My first refashioning adventure!

So a few days ago I ran across a tutorial on how to make a dress out of a pillowcase. I just had to try it, even though I haven't touched a sewing machine in like 10 years. 

So I borrowed my Mom's sewing machine and took a quick trip to Goodwill (on Thursday, dollar day) and purchased a pillowcase for a dollar.

I forgot to take a before picture, so here it is sideways, you can kind of see that it is a pillowcase. It was really easy, even though it took me 4 hours. It should have taken a lot less, but like I said, I haven't touched a sewing machine in a decade.

Here is the finished product. Addy wanted a ribbon, so we just tied one around it and she even wore it to church. I think it turned out pretty good for my first sewing adventure, but just don't look close up at the stitching =)! I think it is pretty cute for something that cost me a dollar and some change. I will definitely be making more of these in the future.

I am now making plans to turn one of my old skirts into a cute little sundress for Addison.  If you have any cool refashioning ideas, let me know. I think I may have to purchase my own sewing machine in the near future. I may just become a refashionista.

Dyslexic?

Our Hannah will be four at the end of July and has never been in preschool although she will be starting pre-K this coming year. Sadly I haven't worked on teaching her much because I was in school full time taking 16 credits and then I student taught. I finished Student teaching just in time to celebrate Christmas and welcome little Emily into the world. I have really felt guilty that I haven't worked with her very much, so I sat down a couple weeks ago and showed her how to write her name, she has been writing her first letter "H" for about a year now, but I wanted her to be able to write her whole name in the right order. I just wrote her name down and she copied it on to her own paper. I thought she did pretty good, although her "N's" were backwards and her "A's" were sideways even after several attempts. I was still impressed at how well she did on her first attempt to write her name by herself. Anyways, life got busy and we didn't work on it again, but about a week later, she comes out of her church class and says mom look I wrote my name and she had (sideways A's and backwards N's and all). I was so impressed that she remembered.  So yesterday after primary, her primary teachers were telling me that they were impressed with how smart she is. They said she knows all her letters which surprised me since I haven't worked with her too much. Then this morning I was sitting down and watching Super Why with her (don't judge, you know you wanna watch cartoons too)and she knew all the super letters they found and most of their sounds. I knew she knew some, but I didn't realize how much. So I decided to see if she still remembered her name and sure enough she did. Here it is below,  sideways A's and backwards N's in all it's glory:

It may not be stellar, but for not having been in preschool and having a mommy that didn't work with her enough, she is doing pretty well. I am happy to see that my child has picked up a lot on her own and I haven't totally failed her. I just hope she isn't dyslexic =)!