Ryann's 2nd Birthday

So it's official, my little baby is two years olds. Guh, the time flies. 2 years makes her an official toddler right??? I refuse. She's still my baby and will be until I have another one. Which wont be for quite some time, in case any of you are wondering.

Her actual birthday was Saturday, but we celebrated on Sunday evening. Like I said I try to keep it simple and low key for now. So, sorry to anyone who didn't get invited, it was just family. You can thank me later ;)

Okay, so THIS is when you see how realistic my blog is. First of all, my cake DID NOT turn out AT ALL how it was supposed to. I found this adorable puppy cake online that I thought would be "so easy". Let me just say, that last year, working with fondant, WAY EASIER! And maybe I just didn't give myself enough time because I thought it was going to be so easy. I did feel rushed and tried to take short cuts that resulted in what I thought was a catastrophe.

Everybody said it was adorable (I mean what else would they say) and that it tasted good.

Of course THIS girl loved it.... I mean she's a sugar addict so I knew I could count on her. =)

But I just was, a lot, disappointed. However, Ryann was still able to identify what it was and that made me happy. (Not that it's all about me or anything)

The dresses were definitely the hit of the party. The girls looked sooooo pretty in them. I thought the hot glue was going to hold Ryann's wooden puppy dog on but 15 minutes before everyone was supposed to be there it fell off so we resorted to Guerilla Glue.

Which is supposed to be "faster, stronger!" Ehh.... not so much. Ryann was in her Birthday Suit the first 20 minutes of the party while Jason had the blow dryer to the dog and dress to get it to dry on. Woo Hoo!

All that to say, it didn't go exactly as I planned it. And you want to know why..... because that's reality! And that's what I'm here for. A realistic perspective on life. Well not solely what I'm here for but I do like to be authentic. =)

Anyway, on with the party. It was a super fun family gathering. I enjoyed all our company and Ryann recieved some very sweet gifts. My favorite was her elephant pj's Aunt Karen bought her. But HER favorite was probably the birthday cake candle counter that Uncle Mike got her. She can blow out candles and pretend it's her birthday all year round. How cool is that?!

It did turn out to be a pretty splendid 2 year old party. I have been thanking God for these 2 wonderful years with this wonderful little girl. She's just awesome!

I "luuhboooo" Ryann. ;)

Ryann's birthday dress

Okay, let me just start this off by emphasizing that I am not a sewer. When I was little I used to sew with my grandma some. I made a few sweet vests, that I proudly wore to school in 2nd or 3rd grade. My mother in law made all of Ryann's bedding and I did play around with her machine some. Enough to make a diaper and wipe case, that fell apart within a few weeks. So that is the extent of my history in sewing. So please keep that in mind, and no making fun. Atleast not to my face =)

My daughter Ryann's birthday is Saturday and for quite some time now I have been racking my brains on what to do for her birthday and what to kind of "theme" it around. I don't like throwing big parties. Especially when they are so young. But I do like to make them special. Last year I baked my first cake EVER and it turned out pretty awesome. Just sayin. I used fondant icing and it was beautiful. Not great to eat though. So THIS year I figured Ryann would be in to something. Micaila LOVED the Backyardigans so I did that theme. So easy. But Ryann..... well.... she just loves dogs. I'm like, ugh, puppies?? Puppy decor is so...... well they are dogs. In person yeah cute but wheres the pink?? Where's the bright colors and the fun music and sweet balloons. I don't want my parents house covered with fur balls. We have two real ones taking care of that. But Ryann has not developed any new interests so dogs it is. Thus, this dress I made.

I went to Jo Ann fabrics, me and the girls, which by the way is a whole blog in itself. (Not fun!) Mainly because it took me forever to pick out the fabric, find a cute dog to go on the dress, the ribbon, the thread... I had no clue what I was doing. And holy moly! Sewing is not a cheap hobby. So of course I had to go with paisley, I just love paisley, it's so adorable. And I think this stuff was like 4.99 a yard, so compared to some of the other fabric it was cheap.




I had spotted this fabric and I thought I could do a little bit of it at the bottom of the dress to really get that doggy feel, lol.


And this was the only puppy applique that I could find that wasn't a poodle and was big enough.



So I did all that shopping yesterday morning. Wednesday. I got to Jo Anns at about 9:30 and got home after 11:00am. Oh and that's when I started making my bow. Then I went to my mother in laws and picked up her sewing machine. We sort of went over the basics but I pretty much forgot everything she said. I remember her saying not to touch a specific dial lol. That's about it. So when I started sewing this morning I had to go online and find a manual for this super old Singer. Thank you http://www.sewusa.com/!

I had decided on the "pillow case" dress but obviously I wasn't starting with a pillow case and who buys patterns?? I figured this dress would be a breeze, it looked so simple. And for the most part it was. I only had to de hem like 3 times.... So after much trial and error, I finally got it together. And here it is =) It looks pretty cute on "Bootsy" but I wont post a picture of her in it till after her bday party.

Notice no puppy applique..... yeeeaaah I sort of melted it with the iron and need to get another one. I guess I didn't read the directions right, or maybe it's just I don't really know how to use an iron. I'm just glad it didn't mess the dress up!