eager little mind

She did really well!! (And why didn’t I have this done months ago?)

Last year I made Daphne a pair of ruffle capris and I loved the way they turned out. Instead of buying a ruffle pant pattern, I just added a ruffle to a basic toddler sized elastic waist pant pattern. Worked great! Fit well through the seat and legs. I was very pleased. Here’s little D last spring:

This year I decided to go ahead and buy a pants pattern from youcanmakethis.com. I like e-patterns, since I’m not very good with keeping up with my printed patterns. Plus, I liked the idea of drafting your own pattern based on your child’s measurements, since commercial patterns seem to run huge. I chose the Easy-Fit Pants. They were very, very easy. The only problem I had was determining the size. Based on Daphne’s hip and waist measurement, I should have made a size 6 months. I knew that would never work, so I went with the size 1. They are great through the hips and leg, but the rise is too short. Didn’t think about that. Well, crap. She’ll be able to wear them, but they are definitely low rise pants.

Sorry for the crappy pics. I’m calling these her dandelion pants, even though the flowers on the fabric are mums. Mums aren’t very springy.

Modeling her new pants after bath time.

So, I’ll try the pattern again with a size 2 and might make some adjustments based on this great article from Sew Mama Sew on modifying pants patterns for kids.

And guess who is getting a hair cut this week? I’m excited to see what it will look like after being shaped up by a professional (and not hacked on by mommy’s sewing scissors).

Next sewing project (besides another pair of pants, hehe)- the Market Skirt from MADE’s tutorial. Stay tuned.

A few months ago, I added Wardrobe Refashion to my Google Reader. Wow, what an interesting site!! I’m constantly amazed at the transformations, like the plus sized ankle length maternity dress refashioned into something that Twiggy could have worn in the 60’s. Such talented people! The site has definitely encouraged me to take a second look at pieces in my closet, or things I might see while thrifting.

Last week I did a mini-refashion of my own. Remember this simple sundress from last summer?

This dress was slightly too small from day one. That’s what happens when your toddler won’t stand still to be properly measured and you are sewing while she’s asleep. But she always got compliments on it. Strangers at the mall would come up to me and ask where I bought her dress.

I didn’t want to just pack it away, so I took the remaining yardage, cut the skirt off the old dress and turned it into a Matilda Jane style halter.

Not the greatest pictures, but you get the idea. I’m just thrilled that it turned out exactly as I’d hoped. I’m 50/50 with drafting my own patterns for Daphne’s clothes. It could work, or be a complete disaster. Luckily, this works and I saved my measurements and the bodice pattern I drafted to make another.

Next thing you know, I’ll be ripping down the drapes for play clothes, Von Trapp children style.

So you remember how I was DREADING the whole potty training thing? I kept putting it off, even though Daphne would occasionally ask to use the potty and go without any problems. I wasn’t sure she was ready. Or, more accurately, I wasn’t ready. Getting Daphne to sleep and eat has always been a fight, why would potty training be any different?

After a rocky first three days, mainly due to us both being really sick & crabby the week I started, Daphne has now been accident free for almost a week. She even wakes up dry from naps and overnight. This is just shocking to me. Shocking!! I do still feel like I live in the bathroom now, since I take her every 30 minutes. That’s all I do, sit in the bathroom with Daphne and clap for her bowel movements. They leave that info out for new moms. Someday you will have to stand next to the toilet, cheer and do the Dora “We Did It” dance more than a dozen times a day to encourage your little one to use the potty.

Daphne is in cloth training panties most of the day, with Pull-Ups for nap and nighttime. She hates the Pull-Ups and thinks her cotton panties are awesome. She also hates using public restrooms. In fact, she’s only used a public potty once when we were at the library. At our Wednesday morning mom’s group, I took her before we left the house, once we got to church and before we left. You’d have thought I was trying to torture her in the bathroom. So, she held it until we got home. I’m really surprised she didn’t have an accident.

Next week we are going to pick out a few big girl gifts, including Ni hao, Kai-Lan panties. Go Daphne! Woo hoo!

Today was daddy/daughter Saturday. I love daddy/daughter days.

They set out for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (love having a membership), with Daphne’s camera. Daddy got an opportunity to take one quick shot before Daphne took over:

Then it was her turn. They visited the sculpture garden:

Watched some Korean dancers perform. She thought this dancer was pretty and asked to take her picture:

I’m just shocked that it’s in focus, since the shutter lag is pretty annoying for indoor photos. Daphne never stands still for that long.

They went through the glow tunnel to get in between the main buildings. Love this shot. Very Tron:

And much like her father, got in trouble with the docent for taking pics of a traveling exhibit. Ooops!! I won’t post that one. Daphne also got to make a few Valentines paintings at the kid’s art area.

Then they stopped by a fire station to visit the trucks. Again, one of Daphne’s shots:

I really love looking at her images and am very happy she’s enjoying her camera.

All of a sudden whenever Daphne puts on a twirly dress she says, “Mommy, I’m a princess!!” Although we are not anti-princess, I don’t make it a point of encouraging it either. And I’ve never called her a princess. Funny how they just pick things up. Possibly from her princess-obsessed cousins.

Here’s the latest “princess” dress.

I needed a springy dress/top for Daphne ASAP for Spring Mini Session promotional stuff, so I opened up my fabric stash to see what I could whip up. I don’t think I should really call it a fabric stash anymore, just a scrap bag, since I only have a few pieces of yardage left. I pulled everything out to see what could possibly work together, and I had just enough to create this little peasant top from the Portobello Pixie Claire pattern. Just shortened the peasant dress and did a square apron instead of rounded. I think it’s cute. Very storybook. Like a cross between the princess dress, and the dress the princess wore before she found out she was a princess and was still mopping the floors. I wish I had some more trims or buttons or something to “Matilda Jane” it up, but this was a total stash buster and I didn’t want to purchase anything to get it finished.

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate for outdoor pics. Princess Daphne was freezing. Maybe another day.

I’ve got a question for the moms out there. What does your child’s baby book look like? Did you get yours from Hallmark or Babies R Us? Maybe you created your own scrapbook? And I think I’ve asked this question before, so my apologies if you’ve already told me. I couldn’t find it in my archives.

I ask because I freaking hate Daphne’s baby book. I hate it, and I haven’t updated it. And I hate that I hate it and haven’t updated it. I always enjoyed looking through my baby book. It had cool early 70’s graphics:

The traditional naked baby on a blanket picture. Hey naked baby Jenny!

And without it, I wouldn’t know that my mom fed me green beans at 5 weeks old with my pediatrician’s blessing. Um, WHAT!?!?!?!

I bought Daphne’s baby book when I was roughly 24 or 25 weeks along. Gender neutral, since Daphne didn’t want to reveal her lady parts to the ultrasound tech until 28 weeks. I hate the standard format, with pages and lines that I will leave blank. Like the All About My Siblings page.

I want a custom book. With only the pictures and info that I choose. But here’s where it gets obnoxious (or more accurately, where I get obnoxious!)… I’m not a scrapbooker, certainly not with paper. I might be able to do digital, but I’m not thrilled with the idea of creating complicated layouts. I’ve considered using a photo book service, like Shutterfly or Photoworks, but I have yet to find a consumer photo book lab that comes back with decent color. My last Shutterfly freebie photo book looked terrible since they automatically “color correct” (and I didn’t see an option to turn it off). I would need to print it myself using one of our pro labs (WHCC or MpixPro), that way I would be completely sure of the finished color, since my monitor is calibrated to their specs.

My current plan is to either find a WHCC album template, or create my own using digital scrapbooking papers and elements. Then spend a small fortune getting it printed, but at least it would be a really quality piece. Then I’m going to have a custom image box (the boxes from MpixPro have a place in the lid for a CD) made, and fill it with every picture we like of Daphne from her first two years. And we’ll do a new box every 2 years or so. I like the idea of having the hard copy images, as well as a convenient place to store the digital files on CD, all in one.

Any other ideas I should consider? Do you have a favorite digital scrapbooking site? The only one I’m familiar with is Two Peas in a Bucket. Any pro photographer album resources? Oh how I wish I was rich enough to outsource this to an amazing graphic designer.

This project, and a twin quilt for Daphne’s big girl room are my major projects for 2010. So stayed tuned for my progress.

Before Christmas, we considered putting a kiddie camera on Daphne’s wish list. Now, every photography forum and website I’ve ever looked at has told me not to bother with those crappy little cameras, and just get your kid a cheap point & shoot. Considering we have lots of cameras just sitting in storage, we decided to go ahead and let her play with our old Olympus.

I was a little concerned that she wouldn’t be able to work it. But, she hasn’t had any problems. She LOVES it! All she wanted to do was shoot, then look at her picture. Totally chimping. That’s OK, her mommy is a reformed chimper. If that’s even a word.

As of this afternoon, Daphne has her own Flickr account. Digital Daphne. It’s Friends and Family only, but I’ll be sharing a few of her images occasionally.

Mommy’s car, AKA “The Toaster”

Her toes

Tree (I know, these aren’t very exciting. Sorry)

Toys

Not bad for a two year old, I think. Photoshop is next. Ha!