Update Part 3--Yes I've Been Sewing, Too!

As if I haven't had anything else to do, I have been doing a bit of sewing as well. My main project was to make a Cooper the dog costume for my teacher assistant's Vacation Bible School this year. Now you may be thinking of a costume similar to the ones that people make for halloween. NOPE this a full fledged dog costume complete with foam head!

This is what it is supposed to look like:

Now then, I will say it looks almost exactly like this. Although this pattern company is NUTS if they think that this pattern will fit (as cut and sewn according to directions) a man 6"2" and up to 225 lbs. NO WAY!!! It fits the person that will be wearing it perfectly and he is only 5'9"--my daughter's beau (standing at 6') was barely able to move in it! And the sleeves and legs were to short on him. But anyway, here are the pics of what my finished product looks like.

By the way, does anyone recognize the quilt that is behind Cooper's head? That is the beautiful batik quilt (y'all remember the "Ugly Quilt") I won! At the moment I have it over the windows in my temporary sewing room to try to keep some of the heat out of the room. The room is on the southwest side of the house and in South Mississippi that means that it is the hottest side of the house in the afternoons and evenings! With the extra insulation (otherwise known as batting) in it, I have been much cooler while sewing!

OK for the other things that I've been working on. Right before school got out one of the waitresses at our favorite Sunday breakfast spot (Denny's in Ocean Springs) asked me if I could make a skirt and blouse for her daughter for a performance she had coming up. I made a very classy looking black pencil skirt and a classic white blouse for her. I just wish I had the picture of her in it. She kept telling me that some of the others were going to look like trash compared to her because she was "gonna look gooooood." Now don't even ask me how you would put in the attitude that she had when it was said. But you can almost imagine her saying it with one of those snap your finger as it is waved across and then out to the right of you. Those of you that have teenagers or are younger than I am will know exactly what I'm talking about.

While we were in the store looking for fabric for the skirt and blouse she started looking at the pattern books. This is the pattern she chose.

She chose the view C dress for me to make for her. I knew when I started it that it would not fit her the way she was used to wearing things (you know, so tight that there is no ease in anything!) And of course I had to take several inches out of the bust area (because she doesn't want any extra room under the top band of the top). The "bow" that is on this dress is hideous. I thought that when I saw the pattern, but when she put it on it was even worse! She asked if she had to have it on there. Of course I told her -- "its your dress, so you can have it however you want it!" I still have to take several inches in length out of it (here again, youth--wants to show as much skin as possible). But I can show you what it currently looks like! It really is a cute dress. I even thought about making the view A top as a maternity top for my daughter (there really is THAT much extra fabric in the bottom of it).

I've also done a little bit of other sewing. That sewing would be for my granddaughter! My daughter, son and their Dad were going to go visit princess Kahli, so I figured I would just HAVE to make a few things to go in the box that I was filling with other things I knew she'd be needing. I made 4 onesies, bib/burp sets and 1 little sundress for her. I was going to use the Reversable A-Line that (I believe is CarlaC's) from You Can Make This. However, without having any measurements for Kahli and not having a clue as to what her actual size is, its hard to use that pattern--at least if you're trying to whip it up in a few hours before throwing it in a box to send. I did find this pattern--which is also an A-line. I wasn't going to spend the time doing all the appliques on that pattern for this particular dress, so I improvised.

This is the pattern I used and then machine embroidered the 3 Fishes design from Embroodles--Embroidery Doodles.

And this is what the finished product looked like. From what I understand, her Momma loves it. I guess that means I'll have to get my butt in gear and make a few more of them for her.

Of course, I guess you know that that wouldn't be the only thing that I would be making and sending to Gramma's Princess that I would be showing you. Here are the burps that I made to go along with the bibs. The bibs have the fabric on the bottom as the back of the bib. They have the same design embroidered on the front as they do on the front of the bibs. For extra absorbancy, there is a second layer of flannel in the middle of the pink flannel and "fashion" fabric. Enjoy! LOL

This last one shows the design on the pink flannel of the bib instead of on the burp. The back fabric of the bib and the "hem" of the burp are a blue background Winnie the Pooh and friends fabric.

These are the four onesies I made for Kahli.

The fudgecicles and creamcicles look almost good enough to eat--don't you think? The only problem I have with the onesies being for Kahli is that I'm afraid that they will no longer fit. She's getting so big so fast.

But, Hey! If they don't fit her, they can be saved for Kahli's up coming cousin! No I don't mean my new grandson due Oct. 5, I mean Kahli's Grammie Kathy is expecting their second grandbaby (a girl) on Oct. 2 from her son~ So I guess I'll be sewing for Allison and Kahli in North Carolina and Austin here! Its kind of funny that both Grammie Kathy and Gramma Shelly are both expecting their second grandchildren the same week!

Update Part 2--The Grandbabies!

Let's see now, to the second part of the update, let me me switch to talk of the grandbabies. Well technically I guess you could say I still only have one granddaughter with a grandson on the way. But in my book, that is grandbabies!

My beautiful granddaughter is now 2 1/2 months old. Can you believe it? She's already 2 1/2 months old? WOW!!! And she has been an absolute pistol to her Mommy and Daddy! They have gone through 3 different types of formula and countless days and nights of keeping them awake and bound to tending her. There have even been days that Mommy has said that she'd let her come back with Aunt Gigi, Uncle Timmy, and Paw Paw when they leave from visiting just so that they can get some much needed rest. But enough of that, I'm sure what you're waiting for is PICTURES! Am I right?

And No, I haven't been able to find a way to go see her yet. Betweeen moving in, having a house guest for 2 weeks, getting ready for my daughter and friend to move in, I have not had a chance to leave the coast. I do get occassional updates on how she's doing when I can catch her Mommy or Grammie Kathy online. Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be able to see her at Thanksgiving.

Now for word on my upcoming Grandson.

My daughter is now 27 weeks pregnant and we've been able to get some really good ultrasound pics of him. I thought the normal ultrasound pics were good. But when I saw the 4D ultrasound pics I just couldn't believe it! From what I understand these 4D pics are pretty much what the little one will look like at birth! They sure didn't have that kind of stuff when I was pregnant with her! She is finally able to keep most everything down--although she does have quite a bit of nausciousness still. But she can definitely tell when Austin is hungry or when he's had enough!

He gives her extra kicks and jabs at those times! I just sit and smile when she complains about "I have to pee AGAIN!" or "He's kicking my bladder." or other similar remarks. Then she just looks across at me and says, "I know, this is just pay back for all I did to you, right?" and I just smile!

She has been staying at her Dad's house but will be returning to live with hubby and I upon her return from visiting Kahli. She and her boyfriend (who is highly considering marrying and adopting Austin--since the biological sperm donor has made himself VERY SCARCE since he found out she was pregnant) will be moving into the house around the 20th. He is a really good kid and one that I have known for a while. He is waiting to marry her due to the fact that we'll lose the insurance on her that covers her pregnancy if he marries her earlier than delivery. But he has vowed to stay with her through thick and thin. So he can't be all bad, right?

OK OK so you want to see the pictures from the 4D and want me to stop talking. OK I will show you! Geesh, impatience! These first four were taken at the first 4D ultrasound try. Because his hands and the placenta were seemingly always inthe way, the technician asked us to come back in a week to get the remaining ones. Either way, I think that the ability to get that kind of detail is unreal when it is seeming still such a long time until we get to hold him.

These last pictures are the latest that were taken, and the end of the 4D pictures. At least in this session he was more cooperative. Although his umbilical cord wasn't. But look at those cute little smiles. Apparently the technician was tickling this time instead of just trying to jab and wake him up! Grampa got to go in for this session. I had been to the other ultrasounds, I thought he'd like to get a chance to see what his grandson was going to look like!

The Beginning of an Update!

Hello from the world of the Shell's Specialty! It seems like its been forever since I was last in the blogosphere as a regular and its high time I get back into the swing of things. Don't get me wrong, its not like I've been sitting around doing nothing--although this is the time when I should be doing exactly that! I guess its time for a recap on the goings on since we last caught up. Put on your reading glasses, get comfy and join me as I make a tour through the last month and a half of goings on!


I believe the last that I checked in was around the beginning of May. Since then the biggest thing in our lives is our moving from one house to another. I've moved around all my life--didn't have a choice as Dad was career Air Force. But I think I hate the moves that are within a town more than any other! When you move across country, everything is packed in a specific way and labeled clearly as to which room it goes in and there is a lot of organization to it. When you move across town (and in our case only 1 mile) it doesn't always turn out that way.


We started out packing in a very organized fashion. Every box was labeled with the kinds of things in the box and what room it came from or would go into in the new house. But in that 2 week period things went from "highly organized" to "let's just throw it in a box and get it out of here!" We had told our landlord we'd be out no later than Memorial Day weekend. Well we were, but OH what a mistake and I CERTAINLY wish we had not done it that way. But no crying over spilt milk now! We have boxes that we KNOW we packed and labeled--we KNOW they were moved from one house to the other; but we certainly do NOT know where they are now. It may be forever before we find exactly what we're looking for. The "main part" of our everyday lives is unpacked and mostly put into the final placements.


Noticed I said MOSTLY! Everytime I think we've just about got something figured out and know exactly where we want something---we change our mind! It was decided even before we moved that my sewing room would be in bedroom 1 and the grandbaby's room would be in bedroom 2 next to the master bedroom so that I could hear baby when DD was away at college. So everything that was to be in the sewing room went into bedroom 1. The computer desk and sewing tables were set up. My storage cabinets were mounted to the wall (we didn't want to chance baby climber trying to climb shelves and then have it topple over). I had everything "JUST where I wanted it!" Or thought I did! NOW we're moving the sewing room next to my room and baby room as the first bedroom--so that his momma can move in and stay with her son while she's still home and not off at college.


Of course the fact that we have boxes stacked on stacks in stacks, etc. in the garage that I can't seem to get to, to unpack isn't helping anything. The standard answer since June 1 for the question, "Have you seen...?" or "Do you know where ... is?" is simply "IN A BOX!" Who knows when we'll finally get to all the boxes. We have done a lot better than I thought we would by this point in time. But then, that is because we had originally said, "we're not painting anything for a year." Y'all know me well enough by now, I CAN'T do normal, or neutrals! It was killing me to see this beige, flat wall color on EVERY room of the house! I know that is what most people think is pretty, elogant, simple, stylish, etc. But to me it is BORING and MIND CRAZING!!!


Fortunately, it was driving DH just as crazy! We started with the living room. And I thought he'd lost his mind when he brought the paint sample home of what he wanted. Whew! It wasn't really what he wanted, but close. NO--No sneak peaks on that room until I finish making the drapes. Then I'll take pictures to show you the whole room!

This is the BEFORE picture of the Dining Room! Ok so we were using it as someplace to put things that wasn't on carpeting while we steam cleaned the carpets.


The second room was the dining room. I just knew we were going to go with a gold on the walls with navy blue drapes or deep red drapes. Nope that didn't happen either! What we went with is SOOOO much prettier! The picture I have here just doesn't even begin to show how pretty the color really is in the room. Obviously we don't have pictures on the wall yet--oh wait, those won't be going in here anyway! There are special plans for these walls. Here again, no hints as I want that to be a surprise for EVERYONE!




You know this is turning out harder to write than I thought! After all, there is SOOOO much to tell and show and I just can't seem to get things straight as to what to tell and show and where to stop. Maybe I should at least break this up a bit for ease on anyone trying to read it all.


That being said, I will end here and start again on another chapter. Of course, I do want to show you one of my most favorite areas of the house.