A Dress Made for Waving!

As a former Miss Kansas, my cousin Becki plays a big part in the celebrations of pageant week in Kansas every June.  Undoubtedly, one of her best duties is riding in the parade (how fun would that be?!).  She and I combined our mutual powers this year to design (her) and sew (me) a one-of-a-kind dress for her to wear in the parade!

Since she spends most of the parade waving from the car, she thought it might be fun to have a one-shoulder dress with a fun sleeve.  We scoured the internet together to pick out a fabric, and came up with this amazing aqua jersey from Gorgeous Fabrics (seriously, it's a dream - and there's 7 yards left!).  I loved the end result and the marriage of the design and the print.

And here she is putting that sleeve to work with the wave!  Gorgeous, right?

P.S.  Becki is a talented professional trumpet player - check out her website, if you'd like!

My Inevitable Return

Well, it's been a good two months since I last posted (and if you've been visiting to see if I've updated, I apologize that you have to keep reading about the books I read in April). The last two months have been hectic and life-changing and wonderful, and I'm extremely excited to get back in the normal swing of things and re-start documenting our lives.

From the past few months, here are the days we don't want to forget:

(And if you want the short version:  there's a baby baking in my oven, Scott graduated from dental school, we moved to Las Vegas!)

May 4 & May 6:  We flew home to surprise our parents and let them know their days as just "parents" are numbered...they're bumping up to grandparents soon!  We also got to stop by and surprise lots of other family members with the news.

May 9:  Bleeding on Probing:  The Farewell Show.  It was loud, it was epic, and it ended with Scott smashing his bass guitar into a dozen pieces, so it pretty much couldn't have gone any better.

May 11:  Senior formal, where all the fourth-year dental kids get dressed up and bring their dates and have a final hurrah.  I also made this dress (more on that when I start getting caught up!).

May 23:  A day 4 years in the making.  What absolute joy and pride to watch your husband bestowed with the title of "Doctor" after the all-night studies and the exams and letting him give you fillings.  This guy earned it, big time.

May 30:  Here's the part where we packed up our New York apartment and said good-bye to NYC.  We spent our last night in New York sitting on the roof of our building, watching the sunset behind the George Washington Bridge, eating Magnolia cupcakes.  It could not have been more perfect.

June 1:  We moved to the fabulous LAS VEGAS!  The rumors are true:  the desert is blazing hot.  But it is also a magical place where I got my very first smartphone, so I am now fully entrenched in iPhone culture and I'm all up in Instagram (@valeriesews).

Since getting to LV, we have:

 Practically melted.

 Been pleasantly surprised that Vegas is surrounded by mountains on all sides!

Took our first trip to the Strip as actual Vegas residents...to go to the Apple store.

Took Young America for a spin on Lake Mead.

 

Barely started the task of unpacking.

 

Reached the halfway point of pregnancy.

Sent Scott off for a month of officer training!

Life is getting back to a (new) normal sort of place after all that, and I'm looking forward to sharing in this space again (and also SEWING!).