Off and on for the past year or two, my husband and I have contemplated moving. He grew up in a home outside of a neighborhood with tons of land, and that’s always been his dream for us. Occasionally on the weekends, we’ll go out for a drive and check out different areas to see if any homes are for sale, but nothing ever felt “right” until this…

I remember the day well. Zac had a rough night and woke up super cranky. He gave up naps around the age of 3, but that day we were desperate. We threw him in the car on a Saturday afternoon and took a drive. After an hour or two, we were almost home (less than 2 miles) when we passed a little yellow ranch, hidden behind trees, that had a for sale sign in the yard. I jotted down the address, and when we got home I looked it up. The pictures were amazing! Because moving wasn’t a new idea for us, we had an agent that we were working with, and I gave her a call to see if we could tour the house.

The next day was Sunday, and we went to see the house in person that afternoon. So many times, you see pictures online and then the houses are crap when you go in person. That wasn’t the case here. We fell instantly in love and knew that THIS is where we were supposed to be. Only problem, our house wasn’t even on the market. The following days were a blur. We made an offer and never heard back, but our awesome agent fought hard for us and after the longest 5 days of our lives, we heard that they accepted our offer.

In the mean time, I was in beast mode, getting our house ready to list. I threw away more bags of trash than I can even count. We rented a storage unit, and everything that we wanted to keep but could live without went in. We had our carpets stretched, the outside of our house pressure washed, new mulch in the flower beds, and the inside was painted by professionals. The best thing I did was hired a maid service to give our house the royal treatment, and then we were ready.

Our house went on the market on Monday, September 14. Tuesday we had several showings. I left the house at lunchtime that day, and we didn’t come home until 8 that night, but it was worth it. That night we got a full price offer. For me, that solidified that this move was the right decision, and at the risk of sounding cheesy, “meant to be.”

The owner of the house we were buying didn’t want to close until the end of November. Amazingly, that date was fine with the people buying our house, so on November 20 we had back-to-back closings, and we officially moved into the new  house on November 23 (three days before Thanksgiving). It’s been a whirlwind since then, but we are seriously loving life in our new home. I can’t wait to share pictures and give a “tour” in the upcoming weeks.

My little buddy turned 3 this week. People tell you that kids grow up fast, but I never believed that till I had my own. The days can be long, but the years are short… For this 3rd birthday, we went with a Pete the Cat theme. If you have small children, you’ve probably heard of Pete. If you haven’t, you need to check the books out of your local library. They are fantastic. My son has a Pete doll that goes with him everywhere.

I feel like I’ve made Zac several shirts over the past few months so I wanted to do something a little different for this one. I love the blue sleeves on the baseball tee, and decided to put his name and the number 3 on the back to play on that theme.

I also made a garden flag using the same Pete appliqué.

For activities we played “pin the button on Pete” and the kids decorated sugar cookie shirts with M&M buttons.

Decorations were simple. I used scrapbook paper to make bunting for the mantle and put some books up there too. I never got a picture of the food, or the cake pops that I slaved over. The kids had cupcakes. Zac had a fantastic time and I’m so thankful for our friends and family who came to celebrate with him!

I solemnly swear that my new year’s resolution is to be a better blogger. Until then, here’s a recap of the fall through the eyes of my almost 3-year-old. The best thing about sewing and embroidering is being able to make stuff for him. I know that as he gets older, he won’t want holiday shirts, but until then, game on!!

Football is everything in our house, and Zac outgrew his UGA shirts from last year, so I took it upon myself to make him one.

Next up was the month of October. Zac’s preschool had a pumpkin patch day where they had games, a bouncy house, and even their own patch of pumpkins for the kids to pick from. He had loads of fun and looked cute doing it.

Here is the zombie crossing shirt I made him. He wore it the day our family went to the pumpkin patch, which also happened to be the day the new season of the Walking Dead premiered too.

Next up was Halloween. Zac loves Pete the Cat, so it kinda seemed like a no brainer for him to dress as Pete for Halloween. I bought an oversized yellow t-shirt that I embroidered 4 groovy buttons on, sewed ears onto a navy blue hoodie, and a tail onto sweat pants. This costume was super comfortable and kept Zac warm too. He loved it so much that he slept in it and then wore it the next day too.

Thanksgiving shirt… (Steelers colors for the helmet)

I spent way too much time on the next project, especially considering I have a million and one things that I should be doing, but today was pajama day at Zac’s preschool and he NEEDED these… I bought the pattern for the pants from GirlCharlee.com which was much easier than winging it like I have in the past. I bought the baseball tee to embroidery for the top because we have too many regular shirts and I though the colored sleeves were fun. I am doing the same type of shirt (with blue sleeves) for his Pete the Cat birthday shirt.

Last but not least is Christmas!!! How did we get here?? I pre-ordered these sets over the summer from Blanks Boutique. I love how they’ve turned out, but I’ll be ready when they’re done. I think I had 12 total to do, and I have 6 left. Here are Zac’s and Belle’s outfits. Can’t wait to get a pic of them together in them.

In March, our beloved dog, and the inspiration behind my business passed away suddenly.

Anybody who’s ever loved and lost a dog knows how hard this is. They’re family, and our home was a little bit quieter and a lot messier (she was a great vacuum, picking up every bit of food my son dropped). There has been a dog shaped hole in my heart since Sassy has been gone, but this week that all changed. Meet Maggie! We rescued her from a local shelter. She is 7 months old, and her breed is anyone’s guess. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a puppy, and Maggie is all puppy. As our vet said, she has some big paws to fill.

Cystic Fibrosis is is a genetic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system. Currently, there are approximately 30,000 kids and adults in the US living with CF. One of those kids is Jack. He was born the same day as my son. I “met” Jack’s mom through BabyCenter.com while we were pregnant. I will get to meet their family this weekend at the Great Strides walk for Cystic Fibrosis, in St. Louis. For the last month, I’ve donated 20% of all Sew Sassy sales to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The CFF is the world’s leader in the search for a cure. My husband’s cousin lost her life to CF in 2011. I am excited to report that as of today, I’ve raised over $200. That money will go towards research in finding a cure!

So, it’s been awhile. I hate it too. There have been numerous times over the last month that I “write” a blog post in my head, but never seem to find the time to actually sit and type it out. I’ve been incredibly busy, which is awesome, but not an excuse. I’ve said it before, but really mean it this time (or, I hope that I really mean it at least), but I vow to do better. I planned to type this all as one post, but it got too long, so for your sanity, I’m breaking it up.

Scarves have kept me busy. Besides sales, there have been a few- out of the ordinary- exciting developments since I last posted. I sold 2 chevron scarves to a woman named Suzanne- the co-creator of ScoopOTP, a insiders guide to life outside of Atlanta. She found my etsy site through google, saw I was a local small business over, ad Sew Sassy was featured in an article on their website!

When I launched Sew Sassy Creations as a business, I was making t-shirt quilts and very little else. I started making baby blankets, and the youth college and NFL blankets, but the market for that isn’t huge. The infinity scarves have been a hit, but I’ve been at a standstill the past 2 weeks, waiting for my new fabric to arrive. Today, I scoured Pinterest and the Internet for inspiration for new projects. I’m looking for things I can sew, and sell in my etsy shop for $20 or less. I’ve found patterns for other types of scarves, and today I attempted a woven bracelet using jersey knit fabric. Not sure how I feel about it though… Tomorrow I’m going to try a new type of scarf using recycled (or the term may be upcycled) shirts. I’ll post pictures if that turns out decent.