Friday, October 31, 2008

NaBloPoMo

It's here again! The blogginest month of the year!
Join in on the fun, you'll be glad you did.
I've got posts galore floating around my head today. Hopefully that keeps up all month.
See you tomorrow, and every day after until we wave good bye to November.

The smell of Halloween

You know what I mean, right? The inside of a trick-or-treat bag. A mixture or bubble gum and tootsie rolls. If you had a good year, maybe there would be enough chocolate in your bag that you could smell that too.

I alternately love and hate that smell.
This bag was my first ever knitting project. Well, first completed, second attempted.
Two years ago my mother in law was visiting for Baby Girl's birthday and we saw a knitted trick-or-treat bag on the cover of a magazine in the checkout line at the grocery store. A seed was planted in my brain and when we got home I went to my stash closet, dug out my knitting needles and the orange yarn that I miraculously owned. I took my booty down stairs and said "so, you want to teach me to knit?" I said it to my mother in law, not my Mr or my 2 year old Baby Girl, Neither of them knew how to knit.

She and I worked together on it that weekend one or the other of us picking it up when our hands were free and passing it to the other when we got tired.
The tricky part was, she went home before it was finished so I had to figure out how to cast off (wait, is that the right way to say that) on my own, just me and the internet.
I wove the 1/8 inch grosgrain ribbon through so spell "BOO" and have loved the bag ever since. Even in spite of the fact that the "BOO" isn't really all that legible.

Jane Banks

She's on her way out to door to go fly a kite with her Father who's newly released from his preoccupation with the world of finance.
My girl is a poser, she loves to pose. Can you tell?

She ripped the tails off the bow when she took the dress off after her Joy School party. Remind me to fix that in time for this evening's festivities.

During the costume parade one of the parents said "Everybody turn around so we can see your costumes". My Girl immediately pivoted on the ball of one foot, a full 360 which left me wondering if they've covered pirouettes in her ballet class.


More posing, I was trying to get a head shot but the girl hits poses faster than I can keep up with. This is the most solid shot I managed, everything else was distinctly between facial expressions.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Blast!

I can't find my glue gun.

And I have butterfly wings to mount!
What ever will I do?

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Perfect fall clothes

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!
I am such a fan of Grosgrain and her giveaways. She makes just the kinds of things I like my girl to wear. So, hurrah for the opening of her online store coming up on November 6.
Watch for Baby Girl wearing some of these delights. (hopefully because I win the giveaway)

BOO!

Remember how I wasn't going to post pictures until everybody was dressed and coiffed?
I lied, or changed my mind anyway.
Have you ever seen a more adorable ghost? If you have, I'm going to need for you to lie and say "no"

Now it's time for truth. As much as I love the pointy head, I'm afraid it looks at bit too Klann-ish. Should I round it off?

One more thing, do I leave his pink little face, or do I paint it white?

Please advise.
Now I've got to go squish some little ghostie cheeks.

Right on Target

The Jane Banks dress is done. Finished last night. I'm thinking I can bust out the Tiny's costume in time to move on to the New One today and get ahead of schedule. That will be nice for a change.
I'll post pictures when everything is complete with shoes and hair.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Do Not Disturb


I have until Wednesday to make costumes for my children.
That's a costume a day.
Today I sew for Baby Girl That's her Jane Banks collar up there, I'm pleating away.
Tomorrow I will tackle Tiny Boy
Wednesday I'll see to the New One.
What does this all mean for my children?
Television.
They are watching Cinderella right now, then we will move on to another movie and another.
Not a great approach, so much TV will make them grumpier between movies and that will make me grumpier and on and on like that.
These are the sacrifices we have to make.

Friday, October 24, 2008

poor little thing


Observe what happens to poor little pumpkins carved at the beginning of October and surrendered to the elements of the Arizona desert.
At least it's not moldy.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Happy four year old to me, or birthday to her. It depends on how you look at it.

I'm commemorating her day of birth with a smorgasbord of baby girl photos.
I realize that those of you who are not her mother, or similar, may not enjoy gazing at her beauty as much as I do but it's my blog so I'll post 29 photos of my child if I want to and you'll just have to deal with it.


















Whoops! how'd that get in there?















So I got a little carried away with that. Anyway, here she is the minute she turned four, or two minutes after. That's right, I was late again.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl, I love you like fury.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Ell-if-I-know!

I have finished my first Halloween project. It's about time too, I started this monster at the beginning of September. It's amazing what can happen to your project time line when someone drops off a newborn at your house.
Without further ado, Here it is. The Elephant.

The legs won't be quite so bunchy on the child it's made for. Baby Girl is a full head shorter than her cousin, so inside those elephant legs she's standing on her dinosaur feet stompers.

Thanks to those bad boys she could only just balance in the get-up. Most of the time she had it on was spent like this

Of course when Baby Girl took off the head, Tiny had to try it on.

He tried the stompers too.

Here's what it looks like under that gray hide.

This photo was taken six weeks ago when the nephew came over for a fitting, my plan was to finish it up by the end of that weekend.
Oh well, it's done now!

Wow. That's about all I can say, wow.

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!
I cannot even imagine making something like that and then giving it away.
It is rather satisfying to send off a creation to someone who will love and cherish it. Maybe the grander creation warrants a grander sense of satisfaction.
I hope so, for Kathleen's sake.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

dishing it


"Mom, I need you not to help me. This is a one person job, and we will just be in each others way"
This is what she said to me as she started loading the dish washer in her kitty cat jammies and ragamuffin hair.
I guess she does listen.
Sometimes anyway.

How I put the "family" in family baking

We made our Halloween cookies the other day. I used this cookie puzzle as an excuse to keep Baby Girl from "helping" me mix and cut them out.

Making cut-out cookies is fabled to be this magical mother-child experience but I for one can't stand it. I told Baby Girl, "You play up-stairs while I make you a surprise!" She is happy to comply when a surprise is involved.
The glaze for the puzzle is, I think, very pretty but it's not much by way of flavor so we did the rest with goopy delicious frosting.

As much as I dislike help when I'm cutting out cookies, I love help with the frosting. Baby girl did these.

It took her nearly as long to frost those two as it took for me to do the rest.
That's why I like help with the frosting part. She was completely occupied and involved and the cookies were still frosted to my satisfaction within a reasonable amount of time.
I think hers turned out really nice, but if they hadn't, it wouldn't matter because she'll eat them anyway.