Happy Fourth of July!

We spent a quiet day at home cleaning and packing for our trip. We leave tomorrow for the beach!

Between birthday celebrations this week I finally finished a few projects. The first was this dress for Maia.


This dress is very special to me, as the fabric, buttons, and ribbon all came from my Aunt Barbara's stash. About a month ago she and my Uncle Fred came to visit my parents and they literally brought a truck load of fabric, notions, patterns, and craft supplies. I have had so much fun going through the fabric wondering what it was originally intended for. This paper doll fabric jumped out at me right away and I knew it needed to be a dress for Maia.


There weren't enough of any one kind of button for me to use, so I chose these buttons which were all the same style but in 4 different colors. Maia says she loves the buttons!


The next project I completed was one riddled with procrastination. Months ago I signed up to do a preschool activity swap. One of the activities I was assigned involved sewing 90 bean bags! As the deadline approached I began to get serious about finishing them, but then my friend who was heading up the swap got really sick and had to postpone the date. Sorry for my friend, but relieved for myself, I put the bean bags on the back burner while I started an apron for a belated birthday gift (also not finished, as I have had to do more unsewing than sewing!) Anyway, the new date for the swap was set but I decided to wait until the day before to get to them. On top of this our pastor's wife had called to see if I could sew 20 bean bags for Camp Amazon. When she found out I had the 90 looming over my head she said I didn't have to, but I really didn't mind; what's 20 more? So, I ended staying up until 1 in the morning getting them done! Of course the natural thing to do at 1:00 in the morning after completing 110 bean bags is to stack them into a pyramid and take a picture!


Today, Mark and I were in the kitchen when I looked over at the sewing machine and I was suddenly overcome with elation as I realized I didn't have sew bean bags today, or ever!

Stay tuned to see the completion of the apron sometime next week. It will be my first priority after laundry when we get back!