What I Learned About Patterns

Up until now, my experience with sewing patterns has been limited to the simple purse patterns I've found online. After making SO MANY PURSES (which I still love doing), I needed a bit of a break...a change...a challenge. But not too much of a challenge.

Last Saturday, I sent Nathan to his best friend's house in Hillsboro for the night, and my parents took the boys for the day. Which meant I got to spend as long as I wanted at my current favorite place on earth...Joann Fabric. On a side note, have you ever smelled the fabric from Joann's? It smells wonderful. Anyway, I spent a good hour just leisurely wandering through the different fabrics, changing my mind, gathering supplies...and picking out a pattern for a dress. I've loved wearing dresses since losing all this weight, and at my last Weight Watchers meeting I saw one of our leaders wearing the cutest dress ever. So I found a pattern very similar, scooped up some Springy fabric that had caught my eye a couple weeks earlier, and headed home.

I thought I would be able to complete the dress before going to pick up the boys four hours later....WHOOO BOY was I wrong!

Here's what I learned:

• Pattern measurements aren't truly accurate...they run big...especially if you're only 5 feet tall.
• Patterns have a bunch of symbols that take deciphering. It's a pain in the butt.
• Bodices are a pain in the butt.
• Concerning the above-mentioned item: if you get half way done with the article of clothing, only to discover that you made it too big, you have to take it COMPLETELY apart in order to cut it down to size and then sew it all back together.
• Sewing clothes takes a lot of patience...something I do not possess in large quantities.

And finally...

• There's nothing quite as satisfying as completing such a project, putting it on, zipping it up, and having it fit perfectly. To look at it and say, "I made that. 100% from scratch. Cool".

There's the finished product.

I think I'm going to make a clutch to match...I'm just trying to decide whether to make it black with a accent flower out of the, er, flowered fabric, or flowered with a black accent flower. Did you follow that? 'Cause that was a whole lot of "flower".

In other news...we will possibly be facing some major changes in our lives, but I can't really talk about it on here yet. (No, I'm not pregnant.) But I promise I will share as soon as I can. The boys are growing in leaps and bounds; they're running, babbling like crazy, and climbing on EVERYTHING. The other day they gave each other real kiss for the first time...just about melted my heart.

I have to admit, having 18 month old twins has its share of frustrations. First of all, it is pretty much impossible to keep them happy and quiet during worship time at church. Monkey-see-monkey-do is the main culprit, since as soon as one sees the other one moving around, he wants to be moving around too. They are in such constant motion that holding still for longer than about 30 seconds is pure torture. And let me tell ya, these kiddos are pretty vocal about their displeasure...and since church is in a big open ballroom, there's really no where to execute the ever-important 'timeout'. Thankfully, our church has an amazing nursery where the boys get to play with all the other kiddos under 2 years old during the sermon. Praise God! Otherwise, church would not be an option for the next year or so.

The boys have also decided that their nap time take place starting at around 11 am and going until around 2 pm. We're down to one nap per day. So going out to lunch after church is also currently out of the question since church gets out around noon. I tried taking the boys to McMenamin's Rooftop bar (it's on the roof of Hotel Oregon and is one of the best places to eat outside during the summer) with my parents and grandparents. Of course, it was the day it got up above 70 degrees out. The boys were tired, hot, squinting because of how bright it was...all a wonderful combination for tempter tantrums. My parents and I ended up whisking the boys back to the car, I drove them home, put them down for naps, and got my lunch about half an hour later when my parents delivered it.

So here's our list of things to avoid taking the boys to for the foreseeable future:

• Fundraising banquets where teenagers are giving their testimonies...and where your children are the only children under high school age.
• Anywhere that keeps them away from their cribs during nap time...unless it is in the car, where they sleep wonderfully.
• Basically anywhere that requires them to be quiet and contained for long periods of time.

There's really it at this point, but I'm sure the list will grow. And before you judge and say that we need to be teaching our boys to be quiet and respectful, consider that we are dealing with twins...twin BOYS no less. Before you tell us we should be exposing our boys to these situations, pop out a set of twins yourself, wait 18 months, then try taking them into these situations. I wish you the best of luck. We'll get there. But I also value my sanity, and some things just aren't worth the grey hairs.

Plus, I'd rather enjoy the time I have with our boys by keeping them as happy as possible.

Asher with the bucket hat.

Levi with the bucket hat.

Asher, Nathan, and Levi. I love my boys!

One last silly thing to share before I wrap up this ridiculously long post. The other night, I was going through my closet and decided it would be fun to try on my wedding dress. The last time I tried it on was right after I found out I was pregnant with the boys and was almost 20 lbs heavier. I actually had to pin the darn thing on to keep it from falling off of me! I have to admit, I wish I looked like this on my wedding day.

And with that, I'm off to bed. I ran just over a mile in 10 minutes tonight, which kicked my butt but felt really good. I then walked three minutes and then ran another mile in 10 minutes. Tomorrow morning, I plan to do it all again before tackling 2.25 miles in 25 minutes on Friday. So, yeah...bed is calling my name, loud and clear. Night all!