Happy Halloween!!!!

Phew!  

I feel like I've been missing for a few years!

I've been sitting at my sewing machine pretty much all week working on costumes for my girls.  I have not been able to focus on much else.  I'm sorry if I've seemed absent lately.  But, they turned out so cute!

Here is L:

She's a cupcake.

She liked her costume so much, she wouldn't stop dancing.  It was hard to get a good picture.  =) 

Finally, Daddy picked her up and tickled her legs. 

Sweet.

P.S.  Her costume was inspired by this pin:

Here is the link to Lemon Tree Creations and her tutorial.  I didn't follow her tutorial, but I was absolutely inspired.

Next is O:

She is a pirate princess.

Her wand was a bit distracting. 

She loved it.

But I finally got her to stand still.  

We went to a church party on Saturday and we had a great time.  You know, we brought home A LOT of candy.  We might not need to go trick-or-treating tonight!

Oh!  I almost forgot.

I forgot to get a picture of my costume, but my husband was kind enough to sneak one in at the party.  It's fuzzy, but you get the idea.

I think striped tights and tutus should be part of every day wardrobe.  Wouldn't that be fun?!

Happy Halloween, All!  May you receive a great bounty of candy!

Are you a category eater?

I looked down at my cute new desktop while I was working the other night and saw this:

I don't really remember doing it, but I know I was saving those 2 beautiful purple skittles for last.

Hoo Are You #59

1.  Do you like the season Fall?

Yes.  But I like pretty much all the seasons.  Fall gets me all excited for the Holidays.

2.  What is your favorite Fall smell?

Hmmmm.  I'd have to say cinnamon and apples and pumpkin pie.

3.  What is your favorite activity to do in the fall?

Bake pumpkins to freeze for the year, trick or treat, play outside when it isn't too cold yet, wear sweaters. 

4.  Do you dress in fall colors during the season?

I'm not really a fashion literate type of person.  I love fall colors, but I don't consciously wear them during the right time of year.

5.  Name 4 qualities about yourself that start with each letter in the word FALL. 

F- Friendly
A- Astute
L- Loving
L- Lyrical

Halloween Haunts

 In case you missed it, here is the project I posted over at Doodles and Doilies.  

Remember my Felt Dot Garland?  I love it.  Really, I do.  But it is Halloween and it needed some spookifying.  

Here's what I did:

I added some haunts to the garland.

Here's how I made them:

The first thing I did was find a circle cookie cutter and trace out 3 circles.  Then I sketched out the faces that I wanted.

I'm going to focus just on the ghost for the sake of space.  Hopefully, that will give you the basics enough to run with it, but if you need help or advice, please feel free to contact me!

Once you have your sketch/idea in mind, move on to some felt. 

Trace out and cut 2 circles.

Using the sketch, cut out the features for the face.

This was the mouth for my ghost. 

Please ignore my chipping nail polish.  It was late at night and I really wanted to finish this.  I figured it was better to have unfinished nails than an unfinished ghost.  I hope you'll understand.  =)

Now, using black embroidery thread and a running stitch, I sewed that mouth into place on one of the circles. 

On the second circle, I drew the letters.  BOO! 

Then, with the black thread, I embroidered those letters.

Now, it is time to create the ghost.  

I grabbed some purple ribbon to hang it with.  Place it on one of the circles in the position you like and pin it (take a lesson from me, pin on the right side so you don't lose your pin).   

I also grabbed a scrap of tulle, folded it up into a kind of a messy gather and pinned that in as well.

To sew the two pieces together, I used white thread and a running stitch again, being careful to keep my knots on the inside.  I was also very careful to make sure that my thread caught the ribbon and tulle to hold it in place.

Before you close it up, stuff it just a little with some fiberfill... 

which, by the way, was pretty much impossible for me to get a good picture of with my little camera.  You get the idea, though, right?

Finish sewing it up and, *bing*, you're done. 

He's kind of cute!   

For a ghost.

The possibilities are endless.  You can use any design you want!

These could even work at Thanksgiving (how cute would a turkey be?) or Christmas (reindeer?)  

What would you make?

I'm linking these haunts up here!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, my birthday was almost 2 months ago.  

Yes, I've procrastinated posting about my glorious birthday present.  

Better late than never though.

Look at what my mom got me!

Hello, Beautiful.

I'm sooooo excited!!!!

Here's her first project. 

I found a pretty flourish design, downloaded it, and cut it from some pretty purple vinyl.

It was fascinating.  (Oh wait!  That's blue vinyl!  This picture must have been from a different project.  But it still works because she does that every time I use my pretty Silhouette.)

Then I put it on her. 

I think she needs a name.  Any ideas?

Easy Peasy Ghost Decorations!

This is a project that I believe is inspired by my mother.  =)  I'm pretty sure I remember either making these with her or watching her make them and I know we had them hanging around the house at Halloween.

I've been wanting to make my own for a while now.  Thank you, Blog, for the motivation!

Here is what you will need:

• A lot of white fabric.  I used a twin size sheet.  The amount you use depends on how many ghosts you want.  I ended up with more about 20 from 1 sheet.
• Fiberfill.
• Yarn
• A sharpie
• Fishing wire

Here is my sheet laid out on the couch:

I took that sheet and, with reckless abandon, I cut it up.  

Ok, not really reckless abandon, but I didn't worry too much about straight lines and such.  I folded it in half, cut roughly along the line, folded that piece in half and cut along that line, and so on until I had a bunch of rectangles.

It is about 10 inches x 14 inches.  

Now, take your fiberfill. 

Side note:  If you are going to take a picture of it, don't have your 3-year-old hold it with the 1-year-old helping.  It won't turn out.  

Take a small amount of the filling and place it in the center of your rectangle. 

Does anyone else find it really difficult to get a picture of fiberfill?  It's so fuzzy!

Now, gather up your fabric like so around the filling and twist it into a little ghost head.

Tie a small piece of yarn (or other stringlike substance) around the neck to hold the stuffing in. 

Now use your Sharpie to draw eyes and a mouth on.  I didn't get a picture of this.  Probably because I had so much "help."

String your fishing line through a needle and run that through the top of the ghost's head. 

See the help?

The length of the line depends on how much dangling you want your ghosts to do.  I vary mine so that they don't look too uniform.  

Draw the line through and tie the ends together so you have a loop to hang from. 

Now go and hang your ghosts where ever you need a little haunting!

Gasp!  Do you see that ghost in the mirror!!!!

No worries...

It's just me!

I'll be linking this up with these super fun parties!

Giveaway!!!

My sister, Jeigh, at Writerbrained has reached (and passed) 111 followers.  To celebrate, she is doing a fun giveaway!  This is a writer-oriented giveaway, but she has promised that if a nonwriter wins she will be negotiable.  I'm sure the prize will be great!

Oh, and did I mention, there are 11 prizes to be won!  Good odds!

Head over here and sign up to win.

And, please stay tuned.  I have a fun Halloween craft ready to post.  I just have to eat lunch first.  =)