A Very Spooky Halloween Costume

My absence was due to a nauseating first trimester and a lack of projects to share with the world; I'm back and have done some fun crafty things.  And that's all I'm saying about that!

My son will hate me when he's fourteen and realizes that I dressed him up as a cloud for his 2nd Halloween.  Too bad, kiddo.  I make the costume, I make the rules. 

I followed this tutorial to make a cloud for him to wear on top.  The only difference was that I didn't stuff it with poly-fill, as my stash disappeared.  Instead, I cut three layers, two of white fabric and one of basic cheap batting.  I sewed the perimeter (two pieces of fabric, right sides facing, and the piece of batting on top).  I'm sure it's not technically correct to sew right on top of batting but my machine handled it without any issues at all.  I turned it right side out and hand stitched it closed, then added the inner line of stitching for the snazzy 3-D effect. 

I also didn't follow the tutorial for the raindrop pants, mostly because I didn't want a pair of raindrop painted pants hanging around after Halloween.  Instead, I consulted my fabric stash for several shades of blue/white and cut out a basic teardrop shape.  I tacked them on to a pair of blue sweatpants that we already owned, figuring out that after this costume is over I'll just snip each stitch off and he'll still be able to wear the pants.  I didn't even switch thread colors, I just tried to make a tidy X stitch.  It was somewhat time consuming.  Another option would be to use removable iron-on interfacing to attach them.  Or fabric paint.  Whatever.

The best part is that my kid LOVED wearing this.  He would grab onto the cloud (making it somewhat difficult to tell what he was dressed as) and run through the house with a huge smile on his face.  Who am I to deny my son the delight of dressing as an inanimate object for Halloween? 

The second best part is that this whole costume was F.R.E.E. Pants he wears (and will be able to again), the white fabric was from a sheet set handed down from my Gramma, batting and raindrop fabric from my stash.  And this, Dillon, is why I never throw anything out. 

Literally the best photo I could get because there was so much excitable running to do instead.

A Little Reading

Recently my son discovered that he could turn pages in books. It makes for quite interesting stories at bedtime! We've also gotten a few Christmas cards with photos and Levi loves to look at them.  So I decided to combine these two new hobbies and make him a book for Christmas with pictures of our family.  There are services where I could have printed a book of photos like I've done in the past, or even a place to print more durable board books, but I just didn't want to pay that much because I really want him to touch it & use it & it will probably end up in his mouth a lot. Not to mention that I'm cheap. Hi my name is Lindsey and I'm on the verge of being featured on extreme cheapskates.

So instead I found this old school small vinyl photo album (okay okay it was at a thrift store but it was NEW) and had some family photos printed when I ordered my Christmas cards (okay okay the prints were free with my order). I stuck them inside and wrote a couple of simple sentences on colorful paper for us to read together. And that was it!  He'll love looking at the pictures, (especially since he is featured on every page! ) and turning the pages and we can change out pictures someday if we want. Boom.  Stocking stuffer!  And with this I think all the presents are finished.  Now to start the wrapping!

Starting on Christmas

Hello there!  Sorry it's been awhile.  It's hard to find things to write about when I never seem to finish anything.  Sometime I drive myself nuts with my inability to finish all the projects I start.  In fact, I've been meaning to write about this for awhile and today A Beautiful Mess wrote pretty much exactly what I've been meaning to say.  At the moment, I have a knitted stocking waiting to be blocked, a knit christmas gift to finish, THREE kinds of christmas decorations to finish, a new quilt started (not to mention the other ones I've started and never finished), lots of ingredients bought for different recipes to try, and a basement half rearranged.  Yikes.

Really I think half the issue is that I am such a "process oriented" person, as opposed to "goal oriented".  I enjoy the act of knitting (or crafting, finding recipes, quilting, rearranging) more than I enjoy the end product. 

Well the thing I'm most finished with is this simple garland I whipped up to wrap around our bannister.  I found a sheet of stiff felt at Hobby Lobby for less than $1.  I had been hoping to find an off-white color but I guess Hobby Lobby thinks only primary colors are appropriate for stiff felt sheets.  I cut out about a million (imperfect) nickel-size circles, and then ran them through my sewing machine.  I just sewed through the center of each one, let the machine run for a few seconds (to make the spaces between the dots) and then shoved another circle under the foot. 

It sewed together very quickly, and cutting the circles was a breeze.  Except for Dillon, who is incredibly bad at cutting circles.  I know because I tested him and he failed.  Sorry buddy, your secret is out.  So this, along with some pom-pom garland and maybe a few pine cones and our stockings will be hanging from our bannister this Christmas! I'll wait to show you the final thing, since I haven't started decorating yet because Dillon won't let me. 

Hopefully before Christmas I'll have some more things finished that I can blog about. Or not.  At least I'll try and enjoy the process!

Merry Christmas to you!

 

(What's that I see in that photo??  A lovely vintage dress and a tiny peek at the belt Santa brought me this Christmas?)

 I got exactly what I had been hoping for this year!  Do you know what this is?

It's my little Zumi 2.0 that my dear husband got for me.  So you can all expect to see some delightful vintage-looking videos soon!  I really wanted this little baby so that I can have a few videos of Dillon and I before we have any kids, before we are too settled, while we go out and about and do fun spontaneous things.  Wouldn't it be amazing to see video of your parents when they had just gotten married?  It's my goal, at least.    Now it's just learning to edit videos into amazing little movies like this lady.  Did you get just what you were hoping for?

Enjoy your last bits of holiday spirit!  And then wish me luck as I send in my graduate school application today! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  We had a great time up north with my family, and then down south with Dillon's family. 

It's beginning to look...

 Well Christmas is almost here.  I've got a few pictures to share of some very adventurous cookie production.  I would have had some pictures of the fudge-making, but we were all too busy laughing, stirring, reducing the recipe by 1/2, and messing it up. 

My sister took most of these lovely shots of the process.

 

 

   

 

 So there it was.  Epic cookie making.

On a side note, my husband is immune to gift-opening temptations.  Yesterday, I wanted him to open one of the gifts I got for him, and he refused.  I was shaking it in front of him, wiggling his gift in front of his face, and he didn't budge.  That man must have had some serious RULES while growing up.  Here's a picture of it.

The man is pure self-control. 

Have you been tempted by any gifts sitting under your tree yet?

It's beginning to look...

 

Oh hello, Bing.  

 Meet Sufjan.

 What a great way to spend some time wrapping gifts:  listening to Bing or Sufjan's Christmas album.  I found the vinyl this summer at the salvation army, and hadn't even opened it until today. Honestly, I forgot about it a little bit.  Well I plugged him in today and think that this is the best shape I've ever found a vinyl album at a secondhand store.  It sounds great-- no scratches, no skipping.  Terrific. 

Doesn't it look festive with these gifts?  You all may think this is boring with the white paper, but I only use paper that I already have or have saved from Christmases past.  Also, I love how similar they all look.  And I hate using boxes; I much prefer to make squashy packages tied with string to make them look even squashier.  Only a few more gifts to finish and wrap!  Are you finished?

More It's beginning to look a lot like...

I wanted to make some snowflakes to hang on our wall, so I bought a huge piece of blue paper (since white wouldn't show up very well on our boring apartment walls) and cut some perfect squares.  A tip: if you do this, find very thin blue paper or very sharp scissors or else your fingers will be mad at you. 

Then, I taped them together in a bannerish manner, and my lovely tall husband helped me hang it up above our patio door.  Thanks hubby!  I like them---and got some of the best snowflakes I've ever made out of the deal!  You can find websites to help you with your creativity if you get stumped.  Fifteen snowflakes that I would have "designed" myself would probably all have come out the same.  Oh I love how Christmassy our apartment looks right now!

It's beginning to look...

I don't think I'm going to eat dinner tonight.  Instead, the whole pan of these little guys will work.  Pretzel and rolo in the oven for 2 minutes, then press a pecan on there.  Yum.  Like I said, I'm having them for dinner.  Thanks for the idea, Rachel!

It's beginning to look...

The Story of Our First Christmas Tree (in pictures...and some words, too)

It was a snowy Friday night and Saturday morning.  Despite the inches of white stuff, we were (I was) set on picking up our Christmas tree on Saturday.  Off to the tree farm we went...

 Where we found this little beauty.  We took the easy road and got a pre-cut tree.  Neener neener to all of you who were laying down in the snow with your saws.

 The tree farm guys took care of our free shaking, and we loaded her into our Buick.  We both wish we had a truck sometimes...

 And then brought her into our house.  Naturally this is Dillon trimming off some branches in our kitchen. 

 Next up, Dillon ate some pistachios among the mess.

 And we decorated.  This is my favorite antique ornament because of the mushroom.  What could be less Christmas-themed for an ornament?

You will see the final product someday.  Not yet though.  First I need to make a tree skirt to cover up the shower curtain we have underneath our tree.  It certainly makes it feel more Christmas-y in here.  That, and the constant Sufjan Steven's Christmas album that has been playing nonstop. 

Have you gotten your tree yet?

It's beginning to look... day 2

I crafted this little banner the other day, mostly because I had a 50% off coupon for a Martha product from Michaels and decided to get a pack of holiday(ish) paper.  I used a lid to make perfect circles.  Then, print off letters in a pretty font and cut them out to make stencils.  Use the stencil on the Martha paper, glue them together, add a little string, and VOILA!  the perfect Merry Christmas banner. 



Ok. It looks a little small in the picture against our boring white walls.  I think I need to find a way to hang up and display our Christmas cards somewhere on this wall.  Don't you think?


p.s DANG IT I just saw that I forgot the apostrophe in "it's" as well in my pretty picture.  Fail.

Its beginning to look a lot like...

 

Happy December!

I've decided to try my hand at posting as many Christmas themed posts as possible this month.  It should (in theory) be very possible as this is the first Christmas spent as a married couple, in our new home.  Lots to do and decorate and bake and make special.  

For this first edition of  "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas", Santa stopped by our house.  It was a special moment.  I had just put our homemade stockings up, using our fabulous new monogrammed mugs as weights, when the big guy popped over to leave something for Dillon.  He fumbled around for a few minutes, but finally managed to get the package to stay in that stocking.  With the help of some paperclips.  

 

What was it?  Naturally, it was a giant lottery ticket with scratch off things for each day in December.  Like an Advent calendar.  Except not nearly as Christianity-themed. 

P.S. YES, I KNOW "BEGINNING" IS SPELLED WRONG IN MY PICTURE.  Yes, I am a college graduate.  But I am not going to fix it because it way too darn long to figure out how to get that picture on here and I'm also going to go ahead and claim that the fumes from the heavy cleaning I did this morning were getting to me.  So just ignore it.  That's what I'm going to do.

Getting ready for the holidays

What have I been up to you ask?  Well aside from my intense search for a doable, light and fluffy bread recipe for my first official "you are an adult now and need to bring something" Thanksgiving, I've been thinking about Christmas.  Although it may seem early, I've been working on ornaments to hang on our tree.  I gratefully received a batch of antique ornaments from a friend as a wedding gift, but I think we need more.  I purchased a pack, but want to be as thrifty as possible with our tree, so decided to make some ornaments with supplies I had on hand.

German stars I made from some brown paper that was packaging from Ikea items.  Free=oh yah!

 Felt snowflake, bird, stocking.  The felt was leftover from the felt food I made.  Free = oh yah!

A few stuffed birds I made with fabric my lovely sister gave me for my birthday.  I love these and plan on making some more.  Free = oh yah!


I'd say I did pretty well with the thrifty ornaments this year.  I think it will be cute to have some of these forever and remember our first Christmas together... (sappy sentimental moment)  Have you made any of your Christmas decorations?