Happy Halloween!

 

Saturday night we had a church party to attend, so we got to put the Halloween costumes to use early!  We spray painted the girls’ hair, although you can’t see the red in Strawberry Shortcake’s hair due to it being so brown already.  Ah, well.  Mike is wearing a red sparkly vest… and he would only do so because I told him I needed a Flamenco partner and I batted my eyelashes at him.

My red dress was my sister’s that she thrifted last year, and then we made an underskirt to make it more full and a little longer.  I tried to do the “smokey eye” and failed, but I’m sure I will try again soon.  My girls kept telling me how pretty my eyes and lips were.  I don’t wear a lot of make up usually :)

Goofballs!!!

My daughter’s school doesn’t have them dress up for Halloween, but this week is Character week, and today was Super Hero Day.  My daughter doesn’t know much about super heroes, she’s never seen a movie or cartoon with them, but she does know that a bat symbol or a spider symbol means some sort of super hero.  She wore her spider skirt, and I quickly sewed a bat shape (out of spider fabric) to one of her shirts late last night.  I thought we would tie in Halloween on Halloween, even if the school wasn’t celebrating!

Of course, today all the girls are wearing their spider skirts.

I don’t have anything festive, but I am going to be making frosting for the sugar cookies I baked last night in order to be ready for some cookie-decorating fun when the munchkin gets home from school.  I’ve been so busy lately, I haven’t had much time to play with them, so I am looking forward to a little time doing that.  And I’m looking forward to eating the cookies!

I’m not really good at making lunch exciting for my kids, but I was happy to sneak in mandarin oranges with a jack-o-lantern drawn on the container, string cheese made to look like a ghost, and spider olives into the munchkin’s lunch bag today.  I hope she likes them!  I think my crazy 3-year-old trouble maker might settle down enough to enjoy them too.  I would really like to make holidays exciting!  Some day we’ll go all out, but this works for now!

Happy Halloween, I hope your trick-or-treating is safe and lots of memories are made!

Fall Fever: Feather Wreath with Mini Witch Hats

This is a post I did at Every Creative Endeavor while Amanda welcomed her new baby!  I thought I should get it up here on my blog before Halloween passes us by.  Enjoy!

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I live in Arizona, and while I actually do love the heat, it means that we generally miss out on Fall when everyone else is having it.  We do get to join in on the fun for Halloween, though, like with a fun Halloween Feather Wreath!

I had a feather wreath on my front door, which was actually two feather boas from Hobby Lobby wrapped around a frame from the dollar store (so, roughly $6 spent). 

I loved it how it was, but I was getting antsy to spruce things up a bit, so I decided to add more to it!  I’ll show you a bit of what I did to make the mini witch hats that I put on.

First, I took a can from my pantry and traced around it several times onto some Halloween scrapbook paper, then cut them out.

Next, I cut out 2” circles with my Fiskars circle punch.  Fast and easy.

Cut all the bigger circles in half, and twist the half circle into a cone shape.  The more overlap you make, the steeper the hat will be. 

Then I hot-glued the tops to the 2” circles, and had a little collection of mini witch hats! 

I hung it on the door, and decided it definitely needed more.  I pulled out some wooden letters from Hobby Lobby, painted them black, and glued/mod podged Halloween paper to create the BOO phrase.  Finally finished!

Tip: If your door can’t close with a wreath hanger, like mine, go for ribbon or fabric.  This stripe fabric was perfect, especially when ripped to size instead of neatly cut.  Then, put a flat tack into the fabric where it will reach over the door, and (if your door isn’t solid metal) push the tack into the top of the door to hold it in place, and cut off any excess fabric/ribbon that hangs over to the other side.  Your door should close nice and easy!

Strawberry Shortcake Costume

Well, here’s the last of the kid costumes!  Strawberry Shortcake, a regular favorite around here for my girlies.  We had planned on doing this last year, but didn’t at the last minute.  To make the dress, I used the Twirly T-Shirt Dress tutorial, and just ironed on the fabric details to the shirt first.  I couldn’t find polka-dot fabric for the skirt, so I found some clearance knit and stamped it with fabric paint- at first, the dots were light pink but they really disappeared after they dried, so I went over each one with red paint after.  Still hard to see, but better than it was.

The hat is missing the green brim, but really… it is a Halloween costume, not something for a theatre show or something.  I had cut out and stamped a piece for the hat, but I think my husband threw it away… so I used a scrap of pink knit from hobby lobby.  Lil Blue Boo has a tutorial for a cap like this; I made this one smaller because of the small scrap I had.

Again, the perfect green and white tights are from Goodwill (they are new items, so most stores should have them in stock) and she was due for new shoes anyway so I just went with pink! We have red hair spray we will use for the actual costume-wearing events, and a backup wig just in case.

She is delighted with the outcome and we can’t wait to wear it all for our Church Halloween party on Saturday!

In case you missed it, her sisters are going as Purple Plum, and a Turtle.  Mike and I are borrowing costumes to be Flamenco dancers… someday we will all go as a coordinated group!

Halloween Plate and a Fun New Store!

 

I wanted to put up a holiday plate in my kitchen to help me celebrate Halloween, but I didn’t have any easels in which to put said plate, so the project went on hold.  I have been looking all season for the perfect stand, but it wasn’t until my visit to Rod Works last night that I found what I was looking for!  Metal, scrolls, and with a very happy price tag.  I made this plate before I even made breakfast today because I was so excited about it.

Now, I’ll be upfront: you can’t just walk into Rod Works and think “I’ll just pick up a picture stand and leave” because you’ll be faced with so. much. prettiness. as soon as you walk in.  I was immediately drawn to the maps/globes:

And anything Christmas makes me stop and poke around (I got several Christmas items… yippee! and HELLO gorgeous Chevron wrapping paper!):

But it seems like every INCH of the store had something to look at, and with plenty of hidden treasures along the way.

If you happen to be in the area (in Gilbert, off of Higley and Ray) Rod Works has a good sale coming up!  November 1-3 is their Open House, where you’ll find:

25% off 1 item

20% off all frames (You’ll love the beadboard frames!)

20% off all clocks (Oh, the clocks!  Big and beautiful and unique!)

20% off wax melters and wax

Also, you can keep up with their sales and décor ideas on their Facebook Page too!

My visit to the store inspired me so much, I started hanging pictures today on my wall.  I hung them crooked (the level tipped and I didn’t notice…), but I am just so excited to have something on those bare white walls I don’t care so much!  I love good inspiration.

(I received compensation to participate in touring Rod Works, however the opinions expressed from the experience are uniquely mine.)

Baby Turtle Halloween Costume

My little baby girl is very mobile, but in a funny army-crawl type of way.  One day we tossed a pillow to her (she thinks pillows are the most hilarious toy ever) and it landed on her back.  As she tried to scoot away from it, I thought how cute she looked, and how very like a little turtle she looked too.  That’s why I decided to make her a little turtle costume!

This was SO SIMPLE and fast to make.  Basically, I cut two large ovals out of one green color fleece, and added dark green fleece turtle shell pieces to one of the ovals, and a piece that was shaped like a bathing suit and shoulder tabs to the other. I just top-stitched the shell pieces, and sewed only the sides and the crotch of the little bathing suit piece so she could slip into it really easily.  Once the pieces were top-stitched, I sewed the ovals right sides together leaving a hole for turning, turned it right side out, stuffed a bit of stuffing in it (not a ton, just enough to make it poofy and slightly rounded) and hand-stitched the hole closed.  I think it took me 30 minutes.

After I tried it on her, I put velcro on the tab pieces and the top part of the little green suit piece so it would stay on.  The hat was just using the same method as my fabric pumpkins or fleece farm animals, but I made the ball shape a little wider at the middle and cut them in half before sewing 4 of those halves together.  I just used extra fleece for the bottom band.

I probably should have put chin straps on the hat (and I still might) because it was staying on for only 20 seconds at a time before this little girl would pull it right off.  My kids have NEVER been fans of things on their heads until they are about 2 1/2, unfortunately- there goes the option for cute hair bows on babies.

Happy First Halloween, baby A!  With that silly little tongue out all the time!! 

Are your costumes done?  I need to finish Strawberry Shortcake’s hat and I’ll be FINISHED!

Except for laundry.  Purple Plum had an accident in her costume yesterday.

A mother’s work never ends ;)

Purple Plum and a haircut

Last week was… ugh.  Not terrible, but certainly a challenge.  Two of the kiddos were sick, and the third was into EVERY bit of trouble she could think of, including a self-haircut.  I think I hide scissors and permanent markers on a daily basis, but she finds them and causes all sorts of mayhem.  Our walls are works of art.  While I was rocking a sad, sick baby on the couch, the troublemaker came out of her room talking about how pretty she looked, and it took a few more minutes than I’d like to admit to realize she was talking about her new haircut.  Lo and behold…

She was almost sporting a fe-mullet.  Luckily most of the damage was in the front, and luckily it wasn’t right next to her scalp.  I consider myself blessed.  Still, we had just discussed how we were going to pull her hair into a high ponytail to finish off her Halloween costume.

She requested to be Purple Plum to match her sister’s Strawberry Shortcake costume (I’ll show you that one soon, I’m almost done).  Note the haircut and mandatory headband:

I cut a shirt from Walmart and added a ribbon tie to make the jacket, and just made an ultimate twirly skirt for the skirt part, except I cut two layers.  I found the green and white tights at Goodwill, and they are currently a women’s size.  I need to chop off the toe section and sew them shut to make them her size still.

The little purple leggings are more socks, with the toes (and contrasting teal tops that were originally on the sock) cut off.

I have purple hair spray, and hopefully I can make her a convincing Purple Plum!  We have a church Halloween Party on Saturday, so it is good to get this wrapped up before the big Trick-or-Treat day next week!

More to come: Strawberry Shortcake, and a baby turtle.  The turtle is random, I know, but she’s adorable!

Glitter Academy Recap

Two weekends ago I was able to attend the Glitter Academy!  Glitter Academy is basically craft night on steroids, put on by Stephanie of Somewhat Simple, Kristyn of Lil’ Luna, and Jamielyn of I {heart} Naptime.  I attended the first unofficial event they put on, and we were all so surprised by how many other Arizona bloggers and crafters were around.  It was so good to see everyone!

Of course, a highlight of any party is the food, and the girls of Paging Supermom did a great job with the display.  The cupcakes were from Mind over Batter in Gilbert.

 

The dessert table had a gorgeous glitter-paper chain backdrop, courtesy of American Crafts.  It was so beautiful and now I want to do that for a birthday party, if I actually ever threw one for my girls…

We ate a yummy dinner and gabbed with the ladies around us.  Photos were being taken right and left; I managed to snag one with Jamielyn, probably because she was sitting at the head of our table:

And also the guest of honor, Mandi Gubler of Vintage Revivals, who was a competitor with me in the first season of Crafting With The Stars, where she soundly beat all of us.  I like to remind myself I came in second, even if I did lose by thousands of votes.  I was pretty proud to lose to Mandi though- poor gal, she was in a different league than the rest of us, and she was probably bored to tears!

After the mingling and the eating, we worked our projects provided by Poppy Seed Projects.  I still haven’t finished mine… but I will eventually ;)

One of the fun things that I realized while there is that there were so many Non-Bloggers there… like my good friend Sarah (who is in my choir with me, and as my section leader and friend, always makes me feel good about myself.  She’s heaven-sent) and most of the gals that I sat by.  You don’t have to blog to be creative and successful at making a handmade home for yourself and family!

It was so much fun.  My biggest takeaway from this was that I am significant.  Compared to MANY of the other actual bloggers who were there, my little place in Cyberspace is really small, but those who put on the event and those I spoke to during the evening didn’t care- not one bit.  They offered suggestions when I asked questions, but were so accepting and sweet.  I called my husband on the way home and I told him how happy I was with what I do, and how good I felt leaving there with my small but significant accomplishments, when driving there I was nervous about my little place in this craft blog world.

I can’t wait for the next Glitter Academy event, and I hope I can go again.  There were lots of ladies I didn’t get to meet; hopefully next time!

We have a WINNER! And a reminder!

I think it is time I picked a winner for the Opus2Music CD giveaway for their Morning Has Broken album!  We have listened to it every day since we got it, and still enjoy every note.

Who is the lucky winner?  #8, Megan10e who liked their Facebook page!  Yay Megan!!

If you would still like a copy, you can purchase Morning Has Broken through Deseret Book online.

Also, if you haven’t entered to win the My Memories Suite Software for your digital scrapbooking, you still have a few more days to enter!  Here’s a page I did recently for my sister:

I am learning a lot as I go; but the good thing about digital scrapbooking is that you can change things later on if you decide.  Which is good for a newbie like me!  I tend to do things simply, but I have seen some GORGEOUS pages made with this software.

You can always get the software yourself for $10 off using the code STMMMS4563 at checkout!

Well, now I’m off to take care of a child home sick with the flu, who is being bothered by her stubborn little sister.  Such is the life of a mom!  Have a great day!

‘Tis the Season… for Family Photos

I got a phone call last month from my sister suggesting we take each other’s family photos while Snapfish had their Penny Prints sale (99 prints for 99 cents) so she could get her Christmas photos made and ordered for c-h-e-a-p.  We do love our Penny Prints.  Anyway, it was a superb idea, but the only catch was that we needed to have the photos done the next day.  I think we broke every “family photo planning” rule/suggestion out there!  I was picking out clothes an hour before, no one had haircuts or trims, and I didn’t even bring treats to reward my children.  My poor kids ;).  Luckily, we took photos at a park that had a playground, so that was incentive enough for mine.  The only thing I wanted in our family photos was grass, so a local park was the solution at such short notice.

And for the stressful part of family pictures: getting good shots while there is still daylight and children are fed, happy, and their hair is still in place.  GAH!!

For their individual portraits, this is what I got for most of my shots of girly #2:

And she kept running away the whole time, letting her body go limp when we would set her down in the right spot… my nerves were totally shot. Here’s me saying “Stay with mommy or you need to have a time-out in the car” which of course, we couldn’t do because we were obviously running out of light and didn’t have time for any actual discipline.

We did manage to get a few Mike&Mel shots, where we pretended we were at a High School Homecoming dance and couldn’t keep our giggles in. Not all of them were goofy, but I do love a good laugh with him.

But after loading them all on the computer and flipping through the countless duds, I had a moment where I just stopped looking for the “perfect” photo and instead started looking at the expressions on my girls’ faces.  I looked at their little feet, their baby teeth (or lack thereof), their sweet goofy smiles… and those duds became pretty precious.  I’m not hanging them on my walls, but I’ll be keeping them forever.  I have some editing to do, but soon that wall will be full of those I love most in this world.

Happy picture taking!

Here are a few tips for family photos:

Make your Christmas Card Stand Out

Family Photo Clothing Tips

Tips on finding a good location for your style

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Looking for fun hair accessories for your photo sessions?  Try looking in the Rockin’ Princess Shop for adorable ribbon bows!!