Homemade Halloween Costumes 2012

We went with a literary theme this year: Charlotte's Web.  After deciding my daughter would be a pig, I was suggested Charlotte's Web & the idea for my costume was born.  My daughter's costume was pretty easy to make.  Meet Wilbur:

Just sew a pair of shorts that looked ham-hockish, sew felt ears in place on the hoodie (hoodie from Walmart, but it is sold out...here is a similar one), sew a felt tail with a pipe cleaner inside to shape, and add pink tights (from We Love Colors), a shirt, and shoes.  The ears & tail can be removed to use the hoodie on normal occasions as well.  I bought pink face paint but she HATES anyone touching her face.  So that was a no-go.

I posted about the shorts already, but here is the recap.  I decided to follow homemade by jill's advice and used the puppet show shorts pattern by Oliver + S.  I have only sewn three patterned items before, but this one was pretty easy and they fit pretty well.  They are too big in the hips, but my daughter is 20% in weight and will only eat cheese.  And crackers.  So I knew they would be slightly big.  They stayed on her though, which was so wonderful.

For my Charlotte's Web costume, complete with Charlotte, I followed a few different examples.  I made my shirt by printing out a picture of this costume's embroidery pattern:

and then tracing it onto my own white shirt.  It turned out great:

Then I made the spider web skirt by simply tying white yarn together to make a web pattern and layed that over a black skirt from goodwill.  I got the idea from this picture (you can't buy this at Grandin Road anymore).

I can use the skirt again without the yarn because it isn't glued down or sewn into the skirt.  It made the web move when I walked.

Finally, I decided (at the last minute) to crochet a hat and tried this pattern (she made a hybrid of two hats that she liked).

I know for sure that I followed the patterns exactly, but must have used the wrong yarn because my hat didn't fit, was too large around, and too shallow.

It had no elasticity to stretch around my head and felt like a beanie.  The picture doesn't look like a beanie!  I put a plastic spider on top of the hat to complete the look, and wore orange knee high socks with black spider webs on them.

Happy Halloween!

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Wanderlust

Do you like to travel?  If I could (or was a better writer, majored in anything other than engineering, or went to a liberal arts school...what Navy isn't liberal arts??), I would love to write for National Geographic.  Something about that yellow border!!

Well, I love to travel.  And that means I typically would rather be traveling than being at home.  But of course not everyone has 40 billion dollars and a dressage horse.  And so I catch myself saying, "I never go anywhere."  I think some perspective is in order!!  You see, I've been many places.  I forget that I was just somewhere....like a little over a month ago.  I wonder if that is because I'm forgetful, or just yearn for the feeling of a new place.  Here are just the places I've been since getting married:

2005: Bahamas & Key West

2006: Northwest Roadtrip (Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming)

2007: Prince Edward Island2008: Boston (graduation), Montana, Yellowstone, & South Dakota

Prince Edward Island

2010: West Virginia, Australia, North Carolina & West Virginia

On the Great Barrier Reef

2011: Pensacola, North Carolina, & New Hampshire, New Zealand & Australia (work), North Carolina & West Virginia

On the Rivendell Bridge in New Zealand

 2012: North Carolina & West Virginia, Ireland, New Hampshire

Kissing the Blarney Stone in Ireland

So, the question is where to go next?  I am hoping I get to go on a bigger trip next summer, possibly with our daughter because she will be two years old.  Not to say she doesn't travel, she has already been on 4 planes and she has visited three states in addition to where we live (Florida).  I am thinking Portland (honey, do you read my posts??).  Perhaps that would be really fun!  Where have you been?  Is there anywhere I should go or is great for young children?

Halloween Party 2012

Had lots of great people over for Halloween (and a semi-birthday party), after we decorated the house.  The big 3-2 for me.  Wooo.  It really only feels like I'm older because time passes by quickly now.

Her shirt says "I Heart My Mummy".  She was a little testy all night so some of the pictures show her move from happy to sad in five pictures or less (I didn't upload those classics though).

 We had hamburgers, hot dogs, and potato salad.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Welcome to our Haunted House!  We had this setup for our party, but forgot to take the pictures.  When you get to our porch, you see our spooky scarecrow, that always looks too flat to me, but I kinda like him.  Hobo pumpkin head.  Can you see the lit hanging ghost?  It looks pretty good at night :)

And here is the front door.  I decided to make the wreath....here is the tutorial for my inspiration.

 I made only 3 ghosts, to represent the three people in our family :)

 And after you enter, this is what you can see in our incredibly 1970s foyer.  I promise I will remove the wallpaper one day.  The white pumpkin is a fake, but it looks good on my jack-o-lantern stand, doesn't it?

 My husband contributed to the decorations by drawing on our picture...I love my daughter's moustache!

 We also decorated with spider webs, but I'm nowhere near as talented as the people at my local CVS store....some people have a knack for it, I guess.  On a side note, we finally got our groupon purchase of $39 for the 11 x 17 canvas hanging on the wall.

 Here is the bat cave, see how the bats go from the living room, to the dining room, to the back?  Optical illusion!  I only have bats in two rooms.

 The last step to my "bat cave" is my tension rod, with smaller hanging bats, which gives the illusion that they are farther away.  

 Finally, I have some little items hung up in the kitchen.  The first says Boo and the second says Trick Or Treat.

Have you decorated for Halloween yet?  Every year I try to get one extra thing made to really add the special touches that our house can use, so this year the wreath is that one thing.

Another Pair of Shoes!

I got a custom order in my etsy shop and just completed them.  It is Frillie Millie in thick gray fabric, perfect for winter.  Living in Florida makes me forget there are different seasons starting just about now!  Hope this little babe has toasty toes :)

This is listed in my shop!  Happy Halloween!  Some fun party pictures are coming soon.  And more info about the homemade pig costume is coming as well. 

Ahhh Sewing!

I am making my daughter's pig Halloween costume.  I decided to make a pair of shorts that have a round shape to them, to mimic a pig, but she can also wear them everyday as well.  I saw a pair I loved at homemade by jill (great blob BTW) and I decided to buy the pattern (Puppet Show shorts).  It is a great pattern. I easily made the shorts by myself (this is the third item I've ever made from a pattern and the previous two were not too great).  I still have trouble with seam allowances if my presser foot isn't the match for the allowance, but it worked pretty well eyeballing it.

Here's the end result:

 I love the prairie pockets!

 Next, I sewed some cute little strawberry shoes for a 4 month old (Halloween!) and they turned out great.  I chose the colors to match the costume, and I know they will fit her well :)  I also decided to list them in my etsy shop!

Happy Halloween!

Family Room Inspiration

As the to-do list indicated, I am planning on working on the family room first.  I am hoping to prime the paneling and paint before the middle of October to impress and make my friends bow down to the awesomeness that is me.  Nah, j/k.  But I do feel like I need to get on this job before the Mayan apocalypse.  Nah, j/k.  I just want to get started on a project!

I love the idea of a slightly Navy/Nautical theme.  Not only because the Navy is in my past, but also because I just love the versatility of it.  It can be sporty, classic, playful, or fun, or all of the above at the same time.  Here are a few of my inspirations:

The only shortcoming on this one is that we don't have crown or a tray ceiling.  We also have thicker carpet and probably wouldn't have the visual accent of a rug like that one.  Finally, our furniture is brown and I'd never make white slip covers for them.  PS - Do you think this room used to have a different purpose??  The light fixture is completely off center.

This one I really love.  I love the combination of the textures especially.  I love the coral.  This could work with a brown couch and some blue accessories...i.e. throws and some storage ottomans with tufted blue would be nice.  The only thing is don't like is the white walls.  But I love the cleanness of the white with the navy curtains.  We can make that work.  Anyone have that awesome coffee table?  Finally, I love the white & yellow print on the arm chairs.

Ah, now here is something I love.  BUT, I still don't think I'll get that rug.  We have a nice large brown rug that looks traditional and not as modern as this mood board.  BUT, I love the green instead of coral with the navy.  We also have a soft, round ottoman that is more feminine than this but is a green pattern instead of coral.  Hmmm....I'll have to think on this.  I was actually leaning toward green or yellow in the kitchen, which would look great with green/blue/tan tones.  We also have very traditional silver lamps that could be updated with the barrel lamp shade in #5.

This is a nice compromise with one navy accent wall.  We have a flat ceiling so it wouldn't look as interesting as this one, but I do think we could do this.  We had very "American" blue walls in our last living room and we loved it.  I love love love that coffee table.  Where When can I get make one of those?  We also have somewhat similar chairs in shape but that are more low leaning with a shorter profile.  Wonder if I could make those work.  Our brown couches and carpets would be similar.  I also think we could have the seating areas.  Limits are that we only have one sliding glass door as natural light.  And the blue CAN be dark sometimes.  Lighting would be maximized to make this work.  This could be my favorite feel; we could add in the green to make it our own!

And here is the green accent again.  Sigh, I used to have that coffee table.  Husband said it was a child safety hazard.  I guess fishing poles WITH the hooks in our living room at the last place while our daughter was a crawler/walker wasn't, but the glass topped coffee table just puts the safety hazards over the top.  I am still leaning towards a blue wall instead of brown.  I would like more exaggeration of textures and colors in our family room.

What I learned on my little inspiration hunt:

• I want at least one colorful wall, so it will have to be navy, green, or yellow (our carpets and furniture is tan so that is a no go)
• I would like one accent color in addition to Navy, and I'm leaning toward green (Kelly green).  You could also do a little bit of turquoise for some spice.
• I don't mind different tones of wood, but I like the mix of wood and fabric.  I have an upgrade to our own coffee table in mind!
• We can use our silver lamps but we'll need to upgrade our lamp shades for a less traditional feel.
• I like a large, interesting coffee table.  Could this be because I didn't have a coffee table growing up?
• Special lighting will be required.  I wonder if I can do that myself???  I do have an idea for the main lighting for the room!  See below...maybe without it being dropped as far.  I love how this is over the coffee table so people won't hit their heads.  I also LOVE the faux mantel.