Need a Pretty Project?

My friend, Missy, did a blog post about the owl shirt and paired it with an adorable tulle skirt. I've seen these around and in boutiques and always thought it was something I could probably figure out and not pay boutique prices for it.

Turns out, pretty easy! Basically ruffle two long, 3-inch wide layers of tulle together, make a tiered skirt out of the same color, and top stitch the ruffled tulle right on the seams of the skirt. Find the much more detailed tutorial here.

I always buy more fabric than I end up needing and bought twice as much tulle as I needed. But then the girls had two birthday parties last week, so I sewed up a few more, threw in a crocheted flower clip, and we were good to go. All four skirts cost me less than $20. The tutorial calls for at least 2 yards of tulle per skirt but I only needed a little over one. Maybe I was making smaller skirts. But I say get yourself a bunch (it's cheap) and make a few extra for the little girlies in your life.

These pictures don't make it seem as frilly as they actually are. Trust me, these babies are twirl-able fun!

Oh, Love

That boy is sure outnumbered, isn't he? Happy Valentines from J and all his Pace girls.

Fairness

It happened. We wore right through our pajamas this week. I am a baby when I'm sick. Really, pathetic.

I've been making a conscious effort to spend better time with my kids, not just give them an activity to keep them out of my hair. I feel I've been defending my stay-at-home mom role a lot lately. Sometimes to myself. So I thought--ok, I've made the sacrifice, I've made the decision. Might as well not do it halfhearted (well, actually, I thought of a different word, but I won't put it).

Plus, I've been concerned about Abbey's sassiness lately. The problem is that the things she says are taken straight out of my mouth--it sounds so disrespectful coming from her. We're just getting in some bad cycles. So I called my old friend, Andy. I learned so much about life and parenting from him and Heather and he happens to know a thing or two about family dynamics.

He recommended 'Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child' by John Gottman. I'm not too far in, but I laughed to myself at this part:

"Behavioral psychologists have observed that preschoolers typically demand that their caretakers deal with some kind of need or desire at an average rate of three times a minute."

I think that's high for my kids, you know...they sleep sometimes. But I do know Abbey is more receptive to my discipline if her cup is full. In fact, she hardly needs much discipline if I've been filling that cup with praise and attention during the day.

So still trying to figure it out. Finding that balance of taking care of myself and doing right by my kids. Always working on balance. I hope if I err, I tend more to their side.

Not Lookin' Pretty

I am so pathetic today. And frustrated. And sick. I haven't been this sick in a long time.

I need to get fingerprinted for the IRS. My local PD won't do it, the people they referred me to told me (when they finally called back five days later) the IRS insists on 'ink' ones and my police department would have to do it. Local PD said they simply don't do it anymore and referred me to the Country Sheriff whose phone lines disconnect you every time you choose an option in their endless phone menu. I'm considering committing a petty crime so I can get this done and start my tax season, I'm already feeling that April deadline and my time ticking away.

Thought I'd do a little blog post about preschool this week but when I went to pull pictures off my camera, it repeatedly told me the memory card had an error. After looking through the pictures over and over, I finally decided to just reformat the card and lose everything that was on there. Turns out...the card's not the problem. The card reader probably is.

So I'm going to go play with my kids and forget the rest of the world for today. If you need me, I'll be lost in a land of doll houses and princesses.