Peppermint Swirl Dress

Almost everyone who knows me personally knows that I love to sew. My mom used to make beautiful dresses for me when I was little and she started teaching me to sew when I was about 7 or 8 years old. Now that I have two little girls of my own to make dresses for, I put my sewing skills to good use quite often.

I saw the pattern for this dress online and just fell in love. It's so deliciously twirly! You can buy the PDF and see several beautiful versions of this dress here.

One of my daughters is always coming downstairs dressed in a pink shirt and red pants, or a pink skirt and a red shirt. She loves pairing pink and red. While I don't mind what she wears around the house, if we're going somewhere with the expectation that we look halfway put-together, I try to help her find something that matches a bit better than pink and red. So when I was at the fabric store choosing fabrics for this dress, I decided that I'd find a way to make it pink and red for my little miss.

This pattern comes as a PDF download including sizes 6 months - 10 years. Cutting out all the pieces (the skirt itself has 28 pieces and I had two dresses!) took awhile, but I was able to stack the fabric and cut through 4 layers at a time, so that helped. I did most of the sewing on my serger, and it honestly went pretty quickly. I absolutely adore the end result and I can't wait to use this pattern again.

Little Miss approves.

Geography Cards for Weeks 23-24

We're nearing the end of CC for the year, and I finally finished the last 2 weeks of the Geography Cards for Cycle 3. I'm already thinking ahead to Cycle 1, so stayed tuned! ;)

Geography Cards for Weeks 19-24

Geography Cards Weeks 19-22

I've been working on these over the weekend and was able to finish weeks 19-22. I'll get 23 & 24 done ASAP. It's hard to believe we're in the home stretch! These were a little more difficult to find good pictures for so I hope I did a decent job. Thanks for looking!

 Geography Cards Weeks 19-22

Geography Cards Weeks 13-18

Christmas vacation is over and it's time to get back to school! We're all finished with states and capitals so on to geographical features we go. Here are the Geography Cards for weeks 13-18. Enjoy!

Geography Cards Weeks 13-18

Geography Cards Weeks 7-12

Ok, so I sat down tonight and finished weeks 11 and 12, finally! This file has weeks 7-12, but just the last 2 weeks are new since the last post. Hope you enjoy!

Geography Cards Weeks 7-12

Whew! I have been so busy. I'm sorry it took me so long to get these up for you all! I just did weeks 7-10 for now because I figured it was better to get them up sooner rather than later and I just haven't had a chance to work on weeks 11-12. Enjoy!

**** 2023 Edit -- I have included 7-12****


Cycle 3 Geography Cards Weeks 7-10

Cycle 3 Geography Cards -- States and Capitals

In a few short days, we will be starting our second year of Classical Conversations.  Last year, I was a substitute tutor and my son was the only one of my children in Foundations, as the girls were in preschool. This year, all 3 of the older kids will be in Foundations and I will be the girls' tutor.

The talented Melody Stroud made some beautiful Geography cards for Cycle 2 that I just loved.  I was hoping she'd make some this year for Cycle 3, but that wasn't her plan so she graciously passed the torch to me. Melody had been passed the torch from Crecia at Taking It One Day at a Time who was the creator of these Cycle 1 cards.

I debated for a while about how exactly to choose the photos for the cards. I thought it might get boring to use only pictures of the state capitals. So while some of the cards show a photo of a landmark in the state capital, or the capital's skyline, many of the cards show God's creation, rather than Man's. I have also used well-known landmarks from other cities for particular states, such as NY. My goal was not to be perfectly "correct" but instead to create visually pleasing cards. I'm a visual learner so I used the pictures that I liked the best. If you choose to use these cards, it would be wise to explain to your children that not all of the pictures will be of the state capital to avoid confusion.

Whew! With that out of the way, here are the cards for weeks 1-6. I hope you enjoy them! I'll post weeks 7-12 soon.