Sewing Halloween

Halloween costumes this year are pretty easy for me. The kids have all picked something that requires minimal help from me, very little sewing, and very little store-bought accessories. Win-win if you ask me!

Though I like to sew, sewing for the kids is not always easy, especially when they breathe down my neck, ready to snatch away finished product as soon as I clip the last thread. Or I can barely get them to stand still while I measure and check, double-check and triple-check the fit. 

This Halloween, Evelyn wanted to be a ghost, then a zombie, and as of today, with her looking like she's coming down with a cold and possibly not going trick-or-treating tomorrow, we've decided she'll use her warmest pajamas (with something even warmer underneath), dot her face with freckles, put her hair into pigtails, and she'll carry around a teddy bear, as if she is a little girl ready for bed. Much easier and less complicated than a zombie. Hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Gretchen is going to be a witch, using an old costume we already have. The only thing we needed was a witch hat, which we found in the dollar aisle at Target. I'm making her wear tights and a heavy black skirt underneath the costume for warmth, which she is protesting, but as soon as I mentioned, "no tights, no trick-or-treating," she quickly agreed.

Sylvia is a cat. While yard sale-ing one day, I jokingly held up leopard-print pants and shirts and asked if anyone wanted them and Sylvia immediately grabbed for them! Shocked me, for sure. She's been wearing them non-stop and all I needed to do was make a black tail for her and the Target dollar aisle gave us leopard-print cat ears headband. Make-up on her face for whiskers and a kitty nose and we are done!

Peter wants to be a shark. He loves anything fish and for months he has been talking about being a shark.

Easy enough-- dress him all in grey and I'd make a grey skull cap from a grey shirt and a shark fin to attach to the back of his shirt. But it's cold now, thanks to Hurricane Sandy, and I realized the fin won't be visible underneath his coat. Thinking, thinking.. light bulb!

Using an old grey shirt, I cut the long sleeve off and used the wider top part as a skull cap. Cut a thick card board fin and fitted it inside the cap and traced the shape, sewed along the shape and a shark fin cap was born! He loved it! Ran off as soon as I slipped it on his head! 

My sister mentioned seeing a teeth-y mask made with a paper plate, but I thought I could do one better using thick white felt and a bit of the old shirt. I measured around his head and cut a slit into a rectangle piece of fabric, sewed a length of felt on both sides of the slit, turned and stitched a top-stitch to keep the teeth from flopping once on. Added some snaps to the ends to attach in the back and it's pretty cute.

I tried to make the top teeth sit on his upper lip- done; and the bottom teeth sit on his chin, but the bottom isn't cooperating with me. In the end, we all agree that the teeth hanging wide open look pretty good.

Of course, now that I've finished the sewing bit for Shark boy, he declares he doesn't like it and won't wear it. -sigh- Andrew said he won't go trick-or-treating if he won't wear it, so Peter has changed his tune and loves it again. Fickle kid!

More costume pictures later! Happy Halloween!

Sewing With The Kids Around

Here's why I wait for the kids to go to bed before I sew:

I made a long skinny scarf in the middle of the afternoon. I had an itch to sew. I didn't want to lose my inspiration, so I sewed with the kids underfoot.

I cut, pinned, sewed, then when I pulled the whole thing inside out, I saw this.

aggghhhh!

I pinned right side to wrong side!

sigh...

Instead of cutting it all apart, I just made a little patch to cover it all up.

Good thing it was the lining and not the outside fabric.

Remind me not to sew with the kids around to distract me!

Sewing For Me!

A couple of weeks ago, I "discovered" a new-to-me blog: No Big Dill   She only just had a baby and during the time she's recovering from childbirth and adjusting to a new baby at home, she was posting past tutorials. Pretty nice stuff, but when I saw the tutorial for her Billy Cardi, I fell in love with it! I couldn't stop thinking about it. The only thing stopping me from making it was lack of fabric. I rummaged through my fabric bin looking for at least 2 yards of fabric and couldn't find anything, unless I wanted flannel spaceships in baby blue. I had a coupon from Joann's for 50% off burning a hole in my pocket so on the very last day the coupon expired, I managed to convince Andrew to take me to Joann's so I could get some fabric.

I considered cotton knit fabric, but with colder weather coming, I couldn't help but think it would be great in fleece. I have two fleece shirts I love wearing during the winters, so warm without being bulky, so making the Billy Cardi in fleece? I had to try it!

I followed the tutorial exactly, cutting up an old long-sleeve shirt for the pattern. No problems with sewing it up-- I cut and sewed this in one evening after the kids went to bed. The only issue I have with it is, because I based the pattern on a shirt, the sleeves and shoulders fit snugly and wearing a long sleeve shirt under it make it too snug. Fits perfectly when I wear a t-shirt underneath it. I want to make another one and this time I'll make the pattern just a bit bigger so I can use it over long sleeve shirts and as a jacket on not-so-cold days.

Otherwise? I love it! It's nice and comfy. I love the longer sleeves, which easily fold up when I need to do dishes or cook. The fleece is so warm and I find I am choosing to wear it at night over my usual sweater.



Warm dark brown fleece



With contrasting turquoise blue thread.

I added the zig-zag edging just for a little extra pop.

I like the way the shoulders were sewn together, mine are not perfectly even, but who'll know if I don't say anything? Well, so now you know!

I used zig-zag stitching on the edges of the front and up around the neck.

Really love those longer sleeves.

One of the other nice things about fleece is there is no hemming required, it doesn't fray! yay!

Less sewing for me!

This is quickly becoming my favorite sweater and with the ease of how it all came together, it will not be the only one either! As soon as I can get my hands on some more fleece, I'm definitely making another one!

WIP: Vintage Star

Ever since I saw this, I've had quilt-making on the brain. I love it. It's so simple and unfussy, yet bold and classic. It doesn't hurt that the blocks are big and I can easily make four quilts for each of my children without having to make hundreds of cuts and joining hundreds of small pieces of fabric to make one big piece. And then it uses vintage sheets? Even better!

I love vintage sheets and snap them up whenever I see them at yard sales or thrift stores. I have quite the pile. I actually use some of them on our beds and love the super soft feel of sheets washed hundreds of times over the years. I love the graphics on them, the great big flowers and the pop of color combinations used.

I've cut into the poorer ones and turned them in rag rugs, but for the most part, they're piled in a box in the basement, until I saw that Giant Vintage Star Quilt. Oh so lovely! So I gathered every vintage sheet I could find, sorted by colors, stacked them on the hutch in the dining room in plain view, so I could see them and be inspired and.... nothing. I can't bear to cut into them! What if I cut into it and make it and turns out I hate it? I've now wasted my lovely vintage sheet!

I needed to do something, anything, to give me that little push and get me over that hump of fear.

I decided to make mini stars!

I got these squares from a bloggy friend and I've been wanting to do something with them, but until now, had no inspiration. I decided to make small versions of the Giant Vintage Star Quilt and see how I like the pattern and it gives me a little practice, too.

I really like how they came out. I started with thinking I'll just make one, but one is not quite big enough for a doll blanket, unless it's for Barbie dolls, and making only one will surely cause some tug-of-wars between the girls. Can't have that. So I made three more, thinking if I wanted to, I could join them to make one small quilt.

Every star I made after the first showed improvements. Tighter corners, points matched up, better ironing on the back, less wonkiness...

And here are the finished blocks, four in all.

Now I'm thinking they need something between them, maybe a solid color to unite them. A line of zig-zags have crossed my mind, too. Or I could add a border to all of them and make 4 little doll quilts. Or make a wall hanging out of it? Options are endless. They'll be put on the back burner for now until I decide what to do with them.

Did they inspire me to cut into the vintage sheets?

I must say they have.

Sometime soon, I'll pick out colors and make my attempt at making my very own Giant Vintage Star Quilt.

Wish me luck!



Scratching the Itch

I've been itching to get on the sewing machine lately and it's so hard during the day with Peter fiddling around with all the buttons on the machine, pulling the spool of thread off, walking around me and tripping over the cord, that I just wait until the kids go to bed. But by then I'm too tired or I have something else more pressing than sewing, so it gets put off and put off and put off.

Sewing and crafting is good for me. It's good for my soul. Sooner or later I have to make time to do something and get it out of my system and when it's finished, I feel better.

Last year, a wonderful bloggy friend sent Evelyn a box of fabrics for Christmas (Thanks, Karen!).  I gave Evelyn most of it when I put it inside her very own sewing box, but kept out a few things-- either I thought she wasn't ready for it, or *ahem* I wanted it for myself. heh. Included in the box of fabrics was a set of charm squares, I think that's what you call them.  A rainbow of colors in the same design but different colors, all pre-cut into 4x4 squares. I've been itching since before Christmas to make something with them, but didn't know what.

Finally, inspiration struck and I spent several days looking at different pinwheel quilts on the internet, looking for a design I liked. I don't have enough squares to make a full size quilt, but I wasn't looking to do that. I just wanted to make something quickly. I needed my fix!

Ta-dah!!

 My first tiny mini-quilt. It's the exact size of a potholder! hahaha!

It's not perfect, some of the corners don't match up and I flubbed the binding.

I like the orange and turquoise together.

I like how if you stare at it long enough, the pattern starts to change-- squares, diamonds, triangles, squares within a square...

I'll probably end up using it as a potholder. 

I used a scrap of fleece as batting in the middle.

 

I see a lot of quilters adding a little something-something to the backs of their quilts,

giving it that extra special bit and I ended up with an extra pinwheel left over after I pieced the front together, so why not? There's my little extra special something-something!

I did this one, too. Can you see the diamond pattern?

Trying to line up all the tiny squares on this was tough!

I should have used a different fabric, switching out one of the red-and-white ones.

Like keeping the stripes, both the green and the red/white, and adding a different color stripe. The red-and-white polka dot is cute, but it doesn't help define the diamond pattern.

At least I got all the stripes lined up the same way.

This is also the size of a potholder-- the squares are the size of a dime.

 I'm thinking I'll finish it and let the girls have it for a doll quilt.

Wishful Thinking / Pet Peeve

There's been a lot of crafting around these parts lately. By me, and the girls.  Not so much Peter-- unless you count eating play-doh. I'm happy the girls are picking up the crafting bug-- it's something I remember Mom trying to get me to do when I was their age and it never stuck with me. Now I start doing it when I am a busy mother of 4 trying to do everything else that needs to be done around here. Why didn't I do it back when I had all the time in the world??  I must like a challenge!

I get a lot of my supplies from yard sales and thrift shops, or there's a good sale at the fabric store with half-off coupons. I'm lucky Andrew indulges me my crafting and encourages me when I get on a sewing binge. I try to return the favor and not break the bank on crafty purchases-- like I can afford a whole lot anyway.

Today for home school, the girls all wanted to sew and make dolls. So it turned into Home Ec class and the topic was embroidering doll features, sewing bodies on mama's sewing machine, turning inside out, stuffing and yarn hair. Finished 1 doll; halfway through a second; still need to assemble a third. Doll dresses are slated for tomorrow.  My patience ran out when, first, I was feeling like I needed to be mama octopus and help 3 girls all crying for help at the same time and Peter constantly screeching that ear-piercing scream while knocking down his blocks, and then Gretchen getting pickier and picker about the yarn hair or the eyes or the heart and how it wasn't looking like Evelyn's. I slammed my hand on the table, grabbed all the fabric, yard, thread, hoops and put it up. Went to the bedroom to get 5 minutes of peace and quiet.

I hope tomorrow will go smoother, brand new day and all that.

 With the girls jumping on the crafting bandwagon, I'm finding myself short on supplies to share. I hate that I have to run 45 minutes into the next big town for the closest store that sells fabric and supplies. It's been my mantra since the day we moved here. Why is the closest craft store 45 minutes away?! In six years, I still have not discovered any sort of crafting store around here and I know there are quilters in this area and lots of the town fairs are full of people hawking hand made stuff, so there are other crafty people here. I can't believe that they all go 45 minutes to the next big town for supplies??  Or else they have money and order online, which I wish I could do but online stuff is expensive and I like to see/touch what I'm buying first.

It would be nice to open up a shop of my own. Couldn't afford to lease out a store space, much less purchase all the stock. Plus, start up costs, liability insurance and all that expensive stuff. A woman I knew liked to quilt and she found it cheaper to order her fabrics whole-sale, by-the-bolt, but then she had too much fabric, so she opened a fabric store in her basement and, by-appointment-only, sold her surplus fabric. She had a nice shop, but way overpriced. I ended up just buying a  teeny small bit, feeling obligated, because I made an appointment and I was taking up her time, after all. I think about that set-up a lot these days-- how nice to have a store in my basement, to run down and pluck what I need off the shelf. Have a sign out by the road on days I'm open to the public or by appointment. No overhead costs, no lease to pay, just a bit of advertising and finding crafting supplies to stock the shop and sell. Is it worth it? Would I be offering a desired product? Would it succeed? Can I fill a need? Profit would be nice, but even better would be the convenience of a shop closer than 45 minutes. It's all a nice idea, maybe just a fantasy, since we're really tight on money and starting a business in this economy? hmph! 

I'll have to make do and look for an old teddy bear no one loves and cut it open for it's stuffing. I don't have enough stuffing for the dolls the girls are making. Can't afford a trip into town just for stuffing, and while I'm there, I'll be drooling over all the other stuff I'd really like to bring home with me. What I really just want to do is take the whole store, strap it onto the roof of my van and park it in my back yard.

Recycled: Market Bag and Laptop Cover

I confess that I don't bring my own bags to the store and use the plastic bags they offer. I've always felt guilty about that but never really did anything about it. I don't like the cheap bags you can buy-- I find they tear easily ( my MIL passed some on to me ) and I don't want to spend money on something that I know will not last, even if it's only $1 (usually). I have the sewing skills to make some, but I'm either too busy or if I have the time, I don't want to spend it making a bag. In my defense, we DO bring the plastic bags back to recycle and we re-use plastic bags around the house as little trash bags for our smaller trash cans and for litter box waste.

I saw a post quite some time ago.. probably 2 or 3 years ago and it's never left my head. I looked for it but couldn't find it so I'm unable to share the link. Anyway, the person used a plastic bag as a pattern and the resulting bag ended up just like a cloth version. I really like the plastic bags that Target uses, so I used one as my pattern. I used a vintage pillow case which eliminated some sewing and reduced a little bit of my pillow case stash and I really like the final result:

Ta-da!!

I used bias tape around the handle and the opening of the bag and folded in the sides just like a plastic shopping bag. I like it, but I can see where I could use more improvements. Like the top of the handles are a little thick with the folded ends and then covered in bias tape. It makes the top pretty stiff and doesn't feel very flexible. I also used an unfamiliar sewing machine for the first time when I sewed the bottom and it totally messed up the stitches. grrr! I was too lazy to pick out the stitches so after I switched back to my usual machine I just folded over the ugly stitching, then sewed over it. It made the bottom a little stiff, too, but it works.

It holds 4 boxes of cereal easily with a little room to spare. I could probably fit 5 boxes in there, but I know if I were to take this in to the store, they wouldn't pack it tightly either.

I have since used another pillow case to make another bag, a few tweaks here and there, and it's better and worse at the same time. I improved on the top of the handle and it's not stiff, but I made the side opening of the handle a little too small. I also made the bottom of the bag boxy instead of folded in like a plastic bag is. I like it, it'll do, I think I can improve on it. It also holds 4 boxes easily and I have already used it at the store. There will be another bag in the works with more tweaks as soon as I can bring myself to give up another vintage pillow case.


I had a little bit of pillow case left over, the hemmed open part of it. I got to looking at it and thought it would make a nice cover for the laptop. I measured the length, cut, sewed up the side and length of the pillow case and it fits! Our laptop is not the traveling kind, it stays at home for use on the table or in the living room, so I just wanted a little slip cover to keep the screen clean when it's shut and put away. Since it's a vintage pillowcase and has been washed who knows how many times, it's nice and soft and lint-free.

I like it! Two useful items from one vintage pillowcase!

Monster Bag For Peter

Having 3 older sisters means there's lots of pink girly stuff around here. Poor Peter. He doesn't seem to mind too much, as he plays with a little bit of everything, and the girls don't have all girly toys. There's plenty of gender-neutral toys to play with around here. Plus it helps to have a papa that likes toy cars, so there's definitely lots of those for Peter to claim as his own.

Peter likes a certain set of cars, always playing with those and screaming his little head off when one of his sisters take one away. He is using the front of his shirt as a carryall and that just won't do! I gave him a basket, but that gets turned into a hat or thrown at one of his sisters. I tried a small plastic bin which gets turned into a step for reaching higher-up stuff he isn't supposed to get into. Plastic bags are out-- suffocation risks. So I had to come up with something-- his sisters all have bags made by me, in flowery or satin-y fabrics, so why not make something for him?

I came up with:

A monster bag!! He loves monsters and dinosaurs so it seemed natural to make something with scales and pointy teeth!

In go the cars...

All buttoned up!


A cute bag for a cute little boy! He refused to pose for me, so I asked big sister Evelyn to model the bag for me. I am thinking of making a few more for other little boys I know!

Finshed: Advent Calendar!

I was determined to finish this today so I can hang it on the wall December 1st and I did! *jumping up and down* Yay! I worked on the buttons this afternoon, using vintage white and clear ones from my stash, then after the kids went to bed, I worked on sewing the backing and the tabs. I'll change out the dowel later, the one I'm using is super thin, but it'll do for now.

I love it! I've never made anything like this and I really had fun!

I have 7 more little ornaments to make; 2 more stockings and 5 random ones. The main thing is that the calendar is done and on the wall, I can finish the ornaments by the end of the week, probably tomorrow night or Thursday. I have a few started, but I ran out of floss in certain colors, so I had to make a stop at the fabric store for more thread.

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I didn't take a picture of it, but the tabs and backing fabric is made from a green and white checked flannel receiving blanket from one of the girls when she was a baby. I can't remember which girl, but I've had it awhile, and I just thought it would be special using it for the back. It works perfectly and adds to the charm of it.

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A special 'Thanks' to Jill for coming up with the sew-along! I never would have done this or it might have been started and then gone to where the rest of my unfinished projects go. I'm ready for the next project-- let's go!

:o)

Crunch Time

I've been working like a mad woman after putting the kids to bed tonight, trying to get my Advent Calendar finished. I broke out the new sewing machine and so far so good. It's a little stiff, but at least it works properly!

My work so far:: Pockets sewed on, fireplace sewed on, tree sewed on! Done, done and done! Tomorrow, I'll sew the buttons on and then sew a backing and the tabs for hanging. I have 7 more little ornaments to sew, but that can wait, the priority is the calendar itself.

I thought the tree looked so plain by itself, and I really wanted to add a fireplace to hang the stockings from. With four kids, I wanted each to have their own stocking and it didn't look right, to me, to have four hanging on the tree. I reallllllly like how the fireplace turned out! I can't wait to get this finished and hanging on the wall December 1st!

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Advent Calendar

I've wanted to make an Advent Calendar since forever. I see so many great handmade examples out there and I hate the cheap ones you see at the stores, but I just never made the time to make one. Then Jill over at Homemade By Jill started an Advent Sew-Along! She made it sound easy:: do a little at a time and hopefully, by December 1st, you'll have completed it! There are lots of other people sewing along with her and they are sharing ideas, links, patterns for the little ornaments and more!

I've decided this is the year to finally make my own and I've really enjoyed it so far. I haven't sewed the backing yet, but I've cut out the little pockets and sewed the numbers on them and I have all my little felt pieces cut out for the ornaments and all I have to do is assemble them and sew them together. My sewing machine is out of commission, but I hope to remedy that soon, so I can make the backing and sew the pockets and the tree on before December 1st.

Here are the ornaments I've finished so far:: snowman, dove, ornament, candy cane, gingerbread man, peppermint, light bulbs, candy ribbon, 4 presents (one for each kid). Hard to tell in the picture, but they are tiny ornaments! The peppermint is close to actual size!

I really like the ribbon candy one. I wanted to make some of my own ornaments that mean something to us... I grew up always having ribbon candy for Christmas, so I had to make one. I made it up, but it's pretty simple and I love how it turned out.

Here are the ones I still need to finish. They're all cut out, so it's just a matter of assembling them. I have 4 stockings for each kid, and each one will have their first initial on it; you can see the 'P' on one for Peter. I let the girls pick out the colors for their stockings. I made up the poinsettia one, I love poinsettias, but we never get one because we have cats and apparently they're poisonous to cats. I love my cats more, so I enjoy poinsettias from afar. I did french knots in the center and it was my first time doing french knots! I'm looking forward to finishing that one and seeing how it turns out.

Almost all the Advent calendars I've seen have 24 days to count down to Christmas, a few have 25. I'm partial to the 25, so I'm making mine with 25 days. The very last day, Christmas Day, will be the star to hang on the tree. I can't wait to finish this and hang it up and watch the kids take out an ornament every day.

My mom says it'll be a family heirloom when I finish it. I never thought about it that way, but it does appeal to me-- taking it out every year and watching the kids count down the days to Christmas. I imagine that when they are grown and out on their own, maybe they'll ask for it and they can take turns who gets to keep it for Christmas that year. Maybe I'll end up making one for each child to use for their own children? Who knows... it's too far off to think about now, I'll just enjoy the one I'm making.

I'll post more pictures as I go, and hopefully I get this done before December begins!

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Happy Halloween!

What a weekend!! Here are the kids in their costumes:

Evelyn is a Hula Girl; Gretchen as a Renaissance Princess;

Sylvia is Super Girl; Peter as Frankenstein.

I got lucky when Sylvia said she wanted to wear Gretchen's Super Girl costume I made last year. One less costume to make. It was cold here, so she wore a red sweatshirt underneath when we went out.

I've had this costume for awhile-- got it for Evelyn when she was 4 and I had to hem about 6 inches then. I'm so glad I didn't cut it and only sewed it up. They play dress-up with this a lot, along with some of the other play clothes we have.

I scored some vintage crowns at a yard sale, and she was going to wear this one with her hair pulled up, but at the last minute, she decided she didn't like her hair up and wanted it down, so she switched to a heart crown.

They are great crowns-- made from metal with rhinestones, unlike the cheapo plastic ones they sell now. I found 3 of them and got them all for $1!

Evelyn as a Hula Girl. She made the lei herself from cut out construction paper flowers and beads. She worked one night on this and then said it was going to be her costume for Halloween. I had no idea she wanted to be a Hula Girl. Originally, I was going to make a "grass" skirt out of strips of fabric, but then I saw this dress in the rag pile. It's a size 4, way too small for Evelyn and it had some stains on it, which was why it was in the rag pile. I cannibalized it, cut off the top part, added elastic in the back and fleece all around for fringe (also for covering up her boobies as the top barely covered anything). The dress part was a faux wrap-around dress, so that was easy to take apart and sew the sides up, add elastic to the waist and ta-da! a skirt!

Then I took some fleece and made a little fringe anklet for her, since that's what Hula Girls wear!

My sewing machine decided to crap out on me in the middle of sewing the fleece on the top, so a lot of this was done by hand-cranking the needle. The grabber part of the sewing machine isn't working anymore, so I had to manually pull the fabric through. An easy costume to make, but made difficult with the stupid sewing machine.

Peter's Renaissance Faire costume I made last month, when I thought we would go to the Faire. It's a Robin Hood costume, and I was going to make the hat to go with it, but never got around to it. I used a pair of his pants and a shirt for the basic pattern and pretty much winged the v-neck opening. Pretty good, if I may say so.

I spotted this Frankenstein mask in the dollar bin at Target, and it was too cute to resist. I knew it would go great with the Robin Hood outfit. It was hard enough trying to get a picture of Peter in this, and he barely wore it when we went trick-or-treating. Oh well. It'll go in the dress-up pile for the kids to play with.

The mall was a madhouse! I couldn't believe how many people were there this year! Holy cow! 2 years ago was fun with the girls and Peter in the stroller, and lines moved fairly quickly and e completed the circuit in about 45 minutes. This year, ugh. Andrew and I are not big fans of crowds and though I have a bit more patience than Andrew, this was definitely trying. It doesn't help when people keep cutting in front of you and it took more than 45 minutes in line just to get 8 stores. By then, Peter was an angry squirmy thing trying to get out of our arms and we don't dare let him go because surely he'll get lost among all the costumed kids. I'm sorry, but I walked off with Peter in my arms and Andrew and the kids followed.

After a quick talk with Andrew, we explained to the kids that the mall was just too crowded for us to handle and if they were alright with it, we'd just buy them some candy instead. They seemed fine about it so we went out to eat then stopped at the store for candy. When we got home, we had a little trick-or-treating at home, with Grandma, Daddy and I in separate rooms and they got to knock and yell "Trick or Treat!".

Saturday morning, we went to the Library for pumpkin painting and I found out a church not too far from us was hosting a Trunk-or-Treat. We decided to take the kids there to make up for the mall and what fun that was! It was small-- maybe 15 cars there, but it was so nice. They decorated their cars, and dressed up in costumes and some of the treats weren't just candy-- they got boxes of crayons, christian-themed coloring books, pencils, stickers and tattoos, those popular rubber band bracelets and to top it off, hot chocolate with whipped cream! After we got home, we let the kids have another round of in-house trick-or-treating to wrap up the Halloween festivities.

On the way home was the most gorgeous sunset I've seen in awhile. Pretty pinks and purples. I wanted to stop and take a picture, and by the time we stopped, it started to fade a little, but still pretty nonetheless. Of course we stopped at the cemetery just down the road from us for this! A fitting location for ending the day!

Happy Halloween!

*boo!*

Blah, Blah, Blah

Non-stop go, go, go these days. Part of me enjoys the action, getting out of the house and doing something different; another part of me is ready for staying home and doing nothing-- well, as much nothing as 2, 4, 6 and 8-year olds will let me.

*

We had to head into Northern Virginia on Saturday for a family get together and it was nice. Always good to see family and it had been too long between visits, really. The kids got their grandma and granddaddy 'fix' and we're all caught up on family end-of-the-summer activities. We also stopped by to see friends for a quick little visit and wished we could have stayed longer, but we had another stop to make before going home. It was great seeing them, too! :o)

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Our original plan was to stay overnight and then hit the Renaissance Festival the next day, but it turned out that Andrew had to work that day, so we nixed those plans. I'm a little disappointed we didn't go, but it runs all the way through to the end of October, so there's still another chance we can make it. I already made a costume for Peter to wear, and got the materials to make dresses for the girls, but have yet to sew them up. If we end up not going, they can use them for Halloween at least.

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I have a birthday coming up, so I received some gift cards to Walmart. First thing I thought of was getting one of those Bissell green machines so I can finally clean the poor couch. We picked one up today and paid the difference. Since Peter poured the milk all over the couch, it's sort of been shoved aside, the cushions being used on the floor by the kids (milk was poured on the base of the couch, not the cushions). Then the dog vomited on it last night-- ew. Then today, apparently, there was poop on the couch which Peter then stepped in and smeared onto the couch and tracked little poopy footprints all over the living room floor before I caught a whiff of it and grabbed him so I could clean him up. Meanwhile, the girls are sprawled on the chairs seeing all this go down and not one thought to come and tell me about the poo or Peter tracking it everywhere.

So the Bissell came in handy tonight. I fired it up and cleaned the base of the couch, the arm rests and one of the cushions. Man, that water was dirty! It's still damp, so I'll have to wait until it dries to see how much better it looks, but I'm sure it's an improvement from what it was. I'll probably have to go over it a couple of times but it's a start, and I got the poo and vomit all cleaned up anyway.

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My tomatoes are trickling down now. I haven't canned any in a week. Every time I go out there, there's hardly enough to fill a quart jar, even after a couple days of no picking. The potatoes seem to be doing alright. I can see a few exposed here and there and the tops are starting to wilt and wither. I'll wait a little longer before I dig a few up and see what I find.

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The wild grapes have been picked and juiced. I got 2 quart jars full of juice that needs to be sweetened and thinned with water. Wild grapes are pretty sour, but that doesn't stop Peter from gobbling them up! Each of the girls tried them, made faces and spit them out, but Peter just eats one after the other, asking for more after he finishes the bunch I gave him. I had to play keep-away so he wouldn't eat up all the grapes! There aren't very many wild grapes this year, lack of rain, I suppose, so every bit I could find, I needed.

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We are in drought conditions here, and there is a burn ban imposed on county residents. Many of the orchards here had to send away truckloads of apples and peaches to be juiced because they weren't good for much else. When there is no rain, the tree steals the sap from the fruits, so the fruits don't get any bigger and end up getting sunburned. Lots of fruits, but they aren't big and juicy as years with plentiful rain. I suspect the price of a bushel of apples will be much higher this year. Guess I should be happy I have plenty of applesauce left from last year and won't need to buy so many apples this year.

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I have unhappy hens. They keep getting sexually assaulted by the 6 roosters every time they step out of the coop, so they have taken to staying in the coop. They are protesting their living and work conditions and have stopped laying eggs for me. 11 hens and if I'm lucky, I get 2 eggs, but usually just one per day. I had every intention of butchering a rooster last week, but then I chickened out and let him go. Lucky feller. I need to kick myself and get it over with. I'm alright with the butchering part, it's the taking of a life part that gets me. I fudged it the last time and the rooster suffered a little bit and I feel so bad for that. I need better killing tools so I don't make that same mistake.

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I signed up for Elsie Marley's Kid Clothes Week. That's that little picture at the top in the right-hand corner. It's a fun little thing, commit to sewing at least an hour every day for a week to sew clothes for your kids. She did it last Spring and seeing some of the outfits people made for their kids was really inspiring. I decided to try and participate this year and make at least a dress for each of the girls, or maybe night gowns for their Christmas gifts. I have some nice corduroy that would make a cute jumper for one of the girls. When I made Peter's costume for the Renaissance Festival, I didn't use a pattern and I was pretty pleased with how well it came out, plus, it fits him nicely. Maybe a simple shirt for him, dresses for the girls and jammies for all of them. A bit ambitious, maybe, but no one said I had to stop at the end of the week!

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Percy is looking so cute, all curled up into a ball, asleep by my feet. I think I'll follow his lead and curl up in my own bed. No more go, go, go for the week, but there's still things to do around here.

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oh happy day!

First, check out the temperature it was today:

Yeah! 80 degrees! Oh! It was so nice out! Too bad the girls were grounded. More about that in another post.

And look! The bunnies have come to town!

Ok, seriously, have you seen the finger puppet tutorial over at Purl Bee??
You have got to check it out! It's so easy and good thing, too, 'cause I found out about it only on Thursday. I cut out a bunch of these in an hour, then it took me about 15 minutes apiece to stitch each one up. These are going to be in the Easter baskets for the kids!


All I have left to do is the noses and their eyes. I'm skipping the tails because I know my kids, and any pom-pom on there is going to get ripped off. I think they look cute as they are!

I made 5 so far... I'll be making a few more for my nieces and nephews.

We're getting together with other family a week later for an Easter/Birthday party, so I have time to do those later.

Aren't they cute?! How can you look at these and not be happy?

The brown ones are chocolate bunnies, of course!

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Happy Easter!

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Play With Your Food!

Would you like some eggs and toast?

How about a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich with a nice crunchy carrot?


Maybe a nice cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato on a sesame seed bun?


A breakdown of the cheeseburger:

This is everything I've made so far. It's fun!

I have a few more food items I'd like to make: pancakes, bacon strips, pizza, to name a few.
I went surfing on the web and it's over-whelming all the ideas out there! Also a little intimidating when you see some really exquisite felt foods! I saw a fancy pasta dish with shrimp and tomatoes and if I didn't know it was felt, I would have thought it was real!

Everything was made without a pattern, just cutting out shapes and sewing them together, adding a little detail by sewing lines on the lettuce and tomato, zig-zag lines on the burger for grill marks, and I used embroidery thread for the sesame seeds on the top of the bun. I'll post more later as I make them.
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