Sewing

Some of you may know that I have been taking a beginning sewing class since the end of January.  Before this class I did not know one thing about sewing.  Well actually, I did know a few things:  Every time my Mom would pull out her sewing machine she would get frustrated because it would not function properly (not sure if it was an operator error or just the machine).  Plus, she would get frustrated because it was such a pain in the neck to thread the needle too.  Those were the only two things I knew about sewing.

These past few years I have had an increased desire to learn how to sew.  I think it may have something to do with the other girls in my ward.  They are incredibly talented and they all "seam" to be expert sewers (cheesy pun...I know).  I couldn't learn to sew however because I had no machine.  You know the equation: no machine = no sewing.

Well a few months ago I inherited a great machine from a friend for free, though it did need a $65 repair.  Not a big problem however since machines usually cost over $100.  With a free sewing machine and a beginning sewing class that the local community college offers I decided it was time to learn.

I have now been sewing for about 3 months now and I am really enjoying it.  I was having so much fun in my class that I signed up for two more semesters of it.  I just hope that I am still here in Iowa for the last semester.

Here are two of my finished projects so far.

The first project I did was VERY simple.  I attached this yellow/gold colored fabric the bottom of this dress so that I could make it more modest.  Again--I did not make the dress!

My second project was to make this dress for Hannah (don't look to closely at the seams.  I'm a beginner so they are not very straight).  Our class was assigned to pick a pattern out so that we could learn how to read them.

This dress was very difficult to make.  I started this dress in February and I just finished it yesterday.  Yes, that is correct--it took me 2 months to make this tiny little dress, and she will probably outgrow it in about 2 months. There is no way I could have made this on my own.  I think from now on I'll stick to making clothes for me, and other things for Hannah that she won't quickly outgrow (like maybe a quiet book for church).  The only reason I am glad I made this dress is because I learned a lot about reading/choosing patterns, gathering, zippers, elastic, hand stitching, etc.

Check out the little bloomers.  They look like a polk-a-dot speedo.  Unfortunately, they don't fit quite right.  Oh well.

Birthday Fever

Happy Birthday to me!

My birthday present from Hannah was a fever.  Yep...she had a fever of 101.3 degrees today, poor thing.  So this day has been spent tending to a very needy and clingy baby.  Unfortunately, she has only wanted Nathan to hold her which has been very taxing on him.

We did manage to do a few birthday related things however.  Nathan let me sleep in this morning as I took the first shift last night tending Hannah when she woke up due to her fever.  I woke up around 9:00 am just as Nathan and Hannah were going out the door for a walk.  I ate breakfast all by myself!  It was nice to eat a meal with NO INTERRUPTIONS!  It was awesome.

When Nathan and Hannah returned they came in bearing gifts--a balloon and a candy bar.  I think Hannah enjoyed the balloon more than I did, but I can guarantee that I will enjoy the chocolate more than Hannah cause she won't get any of it!

This was the birthday present that Nathan got me.  It's a really fun necklace.  I ended up wearing it on Easter Sunday (if you want to see it on me look at the post below).

During the day I ended up doing several typical daily chores: laundry, picking up around the house, and doing dishes.  I also talked to a few family members on the phone, and went to the doctor's office for Hannah's fever.  Towards the end of the day Nathan, Hannah and I walked to Dairy Queen and got some yummy blizzards.  Can you tell that Hannah doesn't feel well in this picture?

This dog that I am holding belongs to one of our neighbors.  It is a really tiny dog and her name is Daisy.  She is so cute and so much fun, and Hannah loves to watch her (except for today).  The dog however loves to come over and say hi to me.  I think Daisy can sense my excitement to see her.

Yummy Blizzards!

Here we are walking home.

I love this shot!  So cute.

Thanks to all the birthday wishes from my friends and family members, and many thanks to the those who sent cards with the fun "green gift."  It was especially nice during this challenging day.

Easter

**Sorry for blurry pictures.  I haven't fixed our camera yet (it's on the to-do list for this week).**

On Saturday our church had an Easter activity.  It started off with the (shortened) Easter story being read to all the children.  Hannah just kind of watched the other kids and moved around a lot.

After the story the children got to participate in an indoor Easter egg hunt.  We didn't give Hannah any kind of Easter basket because she is not old enough to comprehend what to do with it.  Hannah was too shy to walk around on the gym floor and collect eggs with the other children.  This was the only way she would pick up the Easter eggs.  So funny.

Just like we do every Sunday, we attended our church meetings, came home and had an early dinner with the missionaries and our great friend Dan.  Here are a few pictures of our day.

 I realized that I hadn't taken a picture of me today so I took one with my phone.

After dinner we headed to a musical fireside as Nathan was singing in a choir.  It was a VERY busy day, and though we enjoyed celebrating the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, we are glad that we get to go to bed soon because we are exhausted!

Conference stats

Again, it's late and I am tired so I won't spend much time blogging.

Song results:
Nathan: 33.3%
Rachel: 40%

The best part of conference was watching Hannah dance to the MOTAB.  She is really into dancing when any kind of music is played (she gets that from me).  So when the choir would sing she usually would do a little dance.  Unfortunately, I couldn't take a video of it as our camera is out of order.  But, I did post a video of Hannah dancing to one of her all time favorite songs--the Home Improvement theme song.

Happy Conference.

Happy April Fools.