I've been Tagged!

Last week I was tagged by my friend LeeAnn on her blog The Life of Rylie...and Bryce too. I am supposed to post about this game of tag, answer her questions, tag 5 other people, and give them 5 questions of their own to anwer. Fun!

Here are the questions LeeAnn asked me:

1. What is your most embarrassing moment?

I'm struggling to think of something embarrassing, like fall down on my face kind of embarrassing, but I can't think of anything. The most recent thing that happened to me, where I was in fact, mortified, happened a couple months ago. My mom had a multi family garage sale. We sold stuff for friends, neighbors, my house, my sister, and others. We made a decent amount of money. We divied up the money amongst everyone. I got $100 bill and a few $20s or something. I didn't try to use the money until a week or so later at my local grocery store. I go to this grocery store every few days. I see my neighbors in the store. I see the same staffers in the store. They've seen Alligator grow up! So it turns out MY $100 bill was counterfit when I tried to use it. I had to stand at the front of the store with a cranky baby in need of a nap, in my smelly gym clothes, with everyone that works there staring at me like I was a criminal. Yep, I cried. Like a little kid. I was very embarrassed. I did not go back to that store for more than a month. (No lie.) I drove a couple miles out of my way to go to a different store farther away. Embarrassing!!

2. What do you do for fun?
Things I like to do for fun: funny movies, exercise, crafting, play with Alligator, play with my niece Gianna, dishes (ha, just kidding), on weekends watch football and hang out with friends. Pre-Alligator I would say I used to go on trips or go out for drinks with my husband and our friends, but that doesn't really happen anymore. Especially being pregnant again!

3. If you were an animal, which would you be, and why?
I would be the laziest dog and I would live in a nice house with nice owners that take care me of me all the time. The reason I picked that is I know so many dog lovers that have dogs and really take care of them and love them. I would want to live with one of them. =)

4. If you could know one thing about the future, what would it be?
I would want to know if we are healthy and happy. That's all I would really care to know. I feel like if in Back to the Future if you know what happens you might screw it up. ;-) So I would just want to know healthy and happy and I'd be good.


NOW, to tag a few other lovely ladies on their blog. If you aren't following them already, you should, they are awesome. =)

Sazz @ Sazza-Land
Kami @ The Mommy Diaries
Mrs. LMK28 @ Life on 3rd Lane
Mrs. Bro @ The Thomas and Ben Chronicles

So now here are their questions. I'm sort of bad at coming up with questions like this. Heck, I'm bad at answering them too!!

1. What is youre most embarrassing injury? (big or small)

2. What makes you feel pretty when you need a little lift?

3. What are a couple of your greatest accomplishments in life?

4. What is your favorite TV show that you could watch over and over no matter how many times you've seen the episodes? (Or movie you can re-watch over and over?)

Now answer away ladies and tag someone else?

Wordless Wednesday

Modeling a dress made for someone else's daughter. Some of these soon to be in the Etsy shop.

Through the glass...

...at our gym. This kid loves the gym. She loves to hold my gym card on the way there, on the way in, and on the way out. She sees the people in blue shirts at the counter and gives them big smiles. Sometimes she gives them a giggle or grunt and waves.

The gym is part of our Monday through Friday daily routine. I use it as a "It is great for her to get activity" excuse, but really it is great for ME to get some activity and sanity. I get some ME time. Real, actual, ME time. The time I'm at the gym I don't have to worry what she's getting into, is she crying, what is she putting in her mouth, am I boring her, etc. The ladies (and one guy) in the gym day care get to worry about it. And they love her in there. We go to our local YMCA gym. It is a small one, but I love it.

The people that work there greet us by name when we walk in and chat with me while I'm doing what ever it is that I'm doing.

So there is a window that looks out from the daycare area to the rest of the gym. I often will peak in from whereever I am to see what she's up to. She used to always be in the little infant area because it was "safe". Now that all the big kids are back in school even the infants have free roam of the place.

When Alligator is there she is the unofficial greeter at window. She will wave and bang on the glass to anyone that looks at her. It is hysterical.

Anyway, so here are some pictures I've snapped (oh wonderful Blackberry Camera phone) through the glass. The aren't all perfect because the camera phone is not that quick (::curses Blackbebry under my breathe::) but you hopefully can see how excited she gets at the window.

How Alligator and Daddy spend weekend afternoons

Alligator's dad figured out a way to get some video game time in and still play/watch Alligator. Allowing me to do things around the house on the weekends. Win - win, right? Wishing I wasn't scrubbing toilets while they were playing though...

So he brought up some toys and the big x-crate or whatever to the bonus room upstairs. Set up the crate around the coffee table and around the couch. Giving Alligator a big area to play, lots of couch cushions to bang on, toys to play with, and the gate was pretty secure so she wouldn't knock it over.

I'm pretty sure she liked it.

Baby leggies - my version's tutorial

I'm sure you know what Baby Legs are. They are normally between $10-20 a piece if you buy the brand name. You can get them on sale sometimes, but it can be challenging to catch the awesome deals just right. So I started searching for tutorials on how to make them myself out of cheap socks you can buy at Target, Walmart, Dollar Store, where ever! There are lots of Tutorials out there on how to make baby legs. There is one at Calico that shows you how to make a ruffle edge, one at Everything Your Mama Made, and one at Little Birdie.

I didn't like how most of the tutorials I found make the leggies so it has a cuff, but the cuff isn't smaller than the rest of the leg warmer part. Having the cuff a little smaller/tighter makes for a better fit and helps it say on the baby's legs better.

There is this tutorial - which almost all other tutorials seem to

point to on Flickr by Baby Hopes. This is a GREAT tutorial. But I am easily confused sewer. I like things very easy and as few steps as possible. So in this tutorial when she cuts something in half and it just confused me a bit in pictures 4-7.

Also a couple of my mama friends made tutorials here and here too.

So even though there are lots of tutorials out there, I'm making my own tutorial to show off my less cutting, more sewing, method of making these baby legs. I think the way I do them saves a little time and less measuring. Here is my tutorial!

First start with a pair of knee high socks (ladies or girls work).

Cutt off the foot from just above the heel.

 Leaving you with this:

Next cut off the rounded toe part of the foot. (Usually I do both feet at the same time to save cutting, but for pictures I did one at a time.)

No more toes!

Next, cut off the rounded heel part.

In this picture we only need the middle piece.

Our cheapo socks - deconstructed for our baby legs.

The leftovers. Trash...or find some other use for them if you can!

Turn the cut off foot part inside out.

Like so.

 Good job, they're both inside out now.

Stitch about 1/4" in on both sides of the foot part. This is making the cuff smaller.

One side done! It doesn't have to be exact...as my photo clearly shows. ;-)

Repeat the 1/4" seam on the other side of the foot part.

There we just choped off about 1/2" or so from the cuff.

 (Repeat on other foot pice.)

This part can be skipped if you feel like it, but I usually do it. Trim the seam on the outer side of the 1/4" seam you made on both sides.

Look, it makes fun curly Qs. =)

It will leave you with ragged edges on both feet part.

Use a small zig zag stitch up the sides on both feet to seal in the edges and prevent the cuff from unraveling from the inside on the babys leggies.

Ready to assemble. This is the part I hate the worst because of the pins. I am injury prone...pins can be sharp!

Now, turn your inside out foot piece right side out again. Bring both of the raw edges together so only the "good" sides can be seen after it is all sewn together.

Repeat on the both socks. (duh)

Take the cuff you created and put it over the long leg part of the sock and meet up the raw edges. I tend to match up the seams on the fold of the sock that already exists.

This is where I usually pin myself...Pin all the raw edges together as close to meeting up as you can.

See, doesn't have to be perfect, just pretty close.

Get both out of the way now so you only have to pin once then just sew and finish up.

Sock sandwiches ready to sew!

 I do a close together, medium length zig zag stitch all the way around the first time. I stiched on the "inside" of the sock because it seems to save my fingers from the pins a bit more than if I was sewing on the other side.

Sew one zig zagged row around the leggie. This is when I check for little pieces that were missed on the good side and make sure they get caught in my second go around.

Do one more zig zag around for safe measure. I do the second zig zag a little longer, but the same closeness of stitches.

Here is what the finished cuff looks like. Repeat on the other leggie.

Voila. Baby leggies.

Doing this without taking pictures takes probably 5 minutes after cutting.

If you have a pair of socks that has a pattern that only continues on the TOP of the foot it is slightly more challenging to cut and piece together. It will maybe add a few minutes to your project the first time and you will be a pro in no time.

Picture with baby leggies being worn by the Alligator...