Holy Headbands!

I know I mentioned I’d get this little headband post up a little earlier but I’m learning more and more how tough it is to keep up a blog with two little sweet thangs sucking up all my love and attention making anything other than a Saturday post an unreachable goal at this point.  C’est la vie.  I love doing and writing but at this point, posting once a week is all I can do until the twins are a few months older.  But, enough complaining, here’s what we’re really here for:

Here’s how they went down.  First, I grabbed up the extra pillowcase fabric I had left from making the twins baptismal gowns.  Using the lid of a jar that measured about three inches in diameter, I traced a bunch of circles (eight for each headband) onto the fabric and cut them out.  I also used a quarter as a stencil to trace and cut two smaller circles to attach the elastic of the headbands to.  

Then I measured the girls heads and cut two thin pieces of elastic an inch and a half longer than their head  measurements.

Using my handy dandy hot glue gun, I glued the elastic ends to the smaller circles I cut out like so: Side note:  Make sure the elastic isn’t twisted…one of my pieces was and the glue was on and dry by the time I noticed.

Next, I grabbed a fabric circle, folded it in half and then in half again to get this little shape:

Then I glued five of the ‘petals’ around the small fabric circle and then three standing up in the middle.

Easy peasy!  I’ve got so many fabric remnants that I can’t wait to turn into headbands!  As the girls grow I can always attach new, longer pieces of elastic thereby making them cuter than buttons every time they wear them and virtually immune to any questions or comments of “are they boys?” any cray cray peeps pose…especially since pink is a fashion staple every time we go out…   

Happy Headbanding!

Twice Blessed

I don’t know if you’ve seen or heard all the hype about pillowcase dresses (making little girls dresses out of pillowcases for those that haven’t), but thanks be to whoever got that ball rollin’ because that’s where I got the inspiration for our girls baptismal gowns.  You see, right after the twins were born I was given a very old pillowcase made by my great-aunt.  My first thought was, “Pretty, but what am I going to do with one pillowcase?”.  My second thought, hours later and right before I handed it down to someone else more appreciative was, “Omgosh!  Pinterest!  Pillowcase dresses!  It’s a future set of baptismal gowns!”.  And then of course my third thought, “How the heck am I going to make them?  I’ve never made a dress in my life!”  Enter the creative genius and source of my ambition and courage, my sis Farrah.

Following is our rendition of the pillowcase dress trend.  Farrah did most of the work while I either slept or nursed, my two priorities these days, so to her I am eternally grateful.  Here we are with the oldie but goodie: My favorite part of the case was the gorgeous lace around the open end, darned entirely by my great-aunt.  I loved that fact and the special, sentimental value that would be built into the dresses.

So, since we needed to get two dresses out of one pillowcase, the first step was to fold it in half lengthwise and cut down the fold. So far, so good.  Easy-peasy.

Next we had to cut out the neckline and arm holes.  Since we didn’t have an official pattern to go by, we simply grabbed a newborn outfit with a top outline similar to what we were going for and traced it onto the fabric.  We also made sure to pin the unhemmed side of the dresses together to prevent shifting.

To make sure each side was exactly the same, we traced one arm hole…

then folded the entire piece of fabric in half lengthwise…

and cut.

Times two and we had the beginnings of what were beginning to look like dresses.

Next, we (she, Farrah) sewed the unfinished side of each dress up along with the tops of the straps and put a tiny hem around the unfinished arm and neck holes by simply folding and sewing.  We didn’t worry about folding the seams over twice, which would’ve been the “professional” thing to do, because it was hard enough to fold the seams over once making tiny hems and it would’ve required more seam allowances than we had.

All sewn!

See the teeny tiny hem?

Next up, sleeves.  I really wanted a simple ruffle instead of an actual sleeve so Farrah folded the excess pillowcase fabric to create four layers…

cut out the shape shown below, best described as a quarter of an oval, cut it out…

sewed two parallel basting stitches on the straight edge, and pulled to create these: 

Then she pinned and sewed them onto the dress.  After much deliberation (seriously, it took us forever to make up our minds), we decided to go vintage and left the edges of the sleeves raw  instead of hemming them.

So, at this point, the dresses were pretty much finished except that there was no way the twins heads would fit through the tiny head holes without some sort of additional opening.  I decided that the easiest way to add some room would be to cut a six inch slit up the back of each dress and then add some ribbon to secure them once on.  Zippers or buttons would’ve worked even better but I have yet to learn all about buttonholes and zippers still scare me…

Two cuts, 12 ribbons (blue for Mama Mary), and a sewing machine later and the dresses were finished…two days before their debut.

Here are the girls in all their angelic, peaceful, newly-minted Christian splendor…funny because the middle picture was actually taken after they acquired their sainthood whereas the two outside, angelic ones were taken before sooo, in case you were wondering, apparently just because you’re a saint doesn’t mean world peace, smiles, and happiness 24/7, it just means you now have the edifying task of making your parents saints… 

Godparents, Fr. Dan, Megan Rose, Dan, and Lauren – always inspiring us to become better, holier people.  The twins are so blessed to have them as prayer warriors and incredible examples.

 

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I’ll be back sometime this week with a little tutorial on how I made their headbands so don’t stay away long!  Until then, have a great weekend!

Fake Out

What a happy Saturday it is!  Happy here because I finally have a project to blog about…’er, rather have found time to blog about!  Here’s to hoping I can get back on my regular Saturday schedule from here on out plus maybe squeezing in more posts during the week since I’m usually confined to zee couch with one or two infants in my arms…and since my one-handed typing skillz are world class these days. 

Anyway, I’m all about covering windows.  There isn’t a window, or door for that matter, that isn’t adorned with some sort of fabric in our house except for this one: 

The one in our master bathroom.  Well, I’ve had plans to cover it for many moons but indecisiveness about fabric and the baking of two buns has left it naked…until  now.  Let me digress.  A few months ago I had an itch to switch out our plain white duvet cover for something more flavorful but, like usual, didn’t want to spend a ton of money…as in no more than 20 bucks.  Well, I found a new cover but when I got it home, I realized I had bought the wrong size and unfortunately for me, I bought it at a huge discount - $10 – at final sale.  Poo.  So, I did what I do best and conjured up another use for it… A decorative blanket/quilt/extra layer on the end of our bed.  Still unable to find a suitable fabric for the master bathroom window at this point, I had a revelation soon after to use the included pillow shams to cover it up. 

The plan:  to make a fake roman shade (similar to this one in our guest bedroom).  To do first:  take apart the two pillowcases.  At eight months pregnant, at which point I began this project, laziness efficiency took over and I simply just cut off the backs of each case (since they wouldn’t be seen anyway), took the seams out of the sides that would be sewn together, and made them one.

To achieve a roman shade look, I hand sewed 12 plastic rings onto the backside of the shade in three vertical rows that were evenly spaced apart and then gathered each row together using another plastic ring that opened.  Hopefully these pictures help explain that mumbo jumbo: 

So, fast forward to this past week during a 15 minute slot when both twins were passed out.  As quickly and quietly as we could, we stapled the new shade to a pre-cut piece of 1 x 2 wood, attached two L brackets to the underside of the wood, decided on and measured its placement over the window (see side note below), and got ‘er up.

Side note:  While planning for the valances we hung in our dining area, I came up with a simple way to figure out the height at which to hang window treatments by holding up a folded piece of paper at a distance, adjusting until I was satisfied, like so:

Once again, I’ve learned to never underestimate the power of a window treatment.  See what a difference this one makes?

So, if anyone’s keeping track of the DIY madness, so far we’ve tiled the floors, painted the cabinets, painted the laminate countertop, and stenciled a wall in here.  Even though, in my mind, the room isn’t yet “finished” (will it ever be?), it definitely looks a lot more complete and homey (if you can call a bathroom that) just because of a little (cheap) addition over the once naked window.  :)   

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Stay tuned for more finished projects!  The girls were baptized a couple of weeks ago and my sister and I made their gowns and accessories and then of course, I’ve got finished pictures of our “new” kitchen to share as it’s finally done along with progress pics of the nursery!  See you soon! 

2 vs. 1

Home alone with the duplicates this eve and I say, “If you can’t beat ‘em, film ‘em”.

IV Magic, Tremors, and Paranoia

*In case you missed the rest of this story, read part 1, part 2, and part 3.*  

Sorry about the wait…a couple of days turned into a week plus.  But I’m back, running on almost five hours of sleep, and going to finish the last details of this birth story once and for all.

So, the twins were born, joy and tears abounded (along with stitches and pain meds…a scary place to which I will not wander), and it was finally time to go to our own room.  Completely unlike the room we were placed in while I was induced and starting labor, our new room was complete with a flat screen TV, a beaut of a bathroom, and lots of space to spread out…or in our case, to store two brand new babes.  I don’t remember much about the couple of hours after the twins were born.  I was probably mesmerized by them and since I couldn’t yet feel my lower half, I had nothing to do but stare at them.  Speaking of feeling my lower half, remember that higher dosage of epidural magic I was given?  Feeling not a thing during labor became feeling not a thing until six hours after the potion was needed.  Aaandd, that’s not all.  It gave me the shakes unlike anyone naked in Antartica has ever seen before and stole from me anything and everything I had eaten and gave it to the trash can held by my adoring, but slightly grossed out hubs.  It was marvelous.  The one bathroom trip I had whilst hanging on to two poor nurses ended in an almost black-out and the wonderful visitors we had were probably scarred as I tried so hard to relax and keep still, clenching my hands together thinking one shaking extremity could hold still the other shaking one.  Never have I ever been phased by anesthesia but this anesthesia packed quite the punch and really made me question the value of an epidural for future, pain-free births.  By late that wonderful night, all side effects had subsided and on came the new challenge – taking care of not one, but two, sweet, little needlings.

I mean, how hard could it possibly be?  I’ve been babysitting for something like 15 years and consider taking care of kids pretty simple.  Yes, I knew sleep would evade me and breastfeeding and changing diapers would become things I could do with my eyes closed but I really thought beyond that, how hard could loving on my two angels be?  I will tell you…I have never, ever been a paranoid person in my entire life, especially when it comes to kids.  That all changed the ninth of July.  I know for a fact that if I didn’t have a little red button attached to my bed that instantly brought me a nurse, I’d be sitting in a psych ward somewhere.  Multiple times Seraphia started gagging on pesky, leftover mucous from birth and I thought for sure we’d have lost her if it wasn’t for a heroic lady in blue coming to our aid (one who then went on to pet our beginner parenting woes by telling us about the incredible ability newborns have of keeping their airways open).  Needless to say, we chickened out both nights we were in the hospital and had the twins sent to the nursery for fear we’d do something wrong or not do something we were supposed to.  By the time Wednesday rolled around and it was time to head on home, we were petrified and almost begged our nurses to let us stay just one more day.  But, sooner than we both knew it, Anthony was behind the wheel of the Twinmobile and I was in the back seat, nicely jammed between the two, now occupied car seats (I had to keep an eye on them in case something happened), and profusely leaking tears of both joy and absolute terror the entire way home.  Ten minutes later, home we were where the first thing we did was set the twins on the kitchen table and hold each other, me still crying of course, seemingly so unprepared for the future. 

Five bittersweet weeks later all four of us are alive and well, family members have been in and out, sleep has been playing hide-and-seek, and the twins are growing – Cecilia still only eight pounds and Seraphia seven – each having gained a pound in two weeks!  We’ve finally come to the conclusion that the only way the twins will sleep more than an hour at a time (and us too!) during the night is in their swings next to our bed after trying and failing at several ways to get some shut-eye – swaddled and laid in a co-sleeper (fail – they hate their arms being restricted and therefore hit and kick each other within the small confines of the co-sleeper),  moving a crib into our room (fail - for some undetermined reason they manage five minutes of sleep before wailing), and several jerry-rigged options involving blankets and boppy pillows.  Five hours of sleep any given night has become a luxury and by the grace of God, Anthony and I have felt semi-rested each day.  Awesome because I distinctly remember sitting on the hospital bed shortly before we headed home with the twins while Anthony was out loading the car and knowing things were going to be okay…crazy, but okay.  During those few moments as I sat staring at our miracles barely filling out their car seats, the song “Be Not Afraid” popped into my head and I started singing it aloud to the girls and soaking up the words:  “Be not afraid.  I go before you always.  Come follow me, and I will give you REST”!  At the time, I took it as God’s way of telling me to trust in Him and all would be well but since then, I’ve also realized He was letting me know He’d help me out in the sleep area too and that He has.

As for the twins birth and the thoughts and events surrounding it I could write forever but then I’d clue you all in on how crazy my mind really is.  :)  I’m sure I’ll have plenty of stories to share in the coming months but now I must be getting back to my passion – DIY.  I’ve managed to squeeze in a few projects during my waking hours that I simply must share and I simply must get back to my regular Saturday posts…crossing my fingers for this Saturday.  Also, my savvy sis Farrah and I have a plan up our thrifty sleeves to start a monthly link-up party soon so stay tuned for that.  Fun will abound. 

Peace, love, and joy until we meet again!  Adios!