Emerald in emerald

Little Emerald started preschool yesterday. She loved it and feels very grown up now that she gets to go to 'school' too...just like her big brother.

I wanted to make Emma a dress to wear her first day and fell in LOVE with this emerald green fabric. Quite a fitting color for my Emerald, dontchathink? :) I used the Secret Garden Dress pattern by Lily Giggle to make this adorable little dress.

This picture shows a little bit of what the hubs was busy building Labor Day weekend. The front stoop got a much needed makeover. I'll share more about this project soon.

Last week we met Emma's teachers (who already knew her since Elliott had them last year) and were told about a new rule the school has...no preschool sized backpacks. Bummer. Emma had a pretty pink polk-a-dot backpack from Pottery Barn with her name on it already. But the preschool size doesn't fit a full sheet of paper in it so they asked for regular sized bags this year.

Over the weekend I scrambled to get something together for her - and the challenge I was given (by my husband who said we absolutely shouldn't buy another backpack) was to make it for FREE. I used scraps that I had left over from other projects and came up with a cute little bag...with no extra cost. Yay! She loves it and she looked adorable yesterday all ready to go.

I actually put together a little tutorial on how I made the bag. If anyone is interested in it let me know and I'll post it. (I made up the pattern for it as I went along.)
One side had her name:

And the other side had a humongous felt flower with an adorable little button at the center:

So far Emma loves preschool. There are only 6 kids in her class and there are two teachers so she'll get lots of attention and one-on-one time to learn. (the school is really full in the morning sessions of preschool but that's why we love afternoon preschool - there are much fewer kids) It's perfect for her!