Waterfall Braid with Ringlet Curls to Last all Night

Princess Four wanted her hair down for Prom. She has such long hair that I was worried about it staying in for the entire night. When we did Princess three's hair, it stayed in quite well but Princess four has much more hair and it is thicker than Princess threes hair. See a post about her prom here.

Princess four always wanted a "waterfall" braid and ringlets for prom. I have never done a waterfall braid before but have had experience with the ringlets. When I was little, my mother would just get our hair damp, ring the hair around her finger and use bobby pins to hold it in place until right before the picture. She would then take it out and have cute ringlets for our photo. My hair was always thick and long like Princess four's and the ringlets wouldn't stay for long.

To do a waterfall braid, you basically do a "french braid" but instead of picking up hair from the bottom and adding it to the bottom third of the braid, you drop the bottom piece in your hand and gather up the piece you would have joined in to make it a french braid. You can see that in the top photo. Also, to make the braid tight, you need to have someone hold them or the hair will get loose and look like a soft braid and may not last all night. It would have worked better if I had someone to put in the bobby pins to hold those pieces tight as I braided because when she held them all down tightly, it made the braid go lower on her head. 

Doing it again, I would have someone take a bobby pin and stick it in under where that hair is hanging and up under the rest of the braid. I did it after but I think if she didn't have to hold it to keep it tight, it would have worked better. So each of those strands of hair hanging down have a bobby pin at the top pushed in facing the back of her head hidden under the braid. It just kept the braid tight all night. Also, I sprayed her hair in between each new pick up for the french braid so that there wouldn't be any fly away hairs sticking up.

You can see how I put the two side braids into a small pony tail in the back. I wish I had more time to put in a flower or something but they arrived home late from the date to get ready for prom so I hurried to make a bow. I didn't stick it in well enough and it kept turning instead of staying straight. I wish I would have had five more minutes to get it in well with a flower but it worked anyway. I would have just added one more pin to hold it straight. 

To make the curls. Take one piece hanging down, or if it is a larger piece, break it into two. I spray the length of the hair with hair spray. Not a thick coat, just a light coat and then, take the wand or curling iron and start at the top and wind the hair around the wand getting all the hair on there. You can twist the hair as you wind it so that it is a tighter curl than if you lay the hair flat on the iron. Once you have the hair on it, I roll the wand toward the head but not touching the head. This way, it curls all the way to the top but doesn't burn them. Make sure you get the bottom of the hair on the wand as well. 

Also, make sure you wind the hair the same direction each time. If you wind the hair towards the back of the head on one side, you need to be consistent and do it towards the back of the head on the other side. This is hard on the opposite side of the head as you have to roll it with the opposite hand but it would look silly having the hair curl all the way around in one direction and would make it heavy on one side of the head as the curl would be towards the face on one side and away from the face on the other side.

Once you have the curl on the iron,  and you have the entire curl hot to the touch, hold your hand at the bottom of the curl to support the curl as you take it off the wand. You don't want the curl to unwind or hang down. You want to keep it as tight as it can be. Once the wand is off, you put a bobby pin in one direction and one in the other direction to hold the curl in place. Sometimes, I will have to put in another pin. Make sure you put the pin next to the head so the weight of the curl isn't pulling it down and away from the head. 

As you can see in the picture, the curls are tight against her head. Once you have the curl pinned, I take hair spray and spray the curl with much more spray. This hardens the spray as the heat stays in and continues to curl the hair but lets you move on and curl another piece. 

DON'T take the curls out until the person is dressed and ready to walk out the door. We got her make up done after her hair so the hair would have longer to curl. Once that was done, we put the dress on her. Once that was done, we then took out the bobby pins and let the curls hang down If you have done too much hair at once, the curl can be separated in two but try to only do a smaller amount so you don't have to mess with the curls. The more you touch them, the less they will stay in. Once you have the hair down, take them outside, cover the outfit they are wearing with a towel an hairspray once more. Do the entire head after checking to make sure everything is as you want it. Once that is done, then put in any hair accessories. 

Her hair is to her waist and the curls stayed in for 8 hours and looked great when she arrived home and they were outside in the wind taking photos for an hour and it still looked good. The hairspray kept it all in place and she got MANY compliments on her hair and people asked her where she had it done. When she arrived home sometime in the middle of the night, Princess two said, "I want you to do my hair like that!" 


It  really did look beautiful and worked out well and I was actually surprised at how fast it all went together. She ended up taking just over an hour to get ready which is crazy for all that hair. If I had to do it again, I would have done a run through before and had a hair decoration but it all worked out in the end and she felt like the Princess she is. If you can't understand my directions, feel free to ask questions and I can take a better shot or video to show you. 

Happy Curling!

Stalking Part 5 - Top Ten Stalking Songs

Princess two and I were talking about the phone spyware video and she told me about a funny video she had seen on youtube about a stalker. This led to several other video's. We then started pondering on "stalker songs." 

Princess tow did a search and said that there were many people who have blogged about stalking songs. I thought that was interesting. 

She came up with some by doing a internet search and came up with some on her own. I came up with some I thought of and there is this spoof song that my daughter got on a cd from a local radio station a few years ago called "The stalking Song". Here is the song that was a spoof on "So happy together". You can click on the link below and follow along as you hear them sing it or watch the video, It is just an amateur video but I remember my oldest princess thinking it was the funniest song back then.

The Stalking song

Imagine me and you, I do
I think about you day and night
It's only right to think about the girl I stalk
Each day and night,
So happy together.

I dated you, for just a week
You dumped me and I cried real hard
And still can't sleep.
So now I'll have to force you to come back to me,
So happy together.

I can't see me stalking nobody but you for all your life
When you're with me baby the skies will be blue
For all my life.

I call you up at 2 am
I wake you and hang up the phone
And do it again.
That's what you get for goin' out with other men,
So happy together.

I can't see me stalking nobody but you for all your life
When you're with me baby the skies will be blue
For all my life.

I see you, you don't see me
I'm hidden with my telephoto lense up in the tree
You're walking and you look around, suspiciously,
So happy together.

"Hey...sugar...I like your eyebrows....no no that's kinda lame.
I got it, I got it. Hey baby, it's me again....surprise! That's a good
one, I like that, surprise, haha."

I've got your cat, don't be alarmed,
As long as you come talk to me,
He won't be harmed
We'll go and get a bite to eat
I'll come unarmed
So happy together...forever and ever...so happy together.




I saw this joke online and is for a t-shirt. I suggest you go to the site to buy it! Funny shirt. 

Princess two came up with this next song on her own and thought the video was so funny. When I saw the millions of views on youtube, I know she isn't the only one that liked it. It is worth the watch. It's called "Stuck Like Glue and is a country song. 

Stuck Like Glue link

This one is from a group I've listened to for 20 years. The video is from then as you can tell by the hair and clothes but it is still a funny song. I came up with this one. 

The Bobs singing "Through the walls link 

Princess knew about this one as Hillary Duff had a stalker. The video isn't by her but the song is really good.

Dreamer by Hillary Duff link

*** These next three need to be watched in order. They are so funny. We love these songs and I caught myself singing "Taylor the Latte boy" today as I was working in the house. So catchy and creative. Watch them in order and use the links as there are some others that did them as a skit or something and they aren't as good as the originals. 
 
Taylor the Latte Boy - Part 1

Taylor The Latte Boy - Part 2 - Rebuttle Taylors View

Taylor the Latte Boy - Part 3 Cops View
  
This one I found doing a search. The guy with the bag on his head is funny but it is creepy that people do watch others from outside the window. I've seen someone doing it. He would drive around the town with a cordless phone, a baby monitor and binoculars trying to overhear peoples phone conversations or family lives if they left the baby monitors on. Some people are really imbalanced.
 
The Stalker Song -Michelle Glavin

Of course you all know this police song. The video is from the 80's and isn't worth watching unless you just like to hear the song. 




Police - I'll be Watching You

 
This is an oldie but a goody. I just enjoyed hearing this again. The video is nothing special but I thought it was worth it just to hear the song. 

One Direction - One Way or Another 

I couldn't end this five days of posting about stalkers without ending it on an upbeat note. So, here is "I will Survive" for all of those who have been through a break up, whether it was with a crazy stalker or not, it is still a good song for any trial. 

I will Survive - Gloria Gaynor

I hope you have been enlightened as to how to avoid the stalking world. I will be happy to get back to blogging about family life but felt I should share what I know about stalking to inform others about how to protect themselves or their children.  

Stalking Part 4 - Using Governement and Community to Stalk and Harass

My friend has been through lots of stalking and most of it personal but she has had her share of her ex using the government and others to abuse her. 

Her children have spoken to police many times, social services, guardian ad-litems, mediators, evaluators, lawyers, counselors, civil liberties workers, Doctors, Dentists, and a few more I may be forgetting. 

If one has lots of time on their hands, and are unbalanced and unforgiving, they can search websites devoted to "Pissing off your ex" or "getting revenge."  She know this as her ex told her he was looking at such sites. That in itself is a bit scary. She knows that he has gotten lots of his ideas from such sites and has probably written on a few as well. 

I thought I could write these posts about stalking to inform others about the craziness that is out there as most people think it couldn't possibly be true that people are so obsessed over someone. However, that is because they are normal and don't think like the possessive type personality. These type of abusive people feel that they "own" their partner or spouse. He would say, "If I can't have you, no one can." He wasn't joking or making that comment in jest. He really meant it. I heard it myself.

Many times, he would call the police saying one untrue thing or another. I witnessed calls made to his phone where he had blocked all the numbers she had available from calling him. He then waited until late at night and called the police saying "she wasn't allowing him to speak with the children and would they please go check and make sure the children were safe." She got a call from some hysterical children saying the police were banging at the door at 10 at night while she was finishing up a meeting. 

When she arrived home, she told the officer that the children had spoken to their dad by calling through others numbers but that all her numbers to call from were blocked from calling his phone. He told her that was what the children had said as well. When she tried to call the blocked number with the officer there, it went right through. He had unblocked it before calling the police. He asked to speak with the police officer. He asked the officer if the children were safe and would he be writing a report about the issues? There was a report. However, there were many witnesses about the blocked numbers and the children speaking with their dad on other people's phones so it was just a way for him to abuse her using the police. 

Another way was to give her a "new" phone number to have the children call. He would never answer and it would go to voice mail. When the police were finally involved due to him not speaking with the children again, when the number was called with the police there, it didn't have his voice-mail on it anymore, it was "Johns" phone. My friend could show through calling records that they had tried to call him and that he had told them to call that number but the police don't take the time to see that stuff. She has had to get into a regular habit of making police reports to cover herself due to these types of games.

There are so many more times when he made accusations about her not giving medical treatment. She had to have Doctors write up reports. Claims she was anorexic and taught a daughter to be bulimic. That resulted in visits to Dentists and Doctors for reports for them both. Claims of  "Inappropriate sexual behavior" which resulted in a visit from social services. Claims of neglect which got a social service visit and a Guardian ad litem put on the case. 

Suits and subpoenas or threatening letters to local Doctors, Dentists, and other caretakers for the children. Suits to the school district, state records committee, appeals of court decisions to the supreme court. Complaints to the bar about mediators, legislative complaints against the judges, suits to the children's counselor for records, complaints to the civil liberties union about caretakers for the children., Refusal to pay medical bills, insurance co-pays, private investigators calling the house, spying on her and reporting on things in court. Anonymous calls to community organizations that were helping her such as the woman shelter, or letters to the editor about agencies that did help her. Of course, he hid behind them being from "anonymous" as he knew no one would believe his claims anymore. 

This last one was an "anonymous" call to her career overseeing committee claiming she was doing inappropriate behaviors while at work. This resulted in an investigation and the state coming to her home and questioning her which threatened her livelihood and ability to provide for her family.

I have to say, she has been forgiving and continues to pray for him to find peace in his life. Obviously, he doesn't know what peace is as he continues to take her to court and can't seem to move on. But, he has never won. All the times he has involved the police, the courts, social services, local agencies, mediators, evaluators, paid people off, private investigators, posting her life online on his many "groups" etc. He has never won. Each time, it backfires or in some way God has protected her. 

She knows he is incapable of letting her go. She says she feels he can't let go because she was the only person to truly know who he was inside and still love him. His mother doesn't know all the stuff he does, his current wife doesn't know all the things he does. Yet, my friend knows that he is a child of God and at some point must have been really hurt in his life and felt VERY out of control to have to take so much control over someone else. 

For her sake, I pray something changes. If not, I know she will continue to be amazing and do a great job in her life with her children and family. In the end, her ex is the one that isn't really living. By focusing on her, he isn't focusing on living his own life. Soon, there won't be any reason to go to court, no children to influence, then what will he control?

Stalking Part 3 - Cyber and internet Stalking

It is hard to find images for my posts about stalking but there are some funny things out there. The saying at the top is one I found on the same search as these others. I thought it was a funny quote. 
 
Other ways I know of people being stalked are varied. I personally know someone who has been stalked in all these different ways. There is a guy I went to school with, and when talking with his wife, her ex burnt the house down. She was so grateful that she didn't have any children with him. Others are not so lucky... Children in the mix makes it harder to make a clean break from a controlling and abusive person. 

There are wake up calls on his birthday at five a.m. from "wakeup.com." There are the "Fake emails" someone sets up and then uses them to make friends with her friends using an abbreviation of her name and posts rude things and offends her friends making them think it was her they were visiting with all the time. 

There is another "fake email" that he used to sign her up for "contact" calls where companies advertise on the internet and they tell her that she signed up for them to call her with a great deal on a home refinance or a student loan. When she asks them the email address that requested the call, they say it is "nosedive@XXXXXXX.net." and she tells them that her ex has been giving out her personal information, including how much she has left to pay on her home etc. She tells them she didn't request the call, she shares that her ex was just using the company to harass her as he had been caught earlier prank calling her and is under order from the judge to not call the house anymore. They then politely hang up after she kindly asks them to BLOCK her phone from any future calls from their company. 

There are the spam emails that he also signs up for online using her real email account so she gets 1,000 junk emails daily from every company that advertises on the internet.  There is the facebook accounts in his "usernames" where he exposes himself and the filters on facebook didn't catch it. The sad part is that, of course, she wasn't the one looking up the "username" it was one of the kids that got to see the pornographic photo but she got to be the one to report it to facebook so it could be removed. 

The bank notified her that there were so many failed attempts electronically to get into her bank account that they put a freeze on the account. She had never tried to get into her account electronically so she had to place electronic blocks on all her accounts and her children's accounts. 

There are the thousands of prank hang up calls to the house using a calling card at all hours of the day. The funniest part about this stalking activity is that my friend didn't even know she was being prank called for a year because when he would call and then hang up, she thought the kids were answering the phone. The only reason she knew at all was that he got a bit more bold and called at crazier hours and more often and she recognized the caller id calling card number. This also backfired on him when she subpoenaed his phone records and found 1-900 numbers.

For safety and reasons sake, I won't tell you how she proved it was him calling and making all the prank calls, but lets just say, the police and the judge felt there was enough evidence to order him to not be able to call the house except twice a week before nine p.m. That made her life a bit easier. 

My personal favorite electronic stalking activity that he has done, was when he got into her account and signed himself up for electronic copies of her credit cards and other online accounts. He even went so far as to sign up as the administrator over her phone and internet accounts online where he didn't even need a password to see her emails through her internet company. For over two years, he was the administrator online of her entire account. 

Of course, the phone company has a little box that you check off when you sign up as the administrator of the account that states "I am the authorized user of this account." But, when pressed to pursue, they state that the crime was against my friend so she would have to go after him but in reality, he lied to them, the phone company, for the account. The results of that issue are still pending but as more and more is known about these CRAZY people who think they are above the law get caught, the laws gather more strength and the punishments get more intense. One nut just got 20 years in jail for breaking into his ex's house and putting spyware on her computer. I have hope that my friend can soon find peace from her stalking ex.

Stalking Part 2 - Computer Stalking

Many years ago, I knew someone who managed a large office. He purchased software and put it on all the office computers that allowed him to see what the people in his office were viewing. It also had a feature that he could pick key words in an email and it would alert him if the key words were used.

For example, he put his name in as a key word and any time anyone in the office sent an email that had his name in it, that email would be flagged and sent to him. He could view all their emails, but those were the one's that he spent his time viewing as with many people in an office, it would be very time consuming reading all the emails so this program let you select words that would send up a red flag.

This was at least 12 years ago so this software has been around for some time. I thought I would share this information as you really never know who is watching you. It is legal for a business owner to do at work as they own the computers you are working on so just beware and don't do things you don't want viewed at work.

Another thing with that, was that if he had an employee he wasn't happy with, he could view their emails and web surfing views, and use the information to give reason to "fire" that person so if you aren't in good with your boss, you may want to be careful what time you spend surfing on the net or writing personal emails while at work. If you view non-work related emails, you would be "wasting" time on the job and give reason to dock pay or to be fired.

That software has to be installed on the computer but there are other types that can be sent through an email or loaded through the internet if you don't have a good firewall.

Here is another news story where they did a similar thing as on the last post. 

When there is an email spyware on the computer, your computer runs a bit slower when you hit "reply" and for just a quick second, if you look in the "send" area, you can see an email flash on the screen letting you know you have a stalker getting each of your emails.

The phone spyware I shared about last post, some of those purchases come with a "Free email spyware" which will send the person you want to spy on an email that will install the spyware onto their computer, then it well send a copy of every email you write to the stalkers email.

Here is a link to a search for email spyware for free to show you how easy it is to find and there are many that will allow you to try it for a few days free. You could just add a new one every few days and see what you want and never purchase it. 

All it takes to put it on the computer is the other person opening the email. With "spoofing" they make the email look like it is coming from a friend or someone else. "Spoofing" is when they can make ANY phone number or email show up as the sender. It makes you think the call or the email is coming from someone else.There are directions on the internet to show you how to "Spoof" someone. They can "Brick" your phone which basically ruins the phone of the person on the receiving end. Here is a link to a "spoofing" search showing what it is or how to do it. 

Many years ago, someone I know sent an email to someone saying "they had been caught viewing pornography and if they didn't stop, they would be terminated". The person sending the email "spoofed" the email and made it look like it was coming from the Governors office. Spoofing can be tracked by the ip addresses and this person actually was threatened for his "spoofing" joke by the governors office as I guess the person who received it reported the email and they tracked it back and "this person" who sent it, and the sender was threatened that if he did it again, they would go after him legally.

If they have access to your "wi-fi" you can also sometimes see a window that flashes in the bottom page bar as they are getting access to files.

Another issue, is if they have had access to your computer, they can add themselves as a contact using white lettering on white background and you won't even see their name come up. They can do it over an actual contacts name so you can't see them come up when you hit "All" and send an email to all your contacts. This can cause all your email contacts to not actually show up unless you highlight the "Send to" bar but this may be beyond the amateur stalker's thought process.

These are just some of the ways Stalkers get access to your computer. 

Stalking Part 1 - Stalking Through the Cell Phone

Have you ever known someone that has been stalked? I have.... It is a lonely road for those who have stalkers. Most people are unaware of the lengths that stalkers will go to to invade someone's life. 

People think that unless you are famous, you won't be stalked but there are many controlling spouses, ex's boyfriends etc out there that will go to great lengths to know where their spouse is, see what they are viewing online, invade emails and the worst, get spyware onto your phone. When I talk with people about my friends problem with a stalker, they often don't believe the things that he will do to invade her life. 

She has dealt with phone spyware on her phone long before most carriers were aware there was a problem such as phone cloning and cell phone spyware. Even now, most people don't know that there are many options out there for phone spyware. For as little as $30, you can purchase software that you send to someone's cell phone as a text attachment. They open the picture or whatever the front cover is, and the spyware is then loaded onto the phone. Usually, the phone will reset itself and the person wonders why it did that but figures it is a glitch in the phone.

After that, the stalker gets a copy of your texts, they hear every phone call by dialing in as the phone is ringing or dialing, they can also listen to your conversations through the speaker on the phone even when you aren't on the phone. As long as the phone has a battery in it, it becomes a microphone for them to hear everything you are saying even if it isn't on.  The only way to keep them from having control of your phone is to take the battery out.



My friend couldn't figure out why her ex always knew when she would leave town. A friend then sent her a link to this video on youtube by a news agency. It isn't long but I think you will be really freaked out at how invasive this software is on the phone. Here is a link to the first youtube video explaining how they found out about the phone spyware. 

After that, there was no question as to how her ex knew when she was leaving town. This also explained why her phone got hot all the time when she was on calls and why it would light up and turn on when she wasn't even on the phone and the phone was across the room on a table. One year, she went through four different phones because they would get so hot that it would "fry" the phone and it wouldn't work anymore. It also drains the battery quickly which is another sign of spyware.

Here is a link showing how to get the anti-spyware software for your phone. Unfortunately, for my friend, you need a fairly new phone to be able to use the software. It doesn't work on older phones.

When my friend texts others, sometimes they ask who is texting because another number shows up when she texts. When they investigate what that number is, it is called a  Horeveth number (can't remember spelling) which is a number spammers and Phishers use when they don't want the government to catch them. They are usually routed through a computer and makes them untraceable.

This isn't the most "happy" post I have ever written but I thought it would help others be aware of what is really going on out there. Your daughters or son's may have someone purchase this and put it on their phones. It is good to be informed these days as there are so many CRAZY people out there that can't seem to live their own lives, but need to live through spying on those who are actually living life.

I have a few more things to post about on this "Stalking" subject so I will do that next week.

Heavenly Fathers Gift - Prom Gown Part 3

It's finished! So much time put in but well worth it. Princess four was so excited today when I had her try it on when I had it done except for the sleeve on the back. I needed her to have it on to pin it just right before sewing it on. 

On the sleeves, you can see in this photo, I did two types here so she could choose which she liked best. She didn't like her underarm showing so she opted for the sleeve hanging over the shoulder like a cap sleeve. 


After deciding which sleeve to do, I sewed all around the edges hemming it so the fabric didn't fray. Then I pinned the front in pleats instead of gathers so it would lay flat. I did something stupid as I pinned it, I had the pins pointing towards the side seam and princess got pricked and a little blood got on the dress which I had to get out quickly. Thus, the unhappy Princess look. 

After that, I pinned it toward the front or back so she didn't get pricked. Next, I knew that the dress doesn't stay up well and the sleeves I was putting on weren't meant for weight of the dress so I needed to make straps. 

She had some clear straps from her dance gear so I sewed little pieces of ribbon on the front and back as well as the top center of the sleeve and hooked on the clear straps so that the dress will be more comfortable and that the sleeves will stay up and her bra straps won't show as we have the straps now hooked onto the sleeve. 

You can see how I did that in the two pictures.  They are adjustable if anyone else wears the dress. I sewed on the front of the sleeves by hand as I didn't want the machine look. I wanted more of a princess look than a "shawl" look on the sleeves/shoulder so I gathered up right down the shoulder line of the sleeve. 
 
I used thread at first but then she reminded me that her date is tall and that she has to do twirls under his arm for their "Promenade" dance. I then decided to use white thin round elastic. I wanted to use beading clear elastic but I sent all that with Princess one when she left, she took all the jewelry making supplies. See a post about that here. 
 
Using the elastic allows her to move her arm up and down without the tightness on the shoulder restricting her movement.It gives it more of a soft look but still feminine and princessy according to Princess four.

I finished sewing the sleeves in front, tacked up the hems so they didn't show on the edges and pinned the back so I could have her try it on for one last fitting and she got so excited. We talked about jewelry. I am going to let her wear my real pearl necklace. It looks so beautiful. 

After she had her last try on, I sewed on the back of the sleeves and then ironed it and sewed on the snap for the back bow.

One thing I learned the hard way. Never try on an expensive gown in a bathroom where several girls with long hair, do their hair once or twice a day. 


I ended up with enough hair to stuff a small pillow that collected with static cling to the dress on the lining, in between the lining and top fabric and on the top of the dress. I ended up having to iron the top and bottom layer of the skirt and the sleeves and then took tape and "de-haired" the dress for half an hour. 

I won't make that mistake again! :-) You can see in the top photo how beautiful the skirt looks ironed and without hair. I am excited for Princess to have her big first date. I hope it will be a magical night for her. 

Thanks again for donating the beautiful dress friend! I found a dime today walking into walmart for something. I couldn't help remember all the times God has reminded me to trust Him. We've had lots this week alone.  

Heavenly Fathers Gift - Prom Dress Part 2

I shared with you how Princess four acquired her prom dress. It was such a blessing. Knowing how to sew and alter things is a blessing. Altering a dress alone could cost $100. This dress needed so much altering to fit her right that I have spent days now working on different parts. 

The main part of the dress is done. I took the shoulder straps and made a bow for the back as I said in the first post and there are pictures of that here and another blessing happened when I went to buy white or clear snaps to attach the bow so she could zip it up and still have it on over the zipper.

Our options here are limited and Walmart only had the silver and black snaps so I was still in Walmart when my sisters, mother-in-law walks in. She owns a bridal shop in town. I asked if she knew where I could find a clear snap and she said she has some and gave me one for the dress. Blessings again. 

I had the hoop slip pictured from Princess threes prom and don't really remember where I got it. It may have been from my wedding dress now that I am thinking about it but anyway, the fact that we already had it is another blessing. 

We needed to figure out what to do for sleaves. Princess didn't want a jacket and didn't feel comfortable with strapless and the straps that were on it weren't flattering or modest so we talked about alternatives. We went to Walmart looking for fabric to match the dress. They had some satin that was close but not quite a match. Then, we looked for some shimmery fabric to match and they had some that was the right color but had sparkles on it. We didn't know what else to do so we bought 1/4 yard of it hoping if we turned it inside out, it would work. We also found some fabric in the clearance bin that was just large enough in the cream color to make sleeves and put it under the shiny organza fabric.

As we walked to the check out, I looked down at the fabric slip they put on the fabric we purchased and wouldn't you know, it was $1.11. I showed it to Princess four and told her that God must surely love her to show her with a sign. We got to the check out and there was a penny on the ground. I picked it up and showed her. She smiled knowing He was blessing her with her dress and helping to find what we needed. 

We arrived home and I laughed at myself. I then (of course not before we went shopping as He needed to show us He loved us.) remembered I had some sheer curtains I used for Princess one's wedding that were that EXACT fabric. I searched a few places and found it after a few minutes of pulling out wedding boxes. Here is a link to the wedding doors where I had it hanging in the entry way.

With that fabric and the scrap piece we bought earlier, I was able to pin on some sleeves as ideas. I showed her three different sleeve or wrap ideas she could choose with the type of dress she had. It is sometimes hard to add sleeves on a strapless dress. Straps are much easier or a jacket works most of the time.

I was able to do all the alterations through a small hole I made in the seam of the lining. It made for a smooth inside and you can't tell I made any alterations other than the zipper wasn't the best. I need a better machine to make that work better. It still worked though and I then hand sewed up the lining and it looks as it did when it came. 

I was so busy the past few days with things coming up that I didn't get the dress worked on at all. Our washing machine is being moody and works at times and doesn't at other so we had a repair man here. We seem to have lots of crazy things all happen close together for some reason. Perhaps I believe in the saying, "When it rains, it pours!" as it seems to be the case in my life sometimes. 

I was up most of the night working on it as I have things to keep me busy the next two days so I needed to get it finished. 

I almost have it done. I have three things left to finish it and will share about that tomorrow because I need some sleep. 

I had to share all those little blessings about the dress with you as I can see that Heavenly Father is helping us with it. He knows she needs a  Fathers love at this time. Every teenage girl needs to know she is loved by her Father and feel like a princess. The world makes it so hard on teens these days and being free from the pressures of that and being a princess for a night is something they should enjoy. 

Tonight when she came home late from a performance with her choir, she tried on the dress and said,
"I feel like a princess in it." She is also the daughter who said, "I love that you call us "Princess" in your blog posts." and, she is also the daughter whose dream is to be a Disney Princess so for her to tell me that she "feels like a Princess" in the dress makes all the work worth it. 

They are only home for a short time and what happens in that short time, prepares them for what will "be" for the rest of their lives. I just hope I have given them all enough in the "short time" to help them get through whatever the "rest" is for each of them.

Heavenly Fathers Gift - Prom Gown Part 1

Princess and I went looking for prom dresses in December when she was asked to prom. We went to several stores and couldn't find anything she liked or close to what she said she wanted. While at the last store, I got a phone call from my good friend Nancy. 

She is busy in her life and doesn't often call me when she isn't driving somewhere and usually short calls perhaps once every month or two the past year. She asked where I was and what I was doing. I told her where we were and she asked what color dress Princess four wanted. I told her she wanted blue and she asked if I knew if you could dye dresses. I told her it depended on fabrics as some would and others wouldn't. 

She then reminded me that when she got married a few years ago, she purchased a dress that she had altered and then ended up using another dress she found after so she bought both dresses. The first dress was a prom dress and was never used. She told me if we had time, we could drive to her house and look at the dress. She lives far away and even in the city she lives in, she is 45 minutes from my nearest family members so I doubted we would have time to go see the dress as I was headed that far in the other direction to my family Christmas dinner. 

Fast forward.... I got lost in a snow storm after leaving the store. We made a stop at a WalMart and somehow I got turned around and ended up driving way out of our way. As I turned around to come back, I kept taking roads that I thought would cut over and get me nearer to my sisters to drop off princess and get to my party. The streets kept ending in a dead end. As it worked out, we got totally lost and ended up about two miles from Nancy's house. 

I am VERY good with directions and it was almost like I had a mask on my eyes so I didn't notice any street signs taking me out of town. My daughter even told me that the street lights were weird and she had never seen them before. I kept on driving. It was so weird. I know those streets. I know those lights are only in one part of town and it wasn't where I wanted to go so once we arrived, I told her it was as if we were supposed to go there. I ended up being an hour late to my family Christmas party because of it but when Princess came out wearing the dress, she had such a smile on her face. 

Yes it was a bit big on her but the length was perfect and the style and color are so elegant. It is a soft cream color with beads on the bodice and she loved it. 

I should have altered it before now but you know how my life gets..... :-) 

I started by taking the zipper in. I took off the "shoulder" piece that had been added on and took in the bodice pieces but to do that without ruining the pattern on the front piece, I had to undo almost the entire front piece and sew in the sides and keep the front piece the same size. It worked and the front piece looks great and after that, I still had to take it in on the side seam some. 

I didn't do the best job with the zipper if you look closely. I wasn't extremely worried as her hair is going to be down and I am making a bow for the bottom of the zipper out of the shoulder pieces. Even if she went with her hair up, the upper zipper doesn't look so bad. 

As I get more and more done on it, her smile gets bigger and bigger. We tried a few other dresses on but she said she thinks this one is "Classy" and I am still working on it but I think she will look beautiful.

I owe Nancy something special... It seems I always do.... :-) But then again, isn't that what friends are for.... There are many posts on here as I have helped her with three t-shirt quilts as well so I guess it really is what friends are for... helping when you need it and following a "feeling" to call me just when we were panicked about a prom dress. Me getting lost at just the right time and Nancy for thinking of even offering her the dress. I can't help thinking that someone from above kept me driving in the wrong direction just long enough to get to Nancy's house! 
Here is a link to some of those quilts.
 Here is a link to the first one I made for her.

St Patricks Day Visit for Princess Three

Today we had a bit of a drive to go visit Princess Three at college. They had a parents day and dinner. Princess four got into the spirit of the day by wearing a green dress but I completely forgot to wear green and they let me know it. 


They had a dinner for all the families of the students in her neighborhood. It was roast beef, homemade mashed potatoes, green salad, home made rolls, and some sort of cool whip salad with fruit and chocolate covered animal crackers in it and chocolate eclairs for dessert. There had to be over 400 people there and they had to set up extra tables. 

I think it meant a lot to Princess three that we went to visit her. She had her hair done really cute (if you know princess four, she usually just pulls it in a pony/slinky) she called me early this morning to see if we were coming and look at the smile on her face. 

She loved having her family there. We enjoyed not having to cook. The drive there and back was spent singing show tunes off the ipods in the new car my dad gave us. Sweet ride that Lincoln. I noticed even more amazing things. There is a garage door button on the visor!! Totally cool. Each day I drive it, I find out some new wonderful thing about it. 

The other wonderful thing about today is that when we got home, Princess two moved back from Vegas. The family she was with said they would take her half way home next Thursday or Friday but that is Prom and another meeting for me so I wouldn't have time to go meet them. We put it on face book and found someone headed from Vegas to our home town for a funeral in just a few hours. She was able to get that ride saving me the worry of dealing with it on prom. Normally, I wouldn't care but if you follow this blog, you will recall how HUGE prom is in this town.  I have never seen the like so I wouldn't dare miss it.
Here is a post about Princess two's prom. 
Here is Part two of that post.  
Here is the post about Princess Three's prom.

I am so grateful for friends that read the fb posts and act on them. It is nice to have her back and I hope she was able to help the family she was with. I guess they are headed on vacation next week and then family is coming to visit them the next week so we are happy to have her back as the next few weeks will be very busy with prom and Easter.