A Whovian Halloween

Halloween this year was a last minute scramble to pull together costumes thanks to some changing of minds in the 11th hour. Originally going as a ninja, Finn decided the Tuesday before Halloween that he'd rather be a fighter pilot. Now, I've had a tradition of making, or pulling together unique costumes every year since Audrie's first Halloween, and I wanted to do the same this year, but I was not about to attempt to sew a jumpsuit given our time constraints, so Dad was sent on a mission to procure a ready made costume. I did, however, make Finn's helmet out of an old toy hard hat, foil, masking tape, and spray paint. 

Audrie's last minute costume change proved to be a bit more challenging. Her original idea of going as a spider web quickly dissolved when the prospect of being a big blue box presented itself. We managed to put together a  TARDIS costume from Dr. Who. The rest of us went as the 4th [me], 10th [August], and 11th [Jonathan] doctors from the series. 

Audrie managed our Halloween route quite well considering she couldn't see where she was going and had to penguin waddle everywhere. Finn was on a candy mission, super focused on hitting every possible house as quickly as he could. August jumped every crack in the sidewalk, and needed no help from me, at one point yelling at me to leave him alone. He had this trick-or-treating thing down. The highlight of the night came when we were about to call it quits when all of the sudden, Audrie yells "A Dalek!" [which is the Doctor's alien arch nemesis]. She had spotted one across the main road heading away from us. We chased it down and found another family of Whovians! Of course we had to take a picture together...

This family showed remarkable commitment to their Dr. Who themed costumes.Their Dalek [the foil covered creature in the front] was a mere prop that they rolled along with them wherever they went! 

After that, we went home and stuffed ourselves with candy, in the true spirit of Halloween.

xo 

Nessa Dee

Costumes of Halloween's past

I've been racking my brain trying to come up with Halloween costume ideas for the kids. I've never actually bought a costume. It started with me making a fairy costume for Audrie's first Halloween, and since then I just haven't been able to bring myself to purchase anything off the rack. I know my kids see those ready made costumes and sometimes wish I'd shell out the money for them, but maybe one day they'll appreciate their imperfect homemade counterparts, or at least the effort I put into them. Here are my past efforts:

My absolute favorite costume, I'll have to post later. It was Audrie's 2nd Halloween, and it was taken with one of those old cameras where you actually had to print out the pictures, so I have to do some digging.

I loved our Adventure Time costumes last year, and I've been trying to come up with something equally awesome, but I'm at a loss. We've got an extra character this year, so any ideas for a family of five?

And by the way, you might have noticed that I'm stalling here. I haven't done our Crafty Friday, so I was trying to distract you with lots of pictures.

xo

nessa dee

Adventure Time

Halloween was a success! We managed to score just as much candy as we bought, plus we still have 3 bags of candy from our giveaway stash, so we ended up ahead. By the end of the year, if I haven’t gained 20 pounds, it will be a miracle.

Our Adventure Time costumes turned out pretty awesome given that I started on them late Sunday afternoon. Yes, it was just a tad bit last minute, but it all worked out, and my kids didn’t have to dress like hobos because Mom dropped the ball. I have to say that these are my favorite Halloween costumes to date.

Finn was Finn the Human Boy

Audrie went as Princess Bubblegum, though not in her normal outfit. PB usually wears a long, pink princess dress, which is not Audrie’s cup o’ tea. Instead, Audrie wore an outfit from a particular episode in which PB donned a shirt with a graphic print of her pet, Lady Rainicorn. 

Jonathan was Jake the Dog

And I was Marceline the Vampire Queen

We went trick or treating with the neighbors and had a blast watching the kids run from door to door.

Finn put his backpack to good use as his candy bag. He eventually got tired of asking one of us to help him put his candy in the backpack, so he started turning his back to every candy giver to let them drop it in.

At the end of the night, after hitting two different loops, we were pretty beat. So we called it a night, but not before getting a family pic.

I think this is going on our Christmas cards.

xo

nessa dee

A Spider and a Butterfly

It’s done…it’s finally done! Well, kind of. I have to tweak the web a bit which requires the patience of one little costume wearer, but for the most part, the spider costume is done. Whew! The costume was pretty simple to make and really cheap. I spent less than ten bucks for the whole thing.

Here’s what you need:

- Four sheets of 9x12” black felt (Hobby Lobby, .25 each)

- 1 sheet of 9x12” white felt (Hobby Lobby , .25 )

- Three pairs of black gloves (Target, 2 for $1)

- 1 black knit hat (Target, $1)

- 1 black turtleneck (Wal-Mart, $3.50)

- 1 pair of black pants (closet, free)

- Roll of white yarn (Wal-Mart, $ 1.47)

- Poly-fil (had on hand) If you don’t have poly-fil, you can use old trash bags.

You’ll also need either beginner sewing or expert glue gunning skills. :)

Step 1: Take the pieces of black felt and trim the long side of each piece so the felt measures about 7x12”.

Step 2: Fold each piece of felt over so the long sides are touching and sew or hot glue the edges together like so:

Step 3: Turn each tube inside out.

Step 4: Take two pairs of the gloves and stuff them until they are filled out enough to look like a hand.

Step 5: Sew or hot glue each glove to one end of each tube. Make sure the thumbs are all pointing in the right direction.

Step 6: Stuff each arm leaving enough space at the end to pinch the felt together and secure it with a seam or hot glue.

Step 7: Sew two arms to each side of the turtleneck, below the sleeves.

Step 8: For the web, have your child wear the shirt and hold out their arms. While holding out their arm, measure three pieces of yarn for each side that will be used to attach the two fake arms to the sleeve of the turtleneck. Here’s where I got a little lazy. I just tied the yarn to Finn’s wrist, wrapped it around the middle arm, and tied it to the bottom. I want to put a stitch in the string on each arm to hold it into place, but until he takes the costume off, I’ll have to wait. [I have a huge spider sitting on the couch, watching TV at the moment]

Step 9: For the multiple spider eyes, cut out six circles of white felt [two small, two medium, and two large] and six circles of black felt [smaller than the white circles]. Arrange the eyes on the knit hat and either stitch or hot glue them into place.

Step 10: Make your reluctant child go outside and pose for pictures. [He’s supposed to be wearing the third pair of gloves, but they’ve disappeared somewhere in the spider’s room.]

As for Audrie’s monarch butterfly costume, well, I’m not going to explain how I made it. It’s not that I don’t want to share, it’s just that, like a lot of my projects, I winged it [no pun intended], and any explanation would probably be more confusing than instructional. So I’ll just show you the pictures:

xo

nessa dee

Sneak Peek

I think the spider costume making process has been cursed because I have yet another setback. I happened to buy Finn a black girl’s turtleneck instead of a boy’s, and while I’ve almost convinced myself that it will be ok to stick my son in a shirt with puffed up sleeves and pleats, I don’t think it will fly with his father. The good news is that Audrie’s costume is coming along quite well. Here’s a sneak peek of her monarch butterfly wing:

Alright, back to work…

xo

nessa dee

Ms. Peacock and the Reluctant Pirate

I have successfully made it through another year of last minute costume making. I have a commitment, an obsession really, to make my kids costumes each year. This year was quite an ordeal for Audrie of deciding what to be for Halloween. Finn had his mind set, though. For weeks now he has been adamant about being a "big scary man," whatever that entails. It wasn't until Monday, when I demanded that Audrie decide her costume so we could get the supplies that Finn changed his mind. He is now going as a pirate (who doesn't do anything), and I am sooo relieved that I don't have to come up with some scary man costume that might or might not be sufficient for a very opinionated 2 year old. Plus, we already have a plethora of pirate gear! As for pictures of the decked out pirate, this is as close as I got:

Finn in a suit with a pirate hat thrown on the floor. He refused to dress up for portraits, not even to indulge his momma! Hopefully I can get some pictures when he's trick-or-treating, if he wears his costume.

Audrie finally decided on becoming a peacock, and after a trip to the craft store, a lot of hand stitching and hot glue covered fingertips...... ta-da!

Once she put on the costume, she spent the rest of the morning, and better part of the afternoon as Ms. Peacock, a very sophisticated bird with a British accent. I became Mrs. Blackbird, Finn was Mr. Dove, Gangy (my grandmother) became Mrs. Green Jay, and PaPa (my grandfather) was Mr. Blue Jay. We all lived in birdhouses, ate birdseed macaroni for lunch, and had a lovely time chatting, as birds tend to do. We'll see if the sophistication lasts once we accumulate and tear into the candy!

Happy Halloween!

Nessa Dee