I've always had this idea that sewing a shirt is really hard and I'm just not quite up to snuff to pull it off. Lately, it seems like all of the DIY/sewing projects that I've been viewing have all been shirts and it was just the motivation that I needed to tackle an old F21 denim shirt that I bought when I was carrying Hugo. Initially, I was planning on upcycling it into some trendy pants for Hugo until I went to a consignment store and saw another girl rocking the same shirt. It really caught me off guard how good the shirt looked and I started to think that maybe there was more to this shirt than I was giving it credit. So, of course, the shirt sat in my closet for weeks until, once again, my good ole planner said that it was time to do something with it this week. I really needed to come up with a game plan but I wasn't too sure which way to go so I just started with before pictures. Really, really, awful before pictures.

Pattern Review - Simplicity 8098

Well, Thankful Thursday was short lived. Not that I'm lacking gratitude or thankfulness rather, there is just so much to be thankful for and I am so appreciative for a great many things in my life. I have noticed that it is a lot harder for me to talk about things that are so close to me now such as, why I am thankful for life, opportunities, possibilities, health, etc. and I was really conflicted about posting last Thursday's post. Introspection is a beautiful thing that causes pause and self growth but I don't know that there's a place for that level of intimacy on the blog, anymore. I would rather look back and see the evolution of when I started writing through actions and experiences instead of talking about the process of what it took to get there. This leads me to talk about where this blog is going!

Transformation Tuesday: Onesie to Knotted Hat for Baby

About a month ago or so, I purchased a new set of onesies for Hugo on clearance at H&M. H&M is my favorite store for baby clothes because they last longer than any brand that we've used with Hugo bear and it's not nearly as expensive in relation to other stores. (Yayer!) It was however, a sad day when his white striped onesie was stained during lunchtime (the week after purchase, ugh!) and no amount of oxiclean or soaking was going to save the areas heavily stained. Darn those lunchtime mandarins!

I really didn't want to throw it out since I literally just bought it and since the staining was isolated on the sleeves, I knew that I could upcycle the onesie into something else for the Hugo bear! So, the onesie sat on my dresser for awhile as I thought about what to make with it. 

Thankful Thursday + Target Style Inspired DIY Holiday Trees

This month, I thought it would be fun to talk about what we are thankful for and I've been looking forward to writing this post ever since I committed it to my planner. Although, I am truly excited to write about why I am thankful and what for, I've had a really hard time writing this post because the topic is so close to my heart and is the product of working through hard moments that I experienced this year.

Today, I am incredibly grateful for opportunities and possibilities. This seems kind of unusual, right? Let me explain, if you have been following my blog this year and my sporadic posts, you know that working through Hugo's birth story was a little hard and then six weeks later I almost died mid-surgery and sustained injuries such as: perforated organs, internal bleeding, air built all around my chest cavity, and a slew of other side effects that continued for months. These events triggered post partum depression and other anxieties, fears that I didn't have before and life became about survival. I struggled, a lot, until rather recently. I spent so much of my time in pain, sick, angry, in shock, and lost in sadness which caused me to miss so many opportunities. Opportunities to hold and snuggle Hugo when I was in too much pain. Opportunities to get to know new moms when I couldn't see passed my own nose. Opportunities to strengthen friendships and other relationships that I had when I withdrew or pushed people away. Opportunities to share kindness, be helpful, loving, etc. I just didn't, or couldn't care.

Transformation Tuesday: "UGG" Inspired Slouchy Boots + Free Pattern for 18" Doll

My craft room is starting to accumulate a lot of old clothes, and honestly, some randomish things. I don't know when or where this happened, but I started to save everything. Scott even asked last week if I wanted to keep an old pair of his jeans that he was going throw away and I said, yes.

I guess lately I've had a keen eye and just see possibilities. Lots of free, make something cool, kind of possibilities. So things have been congregating in the corner, piling up, for me to get to. Most of which are my old clothes from like, the late 80s and early 90s. Yeah, the 90s. It's been so much fun remembering: "Oh, I wore this for Easter!!! Awww!" and then tearing it up with scissors. Again, I have no idea why. Anyways, I digress! Christmas is coming up and doll clothes are on the agenda for Christmas presents and repurposing old clothes are perfect for just that.

DIY Pack and Play Sheets

One of our favorite gifts that we received when expecting Hugo was our Eddie Bauer pack and play. We spent a good deal of time trying to figure out which brand of pack and play to choose and ultimately the Eddie Bauer pack and play won us over with it's look and function. Not to mention that it is incredibly well built. However, one thing that we didn't know when we put the pack and play on our registry is that most pack and play sheets will not fit the mat. Gah! We relied on the pack and play a lot when Hugo was a newborn to about 2 months but he got tired of it quickly and preferred his crib so I never made sheets for the mat. Once he became a little older and needed to be contained, he continued to prefer other things to his pack and play. Soon enough, we started leaving the pack and play at my parent's house so Hugo had his own space when I needed to go to an appointment and leave Hugo with my parents. We thought that we would have had the opportunity to camp this summer but unfortunately timing and weather just didn't work out so we were running out of use for the pack and play.