Me Made Mother's Day

Funds are really quite tight in the Shimer household right now, so wen it came down to it I knew I couldn't buy my mom a gift that she would deserve. This made me sad, so I started thinking of things I could make or do for her to let her know how special she really is. Suddenly I remembered something that would be perfect.

Back when I bought my green damask fabric (the stuff for my Me Made May dress), my mom and I also bought cute fabric to use on an apron pattern I have. I was pretty enthusiastic about mine and I cut it out, but I have yet to sew it at all - it's all together in a bag. Lucky for me, my mom never even took her fabric home. It has been sitting with my stash for all this time! So today, I have accomplished the seemingly impossible and made her the apron she wanted using the fabric she chose :)

Isn't the fabric cute? We both chose different aprons off of Simplicity 4282 and my mom wanted option E (which is the blonde illustrated woman in the top right). She wanted just that shape minus the eyelet ruffle at the neck and pocket and minus all that embroidery. At the time I kept thinking she was choosing a hard one, but boy am I glad I was wrong. This was seriously the easiest apron ever. I cut out the main piece in the white with flowers (just like mom wanted) and used the black for the straps and the pockets. I didn't take any photos of the sewing process since it was so simple, but here is the finished product:

The edges are just finished with black bias tape, so I decided to jazz things up a bit by using fuchsia colored thread. It looks nice, but you can easily see a few spots that I messed up. Oh well, I know my mom won't mind since I made it for her - mom's are good like that :) Plus it's a busy fabric, so you don't really see the mistakes unless I point them out.

The straps are just designed to tie on - seriously this is the most basic apron ever. I'm glad I finished it, but I'm kind of wishing my mom had wanted something  a little fancier. Oh well, whatever she wants :)

I added bias tape around the edges of the pocket to give them a little visual interest since I didn't add the ruffle. It looks good, but man was that a pain. I saved the pockets for last and literally with only 3 inches left to sew, my machine ate the fabric. I was able to recover it without cutting a whole in the fabric, but man was that frustrating. I made 2 pockets instead of just one - I love symmetry.

All in all, I'm happy with how it came out. Sure there are some mistakes that make it look home made, but I know that my mom will love it because I made it. Plus it's just nice to have the satisfied feeling you get when you take a piece of fabric and turn it into something usable :) I'm really proud of myself that I was able to do this whole project in one day and I'm super excited for Sunday to roll around so I can give it to my mom :)

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Happy Mother's Day

So, as you hopefully know, today was Mother's Day :) I hope all you mothers out there had a nice, relaxing day. As far as my Mother's Day, I have a little recap for you.

Since I had already made the fondant for the Jack Daniel's cake this weekend, I decided I could make a little Mother's Day cake for my mom :)

I carved the cake out and even carved out grooves in between the petals.

And check out the cute little bee :)

My mom liked it.

And she also liked her Butterfingers :) and her voucher for Family Fun Magazine.

I think she likes her cake :)

After we had dinner and whatnot at my parent's house, we went to visit my mom's mom, my Grammy. Grammy passed away last November, so this Mother's Day has been a little tough, especially for my mom. I miss Grammy enough as it is, I can't imagine how hard it is for my mom. So, we visited her grave and took her flowers, some from my mom and some were sent from my Uncle - he would always send her a bouquet for Mother's Day so he asked my mom to take it to her.

We left her flowers for her so she could enjoy them :)

After the cemetery, we went to visit my dad's mom, my Grandmother. She has her own set of mess this year. She had surgery on her stomach back in March and the doctor said she should be good as new in 2 weeks. Well, that was the last week in March and things have been so difficult for her that they ended up having to redo the surgery to encourage the site to heal properly. That was Thursday 1 week ago. Last Sunday morning, 3 days after the new surgery, she fell and broke her femur a few inches above her knee. She then had to have another surgery to have 2 metal rods put into her leg. She had to go from the hospital to a nursing home, where we visited her today. After her recovery in the home, she will then have to use a wheel chair for 5 months. Not a fun way to spend your Mother's Day, or any day for that matter, but we all wanted to visit her to boost her spirits. Luckily, all of my cousins had the same idea, and she was visited by all 9 of her Grandchildren and their spouses and children which she really enjoyed.

I had also made a flower cake for Grandmother which she said tasted great :)

My Aunt Gwen decided to give Grandmother a happy toe while she was asleep earlier in the day :)

So, we hung out with Grandmother for a while. It was great to see her happier. She has been so down trodden since her surgery that we were all getting worried about her. She has always been an active lady even if it's just going to work, which she still does every day, so she was so depressed being bedridden and in pain constantly. Hopefully we can keep her spirits higher while she recovers and bring the fun to her.

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Mother's Day. As you can see, ours was a bit different than normal, but the theme was still the same - love for Mom. I love my mom so much and I can't tell you how lucky I feel to have her in my life. I hope she knows how much I appreciate her everyday :)