Some of my work

Above I took the dress about 2 sizes in and added the "Chinese" sleeves. Pleated them to match the style of the dress. We also shortened the train since it was a second wedding and she wanted something less formal.


A custom bolero jacket I made for this bride. Stores can order matching fabric to bridal gowns. Bolero are a stylish alternative to a shoulder fill that isn't as expensive.

I think this has to be my favorite alteration I've done. I loved what the flowers did to add spice to this gown. The bride chose the colors of the flowers to match her wedding colors, teal, brown and off white. She got married in the mountains this summer, perfect setting for an awesome dress!
Another custom bolero, I think this one is my favorite. It fit so well and the lace the bride picked was really pretty.

I finally put on all my pictures from my iPhone on the the computer so I might catch up on some posts since I have all these older photos on a computer finally!

Anyways I'd thought I'd put up some of my alteration jobs on this blog as well as my design/fashion one.

My Thanks

I love my ward. Its the most fantastic ward I have ever been apart of, the community and caring that goes on in this neighborhood is awesome. I love love love where I live. I finally feel every Sunday excited to go to church, something that I have never felt. I love teaching primary, my class is fantastic. I have learned so much from them and teaching them.

Our ward has all these mini-groups and I am in book group, a leader for cooking and recipe group, and I just went to the first Living the Good Life group. The women that are apart of these groups are fantastic they are all ready and willing to help with anything for any of the families in this ward.

We have one family in our ward that has a son who is dealing with cancer and tumors, the mom is also the leader for Living the Good Life group and today it was wonderful to see when she asked for help that half the women jumped at the chance to lend a hand with what ever she needed. To have and see this kind of service running through our ward is awesome. When we had Lily, I thought that we would get one or two meals made for us, but we had so much food! So many ladies offered to make us a meal, I think I remember I didn't cook for two weeks after she was born.

The friends we have made in the ward have been some of the best! I'm so glad to have met so many fantastic couples who share the same values.

I love my house, it maybe small and still need TLC but it holds us for now and even when it is time to expand I want to try to do everything that we can to expand the house so we can stay here as long as we can! I love that I can walk down main street and experience the small town feel but yet have everything just a short drive away. I love walking to the library, I love all the kids in the neighborhood, such a change from my neighborhood as a kid where I was the only girl my age from age 8 on.

Today I just felt like I had to post and share my love for my neighborhood. :D

My new blog!

Well I did it. I started a blog about my designs, I hope this will inspire me to keep working on getting my own stuff going. The only dress I have up right now, its from a design contest from Shabby Apple dresses. I didn't make the finals, but that's okay. I'm happy with it and that's what matters right now. The coolest part of the dress is that is reversible! I can't wait to wear it to church on Sunday, and then wear a whole "new" dress the next! he he!
Oh and good news! The school approved the SLCC fashion club's trip to LA! We are going! hurrah! We got approved for the school to pay 40% of each person's cost. A awesome deal! We are going to go to the fabric district to buy fabric for the school show next spring. I can't wait! I'm trying to decide what to do. The school has been doing themes and this year they picked world culture, I can't decide what to do...I've been intrigued by Africa, Greece, and the Middle East. Lots of cool draping and neat patterns. I think I may give ready-to-wear a try, but I am having a hard time designing other thing besides evening/bridal. We'll see what I pick!
Here is the link to my fashion/design blog!

Happy Halloween!

Lily's loot! half of this is from trick or treating at Jason's work. She got a TON of candy! She loved all the attention and getting candy from Jason's co-workers. The other half is from Jason's aunt and uncle from their Halloween party, Lily chowed down on doughnuts from Banbury Cross (yum!) and apple juice and received lots of candy from uncle Bruce. I don't know what we are going to do with all of it!
Lily's pumpkin that her and daddy carved. Lily had lots of fun "helping" daddy scoop out all the guts, mostly she just stabbed her spoon in and out. She wasn't too sure of it once we turned out the lights and lit the candle inside.

Lily's other favorite auntie!!!
Lily and her OZ glasses just like in the musical when they go the emerald city!!
My little Galinda! I had half the petals sewn on her skirt and decided it needed the silver trim around the edges, so I unpicked them all and put the trim on and sewed them all back on. Since not many people knew who she was right off the bat, I quit correcting them when they called her a princess. She was supposed to be Galinda from the musical Wicked and I was going to make a matching one for me, but ran out of time.
The top of her costume, that's the left over lace I had from my bridal designs I did for my fashion show in 2007. The petals took 3 yard of fabric and the skirt has 4 layers all together. I had to put suspenders on the skirt because it kept falling off since I made it big and it was so heavy.
I love this picture! This is the same face she had when I showed her self in the mirror after I put it on her the first time.
Auntie Jeana! One of my favorite people! Lily gets so excited to see her!
Family shot. Lily looks bored, she is a typical almost 2 yr. old always moving and never looking at the camera! I still had pink in my hair at church today even after 3 washes! Oh and those are feather bits at the end of my false lashes if you cant tell!
Now I've just got to think about what we are going to do next year for costumes!!

Whew!

So Lily is still soaring in Early Intervention, its been so great!
Last month my specialist brought up concerns for how lily walks, she kinda turns in on her ankles and snaps her knees back when she puts her foot down. She suggested I take her to Shriner's hospital to see if she need ankle braces to correct how she walks due to her low-tone.

We went today and everything is was great, they are so awesome there. Lily got to take home a beanie baby although she had more fun tossing out the ones in the bin than the one she picked out (a fox) They didn't feel like the overcompensation to keep her balance to walk that she does would be a big enough concern to have braces made. Whew.....a relief. I am ready and willing to do anything that I need to to make sure she gets a good start, but I am glad we don't have to go down that road.

Been busy sewing and can't wait to post Halloween. Lily's costume is turning out very well. Lots of work, but its gonna be worth it! Also planning on entering a design contest from Shabby Apple so I will need help voting for my design if I make the finals!!

Lily

So I thought I'd update on Lily's Early Intervention, since I am past what time I told my self I'd go to bed...good thing its still the weekend!

Lily started Early Intervention this month and I have to say with only one session I can already see improvements!! I think a lot of her delay in language had to do with that she needed to get walking out of the way and that is normal apparently, they focus on nothing else until they figure it out and now that she has I have notice her say "mama mama mama" when she wants something.

Our teacher had us work on simple directions and jaw exercises...how do you exercise a 20 month's jaw you ask? Easy! Lots of chewy foods, day old bagels, red vines left out for a few hours, beef jerky (she didn't like it) Its supposed to help her be more aware of her mouth and help her not to drool so much (yes she still does, because she hasn't figured out to swallow it.) We play the vowel game saying A,E,I,O,U over and over to help get the mouth shapes.
She had me make a box with a slit in the top to have her put things in and out to understand simple directions.
we've also been working on signing and songs with hand actions and she is picking up on them really fast. She can sign mama and milk. She learned the whole hand actions for "open, shut them" for family prayers. (I'll have to take and post a video, its so cute!) I checked out a signing time video from the library, she tried to copy all the signs when they did the review song and learned cheese it was very cute!
I really like the lady who is her teacher, she grew up in Britain and approches teaching in a different way and she really knows her stuff and makes sure I understand all that is happening to ensure I can practice with Lily. I'm really happy with the whole program, and so happy to see results so soon even if its because she got walking out of the way.

My Internal battle

I've learned some things about my self lately.
I am completely terrified of success.
No really, I am.
I know what I want, I know what I need to do to get there.
But I don't do it.
I sit there and dream about it and see it happening, but I am not taking those steps needed.
Then I see people and peers and other's around me take off with their dreams bursting at the seams in fantastic ways as they come into reality.
And I spiral out of my happy place and mope.
I have really good ideas too!

Here is the quote I read that got me all worked up on this.

" Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us; We ask our selves, who am I to be? Brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually who are you not to be?
You are a child of god, your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you, we are all meant to shine as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of god that is within us, its not just in some of us its in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others"
~Marianne Williamson

Perfectly put for me to realize my issue.
But what the H-E-double hockey sticks do I need to do to make that crossing, what thing has taken away my bridge to reach that personally???

Its soul searching time.

Anybody got some good thoughts on repairing that bridge? I need to cross it, its really driving me crazy.

Lily Update!

Lily has turned 18 months this last month so I'd thought I would do an update on her since there is a lot to tell!
We have mastered walking finally! She decided it was time when I was at the bank, I was watching her stand next to me and next thing I knew she was taking off after another kid! Its so funny! She walks with her hands stretched out and a big grin on her face or she has her Frankenstein walk, where she shuffles her feet, walks with her shoulders folded in and hums and talks as she walks.
But she does have a normal walk and she loves to walk around the house with toys and try to follow the dog and myself.
She loves to walk with mom and dad a few sunday's ago we took a drive up to Silver Lake at the Brighton resort and she walked a good amount of the trail around the lake between us. She also loved the big moose we saw!!
She loves any animals and gets really excited at dogs and horses and birds..any animal really.

I guess the one thing why I am doing this update is because Lily has been diagnosed with Expressive and Receptive Language disorder. Which doesn't mean much, I had her diagnosed to try and get the insurance to pay for the testing, they didn't cover enough.
So I went through Early Intervention. A state school program to test speech and hearing, her hearing is fine but she did score low in language and problem solving.
E&R language disorder can be caused by genetics, exposure to toxins (which I never was during my pregnancy) But mostly its cause is unknown.
Here is the way I see it. Yes you can avoid a lot of causes of disabilities and disorders, but I believe that a lot of the things we deal with in life we were predestined with. Meaning I don't believe I couldn't of brought her into this world in any other way that would of prevented her from having it. It is her challange and I've had mine to deal with as well. I had and still have my learning disability, which by the way I hate calling it that, its such a crutch. I want Lily to grow up knowing she can. She is able NOT dis-able. I used my learning issues as an excuse way too much and now I see how I could of progressed more knowing its okay to have problems with learning. I am speaking more from my experiance with being in resource my school years. I was afraid of being made fun of, grant it kids will be kids and be mean. But things have changed since I went to school and I know there are a lot of alternative programs out there to boost her skills. And hey! the research I have been doing on the net says the difficulty with language can disappear by school age! Hurray!
She walked at 18 months because she was very floppy and noodle-y as a baby. Babies who are like that ( I forget the term they use) don't like the pressure on their joints; so they put off walking until they gain more muscle mass so its more comfortable for them.
But back to E&RLD some times called mixed E&RLD. It means that Lily is having a hard time understanding spoken language and producing speech. We qualified for Early Intervention and we will be having some one come to our house to show me how to play and do activities with Lily to boost her development.
I'm not afraid of having a child with learning issues (I need to come up with a better term) I dealt with them rather well and felt that I didn't turn out for the worst! (partly due to a mom who was dedicated to make sure I got the help I needed) I am ready and willing and it helps to know somewhat of what she will be facing. But part of me does still say "what did I do wrong?" "Where did I miss that info not to do this or that while pregnant?" To be fully honest I was afraid of getting a smarty pants, because then I really wouldn't know what to do!!!
I am constantly telling my self, in no way is this your fault and you know what to do and you can do it. The best thing I can do for her is to get her involved now so that we don't miss that window of languge development. I love being a Mother, especially now at this age ( Sorry guys not a fan of the baby stage) I love seeing her learn in her way and her constant smiles and laughter brings me out of any bad mood.
This journey has been totally worth it!

I wanted to end with a comment I heard today. I was at Lowe's and had a sales associate ask me how I was doing, I promtly responded the usual "good and you?" He responded "Better than I deserve" It took me a bit for it too click, I took as he was really happy with life and I wanted the same out look...so today things are better than I deserve!

Lessons

I not sure why I even want to post this on here. I'm still struggling with why I even want people to know. But writing in my journal doesn't seem to help. Don't worry its nothing super dramatic.
See I have this dream and I've had it for as long as I can remember, and I thought I saw it starting to come true. I'm hoping by sharing that it will help me get over it, because I know failure is part of success. But experiencing it sucks.

There are two things in my life that I am seriously passionate about and want above all.
1. A family, kids, and a home to create a safe haven.
and
2. Sewing and to run my own sewing business from home.

I've had #1 going for a while now and couldn't be happier with where I am living, my husband, and my baby girl.
And #2 has really taken off due to my part time position at Mary's Bridal as a alterationist. Now I don't get a ton of work, but enough to keep me busy and feeling like I still working towards my goal.

This June was a challenge and several times in this last week I was ready to swear off sewing all together (100% serious). I took on 14 dresses; 10 bridesmaids, 2 temple dresses and 2 mother's dresses. All to be completed in 6 weeks and all the weddings were with in the same week.
I felt terrific, I was seeing my dreams coming true! I was ready for anything, bring it on baby! Watch out world here I come! is how I felt, I had a intern, I was indestructible.
Except for this little habit of mine that I can seem to break. I say "yes" to everyone. And I know from other's and as well as my own experience that just means trouble.
I ended up loosing a dress and a possible good client. But The 3 other dresses turned out fine.
It's the bridesmaids that I'm most upset about. I wanted sooo bad for these to turn out. I was very excited for them, I love draping and these had a pleated/draped front, A-line skirt with a over lap over the top front. I felt that I got as close as I could to the picture and that they looked great. I will also NEVER recommend or work with Joann's party taffeta again, after working with it for the chosen design I am ready to never see the site of the beastly stuff again. How ever we are not blessed with a fabric district in Utah and did not have time to order a more suitable fabric. The draping turned out pretty darn good in my opinion, the reason why it was so upsetting for both sides is that we were just not able to squeeze in a final fitting to make sure all the last minute tweaks were worked out.
The bottom line is I need to be proud of my self for what I accomplished in what time I had. I continually have to remind my self that out of all the year+ I have been doing this semi-pro; to have only 2 costumers that weren't 100% happy with the end product is very good for someone in my situation.
I guess I wouldn't call it failure, but something in between since I wasn't able to get the last little bugs worked out.
There were a lot of things that would of made a difference to getting them 100% right; extra measurements on time, an earlier start date, not taking on 2 extra dresses, labour help that should of come through, better fabric options, a final fit, and the list could go on.
The career I have chosen is a one that can take many years to perfect and I expected right away to be doing what someone who has spent years doing.
Another thing is the time I spent sewing in costume shops was great, I really learned a lot, but its a whole other world when it comes to couture and I have had to re-teach my self a lot of things because it requires such attention to detail. Already with in the three years since I've quit working for the Ballet my workmanship has improved.
This last part is really for me, I love to sew and I realized that I am not ready to give up working towards this dream, this last month was only a relazation that I still have some ways to go, but I know I can do it. I am glad I didn't give up and that I had another dress to finish, because if it wasn't for it; I'd probably never set foot in that sewing room again. It helped me to remember why I like to sew and how much I want to get better at it. I have this huge hunger to learn all I can about sewing.
Sometimes its so hard because we are in Utah and its not exactly the fashion capitol of the world. But when I look at going to a design school, it doesn't make sense. This career is all about the hands-on experience, yeah degree would be nice, but a client will want to see what I've done and not my diploma. There are a million seminars and courses I can take around the states to improve.
Yes this is important to me, but not enough to abandon my duty as a home-maker, finding that balance is going to be hard but I am willing and wanting to do it.

Watch me succeed...

Getting this out has really made me feel better, I've had this stewing for a week and I felt if I didn't get it all out I would break down.

A Proud Mommy

Being a Mother has been the hardest and most rewarding thing I have ever done. I know you hear that from every Mother, but it's true!
Today I couldn't believe joy that comes from this one little person. To see her smile and watch her grow and learn, to see her get so excited to have her Daddy come home and share their time together, which is to eat string cheese together on the couch. I love to see her curiosity when it comes to exploring new things and problems, to see her love for drawing and wondering if she will be yet another creative soul in our family of artists.
Experiencing Motherhood, especially now, where her personality is full fledged, is the greatest thing I have ever experienced. I am so blessed to have this Angel in my life, who has enriched it beyond my dreams.
I capitalized the word Mother every time I used it because I feel it deserves much more than to be shorted to mom. I am disappointed how Motherhood is viewed by most of the world today. It is THE most important thing and Mother's should stand up, drop the "I'm just a mom" phrase and replace it with a powerful " I am a Mother" (Gotta read the book of the same title!)
I felt the need to post this picture as well.
Four generations of beautiful women!
Also to my Mother, a big, warm, loving THANK YOU and all my love!! Thank you for your love and support! Thank you for your concerns, time, and ever caring heart. Thank you for being a taxi, tutor, listener, awesome Ahna (spelling? translation=grandma in Eskimo) Thank you for everything! I love you!

Thanks! But next time...use less soap.

I had to post this, its just too funny and its what I get for asking for Jason's help :D
This is our roll-up dishwasher and the discoloration on the floor is soap and water. Can you guess what happened?
Hey don't diss the roll-up dishwasher! It sure beats hand washing dishes, some day when we re-do our kitchen I'll have a real one!
Last saturday Jason and I went out to go pick out my birthday present and do some other errands. But before we left I asked him to hook up the dishwasher, so they would be done when we got back. By the time we got going, it had been running for about 10 minutes and I noticed some soap leaking out. Sometimes it leaks water, so I figured it would be fine throwing a hand towel under. Nope, I can home to soap and water all over. Later I asked how full he filled the soap dish, he said all the way. I use liquid detergent and fill it only 1/4 full.
Thanks Honey for the help, but next time...less soap!

My Anne Shirley experience

I've got to be better at posting again. I've got so many pictures and videos I need to share, so I will start with this week.
It started out pretty uneventful, just the usual being super busy with sewing. I have a wedding party of 10 bridesmaids due by June and its been busy with alterations for all the weddings that month.
I finally got my dress form ordered! It's been SO nice to have one, I don't know how I've survived this long with out it!
So Really all the trouble started Thursday morning. I was feeling moody and decided I missed having my dark hair, so I was going to dye it my self, which I felt was not a big deal considering I always did it my self when I dyed for the play I was in my senior year.
But this time I used Herbal Essence's Color Flirt, which again I didn't think would be a problem since I always used that brand for hair color. No BAD IDEA! Don't ever use it! Its a foam so the color doesn't soak in well.
It looked fine the first hour, but I kept thinking it was the low light we have in our house that made it look so funny. I didn't realize how awful it really was until I got to my fitting appointment that I realized how REALLY bad it looked, I walked in and I saw the face the manager made, she gave the look of "I'm going to be nice and not say anything, because that looks awful!"
I called my mom-in-law right away to watch Lily so I could get it fixed. To describe the shade it was green around the front with a gray/green/black flat tone everywhere else. I didn't take a picture, it was THAT bad. I spent my 25th birthday in the salon getting it fixed. Which I guess wasn't too bad of a way to spend it, I just wish it was for a less dramatic reason and more of a pampering thing. And I wanted to use a different stylist, but I ended up really liking it none the less.
Thank you to Tina and Rachel for watching Lily and to getting me in to their stylist to fix my hair emergency on my birthday..which I guess I'll never forget! You just gotta have one of those kind of birthday's every once in a while. And I'm glad its something I can laugh about and move on.

Birthday Girl!

I love this picture!
The messy I just finished my cake picture...perfect shot!
Satisfaction!
No she didn't eat the whole thing...I had to cut it up to get her to start to eat it!


Lily not sure what to think of the cake, she kept reaching for daddy. She was afraid of her cake. I made it my self :D


So finally here are lily's birthday pictures. She loved all the special attention she got through out the day. She liked us to sing happy birthday to her, she would smile her big smile.
She was showered with gifts! She loved her I spy quilt and singing cookie jar, her crayons (coloring is her favorite, don't take that pencil away or else.....melt down!) She got lots of cute clothes for summer too. Thanks everyone for such an awesome 1st birthday party! I can't believe that she is a 14 months now where does the time fly? She is learning and its so fun to watch. She loves the dog and points to her and says "Da, da," She can point out where mom and dad's nose and mouth are, she is getting ready to walk but is still really unsure, but everyday her balance improves. I'll soon be in trouble! Lily is such a daddy's girl. Gets really upset when dad leaves the room or leaves for work, she gets so excited when he comes home from work. Its a favorite thing for both dad and lily to have him come home and share string cheese on the couch while mom finishes dinner.
I've got so many things to post about but I need to get to bed.

I've had issues with blogger and posting, its not playing nice with my server (or something like that) so hopefully we'll solve that problem so I can catch up!

Huh?!...Funny!

Chezabelle, our 5 yr. old Staffie Terrier. We've had her now for two years, basically as long as we have been in this house. Anyways she is the basis for my post today. I had to post a picture so you could see the culprit to my suffering!!! HA! No its really not that bad, I promise! This dog has been the best dog ever!

Okay so before I had Lily I used to get one or two nasty colds a year. It would knock me out for a day or so and I would be back on my feet. Well since I had Lily those one or two colds turn into six or eight colds.
And the funny thing was it would happen every six to eight weeks, like clock work. So October's cold I had enough and went to the Dr's, he said it was just a normal cold and I would have to let it run its course. Nothing I could do about it and he could'nt find a reason why they were one after another.
This time around I was talking to my Mother-in-law who told me how the same thing happened to her dad, who found out it was allergies and a friend who also had the same symptoms said to try a Ear, Nose, Throat Doctor, AND my sister who is a Nurse said to go ahead and go because he would be able to tell if it was allergies or virus. So I went and guess what he said?? It was a virus! and the reason why I got so many was because I now had kids and that just ment I was to get sick much more than people who didn't!!
Okay but explain this? I wash my hands like a OCD (which is why they are so dry right now) I am a stay at home Mother, I do get out, but we are not in places where germs run a muck, i.e. nursery, daycare, playgrounds, gyms etc...So how in the world do I get wiped out with the classic symtops of a nasty cold? You name it, its' there, sore throat, sinus junk, coughing, body aching hoarsness. I totally lost my voice this time. Jason got a good smack in the belly for saying I sounded like an old woman! Thank goodness I am finally starting to sounds like my self again!
The ENT Dr. refered me to a Allergiest who could test for immune defiency. I got that test today. Have you ever had a allergy test done? Its quite interesting. They write 1-42 on your back and then next to the number they scratch you with a consintrated form of common allergens. Then you wait 15 min. and then the Dr. tells how badly you are alleric to something by how badly that little dot swelled. I also got a extra shot of dog essense in my arm, since they knew I owned a dog. The scale is 0-4, 4 being the worst. So I am alleric to the following:
Some types of trees: 3
Crab grasses and popular lawn grasses: 3
Dog and Cat: 3
Stright dog essence: 4+
So there you have it my culprit for all my sick days. My dog! When the Dr. came in to look at my results he took one look at my arm and said "yup, your alleric to dogs!" that itty bitty bit they injected made the spot swelled up the size of a lima bean in 15 min!!
He explained to me that the cold symptoms are my body's reaction to defening off the dog allergens, basically my immune system goes into hyper-drive. (HA! take that Mr. ENT Dr.!!! It's NOT immune definency!) So since getting rid of the dog is out of the question, I now get to go in for immune shots to be unallergic to Chezabelle for the next 5 yrs!! I really don't mind, but I have to go in a lot, that 's the part that sucks...The things we do for the people we love! Its worth it though!
And that my friends is my very long story of how I figured why I get colds so often!