Mama Sews: Baby Sunbonnet

One of the best things about having  a little girl is that I can now sew all those cute things I've had my eye on for years.

Well...she's 6 months old and I'm just now getting the sewing machine out! This is due partly to my days being full of other things and because up to now, she really hasn't needed a lot of extras. She's received so many wonderful gifts since the day she arrived!

With summer being here in the South and the sun so bright and HOT, Ilona needed a hat or bonnet to shade her face. I'd had this bonnet tutorial from Purl Soho pinned on one of my Pinterest boards for a LONG time. Now was the time to try it!

I used some white dotted Swiss fabric for this first try. I printed out the pattern, cut everything out and had it sewed up in about an hour! Not bad for a Friday night sewing project.

I was a little unsure about how it would turn out with this being my first try at sewing head wear. But it was really easy and the instructions very clear.

Note: Definitely follow their advice and use tons of pins when sewing  the curved seams!

It really does make it easier to work with.

I used the 6-12 month size and it fits Ilona but is on the big side. I knew 3-6 would probably be the right size but wanted something she could grow into and wear a little longer. I may go back and make a 3-6 bonnet now that I know how fast it is to make!

A baby in a bonnet...oh so sweet!

I now am itching to get more things sewn up for her. Such small sizes sew up so fast and are so much fun!

Frugal Friday

A place to share this week's frugal wins, unexpected blessings from God, ways I've been resourceful or got ahead this week.

I hope you'll share your frugal ways in the comments!

This week's frugal wins, blessings and resourcefulness...

• Packed all of my husband's lunches this week.
• Our neighbor tilled our garden plot for us. Now to get some things planted!
• Made a batch of homemade yogurt in the Instant Pot.
• Stayed in budget when grocery shopping. 
• Mostly stayed home!
• Stopped in  at Goodwill (first time in MONTHS!) and found a few needed items for myself, plus cute shoes to put aside for Ilona to wear in a couple years. 

 I have a weak spot for Mary Jane shoes--so I pick them up for future use as I find them in good second-hand condition. 

• Batch-cooked a bunch of ground beef and bacon to freeze. 
• Froze some extra shredded cheese I had on hand. Also some chicken breasts I found on sale. 
• We walked around the neighborhood and used our recumbent bike for exercise.
• Drank mostly water and ate at home. 
• Used cloth diapers and wipes when we were at home. 
• Hung some laundry up to dry instead of using the dryer. 
• Put several dollars worth of change in our change jars. 
• Attended our electric co-op's annual meeting day--by doing so we will receive a $15 bill credit next month. (It was a rainy day so we opted for the drive-thru option.)

I spruced these rusty pots (not cute rust) up with some spray paint I already had. So cheerful!

How did you save money this week? 

Mother's Day

I greatly enjoyed my first Mother's Day! I'm blessed to have so many thoughtful friends and family members who remembered me on this day by sending messages, cards and happy wishes in person.

To be honest, I hadn't given much thought to being celebrated on Mother's day so I was a bit surprised when my sweet mother-in-law handed me a card when they were visiting and said, "This is a little early!"

I thought, "My birthday isn't until July!" haha

Andy created a special card for me then took me out for brunch after church with some friends. We tried a new-to-us restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch. It was wonderful!

I sent Mother's Day cards to our moms and included a special gift from Ilona. We did footprint hearts for Valentines Day so I thought we'd make hand print flowers this time. Turns out the footprints were easier (at least then). She kept her hands balled up so I had to pry them loose to get prints. ;-)

They are wonky but delightfully so! I chose the best ones and went with it. She is only 5 months old once. Perfection is way overrated--these hand prints show real life! Little hands that do what they want to!

We made 4--one for each grandmother, one to send to her birth mother and I kept one for myself to put in her baby book.

Over the years, while sometimes there was a bit of sadness associated with Mother's Day, for the most part it hasn't really been the hardest day for me. One reason is that years ago, I read that the reason Mother's Day was established was to honor and celebrate one's mother. Everyone has or has had a mother. Maybe it isn't a great relationship but still everyone has a mother. This helped me to think about my mother and mother figures in my life instead of myself. When I did childcare in my home, some of the parents would give Mother's day gifts to me and that was always so sweet of them.

I hope all of you moms/mother figures had a wonderful Mother's Day!

**Flowers in jars are left from Ilona's adoption celebration. We have enjoyed them for nearly 2 weeks!

So My March Goals Really Didn't Happen

I knew life was speeding up but made some March goals anyways. Well, I really fell off the bandwagon!

But at the end of March, this happened...

With the judge on Adoption Day!

 Yes! ILONA JOY is officially ours!

We had planned all along that after our finalization hearing, we would host a big adoption celebration to thank our friends and family for all their support throughout our adoption process.

Not only did they pray, encourage and support our decision to adopt, but many also helped us to adopt by supporting us financially. Did I ever mention that we were able to meet our goal of adopting debt-free? It took a lot of prayers, faith, hard work, fundraisers and humbly accepting generous gifts but it happened! And it was so worth it!

ILONA at 4 months.

After our adoption was legally finalized, we got right to work planning our adoption party. We had right about 6 weeks to pull it off since we wanted to do it before graduation and summer activities got started. Also, it's already getting hot here in the South so we wanted to do it before the humidity really kicked in.

We had the party on May 4. It took a lot of my time and energy to pull off but it was a really fun day.

Now that the party is over, I'm getting back into the swing of things and taking care of tasks that got thrown by the wayside previously. ILONA is growing and changing so her previous routine needed some tweaking. In addition, Andy started a new full-time job this week, so this is the perfect time for all of us to settle into a new routine.

So that's what's been happening at my house! What are you up to these days?