holiday crafts

The day before St. Patrick's Day, I realized that Ellis did not possess a single item of green clothing. And since these things are sometimes important to kindergartners and I never know what kind of theme-y thing they might hype up at school, I thought we better make a green shirt fast. He's going to need Tshirts for summer anyway.

So while at Target, I picked up a simple white T and meant to get the same for Marlowe, but there were none white in his size, so I got him green. Thus, I introduced Ellis to tie-dye. I have some green dye in my stash. (remember this?) And there's nothing more awesome than stirring a pot of dye. Thankfully, I managed to restrain myself from dyeing everything in sight. With Marlowe's shirt, I tried reverse tie-dyeing with bleach. I think I left it in too long, though. Oh well, they both ended up with fun green shirts.

Ellis was extremely proud of his.

That was the day we went to the zoo.

A quick handmade gift. I got some a square piece of fleece (about 56" square--fleece is wider per yard than average cotton). Then I appliqued the hearts and snowflake on it. And fringed the edges. A nice throw for C's aunt.

My boys love to snuggle in blankets--even Marlowe, the Not Snuggly One (he takes after me). The caterpillar around the house in their comforters, and it totally drives me crazy! I don't know what it is about blanket/pillow mess. But I love their snuggling.

So somewhere between hating comforters and loving snuggling, I decided that they needed Christmas blankies. And since I'm toning down Handmade Holidays this year, there is, apparently, a crafting void. The need for Christmas blankies come upon me so strongly, that I actually took both of my boys to a fabric shop at 4.30 pm, which, if you've ever taken your child into any store--least of all a fabric store--at that hour, you will know is the first step on the road to Crazy.

Honestly my vision was simple: a couple strips of festive for the top, and fleece on the bottom. But then I ended up being super cheap about it, and only buying 2 yards of top fabric (4 half yards, which yielded 4 fat quarters per quilt). This is was not nearly enough for snuggling. So then I had to dig around in my stash, which is so extensive that I really have no business being in a fabric store ever again. I had some white fleece, which served as a border. And I had gotten a half yard of some festive Merry Christmas fabric on sale from Sew, Mama, Sew. In my stash, I luckily found the Jay MacCarroll Winter Wonderland, of which I think I had a whole yard! and some other Christmasy fabric that came from my mom's. So the total size ended up being 2 x 3 fat quarters with four inch borders. You do the math. But it's a perfect size for little boys. Since I used fleece as the back, I didn't bother with batting. And I sewed the top and bottom right sides together, turned it right side out through the little hole I left, and then stitched around the border (like you would for a bag). So SUPER simple. Not even bound. I did a little "machine quilting" that wasn't very successful. I'll probably hand quilt a little design on a couple squares one of these evenings I find myself watching a favorite holiday movie.

It only took me a few evenings to make both little quilts. They went together quickly. I love them. And the boys love them. And they are very snuggly. I have visions of pulling out the Christmas blankies every year. (And plans for spring blankies and summer blankies....oh will someone just shoot me?)

I'm cheating a little since I took this pic over a week ago. But I had to share the snowflake project of 2010. It's not Christmas without snowflakes. Lots of them. Creating a magical wonderland. I crossed ribbon over the dining room table around the hanging lamp. So walking through the dining room is walking under a canopy of snowflakes.

It warmed this mama's heart to have Ellis really join in for the first time in snowflake making this year.

I know I've already shared on Facebook the magnum opus that is the Halloween costumes that I made, but I need to plunk it down here for blog posterity.

when it came time to deciding on costumes, I wasn't sure how I was going to top the utter cuteness of last year's Man with the Yellow Hat and Curious George. Then one day Ellis decided that he wanted to dress up as the Cat in the Hat, so that was the decider, I would make a costume for him for Halloween. The obvious accompaniment to a Cat in the Hat costume is Thing 1/Thing 2. So Marlowe was going to be that. To be honest, though. I wasn't feeling it. Too obvious, too uninspired. So then, I thought, well, what about The Goldfish in the Cat in the Hat? Could I do a Goldfish costume?

Thus began the great quest to figure how to make a convincing fish. I scoured the internet for some design inspiration and came across this simple octopus costume idea on Martha Stewart. So that was my springboard.

The fish costume is in two parts: the body suit and the hood/cape thingy.
.

The bodysuit was pretty straightforward. I used his jammies as a guideline. And velcro up the back. I incorporated fins onto the sleeve. The hood/cape has a lining so that i could stuff it a little and make casings in the fins for some pipe cleaner. The gave the fins some stiffness and bending capabilities for a fun Suess-y flip. I made a couple of pockets on the neckline of the bodysuit to thread the ties of the hood cape through to make it more comfy and secure for wearing.

The whole thing is made out of nice, comfy soft fleece.

The Cat in the Hat costume was much simpler. Again using fleece, i made a black body suit with velcro up the back for ease. Using his jammies as a template. then the white belly and sewed on red, felt bow. I made a casing and put some elastic at the neckline so that it would fit snugly, but comfortably. The tail is from a set of stripey tights from Target, stuffed with polyfil and a pipe cleaners. I added some strips of wide elastic at the foot, so that the leg would cover his shoes. Got some white gloves at Target, and made some whiskers from pipe cleaner. The Hat was donated by a friend who just had happened to find one at the thrift store. This made my job a LOT easier. I was not looking forward to that millinary foray.

Well, I can't believe it! I did it all this week.

I made a pumpkin pie from scratch. I really do make the best pumpkin pie in the world. Sorry, mom, I like mine a tad better. And I guess I can say that in public, since you just dissed your mom's pie on Facebook. ha! kidding! (not about liking mine better, though.)

We got M&Ms and candy corn/pumpkins for munching.
And cider for sipping.

Then I made pretty much the awesomest costumes ever for Ellis and Marlowe. I mean, seriously, how can I ever face Halloween again? Our favorite PBS kids offering is Curious George. Pretty much the best kids show ever. In my opinion, waaaay better than the books. If there's a new George on, we're ALL excited. Mom and Dad included. So what better way to celebrate than Halloween costumes. Ellis was the Man with the Yellow Hat and Marlowe was Curious George.

For Ellis's costume, I got some key pieces at the thrift store. The boots were the best find. (they're technically girls boots, but for a costume, who's counting.) I got the pants and belt and hat there, too. I couldn't believe that I couldn't find a boys white shirt at all at the thrift store, so we got a cheap one from Target. I bleached the khaki pants and then I dyed the shirt and pants bright yellow! That was pretty fun.

The hat was actually a sombrero that i grabbed from the costume bin. I trimmed the brim a bit and then I hot glued yellow felt to it. I got a glue gun for the project and now I feel truly crafty. I made the tie out of the same felt and glued the polka dots to it. I was pretty happy with how well the yellows turned out. I also made a coordinating bucket for trick-or-treating out of the same felt sprayed with fabric stiffener. Yea, the awesomeness is killing me.

Marlowe's costume I sewed together. It was actually pretty easy. I used one of his sleeper jammies as a guideline. I got the fleece at my trusty fabric store (which is now within walking distance!) for less than $5/yd. For the front I cut on the fold and for the back I cut on the selvedge so I'd have two pieces. I sewed velcro up the back, so it was really easy to put on and off. I used one of his hats as a guideline for the hat and attached ears. M doesn't like hats at all. But on Friday morning, when he saw Ellis put on that splendid yellow hat, he REALLY wanted a hat, and he wore his monkey hat for hours. I was amazed and thrilled, since it's really key to costume. I also made monkey feet at the bottom of the legs to flap over his shoes, though in retrospect I think it would've been better to attach some elastic to them that could go around the shoes more securely.

On Friday morning, they particpated in the preschool parade at Ellis's school, and Marlowe got to tag along, especially since he's kind of an accessory to Ellis's costume. Ha! Somehow M ended up with a tootsie pop, and was obsessed with it. *MINE!* Thankfully I was able to bribe him away from it with cheese balls.

On Friday afternoon we carved pumpkins.
AND roasted pumpkin seeds.

THEN we went to the Reformation Celebration at our church and the kids had a blast. I took the kids through the original tune to "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" (the "Geneva jig" version). And then the kids played edifying games like "Pin the Theses to the Door." Hey, it's all about preserving our heritage, telling the story, and carrying on the torch.

Then this afternoon they got haircuts. That has nothing to do with Halloween, but they really needed them. Marlowe cried and cried. He got another lollipop. *sigh* But, my, they look handsome now.

And when they got their hair rinsed off, they put on their super cute pumpkin shirts that I made them this morning.

Then after dinner, we went trick-or-treating in the warm, drizzly night. Marlowe had no trouble with the concept. He walked down the sidewalk saying "Thank you! Thank you!" (which sounded more like "day-doo! day-doo!"). And somehow ended up with another lollipop *groan* which ended up lost in the grass somewhere *whew*. I think when Ellis was that age, we managed one house and he didn't really know what candy was yet.

So we had a complete holiday weekend. I can't believe I did it all. And now we're off to the races. Major handmade holiday action engaged. Christmas is just around the corner and there are still WAY too many boxes around here!

...for every Phillies Tshirt I saw today...

Yay Phillies! I must admit, though, it didn't even occur to me to watch the game last night. I think I may have heard that it was going to be played on Wednesday, but it didn't really compute. I was too busy watching Gilmore Girls. I'm up to midway through Season 5. But it is fun to be living in the winning city and seeing everybody be so excited. So. Yay Phillies!!

We went down to CHOP. In addition to our regularly scheduled speech therapy, E had a CI mapping. The audiologist wants to see him a little bit more frequently, because, well, Ellis just doesn't do that great with him. The audiologist has yet to get a really good idea of what's going on in Ellis's head. Thank goodness the speech therapist works in the same office. We're all pretty confident that he's hearing fine, but E just doesn't really do hearing booth, shall we say. But then he had a very, very good speech therapy session. In fact, he knew he was doing well, because he kept beaming and we kept cheering. So he marches to his own beat. Full of surprises that kiddo.

And tomorrow is Costume and Candy Day (otherwise known as Halloween, but we're really just in it for the extra dressups and sugar rush). So a costume must be had. And it's the Rule that we make our costume. And since E doesn't really know what's up yet, we still get to choose his costume. Chris had the great idea of Airplane. arms as wings, a propeller attached to a Tshirt. Hat. Glasses. Voila. The key is Simple this year. Ellis painted the wings this afternoon, and I've been doing the rest this evening. I can't wait for him to try it on. They have a little parade at school, so I wanted it super simple, since the poor teachers are going to get all their kids into their costumes. I don't want to give it all away. So I'll probably download the gagillion number of pics on my camera tomorrow and post some already.

We had a really busy weekend.

First, we got a new camera.

We helped my parents move out of the house they've lived for the past eleven years--the longest they've ever lived in one place. It may also be the most idyllic location they've ever lived in. We're going to miss the cozy fireplace and fun yard. They don't have a new place yet, so put their stuff in storage and will stay with friends while they house hunt in the area.

And we also did a some fun Eastery activities. I dyed eggs with Ellis for the first time. We enjoyed it so much, i felt kind of lame for only giving him 5 to do. But I didn't plan on eating them, since I didn't use natural dyes, so didn't want to waste too many eggs. Every egg got about 10 dips each.

I also made him a fun Easter basket, with homemade bean bags instead of grass (which he immediately thought were therapy bags that you stick in the microwave to heat up--haha! life with a poor aching pregnant mom) and jingle bell bracelets. He also got a little bit of chocolate and jellybeans, but I felt genius at tricking him with raisins packaged in appealing boxes with Cars characters. He wore his new suit to church, and really did well in the service (which we've been working on). And we had a nice ham dinner at my ILs in the afternoon.

(click on each photo for its respective set)

I love Val Day. I think it's fun. I love the homemade valentines, cookies (because usually I never got around to decorating C'mas cookies, so it's my time to redeem myself), and a yummy dinner with hubby. We don't make a big, expensive holiday. But I like the opportunity to do something a little extra special. We actually ended up celebrating the day after this year, because it was more convenient.

We had some little kids over yesterday for a little Valentine's party.

I laid out crayons, paper, glue, and glitter glue, and they made valentines for their mommies. Some kids needed a little more help than others. But the craft went well, and made me really happy.

I cut out PB&J hearts for lunch for the kids. And after the moms ate (no hearts for us: with 3 pregnant and 1 nursing mom, we were just concerned about FOOD), they decorated a few cookies. for Ellis the cookie merely served as a platter from which to eat frosting.

In the evening for our Valentine's Dinner, I tried to recreate our favorite meal from our favorite Lebanese restaurant in New Orleans. It's simple and dippy. But I don't have a lot of experience with Mediterranean cooking, so I had to look around a bit and consult with a friend for what to do. It turned out pretty near perfect. Trader Joe's helped a lot, too. I got the hummus, baba ganoush, and tzatiki sauce from there, and a preseasoned, boneless leg of lamb. For the lamb, I didn't do a real kebab on a spit. I cut it up into cubes, pan-seared the chunks with red onion and then baked it for a little with tomatoes. And then stirred in a yogurt-tahini sauce. SO GOOD!!!! And so tender! We ate everything with pitas "al fresco" (in the living room). Pretty much perfect. Afterwards we watched Paris, Je t'aime. So everything went as planned and was a lot of fun. I love dippy meals. We're going to have to do this more often.

I meant to celebrate the beginning of December with this post. But yesterday got a little away from me. It's very cold here (well, at least it is for here, and we don't really have adequate heating, so it's *brrr* indoors as well). So snowflakes and Christmas music don't feel as out of place as they sometimes feel here in Louisiana. My parents are going to Germany for Christmas to visit my brother, and my other brother and sister are coming here. I'm getting a little more excited for Christmas than I have been. So without further ado.....

The Snowflake Tutorial

Step 1
You must start with a square, which can be easily attained by folding a triangle, and trimming the excess.

Step 2
After you have a square, fold into a triangle, so that the open side is pointing down.

Step 3
Fold in half again, only this time, you want the open side up. Triangle is still pointing down.

Step 4
From the bottom, fold the right side over about a third of the way.

Step 5
The fold the left side over on top of it. You'll want them to be about equal, so you may have to jiggle your fold lines until they're about right. (I know, scientific, isn't it?)

Step 6
Turn it over and trim off the tails.

Step 7
The start cutting designs into the sides. Remember, you're cutting the profile of everything. When you open it, you'll have the mirror image of whatever you cut out. (Remember Valentine's hearts?) If you have a good pair of sharp scissors, one can get really detailed. Okay...obsessed! Remeber, don't cut all the the way across!

Step 8
Unfold and view the magic! And believe me, no two snowflakes are alike.

Have fun, and happy cutting!