Enjoying the sunshine . . .

Elayna & Chantel feeding the ducks.

Elayna & Alyssa on the Safety Village fieldtrip.

belly shot . . .

I've been requested to show off my belly for those who don't see me very often. So here it is - there's definitely something growing in there. I don't remember ever being this hungry with a pregnancy, I spend more time in the kitchen getting another snack than anywhere else lately, so I'm sure I'll be getting a LOT bigger. One of the girls asked me today if I could still see my feet (I guess I had mentioned this a couple months ago as being a sign that the baby wouldn't have much longer if I couldn't see them). It was too cute, and I'm happy to report that I can still see them. 22 weeks down, 18 to go!

Portabellopixie Gracie Dress

I've completed my first dress from the Portabellopixie Gracie pattern - view B Tiered Dress. The pattern booklet is a bit more pricey than most, but since it comes with 4 different things to make (3 of which are quite different), you're basically paying for 3-4 patterns at once which makes it worth it (and I intend on making the other patterns down the road as well). Also, by buying it on Etsy with the fabric for the three dresses I plan to make, I got a nice discount.

First off, I was pleasantly suprised at how quickly and easily this dress came together. I would guess that I spent about 6 hours on it in total (although I'm not new to sewing). I spent a couple hours the first evening going over the instructions and cutting it all out. The next evening I hemmed the bottom, and did all the gathering and pinning of the layers; and the third evening I sewed it all up.

I did make one change to the pattern - I added an extra tier. Before I attached the bodice to the tiers, I realized that I wasn't happy with the finished length. I wanted the dress to fall below the knee, not above it (after all, it's a pretty twirly dress and you wouldn't want panties showing). And that was also one of the faults I found with the pattern, no finished measurements of the dress (at least that I could find). Had I known this before this point, I would have changed the width of the top tier to make more of a gathered look between the top one and the one I added (or changed the length of all the tiers before I started cutting).

Another thing I wanted to point out is the bias binding on the top edge of the collar. When I first read this in the instructions, I was slightly confused and had to read it over a couple times to understand the reasoning or concept of this. But once I actually did it, I found it easy and not very time consuming, and it gave a very nice finished look.

Overall, I found the pattern easy to follow. There were some minor missed instructions and pattern pieces that were stamped with wrong amounts to cut, but it was easy to figure out if you've sewn a couple dresses before. I will definitely be making this pattern again and look forward to trying the other ones out as well.

Happy Easter!!

We're having a wonderful Easter weekend this year! On Friday we had an Easter service in the morning, swimming with my extended family in the afternoon, and a big dinner at my parents in the evening. The girls were so worn out from the busy day that they were more than willing to head to bed on time and so we got some socializing kids-free as well. Then on Saturday the girls and I headed to a local church-sponsored Easter party where they decorated eggs, played games, made chocolates, and went on an Easter treat hunt. Tomorrow we were hoping to visit the Zoo but it doesn't look like the weather is going to co-operate; but I'm sure we'll find something else to do as a family before we get back to normal around here.

some beautiful weather . . .

It's the first week of April but today felt like June. It was beautiful, warm and sunny! The girls wore capris and sandals and spent lots of time outdoors. Here's a pic of them in the backyard playhouse after dinner tonight. I hope we get more of this before the April showers begin.

first baby pic . . .

So this morning was the 18 week ultrasound of our little one. Everything looked good but my doctor will go over it with me at my next visit. Heartrate was 140 bpm and we didn't find out the gender. If you have a hard time figuring out what's what - the baby is laying on its' back looking upward. The pic is just of the head and stomach.