Sew Sweet Cottage

The Ugliness of Uncertainty…going through a rough patch with Justin

2013-05-24T11:48:00.000-04:00

I love posting about Justin’s successes! It helps me stay focused on the positive things in life and reminds me how blessed I am. Most days I don't have to look far to find something new and amazing that Justin has learned. But there are certainly times where things are “that bad” that it seems impossible to find a silver lining…so there is your warning, this is not going to be a warm and fuzzy post about Autism successes.
Things have been rough….really rough…pits-of-despair-unbearable-rough for the past couple of months. My way of coping with rough times is to talk about it with friends and family. That's how I get through it. I have decided to share the details of the past few months with my readers for a couple of reasons. My first reason is in case any other mom is going through this--we can bear our burdens together and not feel so alone. Second, because whether you have a child with Autism or not, we all have super low times where we feel hopeless and I may just need to rely on your strength right now to get me through--and hopefully I can return the favor some day. And lastly, because I know that somehow, this will all work out and I’ll be able to look back at this post and recognize how God guided my family or others to help us make it through this—that will be another strength to rely upon for trials that will come in the future.

Justin started to have a distended belly back in February and kept pushing on his abdomen and making a coughing-type noise. He would cry out sometimes, but we couldn't tell whether it correlated directly with pushing on his stomach. We took him to the doctor and they examined him and couldn’t find anything wrong. Daily bathroom habits were normal, so we didn’t know why he was doing this behavior but originally decided to chalk it up to an unusual repetitive behavior. Then he started to scream and tantrum more and hit his hips and head with his hands. He is never self-injurious unless he is in pain, and we had only ever seen this head hitting behavior 2 other times in the past 10 years. So we interpreted his behavior to mean that he was in some type of physical pain. We took him back to the doctor and started our game of “Let’s just rule stuff out," which is all we can do since Justin can’t tell us if he is hurting. We had an abdominal series of x-rays and it turned out he had a significant, partial bowel obstruction. We put him on a weekend diet of 2 doses a day of Miralax and the head hitting and hip hitting stopped and the orneriness decreased. Phew!!

But after a few days, we hadn’t seen a huge decrease in the orneriness. We actually noticed it was getting worse, so we took him back to the doctor and found out he had an ear infection. We blamed all his orneriness on the new ear infection and waited for things to get better. But he kept hitting his head and increased his screaming fits and drop-to-the-floor tantrums. After 10 days of that, we took him back to the doctor to re-check ears, and did a repeat abdominal x-ray….partial obstruction again—or perhaps it was never fully resolved the first time. We had to put him on a clear liquid, Miralax only diet for 36 hours. It was AWFULl!! He begged for food using his iPad the entire time and would pull on my arms and scream at me and then run to his iPad and push the icon for Nachos. When I wouldn't give it to him he would go back to his iPad, scream, and spell slowly N-A-C-H-O-s. We have spent years teaching Justin this method of communication, and now I had to repeatedly tell him no. It was so sad!! At the end of 24 hours, he started vomiting and ended up with a fever of 102!! We took him back to the doctor the next morning and they did an x-ray and said the bowel obstruction had been cleared. Back to a soft diet and just a daily dose or Miralax for a month to get back on track. Yay, we were finally going to see relief!!

But we didn’t. We also took him to the dentist to rule out any problems—no problems there. We wondered if he had a sinus infection, and he was put on an antibiotic. For 3 days he was completely back to normal, no behaviors or fits—it was like we had our sweet Justin back!! And then, even though we had continued the rest of the antibiotic course, the head banging and fits came back. We had a sedated CT scan of his head and abdomen and all of that came back normal except for some enlarged lymph nodes around the stomach. A follow up ultrasound proved that they were no longer enlarged and all his abdominal organs were normal.

And just to complicate things, Justin’s doctor had started him on Abilify. My sweet boy was all of a sudden not only hitting his head, but biting his arm and starting to shove me. We never see aggression from Justin so this was all so alarming. The intensity and anger became very worrisome for us. He also started having multiple urinary accidents during the day and then he started ear flapping. He would fall asleep after his screaming fits and head banging, so we wondered whether he was actually starting to have temporal lobe seizures. We took him AGAIN to his doctor who agreed that they sounded like seizures and put him on Topamax. The next day he got mad and bit ME and then started having bowel movements in his bed. This is where mom starts falling apart. After eight weeks of managing screaming and the uncertainty of where this pain is coming from, and watching my child hurt himself--we were now adding un-potty-trained to the list!! And then he wrestled me one morning and tried to pin be against the pantry door….and this is where we officially hit rock bottom. Nothing like grabbing my other kids and locking them in a room to keep them safe while I try to calm down the unexplained anger of their brother. These are my greatest fears as a mom, and as much as I am a talker--I reached a point where this was so ugly I didn't want to talk about it at all! I just wanted it to stop. I cried—and cried--and then I cried some more. And then I did call his therapists and my family and friends and got back into the game and started searching for help again.

I have been through some rough times in my life, but this surely comes close to the top of the list. I can’t describe how incredibly heartbreaking it is to watch your child hurt themselves and then couple that with the uncertainty of not knowing why…I have just been hanging on with the hope that we can somehow be inspired how to help Justin. I have had family and friends fasting and praying for us and we are completely relying on that strength to get us through right now.

We have taken him off the Abilify and Topamax, and are treating him with an antibiotic to see if his symptoms subside again.

Have we seen specialists?? Yes, and so far it hasn’t proved to be helpful. We are open to new specialists if any of my readers have recommendations!! We will travel if necessary at this point, I just can’t bear to see Justin suffer like this. Is Autism rough?? Yes!! Does it mean your life goals will be altered?? Absolutely!! And I am okay with all that, but watching him in pain and dealing with constant uncertainty of what is causing the pain—is just not right!!

During all this insanity, I got Justin’s school pictures back from this year (the first time ever I have had a school picture of him—HOORAY!!.)

And this beautiful smile is the whole reason I am fighting—I am not looking for a cure for Autism, I just want Justin to be out of pain and smile like this again.

Rice Krispies Cookies…

2013-05-10T12:22:00.000-04:00

I love a “fail-proof” recipe, you know the kind you can trust to work every time you make it?? This recipe is my “fail-proof” recipe. I adapted this recipe from an old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook called Cookies for Kids.

These cookies are chocolate free, which is a bonus for this allergy family—and has a rich caramel-type flavor and a chocolate chip cookie type of texture.

Here’s my adapted recipe:

1 C butter

1 C sugar

1 C brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 C flour

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. baking soda

2 C Rice Krispies

Turn oven to 375 degrees. Cream softened butter with sugars. Add eggs and vanilla an beat well. Add flour, cream of tarter, and baking soda and mix well. Add Rice Krispies and mix until just blended. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Leave on pan for 1 minute after taking out of oven then transfer to cooling rack.

I usually freeze have of the rounded teaspoon cookie balls and then pull them out a few at a time to bake later—it’s a great freezer-to-baking cookie. These are definitely a crowd pleaser!!

PB James and Anna Tote Bag patterns…

2013-05-07T18:43:00.000-04:00

We have had a ROUGH two months with Justin. The poor kid has had two partial bowel obstructions, and a sinus infection. So what do I do when I am stressed?!?! Sew, sew, and sew…and get two patterns finished!!

The Anna Tote Bag pattern is a perfect beginning pattern. It is what I use for my beginner sewing students. The pattern itself includes color pictures for each step of the tutorial making this pattern easy to follow!!

My PB James pattern is a mini version of my PB Inspired Quilt for Little Miss. I have had several people request that I make quilts to sell in my Etsy shop—and I have 2 of these PB James quilts almost finished!! It is a great beginner quilt and is also very easy to follow.

You can find these two patterns, along with others, for sale in my Etsy shop.

DIY Angry Birds Catapult….Life Size!!

2013-05-05T20:11:00.000-04:00

After we had our son, Justin’s Angry Birds Birthday party, and posted the pictures of our life-sized catapult on Pinterest—we have had a lot of people ask how my husband made this, and the dimensions.

So, FINALLY, here’s the dimensions!!

My husband used 5, 46" 2X4’s for the 2 base legs and 3 cross bars (2 along the base and 1 across the bottom opening of the sling shot.) The two vertical posts are 60" 2X4's. Then for the 2 angled boards he cut both of them at a 45 degree and hey ended up being approximately 33”. He used exercise elastic bands from a sports store and tied them to large eyelets, and then fastened them to a colander.

We have used this for scouting events, and neighborhood parties like our neighborhood Easter Egg hunt—and everybody loves it!!

Sewing Class Schedule…

2013-04-22T11:14:00.000-04:00

I am posting my sewing class schedule so my local friends can easily check the calendar and see what new classes have been listed.

All classes are $15 and usually last 2-2 1/2 hours. The classes are listed in order from easiest to hardest, and I recommend taking them sequentially as each one teaches skills based on the previous class. That is my suggestion, but if you are over 14 years old, you may take them out of order. Generally, my classes are best for ages 8 and older. If a 6 year old is interested and has the patience to sit for a 2-2 1/2 hour time period I am happy to discuss this before signing up for a class (I also can provide some exercises to do before the first class to help prepare them and build their confidence).

I am teaching sewing because I love it, not because I am an expert. My goal is to help my students get excited about creating something independently and feel empowered to try something new—and hopefully continue sewing on their own and use their own creativity to make new things. My classes are designed as project based so that you usually have something to go home with that is finished.

All classes require bringing:

a good pair of sewing scissors that will cut fabric
straight pins
seam ripper
sewing machine (if you don’t have one, I do have some extra—just make sure you let me know when you sign up so that I can have one sewing machine per student)

2013 Class Schedule

All class are $15 per student and usually last 2-2 1/2 hours.

Tote Bag (beginner)

Saturday, May 11, 2013 10am-Noon

Monday, June 10, 2013 10am-noon

Wednesday, July 10, 2013 10am-noon

Adult Classes: Tuesday, May 7, 2013 8pm-10pm

Tuesday, June 11, 2013 8pm-10pm

Thursday, July 11, 2013 8pm-10pm

**UTAH CLASS** Thursday, September 26, 2013 7pm-9pm

Materials needed:

2/3 yd each of two coordinating fabrics (outside and inside of bag)
1/4 yd lace or rick rack (if desired)
matching thread

Ruffle Embellished Canvas Bag

Ruffle embellished canvas bag (Level 1):

Saturday, May 11, 2013 12:30pm-2pm

Wednesday, June 12, 2013 10am-noon

Monday, July 15, 2013 10am-noon

Adult Classes: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 8pm-10pm

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 8pm-10pm

Thursday, July 16, 2013 8pm-10pm

Materials needed:

4 or 5 strips of coordinating fabric (4 in x 45* in)*45 inches is the standard width of a bolt

1 light colored embroidery floss skein
1 canvas bag (Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby has 3 packs for $7.99 before 40% off coupon)
matching thread

Up-cycled Ruffle Denim Skirt

Ruffle embellished denim skirt (Level 2):

Saturday, May 25, 2013 10am-12:30pm

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 10am-noon

Wednesday, July 31, 2013 10am-noon

Adult Classes: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 8pm-10pm

Tuesday, June 25, 2013 8pm-10pm

Tuesday, July 30, 2013 8pm-10pm

Materials needed:

1 pair of old jeans or cotton pants that you don’t mind cutting up, that fit in the waist and hips
1 yd muslin or light colored, inexpensive cotton
3 strips of coordinating fabric (4 in x 45* in)*45 inches is the standard width of a bolt
matching thread

Ruffle Embellished Pillow (choose either 12 x12 or 12x 16)

Pillow (Level 2):

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 10am-noon

Friday, July 26, 2013 10am-noon

Adult Classes:

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 8pm-10pm

Materials needed:

12x12 or 12x16 pillow form
1/3 yd fabric
1/4 yd coordinating fabric for ruffle
matching thread

And hopefully by June I will have these two projects to add as classes…

Sew and Show Saturday #20—Quilt for Autism…

2013-04-20T11:43:00.000-04:00

This is another beautiful quilt made by my mom, and this one is truly all about the heart. My mom is donating this quilt through a silent auction with the proceeds going to Autism.

Here are some close ups of some of the button, ribbon, and applique details…

The heart machine quilting detail on the border is one of my favorite parts about this quilt…

So appropriate that my mom is giving away her heart quilt—thanks mom for giving your heart to my kids, and especially to Justin!!

Sewing frenzy…

2013-04-17T21:18:00.000-04:00

March flew by this year, only because it was full of craziness!! We had a medical emergency with Justin, since resolved, but of course it happened while my husband was out of town—that just adds to the heightened stress level around here!! I was so emotionally exhausted afterwards, and still enduring my annual winter blues, that my parents took pity on me and flew me out to visit for a long weekend!! I am feeling SO much better now—and I stocked up on fabric while I was with my mom. So now I am in a sewing frenzy!!

We are on a debt diet this year, and with all our saving money tactics we kept the Easter gifts to a bare minimum. I made a tote bag (pattern coming soon!!), headband, and two boys’ neckties for the kids and ended up only spending $10 total for all four kids—SWEET!!

Here’s how they turned out…

Cheesy matchy-ness at its finest—I love it!!

The best part about Easter this year was meeting a family who also has a son with Autism. About six months ago, I received an email from someone who had come across my blog. She emailed me to ask some questions about Autism because her son was recently diagnosed. We sent lots of emails back and forth to each other and found out she lived over 2000 miles away!! We had never met, but quickly became friends through shared emails. I got an email from her about 2 months ago saying they were moving and would be living an hour and a half away!! What are the chances!! We invited them over for Easter dinner and met this sweet, sweet family. It was like having family to share Easter with—so great!! I am so grateful for all the many friends we have made through sharing our joys and challenges with Autism.

Besides all my Easter sewing, I am now teaching sewing lessons as part of our debt diet plan—and I absolutely love it!! I have 6 students now and was shocked to find out they don’t teach sewing in schools anymore—WHAT?!? I’m determined to bring sewing back—one student at a time!!

St. Patrick’s Day Stockings…

2013-03-25T13:03:00.001-04:00

Okay, if you are a bothered by someone who celebrates a lot of holidays (including St. Patrick's Day), please discontinue reading!! I have read some interesting posts lately about how too many mom’s are going “over-the-top” with celebrating holidays. St. Patrick’s Day was the focus of one of these posts.

I have oodles to say about the subject, but I will condense it to say just this:

If you choose to do nothing for any holiday, I still love you and think you are a fabulous mother—truly. If you choose to celebrate every day like a holiday and hire a professional band and fireworks, I still love you and think you are a fabulous mother—truly. If you do some kind of celebration in between those two, I still love you and think you are a fabulous mother—truly. How do I know you are a fabulous mother?? Because I think every mother is, just for trying and getting up in the morning—truly.

So here are my St. Patrick’s Day stockings…

My mom found a really cute pattern for Halloween stockings and made me one last year. We were talking on the phone about how awful this winter has been with sickness and depression and she had the stroke of genius to make a St. Patrick’s Day stocking out of the Halloween stocking. I adapted the pattern and made my own Leprechaun, chunky shoe pattern and I love how whimsical they turned out!!

Because of all the ridiculous illnesses, a health emergency, and my husband being out of the country—again—we actually missed St. Patrick’s Day altogether!! HA HA!! My intentions were to just put a note in the stocking every year that tells my child why I feel so “lucky” to have them in our family. They got a nice green sticky note on their doors instead!! Perfect!!

But these beauties did make me smile, hanging from my fireplace!!

Disneyworld and Autism…our roller coaster ride...

2013-03-22T11:34:00.000-04:00

My parents took our family to Disneyworld this year and it was a well needed break for us!! We had many highlights, like finding out Justin LOVES roller coasters!! And I mean love!! He would bolt to get in line to go again and we had to keep a close eye on him to catch up!!

But we also had some serious lows on the trip. We are well accustomed to altering our expectations on vacations or any other outings, and so we usually expect nothing and celebrate any small success—even if it means we only stay at the park for a couple of hours, or even minutes!! If they were good minutes, then we are happy!! But Justin was just “off” this trip, and it didn’t seem to be triggered by change of scenery or schedule. Those things CAN be a trigger, but he was crying like he was in pain when we got to Florida—and it just seemed different.

Justin did great the first day, and then woke up sobbing the second day. So my dad stayed at the hotel with him while the rest of us went to Disneyworld. Thanks Dad!! I hate separating my family, but it helps Justin and everyone else to give him some space and just take it easy sometimes.

We called my dad around lunch time and Justin was doing better so he decided to bring him to the park and meet up with us. My dad rented a double stroller for Justin so that he would have a “safe place” from all the crowds and a resting place from walking and transitioning.

Justin was doing well, so we started going on rides. We love the Special Accommodation pass that Disney has for children with Autism, what an awesome idea to help families accommodate for long lines!! It was working perfectly,, so we just kept hitting the rides. At some point, some of the kids needed a potty break, and the others needed food and somehow Justin and I accidentally got split up from everyone else—without my purse, or my CELL PHONE!!! And then Justin started to whine and I could tell there was a meltdown brewing!! Yep, just me and Mr. Justin—in a sea of a million people and no way to reunite with my troops!! We went on the Winnie the Pooh ride, and then paced looking for family—which can only last as long as I am pacing “correctly” for Justin, which I evidently was not doing correctly enough because he started grabbing me and trying to turn me to walk a certain path. Luckily, I coaxed him into sitting on a bench. A sweet mom with 4 kids came and sat next to me, and there wasn’t enough room for her kids. I looked at her and with a nervous voice said, “I am sorry I can’t ask him to move over for you guys, he has autism and that might set him off and my family left me without a cell phone and I am sweating bullets because he is just about to have a meltdown!!” Have I mentioned that I talk A LOT when I am nervous?? I am surprised she didn’t get the whole family history from me… She handed me her cell phone to use—hooray for nice people in the world!! And right at that point Justin lost it and started pulling out of my hand grasp…I just managed to quickly blurt out at my dad on the other end of the cell phone to come quickly back to the Winnie the Pooh ride!! Note to self—NEVER leave cell phone behind!!

We did meet up with everyone else and were able to go on several other rides and have a good time. The best experience of the day, by far, was BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN!!

It has always been my favorite ride, and now it is Justin’s too!! My husband and I took him on the ride together and captured this sweet picture!! He was grinning from ear to ear the ENTIRE ride!! We laughed and squealed and it was honestly, a little piece of heaven!!

My parents took Justin and Little Miss to go ride the carousel while my husband and I took care of another family emergency—my baby girl decided to have the worst diaper blow out ever, right in the middle of the park—and we had nothing to clean it up, no extra clothes, no diaper wipes!! Good times!! And in the midst of cleaning up that disaster, I got a phone call from my mom that Justin was in a store having a meltdown and wouldn’t get up off the floor. Oh no!! I started running to meet her and help and my husband was trying to catch up behind us with the double stroller. I finally reach the carousel and I can hear Justin screaming but I can’t find him. I rushed towards the noise and found him in a store with my dad and a sweet friend of ours, frantically unwrapping suckers trying to calm him down. Our friend had brought the double stroller into the store to try and talk him into sitting and calming down. He finally sat down, still whining and screaming, and we were able to wheel him out of the store. My husband and I knew that we had reached that point where we were now treading on Autism’s “thin ice” and we needed to get out of the park quickly!!

By this point, it was dark and the firework show was about to start. We knew we needed to get out to the monorail before we got caught in any crowds or lines for the monorail!! We rushed back to the front of the park, weaving the strollers in and out of people and then as soon as my husband returned the rented stroller….Major meltdown began!! Justin laid down on the sidewalk and started screaming as loud as he could and when my husband tried to pick him up he just went spaghetti and started wailing louder. He refused a piggy back ride, which usually helps in these situations. Not this time—he didn’t care. My husband rushed him out of the park gates and Justin was hysterical at that point. I made him stop outside and try to “work through it” instead of picking him up and carrying him, only because I have watched our therapists do this with Justin because they can’t pick him up all the time. It usually takes an hour, but we get through it instead of just having him scream the whole time.

I parked my toddlers who were strapped in the double stroller by a nice lady who was holding her toddler and said, “I know this sounds funny, but can you watch my kids for me so I can-” She cut me off and said, “ABSOLUTELY!” I walked 15 feet over to where Justin was screaming on the cement and tried everything to get him focused on a goal and get him calmed down. Nothing worked. iPad, iPhones, candy—he didn’t want ANY of the normal bribes. He was so hysterical and he just looked so anxious and terrified in his eyes. It broke my heart.

After a few attempts, my husband panicked, thinking about the massive crowds that were just about to exit the park because the firework had just started—he picked up Justin and hauled off for the quarter mile walk uphill to the monorail and looked at me and said, “Let’s GO!” I could feel the tears coming and tried to hold them back. I went and told the sweet mom who was keeping an eye on my kids, thank you, and managed to blurt out the plea, “Say a prayer for us!” She said she would and then said, “My nephew has Autism too, and it’s so hard—my hats off to you guys as parents.” Well, that’s all it took for the waterworks to start flowing for me, and within seconds I was a complete mess and bawling as I am running with the double stroller and trying to push this stroller uphill and catch up to my husband and Justin, whom I could STILL hear screaming. I approached the monorail and asked the man at the door, through my sobs, to please help me lift my stroller because my husband was busy. I boarded next to them—Justin now in a very confined space, plugging his ears and trying to wriggle out of my husband’s arms and screaming at the top of his lungs. And I just looked at the ground and sobbed quietly. I was so overwhelmed not being able to help Justin and seeing him so upset!! It was super quiet on the monorail, and I could tell that many eyes were on my family. But not in a mean way, but it that nice way of everyone respectfully glancing towards us to see if they could catch our eye contact and smile or offer help. And then as I tried to calm down and verbally comfort Justin, everyone on our monorail tram started offering words of comfort to my husband and me. They ranged from telling us they understood because they had a family member who was a special needs teacher, telling us not to worry about his screaming because it wasn’t bothering any of them. Their kindness was so great that it was overwhelming—and it started to replace my overwhelming worry, and the tears of gratitude came immediately.

I was so MAD at Autism right then—mad that its crazy rules and regulations, of only which my son knew the bounds of and fought against daily, were over powering the sweet boy who was having such a great time earlier. And being mad at Autism is obviously a no-win situation, because Autism isn’t going anywhere!! I was still mad. I kind of hoped someone could be a jerk about the situation so I could be mad at them instead of Autism—that would’ve been easier, but it wasn’t what I was supposed to learn from the experience.

Justin all of a sudden wanted to sit on the bench, and there was no room. The dad next to Justin lifted up his toddler and quickly put him on his lap leaving a space for Justin which he immediately slid into to. And then out of the blue, something very strange happened. An older, somewhat peculiar man, who was sitting next to Justin, started talking to him. At that point, Justin was literally screaming in his face while plugging his own ears. And this man seemed quite oblivious to all of the craziness and begins to pull out a stamp collection book and starts telling Justin all about his stamps he’s collected for years. Inside I was thinking, “Are you kidding me??” It only took me a few minutes to realize after observing this man, that he quite possibly had a form of Autism himself. I looked at him, and then at Justin next to him and it just became so overwhelmingly clear how mortal we all are. Justin and that man had the same battle in this life, clearly different levels, but they were both still children of God who came to Earth to get a body and both their bodies had Autism to struggle with. Then it hit me, that none of this mattered, not the tantrum, not the struggles, not the oddities of the older man—none of it!! It was just one fleeting, unpleasant moment that would soon be forgotten. I realized that we are all here in this lifetime for such a short amount of time and it doesn't matter how different we are, it's just how much we love each other through our differences. Justin finally stopped crying before our tram stop, and then the older man looked up at me and said, “I’m sorry if my talking bothered him, I can talk a lot.” I told him he made me stop crying and he reached out and awkwardly rubbed my shoulder and told me he and his wife love the parks and have been coming for years. Then he wished me a good night and that the kids would sleep well.

We were all so tired that everyone slept well that night!! I am so grateful for the blessing of feeling my Heavenly Father’s love through the thoughtfulness of others. It carried us through that night and helped remind us of all the greater moments we had enjoyed earlier in the day!!

Moral of the story—Justin LOVES roller coasters, and therefore I will love roller coasters, including the roller coaster ride of Autism!!

ResearchMatch.org…Justin is famous;)

2013-03-21T09:57:00.000-04:00

With all the crazy days of ups and downs with Autism, it is nice to have a chance to be proactive and reach out to other parents.

There is a new campaign at Vanderbilt, through ResearchMatch.org, to promote Autism research and Justin's cute face is part of the promotion!! My handsome little man!!

If you are are parent of a child with Autism, you may volunteer (it takes less than ten minutes!!) and you may be contacted in the future to participate in research opportunities if you match criteria for a study. This is an awesome opportunity to be proactive!!

Click here to check out the campaign and feel free to spread the word to other parents of children with Autism. The more information we can collect about Autism, the better chance we have in treating symptoms and increasing the quality of life for children and families with Autism.

Sew and Show Saturday—#19. Star Garden…

2013-02-23T04:00:00.000-05:00

My mom made this beautiful quilt for my Little Miss. I have the best memories of this quilt because it decorated our bare apartment walls before when we had moved away from home—it was a little bit of happiness in a rotten little apartment!!

The nine-patches alternating with the pastel colored, machine-appliqued stars make a wonderful pattern for a little girl’s room. The meandering vines along the border were always my favorite part!

The shadowed quilting around the vines and stars is exquisite!!

Another beautiful quilt, mom!!

PB Inspired quilt pattern for boys…

2013-02-18T10:25:00.001-05:00

I finally have my Quincy Space pattern completed and up for sale on my ETSY shop!! Click HERE and take a look !! I have two other patterns close to finished that I will be putting up for sale in my shop in the next few weeks!!

Sew and Show Saturday—#17. Strawberry Smoothie…

2013-02-16T09:35:00.001-05:00

This Strawberry Smoothie pattern by Barbara Jones at Quilt Soup is the perfect Sew and Show for Valentine’s Day this week!!

Like I have mentioned before, my mom does impeccable applique work!!

This is such a sweet, cheerful quilt!! And look at those flowers….still dreaming of Spring!!

Board and Batten, how I love thee…my Dining Room

2013-02-15T10:34:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite designers is Sarah Richardson—I love her style!! I was watching one of her shows on HGTV and she showed a dining room with Board and Batten and I was hooked!! I told my husband that we needed to do that someday to our dining room….and then I followed it up with, maybe someday SOON!!

Here’s some pictures of our dining room before—not the greatest pictures!! I had a chair rail and had painted the entire room aqua. It was nice, but I needed to break it up with some white, and board and batten was the perfect fit!! This also shows my lovely, hand-me-down dining room table that my husband remodeled into an awesome farmhouse table!!

My neighbor Marci moved in a month after I told my husband we had to redo our dining room—and she was a board and batten expert and had done it in her previous home!! She got to work on her own house so quickly that I was lucky enough to go get tips from her before we started.

Remember her little boy’s nursery and the gorgeous board and batten grid she did?? LOVE it!!

We painted the walls white first, and then added the wood and molding, caulked and touched up the nail holes. And ended up with a dining room that I absolutely love!! I made the window valances and it was complete!!

My favorite thing about this look is how much light it brings into the room. We haven’t done ANY board and batten in our new home—it’s on the to do list!! But I miss seeing it in my old house!! It was the perfect backdrop for our family celebrations…

I love the way my black chairs pop from the white board and batten…I can’t wait to put some up in my new house!! Someday….it’s on the list!!

Happy Valentine’s Day…and the winter blues…

2013-02-14T10:24:00.000-05:00

We don’t have any Valentine’s traditions at our house, no cute breakfasts, nothing—kind of weird when I think about it!! We just try to be nicer and write a little note to each other. I don’t dislike Valentine’s Day, but I really dislike the time of year it is—couldn’t it be in July?? So the only thing I worry about on Valentine’s Day, or really any day lately—is just making dinner at all!!

I’ve got the winter blues—which has happened to me every winter since I was little. Some years are worse than others, depending on how many gray days we have. It does help tremendously that I live in the South and generally get a whole lotta sunshine. But if we happen to have a few gray days in a row—I am toast!! My husband knows this about me, and is great to step up and cook and do things that just seem so overwhelmingly difficult when I’m struggling with the winter blues.

So I AM going to make dinner tonight, even though I have two sick kiddos who are pitifully miserable today!! I feel bad for them. But the sun is out, so I am going to just do it and make today work!! My favorite thing about Valentine’s day is that it means that February is almost over and that means Spring is on its way!!

I did manage to hang my valentine’s day bunting that I made last year….

I hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day without any gray!!

Justin turns 10…

2013-02-13T11:21:00.000-05:00

I didn’t think anything could top Justin’s great Angry Bird’s birthday party last year….but we are celebrating so many great things this year for Mr. Justin!!

Justin has grown up so much in the past 6 months!! He started some new medication that we feel has really helped him focus more and his tantrums have decreased significantly!!

We thought that was great, and then one day we found out that there was an opening at a local private school in an autism classroom. We were not looking for a school program for him at all….here’s the summed up back story… (We had pulled him from school 4 years earlier after they had physically lost my child at the school---AND couldn’t provide appropriate services for him. We fought the school district, but in the end we found that 30 hours of ABA therapy services from a top ABA provider is what he needed. And I couldn’t handle the stress of trying to prove to the school district what a special kid Justin was and that he had potential and that I wasn’t looking for just babysitting. I felt like I was trying to convince them to love him the way I did and it finally hit me that they would never love him that way, because I was his mom—I WAS HIS MOM!! Those words rang through my head, and for the first time in a long time I believed in myself as a mother. I believed that I could be personally inspired to make decisions for Justin and I ended up feeling directed to pull him from school. It was hard at the time, but I look back now and can see what a turning point that was for Justin and our family. And amazingly, our attitudes changed, there were no more negative feelings and wasted energy on fighting the schools, only positive, proactive energy and celebrating his daily progress no matter how small it seemed. And our hearts changed and became happy again. That’s what ABA did for our family, it taught us how to celebrate every step of Justin’s progress. With that celebrating, we forgot all about school—it just wasn’t on our minds because we were too happy about everything else that was going on to worry about school dreams.)

So when I saw the advertisement for an opening at a private school that we were already familiar with, I wondered if it could work?? I dismissed it for a minute, almost afraid to let myself dream of that opportunity. And then I emailed his ABA Supervisor and asked her if she thought it would work….and after several conversations and meetings….. MY BOY STARTED SCHOOL AGAIN!!! I cried like a baby the night before and the first morning I dropped him off. I cried with joy for a blessing that came our way that I wasn’t even expecting—how great is that!! And then it was like a crazy turn of events as each day I picked up Justin from school and he seemed to be making leaps and bounds of progress every single day. And you want to know the best part of it all??? He LOVES school!! I still cry about it a few times a week, but it’s all happy tears. Here’s my sweet Justin writing the date on the board at school…

I remember when Justin was 2 1/2 years old and I so desperately sought answers to what was wrong with my sweet baby as I watched him rapidly lose skills he had previously gained and sink into his own world—I was so depressed and spent every day researching and crying and wondering, “why is this happening to us?!?!” It was ROUGH!! It’s such a sweet turnaround now, to be crying tears of joy now instead of all those tears of sorrow!!

Looking back at this picture of me with my first baby, so worried about how I could ever protect him and take care of him!! All those sweet fears and worries that every first-time mom carries as she leaves the hospital…I had no idea how challenging my life would become, but I also had no idea how much growth those challenges would bring and the beautiful blessings that would follow. I know that God has blessed us with strength and peace and we have been so blessed by several inspired service coordinators, therapists, friends, church leaders, and family. I love you, Justin!!

New Year’s Eve 2012 highlights…

2012-12-31T23:21:00.001-05:00

This has been a crazy, wonderful year for our family—and full of unexpected blessings. Here’s some of the great highlights…

Justin has his first friend birthday party and the Angry Birds’ theme and life-sized catapult turned out to be a big hit!! (read full story here)
I started this lovely Sew Sweet Cottage blogging adventure in the end of February of this year and have had more than 113,000 pageviews---unbelievable!! The best part about blogging is the fabulous friends I’ve made and connections with other Autism moms—what a great support network!! As part of that networking, I was invited to be on a radio show for Autism and Scouting’s blogtalk radio and share my story about introducing Justin into Cub Scouts. An amazing experience for me personally, and extremely humbling. Autism and Scouting is doing a great job educating and promoting success with children with Autism in scouting. You can listen to the taped broadcast here.

I opened my Etsy shop and started my life long dream of selling quilt patterns!! You can click here to see my Etsy shop, and here to see my PB Inspired quilt for Little Miss. And FatQuarterShop.com started carrying my Eliza Jane Quilt Pattern. You can see it here.

My Monogram Balloon Wreath had over 20,000 pageviews and became my top post of the year. Check it out here. I also had some readers request I make the wreath for them, and so it is now included at my Etsy shop!!

Knockoffdecor.com featured my PB inspired bookcase which you can see here.

My husband got a new job that required some extensive training abroad and I became a single mom for 11 weeks of this year—and survived!! Justin started attending school again and is doing great, Little Miss was baptized, my Little Guy started talking finally, and my Baby Girl turned one!! And to top it all off, we moved into a new home—what a great year!! Can’t wait to share more patterns next year, and success stories about Justin---and hopefully some decorating of our new home!!

Lego Man DIY ornament…

2012-12-19T14:49:00.001-05:00

This idea has been rolling around in my head for a while now, and I finally got them made yesterday!! Check out this Lego Man ornament…

I love this little guy!! Here’s how I made him..

You could use a baby food jar, but I didn’t have any so I bought a glass jar from Hobby Lobby. Then I painted the jar and lid with acrylic, yellow paint…

I punched a hole in the lid with a nail and hammer and then put some green ribbon through it, and tied the ends in a knot on the inside. I put hot glue around the knot just to secure it a little more.

Next I used liquid craft glue and twisted the caps back on the lids and then added a red striped knot to the top.

I used the back of a paint brush and dipped it into acrylic, black paint and made two eyes for the Lego man and then painted on a black smile—you could use a sharpie if that sounds easier!!

I gave him a quick spray with acrylic gloss, and VOILA!!! The cutest Lego man ornament!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

I am linking to the following parties!

Change, change, and more change…and nose surgery!

2012-12-10T21:39:00.001-05:00

So things in our household got a little bit interesting, okay a whole lot interesting about half way through this year. I think almost everything that could change DID change in the past four months. My husband got a new job, our congregation at church changed (it is based on geographic location), and we are trying to sell our house—you know the one, that house that I put my heart and soul in decorating and that is all over my blog. Sigh….I love that house. It took us months to decide and we went back and forth a million times, but when it came down to it, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms just wasn’t working for our family of 6.

So we put it on the market and signed on to a new house. And the stresses have just kept piling on (hence the LACK OF posting on my sweet blog). I know that changes bring growth, but it also brings growing pains!!

On a fun note, remember when my hubby broke my nose?? I finally got it fixed, yet another fun event to add to the craziness around here. Is it wrong that my husband and I only get alone time when one of us is having surgery?? We need to get our dating life back in order!! Real dates would be much less expensive!!

But they probably wouldn’t be as memorable;) At least we are still laughing.

Besides all that “regular” stuff, my husband has been traveling 50% off each month since August…….THAT has been a challenge. I’ve learned that I have wonderful family and friends who will always be there to help me through, but I’ve also been reminded that my husband is truly my best friend, and I missed him terribly!! My life stinks when he is gone!!

And the best new change is….drumroll….our house sold in 5 weeks (must have been all that great home décor that got them *wink wink*) and we bought a new house with a SEWING ROOM for me!!! And plenty of room for the kids and Justin’s therapies in the summer. And although I’ve been completely overwhelmed with stress and anxiety, I am looking forward to decorating this new house next year!! For right now, I’m just going to enjoy the holidays with my family. I will post some great updates about Justin over the break—he has been doing so well and is now going to school (more details to come later).

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

Sew and Show Saturday—#16. Whimsical Fall Harvest Quilt

2012-09-29T02:13:00.000-04:00

I am in love with Fall!! I am already craving anything pumpkin and I could eat soup and breadsticks every night!! If I could have soup, breadsticks, pumpkin bread, and be wrapped up in this quilt of my mom’s—I would be good to go!!

I LOVE the colors in this quilt!! And my mom is bringing this to me this week when she comes to visit, right mom??? Can’t wait for her to get here—we have some outrageously lofty sewing goals as usual, and then half-way through her visit we’ll get tuckered out and end up watching movies!! Still can’t wait!!

Sew and Show Saturday—#15. Apple quilt…

2012-09-08T07:11:00.000-04:00

The weather was so hot this week, it’s hard to remember it is Fall!! I want apple crisp, crockpot meals, and sweaters—where’s my cool weather?!?! Hopefully this week will be cooler!!

Here’s another one of my mom’s quilts that brings back sweet memories for me. This was displayed in my mom’s family room for a long time. It was such a cozy room with a fireplace, large windows, beautiful blue walls, and an oversized plaid loveseat that matched the colors of the quilt!!

Such a great fall quilt!!

Sew and Show Saturday—#14. Modern black and white beauty quilt…

2012-09-01T09:07:00.000-04:00

Quilting has been a tradition in my family that goes back for generations. Having that said, I have gained such an appreciation for all styles of quilts—traditional, and modern. There are so many modern styled quilt patterns being produced now, and I love them!! So what makes a quilt modern??

The first thing that makes a quilt modern for me, is the color choices. When you limit your color selection to two or three colors (black and white, or black and white with a pop of red, or red and white for example) your quilt is going to have a more modern look to it and feel more up to date than a traditional quilt. The tone of the fabric is a huge factor also being that bright colors will produce a higher level of contrast than pastels.
The second thing that affects the style is your choice of patterned fabric. Solid fabrics will always appear more modern, and will also allow you to choose more color variations without looking traditional(for example a quilt of 6+ different color solids will still look modern even though you have broadened the color selection to more than 2 or 3) Within the limits of your color selections, your choice of print can make your quilt feel more modern. Geometric prints, high contrast prints, and larger sized prints can all help update a traditional pattern to look more modern.
The third component of a modern quilt is the actual quilt pattern itself. There are some quilt patterns that read modern just because of the simplicity of pattern (more geometric lines). But here’s my favorite thing!! I think any pattern, even the very traditional quilting patterns that go back for generations, can be updated to look modern. That is the fun of quilting!! I love finding one of my favorite traditional quilt patterns and then update it using modern color choices and fabric patterns.

This is why I love this black and white beauty quilt that my mom made…

Again, I think it is the high contrast on this one that makes it more modern than traditional. Check out the quilting on the white fabrics!!

What would your favorite color choices be for a modern twist on a traditional quilt pattern??

Rose cake for my baby girl’s first birthday…

2012-08-28T13:35:00.000-04:00

If you read my other post about my baby girl’s first birthday, you know that I chose an apple theme. I had visions of an apple cake for her but never really found any apple cake designs that I liked.

Then I got on Pinterest and happened to see this rose cake tutorial. It said it was easy, although I was skeptical “who’s” version of easy we were talking about!! Easy for a professional, because I am certainly not a professional!! But I have to say, it really was easy!!!

I baked a small cake in a Pyrex bowl and then used the rest of the batter for cupcakes for the other kids. I frosted the whole cake first with a base coat and then started piping the roses.

It was a perfect little cake for her first birthday pics, and she LOVED it!!

Back to School balloon wreath…

2012-08-20T13:23:00.001-04:00

I love it when my kids go back to school and we are all on a schedule!! I wanted to celebrate new school year with my kids so I whipped up some cupcakes and altered my balloon wreath and all of a sudden we have insta-party!!

I took my Monogram Balloon Wreath, here’s the link if you want to know how to make a balloon wreath, and then removed the monogram and added a banner that says, “School Rules!!” The banner shape was from PowerPoint and it only took me about 5 minutes to print it out, cut it, hot glue it to the pencils—and be done!!

So easy!! And wouldn’t this be a cute back to school gift for a teacher?? Or a teacher appreciation gift?? Hmmm, I might need to go make some more…

I am linking to the following parties!

Sew and Show Saturday—#13. Cheery Cherries…

2012-08-18T18:23:00.000-04:00

I have always loved cherry designs—all that Mary Englebreit stuff!! My mom loves cherries too and made this adorable quilt.

I love the high contrast between the black, white, and read. My mom machine appliqued around the cherries and stems.

Can you see an entire room based on this quilt?? It would be so cheery!!