Shopping for baby clothes

This weekend I went to Kmart, which is something I don't do very often, and I was surprised to find that they had clothes and coats on sale for 50% off.  I got my six year old some shirts and then wondered over to the baby stuff....because I can't resist when I go to stores and I, of course, found some cute little baby girl clothes.

These two outfits were on sale at 50% off and I got them for about $4 each.  I couldn't say no even though they only had them in newborn sizes.

Is the booty not adorable on these!?!?!  

I can't wait to do some serious girl shopping when I actually have a little girl in this house :)

Were you as nutso as I am when it comes to shopping for a child that is not even in your home yet??

Tag Blankies

My sister is having a baby, a little girl who was due on December 23rd but is being a little Diva and making everyone wait for her.  My sister has two boys and a girl and this little Diva will even things out and make it two boys and two girls.  I have three boys and have always wanted a girl so I am loving shopping for this little baby girl.  

Now, knowing that I am going to be a foster parent to a little girl, I feel like I get to be a huge part of this pregnancy and it is kinda sorta like I am having a baby too....just not having to go through labor (score!!!).  

I have been scouring blogs and pinterest looking at all kinds of baby girl nurseries and clothing.  All of this planning and I was so eager to start somewhere.  I know that this is a foster blog but me being me, it is going to be a little bit of a mixture of foster and crafting blog.  

I started my first project today and wanted to share it with the world.  

This was the start to the Tag Blankie...

I cut out a square 10x10 inches in this adorable flowery PINK fabric.....love the pink :)

Then I cut out two 3.5x10 inch strips and then cut two 3.5x16 inch strips for the sides of the square.

This is just a picture showing me cutting the strips for the sides.

Then I sewed the strips on to the square....while talking to my sister on Skype as she timed her contractions.

After sewing the shorter strips on each side of the square, I ironed the sides down as shown in the picture above.

The front view of my project.

Then I sewed on the longer two strips as shown above.

Again, I ironed the sides down and then I cut the sides to where all of the sides were even in size to the square.

At this point, I cut down 29 pieces of ribbons.  I used seven different kinds and cut down four of each....all except this one below...

Love you to pieces

Too cute and I had to add it to the blankie because no matter who gets this blankie, I will love them to pieces.

Then comes the fun part, sewing on the ribbons.

I am OCD and had to have all of my ribbons in order and I set them up before hand so everything was nice and organized.

Here are all of the ribbons after being sewn on the blankie.

Now I pinned the square to a piece of Minky fabric to prepare for sewing.

Here is the result of my pinned down Minky fabric which was turned right side in.

Now it was time to sew the fabric together.

I sewed right below the first stitch.

Now it's time to turn the fabric around.

After turning the fabric around, I sewed along the first square to attach the two fabrics just because I didn't like the way the fabrics were separated.  

This is what the finished product looked like.  I LOVE this tag blankie and can't wait till some little cutie pie is loving on it too!!!

This is the back of the blankie

A close up of the square sewed onto the back.

I loved these tag blankies so much that I made three of them today and told my sister that she gets the pick of the litter (hehe) and she is still trying to make up her mind.

This is the one my sister is leaning towards and I think it is because of the green in there....she loves green!!!

So cute....just love how bright and colorful these are!!

Here are all three of the tag blankies together.  They are about 16x16 inches and are perfect for a baby to love.

I just realized a few days ago that I start my orientation in less than two weeks and that means that I have to actually start buying baby stuff and getting ready for a little one in my home.  I have all kinds of ideas about what kind of nursery theme I want to have and it means that I have a lot of sewing to do :) I can't wait!!!


I got the pattern for the Tag Blankie from here.

Where I am in the process

In my last post I talked about a woman that needed someone to take care of her daughter while she is incarcerated.  The end result in that matter is that the little girl ended up going to the grandmother, which is a great thing for all parties involved.  The hardest thing is that grandma lives out of country and therefor had to take the little girl with her and the mother will not get to see her little girl again until she is finished in prison.

There was a twist to the story in the sense that the mom might get extradited out of the country and be able to finish her sentence in her home country and that would be great for her daughter as well as for the new baby due in May.  If she does not go to her country when the new baby is born, she is going to need someone to take the new baby for her until she finishes her sentence and is able to go to her home country.

I talked to her before she was incarcerated and gave her my information if she needs me to help with the new baby when it is born and she was going to pass the information on to her lawyer.  I doubt I will ever get a call and I hope for her sake that she is sent to her home country and does not have to have her baby here and be separated from it.

In regards to my status on becoming a foster parent.....

I had to complete a financial statement and send it in to the foster care agency that I am talking to.  The reason why I needed to complete a financial statement is because I am a full time student and do not work.  The agency wanted to make sure that I have enough money to support myself and my boys and am financially able to be a foster parent.  I let a week or two pass before I called the agency to see if they received my paper work.  I left a message for the woman I spoke to last time and got a phone call yesterday from the woman that I will be in contact with from now on.  I am going to refer to her as CW (caseworker) from this point forward.  CW told me that she is sending me a packet in the mail that will have all the paperwork I need to fill out and have ready for my orientation on January 10th.  I will then be in PRIDE classes till the 29th of January and have my 32 hours completed and be able to start the next phase in the process.

I need to have some references and I have spoken to three people so far and am hoping that is enough, if not then I have two more people that I can talk to about giving me a reference.  It is really hard to get references when you haven't lived somewhere very long!!

I am really excited about all of this and am hoping that since I will complete my PRIDE classes in a few weeks instead of 9 weeks like I would have if I would have gone through the state that all of this goes a little bit faster.  I am so excited to start the process and be able to open my home to a little love bug.

How long did it take you from start to finish to become licensed?  How long did it take you to get your first placement?

I would love to get as much information from you guys as possible :)

Also, what is your experience with going through the state or going through an agency?  At first I was going to go through the state but they don't even know when they are going to be offering PRIDE classes next and they seem to move at a snails pace compared to this agency.


Merry Christmas everyone!!