Hope Handmade

Probably most everyone has seen me post this on facebook, but I just wanted to share it here too! When I was working on designing my new Hope Handmade website, and thinking about how I wanted a little house on there somewhere to represent the one from my outfit (above), I never dreamed that I could actually have THE house designed for me!

It was so amazing how God worked out that detail, because the opportunity literally just kind of fell into my lap! Lynnette just mentioned that Abigail had a graphic tablet and then the next thing I knew, she was designing my little house for me! And she even made me all different sizes of logos too! It was more than I ever could have dreamed, to have my very own unique logo with so much special meaning!

I would be SO excited, honored, overjoyed, thankful, and just so happy if you would like to put my new button on your blog! My Summer Suzette website will be gone soon, so if you would replace that button with this new one, that would be awesome!!



<center><a href="http://www.hopehandmade.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l538/HopeHandmade/housebutton200.png" /></a></center>

I just am so amazed at Abigail's talent. She designed Summer Suzette Couture for me and now she has made this perfect design for Hope Handmade that is just everything I could've ever hoped for! I can't wait until my store is full of sweet little dolls! I've been working on them and I'm oh so close to finishing my pattern! I hope everyone likes them!

Laughing Until You Cry!

Tonight, Morgan and I were watching a show and it had a funny part and Morgan started laughing so hard, which made me laugh so hard that I was literally crying! :D And then, I was adding "rolaids" to my iphone notes, which I was using to write my shopping list and it did the auto-correct feature and thought I was trying to write "Yolanda"........that had me laughing so hard that it took me about 5 minutes before I could even tell Morgan what it said.

Don't you just love laughing so hard that you cry?!! And the funniest thing is that it was not really funny at all. LOL!! It was one of those "you had to be there and be Kristin" to find it funny. Haha!

Anyhoo.........I felt like I was productive today because I paid my business taxes and canceled my sales tax permit. This week, I need to get my new DBA, sales tax permit, and post office box. I'm excited to sit down and make my new dolly pattern, but a little scared too. What if it doesn't turn out right or it takes me forever to get it right?! That is the perfectionist in me, my own worst enemy!

I started reading Ann Voskamp's new book tonight. It is really good. You can join in too. The bloom book club has picked it for their newest selection. I downloaded it on my nook. I was so excited that it was available on there! I am also reading "Lies Women Believe" that Kelly is doing over at her blog. I need to catch up on reading it, but it's going to be a good one too. And I'm in the middle of Candace Cameron Bure's new book about fitness from a Christian perspective. I also got Dan Woolley's new book, about being trapped in the Haiti earthquake, from Walmart and started reading it. Looks like my reading for 2011 is getting off to a good start!

My New Business Name!

I just wanted to say thank you SO much for all of your sweet and encouraging comments on my last post. I am so incredibly blessed to have met so many wonderful friends here on this blog! I love y'all so much!!

Out of the ugliness, exciting things are happening! God is always faithful to bring beauty out of what others intended for harm. Kate left me a comment yesterday and her suggestion for my new business name was "Hope Handmade." It's so funny too, because I kept thinking about "hope" and I thought maybe I should just name my shop "Hope Unfolding", but that just didn't seem quite right. I also had been thinking about using "handmade" in my name too..........but, I never put the two together! Ha!

By the time I got done replying to Kate's comment, I just knew that was the name! I love it!!! It goes along with my blog, so I won't have to start a separate business blog. It has special meaning to me and it also goes along with my very favorite bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

I was mostly just SO overjoyed because the night before, I had specifically been praying for the Lord to just help me find the perfect name. And Kate said that it must have been God, because that name just popped into her head. Love it! Best of all, the url was available! Every name I had thought of before was already taken.

So, I now own www.hopehandmade.com and it will take you straight to my Big Cartel shop that I set up! Y'all will laugh when you see my shop.....it's so plain and boring! But, I bought Photoshop Elements and I'm determined to learn how to use it so I can make me a pretty header for my shop! I opted not to set up a website like I had for my other store, because it just seemed like having a big cartel shop would be much easier and would have all the same features, and I will be able to change the design easier, instead of having to hire a web designer every time.

I know I always put the cart before the horse on these kinds of things. I haven't even designed my products yet, but I hope to have an awesome empty shop soon! Haha! I still need to go get my DBA (doing business as) from the county and a new sales tax permit. Yes, this will be a legit business just like Summer Suzette Couture always was. :)

I'm just really excited, mostly because of the way it all worked out! God is amazing!!

I also wanted to wish Veronica, Amanda, and Stephanie the best weekend of their lives! Amanda and Stephanie traveled to CA today to visit Veronica! I sure wish I could have gone! I am just not to the point where I can fly across the country yet, but I'm not giving up hope that we WILL meet one day!! I know the girls are going to have a blast and I can't wait to hear all about it!

My First Gussy and my Birth Mom Decision

I was SO excited this week, when I found a package from my BFF Veronica on my porch, and inside was my very first Gussy!!!! As Gussy says, "Yeow!!"

If you know who Gussy is, you know why I am SO excited! If you don't know who Gussy is, get over there to her blog and meet her!! She truly inspires me, as a handmade business owner.

Veronica first asked me if I had been to her blog several months ago and I stayed up way late reading it. What I love most about her is that she loves to support handmade businesses and she loves to give advice on what has worked for her.
So, this was just such an awesome gift to get in the mail! Gussy is just so inspiring, and super fun, and a great blog to read!

On a different note, the past few days I have been under attack. When I got Ver's package, it was actually a bright spot in my day, a much needed one! Y'all know I advocate for adoption and I believe it is one of the most beautiful things. I still believe that. However, it is not always a fairytale. I debated on whether to even talk about it, but I think it's important to keep it real on here. I have been getting the ugliest, nastiest, most vile and vulgar text messages on my phone from my birth mother. Messages that I literally had trouble reading because they used words that I won't even repeat. Seriously. It came completely out of the blue and without provocation. Y'all know I have always had nothing but a kind heart toward her, and have never hated her for her choice. I have always been incredibly grateful for being given up for adoption!

So, when I got the first message, telling me how I needed to forgive her and stop hating her, I promptly let her know that I have never hated her and I am so glad that she made that decision. Well, I won't go into further details, but it just made me realize how God has been looking out for me my whole life. He took this sick, malnourished infant, that surely would have died without proper medical care and he placed me in the hands of my Aunt Barbara, who knew that I needed a family and a home. You all know the rest of the story, that I was given to my parents (blood relatives) and raised with nothing but love. I just never really knew the extent of how important it was that God placed me in a family that could shelter me (emotionally) from everyone and give me hope and a future.

I was shocked to be so attacked by someone that you all know I would have given a chance. But, she is not mentally stable and she is blaming me for the fact that I was given up for adoption. I was an infant! I have never been spoken to by anyone in that way ever in my life. I will not apologize for the fact that I loved my Mom, Dana (my adopted mom), dearly with all of my heart. You would think that my birth mom would be thankful that I had such a wonderful life, but she is actually mad that I did and she didn't.

Literally, the only contact I have ever had in my life with her is once at a funeral and that one visit at Aunt Barbara's. So, she does not know me and I do not know her. I used to wonder if I might feel guilty later in life for not getting to know her better. Now, I actually have no desire to ever speak to her again. I will never wonder if I should have gotten to know her or feel guilty for not. I forgive her for her ugliness.......I know that was just an attack from the devil to try and cause me pain. But, I would be too fearful to ever speak with her again and I will have to change my number if her harassment continues.

It is a really odd position that I never expected to be in. I have never been one to hold grudges, but for my own safety, I cannot and will not speak with her again. Today, as I prayed to God to erase the thoughts of those messages from my mind, I clicked over to Amy's blog and her post was exactly what I needed to read. I love when God does that, when He speaks to us through other believers. It's almost like a direct response to my prayer! Then, my Aunt Barbara called just to check in with me and see how I was doing. Aunt Barbara is my birth mom's sister. Their mom, my grandmother, was also over there to offer her support.

I certainly am not writing this to bash on my birth mother. I just think I would not be keeping my adoption story honest if I pretended that it turned out all fairytales and roses. I have also always known that God has been holding me in the palm of His hand my entire life, but it just made me realize the extent of how amazingly He brought every detail together to give me the best life possible. It just makes me that much more thankful that I grew up with such loving parents, that most of all taught me to trust in Him. It also makes me realize how differently it could have all turned out. I don't know what kind of person I would be today, if it had. It truly is one of those things that will have me praising God for as long as I live (even though I would have anyways!). The one thing I will ask is that you might say a prayer for my birth mom, for her to be released from the torment that the enemy clearly has over her.

I have thought very hard about this decision and I have decided to change my business name. Most of you know that Summer Suzette was my birth name. I originally decided to use it because I thought it was cute and when asked, I could bring adoption awareness to others by explaning the meaning behind it. Unfortunately, this whole thing has tainted that name for me and I can no longer be proud to use it. It makes me feel like I am bringing honor to my birth mom and dishonor to my real mom. I haven't decided what to change it to, but I am certainly open to suggestions! I would love a shorter name (two words max) that is cute and goes along with the handmade dolls that I plan to make. Maybe I can take a poll on here once I have it narrowed down to a few. That would be fun!

I just feel like this year is a year of changes, positive ones that I am looking forward to!

My, How They've Grown!

My friend, Becca, was doing a recap of 2010 on her blog and I thought that it would be fun to look back and see what happened. But, when I was looking at old pics, I realized just how much my girls have changed this past year, especially Madison!

Lily's starting to lose her baby face :( and her hair really grew a lot this year!
Kaylee's face really changed too and her bangs finally grew out.
But, oh my goodness, look how much Madison changed! It's like she went from a little girl into a young lady! Her hair really grew this past year too and she has gotten so much taller. Her foot has also officially surpassed mine......her shoes are now too big for me! Ha!
I realized I just don't have time to go back over all the things we did this past year, but what I do know is that 2011 is sure to be a year of big changes for us! Just a few things that will be happening next year:

Morgan will be going back to school.
We will be building a new house and moving.
Lily will start Kindergarten.....yikes! And dance too. :)

What will I do with all that free time during the day when all three girls are in school?! I have been thinking so much about my business and I have decided that I just cannot let it go. It is my dream to make it a successful business the way that Gussy has made hers. If you don't know about Gussy yet, you must go read her blog! She is so inspiring!! She quit her day job in order to sew, and I hope to make my business my day job once the girls are all in school.

I have thought a lot about what I want to focus on, because there are so many things I like to make. I'm going to work on some different things that I have in mind, but I would love to hear your opinion on what you would buy handmade. My heart is really set on getting back to perfecting my dolly pattern and focusing on that. I think it's one of the most unique things I could make and I have always loved dolls so much. What do you think?

I think I'll come back tomorrow and revisit my resolutions I made for 2010 and see if I actually met any of them......and maybe make a few for this next year!

A Letter, A Divine Burden, and Band!

I've been meaning to post about this for awhile. One day, I was gone shopping and I came home and found this letter:
Evidently, the cotton ball on Lily's poodle skirt I had made her fell off. I just thought it was hilarious that Madison wrote me a letter and put in on my sewing table, along with the skirt. LOL!! I just wanted to make sure and post about it, so I can look back on it. Kids are so funny!

I have SO much to do this week, but I am tired!! LOL!! Luckily, we have no more dance this year and the girls don't really have any homework this week. I still have teacher gifts to make and goody bags to make and someone at Madison's school had a bright idea to have them wear "colonial style" clothing to school on Wednesday for Colonial Day...........right here before Christmas! I really have tons to do and going around trying to figure out what kind of skirts they wore during colonial times was not exactly what I had on my agenda. Ha!! I always try to look at the bright side though, and so I thought this will give me a great reason to shop at our pregnancy center resale shop.....so really it will be a chance to make a donation by purchasing a skirt there. Let's pray they have some kind of long colonial skirt. :D

This year, our church has some members who are going to be traveling into Mexico for Christmas, so we are donating lots of things so that they can drop them off at Lily of the Valley orphanage in Chihuahua, Mexico. I was so excited, because one of my resolutions this year was to figure out my "divine burden". Your divine burden is what God has given you a passion for, what breaks your heart, what He has placed upon your heart and called you to care about. Well, my divine burden is the orphans/adoption, so to find out about this opportunity was just like a huge blessing! I went shopping today and I had to stop myself several times from just crying in the middle of the hair goodies aisle at Target. I was just looking at all the pretty things and picturing a little girl putting them in her hair, and hoping and praying that she will know that she is loved and that someone here in Texas cares about her.......that Jesus loves and cares about her. It just made me realize how much I take for granted. Every day I hurry through brushing and fixing my little girls' hair, putting pretty bows and clips in them, hugging them and giving them a kiss and telling them to have a great day. How many sweet little girls don't have that? Oh, it breaks my heart.

I have thought a lot about my business, Summer Suzette Couture, and I have decided to shut it down for awhile. I'm donating the remaining things to the orphanage. I just do not have any time at all right now to focus on it and you just can't run a successful business when you don't have time to devote to it. I may open it up again in a few months, if I can streamline my products into things that aren't quite so time-consuming.

Today, Kaylee came home with a letter saying that she was being invited to be in the new primary school band! Evidently, her music teacher was awarded a grant for this project and they are going to practice on Mondays (our one free evening.....thank goodness it didn't conflict with her dance!) and will be learning to read music and focusing on mainly percussion instruments. Doesn't that sound so neat?! They've never had this before, so I am honored that Kaylee was chosen. She is really coming into her own and blossoming with her own unique talents. I love that!

Whew! Busy, busy, busy............and lovin' it!

Baby Shower Fun!

Friday night, I stayed up late finishing up the decorating on my diaper cake and I was so excited that it came out okay! LOL!

One secret I found out........well, maybe everyone else already knows this but I didn't, was to use velcro to make the diaper cake stay on the platter. This was my first one to make and I never could find any tips on how to attach it to the cake board thing, so I was just going to take some sticky velcro, put some on the board and some on the diapers and latch them together. But, by accident I put the rough part of the velcro on the board and when I sat the diapers on there, they automatically stuck to it, without using the soft part of the velcro. I guess that makes sense, since that's how the diaper tabs work to keep the diapers closed. Ha! So, if you ever need to make one, just put the rough side of the velcro on the cake board and when you sit the stack of diapers on there, they will automatically catch and not come loose.

The whole idea was that I wanted to make sure that all of the diapers would be useable once they took it home, so I didn't want to use hot glue on them. I attached the other layers to the one beneath them by using clear jewelry stretchy cord that I already had and then you couldn't see it since I was using the green shredded paper as grass. For the giraffe, I actually stitched him to the diapers with thread. All they will have to do is snip the thread and he should pull right off. I didn't want him coming off on the ride there! LOL!
I got these cute wooden animals at Hobby Lobby. The theme we were doing for the shower was these colorful animals.
I hung the monkey facing out because I thought he looked cute like that!
Here's the expecting couple. They work for one of our church members, who owns a jiu-jitsu place, which is where we had the shower. This was a very emotional and special time for us ladies as a church. This couple has really no family, and are also in the process of adopting her baby sister who was placed in foster care. She is 7 mos. old. So, she was going to give herself a shower and when we found out about this, we said we wanted to do her shower. What an honor and privilege to be able to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to shower this couple with love. They were blown away, as were we, with all of the things that everyone brought and how everyone chipped in to make this such a special day. It was amazing!! And I personally had a blast making things for it!!! It is true that when you do things for others, you are blessed so much more in return.
The reason I made the shirts is because we wanted to hang them up for decoration. It turned out looking so cute, huh?!
The diaper cake and some cute letters that my friend Amy painted.
I had some extra animals that I didn't use for the diaper cake, so we put them out for decoration.
Here's part of my gift. Don't you love the little guitar outfit? I love rock star stuff for little boys!
We didn't get to go to church today because Lily got that croupy cough last night and I ended up holding her and rocking her until around 2am, just so she could breathe better. Of course, she feels fine today but still has a cough. That kind of thing always seems to get bad at night.

Well, this week I have to make Kaylee a dinosaur costume. Wish me luck on that! LOL!!!

On a Mission!

I've been busy this week getting ready for a baby shower that us church friends are giving tomorrow. I made this burp cloth and onesie, some other onesies, and I'm about to see if I can manage to make a diaper cake. Wish me luck! Ha!
Yesterday, Kaylee had picture day at school. She decided to wear pigtails!
So cute!
In other news, I'm so proud of Zach's Mommy, Malena! You remember I raised money for Zach with my "notecards for Zach", when he was born with CMV and spent the first few months of his life in the NICU at TX Children's. CMV is cytomegalovirus, and any woman can get it. It's just a virus and it makes you feel really tired. Well, doctors don't test for it and most women don't even know they've had it. Malena is trying to raise awareness of CMV so that other pregnant mommies won't have to see their babies be born in such critical condition as Zach was. Truly, it is a miracle that Zach survived. Well, Malena has been on a mission to raise awareness of this and today, she is being interviewed by a local Houston news station! I am so proud of her!!

Oh, this is my 555th post!! Wow!!!

Great Week!

Despite Lily having a horrible cough and missing the whole week of school this week, it was a great week! She didn't feel bad, she just had this yucky cough that wouldn't go away. She's much better now though!

This week, I got my coffee for free at Starbucks twice and I won a $10 gift card to Starbucks over at Mimi's blog! Now, if you know me, you know that makes for a GREAT week!

Every now and then, I'll click over to read Exemplify Online. I heard about it on Lauren's blog and they have some great articles. This month's issue was a really great one! I especially could relate to this article, about how hard it can be for an introvert to make friends, especially later in life. When I was in high school and college, I already had friends and we saw each other all the time, so it didn't require much effort. When I worked, same thing.....we were together every single day, so friendship naturally just happened. But now that I'm a SAHM, making friends requires intentional effort on my part and honestly, it can be so overwhelming to me. My insecurities come out and it's just easier for me to hide out in the house and talk to y'all.

I started making some headbands this week for Summer Suzette Couture and I really had fun making them!
This weekend is our Grand Opening for our church. All of the construction details of our new building have been completed and now we are going to begin the process of "building the church." Not the physical church, but the people part! It has been 2 years since they held their first meeting at a local high school. Then Hurricane Ike came and kind of set them back a few months, but here we are! We are hosting Comedysportz tonight at our church. It's just a fun comedy group that performs and is an improv style. I think it will be so much fun! They've already reached capacity and had to bring in more chairs than what we have. Yay!

I feel like, when I hear the story of how our Pastor felt called to start this church, and how he gave up everything to do so.....well, it's like one of those stories you can look back on and hear and see how God worked all along the way. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for those involved, how lonely it must have been at times, but how thankful I am that they did not give up! Just think about this: right after they had their first meeting, Ike came and left my Pastor's family homeless for months as their house was repaired. That was the enemy at work. They could have given up, but they didn't, and a few months later on a Saturday, I suddenly changed my mind and decided to check out this church instead of the one I had went to before. That was the Holy Spirit at work! It's just amazing!

Finding and being a part of this church really has changed our lives. I posted this verse on facebook the other day and it's exactly what I think about, when I think about what God did for me. All those years I prayed, He wasn't ignoring me. He was just lining things up so that we would end up where we did:

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. -Psalm 40:1-2

Have a great weekend friends!!!!!!!

Dance, Shop News, and a Post Office Rescue!

Dance started this week!! The girls are loving it!

Kaylee is taking tap, ballet, and hip hop jazz.
Madison is taking ballet, jazz, and lyrical.
I just shipped out my last custom shirt order for awhile. I'm going to take a break from custom orders since it's so busy around here. I'm working on new one-of-a-kind headbands and hair accessories though and I am also planning to work on some dolls to add to my shop! :)

Today, Lily and I went to the post office to ship out some orders before picking up the girls from school. We got back in the car after shipping my packages, I turned the key, and NOTHING. It was one of those moments where you actually think to yourself, did I not do it right or something? LOL! Like how can you mess up putting the key in the ignition? Ha!! I couldn't believe it though. I had ran errands earlier today and my car was fine. It never acted up or anything. And here it was, time to pick up the girls, and my car was completely dead!

And of course, Morgan didn't answer his phone. His Mom didn't answer her phone. Lily was already sweating in her car seat. Luckily, when I called Morgan's work, he and his Mom were both there! So, his Mom picked up the girls and he came and tried to jump start my car. It wouldn't even jump start, it was so dead. So, he went and got a new battery and it started right up. They even exchanged the battery for free because it was only a little over a year old.

I was just so excited because the whole thing didn't even upset me! Something like that before would have sent me into a panic and I would've been freaking out. But today, Lily and I just stood in the post office until Morgan came and rescued us. Haha! I was just glad it happened at the post office and not in the middle of the pick-up line at school. Now that would have been embarrassing!

Elijah's Adoption Video!

I'm sure most of you know and read Amy's blog. They just brought Elijah home from Ethiopia not too long ago and I wanted to share their video with all of you, just in case you haven't seen it yet! It is such a beautiful story and at the end, she asks, "What story will you allow God to write through you?" That's such a powerful question!

Our Journey to Elijah Mihretu - Ethiopia Adoption from Amy @ Filled With Praise on Vimeo.

I can't remember if I ever shared this on here before, but if you watch at the end, you can see the shirts I got to make for their airport homecoming. :) I was so honored to make them and to be a part of such a wonderful and amazing thing!
I am looking forward to watching Elijah grow up and seeing how many other families are led to adopt because of his story!

Weekend with Dad!

We had a great weekend! My Dad and Stepmom came for a visit on Friday night. We went out to eat and then came back and visited.

Then, Saturday was my Dad's Birthday! It was fun to get to spend his birthday with him. We all went and saw the movie, "Despicable Me" in 3-D and it was such a great movie! We all loved it, even the guys. It was so funny and such a cute story too. Lily was hilarious because she kept trying to reach out and grab things.

That night, we ate at Outback Steakhouse and came back and had birthday cake. Yum!
Today, we all went to church and had a great service. We went out and ate lunch and then they had to leave to drive back home.

Here's some pics we took today.
Look! You don't see this often.......a picture of me and Morgan :D
Later, we are going to a 1st birthday party for our friend, Isabella, so I made her this dolly. Originally, she had no ponytails and I thought she looked weird, so I gave her some. I made this doll's arms and legs bigger and I like them a lot better, but I need to work on her head/neck, because it's top heavy and keeps flopping over. LOL! I made her a little matching flower clip to wear too.
Hope you all had a great weekend too!

V's Blogiversary Bash! Win a Summer Bloom!

Today, I am very excited and honored to be featured in Veronnica's Blogiversary Bash giveaway, along with Veronica and her precious hats! Thank you so much, Veronnica, for thinking of me for your party! So, y'all head over to her blog by clicking on the button above, and enter in for chances to win one of Veronica's hats and one of my newest creations, Summer Blooms!

Summer Blooms are my newest creations and I'm very excited about them! They are fabric flower clips. Each bloom measures 4" across, and are attached to ribbon covered alligator clips. They are perfect for wearing alone, or if you have a baby headband that you can attach clips to, they would be pretty on one of those too! I have plans to make smaller ones and sell them in pairs too, for little pigtails, etc. :)

I am working hard at adding lots more shirt designs and new products to my shop. My plans are to have lots of things to choose from that are in stock and ready to be shipped. I'm also working on adding baby shower gift sets, that will include a matching onesie, burp cloth, and small stuffed toy with ribbon taggies. And eventually, my plan is to make some of my cloth dolls to add to my site, which I've decided to call "Little Girls of Mine!"

I'm stepping back a bit from completely custom orders, but as I add more products, I will be adding more styles that are available to be personalized. My plans are to have several styles that you can have your child's initial put on, some that can have your child's name, and hopefully even a birthday design.

Thank you all so much for always being so supportive and encouraging of my business! It means so much to me!! Thanks also for everyone who commented on my last post and gave me some great feedback on my "experiment". Ha! All of the comments were so helpful!!

Hope y'all are having a great week so far!!

Need Your Opinion!

Okay, ignore the fact that I didn't take time to iron this little snap tee. Y'all know how I am about ironing. LOL! But, I was so excited to show y'all this shirt that I made and get your opinion on it! :)
I'm working on new products for Summer Suzette Couture and wanted to try out some ruffles with this knew knit fabric that I got. I like this knit because it's so soft for babies. What do you think of this? Is it too much? Should I make the ruffles narrower? Is "narrower" even a word? Ha!

I think I kinda like it. I tried to put the ruffles low enough that they wouldn't be hitting the baby's face when it's on. Anyhow, does it need something?

Tomorrow, I'm participating in Veronnica's blogiversary bash, so I'll be back tomorrow to talk about that. How fun!!

My Very Own Dolly Creation!!

I've had so much fun making my newest dolly! The other dolly was officially adopted by Lily. She's been sleeping with her and carrying her around everywhere. =)

For this one, I made my very own pattern. I've had this idea in my head for a long time. Well, the idea for how I wanted her face to look anyways.

And, her face turned out exactly how I pictured it! I was so excited! I decided to paint her face, which for me is a huge deal because I am not an artist or a painter at all!


The girls and I decided that we would like for her arms and legs to be shorter and wider too. I was trying to make it look like she was wearing leggings, but it just looks like she has some weird elf boots on, or something. LOL!! So, I'll have to work on that!
But, all in all, I liked the way she turned out. She looks like a girl who likes to have fun! :D

My Little Dolly!

I had SO much fun at my first attempt to make a little dolly!!

I'm not sure after how she turned out, if they will want credit for this (LOL!!), but I used a pattern from Bit of Whimsy Dolls to make her.

I wanted her to have hot pink hair and I didn't have any pink felt, so since this was just for practice, I used regular material. And I messed up on her ponytail I was going to give her, so I'm not sure what kind of hair style this is supposed to be. Maybe just a baby? Ha!

I was supposed to make her a skirt too, but quickly realized that my sewing skills do not include making a hem. Or perhaps it was because it was 1am and I was out of patience and my elastic was in the drawer in my bedroom and I didn't want to wake Morgan up. Ha!

I embroidered her facial features, although I think if I make another one, I will paint them on. I have so many ideas swirling around of how to make her better and make her my own style. I'm thinking lots of bright colors, fun ponytails, something pretty on her dress, and maybe some leggings.

There are lots of things I would like to change about her shape and size too, so I think I'm going to make my own pattern. I just wanted to use this pattern first to see if it was something I would even have the patience to try. She did take awhile, since it was my first one, but it was so much fun deciding which fabrics to use and I was so excited to see how she was going to turn out!

Changes?

We have just been enjoying our summer and being lazy this week. I have SO enjoyed not having places that I have to be!

For being on a break, somehow I managed to rack up about 15 shirt orders this past week. I did have lots of fun doing them though and I'm almost finished with them all. One fun one that I did was a BMW logo for a baby shower. The baby's initials were going to be BMW, so my friend thought it would be funny to do the logo. And I cannot even believe this, but I think I totally forgot to take a picture of it. :( Oh well! It turned out really cute too!

In case you're wondering what happened to my whole "Sweet Repeats" idea, well Lauren was having a yard sale to raise money for Tucker, and I decided she would probably have way more luck selling the stuff at that, so I shipped it all to her. I'm not sure if I will keep doing it or not.........it's a lot of work to upload the pics in two different sizes and figure out shipping and all of that.

Plus, there may possibly be a lot of changes happening over here soon that will prevent me from keeping up with something like that. I'm not sure how we manage to get ourselves in the middle of these huge life changes without even realizing it, but we decided that we are most likely putting our house up for sale. I realized a lot about myself in this past week as we made this decision. I realized that I care a lot more about what people think of me than I thought. I also realized that I am way more materialistic and spoiled than I thought too.

So, here's what happened. It has always been a dream of ours to live on the bay. If you look at a map of TX, you'll see around Galveston that there are several bays on the inside of Galveston island. That's where the Houston Ship Channel is, etc. Well, currently we live right down the road from the bay. We were just talking last week about how our goal was to find a house on the bay one day. Well, miraculously, one came up for sale at a REALLY good price. The reason it's such a good price is that it has a tiny, outdated house that sits on the almost 2 acres of waterfront property. Most people wouldn't even consider that house, I bet, because of all the work it needs. But, because of what Morgan does for a living, we can easily do what needs to be done and make it a really nice house.

Well, the first thing I thought was what are we thinking? What will people think if we move into a house less than half the size of our current house. People will automatically think it's for financial reasons. People will think we're crazy. Then my thoughts turned to how spoiled I am. Our house is custom built and everything in it is really nice. Can I live in an older house again? Then I realized that the house we had before this one was built in the 70's and never once did I think twice about what people would think of it. I loved that house! When did I become so snobby?!! When did I become that person who cared what other people thought of me? I don't know when it happened, but I am not happy about it.

So, now we put our house on the market and see if it sells. It's a waiting game and I'm not good with patience, as you all know. It's going to be a challenge too, with the girls being home for the summer, to keep this house spotless so that it can be shown at a moment's notice. I know that if it's part of the Lord's plan, it will happen.

It sure would be nice to stand in my back yard and see this every day though!!
This is the view from the back yard of the house we want to buy!
You can't tell from this picture, but it has a huge hill that goes down to the water. The girls were having so much fun running up and down it the other day when we went to look at the house. Lily was having so much fun, she tripped and scratched her face and ate some grass in the process. LOL!!! :D

Sweet Repeats!!!

My friend Lauren was having a sale at her blog the other day, where she and her best friend were reselling dresses, purses, DVD's, books, and jewelry to raise money to bring home her son Tucker from Ethiopia, that Lauren is adopting. I thought it was so much fun and such a great idea! We all have things that we have laying around that we don't wear or just don't need anymore that are still in excellent condition.

It's been a dream of mine for a long time to have an adorable little boutique and I often thought of opening a children's resale boutique, because we know us Moms can sometimes go overboard on buying our kids clothes that they barely have a chance to wear more than once or twice.

Well, when I saw Lauren was doing this at her blog, I thought to myself, "Hey!! I can totally put a category on my website where I can sell gently used items.......like a little resale boutique!!"

So, I wanted to introduce you to "Sweet Repeats" at Summer Suzette Couture!!! All profits made from the sale of these items (minus shipping) will be donated to charity......100%!! Yay!! Every item price includes shipping, and I've tried to give my best estimate of what the shipping cost will be, so that you can see exactly how much you're donating. To keep shipping costs down, I won't be shipping these in my normal, pretty fashion......they'll be shipped as simply as possible, but that means more money for charity! And if I don't spend what I anticipate on shipping, or if you order multiple items and the shipping ends up being much less than listed, the extra money will be donated too!

Here's one of things you can find at Sweet Repeats. This is a baby wipes case that I made awhile ago and it's brand new!
So far, I've added a little bit of everything. I just donated a bunch of stuff to charity not too long ago, or I would've had much more to put on there :( But, I'm working to add clothing, so look for that soon! (And maybe some other stuff if I can sneak it away from the girls without them noticing) LOL!

Who will this benefit?!! Well, each month I plan to pick a certain person/charity to donate the profits too. Whatever is sold for the month of June will be going to:

Lauren at Living by Faith to help bring home Tucker!!!!

So, go look around and see if there's anything you might like. Not only will you be helping to bring Tucker home, but you'll get a little something in return! Can't beat that!!!! :D And the prices are SO low!!!!!!

Updates and Other News

Wow, I think it might be a record to go almost all week without posting! I don't know what my deal is, but I just have no motivation at all to write a post. This is going to be so random too!

1. Last Saturday, we went to a birthday party for our bible study friend's little boy and I captured this picture of Isabella getting a kiss from the doggie. Isn't that so funny?!! LOL!

2. I took this video of part of our Mother's Day service at church on Sunday. I love the singing part of our service every Sunday. I wanted to mention a really cool story too. I was trying to find the post here on my blog and I couldn't, but about a year ago I was at Target and 2 ladies came up to me and said they were fans of my blog. LOL! One of those ladies was Dana. I have kept in touch with her ever since through email and facebook. She is one of the sweetest ladies! Anyhow, the other day on facebook she asked me if our church needed a drum set. You will not believe what she did.......she donated her drum set to us! I was blown away by her generosity and just thought it was so awesome the way God connected us in the most unusual way and that she blessed us with that! Anyhow, you can see it in the video :)



3. Update on Lily's nails. It's been 2 weeks and they are making their way down the nail bed pretty quickly! They're almost to the half way point.
The nail is completely separated near the cuticle, where new nail growth is coming in. But, they are still attached from about the middle to the tip. Very crazy!
4. In other news, do y'all remember baby Zach, my cousin's son that was born with CMV and spent his first few months in the NICU? Well, he just celebrated his 1st Birthday and is doing great! I just talked to my Aunt Barbara today (she is his grandma) and she said he weighs 15 pounds, is doing great developmentally, his eyesight is great, and I believe he has hearing in one ear.

5. We have recital pictures for dance this weekend. Yay! I can't wait to get some cute pictures of them in their costumes! They have SUPER CUTE costumes this year!

6. I started today on a gluten-free diet. I've decided to try it. I have thought all these years that my stomach issues were due to stress/anxiety and they may very well have been, but I am still having them even without stress. I've been having all kinds of crazy symptoms lately too, like extreme fatigue, brain fog, sudden weight gain in my belly, swollen fingers and ankles, and headaches. These are all in addition to stomach issues. It could be my thyroid, but when I was researching gluten sensitivity, it just sounded so much like that. I thought I would just test it out and see if I feel better. It can't hurt and I don't have time right now to go see a doctor. If it doesn't help, I will make an appointment though.

7. I'm taking a break from custom orders at Summer Suzette Couture. This time of year is so crazy busy that there's no way I can keep up with orders coming through. Part of the reason for having this kind of business was so that I could adapt it to fit my family. It was never supposed to be something that stressed me out and caused me to feel guilty for being away from my family, so I am rethinking my priorities. I still have some premade shirts on there though to choose from, that are ready to be shipped out. I think that the only way I may be able to make it work is to just make premades when I have time. The truth is, I just never have time for custom orders. Doing custom orders usually means I'm either up half the night, or I'm ignoring Lily during the day in order to do them, and I'm just not happy with that. However, I really do enjoy making things when I have time, because I miss being creative if I don't do it for awhile. Anyhow, some changes are coming.........I'm just not sure what they are yet! It may be easier in the fall, once Lily starts preschool. Can you believe she's about to start preschool?!!

Well, that's enough rambling for one day! Hope y'all are having a great week and have a great weekend!!!

Cute Stuff

Last weekend, when the girls and I went shopping, they just had to have these cute skirts. They were only $10 at Target. This was before church this morning. They were doing their poses. :D
Look what I just made! I had some cork tiles, but one wasn't quite thick enough for the push pins, so I decided to cover it in fabric and glue it to another one, then I glued the marabou all around and voila! Now I have a super cute bulletin board to post my orders on!

I rarely make anything crafty for myself, so this was a major accomplishment. Ha!
Hope you all had a great weekend!