The boys’ clothes for Sunday are done. It’s the first time I’ve ever tried to make church clothes for them, and it was so much fun!

The vests were pretty easy to make. The ties were easy too, but figuring out how to “tie” them around the elastic neck part was a lot harder than I anticipated. They turned out cute though.

The vests were just Simplicity patterns (7030 for Samuel’s and an old one I was given for Caleb. I don’t remember the number – sorry!). The ties were adapted from the Little Boy’s Tie tutorial at the Purl Bee. I didn’t end up really following the tie tutorial very closely, but it was a great place to start. I also didn’t cut the ties on the bias – I was concerned that the stripes might look funny if they were diagonal on the ties and vertical on the vests.

They’ll wear black pants with the vests and ties. I can’t wait to see how they look in them!

After a couple days of what seems like nonstop work, my jewelry site is back up and running again. I’m so thankful to be done!

When I opened the store 4 years ago, I never dreamed it would become any real source of income. Sure, I hoped it would, but never dreamed how it would all work out.

It all started when I wanted to make infertility and miscarriage bracelets available to women who wanted them. Today, those are still the items that are purchased the most in my store. My heart breaks when I get certain orders – knowing the pain the women are going through. So many of my customers tell me the stories behind their orders. It is an honor to know.

What they don’t know is that my Samuel asks me about every single piece of jewelry I make. Who it is for, and why she wants it. Sometimes I tell him that “this bracelet is for a lady who really wants to have a baby.” His answer is almost always the same. “Mommy, can we pray that she has a baby?” And you know what? He really does pray.

I never dreamed that a hobby of mine would grow like this, but it has. It’s been fun. Work sometimes, but fun most of the time. It’s great. I just hope that the jewelry I make will touch women’s lives in a small way. . .and if it could possibly be a catalyst in bringing them to Christ like my infertility was, then even better.

But all that to say that I’m done. At least, as far as I can tell. Yay for being done, and yay for no more downtime!

I’m in the process of moving things around on the server, so my jewelry store will be down for the next couple days. Hopefully not quite that long, but it’s possible. So don’t worry if you get over to it and it won’t load or looks funny. Thanks!

Stephen went and picked up a 3-pound package of bees today. From what we’ve read, a three pound package contains between 10,000 and 12,000 bees. It was absolutely fascinating to watch him install the bees into the hive.

This first video is of the bees in the box. It was really windy, so you really can’t hear their buzzing as well as I would’ve liked. They were so neat to watch though! You could even touch the screen with your bare fingers and not get stung.

The little white piece in front is the queen cage. There’s a piece of candy stuck in one end – the workers will eat away the candy to release the queen inside the hive.

A closer look at the queen’s cage

The queen’s cage, attached to a frame of built comb

Doublechecking his bee suit

Removing the wood strips that hold the screen on the box

A closer look

Opening the screen

Dumping the bees into the hive

Stephen tapping the box to get the last of the bees out. What looks like static is actually bees flying around. At this point, there were bees absolutely everywhere.

Checking to see how many bees are left in the box

One of these days, I’d like to get closer to get some macro shots. Right now though, we only have one bee suit, and I’m too chicken to get too close without one. I’ve already had the bee-up-the-skirt experience once, and it isn’t pleasant, lol. I’d like to avoid that again, if possible.

The whole process was really fascinating. I never thought I’d get this interested in beekeeping!

There’s a baby shower at church this weekend, so I decided to make a dress for the baby. My usual gift is a mother’s bracelet, but since I rarely see this lady wearing jewelry other than her wedding ring, I wasn’t sure that she would want a bracelet.

The patterns in my stash were too complex for the amount of time I had, but thankfully Hobby Lobby had Simplicity patterns on sale for $1.99 this week. The pattern I picked was Simplicity 3508. The dresses were simple enough that it looked perfect.

The dress was pretty easy to sew, and turned out absolutely adorable. It has bias tape edging at the neckline, and ties in the back. The sleeves have the bias tape too. The lace on the sleeves and hem is a white eyelet with a pink rickrack trim sewn into it.

Dress front

Dress back

Trim on sleeve

Hem

I don’t usually trace pattern pieces onto different paper, but did this time. I wanted to be able to make a larger size later. This was supposed to be a 1-3 month size, but it looks a bit big. I hope this little girl gets to wear it this summer, but if not, well, I tried.

This dress went together so quickly that I’ll almost definitely be making it again. Maybe for a little girl of my own some day. ;O) There are some changes I’ll make next time though.

*Lengthen the sleeves about 1/2 inch and remove the bias tape edging. That would allow a small hem on the sleeves and make adding the lace much less bulky. This looks all right, but would look better without the tape. It was probably as bulky as it was because the rickrack was sewn right into the eyelet. Or, I would make it with just the tape and without the lace. Or maybe just with plain rickrack. There are a lot of options for this little dress!

*Try removing the ties at the back of the dress and add a button or snap or something. A little pearl button might look really nice.

*Try gathering the tops of the sleeves like in one of the other views of the pattern

Overall, it was really fun to sew, and I love how it turned out. There was plenty of the lace trim left, and just enough of the fabric left that I’m already daydreaming about the projects I could make with it!