Progress on Li'l E's Dress, A Fix, and St. Patty's Day!

I wish you could feel this cotton blend fabric. It is so soft!! I had a really hard time deciding on the smocking colors for this dress.
I first thought that I would use orange, white, and green or blue. My daughter wanted me to use orange and pink. Then, I thought I might use a variegated orange to do the whole thing, but then I decided, "Why not use pink, blue, yellow, white, green, and orange? I know that sounds like a little much, but with the first six rows done (I did two rows of each color very close together so that the color would show up better), I think it's going to be cute with all of these colors. I found these adorable heart and flower shaped buttons at Hobby Lobby yesterday. I'm going to space these out around the white row of smocking. If time permits, I may do a decorative hand embroidery around the hem. Or, I may decide it doesn't need it. We'll see.

It turned out that I was at the Toyota place two and a half hours yesterday. They still had one more recall fix to make that we didn't know about. I sure was glad I had my smocking with me to work on while I sat there.
I drove in the SNOW! It was so pretty coming down, but it did get slick. I saw one really bad wreck involving an older couple.
I made Little Man's tie a little narrower. I think it looks better. The only thing he needs now is a belt. I don't think I'll try to make that. I'm sure he has one that will work. Oh my goodness, I just had an idea!!! Wait a minute while I run upstairs to take another picture. hu...hu....uhh....whew.... hoooo.... hhhhh.....hu..hu....whewwww.....uhhuh....hu...uhhhh....whew...
That was me trying to breath as I ran up stairs. Ha! I'm not quite in great shape yet!!!

Remember back before Valentine's I bought a bunch of $1.00 100% wool sweaters at the Dollar Tree, brought them home and shrunk them until they became felted? Then I made those Valentine vests. Well, I went back to the Dollar Tree and found a bunch more, plus a red wool blazer. I washed and dried these, too. One of them was a sweater vest. When I was finished shrinking it, this is the size it became! No way am I cutting this one, when it is just the right size for Little Man. I just realized that the colors were right for this shirt, pants, and tie. Yea!! I know it doesn't look very Eastery and Springy, but when you live in the NE, it usually isn't all that warm at Easter. He may or may not wear it for Easter, but it will work with this outfit. The little squares around the buttons are corduroy, so they didn't shrink much, but I like the way they look. I need to press it a little. My girls will make fun of me for saying "press", but that's what I say when I don't have to really "iron" something. There is a difference, right?

Now, for another project, which I need to work on NOW! I bought white tees to fit each grand. I will paint a shamrock each one, so the kiddies won't get pinched on St. Patty's Day. We always wear green on St. Patrick's Day here in the South, but we don't really celebrate it the way you folks in the NE do. You guys, (notice I didn't say "ya'll") really know how to make this a fun holiday. The Leprechaun comes during the night and turns over furniture and leaves little green footprints all over the house, etc...... The grand kids make a Leprechaun hotel and leave him little Leprechaun food, etc..... He also leaves gold coin candy!!! Of course there are all those Irish Pubs up in the NE, too. I love it!