Happy Halloween!

Another post from the file of "finally using fabric I bought ages ago."  This precious Riley Blake orange fabric was purchased last year for a Halloween dress, but never got around to getting made. Which, by the way, I'm glad occurred because it didn't result in another pillow case dress.  As I said previously, I'm getting bored with those.

So I made this adorable peasant dress from Sew Like My Mom.

I was going to put black pockets on the front, but the pattern is so adorable, I didn't want to cover it up! This was actually a pretty easy dress to make. She also has a short sleeved version on her site, so I can see more of these coming along in the future. :)

Then, I found this precious remnant of alien fabric at Hancock. So I put my pillow-making skills back to work and made these.  I had a hell of a time getting this to work. First I realized I didn't have enough alien to make a whole pillowcase body out of it. But my smart hubby suggested I make it half-and-half, and it came out so cute! Until I used the piece I cut for Berry's pillowcase body to cut the strip for Monkey's.  Oops.  So I had to Frankenstein both of them together a little bit, but you can't even tell (and I thought it was appropriate since it is Halloween and all!).  So they have alien with green on one side, and green with alien on the other! They have both been sleeping on them and I've even seen them flip the pillows over to get a taste of the other side!

I even used a bit of white quilt binding to make that cute stripe between the two fabrics. I think it just adds something to it.  AND! I got to use my overlock foot a TON, so that was fun!

I have a BUNCH, and I mean a bunch, of remnant Halloween fabric. I'd like to make some pillowcases to donate to the hospital for sick kids who have to be there during the holidays.  Hope I can get it together for this year!

Hunting Fairies

I finally took some pictures off of the camera after almost two months and found a few gems that I'd forgotten about.

Another elastic waist skirt for Berry (these are becoming way too easy to gen out).

Complete with fairy wings and crowns in her favorite: purple.

Here it is in action!

Monkey spent at a week at "camp" at my mom's, and while he was there he made me this awesome plant stake! I know it's not one of my crafts, but it is a craft and oh so loved!

Monkey was also starting to notice that I was making a lot of clothes for Berry and he wasn't getting anything. He pointed this out to me, so I asked what he wanted. He replied, "a hunting shirt". To him, hunting means camo. So I had the challenge of 1) finding knit camo and 2) figuring out how to make a t-shirt.

Making the shirt wasn't that hard. Finding the camo he wanted that was just right was the harder part. The fabric ended up being this poly kind of knit, so it stretched a little, but it wasn't traditional t-shirt material. I don't really care for it, but he doesn't seem to care.

The problem I had with sewing this fabric was that I made a strip of bias tape to use for the collar (so proud of myself for this tape/collar combo!) but it didn't stretch very well when it went over his head. He wore it one day and some how ripped the tape right off the collar in one part. So I ended up cutting out the collar (partly to make a bigger neck hole) and replacing the tape with fold over elastic for the collar.

It looks ok, but I ended up cutting the hole too big so now it's a little loosey goosey. Oh well.  Here's a shot before all that drama occurred. (Excuse all the crap on the floor. I obviously wasn't concerned with floor cleanliness when I took this!)

I will have to say that I won't be afraid of making another t-shirt! When I do, I'll be sure to use traditional knit, and will likely do another tape collar, and it will hopefully stretch a little better over the head!

Better Late Than Never

When I was downloading the elephant skirt pictures for the last post, I realized I had some old pictures of projects on the camera.

This one is the end of school gift for Monkey's PreK-4 teacher Mrs. Rose. A very easy one I saw on Pinterest. I picked up one of those plastic compartment boxes that you can get cheap at Michael's or other craft stores. I cut out and glued scrapbook paper to the top and used chipboard letters and stickers to spell out her name. The fun part was filling it full of all kinds of fun teachery, school supply type things.

This next one is one that I've been planning since last summer and finally got around to this year. Got a 4x4 piece of plywood from Lowe's and painted with two coats of chalkboard paint. Instant chalkboard for backyard shenanigans.

To top it off, we made some spray chalk for the kids to use their creativity. As you can see, the temptation to spray the fence (and each other) was hard to overcome. I would link to the recipe here, but my Evernote won't open for some reason. I'm sure you can Google it if you're interested. Sorry!

Gettin' Lucky

Phu.

That's how I've felt this week. Sore muscles from the St. Patrick's Parade last Sunday, some sort of weird "not quite a bug" stomach bug, Meniere's acting up, and other fun stuff. I could have slept this week away, and I think I did just that for part of it.

Which could make it hard to ensure sure your 5 year old has the myriad of "donations" he needs for school almost.every.day this week.

This is where planning ahead pays off.

We didn't miss a thing, since I prepped last Saturday before the parade. Yay me! Who needs added stress when you're not feeling well. Ick.

So on to the fun stuff. :o)

He is supposed to take "treats" to the St. Pat's party tomorrow at school. I was thinking cupcakes, he wanted this cake. Then I found out that another kid is assigned cookies. Who needs cookies AND cupcakes/cakes? What does "treats" really mean anyway? So I got fun and made my version of these cutie pies, thanks to the Longhurst Family, whom I've never met - but they have good ideas (don't you love Pinterest!?).

Pots o' Gold

All the little rainbows

Can you believe my dear husband did not know that leprechauns look for the pot of gold that is located at the end of the rainbow??? And he was born on St. Patrick's Day. Shame, shame.

Sponge Ball Mania

I saw this cute idea on my friend Amy's blog, so I decided to make some sponge balls for our Fourth of July party this weekend.

I had two HUGE sponges left over from who knows what, so I cut them in half width-wise. That gave me essentially 8 "regular" sized sponges to make into balls. The hardest part for me was tying them together with the dental floss, because all we had was the waxy kind and it kept slipping out of my hands! I cut my slices a little thicker than Amy's so I ended up with four balls instead of six.

Monkey has a cute purple beach bucket with his name on it that will coordiate perfectly with these sponges! I can't wait to fill it up with water for him to play with them!

Pinecone Birdfeeders

I'm trying to do more crafty, fun things with Monkey. Today we made pinecone bird feeders.

Lesson 1: Stock up on pinecones in the proper season. Summer is not the time to go looking for fallen pinecones apparently. Fortunately we found a bunch at the park so I got a grocery bag full.

Lesson 2: Make these outside!!!!! It took 15 minutes to sweep up all the spilled birdseed!