Halloween 2010 CHECK it out MATE!

I realize another main reason people check this blog is to see what we dress up as for Halloween.  Well, being in a new location and having almost no time, we decided to revive an oldie but a goodie.  We went as chess pieces with Neal as the king, Jackie as queen, Aedan as a knight (the only new costume made) and Lily as a pawn (Aedan’s costume when he was the same age). 

I didn’t get any more pictures than this as I couldn’t find the camera and Neal took this one with his phone.  People wonder about the hats.  They are paper mache on top of a poster board and tape form.  You can’t see it very well but Aedan’s was particularly tricky as he has a helmet with a horse’s head on top.  It was pretty cool but not entirely practical for a kid as it was stiff.  I did line the hats with felt to avoid getting chaffed by the scratchy dried newspaper and you notice Neal and my hat is HUGE and to costume fit it to our heads I used packaging foam in side.  It was pretty comfy.  Aedan’s shield is just foam boards glued together and painted. 

And I just chuck the hats because it’ll probably be a while before we where them again and they were cheap/free materials so I don’t have a hard time parting with them.

As added bonus we made a rook castle out of a box (there are still a lot of those around here) and we spray painted it silver and cut out holes for windows and a door for a drawbridge.  We stuck our fog machine (yes we have one) into it and brought bean bags and made it into a game for the kids to earn prizes at our trunk or treat.  It was cool. But no picture.  Sorry!

Can I just say I have a ROCKIN hoop skirt?!

Halloween Costumes 2009

Before Halloween gets too far behind us (that was SO last night) I thought I should share our costumes for this year.  Now before you get too excited I must preface this by saying that there were no special FX that went into these costumes like last year’s.  I also wanted to make life a little easier for me (this is where I guffaw) and reuse a costume from the past (mine).   Okay I’m stalling here….

We did an Alice in Wonderland theme.  Having a little girl in the family sure opens up more possibilities for costume themes. 

Didja notice Aedan’s white rabbit costume? 

Didn’t think so.  That is because he is not wearing one.  Poor guy had a good reason too:  I finally got things arranged for him to get the regular flu shot (they told me H1N1 was out) and they scheduled him on the day of our ward party.  He went in and to our surprise they were also able to give him the H1N1.  He came home with a shot in each arm and was a cranky little boy.  He did not want to wear any costumes at all.  It was hard to get him to go to the trunk-or-treat party and we almost didn’t go.

Aedan originally wanted to be the white rabbit in our Alice theme and I made him the full rabbit costume with a tunic and a mock Elizabethan ruff collar and at the last minute the kid refused it all.  Okay that is not entirely true, for his giant pocket watch I made him a treat bag with a clock on it and he wanted to take that to the party.  It wasn’t until later that he was even willing to put the ears on. 

Yes it looks huge & I didn’t bother finishing it off.  I wore it Halloween night. I don’t think I’ll take pictures of the rest, I’m too bummed.

Neal, the Mad Hatter, was mistaken for Willy Wonka by a few and I can see why but oh well.  I think of all the costuming I did this year I had the most fun making his hat.  I have made several hats before but never had sewn one.  I’m at least glad I made that.  I had recently learned (because I was too daft to inquire about it earlier I suppose) that the 10/6 on the Hatter’s Hat is actually a price tag.  10 shillings and 6 pence which, if you are quick to Wiki means that would be equivalent to 40.55 pounds today with inflation.  Either he is boastful and left it on on purpose or mad and completely forgot to take it off.  Either way it’s mental but he truly can’t be the Mad Hatter without it.  Otherwise, apparently, he would be Willy Wonka.

Lily’s Alice dress was so tiny (tiny clothes are frustrating!) and the material was so cute and sparkly with big poofy sleeves and a tiny little petticoat.  (that last sentence contained several words that I don’t think I had used up until we had a little girl in the family…) I had great plans of making an “Eat Me” “Drink Me” accessory but never got around to it. 

My dress for the Queen of Hearts was made back in my undergraduate days as some of you might recognize although a post-pregnancy body was not meant for it :) Oh well, I squeezed into it for a few hours and survived.  But the best part? I actually splurged for a 6 hoop hoop skirt!  Oh how much fun!  Love it!

One for the roomies.  I think K-Money made this for a calendar am I right?  Wow, good times. Miss Happy Meal was so fitting don’t you think?

A side note – we had also made giant cards (clubs, hearts, diamonds, spades) out of poster board to decorate our car for the trunk-or-treat but it rained so that was disappointing.

We had literally a trick-or-treating event every day since Wednesday.  Admittedly, I felt horrible having my little boy dress up as a rabbit.  Is that silly of me?  Feeling the need to give him an opportunity to have a very BOY costume and seeing as we had plenty of costuming events to attend to, we marched off to Wal-Mart and *gasp* bought a costume for him there.  Of all of the super heroes he had to choose from, guess what he chose?

Aedan at preschool by his cubby, I like that word, cubby.

Yup.  My little boy as Darth Vader.  It took some convincing that his name was not Dark Vader.  The kid has no clue who this character is.  What really sweetened the deal was that I told him he was a bad guy (much easier than explaining that in the end he was a good guy) and that he uses a light saber (or “gun sword” is what he called it).  He was sold. 

Trading in the saber for a dart gun for a wild west apple shoot-off at the trick-or-treat street.

In an attempt to further explain this bad guy so Aedan could get in character, Neal told him a few key phrases that Vader would say.  The one that stuck in Aedan’s mind was “I am your father” and proceeded to say that to many who would approach him.

Even the sith need a little TLC every once in a while.  They highly recommend DQ for such a time.

At the trick or treat street party at the local rec center, a little boy dressed up as a Jedi knight excitedly ran up to my little Darth and shouted, “Hi Darth Vader!”  Aedan gave him a look that said, “Who are you?” and said a very polite hi to him.  The other kid clearly had a clue as to the whole story line and I could tell he desperately wanted to duel right then and there.  After a bit of awkwardness when Aedan did not get all hyped up about the situation the other kid walked away saying, “Later Vader!”  Too cute.

Vader’s mistress shown here is a witch and a cute one at that.  Together they terrorized our neighborhood on spooky All Hallows’ Eve.

Aedan also wore this costume to his preschool trick-or-treating and also for Halloween night.  He really enjoyed making Vader breathing noises while wearing his mask.  Funny kid, I think he thought he was a Transformer.

The brotherhood of the sith.  They’re out there I tell you. Armed with a deadly arsenal of sugar.  I’ve given in to the dark side, how ‘bout you?

Birthday Wish!

Happy Birthday to our niece/cousin E, her first birthday!  She and her sister have their birthdays in the same week so they had a combined “Fancy Nancy” party.  Fancy Dress was a requirement for all and it was very fun.  Pictured above is little E with grandma.  Here are some pics from the party.  Happy Birthday little E!!

Another use for that purple jacket as well as his Elvis shades!  Aedan insisted he wear necklaces as he believed they would make him look fancy.

Fun cousins!

Neal talking to his dad and Neal’s sister in the background. 

Just another scary sight to behold…

Dim Sum Toyland

So some of us here have had some illness come and go and that really put a damper on my drive to cook – Aedan in particular has had a less-than-ideal sleeping schedule as of late.  I on the other hand had somehow got myself involved in helping out with our stake gold and green ball (on Valentine’s Day of all days so we’ve gotta pull out all the stops!) and, well, have you stopped reading yet?  It is kind of lame to start with excuses and I really haven’t forgotten this whole dim sum event, which by the way, if you want to enter for the giveaway you better do so quick! 

One of my items on my dim sum to-do list was to talk about dim sum for kids.  I have a soft spot for play food, something I didn’t remember having a lot of as a kid and something I’m loving playing with now as a mommy.  Then enters the idea of felt food. 

It is incredibly cheap to make and really doesn’t take a lot of time (assuming you have time to spare right?) and it is cute to boot.  I even bought the supplies to make all these cute dim sum and sushi items (idea from lilblackdog etsy shop) as part of the challenge, costing me no more than $6 for everything. 

For now I will just have to drool over these pictures and try again when life isn’t eat-sleep-gather decorations.  Here are a few fun foodie kid items that I am lovin:

Dim Sum Food Erasers, really would you dare use them? If only they were scratch-n-sniff…

 

Chinese Food Playset: Probably the least appetizing of them all, it still looks fun and it would fit in nicely with all the other cheap plastic food we have.   Yum Yum Dim Sum Board book.  Aedan likes his food books so maybe someday we’ll get this one.

The idea of dressing up as sushi seems like a geeky costume but when you have a super cute kid in it, it doesn’t seem so bad… I just want to “eat him up”… and no, I’m not thinking dim sum for this year’s Halloween costumes…

Umm, seriously people?

Ok I need some advice. Here's the story: in my last post about our Halloween costumes I included a video of myself as Violet Beauregarde blowing up into a blueberry. I had some troubles loading the video on blogger/google video and so turned to YouTube. My past experience with YouTube was not the greatest as I do not like how after watching the clip it advertises other videos under the same key words, sometimes containing videos that I do not approve of. Well, that last part is neither here nor there, what matters is that I'm on YouTube and now that little video clip, from late Friday night, has received 700+ viewings and I've even had someone offer to buy my costume or at least pay me to make another. If it turns out that one person is watching it some 500 times then I will be grossed out...

Here's the thing though, I don't mind that people are watching it, mostly because I don't have any personal info linked to it and it is a just fine movie (although I didn't know I was being filmed at the time). It is actually flattering to hear responses from people (all monitored and not publicized unless I approve them) and to think that the costume is something someone would actually pay money for is kind of nice. I told the person that I could potentially make another as I wouldn't sell the one I made because there were many things that I would do differently and while it looks good on film, there are many little flaws and shortcuts there that I couldn't justify letting someone pay me for.

So with in mind that supplies total (incl shipping for the inflatable costume) came to around $40, how much would you charge for such a thing? It is really insane how much some costumes cost online and they really are poor quality. I only used broadcloth for the clothes as I needed something cheap and lightweight too. I started sewing my costume the day before Halloween and it was really simple, something I'm sure if I could sit and sew w/out interruption it could be done within a few hours, give or take. Insanely enough, this person sounds like they are willing to pay anything for it. I'm amazed at how much people will pay for poor quality costumes (which is why I prefer making my own with better materials for less money).

I'm not sure if I will do it though, it is kinda fun to have the one and only you know? I like the idea of doing an little costume shop that is family oriented but really, I DON'T LIKE SEWING THAT MUCH! I like costuming but not so much sewing. It just so happens that I have to sew to get what I want. Maybe if I didn't procrastinate I would enjoy it more... The fact that I get my machine out once, at most twice, a year should tell you something.

And just for fun, if I were to open a costume shop, what should I name it? :)

How do you like our new look?

e hope your Halloween was very fun and very sugar coated! I'm a bit tired from sitting at the sewing machine for hours on end and so of course, I come here to the computer to sit and blog about it! Well, thanks to all of you who voted in our poll for this year's Halloween costume theme ideas. The winner of the poll (even early on) was the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory theme and I am so glad we did it! It was colorful, it wasn't creepy, it was challenging, it was quite the set-up! All costumes were made by me, some done using a pattern, and some by a little lucky guesswork. We had some special effects too so be sure to view the video at the end! Thanks to my mom who was my first teacher at the sewing machine long age, my little Aedan for being a good sport even though I was busy sewing and he was sick (twice) in this past two weeks, and to Neal for putting up with the messes and craziness of it all. And thanks to Asher for lending his handsome shoes.

Aedan, the Oompa Loompa has his dinner. I get a kick out of his little pointy pants and his white eyebrows.

Don't you just love the contrast in height here? Works well for the characters.

The Wonka clan with Neal as Willy Wonka, me as Violet Beauregarde (pre blueberry stage and not so blue in the face as I wanted) and Aedan as our fun little Oompa Loompa. Really, all during the time when sewing the costumes, I had the Oompa Loompa song running through my head. It better wear off soon.

Getting pretty big now and loving that Wonka Bar. Really, I get kind of sick seeing these pictures of me. Makes me want to hit the gym or the Wii Fit tomorrow... Not the most slimming look for me this year!

Not so impressive bubble gum skills but it seemed to amaze Aedan.

At the car for the Trunk or Treat our church building parking lot. Aedan didn't quite understand the whole "Say 'Trick-or-Treat'", "Now say 'Thank You'", and "Put the candy in the bag so you can eat it later". I kind of felt like I was dragging him from car to car and he was very shy. Oh well, we didn't need all that candy anyway. I think he still had fun.

Neal's pumpkin and my pumpkin. The squirrels ate Aedan's ghost pumpkin and looks like they took some nibbles out of mine around the eyes. Aedan felt kind of sad about his pumpkin but then after talking to him he felt glad that now the squirrels had something to eat.

Accessorizing. Aedan's treat mini tote with iron on transfer and some real (yes real) chocolate bars re-wrapped with a computer printed Wonka Bar label (Neal did these). I slipped in my golden ticket too...

Aedan's setup. I modified a basic shirt/pants pattern and had to do a little fabric paint job on the collar, sleeve, and tights to make it work. This was taken post Halloween events so don't mind the chocolate stains all over...

For Violet's clothes it didn't matter what I did, it needed to be big and blue. I did this without a pattern as I don't think you can get patterns for clothes this big. I may be wrong.

And look ma, I lost 500 lbs on the Wonka Diet System!! The diet consisted of continual gum chewing excercises and a steady intake of chocolate. It worked for me! Try it today! :)

Becoming Violet was quite a challenge. I thought for a good two months on how to achieve the blueberriness and it wasn't until last week that I started researching inflatable costumes to wear underneath some clothing. Even then it was difficult to find a spherical one. Tonight people kept wanting to look under my shirt (I beg your pardon!) and so I thought I'd show you what the suit looks like. It has a battery powered fan that inflates continuously (drained 4 AAs in 1 hour!) and it really is comfortable to have your own person ventilation system going on under all those clothes... if I could get away with that in everyday wear I would... FYI I purchased this on ebay.

Wonka needed a purple jacket. For the amount I would have spent on a Joker costume to get a purple jacket, I could make one of much better quality. The jacket was a challenge of my patience but I'm happy with the result. It is fully lined too - I hate lined patterns because it takes too much thought to try to alter it to do without the lining so I'm forced to line it. Oh well, it is a sweet jacket and who knows, Neal can be the Joker or Mad Hatter someday too. I made the hat too, out of poster board, both soft and stiff felt, ribbon, and glue glue glue.

Someone asked how I do it all with having Aedan around. Well, a lot is done at night and since my table for crafting is in Aedan's room, I had to plant it elsewhere. This was a long time feature in the front of our family room. Other than that, I did most of it at night or during naps. We did watch both Willy Wonka/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movies to keep us entertained.

Here's the video of my transition to blueberry stage. When I first tested out my costume and after watching the movies, Aedan was watching me expand and then started to cry because he thought I was really blowing up. But then I had him kick me around in the soccer ball suit and then he thought it was funny!
We had fun with the costumes. Now we'll have fun catching up on sleep!

This, Our Town of Halloween

I can't hold it in anymore - I tend to think of Halloween early in the year.  I think maybe this year I started thinking about it in March.  I never really got into the scary bit of Halloween though.  Oh sure, I love decorating in black and cobwebs, I love the Haunted Mansion, etc. But some people get into the gorey gross stuff and I just can't stand the thought of scaring little kids so I have refrained from that side of Halloween.  As a result, all of my costumes have been on the chipper side - princesses, cartoons, etc.  Well my mind has been on what we should dress up as a family so I'll share our past family pics and if you feel you need to skip it at least scroll down to the bottom to view our ideas for this year:

2006 Olive Oyl, Swee' Pea, and Popeye.  All handmade except for a few additions from Goodwill and Neal's hat and pipe were purchased.  I made Neal's muscles out of paper mache balloons.  He couldn't really hold Aedan that night but the muscles sure seemed to attract other kids.

Aedan made a very cute Swee' Pea.  My favorite was his hat using a pattern from Wild Things (free and adjustable for any size)

2007 Black Queen, Pawn, and King chess pieces.  Again with the paper mache... This time it was the hats.  You can't quite see it but each costume has a cutout of the chess piece shape stitched on. 

I like Neal's boot covers (purchased online)

So I really enjoy costuming and I think that is the only reason I choose to sew.  I am not a very good seamstress and if you look too closely at these costumes you might notice oodles of mistakes.  That's why I don't make the everyday wear stuff I guess.  Neal calls it my creative outlet, I call it my secret obsession.  I like costuming because a) dressing up is fun!, b) I am never satisfied with store bought costumes and I can do what I want by making them myself, c) it really isn't too much more expensive (sometimes cheaper) than rental ones which are a step up from store bought usually, d) I like being someone I'm not for a change. 

So this year, in hopes that you don't steal all my ideas (just kidding) I am going to give the power to the people and put it to a vote.  Here are some ideas, maybe I'll put up a poll on the sidebar for everyone to vote all month long.  Here we go...

OPTION #1: I thought I'd get this one out of the way first as someone in our family thinks it is too girly... Rainbow Brite, a Sprite, and Buddy Blue or Red Butler (I had to look the boy names up...).  I know what you are thinking, but rest assured, I know I could do it without involving hair dye... I'm just excited about potentially owning moon boots again.

OPTION #2: Since Gene Wilder is Neal's celeb look-alike, I thought we ought to do this one someday... Violet Beuregarde or a Wonka Bar, Oompa Loompa, and Willie Wonka.  I mean, the candy theme is a given, but I'm still trying to think how to get myself blown up that big...

OPTION #3: I Peter Pan has been done soooo many times but I've always wanted to do this.  Tiger Lily, Captain James Hook, and Peter Pan.  Aedan would be more than happy to sword fight at this age and I have always wanted to make a Hook costume with all the frilly details.  The only problem is whether or not people will think I'm Pocahontas...

OPTION #4: Mulan, Mushu, Captain Shang.  I have an umbrella....

OPTION #5: Neal has mentioned this one in the past but I think it is because Jasmine is his favorite princess... Jasmine, Aladdin, and Abu.  Of course, I will need to make things modest...

OPTION #6: I know this would be fun... Wall E, Eve, and the little bug friend.  I don't know if I could do this one maskless though for a church costume party. 

OPTION #7: I sure loved this movie... Kung Fu Panda, Shifu, and the Tigress.  Oh man, I can just imagine the work on the face alone... better get sparring...

That is it for now.  I have a bunch of other ideas but our current circumstances won't allow them at this time (ie. need more kids or more money).  All in all, I'd say I've got too many ideas and I'm glad you are going to decide for me... I'll put up the poll so don't forget to vote.  Oh and disclaimer * In the event that I am too busy or that I find out we are not having a ward costume party (does anyone know?) then I most likely won't make costumes this year and just use old ones.  No harm done.