is pretty perfect, with a life that is all put together. 

uh oh.  not my intention.  and totally NOT true.

my life is far from perfect.  at the end of the day, if you look at the floors of my little home, you will see any or all of the following:

toys
toys
laundry that needs to be folded
random projects
toys
dishes that need to be cleaned
toys

did i mention toys?  :) 

i have a giant list of things i would like to accomplish, but completely fail to undertake, as the responsibilities of the real world come into play.  namely one, being a mom who is responsible for three, well four, including myself. 

i have to daily remind myself that i am the CEO of this home, responsible for making it a healthy environment, both physically and mentally.  which means, i need to prepare healthy food, that won't taste half-bad at a price that won't ruin our budget.  keep a home that won't grow little creatures to infest my family's immune systems.  and provide enjoyable experiences for my kids, that do not require a remote control or a crazy freak of a mom that will not lash out in frustration.  it is a battle.  and i often feel defeated by my own expectations.  this is where my creativity and imagination ruin me. 

i begin to create this false reality of what my home should be.  that the design aesthetic could be so much more, if i just did...  my kids would be better at... if i just spent more time doing...

and the thoughts keep going on and on.

i completely empathize with k, when she says that she can get a bit down, envious, sad, or bitter.  sometimes, when i see/read what the bloggers or friends accomplish, i see my expectations become real in someone else's life.  little do i realize, that what i see from them, is mostly just the good...and not the real. 

it is when i sit down, look into God's word, and pray, that i do realize something.  i am reminded that this is where God has placed me.  that God has equipped me with every capacity to do what is necessary to bring up my family in His truth, enabling me to provide the most healthy home that i am physically capable of providing.  and that if i fail to meet my own expectations, it is okay, because God's grace will never fail me. 

in the end, i just wanted to remind you, in the case that you haven't met me, that i am broken and imperfect. but for all of us that are, isn't it good to know that there's always room to grow and grace to give you rest?

coupons :: are totally worth the trouble

so i've been doing this little thing called couponing for the past year or so. 

it has totally changed the way i shop.  i am so grateful that i can save so much money, allowing me to spend as much time as possible at home with my babies.

this is not the best deal out there...but today, at our local grocery store, i bought all of this:

7 boxes of cheerios
4 bags of chex mix
16 boxes of green giant frozen veggies
4 boxes of betty crocker cake mix
5 cans of betty crocker frosting
2 bags of gold medal flour
4 packs of pillsbury refrigerated cookies
2 boxes of go-gurt
1 bag of red potatoes
6 boxes of betty crocker brownie mix

for a GRAND TOTAL of... ~$7.00

i have found, that yes, it takes a lot of work to gather all your coupons and figure which transactions you want to do when.  but that, "high" of post-couponing in combination with the money saved, is totally worth it. 

without coupons or a preferred card, i would have spent well over $100.

here are my go to sites for couponing:
www.mashupmom.com
www.jillcataldo.com
www.thriftynorthwestmom.com

fellow couponers, please let me know if you have any other sites that are good to go to.

that's mine :: an easy way to label kid's bottles

once a week, d needs lunch at school and e needs lunch and a sippy cup.  which means i need to provide three cups in one day.  whenever anything is sent to school, it needs to be labeled, or i might as well just say good-bye to 'em.

i saw those fancy drink bottle labels in the back of my parent's magazine and thought, genius.

but i never bought it.

i just made a poor man's version, and i'm going to share it with you, in case you want to save a few pennies too!

materials:
thick rubberband {usually found wrapped around broccoli florets or the like}
permanent marker

wrap the rubber-band around the bottle, inside out, so that the PLU code is not seen.  and write your child's name.

that's it!  you can go ahead and wash the bottle with the rubber-band on, or take it off as you please.  i haven't tested it in the dishwasher, but if you have, let me know how it goes!

you can also use those thick "live strong" like bracelets too.  turn them inside out and write on the plain side.  this i have dish-washed, i recommend removing the bracelets before sticking into the dishwasher, or else the marker fades.

for the following example, i have used both sides of the bracelet, one child's name is on the inside, and the other child's name is on the outside.   you never know when that will come in handy.

hopefully, with these labels, now you'll know whose is whose.

wisdom teeth :: without them, you're kinda silly

f had all four of his wisdom teeth pulled = knocked out for the process = loopy behavior.

i had to take d to preschool, and pick up something while he was in surgery.  so our neighbor was gracious enough to drop f off to the oral surgeon.  f texted to let me know that i could pick him up.

the following are his texts i received, one right after the other.

"i can be pick up now"

"pick me up please"

"i eat cold oatmeal
all day long.
it better
Be goods"

upon getting him, f was trying to act put together, but he was acting a bit goofier than normal.  he tried to do all of these drunk driver tests, like walking along a line, which he was determined to do...it took him a while, with both arms stretched out wide.  he pointed his finger outwards and then touched his nose, followed by his response, "BAM!  See, I'm fine!". 

he was acting pretty goofy until the drugs wore off and pain set in.  :(  it was pretty funny while it lasted. 

those youtube videos of "post anaesthesia" dental visits are hilarious.  anyone else have a funny post dental visit story to share?

family feud :: is funnier with steve harvey

last night, i was doing some work on the computer and then i hear laughter...the kind of laughter that you want a dose of.  it was my hubs.  sitting in bed, tears in his eyes, as he's trying to stay focused on the youtube video on his little phone.

i had to see what was so funny.  and i do admit, i had a laugh too, not as much as my man, but it was nice to experience some good clean laughter.

i have always enjoyed watching the kings of comedy...steve harvey's facial expressions are priceless.  he was a very wise choice to amp the volume up on an already fun game show.

i especially liked this one

after watching these, i then started the conversation with f about who would be in my family for the feud.  so i said, "oh, i'd choose anny, even though she's not part of our family, she's a lee, no one would know."  my friend anny is the master of game shows.  *sigh*  being on family feud would be so much fun. 

fun.

handwriting :: a trick to train little hands around letters

d is at the ripe age of emergent reading and writing.  it is marvelous to witness, and i find myself experience the same awe as i had when she started to talk in real sentences.  

to encourage her ability to write letters, i bought this poster at the local teacher's store for $1.50, i also laminated it, knowing that grubby hands were going to be all over it.

then my neighbor shared with me some methods in letter writing that she used in her former first grade classroom.  so the wheels in my clunky brain started to whirl.

i grabbed some puffy paint.


and traced each letter very carefully...good thing i laminated the poster, bc cleaning mistakes with wet paint were a cinch to wipe away.

waited overnight to dry, hung at a kid friendly height on the wall, and viola!

this morning discovery was a hit with both kids...and continues to be!

this little finger used to be so much chubbier...*sigh*

while d is tracing the letters, i try to make sure that she follows the number order labeled on the poster.  then, it become like a game for her. 

well, there you have it!  a helpful tool to stimulate proper handwriting with the little guys.  hope this comes in handy for you and your home. 

seeing appah, even when he's gone :: facetime

appah was out of town on business.  all the way in boston...man, how i wish we could have joined him.  boston must be so beautiful at this time of year.

the kids didn't realize appah was gone, until it got dark, and there was no other face to play with than mom's.  we took full advantage of the facetime feature on our iphone 4's.  and boy, did the kids get a kick out of it!

at one point, appah was really making all three of us laugh.  he was making funny faces and pretending he was slipping on and off the screen.  funny.  {if you don't know by now, i am easily amused}

what appah saw on his screen.

what we saw on our screen

another cool feature is the ability to flip the view, there are two lenses on the phone, so flipping the view allows the user to use the lens on the back of the phone.  by doing this, appah was able to show us what his hotel room was like, and still see our reactions on the screen.  hard to explain...but this helped the kids a lot, just knowing where appah was and where he was staying {and the goodies he accumulated}.

at some points of our conversation, i felt like we were in an iphone commercial.  seriously, it was so cute, it was almost gross.

speaking of iphone commercials, fred's cousin was the star in a korean one.  we love our caros, she is such a beautiful person inside and out.  we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw her in the commercial.  she's so good, i started to believe she was a mother and wife, and i completely missed her wedding and birth story.  :)

needless to say, i highly recommend getting the iphone4.  if you have any older version of the iphone, you can easily sell it on ebay.  we sold my 3GS and appah's 3 at a profit!!!  we also sold my OLD first generation phone!  so sell it on ebay and use the money to get the 4! :) 

pesky puzzles :: a storage solution for puzzles

my kids are into puzzles.  i really dislike that the puzzles come in boxes that are way too big for the pieces that hold them.  in my little two bedroom condo, i need to maximize storage in any way that i can.  that is why i use the following method to store our puzzles.  i don't know where i picked it up, but i used this puzzle storage method in my classrooms when i taught...so it's been a while.

for this example, i will use a recent garage sale find.

materials necessary :: zipper baggie and scissors {i have found that for the smaller puzzles, the 1 quart freezer bags work best}

cut the face of the box lid off of the box

put all of the puzzle pieces into the baggie and position the cut lid cover over the pieces, so that the puzzle picture can be seen clearly through the baggie.

close the baggie, and store in a box of other puzzle baggies for easy puzzle access. 

there you have it, an easy way to reference your puzzles, without taking up a lot of space.  i have found that it is also an easy way for little hands to clean the puzzles up when they are finished.  to make it even better for little guys the sliding zipper bags are a better bet.  however, this is what i had on hand, so i didn't bother with getting another kind of baggie.