this is a first

I think this may be the first year that I haven't loved Halloween...shocking, I know.  I have been so tired and overwhelmed with health issues that the house never got decorated, no party planned and I murmured during most of the costume making process (who am I kidding, I always murmur during the costume making process)

Having said that I think the kids looked adorable this year.  We ended up with Robin Hood (Megan), Circus Ringmaster (Emily), Mad Hatter (Nathan) and Dracula (Luke)

Lets start with the  most time consuming costume of the lot - The Mad Hatter.  I found a tutorial on the internet for making this costume and it deceivingly said it would take 4 hours to complete - lies, all lies!  I started it Thursday afternoon at about 2 pm with Derek jumping in to help later in the evening.  He went to bed sometime around 1 am and I finally put down my elementary school child safety scissors (yes, we created the whole costume with a stupid little pair of scissors) at 3:15 am.  Four hours, my foot!

Looking at the costume I'm trying to figure out what took so long since there wasn't much sewing (jacket was a brown jacket from Goodwill and pants were khakis from Target - both dyed) but trust me when I say it took us forever.

The hat was the hardest to create but since I'm married to the best man in the world I had lots of help.  Let's just say we can now understand why the hatter was "mad".

Megan was on make-up artist duty and I think she did an amazing job.  This was one costume where the make-up really added to the whole appearance of the costume.

Emily looked adorable in her "I didn't have to sew a thing costume"  I love those types of costumes!  The shirt and jacket were purchases from Goodwill (man, I love that store) and the rest of the costume was pulled together with stuff from Target and a local Halloween store.  

All Megan wanted for her costume was something that allowed her to carry weapons and wear boots.  She would have loved to have been Katniss but I was not feeling terribly creative with that idea so we went with Robin Hood.  The only sewing here was the vest which turned out cute but while sewing I decided that sewing isn't really my thing.  I don't have the easiest time with it so I'm not quite sure why I keep sewing costumes every year.  Her shirt was from a costume I made her in 7th grade and everything else was Goodwill or Target.

Then there is Luke.  He wins for easiest costume...church pants, shoes and shirt put together with a purchased vest and cape from the dress up box.  Oh yea, I forgot...also a sweet little Dracula necklace.  My little blood sucker looked fantastic.

I'm glad the costumes are done and that Halloween is on its way out but I am hoping I'll be back into the Halloween spirit next year.  I'm also hoping that all my kids want to dress as Dracula next year!


And just because I love these pictures I'm including some photos that my girls (and their friends) took Tuesday after our youth Halloween party at church.

not done but close

Megan and Em are off to another Halloween party/dance tonight at church so I had to get Meg's Jane (of Volturi fame ) costume done. Unfortunately I didn't get it finished but it was ok for the evening.

I never hemmed the sleeves so they are just rolled up (hence the uneven sleeves in the picture - that will be fixed) I also need to make a few adjustments and clean up the edges around her neck but other than that It's mostly done and I'm pleased with how it came out.
The contacts are sweet and way creepy. Megan's eyes make this costume.
I need to get some pictures with the hood on because I like how it looks. When Meg gets all made up for Halloween we'll get more pictures.

curse you halloween costumes!

Yes, I love Halloween - we are all very aware of that but the costumes, the dreaded costumes...

After some stressful days wondering how I would get 4 costumes done along with a bunch of other stuff I have going on the kids all decided to use costumes out of the costume box or in Nate's case a simple diy costume - bless you sweet children! Unfortunately there wasn't much for Megan in the box except her Ravenclaw Hogwarts uniform which she was happy to wear. I on the other hand let the "your not a very good mom" guilt trip enter my head and decided she needed to have a costume she hadn't worn before. I don't mind costumes being worn more than once I just prefer that a new kid get to wear it.

I tell myself that I only have to make one costume and I'll pick something easy. Here are the pictures we used for inspiration...

Jane Volturi, of New Moon fame. How hard can it be, I ask myself. Simple black cloak, tights. mary janes and some great black make-up. I can handle this - yeah, right!

It is now 2:23 in the am on Wednesday as I type this. Megan needs the costume tonight (she actually could have used it last night/Tuesday -(she and Emily went to a Halloween party/dance at the neighboring LDS Stake Building) but lucky for me she was willing to go as a nerd so I could work on the Jane costume. Well, remember what time it is? Yes, I'm still not finished with the costume. It is mostly done but I still need to add trim, hem it and accessorize - will it ever end?!?!? Not tonight it won't - I have to get to bed.

So look for pictures tomorrow of the dreaded Jane costume. This costume thing is making me so crazy I'm wishing a vampire would head my way, bite me and get me out of this mess. Why, why must I love Halloween so much?

happy mole day! ya, I hadn't heard of it either

So apparently today is Mole Day.  Read more here.  

Since Mole Day is chemistry related it makes perfect sense to have high schoolers across this great nation sew stuffed moles - we all know that proficient sewers make better chemists. Besides, it  not like moms (that will obviously need to help their high schoolers) are busy with Halloween costumes or anything.  

On to the stuffed mole project...

The idea is to sew a mole (horribly written instructions provided) designing it to be something or someone familiar with mole in the name - that explanation was horrid, wasn't it? Examples...

eskimo/eskimole, Edward Cullen/Edward Molen, The Holy Grail/The Moley Grail, Millionaire/Molinaire.  You get the idea.

Here is Megan's contribution to the moley madness...

Any ideas? High fives for correct guesses.  Let's take a closer look at the photo and find some clues.  Mole is holding a wand that appears to be an exact replica of a 10' Hawthorne wood wand with perhaps a unicorn hair core - that's obvious though, I know you could all see that.

He (assuming he is really a he) is sporting a black robe or cloak of some kind underneath which seems to be a striped tie, quite similar to ties worn by British children attending boarding schools.  I wonder if the colors of the tie, green and silver, hold any significance.  Probably not.

I notice he is also holding a broom - maybe this mole is a house cleaner?  chimney sweep?  The broom doesn't help us much does it?  It looks as if there aren't enough clues to help anyone figure out who this mystery mole is.
Megan did a great job and I was impressed with her sewing/chemistry abilities.  I helped some with the project and a good friend, quilting guru, Teri came over when the before mentioned horribly  written instructions made no sense to me or Megan.  In addition to sewing, Megan learned how to attach the cool, beady eyes and had fun styling the slick yarn hair.  

Her mole turned out to be a cute little guy.

i'm peanut butter and you are jelly

Oh Roadshows (a 15 minute production that the youth in our church put on every two years)....It was a great experience for Megan as well as all the kids involved  but I am so glad that I don't have a house full of costumes anymore.  I have been wanting post some pics from the performance but I don't have many - I never had a minute to pull out my camera (I am waiting for friends to shower m with pictures)  I did get a few from a friend and I just had to share them because these costumes were amazing.

These costumes were a huge group effort with my  contribution to them seriously lacking but I am so happy with how they turned out.  My friend Max came to the rescue when I was seriously worried about how I was going to make jelly costumes.  She came up with the idea for the jelly costumes and even brought me a scaled down model that she sewed so that I could see what she was talking about.  I had an idea for the bread but my attempts to get what was in my head produced into a costume were pathetic - it was not turning out like the glorious vision in my mind.

Erica to the rescue...not only did my friend Erica come up with a superb bread costume she also took over all the sewing of the jelly costumes.  She was amazing!  Her talent and skill is unbelievable and she did an amazing job on these costumes (she did much more than sew these costumes but these are just my favorites)

I did the labels for the costumes - a couple of Jif labels and some strawberry, raspberry, grape and honey labels.  I added some striped socks and big character gloves and the costumes were complete. 

stitch in time

Our congregation at church was asked to make blankets for all the kids 5-18 years old that lost their homes in Poway because of the fires. I pulled the sewing machine out to make a blanket and that got me going on a few fun projects

blankets waiting to be tied and sent to children that lost their home

Megan and I decided to try our hand at making a softie, ugly doll, creature, whatever you want to call it. This one isn't quite done yet. We call him hippoBLOBamis
I saw a cute flowered pin cushion made out of felt and thought I'd give it a try. The flowers did nothing for me so I went with skulls. This was a really fun project and super simple - I want to make more of these.

halloween costumes

I am so behind on Halloween posts - it is a long road to recovery after the party :)

Here are the kids costumes this year...

Emily was a pirate. This costume gave me more grief. The pattern was one of the worst I have ever used. It seemed to add 3 unnecessary steps for every one step - it was complicated. I am sure I could have produced a similar costume with much easier steps. However, all that really matters is that it got done and Emily loved it. She looked cute and was blissfully unaware of the mental anguish her mother went through to get the costume done.

Nate's costume did not cause near as much trauma. Frankenstein is an easy costume to pull off especially when all it takes is a $12 suit, a black shirt borrowed from your sister, and $7 awesome high boots purchased from Goodwill. Halloween memories - priceless.
Here is the story with Luke. He was supposed to be the most adorable parrot you have ever seen so that he could accompany Emily trick or treating and repeat everything she said. The costume I was going to make was seriously so cute - covered in feather boas. No boas on the costume below? Why, you ask? After starting Em's costume and realizing I was probably in over my head I decided to spare my sanity. I asked Luke what he would want to be if he could be anything from Costume Castle (our local costume store) and he said Luke Skywalker. So I swallowed my "all good mothers should make costumes" pride and bought the thing, which I might add cost too much money. Why do costumes made with cruddy fabric cost so much? I thought he looked cute and the costume kept me out of a strait jacket. I do feel a little bad for him though...he has had very few handmade costumes in his lifetime.
Megan wore her gypsy costume. This picture is horrible but you can check out the costume here if you have a burning desire to see more pictures.

the finished product

The gypsy costume is complete, here it is...


Since we posted the original pictures of the costume we have added...skirt trim, coin belt, leather belt, tons of jewelry and some sandals we picked up in Tijuana on one of our trips (they work perfect with the costume) We also added suspenders. Suspenders? Yes, suspenders. After I got the trim sewn on to the bottom of the skirt I realized that we had a definite problem - the skirt now weighed a ton. I took in the elastic waist 2 times but the skirt just continued to fall right of Megan. The suspenders work perfect and if Megan wants to change up the costume a bit she can be a farmer gypsy - that's sure to win some originality awards at a costume party.

We got a good laugh at about the skirt and how much it weighed so tonight we did a little experiment. Megan got on the scale with the costume on and then with it off. The grand total...the costume weighs 6.2 pounds - it's all that skirt and jewelry.

gypsies, tramps and thieves

Derek hates the song I used in this post title. It's by Cher and for whatever reason it reminds me of my childhood - no I was not a gypsy, it's just a song I remember hearing in my childhood and I still can remember nearly every word of it.

On with the post though...

So here is how Megan's gypsy costume is going. These pictures are just the very basic costume - she will have lots of gypsy "bling" added to it. In the pictures the vest looks a bit big because I don't have it laced up in the back. I especially love the poses. Meg and I were laughing a bunch while taking these pictures because she was trying to pose like the models on the front of the pattern envelopes.

I'll post more pictures when the finished product is all put together.

pinch me, i must be dreaming

Can it be? Is it really true? Can we finally say Sanjaya Good bya?!?!?

Once I got over the shock of seeing Blake in the bottom 3 - what's that about? I mumbled under my breath "please be Sanjaya, please be Sanjaya" and the American public heard my cries - yipee! For whatever reason the song Ding Dong the Witch is Dead from The Wizard of Oz has been running through my mind all morning - funny, huh?

I really do have a life despite what my frequent American Idol posts might lead you to believe. I have been busy the last few days sewing a costume for Megan. At the end of the month is the middle school's medieval faire and she was assigned to be a gypsy.

Here is the costume she liked. We couldn't find one pattern that would fit the bill so I have combined a few patterns in order to try and recreate this costume. We have made a few changes but for the most part it looks fairly similar. Megan agreed to wear this for Halloween too so by the end of this week I'll be a 1/4 of the way done with Halloween! Since my machine is out I may start in on the other kids Halloween costumes as well.

Speaking of machines...I got a new one! It has a ton of fun capabilities but since I'm just trying to get this costume done I have not ventured off into the unknown world of digital sewing - I'm sticking to my boring straight stitch at the moment.