Sewing and Korean connections

                       

The cat dress. The first time I set my eyes on this dress I was in love. I'd seen it everywhere on the interwebs but $180?? I looked at the construction of the dress and I knew that I could make mine for a fraction of the price...I just had to get creative.

I knew the dress was block printed so I got myself a block printing set and carved out my own cat stamp. I used mint green fabric instead of the white cotton as that's what I had on hand. I lovingly hand stamped each kitty cat onto my fabric, left it to dry and heat set it later.

 

From there I just made my own dress pattern and bam! I finally had the cat dress I'd been dreaming of for the last year. I also made a baby version with a smaller block print. I think it's ridiculous when mom's match their children but I kinda think it would be insanely cute to see a mom with black tights, a bomber jacket, flats, red lips and her daughter with a little yellow cardigan on top in these dresses together. Wow. That got really detailed. Well, there you go. You've just entered into the mind of Madie.

There are so many benefits to making your own creations. I didn't spend almost $200 (crazy). I learned a new art form. If you haven't tried block printing, it is so great. And the best thing is...I made it. I like my dress more because it took a lot of effort and when you put time into something, you take pride in it. I plan on making this dress in the white like the original. 

Not to get too deep here but...the only thing I know about my birth mother was that she was a seamstress. That's it. Nothing else. I've held onto that one little piece of information my whole life. I used to imagine what she used to sew, where she worked and I created my own little stories about her from that one piece of info. Then I was adopted into a family with an aunt that did wonders with a sewing machine. She made her nieces beautiful dresses and about a year ago I asked her to teach me. Immediately I fell in love. I'd like to think my love of sewing came from my birth mama. There's something about my little act of sewing that makes me feel connected to the special woman that not only gave me the gift of life, but gave me a better and greater one.

Puppy has her first birthday

My dear puppy turned one today! I went and made her homemade dog food and a cute little birthday jacket. I don't really care if people think I'm crazy for doing this. And, yes all you mothers, I do realize my dog is not a baby. I do read all your clever pinterest/fb posts letting me know that raising a dog is not raising a child. But, I do not have a child so, I'm going to celebrate my puppies birthday!

I made her a meal of rice, potatoes, peas, carrots and chicken (mainly b/c I'm using those things for dinner). I figured since she has prevented me from loneliness being away from home, kept me company, and has given me nothing but unconditional love and joy she deserved to eat something other than dry dog food. My family has a tradition of using the 'you are special' red plate for birthdays and special occasions. Husband told me not to use it for the dog as she's not a person...but when he went off for work I used it anyways...shhhhh. I barely got a photo of her as she went to TOWN on it.

I've been making tons of little girl dresses to sell on etsy (soon I hope) and I end up with a lot of scraps. I couldn't keep a birthday hat on pup so I made her a birthday jacket instead. It serves no purpose but it's cute. So there.

I have an unnatural love for animals. I always have. One of the reasons I fell in love with my husband because of his unnatural love for them too. Life is too short not to celebrate a pets birthday. It seems cruel that they come into our lives for such a short time, so I'm going to celebrate every year I get to be blessed by this furry little girl who loves in all circumstances.

Friends

I was on my facebook account today and I noticed that I have a little over 600 friends. What?! The thing is, this is a relatively low number in terms of FB. I began to scroll through my list and I realized that I'm more...acquaintances to the majority of people. This isn't to say that this is bad! Having lots of people in your life is a good thing, but it did make me question the traits of actual friends. What makes up a friend?

I had a few bad years and in that time I realized a couple things. I pushed a lot of people away and many of them have stayed away (bummer). I had a lot of people I pushed away push back (thank you) and I had a couple friends I couldn't push back even if I tried because they'd always be my friends...no matter what. I only have a handful of actual loving, caring, trusting, challenging, committed, faithful and true friends in my life. A couple years ago I think that would have bothered me as I was way more insecure (I still fight this battle sometimes) but as I get older I realize that you only really need a few good friends.

Erin: One of my oldest friends and the person that I can count on to remember every birthday or milestone. Even though we've changed it's okay because my friendship with her is stronger than personal changes. She is my most thoughtful friend. She rarely thinks of herself and most of the time is thinking of others. I can attest to this because most of the time it's me just rattling off some frustrations in my life and she's there to always listen.  She was my Maid of Honor and I hope I can continue to honor her throughout my life

Cliff: I could not get through life without Cliff. The most intentional friend that I have. I really can't explain my friendship with Cliff other then it goes deeper than friendship. Every single person should have a friend like
Cliff. Everyone. I wish I could write more but like I said before, my friendship with him is deeper than any words I can write. Everyone always tells me, "I know you love Cliff so much". He is so special.

Jessica: I spent sometime in Korea before I landed back to my home in Yakima. Once I did another little girl was just being born and being adopted to the same city. I've known Jess all my life and we've gone through so many different adventures together. She is my friend I can vent to and blow off steam without feeling the judgement that I shouldn't be doing/saying certain things. She is honest and doesn't really care about what other people think and I've always longed to be like that.

Megan: My newest friend out of the bunch but really, we should've been friends since birth. We bonded over the similarities from life we had gone through. Megan is joy. I can be completely honest with her and she's the girlfriend I'd always wanted.  I always know I can count on her if I'm feeling terrible. She'll sit with me and I can tell her my hurts and she'll be there to help put me back together. After I was coming out of my 'few bad years' Megan was the one to just be my friend. Maybe it was because our friendship was new and so my mistakes weren't matched up to my previous self, or maybe that's a testament to how loving and non-judgmental Megan is as a person.

Laura: I'm so happy that during my sophomore year in high school Laura entered into my life. We'd gone to school since 6th grade, but 11th grade changed everything. I love her passion for life and for whatever she is doing. She makes me want to be a better person...no joke haha. She isn't afraid to speak her mind and I know she's been there for a time in my life when no one else really was. She probably doesn't even remember it as it was such as small moment...but I always will.  

Sarah and Anne: My cousins. We all grew up in families with one girl and 2 brothers and because of the closeness in age to each other it became obvious that they would become more like my sisters. Husband said it was weird how close I am to my cousins because he rarely talks to his. I need them in my life and I cherish them so much.

There are many others of course that I could write about (Becky, Kimberly, Sara,Chele, Amanda, Kara, Jered, Bryan, Dave etc....) and probably will! My friends are more than just the people on this list, but these are the people that I was thinking about in this moment and I wanted to tell them 'thank you' for not just being my people I say hello to on FB but being my actual real friends.