My Birthday + Fun Projects!

These past few days have been so wonderful for many reasons. First off, it was my birthday on Tuesday. I love getting up in the morning, checking my email and having 30 messages in my inbox from all my friends saying Happy Birthday on Facebook! It's such a good feeling! And then my Grandma Matthews also called, and my parents and siblings. Plus I got great things in the mail. I don't want to brag or anything. Its just that it's so great to have one time a year that all the people you love contact you in one way or another!
So, what did I do for my birthday, you might ask. Well, David did his best so that I wouldn't have to do all of the things that I normally do. Like letting me sleep in till 9 am rather than get up at 7:30 with Lydia. And do the dishes and clean the apartment. So, rather than me having to take care of Lydia all afternoon, I got to finally make this! Hooray! Now I have something cute to put all of those ugly grocery bags in! It definitely spices up my kitchen and adds a few more colors. I actually am looking at it as an inspiration to change my kitchen colors up a bit. Before it was just reds and yellows. But, I am eyeing those blues, greens and oranges and thinking that they would look so great accented throughout the kitchen to add a little bit of a pop! Well, not that my kitchen is so big and decorated that I get a chance to do much of that. But I can start small and slowly add to it by the time I have a decent size kitchen. That gets me so excited!

Next, David and I dropped Lydia off at a friends house (Thanks so much Stormie and Jer!!!) so that we could enjoy a quiet dinner date. We went to Fisherman's Wharf and enjoyed some fresh seafood on the bay. The service there was fantastic! The prices were better than a lot of the places I've been on the island. However, I wouldn't get the shrimp again. It was far too salty for my taste (and David's). However, the fish David got was excellent!

Then David and I went for a walk on The Strand (it's the historic downtown area of Galveston) and even popped into LaKing's for some chocolate. However, the prices at just about everywhere jump up during summertime because of tourist season. So, we didn't get much. But what we did get was amazing! Chocolate covered gummy bears! YUM!!! And, we found out from a friend who used to work there, everything is made in the upstairs of their store! Even the gummy bears! And, I might add that they are probably the best gummy bears I've ever tasted! If you're in the area, you'll have to give them a try. (I would suggest waiting till tourist season is over, however.) We also found the life-size chess board we had heard about. However, they no longer have the pieces there. Bummer! I hope they replace them soon!
After that, we went to pick up Lydia and our friends joined us for the newest Shrek at the IMAX theater in Moody Gardens. It is such a great movie! I loved the moral behind it and thought it was a great ending to the Shrek story. I must admit though, I wasn't sure it would be any good after seeing the 3rd movie. I thought that one was a bit lame. But, I was pleasantly surprised! It got several laughs from me and the desire to see it again. Highly recommended!
Once we got home from the movie and got Lydia to bed, David put away all manhood and watched Project Runway with me. If you haven't ever seen it and you enjoy Lifetime or Home & Garden Channel, I totally recommend it! I think that David even enjoyed watching it with me! (Don't let him know that I told you that!) It is so amusing to see how crazy these designers get with their clothes! I don't tend to agree with the judges on a lot of things, but it's interesting to see what other people find attractive.
And, that is how I enjoyed my birthday! It was a great day! And I have many more to come! (I'm still super young, you know!!!) Thank you to everyone who helped make it special!

Now, the other day I was at Hobby Lobby and they had the McCall's patterns for only 99 cents! Hooray! I went crazy! But, there was one pattern that I wanted so bad, I craved it! And it was gone! It totally broke my heart! So, I searched and searched on the internet and I found somebody who made a dress for their daughter's baby doll that was exactly like the pattern I wanted! So, using her pattern and one of Lydia's dresses, I created my own pattern to make the dress! I must say, I am so amazingly proud of myself! It turned out great! Except for the bloomers. I was only using leftover fabric and ended up skimping on the fabric for the bloomers. So, needless to say, they are a bit skimpy on Lydia. I'll have to tear them apart and figure out something else for the bottoms. But, here are the pictures anyways. I also made the hairbow using some tutorials I found online. I kinda took one idea from here and another from there to make the final production. I love how they turned out! There will be many more of these to come! They were so easy! And it will be even easier for the next ones because I'll already have the pattern made!



If you can't tell, the dress is reversible. I had a lot of fun making it, well along with a bit of stress figuring out those bloomers that didn't even turn out. But, the dress looks amazing!

And, just for kicks, I had to add in this picture of the little peeper! Almost everytime I go in to get her from a nap I find a cute little nose peeking out above her bumper looking for me!