Halloween Decorations

With Cookie's feis the weekend before Halloween, we were a little late in getting our outdoor decorations out for the trick or treaters.  That and packing up a 2700 sq ft house doesn't really afford a lot of time for arts and crafts, either. 

When we returned home on Sunday the 30th, we made a plan of attack so that we could have a fun day of Halloween arts and crafts.

First we hit the store, looking for a pumpkin.  Would you believe they were all sold out?!?!?  So, Plan B became hulling out an overgrown zucchini from our garden which Cookie named Gina.

Next, we were looking to find orange balloons from the one-stop shop to make the ol' Martha glow-in- the-dark faces with glow sticks.  Neery a orange balloon in site, we found white balloons to make ghosts and orange paper plates to make pumpkin faces.

Mr. Pumpkin Ghost and the Cowardly Lion

Another ghost and a pirate pumpkin

Skeleton

Wicked witch

Another craft we had on hand was spurred on by a chemistry experiment entitled Do Molecules Really Disappear? in which we had to see if flour would dissolve in water like sugar does.  With all that paste left over from the experiment, it seemed like a shame to throw it out.  So we covered a balloon with paper mache and it languish on our piano for a couple weeks till we figured out a use for it.

With a little black paint, some construction, and yarn to hang him out our window above our walkup to assist, we'd like to introduce you to:  Batty!

Last but not least was Cookie's phenomenial crown she designed.  Moose helped with the construction of the base of the crown, and Cookie designed the rest using glow-in-the-dark stars and other embellishments we had on hand.

 

Does that look like a hip Glenda the Good Witch crown, or what?!?!?

Lions and Tigers and Bears....Oh My!

It's birthday time here in our household (which unfortunately coincides with house-hunting efforts without fail for the past 4 years.  Wish us luck this time around, eh?  For sanity's sake!) 

I don't know if you know this or not, but this  Nine Year Old stuff is serious business.  Cookie is growing up, there's no denying that, but outside of the public school system, i never figured she'd be so opinionated or hip as to what "cool" was.

We toss around the idea of a penny carnival for her party.  I had high hopes (especially because that is an all-sexes event, you know?)  However, in the end, it boiled down to one thing:  Cookie wanted to have a tea with her girlie friends.  Sorry Best Friend Who's A Boy. :) 

Meaning, we will need to host two shindigs--one for the best friend who's like a brother and one for the girlies.  :)  Who wouldn't love their birthday drawn out this way, eh?  Even though it's not my first preference to have two gatherings, at least it provided me a belly laugh when i was able to joke with Mr. Best Friend and say, "Hey, guess what?  We figured out what we're going to do for Cookie's party and i think you are going to have the most fun!!"  When he heard what was in store, i believe i saw him turn green a little--and it wasn't the shade of envy, either. :)

In the days that followed, i gave Cookie some gentle direction into what would make a fun tea.  We devised menus and baking ideas.  We could have the girls make popovers or something to contribute to the feast.  Rest of the time they could play games or....  So what Cookie cooked up on her own was wildly interesting, to say the least.  One day, she mentioned she'd like to have a Wizard of Oz tea.  Well, that would proved direction for the theme, so off we went to the craft store to find papers (Graphics 45 makes a series) and stamps to craft invitations.

A couple days later she says, "Wouldn't a spa tea be fun Mom?"  "Well, sure, who wouldn't love a spa tea, hon, but how does that fit with the Wizard of Oz?"  "Maaaaaaahhhhhom?!?!?  You know that part in the movie where they get all spiffed up to see Oz?  That's how!" 

And so was born thee "Wizard of Oz Spa Tea" Birthday Party.

First.....Invites.

Party Invites for the Girls

We found this wonderful piece of paper from Graphics 45 with these four images contained on it.  On the reverse is a repeating pattern of ruby slippers--perfect for little girlies!  Conveniently, we need four invitations only, so we split the page accordingly.

We found an old map of Kansas on the Internets on one of their state government archives sites and after a little manipulating in a art program on our computer, we came up with this for the back of the cards.



The dimensions of the cards turned out to fit a 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" envelope. 

With the stuffin' done, it was time to decorate the envelopes.

Our stamps consisted of the four majour Wiz of Oz characters and Toto and some sayings.

These ruby slippers and the "Yellow Brick Road" were included.

Here we were able to experiment with our "graphic art" lesson, and we found out which part of the stamps to ink so that when we stamped the red shoes on top, they wouldn't be orange. :)  We stamped them on the front corner of the envelope.

On the back of the card, Cookie played with the arrangement of characters until they fit just right.

Then she stamped it all and a saying up at the top that reads "The Magic of Oz".

I found this beauty supply house called MMS online, ordered materials for making lip balms, scented bath salts, and we will be making sugar scrubs too.  We decided to use plain ol' canning jars for our containers for the salts and scrub.

In the coming days, we'll be stamping tags and bags and making labels for our friends.

 

And what i love most about all this is we get to call it homeschool!!  :)

Almost Finished

Finished Cookie Monster's sash for her Communion dress tonight.  I couldn't find a nice 3 inch wide ribbon, so i "made" one out of broadcloth.  Sliced a piece off 6.5 inches wide x 55 inches long, embroidered the lilies, and stitched it up. 

We can't find the usual white shoes sans heels unless purchased from a "european style" retailer, however we can't see the point in purchasing shoes so expensive that what you would spend for them would feed a needy family for a month!(I think that's a more important lesson to pass on, don't you?)  So Cookie Monster has decided she'll wear dress shoes she already owns. 

Grandma is finished with the dress and we found a headcovering, so i think we're set. 

Now to finish memorizing the Act of Contrition! :)

Deck the Halls With One More Bunting...

Fa la la la la....

Made this today in just a few hours. Wishing now i had gotten some more material so i could have made more!!

I'm a Sucker For ...

making baby things. One of Moose's brothers just had a baby boy, so to welcome him into the world i wanted to make him a little something. Decorated onesies are always a sure winner in my book.

The tie cracks me up! Especially because all the men in the family are engineers. And the only other nephew has definite engineer-like qualities about his personality. It's like it's pre-destined or something. Sorry, kid, but you have no chance of escape. Especially because your mom and dad are engineers who love their work. :o)

Wonder if you could make it a skinny tie for all those 80's fans? And since i could sew this, i am wondering if i could take on sewing real ties for Moose??

We Ain't Talking Apples Here

We've gotten totally inspired by Meet Me A Mikes this morning. Pip is continuing her Granny A Day campaign with crochet tutes to boot! Hurrah!! Cookie Monster is even excited because she has been wanting to learn to crochet, but when i try to teach her, it ends up in tears and tossing of objects....yeah, it's not really pretty. It'll be nice to have the "carrot" looming about her beak--if she doesn't practice patiently, then we won't be able to go on the computer to check the tutourials. And my kid can't fathom the idea of not going on a computer. :o) Hark! How ever did we survive those non-computer years so very, very not so long ago! And we shant even think about those of you who grew up without a t.v. OH!!! The HoRRoR!! The inhumanity! (sob, sniffle)

I digress, anyhoo

We're thankful to have a little project to work on together that will help us pitter away the grey days of Seattle while we await the joyful Spring!!! One that doesn't promote fingercuts such as the unrelentless thumbing through of seed catalogues this time of year. :o) And something to offset the efforts that are going into the massive purging effort going on in the toy room.

And we are especially thankful we've a whole bin of yarn to destash our way through too. And Lord knows we need a way to distract ourselves a bit around here!

(picture rights to Pip of Meet Me At Mikes)

Alphabet Soup

We won't get into my infatuation with WWII here, but let's just say that i was the kid in high school that people often wondered about--especially because when questioned by our history teacher as to who we'd like to travel back in time and interview, my response was to interview Hitler and ask him, quite frankly, just what the hell was he thinking (or ingesting)?!?! Yeah, i didn't get any A-plusses that day. Anyhoo....i disgress. But i've always loved the era of history that publik skool'n hasn't quite ever been intent on teaching. We never made it through history much past the American revolution--but sure e'nuff i did learn my fair share about third world countries, STD's, and obviously not enough synonyms for the word "but". Nonetheless, that didn't make me any less interested in the uncovered territory of Modern History.


One thing i've always loved is the propaganda (from Allies or Axis, quite frankly)...the design, the idiosyncratic funkiness (in my view) from each country's gov'ts.

One thing i am especially fond of is the famous British WWII era poster, and have desired one of my own, but not totally committed as it's largess, display area, usw. Then, about the time i was ready to break down and purchase a couple coffee vessels with the likeness on them, i found a blogpost by this talented lady that caused me to bring my palm to my forehead in a sort of "Boy, i could have had a V-8" fashion.

With scissors, paper scraps, and a little help from the 'puter....Cookie Monster and i went to work. Our first project, a sign for Moose's office. Next we'll try our hand at "quilting" one, then we shall take over the world spreading peace and calm! Well, maybe another day with that last one there. Seems "motivation", once unleashed, can be a very fiery and infectious thing. :o)

C.M. tried her hand at unscrambling first.....

Should we get an when we get our family farm?

Ooh, or she could work for Disney's movie marketing.

Sounding like a title to a Roger Miller song....


Then i took a turn....
This is what i did last year.
Now i have a huge bin full and i seriously need "1oo,ooo Yarn Ons"

to work on destashing, less be known by a new nickname



Now, this is getting a little closer, however... it's quite possibly the antithesis of the message we're trying to convey here.

Aaaah, that's much better!

Hoping Moose will proudly display it in his office for the next 3-5 years while they work on the fix to the area's flooding threat. :o) And the next best thing about this little project is that it kept my lil phalanges our of the "phridge" till lunch--woo hoo!

Did I Do That?

My Christmas bunting is done! But seriously, i can't believe i did it! Know why?

'Cause it looks so darn cute, that's why?

However, i stressed about it so much and so long, we are behind in our baking....

Sorry, Santa.

We'll try to catch up tomorrow!

And in the new year, i'll post a tute for bunting, cause it was easy peasy, but i have a few ideas for us beginners!

Dinner, Anyone?

Tonight, it's ravioli and meatballs at our place.

When Cookie Monster received her play kitchen a few years ago, i started trying my hand at constructing simple felt food. She loved ravioli so much then, hence that was the first food i made for her. One of her dear friends absolutely loves the ravioli. So that is what C.m. wanted to give him for his Christmas present this year--per his request.

The ravioli is pretty straight forward and one sheet of pasta coloured eco-craft felt will yield 9 squares (or 4 raviolis, buy the time your done). Definitely the sewing machine is much faster than handsewn. I stuff mine with leftover fabric trimmings or cotton balls

(which, of course, are not "leftover"). :o)

For the sauce, i recently came across a great colour of eco-craft felt that looks more like stewed pasta sauce than a bad shade of cheap red lipstick. :o) Simple again, just let your scissors wander and you should be able to get up to two servings of pasta sauce from one sheet of felt.

Then comes the tricky part. Ri asked if we could make meatballs for Hunt and her. Finding a fabric or yarn that lends itself to the texture and colour of a meatball is not easy. And i had hoped if i had to resort to yarn, that i could use wool to make a medium sized ball, then felt it, however........ :o\ So Lion Brand came through with their organic cotton yarn, and with a pattern for fuzzballs that i hunted down at Crochet Pattern Central from Planet June's blog, i was able to make something pretty realistic looking.

Dat's zum spicy meatahball, eh?

But what couldn't have been "designed" better are Cookie Monster's notes to her friend.
Just another reason we can't wait for Christmas around here!!

Decision Day

Oh, if only all the world's problems boiled down to something so simple, eh?

(Then maybe Pres. Obama could figure it out for himself, instead of relying on all the Ol' Hasbeens to do it for him--i am sooooo peeved at that gentleman right now. However, i digress.)

Back to important matters at hand....that i can do something about and reap instant gratification (unlike Nat'lised Health Care.)

I am having a crafter's dilemma of gargantuan proportions.

And incidentally, this is why most projects i undertake don't get completed...i tend to overthink these kinds of things.

I am making something cheery....something that i can't wait to hang up this year ("this" & "year" being the operative words, seeing that it is now just 7 days till Christmas!)

I'm making my first Christmas sewing project that i intend to keep (hence the indecision, as i will be staring at it and judging it and picking it apart for years to come.) Sure, it's easy enough to make something for someone to give them for Christmas because they won't be looking at where you really could have sewn a straighter seam or taking out the ruler to make sure your hemlines are perfect all the way around--and neither will you because it won't be in our possession anymore. :o)

So, i am putting it up for a vote....

should triangles for bunting be 4x9 inches (top)

or 3.5 x 7 inches (bottom)?

Then, in the big scheme of vicious life circles and the gnashing of teeth in all the sensetive places and all that, i realised by re-reading my post that i could infact be doing the same durn'd thing that Pres. Obama is doing himself.

Don'tcha just hate that!??!?

Maybe i'll have to do something completely whacky, cuckoo, and nutso and actually put on the big girl grunties, make the executive decision, and make the triangles 4 x 8 inches. :o)
Regardless, i think it needs more freezer paper templates, don't you?

Have a great day, everyone!

Whew! Just In The "Nick" Of Time

We've been busy sewing this week. Hopefully we'll finish the "presents" tomorrow, and then we can do the fun stuff: like more fabric Christmas decor. Needless to say, we were so behind that the Christmas package to our family in Germany will arrive quite well into the New Year, but we've finished it all today. C.m. coloured some wooden Christmas ornaments and painted them with glitter for her "Grandma in Germany".

These are the napkins i've sewn for my sister in Germany. We were exchange students that stayed with each other's family what back when, and since she came to stay with us while we lived in AZ, i thought she'd get a kick out of these. They are decidedly just Christmas-y enough, yet also not too Christmas-y that one couldn't use them all year long.

I was going to make a set for me too, but i decided that i liked the fabrics so much that i am going to have to learn to quilt to make a quilt with them! Mom, we can start working on C.m.'s chicken quilt anytime so i can get all my practice in on that!! :o) Just wishing that i could have known so that i could buy enough fabric for the back of a quilt in that saguaro pattern. That is such a hoot!

And we finished our Crafty Crow Kids Ornament Exchange ornaments too this week.

The theme this year was Fairy Tales. And of course, my child would have to pick something out of the ordinary like "Brementown Musicians." :o) So she helped me surf the 'nets to find pictures of the animals, then we traced the patterns from pictures. First i tried broadcloth, but it got increasingly harder to make the ornaments look like their intended shape, and along with that it required more of my handiwork and less of Cookie's, which was totally not the point. So, in the end, we decided she would make the dog--and i think it's more charming than my crazy chicken and donkey. I do like the folk artsy-ness of the donkey, however!

Winter Advisory

It's close to Christmas, eh?

I'm thinking the closer we get, the less free time i'll have (or should have) for posting ponderings, etc...especially this week as C.m.'s recitals are coming up Saturday. Whew! And i am feeling a bit down about the officers, as you could tell--i don't like subjecting you all to such deep ponderings each day on here, so i think i'll be taking a bit of a break from writing. We're all busy this time of year too, eh? Maybe a picture a day or two, nothing big--just a little somethin'. 'Cause i know if i wait too long, there'll be entirely way too much for one entry. :o) Plus, this will give me time to do what i truly love during this time of year--which is reading other people's blogs! ;o)

I'll leave you with some pictures of recently acquired Etsy purchases. Etsy is so great, dont'cha think? I really need to get my act together and start a shop and see how it does.

We were in need of a gift for our church's giving tree. Cookie M. wanted to sponsor a little 4 y/o girl specifically because the tag said that she wanted an African American doll. So after seeing all the uninspiring dolls our toy store and one stop shopping had, we decided on Etsy. Traci from TheHandmadeProject made this adorable doll she named Vanessa. C.m. is especially fond of the doll's hair, her polka-dotted stockings, and the fact that the doll wears grunties (our word for undergarments.)
And i feel very blessed to have my new Christmas wreath designed by Barbara of Oodles and Oodles fame!! I love that she uses an overabundance of collected vintage items to design holiday decorations. It was a hard sale to Moose, since it was pink--oh. The. HORROR! I think it will look wonderful in the sports themed, "man den" of a rec room downstairs, especially for "Christmas in July" while the Mariners are stinkin' it up next season! Just kiddin', Moose. :O)

Hoping you all have a peace-filled week! happy getting ready for Christmas!

Wowwie!

What a little DMC, muslin, and an hour can do for me:

Hurray! I embroidered my first creation (that didn't have Rick Springfield's name in it anyway-wink wink)!

Cookie Monster has a classmate's birthday to go to tomorrow. I have become really disenchanted with gift wrap--you spend all that money and time making the package look so nice and POOF! It's all in the trash in a quick nanosecond.

We decided to get this little girl a few gift certicates to a local ice cream shoppe since we don't know her that well. Save her parent's from returning something that she already has or doesn't like and saves space in their home by eliminating one more toy they will have to find storage for.

I decided the envelope wasn't as nice of a wrapping so i made a little bag (that will help store all the Hannah Montana or Polly Pocket stuff she'll be getting.)

The best part is that it kept my fingers busy so they wouldn't devour the rest of the delicacies i made yesterday for Dessert Nite:

Chocolate Hazelnut cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache frosting.

Man oh man! I think i need to make some more embroidered cupcakes and less edible ones, eh?

Starting Small

This week's inspiration: Cookie Monster's Pillowcase Collection by who else but her Momma.

Feverishly longing to sew pillowcases was not truly on my "list of things to do someday", however once i found the kit for the Halloween case at my favorite local quilt shoppe, Country Carriage Quilts, i knew i'd be hooked. Their charm is undeniable, and they are insanely easy to sew (AKA "leaving one unskilled beginning sewing gal/seamstress-wanna be feeling completely victorious" type of project!)

Next was the St. Valentine's Day case. After the first case, the ideas were flowing like the raging rivers in Western WA after a November rainstorm! :o) I made the St. Val case for C.m. and filled it with a couple holiday books as a gift to her.

Then, who could resist the charm of the doggies and cats on the Happy Birthday case? Not me! To compound matters, i was bound and determined to sew not 1, but 6 of them for the friends my daughter would be inviting to her birthday party in '07. Our tradition is to give storybooks related to the party's theme as guest favors, and with that year's theme being the "Come in your Jammies" birthday party, a pillowcase seemed to fit along with the book. :o) This year, C.m. was very excited counting down the days until Momma would be able to put her birthday pillowcase on as November drew near.

Well...needless to say, i've been planning cases and collecting fabric for a year now and i need to get some of these projects done! Today i've gathered them up and that is the first step towards getting this project underway.

Here is a list of pillowcase projects i hope to finish over the next two weeks (giving myself plenty of time to get sidetracked with working in C.m.'s classroom or having another coffee date or two with my friends):

The St. Valentine's Day cases for hubbie and my bedroom.

The St. Valentine Penny Rug-esque candle mats i'd like to give to C.m.'s teachers &

the Robot/Marble case and the Paperdoll case for C.m.'s room for a little "Celebrate the Every Ordinary Days" surprise someday.

The Easter case for C.m.

The Cat cases for hubbie and me or our guest room.

Then i need to find an appropriate striped material for this Happy 4th case.

What do you think? Should i use red "star" fabric and blue/white stripes, or should i stick with tradition and use blue star fabric and red/white stripes?

And is all goes speedily, maybe i can finish the Thanksgiving cases too?

But why i'm in such a hurry with these is because i'd truely like to be working on this...

The plan is to make the jumper with this polar bear fabric and a complimentary snowflake fabric for the border before C.m. needs a new dress (or before she outgrows a size 6.) :o) One accessory still left to purchase is some large black rick rack for an embellishment around the hem.

Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it! :o)