maternity wear

for some odd reason or another (like that I am 5’ 10”) I can’t find maternity clothes that fit me. skirts, dresses, and pants are too short on my legs and t-shirts and tops are short on my torso! when I get big, I am like the most immodest thing on the planet. it is really frustrating. well, thankfully I come from an extremely tall family! most of my immediate family, aunts, uncles, and cousins are 6’or taller. and luckily for me, 5 of my cousins are pregnant right now! my aunts are amazing seamstresses and one of them came up with a maternity skirt that is comfortable, long, and takes like 20 minutes to sew. it is like heaven sent for me!

with the two that I made this week I now have 4 skirts out of this pattern and plan on making some more. the skirt is just too easy and looks too good to not want to make more. sorry about the wrinkles, they were ironed until A got to them thinking they were dress-ups. :)

next is this beauty! i have always wondered about belly bands and if they would work for my shape (like an s-curve from algebra). not just that, I wasn’t willing to pay to “experiment” with one. when I saw this tutorial, I just had to at least try one!

 

this took me two tries – the first worked out perfectly; however, when I put it on, all I could hear was threads popping! then it pathetically fell apart. you want to know what NOT to do? DON’T surge the seams unless you have stretchy string. I thought I would be all cool and sleek with a surged edge, but it didn’t stretch with my curves. so the second one I used a zig-sag on my machine and it has been awesome! NO more riding up, NO more immodesty when I need to nurse, and NO pants falling off! plus, it is fit just for me and my body (I made it taller than the one in the tutorial). I have worn it all afternoon. LOVE IT! definitely plan on making more and think a set of two or three would be fun for a gift to the billions of friends of mine who are Prego!

we have been so busy here! more to come!!!

double ruffle strap

one of my friends noticed my camera strap like this- 

and asked if I would make her one. She was open to anything and that really excited me! I found the original tutorial a long time ago and honestly cannot remember where! So I will make sure that I get the instructions out to those who are interested in the top one and the steps I take to make one. However, I ran across this blog post and just had to try my hand at sewing one with a cute ruffle. She has some way cute ideas for a whole bunch of others ones. Check it out!

PS- sewing with my new machine is like the difference between crunchy peanut butter and smooth and creamy peanut butter! I love it!

on the menu – bite of heaven

since staying at my parents’ home, I have rediscovered a classic favorite…

I saw my brother eating some of this on toast and have been craving it all week. For some reason or another, it is just me and my daughter tonight in the house, and the craving overtook me like waves crashing over the side of a boat out to sea. I scrounged up some ingredients and made a crazy good, one-isn’t-enough-but-it-should-be desert.

 

It was way easy but so darn good- here’s the recipe for those craving nutella filled turnover

Ingredients

• Nutella (of course)
• single Pie crust recipe or pie crust from a box (what we used)
• butter melted
• cinnamon and sugar
• raspberry jam
• cool whip

Directions

• heat oven to 375*
• roll out your pie crust to around 1/4” thick
• cut circles out with biscuit cutter (3” diameter)
• put a dime or nickel sized dab of nutella in the middle
• fold the circle in half around the nutella and using a small amount of water, dab around the outside of the round and close it up to make a half circle…

• brush all the turnovers with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon
• pop in the oven for about 12 minutes
• serve with drizzled raspberry jam and cool whip
• enjoy the rich, nutty goodness!

PS- I couldn’t eat just this one… I ate much more! Will be on the treadmill in the morning!

made with silk

I haven’t has as much experience with silk flowers as I would like to have. When my mom asked me to do some arrangements for her, I honestly got really nervous. I think silk is hard to work with in my limited experience. However, I took on the challenge. We took a trip to the half aisle of flowers at my mom’s Wal-Mart… not a lot of selection. It was pathetic! Which made me even more nervous that we would get a beautiful, well- worth-it project.

This first arrangement is for her coffee table. She has stuck to red, green, and brown for a color scheme, but really wants to add some new color in with accessories – like pillows, wall hangings, etc. I was reluctant at the orange lilies, but with the plum dahlias they look amazing! This was a tough project for me and the more I look at the finished product (and slightly tweak things), I get so darn proud of myself.

 

The first arrangement took some time… it is a tough shape to fill even with real flowers. So I had enough flowers to do a second arrangement and didn’t want to do it because I didn’t have 3 hours to complete it. But, my determination got the best of me… and it proved to be awesome! This arrangement has to be one of the best arrangements I have ever done in my years of doing flowers. It is beautifully shaped, it flows, the colors and textures are yummy together AND it only took about 30 minutes to shove together. I love that it is more contemporary. I am even more proud of myself than the first… I would like to steal it when I go home!

 

I asked my mom jokingly what payment would be for these – she laughed and said, “The Pop Tarts that you are eating now.” I actually was okay with that being pregnant and all :)

secondary… but only in color

this past month my cute hubby and I celebrated our fifth year of marriage together (why it isn’t secondary at all). It was a wonderful day, and as tradition goes for him, he gave me 5 flowers for 5 years (filler flowers don’t count)- 3 roses and 2 carnations. This year was extremely unique because he took me to the florist to pick out what I wanted. Of course I had to go with a secondary color scheme - plum, green, and sherbet orange – my favorite bright color scheme for the time being. The flowers were set off with some wonderful seeded eucalyptus – smells so good.

 

With my hubby out working in New York for a month, I have really been lonely without him. This distance (that happens about 2 times a year) really helps me have such a fresh perspective on why and how much I love him. I cannot wait for him to get home so I can cook for him again… it is crazy, but I SO miss cooking meals for him. Here’s to making it almost half way with him gone! I love you sweetie!

valentine’s day decor

I am here at my parents’ home for a week or two while my sweet hubby is out of town. My mom and I have been crafting it up this week to prepare her house for Valentine’s Day. She has had some cute ideas and I have loved helping her find/design and make these things. Check them out!

 

 

maternity pencil skirt

So I am having the wardrobe issue – the one where you look in your closet and see nothing to wear. My body is in such transition that I really don’t feel like I have anything to wear. I want to look pregnant, but not “big” yet. I want and need some classic pieces that I can mix and match. Sadly, my wardrobe consists of 4 shade shirts and three pairs of the same sweat pants in different colors. So today, I pulled out my wonderful sewing machine and tried my hand at creating a maternity pencil skirt. I don’t think that it turned out bad – it fits, there are no puckers, and it is wearable – which is more than I can say about other projects I have tried lately and about my other clothes :)

Anyway, I took a skirt pattern that I have ten billion other pencil skirts out of and added a panel. It was a challenge for me for a couple of reasons – I have never sewn knit, I don’t know my way about my machine as well as I would like, there was a small waistband that goes around the whole top of the skirt, I couldn’t try it on before I had almost a complete product. I think that next time I will do all the same things except make the bottom of the panel a u-shape and not straight across. I think it would fit better and I wouldn’t have to wear my longest tops to cover the panel.

I really feel like the Spirit inspired me on some of the steps and knew I needed an ounce of success. Anyway, without further ado – my skirt and budding tummy…

 

 

finally!

I never told you what I ended up getting for xmas! Remember this post here? Well, just to let you in on the wonderful news… I got the sewing machine! When it was brought to me, I almost started crying. I so didn’t think that I would be getting it and it was such a humbling surprise for me. Thank you to my hubby’s family for that!

So I have pulled it out finally! And I finally pulled out the fabric to finish my decorative pillows for my bedding from this post here… Here is how they turned out-

 

I think they look nice, but still need something. My mom suggested that the red and gray one have a monogram on the front and I really like that idea. To admit, I had some issues with my bedding and so I have on my projects list (now that I actually have a sewing machine that sews) to fix the duvet cover. It is going to take lots of work!

k&j wedding

I loved doing the flowers and cake for this bride (and groom who is a good friend) because she was just classy and simple. It was also fun because it was colors from my wedding and it brought back good memories.

Here is the inspiration

Here are the actual

 

Cake Inspiration

Cake Actual

strengthening your family

i attended a wonderful meeting today called stake conference for my church. A member of the Quorum of the Seventy, Daniel M. Jones spoke and was so inspiring! The things he talked about were right down my alley with my education in Family Studies…

He talked about how the world is loosing the idea of family and that we, as a church, are lucky to know why family is so important. However, because we know about family and why it is so important, we are fighting to keep it alive… our own families and to help other families who don’t know what we know. If you would like to get an idea of what we know in the Mormon religion you can click HERE. 

Brother Jones gave a list of ways in which we can strengthen our families… there were 25 things. Sadly as I was writing as fast as I could, my daughter suddenly tells me that she can’t find her gum. A two year old who has lost her gum. I instantly switched to searching for the gum around number 15 so I only have 19 of the 25 items he spoke on. Here they are as follows:

Ways to Strengthen Our Families

1. Read and review frequently the Proclamation to the World: the Family
2. Have family prayer morning and night
3. Have meaningful Family Home Evening each Monday night
4. Search the scriptures daily – by yourself, with your spouse, and with your family
5. Eat at least one meal as a family – I was so excited when he said this!
6. Husbands, give timely priesthood blessings to your wife and children
7. Obtain and study your patriarcle blessing often
8. Teach children the plan of salvation with emphasis on the 5 saving ordinances
9. Teach your children that individual worth doesn’t come from material things, but from what’s inside and the Lord
10. Give heed to the prophet’s words – all of them
11. establish your home as a place of peace, learning, communication, trust, love and patience
12. Bear testimony to your children daily
13. Be 15 minutes early to church and sit with your family
14. Spend an hour of time with your companion daily- dedicate that time to study of the scriptures and your relationship
15. fill your home with worthy and appropriate literature and media
16. strictly monitor the use of the internet and TV
17. Do not give your children an allowance – teach them the importance of work and pay them as the do useful work
18. have a photo of a temple prominently placed in your home
19. Encourage and guide your children to graduate from seminary and institute

He mentioned that we are not to get overwhelmed… we just need to be consistent. I liked that!

If you have any questions about these, feel free to get a hold of me at rissdesign.ct@gmail.com. I would LOVE to answer them!