New Items on Etsy!

I've been inspired to get New Millie back up and running! So, I started by listing some items that I have had FOREVER! Please check them out HERE! And thank you to my sweet friends Angie and Katie who allow me to make things for their kids and their photo shoots!

Bomber Hat

Newborn Sling

Twin Earflap Hats

Real Life (and some other stuff)

So we live in Texas and the Rodeo is kinda a big deal. And by kinda, I mean it's totally a big deal! This year the Rodeo ran from March 1-20th and every single day there were two hours of Rodeo events followed by a concert. The concerts were performers like, Rascal Flats, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Lady Antabelum, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw and many many more. It's kind of ridiculous. Besides the rodeo and concerts there was also an entire carnival complete with roller coasters, a ferris wheel and an endless amount of (over priced) games and an extremely cool Livestock show. Jeff and I left the kids one evening and caught the Rodeo and the Gary Alan concert, which was great. And the kids and I met up with our good friends, the Allens, and headed over to the livestock show. The kids did the petting zoo, which Harper hated (so much of our dreams of her Mutten Busted), but Luke LOVED! We also visited the chick hatching station (so cool), we looked at cows and sheep and huge pigs, the kids ran and rolled down a hill (for like 20 mins) and then we grabbed a lemonade and went home!

Houston Rodeo!

Sweet Boy and his new friend

Lookin' at some Longhorns

I did not bring my camera, so my wonderful and picture obsessed friend, Angie caught a few of my kids (there were a few more, but either Harper or I had our eyes half shut. I thought I would spare you.)

Now on to "other stuff"

If you have boys, then you know it is hard to find unique clothes (on a budget) and if you sew, it's hard to find creative patterns and tutorials. HOWEVER, I have found two great blogs that have some great stuff! The first I Am Momma Hear Me Roar and the second is MADE. They are both wonderful and have full sections devoted to "The Boy"

I was going to make Luke a bow tie to wear on Easter (because, what else am I supposed to make), but then I found this great tutorial on I Am Momma Hear Me Roar...super excited! (Check it out! I would have posted a picture, but it is of her son, and I didn't feel right about using it without asking!)

Happy Tuesday!!

Love Me Some FREE Tutorials

Wanted to share with you some free tutorials I found!

Find this on Simply Modern Mom

This is going to be Harper's Easter dress! I bought the fabric earlier this week. This dress is actually made from a pillow case, but I couldn't just keep it that simple, so I bought three different fabrics to make this cute little number! So excited! I am also going to make Sweet Boy a bow tie from one of the leftover fabrics, I'll post pictures when it's done...well, maybe...I'm so bad at that!

Go to Noodlehead to make this little beauty

I LOVE this little gathered clutch! I have used this tutorial and it is awesome! The finished product is terribly cute and makes a great little gift. Even if your new to sewing, this tutorial is extremely easy to follow and a great introduction to sewing with zippers!

Okay, go get crafty! Talk to you soon!

Such a Cliche

So pregnancy is my horrible excuse for still not being down to the weight I would like to be. It's "horrible" because my son is only 3 months away from his second birthday (yeah, I said "second" judge me.) Before Harper was born I worked out about 5-6 days a week...in a gym...with my husband! It was amazing. Of course I didn't realize how amazing it was until I was fitting in workouts during naps, or in between feedings or not at all. I gained 51 pounds with the Crazy girl (gulp) and lost 56 pounds by the time I was (surprisingly) pregnant with my sweet boy (only 9 months later). And I WORKED that weight off! Some very lucky women seem to do nothing, just eat and breastfeed and miraculously their pregnancy weight just falls off of them. Not me. I was not blessed with those genes. After Harper was born I was very vigilant in exercising and eating right, and the weight came off. Then came baby number two. I gained only half of the amount of weight with Luke, mainly because I really watched what I ate and I worked out almost the entire pregnancy (I did p90x with the Hot Doc until I was 31 weeks; it was ridiculous!) I thought it would be so easy to get the rest of this little boy off of me. WRONG. When you have less time and less energy, working out kind of gets pushed to the back of the list. I could bore you with a list of workout programs I have done and not stuck to since Luke came into this world, but I won't. I have made a commitment to get this weight off before my Sweet boy turns two! This is what I have been doing:

1. Going to bed by 11pm each night (except Friday).
If you're a mom of small kids then you know that time alone is precious. I had been taking advantage of as much time alone as I could by staying up WAY too late. It was not uncommon for me to be up until 1-2 am. However, there is an extreme negative consequence to this when your kids get up by 7 am everyday; exhaustion. I was consuming copious amounts of coffee, and by the time nap time came I wanted nothing to with working out. (Also, there are many studies out there linking lack of sleep to weight gain/the inability to lose weight.)

2. Getting up before my kids to work out.
Say what?! Yes, that's right, for the last 9 days I have set the alarm, gotten up and worked out before my kids get up. The first few days were hard (well everyday is hard) but I have seen the benefits already of getting this done and out of the way, as well as getting some time alone before the two crazies get up.
I have been trading off doing this:

and this:

Both videos have different levels. The first one has three levels and the second one has two, so there are many different options between these two videos. AND (best of all) they are only 20-30 minutes each.  However, those 20-30 minutes will kick your little bootie (or big bootie, whatever you have). Before these workouts I was doing Turbo Fire, which is an intense cardio workout. Most of the workouts are 45 mins to an hour long and I was just as sweaty and winded at the end of them, that I am after these! (I know, I know I told you I wouldn't bore with what workouts I have done.)

3. Eating

I have always had to watch what I eat in order to lose weight/not gain weight (we ALL have those people in our lives that eat just crap and still have this cute little body). After Harper was born I used the first South Beach diet book to help lose all that extra weight. I had half heartedly tried it after Luke was born, but was not committed. Now I am. If you don't know the South Beach diet, let me break it down very basically:

There are three phases. In Phase 1 you remove all sugar from your diet. That is sugar in all forms, so no dairy, no fruit, nothing processed at all. You fill your diet with lean protein, low GI vegetables (so no root vegetables and no corn) and healthy fat (olive oil, avocados, nuts). It can sound boring and daunting, and it can be if you're not prepared, but if the fridge is stocked with a wide variety of food then it's actually easy. This is where you will experience the biggest amount of weight loss. The first time I did South Beach I lost 7 pounds the first two weeks. This time around I have lost 3 pounds since starting on Wednesday (tomorrow will be a full week).

Phase 2 of the diet you begin to start to reintroduce dairy, fruit and whole grain products into your diet. The idea is to continue to lose weight, so you start slowly; integrating a piece of fruit here or a bowl of oatmeal there. If you get through a week and didn't lose any weight then you have added too much and you back it off a bit.

Phase 3 is the maintenance phase. Once you have lost all the weight you would like, you eat to not gain weight. I like the "Supercharged" version because it has a focus on eating "whole" foods; getting rid of the processed and prepackaged.

4. My head and heart
If you know me personally you know I have struggled with weight in many capacities. I have struggled with being overweight and losing weight and then being obsessed with working out and what I was eating, etc, etc. Neither end of the spectrum is good. It's not okay to disrespect my body in either way. What's the solution to this problem? Lean into Jesus my friends! I ask my Lord for discipline, for energy, for patience, for perspective, for eyes to see myself the way he sees me. I ask Him to show me how to not look at what the world says is beautiful, but what HE thinks is beautiful. And I totally suck at this, but luckily He knows that, and He is just so stinkin' kind to me!

So there it is folks, my very cliche moment. Two years later I still have baby weight. But in three months, I won't!

If you have any questions about the workouts or the diet please ask!