She's at it Again

Sophie's definitely bitten by the sewing bug! She asks to sew quite often. She has also really enjoyed baking lately, and has twice searched the internet for recipes and made them all on her own!

So when I saw some really cute baking themed fabric at my fabulous place of work, ETC I had to get them for her. For the following projects I purchased 1/4 yard of 3 cute fabrics. I combined this with about a yard of yellow fabric and a teal fat quarter I had at home. This was enough to make all our projects!

First, I made her apron at a girls late night at my friend Denise's home. It turned out pretty cute even considering I had no pattern and my choice of beverage that night was a soy chai latte with Bailey's (if you haven't tried it, it almost had an eggnog flavor with the Bailey's and was toooo good!)

Anyway, here is the apron:

I wanted Sophie to be able to sew some projects with the left over fabric. We decided on towels and hot pads. After a trip to JoAnn's (for "Insul-Bright" and bias tape) and Target (for cute kitchen towels) we got started. The towel tutorial we found on, you guessed it, Pinterest. It has you cut the towels in half to make 2 from each, which we forgot to do on the first one {center of the photo}.

 We used no pattern for the hotpads but it is just a back fabric, batting, "Insul-Bright" and top fabric quilted together. The edges are then incased in double fold bias tape. That's it!

Here is Sophie and her new baking cuteness {she made the t-shirt at a summer kid's sewing class at JoAnn's}:

 We chose these to hang on our oven since they match the color. Don't hate me for it's retro, shabby look. You're jealous, I know!

 

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Had To Do...

...is say goodbye to this girl:

(This really does not seem very long ago!)

I have been feeling such a range of emotions, at the very top is PROUD. I am so dang proud of this girl for setting such a high goal and reaching it! I am also excited, amazed, nervous, a little envious, and also quite sad. I am mostly sad that this young lady will no longer be a part of my daily life, and I feel a hole where her presence is missed. I feel sad that when she next comes home she will be more like a guest in our home, and that feels weird. 

It is also very rewarding to see how amazingly well adjusted and independent she is! It is such an affirmation of choices we made in parenting. Now, I don't want to get all Time Magazine, "Are you mom enough" on you, but I made some socially tough choices in raising my children {extended breast feeding, family bed, attachment parenting, etc.}. I got a lot of comments from "well meaning" family and friends about these choices. Mainly, the view that if I parent this way, I would raise clingy, dependent children. I knew in my heart that this was not true, and I remember saying to Tony that we are doing the right thing {for OUR children} and that it may not show now, but just wait! Sure enough, here is a young lady ready for anything life has to offer. She is so mature and level-headed, I hardly worry about her. Maybe these "well meaning" people should have warned me that I would become attached, as I am having a harder time with this than Alexa is!

So, enough about me, here are some pictures of Alexa's new home:

 Her dorm, Clark Hall

 Her bed..

 Her desk and beautiful built-in bookshelves..

 Tony photo-bombed me on this one, Alexa in her room...

 Alexa and her room-mate, Katheryn.

And, our goodbyes. These were taken just as Tony and I were leaving:

 We are sure going to miss this young lady!