Stitch Witchery

Sounds like it's something for Halloween doesn't it? But no, for $1.97 this stuff has changed my life in the past few weeks. As many of you may know, my youngest daughter is little bitty. We have done our best to add some weight to her but she isn't a huge eater and despite having a huge sweet tooth I can't in good conscious let her eat candy corn all day just to put weight on her. But my dilemma has been that in this economy I want to re-use some of Aimee's clothes not only for money saving measure but because some of it was just so darn cute. Even though they were born in completely different seasons, Nicole is about 6 months behind Aimee size wise at the same age so it has come together nicely. If only this stuff would fit her properly. Thus enters the Stitch Witchery. This stuff is iron on that you can put a hem on the inside of the pants and arms and then when the child grows tall enough to actually fit into the pants, you can lower the hems. And not a bit of actual sewing occurs.

It is available in the sewing section of Walmart and with just a hot iron to the "wool" setting and a damp cloth above, the pants are suddenly shorter, the sleeves are suddenly shorter and a new outfit emerges. It's been fantastic and I am extending the wardrobe. I even used it this morning on a pair of pants for Aimee. Because clothing makers try to fit as many kids into one size as possible with adjustable waist pants, the size 3T fit her great in the hips, thigh and waist but the length make her look like she is forever wearing Capri's. So we moved into the 4T but the length are just a bit too long right now. I feel so domestic lately with my stitch witchery. I may even have to try it myself when I am down a size in pants because God knows that whoever is making clothes for women these days seems to think we have all grown 5 inches since everything I own seems to need a hem. When I do get to invest in new pants, I will have a quick easy way to hem them.

Which brings me nicely to my other news. I made it to WW on Tuesday and was indeed down 1/2 lb. My total after all the yo-yoing is 12 lbs since I started back in early Sept. or late August, I can't remember when without my little book in front of me. Still not the progress I would like to see but it is still in the downward direction and I even took the dog for a walk last night after Gary got home from work and dinner was in the oven.

Slowing down

I realize I have been neglecting the few readers that I have and for that I am sorry. But I have been taking it slow lately. I was starting to feel like I was stretched so thin that I couldn't possibly fit one more thing in. Then I took a moment and thought one day ... what am I rushing to? Preschool? It's not like Aimee is going to get marked down for being late. I don't think they start that until high school. Am I rushing to work? Probably but really, I have flexible work hours so what is the point with pushing myself to get there faster by rushing out of the house in the mornings.

So now I try to make an effort to be on time as I normally do, but not in such a way that I put so much pressure on myself to make it happen. As a result I have actually been on time more, have felt more relaxed and the kids are happier. I know I was trying to rush them out of the house to be on time for whatever activity we do be it playgroup, dancing lessons or swimming. And really, what is the point of doing these extra curricular things if the stress to get there ruins it all?

So I have slowed down. I fit in what I can and what I can't fit in, I try not to stress about. I went back to fundamentals. Each morning I make two lists. The first list is all of the items that I want to do that day. The next list puts them in priority of what HAS to get done down to what I would LIKE to get done and lastly what can probably slide to tomorrow.

You know what else has been helped by slowing down? My eating habits. My efforts on WW was stalled for two weeks because with the stress of trying to fit in everything with our new fall schedule I realized that I am a stress eater. I will push things into my face as fast as I can without really tasting them. So by slowing down, I have made sure that I will enjoy what I am eating and I sit far away from the refrigerator and cupboards so that if I truly do want something else to eat I have to get up off my butt and get it. So far so good. I forget where I was at last post for efforts to date, but as of my weigh in last week I was down another 2 lb after having gained 1/2 and 3/4 for two weeks in a row. So tomorrow night is my meeting night and hopefully I will have "edit blog" high enough in my list of to do's to report back how I did.