Eve's Blessing Gown

So, after crocheting blessing gowns for my friend and sister, I learned that I would be having my first girl (after five boys) so decided I had to crochet one for myself as well.  My friend's and sister's babies were both older when they were blessed so I had to make theirs bigger, but my little girl would be a newborn, so I made a smaller one.  I crocheted like crazy before she was born and had a gown about 1/3 of the way complete when she was born, but realized as soon as I saw her that it was going to be too small by the time she was blessed (would have fit perfect the day she was born--haha).  So I had to start all over!  I literally finished the gown 10 minutes before we had to head to church on her blessing day.  Talk about cutting it to the wire!  I am so glad it is done.  It turned out beautiful.

My son caught this picture right after she was born, when I began the new dress (you can see I'm still pale from blood loss and multi-tasking by crocheting while I burped her after nursing, but I knew I didn't have much time to get it done and had to get started since I had to start all over).

Eve's Blessing Day: most of the people who came had already headed off to class when we took this picture (we are missing, Bill, Brian, Amanda and Ryan, all my boys, and almost all the other cousins, but they were there for the blessing).

 By the end of the day, after the blessing and after feeding a million people who attended the blessing, Eve had had it and wasn't in the mood for a photo shoot.  Plus, all the natural light was gone.  :(  So these are the best photos I was able to get of her in her dress (not good at all).  Hopefully my sister got some better ones on her camera.  I will have to dress her up again for some more pics in better lighting when she isn't so tired. UPDATE: scroll down to see some better pictures at the end.

Eve's Blessing Day

Here are some pictures of the completed gown.  My mom had a tiny little slip from when I was a baby that we were able to use under the dress.  I can't remember who gave me the beautiful little booties that I've had for years, but they matched perfectly.

Eve wore a pretty little slip under her blessing gown that my mom had hung onto from when I was a baby:

This beautiful man, my husband, blessed this beautiful baby.  I love them so much.  He really loves
his bay girl:

I had to get some pictures with her too, even though I didn't have any time to put makeup on first:

Eve was much happier for today's photo shoot.  She is so beautiful, this is the best I could narrow down her photos:

Dragon and Doll Beds

I've been a busy elf again this year.  I had my sixth  baby (first girl) in November, so I was already pretty darn busy.  But, I had to stick with tradition and make the kids some Christmas gifts for three very specific reasons: 1. Jesse has been begging me to finish his wooden dragon I started making for him TWO YEARS ago!  Poor kid.  HE has been very patient with my overwhelmingly busy schedule these past 2 years.  He has waited so long that he has moved on to alligators, which is his current obsession instead of dragons, so I thought I better finally get it done.  2. Ben has a large stuffed animal collection and nowhere to keep them all.  He was wanted some miniature bunk beds for probably three years now to hold them all and I was afraid that if I waited any longer, he would outgrow this desire.  And 3. Eve needed a blessing gown and I really wanted to crochet one for her.  This is like an 80 hour project.  I will put it in a separate post under the "sewing/crochet/Clothing Design" label if you want to see it.  So . . . . I finally got them all done (and just about killed myself off in the process!

This is the toy dragon I designed.  It is made of wood and articulates.  There is a joint in the middle that gives it a slithering motion and the wings are made of leather and flap when the wheels turn.  It turned out beautifully.  I didn't get many pictures as I made it, but here is what I have:

Oiling it to bring out the natural beauty of the wood before adding the wings.

Added the leather wings.  It's done!

View from above.

Wings down.

Wings up.

These are the miniature Bunk Beds I designed and built from the scrap wood I had in my garage.  I've been regretting making them from pine instead of hardwood scraps (I didn't remember I had the hardwood until I had already made them).  They can be assembled as bunk beds or as side-by-side twin beds.  Ben really seemed to like that they could be used either way.  The pegs that hold the bunk beds together also hold the finials on the posts.  Ben loves miniature furniture so I had to make them look as realistic as possible, instead of making them "kid-like".

Built but unfinished--Headboard end.

Built but unfinished--Footboard end.

Built but unfinished--Side-by-side twins.

Built but unfinished--Showing the pegs that hold the finials.

Built but unfinished--Bunkbeds (unused finials sitting on lower bunk).

Built but unfinished--Showing how pegs hold the two bunks together.

Finished Beds--side-by-side twins.

Finished Beds--headboard end.

Finished Beds--bunkbeds.

This smile made it all worth it!!!