Activities and Half Bathroom DIY

It has been a pretty full few days starting last Friday but thankfully, things are starting to settle down some. 

Last Friday, J & I attended the funeral of a close friend's mom who passed away very suddenly. It was a hard event to attend and my heart bled for my friend the entire time. I knew her mom and she was absolutely the sweetest! She wasn't old or sick so that made it even more painful to deal with.

After the funeral, we stopped by J's office and this made me smile. J has an entire wall in his office dedicated to JOE. Just too cute! You can tell who holds his heart around here.

"Wall of JOE"

Hubby getting some work done. He said we only needed to be there for 20 - 30 minutes. Well, 40 minutes later...

After we got back home, before we picked up JOE, I decided to do some sewing while J played his video game (his pasttime).

Mockup of what the dress will eventually look like.

On Saturday, I had lunch with some friends then we went grocery shopping and came home. This is JOE all snuggled up to me on the couch after I got home. I love these moments! 

On Sunday, we decided to tackle the half bathroom on our main floor. I have been meaning to get it painted and we even got the paint a few weeks ago. 

Originally, I wanted to do this for our half bath. But I have since seen some ideas on Pinterest (go figure!) so I will make a few changes but the base color is similar.

J tapped around the half bathroom and then I did the painting. 

Finished wall.

Shelves for the half bath.

J put up the shelves last night and I'll be buying towels to complement things. I am undecided. The main color will be black but I can't decide between black and gold or black and red. I don't want it to look too "Christmasy" with the red throughout the year but the red will add a pop of color. Gold on the other hand will be mellow and will work year-round. 

Any thoughts? I'd like to hear from you.

Have an awesome week and for those in the DMV area, be safe! Praying this storm doesn't amount to much!

Date night fun

I guess it really was a rough week last week because I am just now realizing I didn't post this last week Thursday as planned!

J, JOE and I went out for our weekly date night last night. On our way, we decided to stop by a shopping center not too far from us to take pictures by the giant Christmas tree.

Sorry for the blurry pics. I guess my smartphone camera doesn't do so well  with pictures at night.

Remember the house with the coffin for Halloween? Hubby and I wanted to see what they did for Christmas and check it out. On one side is a Nativity scene and on the other, Santa and his reindeers. Wicked cool!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Foolery: Things that make me go hmmm...

I actually wrote this out last week and forgot to post it. I had a 2-week hiatus because there's been a lot going on on my end. But I am hoping to be back to things now.

So check this out. I have heard of men saying their wife was the devil herself but this man takes it to a different level. I guess his series of bad luck started when he proposed to her? Gotta give the guy credit for the description of the ring though. I would love to know what transpired but that's just me being nosey.

If you've seen Lord of the Rings and The Ring, you'll get this picture :-).

And in keeping with the wedding theme, check this out. I know about keeping up with the Jones' but this takes it to a whole nother level. Why start out your wedding in debt and at risk of losing your job? Granted, her dad gave her permission to use some of the money but still. I subscribe to the whole "if you can't pay for a big wedding, go to the Justice of Peace! You'll still be just as married as the person who had a big wedding!"
I am one of those people that's too scared to even take a pen from work to use at home on my telework days! I guess some folks just have no conscience.

This one really made me laugh out loud! Talk about not asking for much huh? I especially love that she knows the breed of dog she wants AND also asked for accessories for the dog. Gotta love kids. JOE will be allowed to give us a list of 10 items she wants and we will be told that 5 of them will be doing to those in need so she better choose wisely! I think the holidays should be a reminder of God's gift to us not just a reminder to get gifts for ourselves.

Happy Friday everyone! Have a wonderfully blessed weekend!

DIY: Christmas/Santa dresses

In true spirit of Christmas, I made a couple of dresses for JOE. We will be having 2 Christmas celebrations this year.

Celebration #1 will be at home with J, JOE, my in-laws and I. We often go to my in-laws every year (since we've been married) to do a pre-Christmas celebration. This year, we have been asked to host so it'll be at our place.

Celebration #2 will be with my family in MA. We spend a few days to a week there because it is also somewhat of a mini-family reunion and all the siblings and cousins are able to catch up on what's up with everyone.

Here are the dresses I made for JOE for the celebration here and my folks.

Dress #1 (Christmas wrapping paper dress):

I did the mock up for this dress a couple of weeks ago to see how it'll look when it was all said and done. I liked it so I started sewing.

Then I added the bottom ribbon (not sure what my smartphone camera did to the bottom but it is actually a matching green to the neck tie ribbon.). 

After adding the bottom, I was unsure of if I should still add the ribbon in the middle. 

I did a mock up...

Didn't really like it so I am going without the ribbon. 

After I completed the dress, I decided I didn't like the way the top ribbons looked so I replaced the neck tie ribbon.

I like it much better now :-). 

I will post pictures of JOE wearing her dress after our in-law's Christmas festivities.

Dress #2 (Santa Dress):

My awesome sister in law saw this dress and sent it to me.

Since JOE and her cousin are both 4-months apart, we decided it'll be cute for them to dress alike for Christmas.

So I went to work looking for patterns to make the dress. I found a simple one off the internet (no links...forgot to save it) and proceeded to cut the fabric.

I got everything pinned up so I could see what it'll look like when all was said and done.

I sewed the sides and started working on the belt piece. That was actually the most complicated part of it because it was hard to sew around the buckle.

And here is the final product. I like the way it turned out. 

I will post pictures of JOE and her cousin in the dress after our Christmas celebration.

Expertise needed: Beginner. This wasn't too too hard. The hardest part was doing the waist belt for the Santa dresses.
Total Approximate time: Each dress took a total of about 45-minutes. It was seriously that easy!
Total spent on sewing materials:
Dress 1: The fabric for the green and red wrapping paper dress was about $4.97 altogether. It is a lighter weight fabric. The ribbons added up to about $7. I only used some of the ribbon but I am accounting for the full cost here. So this dress added up to about $12.
Dress 2: The fabric for the Santa dresses was a little more but not expensive. It is a heavier weight fabric and feels really nice and soft. The cost for the fabric for both dresses was $15. The cost for the ribbons for both dresses was $10 (@ $4.99 per ribbon). The buckle was $3.99 from Amazon.com. Total cost was $29 for both dresses. Divided by 2 and that's $15 per dress. Not bad huh?
Feedback: I loved this one and granted, I had some challenges with the waist band, I still plan on using the pattern again for another outfit. I just need to get more comfortable with adding other things like ruffles and such.

I have been thinking about doing the pajamas thing for the family but they are just too darn expensive and I can't justify that cost to unless I can sew it in the future, we won't be doing it.
Do you and your family make or buy anything special to wear for the holidays? If so, do share! 

Christmas is in the air!

We had a very successful weekend. I had to work the Friday after Thanksgiving so J came into the city to have lunch with me since he had the day off.

Friday evening, we hung out at home and it seems like Saturday came rather early. Thankfully, JOE slept in so we were able to get some much needed rest.

Since we've been living the condo life, this was the first year we got to truly decorate and we were really excited. 

We wanted to decorate the outside and that took all day! We couldn't figure out the wiring and 2 trips to Wal-Mart later, we got it figured out. We were so tired, we didn't even bother tackling the inside until Sunday after church.

On Sunday, after church, we decided to tackle the insides of our house. That only took 3/4 of the day as opposed to all day :-). 

We love the way it all turned out. We hung the ornaments higher. However, JOE is AFRAID of the tree and the nutcrackers! She refuses to be left in the room alone. I guess the good thing is that we don't have to worry about her getting into anything. The bad thing is that now, we have to deal with taking her with us everywhere when we are in the house or else it is a cry fest!