Sunday, October 25, 2009

Whatever it is I think I see...

My sister has a big costume Halloween party every year.

She is crazy about Halloween-she has a Halloween village and everything. There's a trophy for the best costume, and votes are drawn out of a plastic pumpkin. Serious stuff, folks.

The past couple of weeks have been incredibly busy around here, and I didn't have a chance to even think about what my costume would be. I know we had a whole year to come up with something, but it seemed so far away, and there was so much else to do.

So yesterday afternoon, we met Grandma Bev and Great Grandma Gloria near the mall so that they could take the girls for the night while we went to the party. Kevin had a costume figured out (Jack Bauer , complete with CTU badge-so funny!) but I had nothing. I ran into the fabric store with a half-cooked idea (someone on a blog I read made a costume like this for her dog) and came out $13.08 poorer with a bag full of felt.

We got home at 4:30pm and by 7:00, I had this:





I was in a hurry, so I used Thermoweb to make iron-on letters, which worked pretty slick. Last year I was a crayon, also made of felt, and I had the bright idea to use Velcro all up the back. That was a mistake. This year I sewed in a 22-inch zipper, which was simple and much more effective.

Despite the fact that there is absolutely no shaping and I look like I am wearing a potato sack, I am pretty happy with how this came out. I will probably wear it trick or treating with the kids. And it's gigantic enough to fit a nice, thick sweater underneath.

I didn't win the contest, but I don't have room for some lame-o trophy anyway. :)


Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Lavagirl

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't really finished anything lately. I am in progress with Nora's Halloween costume, three trick-or-treat bags, a hat (my first attempt at knitting from a chart), harvesting and freezing carrots, and various PTA duties.

The only thing I have finished lately is this:





And right now you're all scratching your heads, trying to figure out what the heck. Well, I will tell you what the heck. Dana wanted to be Lavagirl for Halloween! Her favorite movie is The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lavagirl. It's a Disney film, a few years old, and I could not find a ready-made costume. In fact, I couldn't even find a real photo to go off of. Everything I could find was much like this, which is so not helpful. But I found a superhero costume pattern and did some heavy improvising, mostly using liquid lame. Gorgeous!

I have since added a few details, but I don't have photos yet. I just added some fancy buttons on the belt and gauntlets that are supposed to look like control knobs and such. Dana loves her costume, and I have learned a valuable lesson: lycra isn't very fun to sew. It's slippery and hard to cut. And while the stretchiness came in handy a couple of times, it mostly was annoying. Yet it was still fun to sew the costume because the girls were both so excited about it.

Nora is going as Dorothy, and the pieces are all cut out. I started sewing early this morning but didn't get very far. Maybe tonight. We'll see.


Sunday, October 4, 2009

Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

Miss Josephine turns 3 tomorrow, and her birthday party was on Saturday.
She told her mama, Charity, that she wanted a Scooby Doo party, and I, of course, had a cake pan for that!



The cupcakes are supposed to look like Scooby and his spots.




Dana adores Scooby and wanted her photo taken with this cake.

I've used this pan to make cakes for Zak, Keenan, Nora, Dana and Josie. Everyone sure loves Scooby Doo!