look! it's not mittens!

After 2 weeks of sewing mittens, I needed a break.

So I made a few more infant hats.

And some Christmas Stockings!

What a nice change

 Some have the same on the front and back, and some have a solid back

There are more sweaters pulled for making today. 

And now for the obligatory, albeit somewhat not up to standard, photos of Halloween costumes

And the adults who borrowed heavily from the kid costume box.

My husband and I would have won the best couple award, but I went home at midnight to relieve the babysitter. So they gave him the best male. My little badge says, "he's a keeper" HA! get it!

Hope all is well where you are..

Ciao,

Amanda

Proud mama

This is my girl just over a year ago.

It was around this time that she decided to grow her hair so that she could donate it to Locks of Love.

I don't know where she heard of it or what made her think of doing it herself, but she did. 

All on her own.

This was my girl last Friday.

She did it!

Locks of Love calls for 10 inches. It was a bit of a great decision to make. To cut it for 10 inches would mean it would be to her chin. Too short for our comfort. 

And we couldn't let it grow another two inches.

 It was getting dreadfully difficult to manage. 

I had read that they accept 8 inches and sell it to other companies as revenue. Which they need.

Hey, that sounded like a good deed to us. So we went for the 8 inches.

It looks longer in the picture above, but as we thought with her previously curly hair, it shrunk up a bit and rests on her shoulders now.

Along the journey of hair growing, her babysitter decided that she would join the road to good deeds too. They booked the appointment together and supported each other for this big event.

The sitter donated 11 inches! 

So proud of both of them and love that they did it together.

Warms the heart.

Thanks for that.

And now, I must show you the obligatory Halloween pictures for my record keeping..

Dorothy (the day before the big haircut)

and Cool Dude.

 Best part.. I didn't have to make anything.

 And they didn't mind about that.

Yes, the weather was mild enough to go out like this for the evening. 

In fact, I think it actually warmed up.

 We met up with friends and had a magical evening. (after this mama badly transitioned from a quiet house to the running around of excited children. A little stressed out. But came round soon enough)

To quote Rafael,

"That was the best Halloween I ever had in my whole life!"

Hope yours was swell.

Amanda

Halloween Costumes

This year, Rafael wanted to be a Green Ninja. I looked and looked for green pants and shirt, but to no avail. However, the material bin at Frenchy's had 3 yards of this green fabric. 

I traced a pair of his pants using the tutorial from Dana at Made. I also worked out the shirt from her tutorial.

Neve was going to be red Ninja... ( for a party last week)

But for the School party, she decided to be Super woman. I think she did the same thing last year. Oh to have a rack full of costumes to pick and choose from. I think I shall miss it when she grows out of the costumes.

True to fashion, I was finishing off Rafael's costume while he was at school. 

I sewed the  hood part in 2 pieces.

The back is placed on the fold with the openings in the front.

The front piece is just a triangle tacked on the back and rouched on the front.

 We had fun going about the yard.

 Sometimes even Superwoman needs a little help with lift off.

 <3 p="p">

Thar be a pie-rat out thar...

NOTE TO EDIT:

They won the award for Most Creative! Yeah.

The Whirligig Bookstore owners decided to get on board with the Pirate Halloween theme some of the other businesses have done for the season.

I was called in to help make some Pie-Rats.

This here is Max.

 And his friend Maxine. I love how the skirt is flared out on the bottom. It's a warm, but windy, wet day here thanks to Hurricane Sandy.

 (Thoughts go out to those really affected by her wake. Especially New York.)

 Whoa! There's another Pirate! I didn't make him! Look at that steely eye! 

(wave hello to Bernie, one of the owners)

Making these guys was a challenge. I love challenges. And I din't even curse while making them. I started out with the idea of towels, but they are rather heavy and shapeless. And they drooped. Bernie had a bunch of wooden stakes so I swiped 'em and used the huge bag of bubble wrap we had left over from our move. 

Here are the legs.. bubble wrap around the stakes and then stabilized on the top.

 Stuffed into some pants or tights. And boots.

For the body, I started with a coat hanger taken apart. I figure.. you can hang your clothes on it, it's probably the right size for a shirt.

 I wrapped both ends to make arms, then gathered a long piece of wrap to make the body.

 I folded it over the top to make a sort of pouch on the bottom and taped it to make a neck. Then I stuffed with more wrap.

 I did make some adjustments once a shirt was put on. There were no shoulders.

Sorry, that's all the photos on how to make it. To attach the body and legs together, I used another stake making it perpendicular to the leg brace shown above and taped the sucker together. Like lots of tape. Make sure it is long enough to make a neck and support the head.

I put the stake through the clothes and up the top. 

These heads are masks. I stuffed it with newspaper and plunked it on the nail at the top of the stake. 

Aren't they great! Oh, I didn't want to take any chances, so I sewed the hat on the head through the slit in the mouth. These babies are sewed up the ying yang. The shirt is sewn to the pants, the boats are sewn to the pants, the hat is sewn on, the hook is sewn on, the flag is sewn on... where ever things are joined, they are sewn down.

To string them up, we tied rope around the waist, under the clothes and up through the back of the neck.

Thanks for the challenge Bernie. That was fun! 

Happy Pirate Halloween!

fun Halloween party activities

One of my favourite activities at the Halloween party was the donut line.

Each kid picked a donut, put hands behind their back and then tried to eat the donut. That was hanging from a string. Moving. Swaying. No hands.

Various stances.

 One tactic was to find the perfectly suited height for maximum munching.

 Another was the shoulder holder.

 Take a break and have a lick.

 Borrow a hand from a friend.

 When the donut you want is too tall, just put the dang thang down.

 There was the necklace making activity.

 Tired eyeballs.

Bobbing for apples

 Getting the apple

An old fashioned leaf piling and jumping. 

There was also a pin the face to the pumpkin activity (a.k.a. make a jack o lantern) using paper cutouts and a real pumpkin.

And the every popular woods and river. The kids crossed the river and started to pile old branches to make a pseudo bridge. I wish they would come over to my place and clean up my woods. :}

It was a lovely party, lovely day and lovely people.

Cheers,

Amanda

Last minute Halloween ideas

THe kids didn't have school on Friday, so some new friends of ours hosted an awesome Halloween party. As the parent, we were to bring an activity and some food. Fun stuff.

This idea came to me in a dream. When I awoke, I hoped that I could find some styrofoam balls in this town. I did! 2 sizes. Yeah. And some halloweeny string. I gathered various coloured sharpie markers from around the house and some perler or melty beads. You could use any kind of bead that  your string fits though.

 Draw and eyeball. Don't forget the veins. that's what gives it a Halloween vibe. Someone got real happy with the red marker on the green eye! Late night I guess.

 I pre-drilled holes in the balls, but we still had to use a skewer to  work on it a bit for the the strings to go through easily. I also put some tape on one end to stiffen the string.

Here's the necklace we made at home. Even the boys were into this activity.

 Now for some food. Here was my contribution. Wiener mummies. Just some pre-made crescent roll dough and wieners cut in half. I rolled the dough out, cut it with a pizza cutter into strips and rolled around the wiener.  I put the mustard and ketchup eyes on with a fondue fork! 2 eyes with one swoop.:}

 I love this collection... Crispy maggots ( those highly addictive corn puffs), Brittle bones (pretzels, marshmallows on the ends and white chocolate) and dried bat wings ( blue corn chips)

 Yummy short bread fingers. Not sure what the red stuff it, but very clever.

 The punch bowl has an infestation of spiders, or maybe it was the ice cubes??

 Almost too cute to eat... bat cupcakes.

 very flaky shortbread eyeballs. Delish.

 eewww! Pumpkin vomit.

 Bright red candied apples

 And the table presentation. There were some spider cookies in the back and the cookie sandwiches in the front. Oh, the pumpkin roll with cream cheese centre was also quite tasty. 

It was a great spread. And some great activities. I'll show you those tomorrow.

Cheers!

Amanda