Pocket Puppets

It's BACK TO SCHOOL time and we have made it through our first week!  This year the big one is in Kindergarten and the little one "started" Pre-K2 at daycare.

Since this is our third year at the New Big School we were very familiar with the uniform process and this year she choose dresses!  To make it work for her over the summer I went on a scavenger hunt for Red Uniform Polo Dresses with Pockets.  Why red?  That's her favorite color uniform shirt, so of course she had to have red dresses.  As for pockets,  I firmly believe that GIRLS NEED POCKETS!  So what did I find?  There were a few options out there.  The top contenders were these Polo Dresses with Pockets, but the skirts weren't very twirly (and they were a bit pricey for me).  She likes to twirl.  Then I found these and caught them on sale for like $7 each!  I figured that sale price made it worth it, so I bought both her current size and the next in three of the different colors her school allows.  But what about the pockets?  I found a blog that guided me through adding them and voilà!  We were ready for school!  Well... sorta.  I was still sewing in pockets as of Thursday night of the first week, but I am proud to say that they were done before midnight! So I count it as a win.  HA! (Check out my sewing pics at the bottom here.)  Ya'll may be wondering how did she like the dresses with pockets.  Well I am pleased as punch to report that when I showed her

that her dress had pockets she made theeeeee sweetest surprise face that my insides were
melted and squishy for HOURS.  The pic with her light blue dress is from
Wednesday when we were playing "pocket puppets" as she got ready for school in
the morning.  The pic in the dark blue dress shows the pocket just peeking at her side seam.  The fabric I used was leftover from my Lady Glitter Sparkles romper that I made for our family Halloween costume in 2017.

 Win #2?  I shop in this one co-op group/company and when I asked them if a certain dress they were running was a Uniform Polo Dress with Pockets, they said it wasn't, but would consider creating one.  And they did!  So later in the school year I have a few more coming in to add to our collection!


Excuse the formatting of these pics... YGWYPF.  LOL

Locating Installation

Pockets Pinned

Sewing Pockets

Ready to Close

All Done!

Quick Hair

I'm often asked what I do to my girls' hair to make it curl the way it does.  The short answer is "nothing."   However, the more complicated answer is that it is their natural curls and they get washed pretty regularly (cuz kids really do get dirty), conditioned, and then I detangle it with lots of moisture and "slip," and then let it be.  Check out this clip of how one section of Twank's hair was done this past weekend. Twank has slightly looser curls like her daddy, so she's about 3c/4a.  chunkaLuv has my tighter curls at about 4a/4b.  Both of their hair respond very well to this process.  Once it's fully dry, I mist with that same leave-in watered down conditioner daily to fluff and go.  They both sleep with bonnets.

Of note here: I don't always use the Dark & Lovely glaze used here, but I do like the definition and shine it gives.  In my rush on this day I actually forgot to use it in chunkaLuv's hair.  It's not as slippery as the other products, so I make sure to only add it at the end of the detangling.  I was in a rush here and managed to get both of their hair detangled in about an hour using these large sections and lots of finger combing.