A New Cape for the Princess

At a garage sale last weekend, I picked up a burgundy velvet cape for Princess's dress-up box. It was adult size, but I figured I could fix that :)
(Please ignore the mess in the background, it was a sewing day, not a cleaning day, lol)


First thing I did was measure Princess from the shoulders to about the ankles where I wanted the cape to fall. After doing this, I measured the cape from the shoulders down and cut off the excess.

With the extra fabric I had from the bottom, I decided to make a hood. I used one of my hooded sweaters to make a paper pattern.


Next, I cut out the hood pieces and pinned them together, facing each other. Then I folded over the bottom edge of the actual cape and pinned this in place as well. I zigzagged the edges of the hood together and zigzagged the bottom of the cape. By the way, stretchy velvet material is kinda tricky to work with so my stitching didn't turn out perfect, but it was good enough for a dress-up cape.

When the hood pieces were sewn together, I folded over the front edges of the hood and zigzagged that just like I'd done to the bottom of the cape. It turned out with a lettuce edge which actually looked kinda cute.


Now all I had to do was attach the hood to the cape. The cape had a slightly padded stand-up collar on it. To make things easier, I folded the collar down and simply zigzagged the hood onto the same seam that the original maker of the cape had created when they'd attached the collar to the cape.

Done! It took me about 15 minutes to whip this up By this time, Princess had gone outside to play so I chased her down to try on her new dress-up cape. She's thrilled with the latest addition to her dress-up box and loves that it makes her feel like a real princess.

Giving Away Money

I'm going to ask you for help with some stuff...I might just beg and plead. We'll see.

I'm earning money on two different websites. One is Swagbucks (earn points by using their search engine, doing tasks, surveys, special offers, finding codes, watching short videos, etc). I signed up for this site at the beginning of March. So far, I've earned $60 in Amazon Gift Cards. I tell ya, being able to get something for FREE is such a good feeling.

The other site I use is an invitation-only website called Superpoints (earn points by watching a short video every day, completing special offers, and, my personal favorite, clicking on the "Superlucky" button to randomly win points). I signed up for Superpoints on Sunday and I already have 118 points that I can redeem for prizes or Amazon gift cards. Word to the wise, always go for the Amazon gift cards-you can literally buy anything on Amazon.

I know people who have never paid for diapers simply by using one or more of this type of website. Other people save up all year (amazon gift cards NEVER expire) and use the money they earn to buy Christmas gifts. Both sites I use are completely free as long as you stay away from the special offers where you have to sign up to buy something to earn points. I've never spent a cent on either of these websites.

Here's where I grovel a bit. To up my earnings, I need people to sign up for one or both of these sites with my referral links. Personally, I don't see why more people don't do stuff like this. I mean, IT'S FREE MONEY!!!! But I digress.

Here's my referral link to Swagbucks. Anyone and everyone can use this link.

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/annaliesboutique

Here're a few referral links to Superpoints. If you click on a link and it's expired or used already, please comment on this post or email me at annaliesbabyboutique@yahoo.com and I would be more than happy to dig up another link for you to sign up with. Also, in order for me to actually get any benefits from you signing up, you have to upgrade to the Basic membership. Which means just filling in basic profile info and verifying your email address. Supereasy.
UPDATED 8-16-11

http://superpoints.com/wrpgs/jcwpku

http://superpoints.com/wrpgs/a65aiv

http://superpoints.com/wrpgs/rks1f1

Thanks in advance to all who sign up!!!!

Unsolicited Advice: Want something for free? Use one or both of the links above to sign up for FREE money or stuff!

Allergies

Princess had an appointment with her allergy specialist yesterday and he told us that since she is doing so well, we can start feeding her again! Well, we've been feeding her, but when you have to cut wheat, dairy, peanuts, and eggs out of a diet, that doesn't leave many options. She can only have her "allergy" foods several times a week so I plan to stick to her food plan at home and let her have "treats" when we're out somewhere. I celebrated Princess's semi-release from her nearly year-long strict diet by buying her a M&M cookie. She took it from me and just stared at it with huge eyes for a minute before asking, "Mommy, can I eat this?" When I told her that she could, she could barely contain her excitement.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to cut wheat, eggs, peanuts, and dairy out of Princess's diet, but at times, it was heartbreaking. Like when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday meal and all she wanted was a sandwich. Or when I would sit down to eat something that was off-limits for Princess and she'd ask, "Mommy, can I just smell it, please?" Then she's smell my food and say, "Mmmmm, that's good!" I'm just glad we went through this while she's still young because it wasn't as much of an adjustment for her versus what it would be for an older child or adult.

Unsolicited Advice: Many people think that when a person has food allergies, that they will have an instant reaction to that food such as itching, hives, asphyxiation, etc. However, many times, food allergies cause other symptoms like wetting the bed, behavior issues, asthma, etc.

Annoyances

Things that annoy me:

Bugs. They come in my house, they scare the living daylights out of me if they look weird enough or have 8 legs or more. I just don't like 'em

People who assume that just because we live in a small town, we don't know what's going on in that great big ole' world out there. Seriously, we have a television. And multiple radios.

People who don't keep their houses clean. Okay, actually my house is a disaster 95% of the time. I'm mostly just annoyed with myself because I'm sick of it being a mess.

My outside cat. Dumb thing won't quit climbing window screens.

Spilt milk. I know, I know, don't cry over spilt milk. I don't cry over it, I just get vaguely annoyed that I have to clean up spilt milk AGAIN.

Laundry GREATLY annoys me. It's neverending. Right now I have 4 loads partially folded on my living room floor, 1 NOT folded load on the bright orange crushed-velvet chair (I dig retro furnishings, okay?), and 6 or 7 loads that need to be washed, dried, folded, and put away. Help.

Whining. GET. OVER. IT. My beautiful 3 year old is aware that whining gets her absolutely nowhere with me and doesn't use it much ("I can't understand you because all I hear is a whiny voice."), my 12 month old is the king of whine. Which he is learning gets him nowhere as well.

Emptying the garbage can. Don't know why, I just hate this household chore and am looking forward to the day I can pass this job onto my dear children.

The lack of space in my house. A small 2 bedroom basement apartment is just not big enough for 2 adults, 2 kids, all their toys, and 2 home based businesses.

Name Changes

I've decided to change my kids' names. Not in real life, just here on the blog. The names I picked for them here has caused some confusion among my real-life friends. So to eliminate the confusion as to why they have the names Louise and Nathan, they shall hereby be known as "Princess" and "Little Man" from this point forward. Someday if I get ambitious, I'll go back and change their names in the previous posts to avoid confusing new followers to the blog, but frankly, I don't have time right now.

I think it's pretty obvious why I selected the names "Princess" and "Little Man." Loui...I mean Princess is under the impression that she is in fact a Princess and in all actuality she is, indeed, God's little princess.
Little Man is thusly named because he is my "little man." He got his first haircut last week (*sob) and looks like a little boy. He has never seemed like a baby to me, just a miniature adult who used to cry a lot, uses a diaper, and doesn't know how to feed himself.

Unsolicited Advice: Can't think of any today and the kids are whiny because it's suppertime so...behave yourself!

Changes

I've made some changes at Annalie's Baby Boutique! Here they are:
1. I will do a weekly deal which will be different every week. Each deal will run from Monday until Sunday.
2. I will be doing flash giveaways and special deals at least once a month if not more. This is where I randomly post a giveaway or special deal as my status or on my blog and you have a certain amount of time to enter the giveaway or special deal using the link I will provide before I pick a winner through random.org
3. Starting May 1st, every purchase made will earn you Loyalty Bucks. You get 1 Loyalty Buck for each $10 spent (does not include shipping costs) and when you get 5 Loyalty Bucks, you can exchange them for a $5 credit or keep saving up. If you have small orders (under $10), I will keep track of them as well and apply them towards your next Loyalty Buck. I will be keeping track of all these in a spreadsheet so you, as the customer, will not have the responsibility of remembering and tracking your Loyalty Bucks.

There's also been a big change at my house...Little Man is a year old!!! Okay, he's not officially a year old for a few more days, but we celebrated with a party last Saturday. Hard to believe he's that old already since this past year went by so fast. He's chattering a lot, but not saying any real words, can do sign language for "all done", "more", and "milk" when he wants to, doesn't walk yet, but stands without hanging onto anything for up to two minutes, got his first haircut last week, and is transitioning to the sippy cup quite well.
Here's a few pictures of his party:

The sock monkey lovey is from Baby Bug Boutique
The sock monkey hat is from Nanna's Threads. I made the overalls along with a matching jumper dress for Princess to wear.